Miss and farmhand

From inside the bed, it was a very clear silhouette. Huang Muyun felt hot and angry. She closed her eyes to rest, but when she heard the wind blowing through the door, she opened them and immediately saw a person standing outside the bed. The shadow swayed with the wind as the bed curtains swayed, as if she had seen a ghost.

However, he was also very familiar with this shadow. It was thin and had narrow shoulders. He knew who it was at a glance. He was stunned for a long time, blinked, and found it even more unbelievable that Huang Chu had come looking for him than that he had seen a ghost.

She thought he didn't know, and her hunched-over, cautious demeanor made Huang Muyun want to laugh, to tease her, just as he always liked—in Huang Chu's words—to talk back to her.

It was as if just stabbing her would alleviate the fire burning within him.

Now that Huang Chu had been exposed, she couldn't just turn around and run away in order to maintain the facade. It would make her seem like she had lost.

She composed herself, as if it were perfectly normal for her to be standing alone in his room in the dead of night, and asked Huang Muyun, "What time did you get back? Why didn't you take a car? Did the car come back first?"

There was a moment of silence in the bed curtains, followed by a rustling sound, as if Huang Muyun was turning over or something.

After the sound stopped, he replied, "I didn't call him away. Zhou Shitai, taking advantage of my drunkenness, suggested that I stay at the restaurant for the night and he would send a car to bring me back the next day. I disagreed, but he then suggested that I go to the next room to sober up first. I didn't know he had called the car; I only intended to sit for a while and rest." He paused, then suddenly let out a muffled thud from his chest—Huang Chu guessed he probably wanted to sneer, but objectively, he couldn't—and then gritted his teeth and said, "Then later, a pianist at the table pushed open the door and came in himself."

Huang Chu caught the key information, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "So you guys really did go drinking and partying today?"

Huang Muyun, on the contrary, seemed to be provoked. The bed slammed against something with a thud, and he raised his voice, growling, "What do you mean 'really drinking with prostitutes'? Is that the point? Today was all Zhou Shitai's scheme against me. He definitely put something in my drink. He probably still remembers that I took you away at the docks, and he thinks I'm in his way, so he wants to get rid of me. If I get caught up in this today, I won't be able to explain myself to you when I get back," he tried to sneer, but couldn't quite manage it, coughing twice in anger, "then he'll have his chance!"

After he finished yelling, the fire on his body burned even more intensely. He was already covered in sweat, and now it looked as if he had been pulled out of the water.

Especially after Huang Chu heard his words, she didn't respond outside. He didn't know what she was thinking. Her silence made the whole room eerily quiet, with only a shadow on the bed curtains indicating that she was still there and hadn't left.

Huang Muyun could almost feel the sweat on his forehead. A clear drop rolled down from behind his ear, slid down his neck, and into his collar, with a chilling sensation.

Then, outside the bed curtains, Huang Chu asked listlessly, "...So how did you get back?"

Huang Muyun's Adam's apple bobbed, and she muttered, "...I told her to leave, but she wouldn't. She said she was ordered not to leave, so I told her to go get a basin of water so I could wash my face. Then, while she was out, I jumped out the window."

"..."

"I almost didn't make it back. The restaurant was by the river, and there was a slope right below the window. I couldn't see clearly, and I almost fell into the river. I had just come back not long before you came in," he said, trying to gain sympathy.

"..."

Huang Chu remained silent for a long time. Huang Muyun grew anxious, but unlike the restlessness of someone with a fever, he couldn't help but turn to look outside. He saw the shadow on the bed curtains suddenly shrink and disappear. He felt a sudden emptiness in his heart, wondering if Huang Chu had left or what. However, looking out through the corner of the bed curtains that were lifted, he saw that she was just squatting on the ground and hadn't left.

Huang Chu buried her face in her knees, trying to control her breathing, but she couldn't help it. Clutching her cloak, she laughed out loud, her shoulders shaking.

"...You were forced to jump out of the window by a singer...ha..."

Once the laughter started, it couldn't be stopped.

Huang Chu found the scene increasingly amusing. Huang Muyun, with her muscular build, had slipped through the window, landed unsteadily, and tumbled down the slope all the way to the riverbank—no wonder her clothes and shoes were soaked. Drunk and wearing such wet and uncomfortable clothes, and with the carriage having been sent back early, she had no choice but to stagger back on foot…

She couldn't stop laughing; at first it was just her shoulders, but later her whole body was shaking. The person in question was in such a terrible state, but for some reason, the more disheveled he was, the more smug she became, without any restraint, taking pleasure in his suffering right in front of him.

She finally managed to stop laughing and raised her face to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes. However, because she was squatting on the ground, her face was directly facing the corner of the bed that was lifted, and she actually met Huang Muyun's eyes from inside the dark bed curtains.

He seemed to be lying on his back, his eyes upside down, his head facing outwards, as if he had come back and brazenly collapsed onto the bed, rolling around a couple of times, completely unruly. His eyes were illuminated by the moonlight outside, the cold moonlight shining into them and turning into a chilling anger, like white flames burning.

Huang Chu knew she wasn't afraid of him getting angry now; the angrier he got, the more smug she became.

She had no idea how Huang Muyun perceived her smug expression. She was backlit, her whole body in shadow, except for her eyes, which were pale and almost transparent during the day, but turned into jewel-like beads at night, all the brilliance shining through them.

Huang Muyun had been drinking all night, and his lips were so dry that they felt like they were about to tear apart. His taut lips were itchy, and he couldn't help but lick them to moisten them, almost like drinking poison to quench his thirst.

Huang Chu sensed something had changed in the atmosphere during their eye contact. Huang Muyun's gaze also shifted slightly; it wasn't just anger at being mocked, but something more substantial, suppressed yet slowly emerging.

She deliberately changed the subject, asking ramblingly, "...So how are you going to confront Zhou Shitai tomorrow? He offended you like that, especially at the banquet he hosted. It was so blatant. He must think you did it willingly, right?"

Huang Muyun swallowed, deliberately lowering her voice, and said, "He's not that stupid. He's the one who's hosting today, but someone else is entertaining them. It's a Japanese man who's very obsequious to their family, and he's arranged all the hospitality. Zhou Shitai must be thinking that even if I confront him, he can shift the blame to the Japanese man."

He mentioned it casually, but Huang Chu was taken aback.

I never expected to run into you here.

The Japanese. She had no idea, in both her past and present lives, that they had such close business ties. Was the Japanese pirate raid she encountered in her past life related to this Japanese man? If she helped him, was there any chance of stopping the chaos? After all, she remembered the city lockdown that nearly starved half its inhabitants; she couldn't bear to suffer that fate again.

Her thoughts raced, and before she could ask Huang Muyun a few more questions, she heard the sound of fabric rustling inside the bed curtains, and Huang Muyun coughed twice.

"Have you asked enough questions? We can talk about it tomorrow. Now, please leave, okay?"

There was a hint of resentment towards her temper, and also a sense of suppressed helplessness.

Huang Chu then came to his senses. Right, he said Zhou Shitai had given him something.