TIL - 46

Chen Cheng glanced in his rearview mirror. The Panamera was still following his car. Just that one glance was enough to make him feel like the air in his car was stuffy and to make him irritable. Wen Huo agreed to go with him, but she wouldn’t get in his car. She insisted on having someone else drive her, her lack of trust in him was not at all hidden. Was it really necessary to be so wary of him?

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Su He was driving. Wen Huo told him, “When we get there, take a picture of the address. Come pick me up tomorrow at 8 AM. If you can’t reach me, call the police.”

Su He had been called by Wen Huo at the last minute to drive her and was still a bit confused about the situation. “If you don’t trust him, why did you agree to go? It’s not like you don’t have the money to buy a new phone.”

“The computer of the lab supervisor I was assisting broke, and all the experiment records were lost. I happen to have a habit of filming some of the experimental process, so I have videos on my phone.”

Su He remembered that Wen Huo had retrieved all her documents. “Didn’t you say a few days ago that you had all your research papers back?”

“I use a third-party cloud service that’s free, so it only backs up photos, not videos. The documents are on Office, synchronized with OneDrive, so those weren’t lost,” Wen Huo explained. So the videos were gone, and she needed them now.

Su He understood. “Do you think he’ll do anything to you?”

Wen Huo didn’t know, but she wanted to prevent it, to nip any possibility in the bud. “I don’t have the energy to play his games anymore.”

Su He fell silent.

The house where Chen Cheng raised Yiyi was located in the Aobei Villa area, at Purple Jade Manor, worth seventy to eighty million yuan. Yiyi and Han Bailu used to live in Fangzhuang, in a property owned by Chen Huaiyu. That area was home to Beijing’s first group of wealthy people.

As the car turned into Beiyuan Road, Ruan Lihong called. Wen Huo told her, “I’ll see the doctor tomorrow. Something came up.”

Ruan Lihong wanted to know what. “What is it?”

Wen Huo didn’t hide it from her. “I’m going to get my phone back from Chen Cheng.”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t want it anymore?”

“I’ll protect myself.” Wen Huo had been willing to let Chen Cheng have such rough, almost venting, sex with her because she felt morally corrupt and believed she should take responsibility. After all, her purpose for getting close to Chen Cheng wasn’t pure, and she had been deceiving him the whole time. She could accept his anger and humiliation. Everyone had to be responsible for their own actions. Wen Huo wasn’t so delicate. The reason she couldn’t accept it later was that Chen Cheng had also been deceiving her. This meant that both of them were despicable, but one of them had packaged himself up and shifted all the blame onto the other, which Wen Huo found intolerable. This was also one of the reasons she had to draw a clear line with Chen Cheng.

The situation had developed, with several reversals. Chen Cheng had whitewashed his own stains, and everyone was sympathizing with him, but Wen Huo wouldn’t. Getting involved in worldly matters was too complicated. So, it was best to handle things one at a time, which would make everything clear. No matter how clean Chen Cheng seemed now, his acting and feigned innocence were still real. Just like she, Wen Huo, no matter how justified she felt, had truly deceived Chen Cheng. Two bad people shouldn’t be together.

Because of her insomnia, Wen Huo’s condition had been getting worse lately. Moments of rationality like this were rare, so whenever she became rational, she would force herself to think a lot. This was a way of constantly giving herself psychological cues not to repeat the same mistakes. Sleep was no longer that important, so Chen Cheng was no longer that important. She repeated this sentence in her mind.

And so, Wen Huo arrived at Chen Cheng’s house while constantly giving herself psychological cues.

Su He took a picture of the street scene at East Gate 2. “Text me the building number later.”

Wen Huo nodded, unbuckled her seatbelt. “Okay.”

Su He rolled down the window and waved goodbye to Wen Huo. Wen Huo also turned and waved to him as she walked toward Chen Cheng’s car. “You can go back now.”

Su He leaned half his body out the window. “Call me if you need anything!”

Wen Huo nodded, and before she could say anything else, Chen Cheng, from his car, spoke in an unfriendly tone. “Are you getting in or not?”

Wen Huo’s words were left unspoken. She gave him a glance, refused the passenger door he opened for her, and got into the back seat.

Chen Cheng’s mania was starting to flare up. He was afraid he would say something hurtful and all his efforts would be in vain, so he pressed his lips together and said nothing. When they arrived at his house, he parked the car and went inside. Wen Huo sent the building number to Su He.

Once inside, Chen Cheng turned and blocked Wen Huo in the entryway. The narrow space was filled only with their unsteady breathing. The smell of Chen Cheng was overwhelming, and Wen Huo’s mind began to flash with fragmented images of their past intimacy—Chen Cheng’s impressive physique and his strong arms wrapped around her slender waist, asking her, “Does it hurt?”

Does it hurt? Those two words were the most erotic. Wen Huo closed her eyes tightly, clearing her mind of the sensual images, and looked back at him with an unflinching gaze.

Chen Cheng wasn’t very close to her; there was still a step between them, but perhaps because he was so much taller than Wen Huo, the atmosphere between them was a bit tense.

“Are you guarding against me like a thief? Are you afraid I’ll eat you?” Chen Cheng said.

“Yes.”

As Chen Cheng spoke, his breath brushed against Wen Huo’s ear, lightly moving some strands of hair. “Then why did you still come?”

Wen Huo’s tone was calm and light. “People have to be brave enough to face their fears. Once you’ve overcome the challenge, you’re not afraid anymore.”

After the back-and-forth between her and Su He, Chen Cheng was still angry. Now she had said something so provocative... He took two steps closer, his body almost touching hers. He seemed very angry.

Wen Huo, thinking of her own safety, decided to back off. “Where is Yiyi?”

Chen Cheng’s rationality returned. He backed away and led her to Yiyi’s room. A doctor and a nurse were there and stood up when they saw Chen Cheng. Wen Huo saw the nurse and wasn’t very surprised. Chen Cheng wouldn’t ignore a professional and ask her, an inexperienced person, to take care of a child. The child being sick was real, but it was also his excuse to bring her here. There was nothing she could do. To get her phone back, she had to make some compromises. This was better than letting him take a bunch more nudes of her.

The doctor said to Chen Cheng, “The fever is under control.”

Chen Cheng nodded, went to the sink, washed and disinfected his hands, then walked over to Yiyi’s bed and sat down, gently touching the swollen glands where her neck and face met.

When he went to find Wen Huo, his nanny told him that Yiyi had a fever. He called a doctor and found out she had mumps. Chen Cheng used a saline wipe to clean Yiyi’s face, changed her fever patch, and then smoothed her hair with his fingers.

Wen Huo stood there watching. She suddenly remembered a winter last year when she had an allergic reaction to an emu egg. Her body was covered in red spots, and she had a high fever. Chen Cheng had taken care of her just like this, by her bed. He didn’t say a word, no reprimands, no comfort, no instructions, just kept changing her fever patch. Every four hours he would take her temperature, then he would call to order food, and he was very meticulous about what to add and what not to add to the porridge and soup...

Her mind wandered, and when she came back to the present, it was just her, Chen Cheng, and Yiyi in the room. Chen Cheng tucked Yiyi in, stood up, and threw the saline wipe into the trash. “Have you eaten?”

Wen Huo hadn’t felt hungry in a long time. Her stomach had grown used to small amounts of food, just as her brain had grown used to constantly working. The nanny had prepared afternoon tea, and Chen Cheng asked Wen Huo to join him.

Wen Huo knew that Chen Cheng’s goal was to get her into his house, but she still asked him, “Didn’t you say you had a cold?”

Chen Cheng sliced a piece of wagyu beef without looking at her. “Are you worried about me?”

Wen Huo rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have a mirror at home? Where on your body do you look sick?”

“Then why are you asking?”

Wen Huo said, “You didn’t have a cold and lied to me that you did. That gives me a reason to suspect that you tricked me into your house to do something inappropriate to me.”

Chen Cheng threw her words back at her. “Where on your body do you look sick?”

“Yeah, I’m not worthy, so why did you go to all this trouble to trick me here? Aren’t you contradicting yourself? I’m contradicting myself on your behalf.”

Chen Cheng finished cutting the wagyu on his plate and pushed it over to the seat in front of her. “Eat first, then we can talk.”

Wen Huo sat down, but instead of eating, she reached out her hand. Chen Cheng looked up, put down his cutlery, wiped his hands, and then extended his hand, taking hers. His action stunned Wen Huo. She pulled her hand away. “What’s wrong with you? I’m asking for my phone!”

Chen Cheng let out a soft “Oh.” “I thought you wanted to hold hands.”

“Who wants to hold hands with you!”

Chen Cheng said, “I do.”

Wen Huo pretended not to hear him. “You can take care of Yiyi yourself. If you can’t, there’s a nurse. You don’t need me at all. If you’re a decent person, just give me my phone and I’ll leave.”

“You can stay.”

Wen Huo frowned.

“I don’t mind.”

Wen Huo’s brows furrowed even more.

Chen Cheng took a bottle of Black Pheasant wine from the cabinet and poured a glass for Wen Huo. “Eat and then go to bed. Yiyi will wake up this afternoon. I have work to do, so I won’t have time for her.”

Go to bed... It had been a long time since Wen Huo had slept properly. She fell silent.

Chen Cheng said, “After today, I’ll give you your phone back.”

Hearing him say that, Wen Huo was no longer in a hurry, but she wasn’t going to sleep. She hadn’t wanted to sleep for a long time.

After eating, Chen Cheng filled the bathtub in the master bedroom with water. He then ignored Wen Huo, who was looking at Yiyi’s picture book in the side room, and forcibly pulled her into the bathroom. “Get in and soak.”

Wen Huo refused to get in. She looked up at him. “Do you think I’m still the same Wen Huo who made it my mission to seduce you?”

Chen Cheng didn’t think so. “Even if you don’t want to seduce me anymore, the experience of you seducing me can’t be erased. The suggestive messages you sent me, and you coming to my class without underwear on, all of it happened. I haven’t deleted the chat logs. Do you want to revisit them? The thing I remember most is you asking me if you could call me ‘husband.’ You said you wanted to yell ‘husband, faster, husband, kill me’ when we were having sex.”

Wen Huo was speechless. Her sharp tongue was useless in the face of Chen Cheng’s words. Chen Cheng had found his ultimate weapon—bringing up her seduction of him at every opportunity.

Wen Huo fought back. “Everyone makes mistakes. Is it not allowed for me to have been blind? I was so driven by greed that I didn’t see if the person I was seducing was a human or a ghost.”

Chen Cheng asked her, “You didn’t see clearly, and you didn’t use me clearly? Can a ghost have sex with you? You used me for so long, and now you’re saying I’m a ghost? Are you crossing the bridge and then burning it? Are you just going to have your fun and run?”

Wen Huo laughed. “The experience was so-so. Look how old you are.”

Chen Cheng took a step forward. “Want to try again?”

His voice was a mysteriously low, and it was a little seductive. All the feelings Wen Huo had when she was obsessed with him came rushing back. The words, “This old man is so damn captivating,” were slapping her in the face in her mind. She raised the white flag. “Fine, I’ll wash up. Please leave.”

Only then did Chen Cheng let her go.

Wen Huo took off her clothes, got into the bathtub, and lay down, looking at the high-quality view from the window. She had lost count of how many of Chen Cheng’s houses she had showered in. He really did have a lot of houses.

She was lost in thought, and after about twenty minutes, she got out. Wen Huo realized she had no clothes to change into. Should she wear the clothes she came in? She was hesitating when Chen Cheng asked from outside the one-way sliding glass door, “Are you done?”

Wen Huo subconsciously used her clothes to cover her crotch. Chen Cheng slid the door open and came in, holding a large towel. Wen Huo fumbled, suddenly not knowing what to cover. He was truly annoying. “Who told you to come in? Don’t you have any shame, old man?”

Chen Cheng said nothing. He wrapped her in the towel, picked her up, and carried her to the bed. He then pulled back the covers and covered both of them, his left arm around her waist, and his right arm serving as a pillow for her.

Wen Huo struggled twice but couldn’t get free. “Let go of me! Can you stop redefining my understanding of your shamelessness?”

Chen Cheng closed his eyes. “Don’t talk. Sleep.”

Wen Huo wouldn’t sleep. “I don’t want to sleep!”

“I want to sleep. Just sleep with me.”

“Why should I sleep with you? We broke up, remember? I can call the police and say you’re harassing me.”

“Call them after you wake up.”

Wen Huo was helpless. Her mind was getting chaotic. All the cues she had given herself earlier were now forgotten. Her rationality was going into hibernation again. She slowly felt everything in front of her peel away from its original form and reassemble into something new, floating in her mind... Gradually, her irregular heartbeat steadied, her body began to feel tired, and her eyelids grew heavy.

“Only Chen Cheng can make her sleep,” was like another powerful psychological cue, defeating her rationality and pulling her into a deep sleep.

From a scientific point of view, Chen Cheng making Wen Huo fall asleep was probably just a psychological cue. It was also partly because she believed Cheng Cuo at the time. Cheng Cuo was a very professional psychologist. He said that finding someone to sleep with was a solution, and Wen Huo believed it, found it, and it worked. So she had put a “can make her fall asleep” label on Chen Cheng. She constantly told herself this until it eventually evolved into only Chen Cheng could make her fall asleep.

Chen Cheng listened to her breathing become regular, and her body softened, no longer so tense. He relaxed his arm slightly. He looked down at Wen Huo’s face and gently kissed the bridge of her nose.

Goodnight, Huohuo.