Chapter Ninety-Three: Double Retribution

Chu Muyun glanced down and shook off Meng Ling’s hand.

But he did not go back inside. Bai Chenxi had casually pulled the door shut behind her, and even if he wanted to go in, he could not.

“You should not be apologizing to me. The one you ought to apologize to is Bai Chenxi.”

Meng Ling looked at Chu Muyun with a face full of hurt. “Muyun, are you really going to protect her like this?”

Chu Muyun said nothing more. There was no need to. He had always had little to say to people who would not listen.

Watching his cold indifference, Meng Ling leaned weakly against the wall, as though all life had been drained from her.

Seeing her like that, Chu Muyun ultimately could not bear it.

“You trust her that much?” Though she did not say it outright, Meng Ling knew exactly who she meant.

“Then why don’t you trust her? Xiaoya told me it was all just a misunderstanding. Or...” She paused. “Or is it that, because it is Bai Chenxi, you refuse to believe it?”

“I have nothing to do with her. Bai Chenxi and I...”

Chu Muyun looked at the scene before him in disbelief: Bai Chenxi, somehow finding a basin of water, had doused Meng Ling from head to toe.

Meng Ling wiped the water from her face and shouted, “Bai Chenxi, are you insane?”

“The insane one is you. If you dare cause me trouble again, I will pay it back to you tenfold, a hundredfold. This time it was water. Next time, it may not be.”

“You’re threatening me?” Meng Ling glared at Bai Chenxi furiously.

Bai Chenxi crossed her arms and gave Meng Ling a slight nod. “That’s right. You heard me.”

Meng Ling turned to Chu Muyun, who stood to the side. “Muyun, you saw that, didn’t you? This is Bai Chenxi. Don’t let her fool you.”

“I saw it. So what?” Bai Chenxi had never been especially gentle with him anyway.

Seeing that Chu Muyun looked utterly unconcerned, while his gaze remained full of affection for Bai Chenxi, Meng Ling grew even more frantic and shouted, “Bai Chenxi!”

Their quarrel drew the attention of many people, and more than a few doors opened to watch. Seeing that someone had come out, Bai Chenxi’s first reaction was to shove Chu Muyun back inside, saying, “Don’t come out.”

Bai Chenxi and Meng Ling were both known to some of the residents. What everyone saw in the corridor was Meng Ling, drenched through and through, staring daggers at Bai Chenxi.

By contrast, Bai Chenxi looked entirely composed. With the two women glaring at each other and the dark figure that Bai Chenxi had just pushed inside, it was obvious at a glance that the shadow belonged to a man.

After a little quick thinking, the crowd watching from the sidelines had already built a whole melodrama in their minds: two women, one man, a full-blown showdown.

As more and more people gathered, Bai Chenxi leaned close to Meng Ling and said, “Your makeup’s smudged.”

At once, Meng Ling reflexively covered her face. “Bai Chenxi, just you wait.” With that, she stormed off.

When the onlookers saw the parties involved had all left, it seemed Bai Chenxi had won. With no more spectacle to enjoy, one after another they closed their doors.

Bai Chenxi shot a hard glare at the shut doors, as though the doors themselves were someone in particular. She turned to leave, but Chu Muyun opened the door and pulled her inside.

The moment she entered, Bai Chenxi knocked Chu Muyun’s arm away and sat down on the sofa without a word. Chu Muyun looked at her in bewilderment. What was wrong this time?

“You were the one who shoved me in just now. I did not go out because I was afraid of causing you more gossip and trouble.”

After thinking it over, Chu Muyun felt this was the only thing he could have done to make her angry.

Bai Chenxi looked at him. Was that what she cared about? Chu Muyun, look me in the eye and think again.

“I was wrong.” Jiang Jize had once said that one should never try to reason with a woman, especially an angry one. If something happened, the best thing to do was admit fault first.

“You were...” Bai Chenxi started to say, then abruptly stopped and forced herself to turn it around. “You were not wrong.”

What she had meant to ask was, What exactly were you wrong about?

“I was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

Why did this conversation feel so strange? Bai Chenxi cut off the oddly circular exchange.

Chu Muyun actually believed her words and asked, “Then what is wrong?”

What is wrong? I had always thought Meng Ling was brought here by Jiang Jize. After all that, it turned out to be you. The moment Chu Muyun arrived, Meng Ling came running over.

And she kept calling him “Muyun” this and “Muyun” that, afraid people would not know what the two of them had going on, or what? When Bai Chenxi asked before, she had even pretended not to know. It must have been exhausting for you to play dumb with me all this time.

And now he was asking her what was wrong? Really, how very amusing.

Bai Chenxi was a little sulky herself. “Nothing much. I am just angry. She actually had someone threaten me. If what she had thrown was sulfuric acid, what would Xia Yan have done?”

Chu Muyun’s tone was unreadable. “Xia Yan? You are worried about him?”

“Of course. He blocked it for me. If that really had been sulfuric acid, what would Xia Yan have done?”

Chu Muyun said nothing further. He knew he should not be jealous. He was grateful that Xia Yan had been there to protect Bai Chenxi.

But seeing how concerned Bai Chenxi was for Xia Yan, and remembering that she had only just gone out to eat with him, Chu Muyun could not help feeling uncomfortable.

Each of them had their own private thoughts, and for a while neither spoke.

“I’m hungry!”

At last, Chu Muyun broke the silence.

Hungry? Couldn’t he find something to eat for himself?

Bai Chenxi looked at the way Chu Muyun was watching her, and the words at her lips would not come out.

Fearing that Chu Muyun would be uncomfortable if he went too long without eating, Bai Chenxi still stood up and said, “Wait here.” Then she opened the door and went out again.

Watching Bai Chenxi leave, Chu Muyun took out his phone and called Jiang Jize. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he did not want to call him.

But looking around, everyone else was single. Jiang Jize was the only one who, at least, had some “experience.”

The call was answered quickly.

“Brother Chu, let me guess. By now, shouldn’t you be all sweet and cozy with your girl? How do you have time to call me?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

If he let him go on, who knew what shocking nonsense he would say next.

What was there to deny? Honestly, how did those two manage to date with such innocence? Jiang Jize said nothing, simply waiting for Chu Muyun to speak first.

He knew Brother Chu well enough. Calling him on his own initiative meant something had to be wrong. And since he was with Bai Chenxi right now, the relationship between the two of them must have gone awry, and he had come looking for advice.

Sure enough, Chu Muyun spoke first. “She is angry.”

Hearing that, Jiang Jize nearly split his face grinning in delight. Told you something was up. As expected, Sister-in-law was formidable enough to unsettle Brother Chu.

Though he was itching to gossip, he still held it back and asked casually, “Oh? What happened?”

Chu Muyun briefly explained what had happened. The moment he finished, Jiang Jize immediately said, “This is clearly Bai Chenxi being jealous, Brother Chu. Don’t tell me you did not see that?”

“Jealous?” Chu Muyun was a little confused. Jealous of what? Had he done something?

Jiang Jize was so anxious he nearly banged the table. “Meng Ling, of course. Sister-in-law is definitely jealous because of Meng Ling.”

“Are you sure she is not angry because Meng Ling had someone try to hurt her?”

Jiang Jize was speechless. “Brother Chu, why would you think that? If Sister-in-law were angry about that, why would she ignore you?”

It was not that Chu Muyun was slow to react. He had simply never thought of Meng Ling as a woman who could make Bai Chenxi jealous.

When he first met Meng Ling, she had still been a student. In his eyes, Meng Ling had always been just a little girl, and it was truly difficult to connect her with the word jealous.

Jiang Jize quietly grew a little more interested. “But, Brother Chu, what exactly is your relationship with Meng Ling?”