Chapter 102: Calm and Collected

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

D*rn!

Xiang Wan gasped—her arms protected her chests out of reflex as she glared at him defensively.

“What do you want?”

Her big round eyes were looking warily at him and her defensive stance seemed to make Bai Muchuan a little glad.

Tch! He chuckled, loosened the grip of her chin and placed his hand back to his pocket. “Wuss!”

Ah! Xiang Wan gave a scream and took a few steps back uncontrollably.

This was because when her arms was protecting her chest, she was also trying to back away from him. When Bai Muchuan loosened his grip of her chin, she lost her balance and took a few steps back uncontrollably. It was lucky that the wall was behind her. She was now breaking in cold sweat due to the scare.

“Bai Muchuan!” She gritted her teeth, her heart still racing. “You’re crazy!”

Bai Muchuan stood unmoving.

His face was not red, and neither was he gasping for breath. There was only a sly smile on his face.

“You’ve never been in a relationship, right?”

Xiang Wan felt her anger rushing up to her head when she heard him say that so confidently.

“What? I’ve never been in a relationship? My ex-boyfriends could form a Criminal Investigation Unit. Naive!”

Hur! Bai Muchuan’s lips curved into a smile as he heard that. He walked toward her.

Xiang Wan was already leaning against the wall. Now, his tall stature was like totally blocking the light from her, like a another wall. At that instant, her heart was pounding so hard that she felt that he could hear it.

“Stop! Or I’ll call the police!”

Bai Muchuan was taken aback for a moment.

He seemed to be controlling his laughter and looked at her sternly. “Little girl, do you need help? Tell Mr. Detective about it?”

Little girl?!

Ever since her 25th year-old birthday, it seemed that she had not heard that form of address for a long time.

Moreover, the teasing look on Bai Muchuan’s face as well as the feeling of ambiguity, and…

His eyelashes were so long, curving a little upward. That gave him such a pleasant and innocent look that actually covered up for his bad behavior.

This guy!

This guy!

Thump! Thump! Thump Thump!

Xiang Wan’s heart raced faster. She was fuming but powerless. She was gritting her teeth, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything too hurting.

“Bai Muchuan, is it fun to tease me like this?”

“Who says I’m teasing you?” Bai Muchuan looked at her from his height as he quickly contained his sly smile, took her hand seriously and held it in his palm. “I’m just testing your response.”

…

What kind of bleeping reply is this!

If testing my response is not teasing, then what is it called?

Xiang Wan’s chest was heaving up and down in anger but she was also kind of amused and annoyed at the same time.

“Is it fun?”

“Quite alright.” He had a slight smile. “I’m very satisfied.”

Xiang Wan gasped and tried to calm herself down. She avoided thinking about what he meant by very satisfied. She could only stare at him angrily. “Let go of me!”

“Where are you off to?”

Bai Muchuan held her hand tightly again and brushed his finger on her hand gently. She could feel that his finger felt firm, warm and dry, as well as a little bit of ambiguity had started to spread to her head as well as other parts of her body…

D*rn!

She withdrew her hand angrily when Bai Muchuan suddenly gave a soft sigh.

“Well! Actually I…”

After pausing for one second, he said, “I’ve never been in one too.”

“…” Xiang Wan raised an eyebrow. “So?”

“Xiang Wan.” He suddenly drew in closer and enveloped her petite frame entirely between the wall and his chest. “I want to give you a chance…”

“?” Xiang Wan did not understand.

His deep, smiling voice sounded provocatively attractive, along with his clean and refreshing masculinity, which stimulated Xiang Wan’s consciousness. “You’re allowed to chase after me.”

“Hah…”

Xiang Wan tilted her head and looked at him as if she had heard a joke.

Bai Muchuan turned to look at her, his breath landing on her cheek. “… What if I’m moved by you?”

Xiang Wan felt her heart twitching and being pulled about. She laughed at that sentence, lifted her head and looked at him directly in the eye.

“Are you thinking of saying that maybe you will be kind-hearted enough and give me your first time?”

“…”

This woman! She dared to say that?

“Aren’t you silly?” grunted Xiang Wan as she gasped again. Her hand was on his chest with appropriate strength, trying to push him a little further away from her. “Just as what you’ve said earlier, we’re both adults. Don’t you think it’s funny that you’re behaving so childishly to test my response? Hurhur, do you really think a 26 year-old pretty woman… would not have that kind of experience?”

At that instant, Bai Muchuan’s eyes seemed to turn grim.

“I’m actually starting to doubt…” Xiang Wan sized him up by looking up and down at him. “If you’re not lying to me. Well, you’re already this old and did not have this kind of experience… is there anything wrong with you?”

“…”

As though something got stuck in his throat, Bai Muchuan’s adam’s apple suddenly made a difficult swallow and his husky voice sounded a little hoarse.

“Xiang Wan, you need to be taught a lesson!”

“Hurhur!” Xiang Wan pushed him away boldly, walked up to him and spoke in his ear softly, “I want to give you a chance too…”

“…” His eyes narrowed at her words.

“You can chase after me,” laughed Xiang Wan. “What if I’m moved by you, I might be kind-hearted enough to take away your first time!”

She winked at Bai Muchuan mischievously and turned to walk back to the suite with big strides, totally not bothered to save him any face.

“Xiang Wan?!”

Bai Muchuan looked at her back view for a short while with his cold eyes when he grunted a laugh uncontrollably.

“Liar!”

He followed after her leisurely…

…

The welcome back dinner for Huang He ended pleasantly and peacefully.

Even though the two of them had “disappeared” for quite a good while, no one asked what they were doing. Instead, everyone was winking surreptitiously in amusement amongst themselves.

After the dinner feast, everyone was still in a mood to hang out together and someone suggested going for KTV. However, Bai Muchuan rejected the idea.

“It’s been a long day. Go back home and rest earlier. Let’s give some alone time for Huang He to spend with his girlfriend.”

Well, he had just been released, so the two of them might want some time together.

Xiang Wan took her little handbag and walked over to Fang Yuanyuan.

“Are you going back with me?”

“Eh?” Fang Yuanyuan gave a stare. “If I don’t go back with you, where else can I go?”

“What do you think?” Xiang Wan chuckled teasingly and took her arm, motioning her to look at Huang He, who was busy talking to the rest of group. “You don’t want to go on a date with him or get a room?”

“Just scram!” Fang Yuanyuan immediately flushed red, glared at her with embarrassment and gritted her teeth with a straight face. “You’re a little virgin full of naughty thoughts! You need to be taught a lesson by a man!”

“Hey…” Xiang Wan rolled her eyes. “No personal attacks!”

“Heheh, I like you behaving like this.” Fang Yuanyuan put her arms around Xiang Wan this time, as if hanging on her—that weighty arms of hers made Xiang Wan almost unable to take another step while Yuanyuan continued to act like a little girl. “I will not leave you easily. Sis, I love you the best.”

Gosh, please have mercy on me!

Xiang Wan felt goosebumps all over.

“Such words should be said to your Huanghuang.”

“Hush!” Fang Yuanyuan whispered, “Do you think I’m foolish enough that I will date him the moment he got released? You don’t let men get it easily, understand? Otherwise, they won’t cherish you. You don’t know how cheapskate men are! My first boyfriend already wanted to take me to bed on our first date, after I rejected him three times, he said goodbye. My second boyfriend…”

Pffft! Xiang Wan couldn’t stop laughing. “Stop your nonsense! The lift is here.”

When the group of people entered the elevator, as the men stopped chatting, the atmosphere immediately quietened down.

While they were inside the lift, Xiang Wan and Fang Yuanyuan thought about the earlier topic of how cheapskate men were and couldn’t help sneaking a few giggles as they exchanged glances.

“Did you two pick up money or something?” Tang Yuanchu also gave a giggle. “Take it out! Split the loot!”

“Yeah, it’s a big sum of money.” Fang Yuanyuan was now familiar with him and didn’t stand on ceremony, either. “Where’s your hand? Take it out now.”

And when Tang Yuanchu did so, Fang Yuanyuan immediately hit his palm. “Young man, you need a beating!”

“Ouch! Sister, don’t hit me so hard.” Tang Yuanchu laughed and tried to move closer to Huang He. “Brother Huang, save me quick…”

Huang He’s big palm patted him on his back as he spoke in a smiling tone, “Rascal, you’re bullying my wife. You better be glad that I didn’t do anything to you yet you still dare to come to me for help?”

The mention of the word “wife” made Fang Yuanyuan beam with delight. Her heart was pounding and her eyes were fluttering. The group started to tease the two of them to quickly get married and to invite them for their wedding feast.

In the lively atmosphere, only Bai Muchuan was cold and detached from the group. That look of aloofness compared to the b*dass guy who teased her in the corridor earlier was as though they were two different persons. Xiang Wan couldn’t stop frowning at that sight. With a soft snort, she retracted her gaze not to look at him.

On the other hand, Bai Muchuan heard her snort and he gazed at her for a moment.

When he retracted his gaze, Xiang Wan’s gaze landed on him at the next second.

The group noticed their odd behavior.

But nobody dared to ask anything.

This was because Bai Muchuan was not someone who would joke around with just anyone.

They were also uncertain if they could joke about their behavior…

Nevertheless, when they reached home, Fang Yuanyuan could no longer hold her stomach of questions.

The moment they entered the house and changed to their slippers, she caught Xiang Wan immediately, not allowing her a chance to hide inside the bedroom and brought her to the sofa for a talk.

“Tell me! Both of you disappeared for over twenty minutes… What have you been doing?”

“Hm?” Xiang Wan pretended to be innocent. “Oh, it’s more than 20 minutes?”

“It’s around there!” Fang Yuanyuan looked at her from the corner of her eyes. “Don’t change the subject.”

“… I went to empty my bowel, would this suffice?” Xiang Wan avoided eye contact, reached out for the orange on the coffee table, and started to peel it. “Get this straight, Fang Yuanyuan, your heart is bursting of happiness today, so I don’t want to make you unhappy by arguing with you… But don’t measure others’ corn by one’s own bushel. There’s really nothing between me and Bai Muchuan… At least, there’s nothing right now.”

When she said the last sentence, her eyes flickered slightly, and her action of peeling the orange slowed down a bit.

Fang Yuanyuan caught those little actions. She laughed as she did not believe Xiang Wan at all.

She reached out to take a piece of the peeled orange to her mouth and snorted a laugh.

“What do you mean there’s nothing right now. An honest person like me doesn’t understand that.”

“… You’re honest?”

In front of Fang Yuanyuan, Xiang Wan actually felt there was no need to hide from her.

And to begin with, the strange emotions between her and Bai Muchuan was indeed confusing.

After deliberating for a moment, she laughed. “Well it’s… we’re more than friends yet we’re not lovers. I can joke around with him recklessly but unable to proceed to the next stage. Or rather, I don’t want to proceed to the next stage. Maybe you can tell me, what is going on?”

“What is going on? This is your first love!” Fang Yuanyuan gave a cackle then looked at Xiang Wan with eyes shining brightly. “Haven’t you heard of this saying? What is first love? First love is exactly like this, afraid to say out loud.”

“…”

Afraid to say out loud?

Fang Yuanyuan behaved like an old driver and analyzed their situation. “No one would move forward because both of you have a heart of glass: fear of being hurt as well as fear of rejection. Yet both of you wanted each other’s attention every now and then. Both of you will also pay close attention to each other’s words and behaviors, uncontrollably at that…”

She paused for a while and ate another piece of orange with her brows furrowed.

“Sis, your Detective Bai, however, is not a really reassuring choice.”

Eh? Xiang Wan looked at her in bewilderment.

Fang Yuanyuan had a momentarily pause in chewing the orange before she heaved a bitter sigh.

“I don’t know how to put it, maybe it’s because he’s too difficult to approach? I dare not talk to him, much less to joke with him. Sometimes, I even feel that maybe his feelings toward you and your feelings toward him is not the same…”

“…” Xiang Wan squinted her eyes in thought, not saying a word.

“Sometimes, I feel that youngest aunt is right that Cheng Zheng is really a good choice for you. He’s not very romantic but he’s definitely a practical choice. He’s handsome, has a good background and the key thing is, he’s looking out for you…”

“Cut it out!”

Xiang Wan felt her head aching the moment she heard these familiar words of persuasion her mom had used on her.

“I see you as possessed by our youngest aunt. Why don’t you think about how you’re going to break the news to her that you’re serious about being together with Huang He?”

“What the! Is this poking each other’s soft spots?” Fang Yuanyuan stared at her and pushed another orange to Xiang Wan. “Quick, peel it! I need healing!”

“…”

Women’s intuition can be very accurate sometimes.

In actual fact, Xiang Wan agreed with Fang Yuanyuan’s views on Bai Muchuan.

He was not an approachable person. Up till this moment, besides herself, Xiang Wan had not yet seen him smiling at another woman. He was polite and courteous but his face always had a sign that says “do not come near me”. Beneath his peaceful appearance, he was very sensitive and there seemed to be a lot of things inside his head.

A person who tends to consider too much and too sensitive would have difficulty in finding happiness.

To put it seriously, he really couldn’t be considered a good match…

But who could control their preferences?

Sometimes, feelings are like nature. If she had to choose between Bai Muchuan and Cheng Zheng, she believed that she would pick the former without any hesitation…

Putting everything else aside and just discussing about their personality, she would pick Bai Muchuan because both of them understood each other’s thinking. There was even a tacit understanding between them.

For people who held the same values, ethics and opinions, even if they couldn’t be lovers, they could still be friends.

For people who held different values, ethics and opinions from another, if they couldn’t be lovers, they were not able to become friends as well.

…

For the next two days, Xiang Wan was “obsessed” with the modification of her locked chapters.

As for Fang Yuanyuan, she left for work earlier but came back later than usual. However, she was wearing a smile most of the time now. It was easy to tell that the moment Huang He came back into her life, her happiness also came back as well.

One was busy with her work, the other was busy being in love. It resulted in these two women talking very little to each other.

At the same time, they also avoided facing the potential factors that could ruin their moment of peace and happiness…

On the third day, Xiang Wan finally finished modifying all those locked chapters.

After she reuploaded all the locked chapters, she noticed that there was another wave of heated discussion going on at her reviews and comments page.

Heck! Since when did her reviews and comments page become the market of Wen Quan Book Treasury?

Xiang Wan read through the comments as she scrolled and soon enough, she was shocked…

“A wide-scale operation of locking chapters took Wen Quan Book Treasury by storm. Is Xiang Gongzi scratching her toes and enjoying the entire disaster?”

“Hurhur, she got into trouble but made everyone else suffer the consequences with her.”

“This author’s books aren’t famous, yet she has more influence than her books? I can’t believe she could actually attract the attention of the Department of Anti-pornography and Illegal Publications. The most annoying thing is, she only has a certain number of locked chapters where she could reupload after modifying them. Whereas for the other authors, they are screwed big time…”

“Frankly, those whose books got removed kinda deserved it. They can only blame it on themselves when they don’t know when to stop when they describe certain scenes. They should learn from the author, Zi Tan, it’s no use reporting her, a good anvil does not fear the hammer…”

“You put it as though Zi Tan doesn’t write rated scenes. I’ve seen her describing a pair of doves flying before the male leading character in her book… Hurhurhur, as to why she remained unscathed in this saga, you sure you don’t have an idea why?”

The readers in her reviews and comments page seemed to come from all areas. Every reader could be reading multiple books at a time, and with a check, it was only natural to know what was happening across the entire Wen Quan Book Treasury.

Well, this matter had really been blown out of proportion.

Not only a lot of books were locked, some books were even permanently removed from the website.

There were readers who said that due to Xiang Wan’s book being reported, it attracted the attention of the Department of Anti-pornography and Illegal Publications. Hence, the whole of Wen Quan got implicated.

There were also a group of readers trying to mislead the readers into believing that Xiang Wan was trying to exact vengeance against Wen Quan by reporting many other authors, resulting in them getting victimized in the whole matter.

Hur, hur, hur, hur!

This is new! This has become my retaliation? she thought.

For pete’s sake, she didn’t even know who was the mastermind who got her in trouble. Who should she seek revenge?

Xiang Wan sent a WeChat message to Fang Yuanyuan. “What happened?”

Fang Yuanyuan: “I’m dying!”

She was in a terrible fix. There was an overwhelming amount of work.

Fang Yuanyuan: “Today, we received notification from the Administrative Law Enforcement team of the Bureau of Cultural Market that some of our published works are suspected of violating internet regulations, and there are a lot of pornographic descriptions that are beyond the approved guidelines.”

Xiang Wan furrowed her brows. “How did the website handle these?”

“Warning and a fine!” Fang Yuanyuan felt bitter. “The Director got a lashing from the President, and when the Director came back, she gave us a lashing in turn… Now, there’s a huge amount of books being locked, I’m about to go crazy with all these work. There are so many books that got locked. The authors are all crying their hearts out at me! D*rn, what can I do?”

“…”

Ever since she became a web novelist, this was the first time she experienced an anti-pornographic content operation in the web literature world.

Too terrifying!

Everyone got frightened and was now treading on their toes. The whole website entered a state of panic.

Now, authors were very cautious when they talk to each other.

Everyone felt as though there was a pair of eyes staring at them. They were worried that they might offend people unknowingly and get reported out of the blue. After all, the authors had put in effort to write their story, so no one liked the feeling to have their book locked or even removed from the website just like that…

“I don’t understand. Why are there readers accusing me of reporting all other authors? When did I do that?”

With regards to this aspect, Fang Yuanyuan was baffled as well.

“Is it? I didn’t know about that? Geez, don’t bother about what others are saying. There are bound to be quarrels and disputes when there are a lot of women. A small tiny incident could become a world war once spewed from their mouths. No point fretting over them…”

“Okay! Go get busy then!”

Fang Yuanyuan was truly swamped that she did not even have time to date.

However, Xiang Wan did not feel that these rumors were groundless.

She did not know if she had attracted the attention of the relevant authorities that the website got issued a warning and a fine. But she did know that the reader IDs that tried to spread the vicious rumor were the same group of people who slandered her just a few days back…

She was being unjustly blamed!

Xiang Wan felt that with such luck, she should get herself a lottery ticket.

At this moment, she received a message from Bai Muchuan.

“Come over for an interview tomorrow!”

Interview? Xiang Wan was dazed for two seconds before she came back to reality.

It had been a long time since she last worked in an organization as she almost stayed at home everyday writing her story. For the role of advisor of the Criminal Investigation Unit, she still looked forward to that identity.

Looking at Bai Muchuan’s emotionless words on the phone screen, she grabbed the phone tightly and heaved a sigh.

“Yes.”

She replied with only a word, which was lesser than him.

The message had been sent out for less than five seconds when she received Bai Muchuan’s reply. “Are you alright?”

Was she alright? Well, she didn’t feel alright. But in actual fact, there was really nothing.

She had finished revising the locked chapters. As for what the others were going to say about her, she could just ignore it by turning off the Internet.

Of course, if she wanted to, she could gloat over the misfortune of the authors who were wailing mournfully over the treatment of their books with the website…

However, Xiang Wan was not pleased at the slightest bit.

“I’m not alright,” she replied directly, “I suspect that my luck’s really down recently. No, to be specific, ever since I got to know you, I would ultimately end up as the scapegoat!”

“… Hello Miss Scapegoat!”

“Hey, you’re still in the mood for jokes? I remember you are the one who made me into a scapegoat the first time! Don’t you think you should make it up to me?”

A little while later, Bai Muchuan replied, “How about giving you my first time?”

“Are you courting death? Let me warn you, tease me one more time and I’ll make sure you die!”

“Come at me then… make me die.”

Right at the end of the message, he added a meaningful smiley emoticon.

Bai Muchuan’s messages were usually said with a plain tone. He had never added any emoticons.

Hence, the sudden appearance of this emoticon seemed unusual!

Xiang Wan took quite a while before she deciphered the meaning of the message where her cheeks felt warm and couldn’t stop giggling.

“There’s a recent anti-pornographic cleaning operation in the internet. You need to be careful with your words in your messages. If you get caught, I’m not going to send you meals at the detention center…”

“You’re heartless!”

After Bai Muchuan finished typing a reply and sent the message, he kept his mobile phone and moved his laptop in front of him.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Notifications from WeChat kept coming.

Bai Muchuan took out his mobile phone impatiently.

There was a notification at his home screen indicating that there were more than a dozen unread private messages.

“Little uncle, what are you doing? Why aren’t you replying to me?”

“I tried calling you but you did not pick up. Are you still angry with me?”

“Mom told me you’re going to come back very soon. Is that true? Little uncle, could you bring back some nice food of Jin City for me? I really liked the food over there…”

“I miss you so much! Please come back quick and bring me out? School’s going to reopen soon and I don’t have much time left to go out and have fun.”

“Little uncle?”

“Little uncle?”

“O(T_T)O~ I’m tearing up! My little uncle is ignoring me…”

Bai Muchuan looked grim; he threw his mobile phone aside and opened the window, then he squinted his eyes and lighted a cigarette…

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