Chapter 57 – Kinship

One had to pay for teasing someone, Su Yi had experienced it in person and really, truly deeply understood it.

The next morning, she struggled to get up – her inner thighs were aching. It was a rare occasion where the guy didn’t leave in the morning and was still sleeping deeply.

She leant over and touched him lightly on the lips, then got up carefully and, after washing up, went into the kitchen. After pouring out the coffee beans, while taking note of the portions she freed a hand to send a text to Wu Xue.

[Goddess Su Yi: Don’t come over this morning.]

[Wu Xue: Got it, I happen to have something on too. Right, Director Chu didn’t get angry yesterday, did he?]

[Goddess Su Yi: No.]

[Wu Xue: That’s good, the contract with Pasion is probably done for.]

[Goddess Su Yi: What a coincidence, I don’t want to continue too. Help me see if there are any brands looking for an advertiser.]

What she had said to Chu Ying yesterday was all bluff. No matter how big of a deal she was, she’s only a second female lead, it’s not that easy to find a good contract.

[Wu Xue: Got it, stop worrying about this. I know when to stop.]

With that, it’s another thing off her mind.

When Chu Ying woke up, the house was filled with the fragrance of food. He reached out with his huge hands and as expected, the space beside him was empty. Getting up, he saw the woman sitting on the sofa going through her phone. 

Seeing him wake up she gave him a big smile. “If you still don’t wake up I’ll use violent, moaning methods to get you up.”

Chu Ying walked over to her and used his fingertip to touch her chin. “Don’t randomly use words.”

Su Yi moved her face away. “Go brush your teeth, breakfast is getting cold. You’re not going to work today?”

“Where did all our days go?” Only when he was satisfied with the touching did Chu Ying turn around and enter the washroom. “It’s a rest day today.”

At breakfast, Su Yi couldn’t help the corner of her lips lifting up.

“What’s so funny?”

She shook her head and continued eating with her head down. She daren’t say that she remembered how pitiful the guy looked last night, just like a huge dog that had been left on the road-side waiting plaintively for her to take it home – it was so cute she could die.

After eating, the two curled up on the sofa together to watch a movie. Their phones were placed together, and they were of the same models. Beside them was a pair of matching cups that Su Yi had bought from a small stall when she had gone filming before. The things in that shop were made by the lady boss, and that female boss was a military man’s wife. So these two cups, one had a little princess drawn on it and a soldier-gege on the other. It really couldn’t be more to her liking.

It had started drizzling outside. This was the perfect weather for staying at home. Beijing was beginning to turn colder these past few days. Su Yi had put on a long pair of pyjamas and laid on her side, cushioning her head on Chu Ying’s lap. They were watching a Chinese film, ‘Let The Bullets Fly’ – even after so many years, it’s still a classic.

They were just getting into it when the phone rang. It was Su Yi’s.

She picked it up and glanced at the caller-screen, then was rather surprised. “Chu Xi’s.”

Finding it too troublesome to put the phone to her ear, she clicked the speaker and said lazily, “Hmm?”

“Sister-in-law.” It was a little noisy where Chu Xi was. “Are you free?”

“What’s it?”

“Can you secretly come over to the police station?” Chu Xi lowered her volume as she spoke, “Don’t tell my brother.”

Chu Ying picked up the phone, voice frigid. “Which station?”

Su Yi hurriedly entered the police station and saw Chu Xi sitting curled up, face buried in her palms.

She pulled down the mask and walked over, rubbing her on the head and asking, “What happened?”

Chu Xi raised her head, not a single hint of fluster or being wronged visible on her face. She widened her eyes and asked, “Where’s my brother?”

“He went to find out what happened.”

Before Chu Xi could explain herself, Su Yi heard a familiar voice.

“Who’s here? I don’t care who her relatives are, hitting people is wrong. Relax, with me, you won’t be wronged…”

Su Yi turned her head and saw Lin Xia not too far away.

The other wore a vibrantly-coloured dress, and was very garishly, gaudily garbed. She was holding a guy’s hand. The guy looked about Chu Xi’s age, all clean-shaven – kinda campus hunk.

When Lin Xia saw her, at first she was taken aback. Then, raising an eyebrow, she said, “Yo, Xiao Yi, why are you here too? Your sister is as well… what happened?”

The guy beside her, upon seeing Su Yi, said softly, “Xia-jie, the person beside Su Yi is my ex-girlfriend.”

Su Yi understood. She asked Chu Xi, “The reason you’re in the police station is related to him?”

Lin Xia reacted, too. Sneering, she explained first, “She hit my god-brother. Look, the corner of his eye.” She pointed at the bruise on the guy’s face. “How serious is this? Su Yi, you know my job. Mingyang is a newbie. My company is ready to pull up the ranks, he’s about to join some activities these few days. To be hit until he’s like this last minute, how do you think we should settle this?”

Lin Xia was quite confused for a while. She only knew that Su Yi had a vampiric older sister, she never knew that the other had a younger sister as well. It’s probably a cousin? She’d really found Su Yi’s smooth-sailing journey recently very upsetting for quite a while. Now that she finally had some dirt on the other, the level of happiness she had attained was indescribable.

Upon hearing what Lin Xia said, Deng Mingyang was also shocked. The company wanted to put him on a pedestal?

Su Yi caught Deng Mingyang’s expression and smiled, saying, “It’s not up to me. It’s down to the police, whatever they say.”

Lin Xia said, “Last time I’d already wanted to say that your little sister really has quite a horrible temper. Is it that you are too busy recently to take care of her? This isn’t good, little girl.”

She had just finished speaking her mind when she heard a cold, sharp male voice from behind her.

“Pray tell, how do you plan to settle this.”

Chu Ying, followed by a police officer, had appeared behind Lin Xia some time while neither party was paying attention.

Lin Xia turned around, saw the person who’d come over, and was dazed. “Director Chu?”

Chu Ying ignored her, still looking at Deng Mingyang. “How do you plan to settle this? In private, or according to the law?”

Deng Mingyang was only a little taller than Su Yi. The person in front of him was tall and bulky…He looked to Lin Xia for help.

Lin Xia still hadn’t figured out what was going on. That was until Chu Xi walked up and called Chu Ying “Brother”.

Lin Xia was suddenly hit by realization. The expression on her face was an extraordinarily splendid sight. She then remembered that this girl’s name was Chu Xi. Chu was such a rare surname… How slow on the uptake was she! The key was that she didn’t expect that Su Yi and Chu Ying’s relationship was so close she’d already met his family.

It’s uncertain how much Chu Ying had heard. She scolded herself mentally, then put on a smile at once. “Let’s settle it in private, guys are thick-skinned, it’s okay for them to be hit a bit more.”

When Su Yi got into the car, she saw Deng Mingyang in front pursing his lips pitifully and entering Lin Xia’s car unwillingly. She couldn’t help saying, “Chu Xi, you really had great taste.”

“Stop mentioning it, I’m regretting it to death.”

Chu Ying started the car but didn’t step on the accelerator. “What’s the problem.”

Chu Xi knew that she couldn’t hide it from him anymore and said slowly, “Ge, that’s my ex-boyfriend.”

Chu Ying side-eyed her. “Don’t waste your words.”

“He cheated, the other is that woman just now.” Chu Xi acted pitiful and said, “He’s about to debut, so to wash off his history he went around saying that I’m the one who cheated and put the green hat on him, even spending his money all the time. I got so angry, so — ”

Ah, there really is a kinship between these siblings; even when it comes to hitting people it’s as if they’ve discussed beforehand!

Chu Ying said, “You spent his money?”

“How could that be! That measly amount he has, I’d be interested?” Chu Xi blinked at him. “Ge, I know that it’s wrong of me to hit him, I’ll never do it again, can you not tell our parents?”

Or she’d be nagged at for a long time too and might even be grounded, not allowed to go anywhere at all, like a while back.

Chu Ying had wanted to reject it immediately, but when he was looking away he caught the playfulness in the eyes of the person beside him. He quirked an eyebrow, then remembered that he had acted out physically too.

He coughed lightly. “— It won’t happen again.”

Chu Xi didn’t expect to get through this so easily, and the huge stone in her heart finally disappeared. She hurriedly said okay.

The car started and Chu Ying asked the person behind, “I’ll send you home?”

Chu Xi said, “All right.”

Su Yi hurriedly said, “Then I’ll get off first, you can send her back.”

“Work?”

“No.” After a long silence, Su Yi squeezed out. “I’m afraid it won’t be convenient.”

At the red light, Chu Ying took hold of Su Yi’s drooping hand. “What’s inconvenient about it?”

Su Yi’s face reddened, her heart racing. She wasn’t ready to meet the parents! Besides, she was dressed too casually today. As she had hurriedly left the house, she had only put on some everyday clothes and a coat.

At least Chu Xi was good at observing people. She put both hands on the seat and said with a smile, “Nevermind, I’ll go sit for a while in Sister-in-law’s place.”

Su Yi thus calmed down, but she had also finally faced a problem.

… Meeting the parents.

Truth be told, she had never found that she looked like the sort of person adults would like. The thing most people would say after getting to know her was: I thought that you’d be hard to deal with, I didn’t expect you to be so nice.

Although it was a praise, it’s easy to see from it what others thought. On top of that, she kept acting as a bad woman, so it would more or less bring the audience a complicated view of her.

Back at home, while Chu Ying was making a call on the balcony she pulled Chu Xi over and asked anxiously, “Tell me quick, do your parents… watch TV?”

“My dad doesn’t.” Chu Xi took a sip of coffee.

Half of Su Yi’s heart settled.

“My mom does.” After saying that, Chu Xi stabbed her once more. “She has watched plenty of the shows that you’ve acted in.”

Su Yi: “—”

Chu Xi didn’t at all notice her breaking down, she simply took out her phone. “Look! That asshole Deng Mingyang sent me a message.”

Su Yi sighed under her breath, leaning over to take a look. The message was sent two days ago.

“Xiao Xi, I’m going to debut soon. You know it’s not easy to be an actor these days, if there’s any dark history it’d be troublesome after I get popular. So… Can you tell others that you wanted to break up? I know that it’s my fault, so as a recompense I can give you some money so you can finish your university education in peace.”

Su Yi pointed at the last sentence. “What does this mean?”

“Oh, I used to tell him that I am very poor, so poor I barely got enough money for going to university by selling the last cow we have at home.”

… You young people really know how to have fun.

Chu Xi suddenly seemed to think of something and said excitedly, “Say, if I share this message, would Deng Mingyang be in trouble?”

“You treat it too simply.” Su Yi leant back. “As an agent, for Lin Xia to be able to get to the point that she could have her own little white faces (akin to a sugar baby), it means that her capabilities are still quite high. If she really wants to protect Deng Mingyang, not only would it not hurt him, they might use it against you and you’d get dirtied for no reason.”

Chu Xi’s little face fell instantaneously.

Su Yi glanced at her, then said slowly, “But we can’t just swallow this pill just like that.”