Chapter Ninety-Two: A Wardrobe Slip

The mighty star’s love affair began without warning.

Just as the words fell, Xu Shu came in carrying a glass of water. His face was full of suspicion and his expression grave; again and again he examined me and the little devil with a questioning gaze.

The little devil hurriedly put on an innocent look and lied through her bright eyes. “No, no. I just told Brother Tang Qian that I’d confess everything to you.”

Xu Shu snorted and no longer paid her sister any attention. Turning to me, he said, “Mr. Tang Qian, please have some water. My sister’s words can’t be trusted. I know Mr. Tang is upright and never lies. I trust you, so please tell me everything.”

I took the cup Xu Shu handed me, thinking that this great star was truly formidable with her words. On the surface she was praising me, but in truth she had blocked every retreat. If I so much as uttered one falsehood, I would be an untrustworthy, dishonorable man.

Xu Shu went on, “Oh, right. I’m sorry, Mr. Tang. You can see I didn’t even have time to change clothes. Just now I was sitting on the bed with my sister, asking her some things, but she refused to say anything and kept sidestepping me. By the time you arrived, she was still making a scene. I had no choice but to ask you straight into the bedroom. How rude of us. Please don’t mind, Mr. Tang.”

“It’s all right. Don’t worry about it,” I said.

Xu Shu then walked to the dressing table in the corner and brought over a soft stool. “If you don’t mind, then sit here and speak,” he said. “Please, have a seat.”

He placed the stool behind me, while he sat down on the bed himself. The elder sister wore a finely made cotton nightgown with black-and-white checks, her long hair falling over her shoulders. Her skin was pale as snow, her figure graceful, and with the light makeup washed away, her features were even more exquisite.

The younger sister wore the same kind of nightgown, though hers was patterned with a cartoon bear. Her long hair, no less splendid than her sister’s, had been tied back with a band, lending her a touch more youthful charm. Her pure, innocent face held a faint smile, one hand supporting her chin as she stared at me without blinking.

Her gaze was complicated, with warning in it, and also a hint of pleading. Beneath it all seemed to lie a thread of feeling that was not easily noticed.

My heart gave a sudden tremor, and sweetness surged through me. Less than a month ago, this lofty superstar had still been so distant, so unreachable that for ordinary people even saying a single sentence to her would have been nearly impossible. Yet today, who would have imagined I was actually sitting in her boudoir, watching these two sisters tease and bicker? Though I had merely been summoned for questioning, I still felt deeply satisfied, almost dreamlike.

When Xu Shu saw that I was seated, he began to question me. “Mr. Tang, the first thing I most want to know is this: were the bruises on my sister’s legs caused by you?”

“Yes,” I said.

At once a sheet of frost seemed to descend over Xu Shu’s face. Anger filled his voice, and icy light flashed in his eyes as he said word by word, “My sister may be mischievous and fond of causing trouble, but ever since she was little, she has been the darling of our whole family, the apple of our eye. Even we, her own kin, have never had the heart to lay a light hand on her. On what grounds did Mr. Tang strike her so viciously?”

Seeing that her sister cared for her so deeply, the little devil immediately seemed to find a backer. Even more aggrieved, she cried, “Sis! He didn’t just hit my legs! My backside was nearly beaten apart too.”

“What?” Xu Shu was both shocked and enraged. He turned back, dragged the blanket from the bed over the little devil, then lifted one corner and used it to block my view while he pulled down her trousers.

Sure enough, the instant Xu Shu saw it, his heart ached beyond measure. His whole body trembled with rage, and when he turned back to me, he roared, “Tang Qian, you’ve gone too far! I’ll fight you—I…”

She was so impulsive that she was about to leap off the bed and fight me to the death. But the little devil, seeing that things were going badly, quickly crawled out from under the blanket and wrapped her arms around Xu Shu’s waist. “Sis, wait, I still haven’t finished!”

Xu Shu struggled once, fury unabated. “You’re still protecting him? Are you out of your mind? Let go! Ah, why did you come out? Hurry and put your trousers back on!”

Watching the two sisters, so deeply affectionate, about to come and hit me, I had actually already felt guilty and thought I might as well take a couple of punches. After all, I really had been too heavy-handed.

But the little devil, for reasons known only to herself, only made things worse by blurting out everything and adding another layer to my guilt. Yet when Xu Shu flew into a rage, she turned around and started protecting me, unwilling to let me clash with her sister.

Most ridiculous of all, in her panic she had rushed out from under the blanket, but her trousers were still pulled down by her sister and not yet back on.

Of course, I didn’t dare look deliberately. It was only when I was unguarded that I caught sight of half of the little devil’s pale white backside. I quickly turned my head to show that I wasn’t looking, but by sheer bad luck the direction I turned toward happened to be the dressing table. The large mirror there still reflected everything on the bed right back into my eyes.

I saw the little devil react at once, cry out in alarm, and hurriedly let go of her sister to lift one corner of the blanket with her hand and cover herself. Then her face turned the color of pig liver in an instant. Too ashamed to endure it, she even burrowed head first into the blanket and cried from inside, “Sis, you’re awful…”

This little episode immediately drained much of Xu Shu’s impulse. Half amused and half exasperated, he went forward and embraced his sister. “Don’t panic, don’t panic. I’ll go beat Tang Qian half to death right away and avenge you.”

From inside the blanket the little devil wailed, “It’s no use! He’s already seen it. I don’t want to live anymore!”

Xu Shu forced back a smile. “Then all right! I’ll dig Tang Qian’s eyes out so he can never see anything again. Wouldn’t that do?”

I was sweating. Was this Xu Shu a little too ruthless?

Hearing this, the little devil quickly poked her head out from under the blanket and cried, “No! Brother Tang Qian would be in so much pain!”

As soon as she said it, she immediately realized how obvious her words were, and in embarrassment she shrank her head back under the blanket at once.

Xu Shu froze for a moment, blinked several times, then rose from the bed and came to stand in front of me. “Turn your head back. What exactly is going on between you and my sister? In the past two days while I was away, what on earth happened?”

With the sisters making such a commotion, I had never once been able to get a word in. I wanted to explain, but had no chance. Now that Xu Shu was finally asking me, I turned back and sighed. “I can tell you everything, but please don’t act rashly while listening. Let me finish first, all right?”

Xu Shu nodded. “All right. Go on.”

So I took a sip of water, cleared my throat, and began from the first time I met the little devil in the street...

As I spoke, Xu Shu sat back down on the bed. After a short while, the little devil also poked her upper body out from under the quilt. It seemed she had already forgotten the shame of a moment ago; with a mischievous giggle, she listened to my account of her antics over these two days.

When I came to the part where she tricked me and made me spend eighteen hundred dollars on steak, Xu Shu reached out and angrily twisted her ear. The little devil bared her teeth and grimaced to show how much it hurt, yet on her face was a look of triumph, with not the slightest trace of remorse.

When I described how I had chased after her, only for her to trip me with her foot and send me sprawling face-first into the ground, the little devil laughed so hard on the bed that she kept clapping. Xu Shu was again half angry and half amused; he reached into the quilt, and I do not know where she was pinched, but the little devil’s smile vanished at once, and her little mouth puckered high in protest.

When I spoke of how the little devil and several punks had knocked me out, kidnapped me into the mountains, and subjected me to inhuman torment, Xu Shu’s face turned stern. He looked back and glared at his sister with severity.

At last the little devil grew guilty. Pitifully, she shrank her head back beneath the quilt and did not dare meet her sister’s eyes.

Then I finally told how I broke free, how I was then kicked senseless by the little devil’s taekwondo, and how I finally reached the end of my patience and fought back, taking off my belt and striking her four times.

By then Xu Shu’s face was calm, showing no expression. I continued, and the rest of the story no longer mattered much. In a few words I said how I sent Xu Xin to the airport and then left.

When I finished, Xu Shu asked, “That’s all?”

I took another sip of water. “That’s all. You already know everything that happened after that, don’t you?”

Xu Shu blinked, then lifted the blanket and scolded Xu Xin, “Get up and apologize to Mr. Tang!”

Xu Xin looked up. “Huh? Isn’t that unnecessary? He already beat me like this. What need is there to apologize?”

Xu Shu said, “You deserved to be beaten! Mr. Tang kindly helped you, setting aside past grievances and not bearing to see you wandering the streets. Such a moving generosity, and this is how you repay him? Look at what you did to him. There should be limits to your mischief and nonsense, shouldn’t there?”

Xu Xin was unconvinced. “That was busybody meddling, a dog taking on a mouse’s job. Who asked him to help me? I didn’t ask for it!”

Xu Shu said, “How dare you talk back? It’s one thing not to be grateful to Mr. Tang for helping you, but why did you have people beat him and kidnap him? That’s a crime, do you understand? Absolutely outrageous!”

Xu Xin leaped off the bed; by then her trousers were already back on. Wronged, she said, “Who told him to dare hit my backside? From childhood until now, who has ever hit me? And it had to be my backside. How am I supposed to swallow that humiliation?”

“Mr. Tang was disciplining you. Children who are mischievous and troublesome should have their backsides smacked. Good for him. If he didn’t beat you, how would you ever behave?”

“Sis, have you gone mad? I’m your own sister! You won’t help me, but you’ll help him instead? Brother Tang Qian isn’t your husband! Why are you so fierce with me?”

Xu Shu froze, then a roar rose in his throat. “You little brat, what did you say?”

As she spoke, she spread her arms and was about to use her trump card again. Seeing that things were going badly, the little devil let out a scream, jumped off the bed barefoot, and threw herself into my arms, crying, “Brother Tang Qian, save me!”