Chapter 142: What Happened Tonight

The woman stared blankly for a moment. What kind of dynamic was this? She wanted to say something, but no words came out. Originally, she was not the type of woman suited for a one-night stand, so she could only watch helplessly as Qiu Fengyu walked toward the door. Suddenly, she turned to the bartender and said, "Give me a... Bloody Mary. No, make it two."

Qiu Fengyu cared little whether this woman wanted to drink herself into oblivion at the bar, nor did he mind whether or not he could share a night of passion with her; he simply disliked women who sought cheap thrills while carrying emotional baggage. Such women were nothing but trouble, and upon realizing she was one of them, he had walked away decisively.

Once outside the bar, though he had departed resolutely, the woman's alluring figure had nonetheless stirred a mild heat within him. Spotting a female attendant nearby, he approached, inquired about the gym's location, and headed straight there.

The hotel indeed provided a spacious fitness room for its guests, equipped with various workout machines and optional personal trainers. At this late hour, however, only a single fitness instructor was present. Wearing a tank top and shorts, he possessed a splendid physique with well-defined muscle lines. Very few people were working out here at the moment.

The trainer was closely instructing a female client, a woman in her thirties practicing yoga on a mat. The male instructor stood directly behind her, supporting her waist as if correcting her posture, yet the atmosphere between them was rather ambiguous. The instructor's face was practically pressed against the woman's as they whispered to each other.

Noticing Qiu Fengyu enter, the trainer quickly displayed his professional etiquette. He walked over and said politely, "Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, I'd just like to work out by myself for a bit," Qiu Fengyu waved a hand. "Don't mind me. Just carry on with what you were doing."

"Certainly, sir. I'll be right here if you need anything," the trainer nodded at Qiu Fengyu before returning to guide the female client. Clearly... this was his "bonus course" for the evening. The female client was reasonably attractive, with a fine figure likely sculpted by her regular yoga practice.

Qiu Fengyu walked over to a treadmill and began a slow jog. After running aimlessly for a while, he moved on to upper-body weight training, shedding his jacket to reveal a remarkably well-toned physique that rivaled the instructor's.

His fine physique naturally drew the eyes of some female exercisers in the room. However, he never initiated contact with women; given the choice, he preferred to let them take the bait. Yet it was evident that simply having an athletic build was not enough to make women proactively saunter up and say "hi."

After working out for a while, he stopped, picked up his jacket, and prepared to head back to his room for a shower. The coat of sweat clinging to his body felt rather uncomfortable, and through the physical exertion, the restless fire burning in his lower abdomen had long since been extinguished.

As he reached his room and was about to unlock the door, a swaying woman came staggering down the hallway toward him.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? This is my room!" the woman shouted loudly at Qiu Fengyu.

Qiu Fengyu froze, taking a step back. He checked his room key to ensure he hadn't made a mistake, then shook his head and ignored her. He recognized her now—she was the woman who had tried to flirt with him at the bar. It seemed that after he left, she had consumed plenty of alcohol, transforming from slightly tipsy to completely plastered.

"Hey... I recognize you. You bought me a drink," the woman said, slurring, though she had indeed identified Qiu Fengyu. Yet she spoke with a belligerent, scolding tone, "Don't think that just because you bought me a drink, you can waltz into my room. I know what you men are like, you're all no good... Get lost... Get away from me." With that, she fumbled around in her small handbag and produced a room key.

Qiu Fengyu stepped back another two paces to clear the path, watching as the woman squeezed past him toward the door. Clutching her room key, she tried to unlock Qiu Fengyu's door. Meanwhile, Qiu Fengyu glanced around left and right, hoping a staff member would soon appear to pull this drunken woman away from a room that clearly wasn't hers.

However, no attendant came by. Instead, another guest walked past, eyeing the two of them with a puzzled expression. Clearly, the scene they were making looked quite abnormal. Fortunately, the hotel guest didn't choose to call security or anything similar; he merely looked curious.

Qiu Fengyu offered a helpless shrug. "She's drunk."

The guest smiled back at Qiu Fengyu, evidently understanding the situation, and kindly advised, "You should open the door yourself and take good care of her." With a nod, the guest continued on his way.

Failing utterly to open the door, the woman furiously hurled her room key onto the carpet and suddenly burst into loud, sobbing tears. "Even the door is bullying me! Oh God, what did I do wrong to deserve this?"

The scene was becoming terribly unsightly. With a heavy sigh of resignation, Qiu Fengyu walked to the door, unlocked it with his own key, grabbed the woman by her upper arms from behind, and dragged her bodily inside the room. Then he tossed her straight onto the bed.

Sobbing all the while, the woman landed on the bed, leaving trails of tears and mucus smeared across the bedsheets. Fortunately, there were two beds in the room. Deciding to sober her up, Qiu Fengyu ran cold water in the bathtub, then walked over to the bed and lifted the weeping, limp lump of a woman into his arms.

Sensing something, the woman began to struggle violently, screaming at the top of her lungs, "No, no, I don't want to... I know you, I don't want this anymore, don't do this to me... God..." She cried, perhaps still recalling that she had initially approached Qiu Fengyu for a one-night stand, which made her fight him off with all her might.

Ignoring her protests, Qiu Fengyu firmly pinned her arms down, rendering her struggles entirely futile. At last, he dumped her straight into the bathtub. Instantly, the freezing water surged over her body and even her head. He pulled her head up just as quickly, only to submerge her again, repeating the process several times before finally hauling her out of the tub and dumping her onto the adjacent tiled floor.

"Sober yet?" Qiu Fengyu looked down at the woman. Her eyes were indeed much brighter now, and the alcohol had mostly worn off, though she still looked entirely drained of strength.

"I remember you—the guy from the bar," the woman regained her wits, looked up at Qiu Fengyu, and despite being soaking wet, managed to steady her emotions without screaming or shouting.

"If you could recognize me when you were drunk, of course you can recognize me now," Qiu Fengyu huffed. "I don't have any clothes suitable for you here. You'd better wrap yourself in a bath towel. I'll wait outside. Here's your room key—if you can still remember, you walked to the wrong door. Your room should be the second one to my right."

"I'm sorry, it was my mistake," the woman told Qiu Fengyu, casting an imploring look his way.

Understanding that she was soaked, undoubtedly cold, and thoroughly uncomfortable—and that she needed him to give her some privacy—Qiu Fengyu nodded, stepped out of the bathroom, and pulled the door shut behind him.

Sitting on the sofa and sipping his freshly brewed coffee, he heard the bathroom door click open. The woman emerged wrapped in a bath towel, her golden hair still dripping wet, revealing slender, fair calves that looked quite captivating. Yet Qiu Fengyu seemed entirely unmoved, glancing at her only briefly before looking away.

"Have a seat, or you can head back to your room right now," Qiu Fengyu said as he stood up, walked over to prepare a steaming cup of hot coffee, and brought it over to her. "Right now... you'd better drink this, or you'll catch a cold."

It was merely an inadvertent gesture, yet it caused the woman's eyes to redden slightly. She bit her lower lip, accepted the mug, murmured a soft thank-you, and began to sip the hot liquid in tiny, slow increments.

Neither of them spoke. Qiu Fengyu couldn't be bothered to make small talk and simply sat on the sofa watching television, while the woman kept her gaze fixed on the coffee mug, lost in a whirlwind of unspoken thoughts.

The silence grew strangely profound. After watching TV for a while, Qiu Fengyu turned his head to look at the woman. Her coffee was already finished, but she still clutched the empty mug in her hands, staring blankly into space, completely absorbed in her own mind.

"Hey, I don't know your name, and right now I don't care to know it either. But... I think you'd better return to your room now," Qiu Fengyu deliberately glanced at his wristwatch. "It's getting late. You need a good night's sleep. Tomorrow morning, whatever troubles you're facing will have passed, alright?"

Startled, the woman lifted her head and looked at Qiu Fengyu. Seemingly mustering her courage, she spoke slowly, "I don't know how to thank you. Perhaps if not for you, I would have done something foolish. If... if you want me to stay with you tonight... I'm willing..."

She added that final sentence to prevent Qiu Fengyu from rejecting her once again, remembering that he had used a similar excuse earlier. With that, she batted her striking, emerald-green eyes as she looked at him.

"No, I'm not lacking in women..." In truth, that statement was merely a self-deception; he had been lacking female companionship for quite some time. Ever since arriving here from Ukraine, aside from that single night with Ryoko Yonekura, he hadn't touched a real woman at all.

The spark of hope in the woman's eyes quickly dimmed.

"It's not that you lack charm, it's just that... I don't want to invite trouble," Qiu Fengyu shrugged. "If I'm not mistaken, you're currently dealing with some troublesome matters, which means getting involved with you is equivalent to getting involved with trouble. I'm sorry, ma'am, and good night!"

Disappointed, the woman stood up, retrieved her clothes from the bathroom, and slowly walked out the door. Yes, she was nothing but trouble. Why drag someone else down and burden them with her mess? This man seemed genuinely decent. A good person shouldn't be weighed down by her problems.

Once the woman left, peace returned to the room. Qiu Fengyu didn't believe this incident would entangle his life with hers. Right now, he was looking forward to only one thing: the premiere. In fact, if possible, he even hoped to attend the Oscars ceremony next February. But... that was merely wishful thinking, given that many Hollywood A-listers weren't even guaranteed an invitation.