Beautiful Woman, You Have Another Express Delivery! (GL) - Chapter 26

The road at night was long, winding and stretching forward, with no end in sight. Cheng Qiuyi walked slowly, carrying Liu Shuhan on her back. The dim moonlight shone on them, lengthening their vague silhouette on the ground.

Liu Shuhan was comfortably swinging her legs on Cheng Qiuyi’s back, but the wound on her knee couldn’t be disturbed at all. The slightest movement caused a searing, skin-splitting pain. Liu Shuhan conscientiously kept her legs still, preventing them from moving arbitrarily.

“Qiuyi, it seems like every time you carry me, I have to be injured,” Liu Shuhan twirled a lock of Cheng Qiuyi’s hair between her fingers, saying casually.

“What kind of talk is that?” Cheng Qiuyi was amused. “Why don’t you say that every time you’re injured, I carry you?”

Liu Shuhan looked up at the moon and thought that was a fair point.

“You’re young and strong now, and you can still carry me. What will happen when we are both old and you can’t carry me anymore if I get hurt?” Liu Shuhan imagined them both in their seventies or eighties, two old ladies with all their teeth gone, lying on lounge chairs on the balcony, sunbathing. The thought made her laugh. “Qiuyi, do you think when we’re old, we’ll go dancing the square dance every day like those old ladies in the park?”

“Who curses themselves to be injured when they are old? Besides, I can still carry you when I’m ninety.” Cheng Qiuyi freed one hand to tuck the hair Liu Shuhan had just played with behind her ear. “But I’m not dancing the square dance. If you want to embarrass yourself, you go alone.”

“That won’t do.” Liu Shuhan got tired of playing with Cheng Qiuyi’s hair and shifted her target to her earlobe. “How boring would it be for me to dance the square dance alone?”

Liu Shuhan bit Cheng Qiuyi’s earlobe as a threat. “Are you coming with me or not? If you don’t, I’ll bite your ear off.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go. Please, My Lady, spare the life of your humble servant.” Cheng Qiuyi walked steadily forward while playfully bickering with Liu Shuhan. They chatted as if the events of decades later were truly going to happen.

“I wish we were the only two people in the world,” Liu Shuhan released Cheng Qiuyi’s ear and completely lay on her back. “All those annoying things would just disappear.”

The roadside was overgrown with weeds. The sounds of various insects and frogs rose and fell from the grass. Cheng Qiuyi walked with her head down for a while. Just as Liu Shuhan was dozing off on her back, Cheng Qiuyi suddenly said, “Shuhan, do you want to hear about the feud between Ye Jing and me?”

In such a vast space, Cheng Qiuyi’s words were scattered thinly in the autumn wind. Liu Shuhan panicked, sensing this might not be a good idea. “Don’t tell me. I’m tired and I want to sleep. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Ye Jing and I have known each other since we were in the womb. Before we were born, we were even promised to each other in an engagement. Ye Jing is a few months older than me. Later, I heard that when my mother learned I was a girl, her first words were, ‘The daughter-in-law I was supposed to have is gone.'” Perhaps this memory was a fond one for Cheng Qiuyi, as the brightness in her tone was noticeable even to Liu Shuhan.

Liu Shuhan interjected jealously, “Then it’s my fault. I stepped in and ruined your marriage.”

“After my mother gave birth to me, she couldn’t conceive again, so I was raised as the sole heir of the Cheng Corporation. Ye Jing’s parents passed away in an accident before she turned one. My mother took her in and treated her as her second daughter. Ye Jing and I grew up together and were very close as children. I considered her my older sister then.”

“Ye Jing was strong-willed from a young age. I still remember when I was five, I was bullied by some boys from a collateral branch. When Ye Jing found out, she knocked out the front tooth of the boy who led the bullying. She told me later that if I didn’t want to be bullied, I had to be the one who could bully others. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand this lesson until after my mother died.”

“When I was fourteen, the Cheng family made an enemy. My mother sent Ye Jing back to the Ye family and sent me to my maternal grandfather’s family, the Zhou family, in City Z. She was worried about me and had Master secretly protect me. That’s how I met you. After that, Ye Jing and I never saw each other again. Little did I know that I would stay in City Z for three years. When I returned to City C, I received the news of my mother’s death and Cheng Tianhong’s remarriage.”

Cheng Qiuyi spoke calmly, but Liu Shuhan’s heart felt heavy.

Based on Cheng Qiuyi’s timeline, Liu Shuhan and Cheng Qiuyi’s relationship was already good the year Cheng’s mother died. Liu Shuhan remembered Cheng Qiuyi being truly depressed for a period after the college entrance examination. She had only assumed Cheng Qiuyi was upset about her exam results and consoled her for several days, never knowing that such a major upheaval had occurred in her family. She couldn’t imagine how Cheng Qiuyi endured it.

“I saw Ye Jing again at my mother’s funeral. She had begun to take over the Ye Corporation’s business. We hadn’t seen each other for years and had nothing to say. Soon after, I went abroad.”

Liu Shuhan became angry at the mention of Cheng Qiuyi going abroad. “You just left like that? Didn’t you think about saying goodbye to me?”

“I was wrong, okay? I didn’t dare to look for you because I was afraid Cheng Tianhong would cause you trouble after I left.” Cheng Qiuyi adjusted Liu Shuhan higher on her back and continued, “However, I had more opportunities to see Ye Jing after I went abroad. The Ye Corporation had many cooperative projects in Country A. Ye Jing used business trips as an excuse to meet up with me every so often, and we gradually became familiar again. Who knew that later… later Ye Jing said she… had a crush on me.”

“What?” Liu Shuhan was agitated. “I knew she had designs on you! I sensed something was off with her eyes today! What about you? Did you agree?”

“No, I told her I had someone I liked,” Cheng Qiuyi laughed. “Shuhan, guess who the person I liked was?”

“I’m not a mind-reader. How would I know…” Liu Shuhan stammered, her face flushed.

Cheng Qiuyi didn’t expose her and continued the recollection. “Later… later…” Cheng Qiuyi repeated “later” several times. The expression on her face gradually hardened, and a look of ruthless intensity appeared in her eyes. She squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth. “Later, she drugged me.”

Both women fell silent.

Liu Shuhan could clearly feel Cheng Qiuyi trembling slightly.

Cheng Qiuyi’s skin was icy cold, and her footsteps became erratic, then frantic. She ended up stumbling and falling with Liu Shuhan into the grass by the roadside. The night was late, and the dew was heavy. The soil was moist. They didn’t fall hard, but they were covered in dirt, looking dishevelled and embarrassed.

Cheng Qiuyi lay on the ground, not bothering to get up. Her first reaction was to wrap her arms around Liu Shuhan using both her hands and feet. She had completely lost her composure, only knowing to bury her head in Liu Shuhan’s embrace and murmur, “Shuhan… I’m sorry… don’t leave me…”

“Shuhan… please… please don’t leave me…”

Finally, even the murmurs faded. Cheng Qiuyi hugged Liu Shuhan tightly, trembling in her arms like a child. Cheng Qiuyi was crying without a sound, her tears flowing continuously. Liu Shuhan’s clothes were soaked, clinging to her skin. Cheng Qiuyi’s tears seeped through the fabric where their bodies touched, pooling on Liu Shuhan’s chest, chilling her to the point of suffocation.

This was the first time Liu Shuhan had seen Cheng Qiuyi cry in the decade-plus they had known each other. Liu Shuhan felt like her heart was being repeatedly pricked with needles, a fine, dense pain that made it hard for her to breathe.

Cheng Qiuyi was crying, begging pitifully, asking her not to abandon her. How desperate must Cheng Qiuyi have been at that time for the mere memory to completely destroy her will? Cheng Qiuyi was so powerful. She could kick over a robust man weighing over 180 pounds. She could carry Liu Shuhan for miles without batting an eye. Liu Shuhan could safely entrust all her troubles to her.

And yet, this strong woman was now sobbing uncontrollably.

Liu Shuhan was just a small woman. She wasn’t as strong as Cheng Qiuyi, so all she could do was hold Cheng Qiuyi’s shoulders and cry with her.

“Qiuyi, I’m here… I want you…” Liu Shuhan cried as she kissed Cheng Qiuyi’s temple. Her tears flowed down her cheeks and into Cheng Qiuyi’s hair. Liu Shuhan wailed loudly, crying heartbreakingly at the top of her lungs. Unpleasant moments were few and far between in her short life. She hadn’t learned Cheng Qiuyi’s restraint, and she was overwhelmed with heartache for Cheng Qiuyi’s suppressed weeping.

After an unknown amount of time, Cheng Qiuyi’s tears dried up, and she finally looked up from Liu Shuhan’s embrace. Cheng Qiuyi’s eyes were red and swollen. She sat up from the grass, pulling Liu Shuhan up to sit beside her.

Liu Shuhan had been crying so wholeheartedly that she was still howling after sitting up. Cheng Qiuyi gently touched her head and said in a hoarse voice, “Alright, that’s enough.”

Liu Shuhan opened her eyes and saw Cheng Qiuyi smiling at her despite the tear stains on her face, looking as if nothing had happened. She asked foolishly, “Are you… are you okay?”

Once Liu Shuhan confirmed that Cheng Qiuyi had truly returned to normal, she cried even harder. “Cheng Qiuyi, you scared me to death… if anything had happened to you, I wouldn’t live either…”

The knot in Cheng Qiuyi’s heart had been suppressed for so many years. After venting, she felt much lighter. She raised her hand to wipe away Liu Shuhan’s tears, her heart filled with tenderness. What would this sensitive woman do without her?

Ye Jing was a lunatic. She had drugged Cheng Qiuyi and imprisoned her for a full two months. During those two months, Cheng Qiuyi was locked in a basement, seeing no daylight. The only small amount of light came from the fluorescent lamp in the hallway when Ye Jing brought her food. Ye Jing wanted to break Cheng Qiuyi down in this way, making her docile and obedient. Ye Jing succeeded in the former. Cheng Qiuyi was indeed broken. Cheng Qiuyi felt an instinctive fear of Ye Jing, a combination of fear and hatred.

For a long time, Cheng Qiuyi was terrified of the dark. She had nightmares. In her dreams, one moment it was Ye Jing’s contorted face, and the next, it was Liu Shuhan coldly saying, ‘I don’t want you anymore.’ Cheng Qiuyi considered ending things by dying with Ye Jing, but she hesitated because of Liu Shuhan. If she did such a foolish thing, she might never have a chance to be with Liu Shuhan.

Cheng Qiuyi was thankful for her hesitation. Ye Jing’s retribution was only a matter of time. Why should Cheng Qiuyi sacrifice her future with Liu Shuhan for someone like that?

However, the retribution should come now.

“Shuhan, let’s go home.” Cheng Qiuyi held out her hand to Liu Shuhan.

Just as Liu Shuhan was about to take Cheng Qiuyi’s hand, two blinding beams of light shone toward them. A car approached from the distance on the road and stopped beside them. A person got out of the driver’s seat.

It was Qin Jiang’s housekeeper.

“Miss Qiuyi, the Master was worried you might be in danger and asked me to bring you back.”

Cheng Qiuyi and Liu Shuhan exchanged glances.

“Should we go?” Liu Shuhan asked, swallowing.

Cheng Qiuyi looked at Liu Shuhan, who was disheveled and covered in mud and weeds, and nodded. “Yes.” Liu Shuhan was still injured. Now was not the time to be stubborn with Qin Jiang.

After a long, exhausting night, they finally returned to the hotel where Cheng Qiuyi was staying.

Both of them were muddy. Liu Shuhan hadn’t slept all night and immediately collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep. Her clothes were soaked, and Cheng Qiuyi was afraid she would catch a cold. She walked over to the sofa and gently pulled her up. “Shuhan, take a hot shower before you sleep. Be good.”

Liu Shuhan was too tired even to open her eyes. She clung to Cheng Qiuyi and continued sleeping, starting to snore within a few seconds. There were dark circles under her eyes. Cheng Qiuyi couldn’t bear to wake her, so she bent down, supporting Liu Shuhan’s shoulder with one hand and sliding the other under Liu Shuhan’s knees. She carried her into the bathroom in her arms.