Chapter 129: Venting

Bai Chenxi checked the location Tang Ziyu had sent. It wasn't far from where she was at all. When had this woman arrived without a sound? Thinking of how Tang Ziyu behaved when drunk, Bai Chenxi felt she should go and rescue any innocent souls who might be about to fall victim to her chaos.

After some careful disguising, Bai Chenxi stood blankly in the bar's main hall, searching for Tang Ziyu. Shouldn't she have sent a private room number? Then, she saw Tang Ziyu waving at her from a sofa not far away. Fearing she might attract attention, Bai Chenxi hurried over.

As soon as she arrived, Tang Ziyu enthusiastically handed her a drink. "You're here! Drink!"

Seeing that Tang Ziyu hadn't yet drunk herself into a stupor, Bai Chenxi breathed a sigh of relief. "Sis! Why are you drinking out here in the open? Why didn't you get a private room? What if you get recognized?"

"What's there to be afraid of? Everyone who comes here is here to relax; who's going to pay attention to you?" she said, punctuating her sentence with a hiccup.

"Why are you bundled up so tightly?" Tang Ziyu asked, proceeding to strip away Bai Chenxi's hat and mask.

Tang Ziyu might not have been unconscious, but her destructive power was no better than if she were dead drunk. Bai Chenxi had no choice but to go along with her. "Fine, let's drink."

Bai Chenxi asked, "What brought you here?" If she remembered correctly, Tang Ziyu wasn't filming in this area recently.

To her surprise, the moment Tang Ziyu heard her voice, she threw her arms around her and started to cry. This sudden outburst scared the living daylights out of Bai Chenxi. Aside from acting, when had Tang Ziyu ever cried? She was usually the one making others miserable.

"I have no friends left besides him... only you."

The "he" was presumably Jiang Jize. Bai Chenxi patted Tang Ziyu's back gently, murmuring, "It's okay, it's okay. You still have me."

Bai Chenxi had heard a bit about Tang Ziyu's situation recently. Jiang Jize seemed to have lost his mind, pursuing Tang Ziyu relentlessly. It was a literal interpretation of "pursuit"—he sent flowers to her events and visited her on set. Wherever Tang Ziyu was, either Jiang Jize was there in person, or his presence was felt through his gifts. Their relationship, once so secret, was now fully public—or at least, Jiang Jize was unilaterally making it so.

Tang Ziyu had appeared here today because Jiang Jize had shown up at her event, pulling off what he considered a "surprise." Tang Ziyu had tried to confront him to set things straight, but Jiang Jize had simply retorted, "Why should I hide my own woman?"

"Who is your woman? We have no relationship anymore. Can you not understand that?" Tang Ziyu had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown for days due to Jiang Jize's erratic behavior.

To her shock, Jiang Jize had replied, "Did I agree to that? And why should I listen to you?"

It was only then that Tang Ziyu realized the Jiang Jize of the past had actually been quite reasonable. At the very least, he had never forced the issue of their relationship for all these years. The current Jiang Jize, however, was domineering and unreasonable.

"Of course, if you come back, I might consider keeping a lower profile." Jiang Jize wore the expression of someone who already had the game won, as if all of this were just a pastime he found amusing.

"Keep dreaming!" Tang Ziyu had walked away.

Feeling stifled and realizing she didn't have a single friend to confide in, she had thought of Bai Chenxi and sent her location the moment she arrived at the film city.

"Jiang Jize is a jerk."

"Yeah! A jerk," Bai Chenxi agreed while patting her back.

"Don't you talk about him! Only I can talk about him."

"Yes, yes, yes! You say it, I won't." Bai Chenxi thought to herself: *So it’s my fault now?*

Tang Ziyu nodded. "Tell me, isn't he a jerk?"

Bai Chenxi sighed helplessly. "Well, do you want me to say it or not?"

Tang Ziyu continued, lost in her own thoughts. "I've known him for three years. I thought that surely there must be some feelings there by now, don't you think?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Bai Chenxi didn't even know how to respond anymore.

Tang Ziyu grabbed Bai Chenxi’s arm. "But you know what? I just realized that for all these years, I’ve just been a substitute for someone else."

*Goodness,* Bai Chenxi thought, *she’s got a strong grip.*

"Jiang Jize, you’re not human! You can’t get what you want, so you play these games with substitutes? I’m not playing your game anymore!"

Tang Ziyu clung to Bai Chenxi, recounting their past. In her version of the story, Jiang Jize had absolutely no feelings for her. Yet, from what Bai Chenxi had seen—like the way he had cared for Tang Ziyu when she was drunk previously—it didn't seem like he was entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps feelings were just something only the person experiencing them could truly understand.

Seeing Sister Wang before and now Tang Ziyu, all trapped by love, Bai Chenxi thought that being single seemed pretty good. Being single was always satisfying! As she pondered this, she drank her wine with a sense of melancholy. Everyone else had been loving someone for years, and here she was, still a lonely singleton.

The two of them began to drink, one glass after another.

"Cheers!" Bai Chenxi said boldly. "Who needs men? Isn't being single great?"

Tang Ziyu laughed. "Heh, I like that! Cheers!"

By the time Jiang Jize arrived, Bai Chenxi and Tang Ziyu were so close they were huddled together, bad-mouthing men.

Tang Ziyu: "What use are men? They can't do anything. Aside from breathing, they're completely useless. Even a dog knows how to wag its tail at me!"

Bai Chenxi nodded. "Exactly, and they're so petty. They get angry over nothing; their hearts are smaller than the eye of a needle."

Tang Ziyu: "They sit around all day like lords; what’s the difference between them and a deadbeat?"

Bai Chenxi: "They can't even cook! If I got sick, I wouldn't even get a bowl of porridge. Tell me, what’s the point?"

Tang Ziyu gave Bai Chenxi a heavy pat. "Can you be satisfied? When you were in the hospital, he took care of you hand and foot. Did he ever let you go hungry or thirsty? Look how chubby you got during that time—you're really ungrateful."

Bai Chenxi retaliated with a pat of her own, the sound of which made Jiang Jize flinch. "You’re the ungrateful one! The way you ordered people around when you were drunk... even I thought it was pathetic!"

Tang Ziyu retorted, "You’re so pretentious! It’s good enough that someone is looking after you."

Bai Chenxi didn't back down. "You’re too aggressive! You scare all the men away."

"You’re too cowardly!"

"You’re too stubborn!"

"Alright, alright, stop arguing!" Jiang Jize, who had been watching the scene unfold, hurriedly interrupted. He feared they might actually start a fight if he didn't step in.

The two women glanced at him and spoke in unison: "What does it have to do with you?"

"Let's drink!" They ignored him and continued drinking, as if the argument had never happened.

Jiang Jize dared not provoke a drunk Tang Ziyu. He turned his attention to Bai Chenxi. *My sister-in-law looks quite gentle; surely she won't cause a drunken scene, right?*

"Sister-in-law," Jiang Jize said cautiously, "you've had enough. Shall we stop drinking?"

To his dismay, Bai Chenxi hugged her glass tightly. "Trying to trick me out of my drink? Not a chance."