Nasty

Xing Yue, you're more pathetic today than you've ever been.

"Should we ask Miss Bu for help?" Tan Xiang'e asked tentatively.

With things as they were, Xing Yue was in danger too. They couldn't afford to lose even a day. They might as well ask the Bu Family for help; perhaps they could find He Zhiwen sooner.

Tan Xiang'e had a feeling that the deaths of those four Snake Eggs were somehow tied to what she had said that night. She couldn't shake her guilt. Deep down, she hoped Xing Yue would ask the Bu Family for help. If He Zhiwen never came back, Tan Xiang'e would never feel right about it.

Xing Yue wanted to, but they had fought so fiercely just an hour ago. She was afraid it would only make Bu Yao angrier...

Time was running out. She could only try. "Okay."

She hadn't been back in years. As the car entered a familiar stretch of road, Xing Yue's heartbeat grew erratic, and memories of the past flashed through her mind.

She clearly remembered her first visit to the Bu Residence. Its palatial splendor had stunned her. She had been twenty-five then and had traveled a few times, so she'd thought she had seen something of the world.

But when she saw the front gate of Bu Yao's estate, taller than her entire house, she froze. It looked like a European noble's castle. She had no words for how shocked she was.

Tan Xiang'e had plenty. "Wow! Wow!! Wow, wow, wow!!!"

"I thought that gate back there was the main entrance, but it's just where the gardeners go in to water the trees? This place is incredible!"

"Holy shit! Don't tell me this whole greenbelt belongs to Bu Yao's family. Wait, is this the Bu Family's Garden Estate? What kind of family plants over four hundred acres of Maple Forest? Fuck, this is... I can't even. God! They're obscenely rich!"

Tan Xiang'e was so stunned she could barely string a sentence together. At first, she'd thought Xing Yue had driven into some landscaped park. Only when she saw gardeners in uniform watering the trees did she realize they had already entered the Bu Residence.

They were far, far too rich. She excitedly stuck her head out the car window to look around. "I can't! Feather Ripple Maple, the queen of maples! Even the worst specimens start at sixty thousand, and average ones cost two hundred thousand. And they've planted over four hundred acres of them! Four hundred acres! Four hundred!"

Feather Ripple Maple got its name from the way its leaves stirred in the wind, like feathers landing on a lake and sending ripples across the water. It was a warm, romantic sight.

The butler had once told Xing Yue how this maple grove came to be. As a child, Bu Yao liked to turn back into a snake and hide among the red maples when she played hide-and-seek with Madam Bu. If Madam Bu found her too quickly, little Bu Yao got angry. If Madam Bu pretended she couldn't find her, little Bu Yao got angry too.

To make hide-and-seek more fun for little Bu Yao, what had started as a handful of maples became a vast grove. That way, Madam Bu could search in earnest without finding her too easily.

Xing Yue hadn't known what to feel when she heard the story. A little bitter, perhaps, and a little envious.

Bu Yao had always had a bad temper. No one had ever told her she was wrong or that she couldn't do something. She went through life doing as she pleased. Anyone watching would have said, "If you won't teach your daughter, someone else will one day."

But ask those same people if they wanted Bu Yao's life, and they'd nod their heads off.

At last, they passed through the Maple Forest and reached the main entrance.

When the servants saw that Xing Yue had come to visit, they let her through.

"Is Miss Bu here?" Xing Yue asked the first person she found in the hall.

A composed voice rang out, neither warm nor cold. "Xiao Yue. What a rare visitor."

Following the voice, Xing Yue spotted Ji Wenyan on the sofa, arranging flowers. Her hair was swept into an immaculate bun, and she wore a pale blue-gray jacket with a front opening. She trimmed a stem with elegant ease.

"I hear you want to terminate your contract with the company?" She set down her shears and gently adjusted a flower without once looking Xing Yue in the eye. "Have you thought it through? If you're sure, I'll find someone to take your place. The company has no obligation to wait for you forever."

She spoke at an unhurried pace, as though they were chatting about meals or sleep.

Xing Yue pressed her lips together. "Isn't this exactly the result Madam Bu wanted?"

The company had never intended to give her any resources. Why else would they have let Jiang Yue come in and turn everything upside down? Now Xing Yue was being forced out and saddled with a hefty contract-termination fee. Hadn't Madam Bu planned it all?

Xing Yue had no wish to waste words on Ji Wenyan. She went straight to Bu Yao's room, knowing the way by heart. But as she reached for the door, the red paper character for "double happiness" pasted on it left her momentarily dazed.

Ten years, and it was still there...

She would have been lying if she said it meant nothing to her.

Xing Yue took a deep breath and stood outside for a while before entering. The room looked just as it had when she left. Even the night-light she used to keep on the bedside table was still there.

Xing Yue didn't know whether devotion ran in the Bu Family, but Bu Yao was certainly devoted. Her love had burned so fiercely that Xing Yue couldn't have missed it.

Bu Yao sat on a small sofa reading. At the sound of the door, she glanced up, then lowered her eyes to the book again. "Get out. Leave my home."

It was exactly what Xing Yue had said to her that night.

Only then did Tan Xiang'e realize the two had fought. She gave Xing Yue a discreet push in the back and silently mouthed, "Hurry. We need to save her."

Xing Yue steeled herself and slowly sat on the edge of the sofa. "This isn't the time to be angry. Can we... put our relationship problems aside for now?"

Thinking back on it calmly, what she had said to He Zhiwen in the car really had been inappropriate. At that time, she had often fallen asleep holding Bu Yao in her arms.

As far as Bu Yao was concerned, they had been on their way to becoming girlfriends. It was like a woman flirting with you and then turning around to get a hotel room with someone else. Xing Yue could hardly claim she was blameless.

Bu Yao looked up at the face that had suddenly softened toward her, but her anger had not faded. "You and I have nothing to discuss except our relationship."

"Can you stop being like this?" Xing Yue's head was starting to ache. Urgency showed on her face. "Someone's life is at stake, and this is all you care about? I know you found out where He Zhiwen is. Can't we rescue her first and talk about everything else afterward? If I'm wrong, I'll admit it."

Bu Yao had only been cold before. Xing Yue's tone was like throwing a bundle of firewood into a volcano on the verge of erupting.

She tossed her book aside, her chest rising and falling. "Shut up! That's no way to apologize."

Seeing the tension rise, Tan Xiang'e pulled Xing Yue aside and whispered, "What are you doing? That's not how you comfort a woman. You keep bringing up your ex. Of course Miss Bu is getting angrier! Yes, we're here to save He Zhiwen, but you can't say her name. Appeal to Miss Bu's feelings. Make it about her. Don't lecture her about priorities and the bigger picture. None of that matters. She wants you to say you love her, that you can't live without her, that you want to be with her every day. Don't you get it?"

Sometimes a couple of "sweethearts" were all it took to soothe a woman. There was no need for grand arguments about reason and keeping calm.

That was what Bu Yao wanted: for Xing Yue to love and miss her. She didn't want to hear how Xing Yue would risk herself for another woman, or see Xing Yue bow her head for one.

Tan Xiang'e figured Xing Yue might hold back with her in the room, so she tactfully went outside to wait, closing the door behind her.

Only the two of them remained. Xing Yue looked at the woman sitting with her back to her. Bu Yao wore a red, oil-painting-print dress with slender straps, its hem reaching her thighs and its neckline cut straight across her chest. Her long orange-red hair was loosely swept up, revealing a swanlike neck as smooth as jade. She was sensual and graceful at once. Just looking at her, Xing Yue could almost catch her soft, warm scent. Even with her face set in anger, she was irresistibly lovely.

Xing Yue took Bu Yao's injured hand. Her pale skin looked so delicate. Xing Yue hadn't realized she had gripped it so hard. "Baby, I really know I was wrong. A lot happened today, and when you picked a fight with me, I lost my temper... I was too hasty. I know I was wrong. Will you give me a chance to make it right?"

When Bu Yao had questioned her, Xing Yue had doubled down and said, "So what if I really did get a hotel room with her?" In a way, she had made the fight worse herself.

Bu Yao shook Xing Yue off. The corners of her eyes quietly reddened, and her nose stung. She bit her lower lip, still refusing to soften. "Get out!"

Without comfort, she had only been angry. Now that Xing Yue was comforting her, she felt hurt as well.

Xing Yue stood there without moving.

Bu Yao lowered her legs from the sofa and lifted her chin. "What? You can't humiliate yourself a little more for He Zhiwen? I've seen it for myself today. You're more pathetic than you've ever been!"

The tip of her foot pressed against Xing Yue's trouser leg. She said nothing, yet the gesture spoke volumes. Her foot slid up and down in open mockery.

Xing Yue knew what Bu Yao meant. Her hand clenched silently at her side, then fell slack. In the end, she crouched, picked up a high heel from the floor, and took Bu Yao's foot in her hand to put the shoe on her.

When Xing Yue reached for the other foot, Bu Yao pulled it away. She placed it against Xing Yue and slowly pushed upward. Her delicate toes pressed against Xing Yue with every inch, moving over her ribs, her chest, her cheek...

"Didn't you say you'd never love a woman like me in this lifetime?" Bu Yao looked down at Xing Yue kneeling on the floor to put on her shoes and gave a soft scoff. "Then why come back to me? You don't mean it, so why apologize? Why admit you were wrong?"

Xing Yue kept her head half-lowered. Her lips brushed almost imperceptibly against the smooth top of Bu Yao's foot. When she spoke, they rested against her skin.

"I really know I was wrong. I mean it. I shouldn't have said things that crossed the line to another woman... Please forgive me this once, Miss Bu."

Bu Yao was still angry. Just thinking of what Xing Yue had said made her furious. "Then do you know what you should do from now on?"

"I'll keep my distance from other women."