Inside the warm, beige house, Liu Chen, clad in slippery silk pajamas and wool slippers, pressed the side button of her iPhone 3, extinguishing the screen.
This moment went unnoticed by the two couples in the living room, both engrossed in their romantic affections.
"You guys compliment each other first. I'm really sleepy, so I'm heading to bed. Goodnight everyone~~"
After Liu Chen bid them goodnight, the four in the living room waved. Liu Chen lazily waved back before retreating to her room.
Back in the master bedroom, she locked the door and opened the laptop on the bed. Logging into Weibo, she clicked to check her private messages.
"As I suspected, I wasn't wrong. Hu Xingfa actually registered on Weibo to send me a private message. I thought he'd at least wait until next year to find out. His knowledge of the internet is limited to QQ and chatting up strangers."
Liu Chen muttered to herself, closing the private message page and turning her attention to the system's inventory. She vaguely recalled a period when the system frequently dispensed "unlucky charms" and "truth serums."
Fortunately, despite the abundance of items in the system, finding specific items was quick. With a mere thought, the relevant charms flew before Liu Chen.
Looking at the unlucky charm and truth serum before her, Liu Chen pursed her lips.
"Hu Xingfa, I'm giving you one last chance. If you just send a harassing private message, I'll pretend I didn't see it. But if you take any further action, I'll show you why flowers are so red."
With that, Liu Chen sighed and went to soak in the pre-filled bathtub.
After her bath, she drained the water and meticulously applied the body lotion dispensed by the system all over her body. Wrapping herself in a slightly fuzzy bathrobe, she went into the bedroom, drew the curtains, leaving a small gap, and turned off the light. The bathrobe dropped to the floor as Liu Chen sank into the warm, dry down comforter and drifted into a deep sleep.
-
Thousands of kilometers away from Beijing, in a two-story office building in City C, Hu Xingfa sat in his darkened office, his eyes bloodshot. He repeatedly clicked his mouse to refresh the page, but the private message dialogue box remained unanswered.
"He's probably asleep, so he didn't see it. Yes, it seems like some festival recently. I'm his father, so giving my little brat a couple of days off is fine. She'll come back eventually anyway."
Late at night, despite the lack of open windows, the indoor air in the southern city remained cold and damp. Hu Xingfa usually kept the air conditioning on, but tonight he sat in the dark for a while, took a phone call, and then spent half the night on his computer.
Without the air conditioning, wearing a jacket and down coat, Hu Xingfa couldn't help but sneeze. A stream of snot ran down his nose. Hu Xingfa wiped his nose with the back of his hand, sniffled, and stood up.
"Going home, going home, it's freezing!"
He drove home. The dining table was empty. Hu Xingfa glanced at the refrigerator, where several dishes were sealed with plastic wrap. Nodding, he entered the bedroom and thrust his cold hands under the covers, nudging the already sleeping Xu Ni.
"Hiss! What are you doing!"
Xu Ni, jolted from her deep sleep by the icy hands, shivered under the covers.
Hu Xingfa stated matter-of-factly, "I'm back. Heat my food."
Hearing this, Xu Ni rolled her eyes, snuggled deeper into the blanket, and threw back, "If you want to eat, heat it yourself!"
Then, she closed her eyes, feigning sleep.
Hu Xingfa's mood was already sour from not receiving a reply to his private message to Liu Chen and from being in the cold office. Seeing Xu Ni's defiance and disrespect ignited his anger.
Standing by the bed, he grabbed both ends of the blanket and yanked, "shaking" Xu Ni out of her cocoon.
Xu Ni, who had been sleeping warmly, was now exposed to the frigid air. She grabbed a corner of the blanket, hugging it to herself, her face contorted as she cursed at Hu Xingfa, "Are you crazy! If you want to go crazy, get out!"
"Slap!"
A slap landed on Xu Ni's face.
Hu Xingfa stood by the bed, his expression grim.
"I'll count to three. If you don't get up and heat my food now, I'll beat you so badly you won't be able to get out of bed!"
Xu Ni clutched her burning cheek, her eyes filled with hatred as she looked at Hu Xingfa. At this moment, Zhang Lili's words resurfaced in her mind.
"You gave birth to Hu Xingfa's only son. No matter what you do, just tell him that children under three years old stay with their mother after a divorce, and he can't do anything to you.
As for money, you can take it from the company. It's your joint marital property. As long as you don't go too far, he can't do anything to you either."
With this thought, Xu Ni's courage surged. She forcefully snatched the blanket from Hu Xingfa's hands and pulled it back to herself.
"Go ahead and hit me! Hit me to death if you dare! If you dare to hit me, I'll call the police tomorrow! Let the police see if they'll dare leave the child with a domestic abuser like you!"
Hearing Xu Ni's words, Hu Xingfa narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean, 'they won't dare leave the child with me'?"
Xu Ni rolled her eyes, pulled the blanket back over herself, and said triumphantly, "Before the child turns three, if I want a divorce, the child stays with me. So, I advise you to treat me better, otherwise, I'll sue for divorce, and you'll have to give me half your assets and watch me take our son away."
Xu Ni's words indeed made Hu Xingfa fall silent. However, instead of the compromise Xu Ni expected, a warning bell rang in Hu Xingfa's mind.
He currently only owned two houses and two excavators bought on loan, two ancient excavators. If Xu Ni took half the money, he would only be left with two excavators. What kind of rental company would that be?
For a moment, looking at Xu Ni sitting on the bed with a smug expression, a thought arose in Hu Xingfa's mind.
Instead of letting her hold him hostage like this, why not hand her over to Boss Fang, who had been persistently inquiring about Hu Qian's whereabouts? Then, he could use her alleged infidelity to control her, record her confession, and she would be at his mercy.
Women, weren't they all like that?
At this moment, Xu Ni was unaware of the terrifying future awaiting her. She still wore a triumphant smile, believing she had bested Hu Xingfa, and began fantasizing about where she would go for beauty treatments with the money she would get from him.
In the end, Hu Xingfa found a packet of instant noodles, poured hot water over it, and ate it to make do before going to bed.
-
On Christmas morning, Liu Chen sat in the dining room, eating toast spread with peanut butter and drinking hot milk while listening to the radio.
Mi Zhuzhu, yawning and with disheveled hair, emerged from the guest bedroom. "Chenchen, the staff from Weibo contacted me, hoping you'll attend. Are you going? Sang Ling also received an invitation. Luckily, we tried on clothes together last night, otherwise, finding outfits now would be impossible."
Hearing this, Liu Chen paused her milk-drinking.
"The first Weibo Night, quite a memorable event. Alright, if the three of us go, I'll book a suite at the hotel in advance. Lai Jielun and Ren Mo, are you two going?"
Lai Jielun shook his head. "I still have to audition for several stage plays. Please take care of my Zhuzhu, Chen-jie."
Before Liu Chen could reply, Mi Zhuzhu glared. "Tui! It's clearly me taking care of my Chenchen, hmph!"
Lai Jielun quickly clasped his hands in a gesture of surrender.
Mi Zhuzhu then let Lai Jielun go and turned her attention back to Liu Chen. She took two steps back, creating some distance, and scanned Liu Chen from head to toe.
Resting one elbow on her arm and propping her chin with a lightly clenched fist, she said, "Chenchen, although your black hair is beautiful, you always tie it up. See, it's not as straight anymore. If you pair it with the black and white suit you tried on last night, why not get a perm?"
Hearing Mi Zhuzhu's words, Liu Chen turned sideways and looked at the brass mirror beside the dining table. She saw her hair, casually draped behind her back. Although the texture was good, dark, and shiny, it had a slight curl, making it look rather messy.
"Oh, it's Christmas anyway. Let's go get our hair permed first, and then go to the costume party you mentioned?"
Sang Ling, while eating a biscuit, nodded. "If we don't go today, we won't have time once classes start. Perming hair takes several hours."
With both of them persuading her, Liu Chen had no choice but to agree. The two male companions were also roped into getting perms.
Liu Chen drove her large G-wagon around Beijing with the four of them. Perhaps because it was Christmas Day, many hair salons were offering one-time styling. When they heard that all five of them wanted perms, though tempted, they regretfully stated they were short-staffed today and couldn't accommodate them, or it would have to wait until very late, by which time it would be past midnight after the perms.
"Then what do we do? Your hair and Sang Ling's definitely need some work, otherwise, photos from the first Weibo Night will be taken, and you'll regret seeing your hair later."
Mi Zhuzhu said from the back seat, her hands resting on the back of the driver's seat, sounding dejected.
Liu Chen, however, turned the steering wheel and pressed the accelerator, heading towards Beijing's Xingguang Tiandi.
Come to think of it, she hadn't been to a hair salon much since her rebirth. Her hair had grown from shoulder-length to waist-length, and she usually tied it up to avoid obstructing her vision.
Parking the car in the underground garage, Liu Chen led the four of them via elevator directly to the fifth floor of the mall. Beijing's Xingguang Tiandi at this time was a high-end mall, later renamed SKP.
The group of five young-looking individuals navigated through the lavish, high-end mall. Fortunately, perhaps due to Christmas, the mall was quite crowded.
Reaching the farthest corner of the mall, Liu Chen stopped.
"Let's get our hair permed here. It's less crowded."
As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Chen led the four into the hair salon, only to unexpectedly encounter a familiar face.