Chapter 4: The Beauty's Reaction

When the morning sunlight streamed through the mottled glass window into Yang Chen's room, he shook his head groggily. Just as he was about to get up, he suddenly felt something soft wrapped around him.

Fully awake now, Yang Chen looked down and saw, as expected, the woman he had brought home drunk last night.

At that moment, her white, lotus-like arm was wrapped around his waist. Under the towel blanket, a pair of full breasts was pressed against his thigh, and the delicate contact felt smooth as velvet.

Her pale, tender legs were hooked carelessly around his lower body, and the faint strip of enticing cleavage left visible there still bore traces of last night's abandon.

Combined with that pure, breathtaking face of hers as she slept, Yang Chen could not help but think that among all the women he had ever seen in his life, she was absolutely capable of ranking in the top three.

Just as Yang Chen was marveling at this body that looked like a work of art granted by heaven, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of a patch of dark red blood on the bedsheet at the foot of the bed!

His nerves jolted. Yang Chen frowned and looked at the woman, who still showed no reaction, and felt a little surprised.

Of course the blood could not have been his. He just had not expected that the beauty who had been so wild and unrestrained last night would still be a virgin.

Once he thought about it afterward, everything became clear. Yang Chen quickly realized that the woman's initiative and abandon last night had very likely been because the bald men had drugged her.

If he had not happened to drive that group off by chance, this dark-haired beauty would have become their prey.

And yesterday, after he himself got drunk drinking alone, he had gone home and climbed into bed without noticing anything unusual.

Just as Yang Chen was sitting on the bed thinking about how to handle it, the woman lying on top of him finally woke up.

After opening her eyes with a trace of confusion, she lifted her head slightly and saw Yang Chen looking at her with an expression of calm indifference.

The man before her was unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar at the same time. In her nose and mouth was nothing but the rich scent of a man, along with a certain lewd, lingering odor.

As she struggled to piece together what had happened, fragments of last night's scenes surfaced in her mind... and very quickly, she understood everything.

Once Yang Chen realized she was not a woman who sold her body, he became curious about what kind of reaction she would have. Screaming?

Cursing?

Calling the police?

Or blackmailing him?

If that was the case, Yang Chen would not feel the least bit guilty. She could do whatever she wanted.

If it had not been for him, what she would have faced was the "greeting" of a group of men. If anyone was to blame, it could only be her own carelessness for wandering into wolf territory.

But the woman's reaction was unexpectedly calm.

She slowly sat up. In the soft daylight, after she shed the blanket, her naked body, as if carved from white jade, created a visual impact that made Yang Chen's breathing deepen at once.

Her body still bore reddish marks from biting and slapping, and even some sticky traces left behind by a man made one imagine all kinds of things.

Without the slightest hint of awkwardness, the woman got out of bed. She was completely naked, so exposed that even the patch of hair between her legs could be seen at a glance.

Yet it was precisely this cold, composed calm that made Yang Chen feel a sudden weight in his chest. After taking a deep breath, he said, "I'm sorry."

The woman was in the middle of turning to put on her close-fitting clothes. Hearing those three words, she paused slightly, but she did not answer or turn around. She simply continued getting dressed.

Yang Chen said nothing more. It was as if a stone had been pressed onto his heart, making it hard to breathe. It had been many years since he had felt guilty about sleeping with a woman like this.

In the years before, women had, more often than not, been nothing more than medicine for his wounds. They were not really anything like thinking beings of the same kind.

All at once, having an overnight woman stir up such complicated guilt in his heart made Yang Chen wonder if he had relaxed for too long and gone a little stupid in the head.

Within five minutes, the woman had finished dressing and tidied her appearance slightly, leaving it hard to tell there had been anything unusual at all. Then, still silent, she walked toward the door.

Seeing her leave without saying a word, Yang Chen could not help asking again, "Do you know the way? Want me to see you out?"

This time, she did not even pause. She just walked out on her own and casually closed the door behind her.

Yang Chen stared blankly at the closed door and could not help but let out a wry smile. This woman could also be considered one of the finest he had ever seen in his life. But just as he was about to get out of bed, Yang Chen, whose hearing was far better than that of an ordinary person, still caught a muffled sob drifting up from the stairwell...

So she had still cried, only she had refused to let him see or hear it. Unfortunately for her, she did not know that his hearing was far beyond that of normal people, so she had still failed to hide it from him.

Thinking about how, all that time just now, the woman had been forcing back her tears, Yang Chen's guilt only grew stronger.

******

After a quick tidying up, Yang Chen remembered that he still had his mutton stall to open. Although that little stall did not make much money, what he had liked from the start was watching the crowd come and go in the bustle, the endless variety of life in the world. Money or no money, it did not matter much.

After pushing his little one-wheeled cart to his stall, Old Li, who was already selling fried sausages nearby, smiled at Yang Chen. "Xiao Yang, you're late today. Don't tell me you were out on a date yesterday."

Yang Chen thought to himself that there had been no date, only a night in bed, and answered lightly, "Nothing like that. Don't go making things up. I overslept."

Old Li chuckled and said with some satisfaction, "My Jingjing finished her internship and came home. She even told me yesterday to remember your kindness, Xiao Yang. If it hadn't been for you, with us having to pay for my old lady's medical treatment and give Jingjing money for her internship and living expenses far away, how could our family have held on?"

Old Li's daughter, Li Jingjing, was the late-born daughter treasured by the old couple. After graduating from college, she went to intern at a company in another city and had only come home after two months.

Yang Chen had seen the girl twice. She was the classic gentle beauty of the Jiangnan water towns, but since she was his friend's daughter, he would not set his sights on her.

"Heh, what thanks do you need? If I ever don't have money for a meal, letting me mooch one from you would be enough," Yang Chen joked.

"All right!" Old Li suddenly nodded. "If you hadn't said it, I'd have forgotten. My old lady and Jingjing both said they want to invite you to our home for a proper meal to thank you. Tonight!"

"This... isn't necessary, right? Your family already has enough on its plate. Why spend money treating me to a meal?"

Old Li said with mock anger, "What kind of expense is one meal? Just a simple country meal. If you don't come, Xiao Yang, you're looking down on our family."

Yang Chen had no choice. He could not beat this stubborn old man in an argument, so he had to nod and agree, and only then did Old Li beam with delight.

But at that moment, a few shady-looking figures appeared again in the market. Seeing Yang Chen and Old Li, the leader among the little punks gave a sinister smile.