One Pet Gets Married

Chapter 25

At the hotel.

Before recognizing Zhou Yi, Chang Ye's thoughts were: Great, now I'll have to pay for damages. Damn it, doesn't that woman watch where she's going?

The reason she cared so much about money was that her mother had taken out a massive high-interest loan before going insane and ending up in a psychiatric hospital. Since then, Chang Ye had been the one repaying it. To her, money was practically her life.

After recognizing Zhou Yi, Chang Ye's mind went blank, but she quickly composed herself.

"It's you..." Chang Ye pressed her lips together before speaking again. "I'm truly sorry."

"How much does this coat cost? I'll compensate you." Chang Ye looked directly at Zhou Yi. "What's your preferred payment method? Alipay, WeChat, or bank transfer?"

Qi Yuan and Liu Yong, standing nearby, sensed there might be some history between these two, so they tactfully excused themselves and went elsewhere.

"So direct?" Zhou Yi's lips curled slightly.

Chang Ye closed her eyes briefly, then nodded. "Just tell me, I'll save the details."

"Two hundred and sixty thousand." Zhou Yi said.

Hearing this price, Chang Ye was momentarily stunned but quickly suppressed her reaction, smiling as she spoke. "Alright, please let me know your payment details."

She then took out her phone and unlocked it.

Zhou Yi continued to stare intently at her before taking out her wallet, extracting a bank card, and holding it out to Chang Ye. "This account."

"Okay." Without raising an eyebrow, Chang Ye took the card and recorded the numbers in her phone's notes.

Afterwards, Chang Ye returned the card to Zhou Yi and opened her banking app. Seeing her balance, she frowned slightly, then looked up at Zhou Yi with a smile. "I'm sorry, I..."

"Yes?"

"My bank card has a limit, and I've made too many transfers today, exceeding the quota. I tried to continue transferring earlier, but it stopped working. So for your payment, I'll have to transfer it tomorrow. Let's write an IOU for now." Chang Ye touched her earlobe, looking up at her with a smile.

However, Zhou Yi suddenly grabbed her wrist and quickly walked to the side.

Everyone around was occupied with their own affairs, but Chang Ye's manager, Zhang Heping, who had been making small talk with others, was startled when he turned and saw this scene.

When they reached a secluded corner, Zhou Yi pushed Chang Ye against the wall before releasing her.

"Miss Zhou, I won't default on the payment. There's no need for this." Chang Ye stumbled slightly, then adjusted her coat that had slipped off her shoulder.

After a moment of silence, Zhou Yi looked at her and spoke. "So, you still remember my name."

"As the most academically outstanding person in our university year, always winning awards no matter what you did, how could I not know?" Chang Ye smiled again.

Zhou Yi stared at her, her gaze growing increasingly cold, as if frosted over. Finally, looking into Chang Ye's eyes, she suddenly laughed. "You really are... trying your utmost to erase me completely from your world, aren't you?"

Chang Ye sighed after hearing this, still smiling at her. "Do you have paper and a pen? I'd like to write that IOU. If not, I'll ask my manager."

Zhou Yi scoffed upon hearing this. "Living such a miserable life, are you upset? How about this: I'll keep you as my mistress?"

Chang Ye touched her nose bridge, tilting her head to look at her. "Keep me? Are you joking? No need. I don't know where you got the idea that I'm short on money. I told you, the reason I can't transfer you that 260,000 today is because I've reached my transfer limit."

"A Valentino coat, in the 50,000 range, but it's last year's model. It's not even a regular day, yet you're wearing it to an event like this." Zhou Yi looked at her, the corners of her lips still turned up. "Then, when I mentioned 260,000, your eyes flickered. If you had really reached your transfer limit today, given your personality, you should have known earlier. Why only remember after opening the app? And why do you only have one card? Lastly, whenever you lie, you touch your ear. Miss Chang, you really think... you're airtight, but in reality, you're full of holes."

Chang Ye was stunned for a moment, then looked at Zhou Yi, refuting point by point. "I like this coat; I'm wearing it because it matches my inner layer and shoes perfectly. People change, and this isn't about personality. I'm older now, my memory isn't great, so I forgot I'd reached the limit. Is that not allowed? As for the card, I've got a new phone and haven't linked my other cards yet, understand? So don't assume you still know me like before."

"Finally stopped pretending not to know me?" Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow slightly.

"I'll go write that IOU." In the end, Chang Ye didn't respond further and turned to leave, intending to find Zhang Heping.

However, as soon as she walked out, she saw him.

"Ahem, cough..." Zhang Heping adjusted his suit collar.

"Brother Zhang, do you have paper and a pen?" Chang Ye pulled him aside and looked up to ask.

"What's this all about now?" Zhang Heping took out a palm-sized notebook while extracting a pen from his suit's inner pocket, handing them to her. "Do you know that person?"

"Don't ask." Chang Ye said.

"Why the long face? You're always like this, not playing the game right. If you know her, you should be cozying up to her. Always going solo, it's really hopeless." Zhang Heping looked at her, exasperated. "Last time you finally got on a show, and it turned out like that."

"I performed well and picked up on plenty of cues. It was the production team that cut them out, you know that." Chang Ye said while writing.

"Ha, isn't it because you threw a drink on the director and slapped him? And this time, Director Lu thought highly of you and wanted to recommend you for that farming variety show. He even specially invited you to dinner, but you put him in the hospital. Although you've trained in martial arts since childhood, that's going too far..." Zhang Heping said in a lowered voice.

"The show's director tried to grope me. Slapping him was being polite. Director Lu was drunk and tried to force himself on me. If I didn't want to lie down, I had to make him lie down." Chang Ye finished speaking, tore off the paper, capped the pen, and returned both the pen and notebook.

Zhang Heping took them back, looking at her with a furrowed brow. "Little Chang, you've been in this industry for two years now. You should know that sometimes, principles... if you hold onto them too tightly, you won't be able to get ahead..."

"I'm sorry, but my principles are my life. I can only manage not to offend others if they don't offend me first." Chang Ye said, then took the written IOU and turned to walk back towards Zhou Yi.

Without family background for protection, no connections, and having started as a stunt double midway... wanting to rise while remaining a pure lotus in the mud... Zhang Heping shook his head.

However, when Chang Ye returned to where Zhou Yi had been standing, she looked around for a while only to find that Zhou Yi had disappeared.

Chang Ye stood there, staring straight at the wall, her eyes gradually reddening, her hand holding the IOU clenching tighter. Finally, she opened her small handbag and took out a chain from a compartment.

The chain had a round glass pendant containing a photo of her and Zhou Yi together. Gripping the chain tightly, Chang Ye leaned one hand against the wall, lowered her head, and closed her eyes. After a long moment, she put the chain back in her bag, straightened up, and turned to rejoin the crowd.

On the other side, after crying her eyes out, Song Xici accidentally hiccupped.

"I was wrong. Please don't cry anymore, okay?" Tang You'an's hand was still gently stroking her hair. She then held Song Xici's shoulders and gently pushed her back a bit, looking down at her face.

Song Xici didn't answer, just lowered her head and wiped her eyes, her nose red.

"Xici?" Tang You'an looked at her, feeling extremely anxious but not knowing what to do.

"I'll cry if I want to." Song Xici said, though still sniffling. She quickly moved out of Tang You'an's embrace, looking at her with red eyes. "I swear you're going to be the death of me. It's late at night, and you open your mouth with nothing good to say. I really wanted to sew your mouth shut with a hundred-meter-long thread just now."

Song Xici looked terrifying with her red eyes and angry demeanor, as if she might breathe fire at any moment. Tang You'an could only stand silently and let her vent, not daring to argue back.

"You idiot." Song Xici glanced at her.

Hearing this, Tang You'an's gaze softened even more. "To be honest, before, since I always saw you interacting more naturally with others than with me, often pushing me far away, I thought that in your heart, I didn't even compare to a staff member... But now, discovering that you actually care about me so much, I feel... a bit happy."

"I'm sorry, I wanted to confirm this too much, and ended up making you cry." Tang You'an continued. "You know, I don't have many friends. I could say you're my only one. And it's you who has made me feel something called warmth..."

"You... really..." Song Xici wiped her nose, looking at her, then glancing aside, feeling extremely conflicted.

"What warmth have I given you?" Song Xici continued to stare at a chair to the side.

"Since my master passed away, no matter what I do each day, it's always just me alone. If I go out, there's no one waiting for me at home, no one looking for me whether I return early or late. I love to eat, so I grow many vegetables around the house, and I often go fishing and hunting for wild game to cook for myself. But every time I cook, it's always just me eating alone..."

At this point, Tang You'an looked at Song Xici. "But since I came here, if I'm filming too late at the set, you'll message or call to check on me. If I'm out too long without my phone, you worry about me and look for me... Then, when I cook, it's no longer just me eating alone. It makes me feel very happy. Thank you for letting me experience these things again. It makes me feel... very warm."

After listening, Song Xici turned to look at her, seeing the sincerity on her face. She couldn't help but sigh, saying softly, "I might have overreacted. I'm sorry..."

"I'm really afraid of loss, so I don't even keep pets. In third grade, my mom brought home a cat for me to raise. I got along great with the cat, but when I graduated high school, the cat died..." At this point, Song Xici looked up at the ceiling, letting out a breath. "It was so sudden. One second it was stumbling into my arms, the next second its body was cold."

As Tang You'an listened to this, she reached out and gently wiped away the tears that had slid down Song Xici's cheeks again, feeling how hot her face was.

"Anyway, it felt really awful. My mom said she'd buy me another one, but I said no. Since then, I've never kept a pet again. Because I'm really afraid of losing a living thing I've become attached to, let alone you, who's a living, breathing person who can talk and communicate with me?" Song Xici took a deep breath after saying this.

"When you first came here, you didn't know anything, didn't understand anything. I felt like I had suddenly picked up a child, teaching you everything one by one with my own hands. Day after day, wherever I went, I was always thinking about you, wondering if you might slip up outside, wondering what would happen if someone discovered your true identity. Especially thinking, what if people found out you had killed someone before? I was constantly worrying..." Song Xici looked at her. "So how could you just disappear after I've invested all this time, energy, and emotion? I'm sorry, I was too emotional, too neurotic."

Hearing this, Tang You'an looked at her and shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for. On the contrary... feeling your concern, I'm really happy."

Song Xici stared at her for a good while, then lowered her head and wiped the wet tears from her face. "You little brat."

"Xici, please rest assured, since you value me like a child, I will certainly be filial to you for a lifetime." Tang You'an said, her tone and expression as firm as a mountain.

Song Xici, who had been wiping her tears, suddenly found she couldn't cry anymore upon hearing this. It was as if all her tears had rushed back through her tear ducts. Her hand, which had been wiping her eyes, paused, and she looked up at Tang You'an with a dumbfounded expression.

"Wow, so obedient, wanting to be filial to me for a lifetime. Why don't you just start calling me mom?" Song Xici said, both angry and amused.

Hearing this, Tang You'an felt something was off. She flexed her fingers, looked at Song Xici again, every cell in her body struggling intensely.

"What's wrong? Let's hear you say it." Song Xici said.

Tang You'an looked at her strangely, still not speaking.

"Oh, now you know how to rebel? You've grown. Forget it, I'm tired of talking to you. I'm going to wash up and sleep. Today was really exhausting." Finally, Song Xici gave her a sidelong glance, then left without further delay, walking to the door and returning to her own room.

Tang You'an stood in the room, scratching her head. She lay on the bed for a while, turning Song Xici's words over in her mind several times, then went to sit in the chair for a bit.

After sitting down at her dressing table in her own room, Song Xici looked at herself in the mirror and realized her eye makeup had smeared terribly.

Really, she must have gone crazy to get so worked up like that just now. Thinking about it now, it was a bit embarrassing. No, it was very embarrassing. Song Xici took off her earrings and slammed them down on the table. Then she shook her head, gently picked them up, and tossed them into her jewelry box.

Picking up her makeup remover, Song Xici began to remove her makeup.

After finishing her eyes and brows, she poured new makeup remover onto a cotton pad, but then stopped, holding it.

To be honest, she had considered the possibilities Tang You'an mentioned. But all along, she had been trying hard to ignore them. There were many things she really couldn't bear to think about, could only quietly lock away. But Tang You'an had bluntly brought out these things she had locked away and laid them bare before her.

So she panicked, she was afraid, she was at a loss.

Thinking about it, Song Xici took out her phone, scrolled through a playlist in NetEase Cloud Music, randomly clicked on a song, then put her phone aside and continued removing her makeup while listening to music.

But as she listened, she grew irritated. Song Xici put down the cotton pad, picked up her phone, paused the music, returned to the main page, and clicked on the podcast section, intending to listen to some stand-up comedy. Just then, she received a WeChat message from Meng Meng.

Meng Meng: "Xici, Xici, I think this article is suitable for you to read."

Song Xici glanced at it, seeing the article title was something like: "How to Recognize Whether Your Feelings for Someone Are Friendship or Love."

"...Why are you sending me this kind of thing?" Song Xici replied.

Meng Meng: "I just really think you should read it!"

"Forget it." Song Xici replied.

Meng Meng: "Alright, alright."

Song Xici put down her phone, intending to continue removing her makeup. But after thinking for a moment, she picked up her phone again. For some reason... she kind of wanted to take a look. So Song Xici clicked on the article.

The first point read: "Right now, please carefully and seriously think about this: if they got into a relationship, and in the future they would be lovey-dovey with their partner, even doing many intimate things, would you feel happy for them, or would you feel upset? If just thinking about it makes you feel upset, then congratulations, although it's not 100%, there's a high probability that you've fallen for them."

After reading the first point, Tang You'an's face unconsciously floated through Song Xici's mind. If Tang You'an and someone else...

Song Xici's mind involuntarily conjured an image of Tang You'an showering another woman with endless tenderness, holding another woman's waist, then kissing another woman's lips, and then... At this thought, Song Xici furrowed her brow tightly.

She shook her head and continued to the second point.

The second point read: "If you only consider them a regular friend, then when you interact with them, whether chatting or physical contact, you'll be very natural, without avoiding or flinching. But if you've fallen for them, then when you interact or even touch, your brain will easily secrete dopamine. You'll feel nervous, but also joyful, and at the same time, you might develop certain desires, that is, physiological reactions..."

When Song Xici read this part, she closed her eyes briefly. The scene of lying in bed with Tang You'an that night suddenly flashed through her mind...

Her breathing, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful lips... Strangely, Song Xici's mind also conjured up that embarrassingly explicit story written by the fan. She couldn't deny that when she was reading it... deep inside her body...

"I must be going crazy." Song Xici grabbed her hair and ruffled it, muttering to herself. "What am I thinking?"

Shaking her head, Song Xici didn't continue reading the article and exited directly. She looked at the items on the table and let out a sigh.

At this moment, Meng Meng sent another message: "Xici, don't blame me for nagging, but I just feel that you should try to believe in some things. Really, maybe it won't be as bad as you imagine."

"But what if... that person might disappear from your life at any moment?" After pondering for a while, Song Xici finally couldn't help but type this sentence.

Meng Meng: "What do you mean? Are you talking about Tang You'an?"

"How could that be..." Song Xici hurriedly sent back a few words.

Meng Meng: "Then what do you mean?"

"Nothing." Song Xici said, then put her phone aside again and continued removing her makeup.

However, her mind couldn't settle down no matter what, filled with all sorts of messy thoughts. Lock it away, lock it away... Song Xici chanted in her heart. So what if there was a reaction? As a mature woman, who didn't have physiological needs? Otherwise, why would people have casual hookups? Did hookups require feelings? Couldn't they still secrete dopamine?

And... not being able to stand the thought of the other person finding a partner... maybe... it was just possessiveness. She was an extremely possessive person. Back then, she had tormented Meng Meng to the point of despair because of this. When she heard Meng Meng wanted to date, she was unhappy for a long time. It wasn't until later when she made more friends that she gradually became less like that. If that stupid article was right, then she felt the same way about Meng Meng? That would be ridiculous.

As for this strange possessiveness appearing now... it must be because... she had taught Tang You'an so many things hands-on, and then... Song Xici felt like her brain was about to explode.

"Knock knock knock." At this moment, three knocks came from the door.

Hearing this, Song Xici's heart suddenly skipped a beat. She pushed away the jumble of thoughts in her head and spoke, "Come in."

Then, with a "click." the door opened.

"Mom—"

However, the moment the door opened, Song Xici heard a small, faint voice from that direction.

Song Xici's hand holding the cotton pad began to tremble.

"Mom, were you angry again just now?" Tang You'an stood at the door, releasing the doorknob and walking in to look at her.

Song Xici looked at her, opening her mouth, but due to the extremely intense shock she had just received, she couldn't produce a single syllable from her throat.

"Mom?"

Author's Note: Tang: What did I do wrong this time???