The Lighter and Princess Gown

Overgrown Grassland

14. Chapter 14

The natural result of drinking too much was to vomit.

Zhu Yun had never imagined that there would be a day where she hugged the toilet, vomitting. When she finished, she even looked up at the light and laughed.

There was no saving her. She felt like dying.

She went to the faucet and washed her face with cold water, praying for her sense of reason to return. She raised her head and saw her very red face in the miror. She touched her cheeks. Hot.

She stepped out of the washroom, where Li Xun stood waiting.

“Are you okay? Why did you drink so much at once?” Li Xun had a hand on his waist, frown on his face, and a pair of eye-catchingly long legs.

Zhu Yun charged at his legs.

“Hey!” Li Xun extended his arms to hold her up. “You okay?”

Zhu Yun shook her head. Li Xun’s frown deepened as he considered what to do. Then he pulled her outside and made a phone call. Shortly after, Gao Jianhong, dragging along a drunken Han Jiakang, came outside. And not long after that, Ren Di also came out with her guitar on her back.

“What’s this?” Ren Di walked up to Zhu Yun and waved her hand. “Hey!”

Zhu Yun waved back. “Hey!”

Ren Di laughed. Li Xun asked her, “Can you leave now?”

“Mmh. We were about finished up, so the others can take care of the rest.”

Li Xun nodded, and then he shoved Zhu Yun towards her. “You take her.”

After being pushed, Zhu Yun felt like she wanted to vomit again. Ren Di pat her back and said, “Steady. Let’s go.”

On the road, a muddleheaded Zhu Yun said, “This isn’t the way back to school.”

Li Xun pulled out his smoke. “You’re going back to school at this hour?”

Zhu Yun asked, “Then where are we going?”

Ren Di held onto her. “Back to my studio.”

Ren Di’s studio was in an office building a few streets south of the school’s campus. The building was four stories. For ease of putting in equipment, the space was just wide and open, with only a few load bearing pillars.

The south-facing side of the studio was practice space. There were instruments and sound systems spread across the floor, along with a tangle of wires. The north-facing side was for resting. The decor was very primitive, with just two wide beds, covered with a mess of things.

It was nearly 2 am.

After the long day, everyone was exhausted. Gao Jianhong put Han Jiakang on a bed and dropped down as well. Less than half a minute later, he was asleep.

Ren Di put down her guitar and helped Zhu Yun to the other bed. Without removing her makeup, she knocked off for the night as well.

There was only a dim light on in the studio. Zhu Yun took a look around and saw Li Xun’s bag and clothes in the corner. She quietly asked Ren Di, “Does Li Xun sleep here often?”

Ren Di was too tired to open her eyes. She simply said, “Mmh. Sometimes when he works too late at the practice base, he’ll sleep here.”

“You let him stay here for free?”

“He’s our band’s investor.”

“Ah?”

Ren Di turned over. Her voice grew quieter as she said, “Weren’t you curious about our relationship before? This is it. He’s the investor that I found.”

Zhu Yun blinked.

Ren Di yawned. Muddleheaded, she said, “No… I’m so tired. I’m going to sleep.”

Zhu Yun turned her head and saw Li Xun by the wall. “Hey, are you sleeping?”

Li Xun seemed to be thinking about something. When he heard her voice, he looked over. “I will, later. Go to sleep.” Then he turned the light off.

The room went pitch black.

Zhu Yun was lying in bed, her head pointed towards the place Li Xun was sitting. She turned over in bed a few times, and then she realized that there was some light past her head.

Zhu Yun looked over and saw that Li Xun had finished a smoke and was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, his laptop open.

Everyone else was already sleeping, so she whispered as quietly as she could, “What are you doing?”

Li Xun replied, “Nothing. Go to sleep.”

Zhu Yun extended her neck more. “The project’s already finished, so what are you still writing?”

Li Xun impatiently lit another cigarette and turned to her. “Are you going to sleep or not? Why do you have so much crap to say after you drink.”

“……”

Quiet.
　
After three seconds, Li Xun turned back to his work—

“Are you starting a new project?”

“……”

“What’s it got to do with you?”

Tsss! Ash fell on his hand and Li Xun closed his laptop.

Even from five meters away, Zhu Yun could feel his anger. She quickly retreated and timidly said, “Okay, okay, I’ll shut up. I’m going to sleep.”

The world was quiet once more.

Several minutes later, Li Xun felt that something wasn’t quite right.

In the darkness, it seemed like something furry was creeping up behind him.

Li Xun was extremely focused when he worked and rarely got distracted. But this fuzzy thing was that was entering the vicinity of the computer screen cut into his thoughts. He turned. Zhu Yun’s head was approaching. Her body was stuck to the wall behind them as she moved forward, little by little.

Luckily, Li Xun wasn’t afriad of ghosts. If he’d been a timid person, he would have already fainted.

“Lan—” a quiet voice started to read. Li Xun reacted immediately as she started speaking. He put down his laptop and covered her mouth.

“Guan—” Zhu Yun struggled against him to finish. “Lan, ohh—”

“Be quiet!” Li Xun whispered. Suddenly, he felt a pain in his hand. “You dare bite me?!”

She dared to bite. She dared to kick too.

Zhu Yun started to kick chaotically, and the anger inside Li Xun burned. Finally, he grabbed Zhu Yun’s arms and pressed them together.

“Can you stop messing around?!”

“Languan Company!”

After their struggle, she found that she’d lost her glasses. In order to better see her opponent and give off an imposing air, she moved her face closer to his and stared into his eyes, their noses nearly touching.

“I saw it!” Her breathing grew faster, the smell of alcohol in the air. “Don’t think I didn’t see. That was for Languan! What project is that? How long have you been working on it? Why did you hide it from us? You better tell the truth.”

Her voice was getting louder. Li Xun was afraid that she would wake someone up, so he covered her mouth again.

This time, Zhu Yun was prepared. The moment he released his hold on her, she quickly grabbed onto him, like a monkey on a tree, dragging him down.

Li Xun fell to the floor.

“Fuck!” When his knees hit the floor, he clenched his teeth in pain.

After Zhu Yun’s successful counterattack, she didn’t forget her imposing stare. “Got you!”

Li Xun, “……”

Someone on the bed turned. Li Xun glanced over, and then he looked down at Zhu Yun, hanging off of him. Finally, he let out a helpless sigh and closed his laptop. He got up from the ground and dragged Zhu Yun out to the balcony.

After closing the door behind them, Li Xun pulled Zhu Yun off of himself.

“After drinking a little, you went fucking crazy.” He couldn’t help cursing at her as he looked at the disheveled-haired Zhu Yun.

Zhu Yun pointed at him. “Don’t change the subject. What was that?”

Li Xun leaned against the balcony railing and looked out at the quiet night scene. In a tired voice, he said, “That’s why I don’t like girls like you. Rambling all day long, asking and asking and asking.”

“What is it?”

Li Xun looked at her, and then he headed back inside. Zhu Yun wanted to grab onto him, but he turned back and pinched her chin. He was very close.

“That’s enough,” he said quietly. “Wait here.”

And so, Zhu Yun obediently waited on the balcony. After a moment, Li Xun returned with his laptop in hand. He handed it over to Zhu Yun and then lit another cigarette.

Zhu Yun looked at it and Li Xun said, “The main purpose of this system is—”

“No, no, no,” Zhu Yun cut him off. “I’ll look at it myself.”

Li Xun raised his brows.

A triumphant expression crossed Zhu Yun’s drunken face. Slowly, she said, “I can understand your code now. I don’t have to force myself.”

As he recalled their past exchange, Li Xun couldn’t help smiling.
　　
Zhu Yun sat down on the ground and then said, “So tell me. Why are you making this?”

“To sell it.”
　　
“Sell it?”

“Languan’s website development is a bit lacking. If they continue on as is, they will have a very hard time earning money.”

Zhu Yun raised her head. Li Xun was leaning against the railing, cigarette in his hand. He wasn’t smoking though. His head was lowered as he fiddled with it.

On the floor above them lived a foot massage shop. Their shop sign was neon pink. As it shined onto his golden head, the image was both dirty and yet beautiful.

“If you knew it wouldn’t make money, why didn’t you tell them?” she asked.

Her comment made Li Xun laugh. “If I told them, how would I earn money?”

Zhu Yun lowered her head without speaking.

Li Xun continued, “There are tons of shopping sites and much larger platforms. Languan is producing and selling their own products, but their site has no special features. Why would anyone buy fron them? They only follow the trend, but they don’t even understand their own strengths. Did they think money was that easy to earn?”

Zhu Yun still didn’t respond.

The air felt stagnant.

Li Xun was quiet a moment, and then he spoke softly, “I didn’t intend to hide it from you guys. In the beginning, I hadn’t planned to do this. If Zhang Xiaobei hadn’t jumped in, and we’d signed the contract, I would have given them some suggestions. But since she did push her way in, this was my only option.”
　　
Li Xun dropped his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.

This quiet was making him a bit uneasy.

“Don’t get into a huff, I’m not one to flatter people.” With a frown, he looked over at Zhu Yun’s drooping head. “You—”

Snoring.

“……”

Li Xun crouched down and looked at Zhu Yun’s lowered head. She was already completey asleep. He was left speechless. Finally, he said, “…I’m seriously fucked.”

He carried Zhu Yun back inside and placed her on the bed. He sincerely hoped that she wouldn’t remember anything in the morning.

The next day, Zhu Yun got up and saw that Li Xun had already left. She and Gao Jianhong headed back to school together. After class finished, she headed straight to the practice base.

Li Xun was having some fun with his new girlfriend. Zhu Yun walked over and pulled at her slender waist. Gently pulling her to the side, Zhu Yun said, “Come on, sit here for a bit.”

“What are you doing?” his girlfriend asked unhappily.

Zhu Yun pulled over a chair and sat down in front of Li Xun. “We didn’t finish our talk last night.”

For the first time, Li Xun felt the headache from an all-nighter.

He got up and led Zhu Yun into the hallway. Just then, Gao Jianhong was heading inside. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Li Xun replied, his steps accelerating. Zhu Yun was basically hauled off by him. After heading down the hall, they made a turn, and then Li Xun pushed Zhu Yun against the wall.
　　
“You’re going to keep going on incessantly, aren’t you?”

Li Xun was tall, and as he looked down at her, his larger momentum bolstered his superiority. Zhu Yun quietly tip-toed to bolster her height, to little avail.

“Say things clearly.”

“Clearly, my ass!”

She pushed Li Xun. He didn’t budge, but at least it expressed her emotions.

“We spent so much effort working on this website, but then you say that it’s useless. So was all our hard work pointless?”

“Pointless?” Li Xun scoffed. “You didn’t gain anything from completing this project?”

Zhu Yun’s voice went quiet. “…Well, that’s not exactly right.”

“If I had told you that the website wouldn’t make any money, and that someone else was going to take credit for it, would you have worked that hard?”

Zhu Yun replied, “But—”

“There are no buts. There was nothing wrong with the website. It was completed well. Whether or not it makes money depends on a lot of factors.”

Zhu Yun said, “You still could have told us. We would have continued to keep working together.”

“Have you already forgetten what Han Jiakang said?”

“……”

“Continue? Working for someone else? Making money for them?”

Zhu Tun couldn’t help muttering, “Money, money, money! All you have to talk about is money. You’re just the same as Zhang Xiaobei.”

Paah!

Li Xun’s hand hit the wall beside Zhu Yun’s face.

“Princess.”

“……”

“It’s true that you won’t know the cost of fuel and rice until you’re the head of a household.”

Huh?

Li Xun continued, “Do you know how much it costs to pay Ren Di’s crap band?”

Zhu Yun shook her head and Li Xun scoffed.

He raised his chin and asked, “Do the computers in the practice base run quickly?”

Nod.

“Do you know their specs?”

Shakes head.

“Have you ever wondered why this is the only classroom in the entire school where the computers run this fast?”

She shook her head again.

“Would the school have spent money to prepare them for us? Why would they? Because you’re pretty?” 　
Ah? You think I’m pretty? Zhu Yun realized that her thoughts had completely changed course.

Li Xun looked at her. He straightened up and said, “There are only so many good projects. If you don’t fight for them, then they’re gone. You want me to give up my resources? You’re dreaming.”

Zhu Yun snuck a glance at him.

Li Xun’s arms were on his waist as he looked to the side, in thought.

He really looked like a stray dog.

Zhu Yun asked, “If you were dissatisfied with Zhang Xiaobei, why didn’t you mention it to us sooner? Why did you have to suffer in silence?”

“If I spoke up earlier, there would have been tons of back and forth, and nothing would have come out of it.” He looked at Zhu Yun. “There are many ways to resolve a single issue. I could make something better and you guys could gain more experience with this project. There was no reason to waste time. As for Zhang Xiaobei…” He scoffed. “The world is filled with people like her. If I were to deal with each and every one of them, I wouldn’t be able to put a meal on the table.”

“……”

Zhu Yun lowered her head and Li Xun asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Zhu Yun pouted. “I’m recalling something.”

“Recalling what?”

“The pot of encouraging, poisonous chicken soup you gave me in the beginning.”

“……”

Zhu Yun copied Li Xun’s tone. She cleared her throat and then spoke emotionally, “Everything in the world can only maintain its original form at the very beginning. As time moves forward, those things will diverge from their original form. But those things are still worth the effort we put into them. Because with our hard work, we can keep those things from changing too greatly. Don’t you think so?” She wiggled her brows at Li Xun. “Right?”

She’d just meant to tease him, but she hadn’t expected that Li Xun would purse his lips. “You remember my words that clearly?”

“……”

“Not bad.”

The victorious General Li arrogantly returned to the base. Zhu Yun tried to restrain herself, but after a bit, she ran up to Li Xun and vented her anger by giving him a shove.

Li Xun staggered and turned back. “What are you doing?!”

Zhu Yun glared at him. “You golden haired demon, hmph!” Then she rolled her eyes and walked off.