Wait, I Got in the Wrong Car (GL) - Chapter 52

To numb herself, Lou Anran threw herself into a string of social drinking events. After each dinner came a bar or a KTV room, and tonight was no different. She had just vomited and was rinsing her face with cold water.

Chu Shu stood nearby, holding her coat and handbag. “Boss, your phone’s been ringing nonstop. It’s called at least ten times. Should I answer it for you?”

At this hour, only one person would be that relentless with calls.

Lou Anran lowered her eyes and pulled out two tissues to carefully wipe each of her pale, slender fingers. The phone buzzed over and over again in her handbag. The finger-wiping ritual went on for ten minutes until the buzzing, as if finally giving up, fell silent.

Chu Shu let out a sigh of relief, but the silence did not last. The vibration began anew. She rubbed her ears, annoyed by the screeching karaoke from the private room nearby.

“Boss, with this kind of persistence, maybe just do us all a favor and pick up?”

Lou Anran tossed the tissues into the trash and walked away.

The hallway lit up in shifting colors with every step, like some garish imitation of a starlit avenue. She had this hallway decorated just to amuse the little one. As soon as she turned the corner, she nearly collided with a large mass.

The man had a small head and a big body, hunched in the corner, looking pitiful. He held one ear and listened intently to the voice on the phone. “I’m really just here for work. Trust me, I’m just a background character. I’ll be home soon. Be good. Kiss kiss. I love you.”

When he turned around and saw Lou Anran and Chu Shu standing behind him, he stumbled back in surprise, his cheeks wobbling absurdly. Under the flashing lights, he recognized the woman radiating quiet authority.

“President Lou.”

Lou Anran gave a slight nod. She took a step forward, then suddenly paused.

“Your wife seems pretty strict. You’d better go home early. No point in worrying her. These parties are dull anyway.”

The man stood stunned for a moment before nodding rapidly. “Yes, yes.”

Chu Shu glanced over her shoulder at the man. “Boss, who was that?”

“No idea.”

“…”

Back in the private room, the noise was deafening. Smoke filled the space. Men and women tangled together with no regard for manners. Lou Anran frowned, fighting back a wave of nausea. She had no idea how she had lasted the entire night.

“Let’s go.”

“You finally came to your senses, Boss.”

She declined the assistant’s offer to drive and exited through the staff entrance. After parking the car, she sat in silence, listening to music for a while before going upstairs.

She had expected the little mermaid to be waiting for her on the sofa like last time, but the room was pitch dark. Her first step landed on something hard. She turned on the light to find it was a shoe.

The sofa and carpet had been moved. Clothes and fabric scraps lay scattered across the floor. A sharp pair of scissors glinted from beneath a pile. One careless step and she could have been hurt.

It was dangerous.

She had only been gone two or three days.

Lou Anran dropped her bag on the sofa and resigned herself to picking up the mess. She tossed all the fabric into the trash and returned the sofa, coffee table, and carpet to their places.

At some point, the sleeping beauty had awakened.

Mo Ying shouted, “Lou Xiaohei!” Her voice was sharp but carried an endearing edge.

Lou Anran looked up. The girl was wearing a modest nightgown. Before she could head to the bathroom, Mo Ying launched at her like a cannonball. She leapt like an octopus, clinging tightly. Lou Anran nearly toppled under the impact.

In a few more months, once baby fish grew up, she might not be able to carry either of them.

Mo Ying wrapped tightly around her neck, hanging completely on her.

“Where did you go? I couldn’t find you.”

Chen Ruiling’s advice might have worked, if only she could have found Lou Anran. With no one else to turn to and no calls going through, Mo Ying had been spiraling in frustration.

Lou Anran adjusted her grip to support the girl. Mo Ying leaned in and sniffed the faint trace of alcohol from her hair.

“You’ve been drinking every day.”

Unable to hold her any longer, Lou Anran collapsed lazily onto the sofa and let the girl cling to her.

“That’s right. Alcohol is a wonderful thing.”

Mo Ying remembered her last experience and shook her head. “It tastes awful.”

Lou Anran chuckled softly. Her fingers brushed the girl’s lips. Before she could even press, Mo Ying opened her mouth and bit gently with tiny teeth.

“Will you still go drinking now?”

Lou Anran’s eyes dimmed. She stirred her finger around and pulled it away quickly.

“What am I supposed to do with you?”

Mo Ying rubbed her face against the vulnerable curve of her neck.

“Are you still mad at me?”

Lou Anran did not know who to blame. Mo Ying? She had always known the girl was innocent. Herself? Her desires had only grown.

She hugged the girl, leaned back on the couch, and closed her eyes. She did not want to keep discussing what had troubled her for days. Some things could not be explained. Only time could work them out.

The couch offered little space, so Mo Ying nestled close, resting her ears against Lou Anran’s chest. She could not figure out what had upset her, but the rhythm of Lou Anran’s heartbeat calmed her, and before long, she fell asleep.

The next morning, Lou Anran woke to find Mo Ying sitting on the floor, her back to the couch. Scraps of fabric were scattered everywhere. The trash bin lay broken in the corner.

Mo Ying was cutting cloth with scissors. The mess Lou Anran had picked up the night before had all come from her efforts. Lou Anran walked over and watched as she pulled out a needle and thread. She even plucked a few strands of her own hair to use as thread and stitched together two completely unrelated fabrics. She finished it off by sewing on two perfectly symmetrical pockets.

She casually stuffed the pockets with scraps, testing their firmness.

Lou Anran raised a brow. “What… are you making?”

The materials were oddly familiar. The straps were made from the green hair tie Ye Moli had once tied around his wrist. The buttons were tiny round beads. When she finished, she held up a small, bright-colored garment.

“Lou Xiaohei, this is for you.”

Lou Anran stared in disbelief.

“Is this… a gift to apologize?”

As soon as she spoke, she wanted to slap herself.

Mo Ying scratched her head. “No, I just thought your underwear looked uncomfortable. I wanted to make you something better. Do you like it?”

It was the first time Lou Anran had ever received lingerie from another woman. Since her orientation had become public, such intimate things had been off-limits.

“Do you know what it means to give someone underwear?”

Mo Ying blinked. “Huh?”

Lou Anran could not help rubbing her fingers through her long hair. She tugged gently at the seam she had stitched with her own hair. It held firm.

“If you give this to me, you can’t give anything like it to anyone else.”

Mo Ying was not in the mood to make another.

She pushed Lou Anran toward the bathroom. “Go try it on. I held your size last time. It should fit.”

Lou Anran choked and coughed violently. Every time she tried to see this girl as naive, Mo Ying would say something shocking.

If not for her knowing the girl’s nature, anyone would have taken the bait.

In front of the mirror, Lou Anran touched the seams. The golden threads of hair gave the plain fabric a strange elegance. The cloth matched what Mo Ying usually wore. No matter how she examined it, she could find no flaws.

The stitching around the edges was perfect, smooth against the skin. This was not the work of an amateur. It was clearly done by someone experienced.

“Hey? Lou Xiaohei, why won’t you let me see?”

“I tried it. It fits just fine.”

Lou Anran had no intention of letting her come over and grope her under the guise of testing the fit.

That would be far too exciting so early in the morning.

Mo Ying looked longingly at her chest. If Lou Anran had not added an extra layer, she would have stripped her to inspect the craftsmanship.

“As long as you like it.”

Lou Anran headed to work thinking, I trust my little one. The outfit probably won’t fall apart. The strap won’t snap. She worked hard to keep up her image as President Lou, though in private, the corners of her mouth kept curling upward.

Even if Mo Ying still did not fully understand, Lou Anran was the first to receive one of her gifts.

Mo Ying, meanwhile, hummed as she scribbled down a lively tune. It was cheerful and bright.

Chen Ruiling saw this and knew the worst had passed. She looked over at the increasingly quiet Wanqi Tianxin.

“Tianxin, come take a walk with me.”

Wanqi Tianxin nodded.

Mo Ying did not even notice them leave. She was lost in thought, still feeling the ache in her heart from when Lou Xiaohei had been angry with her. Then she remembered Wu Si’s situation, and emotions threatened to spill over.

She quickly turned those emotions into symbols on the page, filling sheet after sheet with musical notes. By the time the other two returned, she had sprawled across the floor, surrounded by a thick stack of scribbled pages.

“Xiao Yu’er, is this your new composition?”

Mo Ying’s face returned to its gloomy state. “Yes. I haven’t written the lyrics yet.”

Wanqi Tianxin was stunned. “You sing, dance, write lyrics and compose? You really can do it all.”

Chen Ruiling nodded in agreement.

Mo Ying usually did not write songs. But when inspiration came, it came in waves.

“Maybe we can use this one for the semifinals?”

Chen Ruiling hesitated. “There’s a rumor going around, though I don’t know if it’s true. They say the mentors are trying something new again.”

Supposedly, to train the contestants more, or maybe because someone on the mentor team kept pushing the limits, the latest rule added instruments to the group performance.

Mo Ying’s eyes widened. “What?”

Guitar, piano, violin, cello, erhu, dulcimer…

They had all missed quite a few classes dealing with Wu Si’s issues and hadn’t heard any of the gossip.

“The mentors are really something. They want us to perform with every instrument under the sun.”

Mo Ying blinked. For the first time, she felt a real sense of danger.

Because she could not play any instruments.

The semifinals arrived on schedule. Since they were now a group of three, their performance was moved to the middle of the roster. They had spent the previous days quietly observing the other groups.

When the stage lights came on, Dong Yue, Su Bai, and Zhuang Yun appeared together. But the fourth member, Liu Feiang, was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s going on?”

“That lineup looks strange. Liu’s rank is higher than Zhuang’s. Why are they swapped?”

“Did they change mentors?”

The director must have known everyone was anxious, because the big screen slowly lit up. A figure in blazing red descended from above.

That long, wine-red hair sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Mo Ying blinked.

It looked like her Fourth Sister had just made a grand entrance.