Long Tianze's muffled voice rang beside her ear, "Keep quiet."
The heavy stench of alcohol entered her nostrils. Mei Yangyang was pressed down and could not move at all. Her whole face reddened from being suffocated, and her body could not withstand the weight from a 1.8-meter figure like him.
Just when her movement was being severely restricted, An Xiaoning came in.
"Sis, quick — save me."
An Xiaoning took a look and quickly pulled Long Tianze away. As she did so, she recognized who he was.
"Tianze?"
Long Tianze opened his eyes slightly and rubbed them. After confirming, he said, "Sister-in-law? Why are you here?"
An Xiaoning asked, "Are you drunk?"
"Yes." He stood up straight. "What are you doing here?"
An Xiaoning pointed at Mei Yangyang, who was suffering after being crushed by him. "I came here with her, she's looking for her sister."
"Sister?" Long Tianze's head hurt terribly. "What happened to her sister?"
An Xiaoning briefly told him about the situation. Long Tianze replied immediately, his eyes still blurry from the alcohol, "This is easy to handle — I'll get someone to chase them out. I won't charge them anything. This young girl, you look very familiar."
Mei Yangyang lowered her head. She didn't know how An Xiaoning knew him, but she knew he was that man who took away her clothes and made her change in that room. Was he actually the boss of this bar?
An Xiaoning spoke, "Young Sir Long, sorry to trouble you."
"It's nothing. Which room is it?"
Mei Yangyang said the room number at once, and Long Tianze simply made a call to settle it.
"Why did you get drunk, do you want me to get you some hangover soup?"
Long Tianze waved his hand. "I'm fine, no need to trouble yourself. I'll just sleep for a while more, it'll be better when I wake up."
"Alright, then." An Xiaoning covered him with a blanket and turned off the lights before leaving with Mei Yangyang.
As they reached the bar downstairs, they saw Mei Shuangshang swearing as she came out. When she saw them, she turned away and left.
"Sis, how do you know the boss of this bar? I heard him calling you Sister-in-law? You're married, sis?"
Wearing a smile, An Xiaoning said, "Yes, just got married not long ago."
"Didn't hear you talk about this before, that's great."
"What's so great about it?"
Mei Yangyang responded, "Isn't it best to get married at a young age?"
An Xiaoning placed her hands in her pocket. "This is my second marriage."
"Huh?" Mei Yangyang's jaw widened. "Second marriage?"
"You're shocked?"
Mei Yangyang shook her hand. "Not really, just a bit surprised."
By the time she got home, it was already completely dark outside.
She thought that Jin Qingyan would most likely have reached home already, so on the way back, she kept thinking if he would tease her later on for meeting her lover outside. But her worries were unfounded. Jin Qingyan wasn't even back home.
Her footsteps, which continued to pick up, momentarily slowed down.
Stepping into the living room, Auntie Chen saw her and promptly greeted, "Young Madam — you're back. I'll serve you dinner."
An Xiaoning made a quick response to her and fished out her phone to call him.
The line was answered very quickly. It was his unique voice, "Hello."
"Why aren't you back? Waiting for you to eat."
"I'm eating outside now."
An Xiaoning restrained herself from probing, "Come back earlier, be safe."
After saying these words, she charmingly ended the call.
She did not think he would eat alone outside at this time. A clean freak like him seldom ate outside. He was most likely with that woman again. That jerk! As her husband, was he acting like how a morally upright husband should?
An Xiaoning did not eat much for dinner. Seeing that there were many leftovers, Auntie Chen persuaded her, "Young Madam, you should eat more. You're too skinny now. I prepared these especially for you."
"Yes, okay." She didn't want to waste the food, so she ate a bit more before she gave up.
Laying on the couch, she rested for a while before heading upstairs to remove her makeup.
When she finished her shower and came out of the bathroom, Jin Qingyan, who had not come back when she went into the bathroom, was lying boldly on the bed with a book in hand, his posture exceptionally attractive.
Jin Qingyan looked up at her. "Stunned?"
She wiped her hair as she walked, asking casually, "I saw you on the streets today — you were with another woman all day. What does that make me?"
Jin Qingyan thought she really saw him, so he answered, "Rui'er can't go back to her own home now, so I sent her somewhere else."
Although An Xiaoning knew he was with Chi Rui'er, hearing him say those words made her unable to calm down. "She can't go back home? But she has her boyfriend. What has it got to do with you?"
"They broke up."
An Xiaoning threw the towel aside, used her hands to support herself, then laughed, "They broke up, your chance is here."
Jin Qingyan sat up straight and stared at her, asking, "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that I thought marrying you was a right thing to do. Now that I think about it, it was something terrible I did."
"You regret it?"
An Xiaoning breathed out, "There's no such thing as 'regret' in my dictionary."
"Oh really?" he retorted. "Then I'll have to see if your dictionary is a real one."
As he finished, he put on his shoes and went into the bathroom to shower.
An Xiaoning took off all her clothes and wormed into the covers, feeling especially comfortable.
The moment he finished his shower and opened the covers, his hands froze. He asked while frowning, "Sleeping naked?"
"I'll practice the habit of sleeping naked in the future. It's good for the body."
Jin Qingyan suddenly laughed and was shaking before her eyes. His voice was exceptionally pleasant, "If you want it, then just say so. Why find such excuses?"
"No, I'm not."
"Still being stubborn." He took off his robe and went into the covers.
An Xiaoning turned around. "I'm sleeping, don't provoke me."
"Your words don't count." Right after he said that, Jin Qingyan hugged her from behind, restraining her body so tightly that she could not move at all.
—
For the next couple of days, An Xiaoning went out early and returned home late. She was living a rather peaceful marital life with Jin Qingyan.
She would wonder sometimes if her life would be like this every day in the future. If it was, she felt it would not be too bad.
Time flew to the tenth month of the lunar calendar, and the weather grew colder.
In a blink of an eye, An Xiaoning had spent over twenty days on-set already. She had also grown even closer to Mei Yangyang. Realizing that there was only a little time left for her to experience life on-set, An Xiaoning was in high spirits. After all, she did not have to live like that anymore.
But the thought of not being able to see Mei Yangyang every day made her feel slightly uncomfortable. After work that day, as Mei Yangyang and she waited at the bus stop, a car horn started honking a few times. An Xiaoning looked ahead — not far away was Gu Beicheng, whom she had not seen in a long time.