Chapter 49

Chapter 49

He especially sounded hoarse today—not the slight morning hoarseness after just waking up, but more like a voice worn down from smoking too much.

He Wei was still not fully awake. Her eyelids lifted slightly, and she saw him close the balcony door and walk back in.

She hummed softly in a half-asleep state.

It definitely hurt, but after Yan Huai carefully cleaned her up last night, it was much better now.

Yan Huai walked to the bedside and sat down, reaching out to touch her face. “Still hurting?”

A slightly heavy smell of smoke drifted into her nose. He Wei subconsciously wrinkled her nose. “So early in the morning, what are you smoking for?”

No, it wasn’t just early in the morning.

The smell of smoke on him was too strong today—he must have smoked at least a few.

Her brows furrowed as well. She opened her eyes a little more. “How many did you smoke?”

“Not many.”

He Wei didn’t believe him. She stared at his face for a few seconds, then lifted the blanket and got out of bed, walking straight onto the balcony.

The balcony was well-ventilated, but the smell of smoke still lingered faintly.

She immediately saw the ashtray on the low table. Inside, cigarette butts lay scattered everywhere. She roughly counted them—no fewer than ten.

The cigarette pack beside it was already empty.

Clearly not just post-sex cigarettes.

No one smokes this many afterward.

He Wei’s brows furrowed even deeper.

She stared at the pile of cigarette butts for a long while, until Yan Huai came up behind her and took her hand. Only then did she react. She stood still, turning her head slightly. “This is called not many?”

After a pause, she suddenly remembered something. Her ears heated up, and a flicker of light passed through her eyes. “Was it because yesterday… I didn’t make you feel good…”

Yan Huai: “……”

He Wei took his silence as confirmation, both frustrated and ashamed.

The original body was already weak, and she truly had no experience at all.

On top of that, she herself was nervous yesterday and completely unable to relax. Let alone pleasing Yan Huai, it was already difficult that she didn’t call a stop midway.

She looked up at him. “I—”

Yan Huai cut her off: “No.”

The marks he left on her last night were still very obvious; there were faint, ambiguous red bruises on her collarbone. Yan Huai exhaled a breath and pulled her gently into his arms. “I felt very good yesterday.”

He Wei’s ears grew even hotter.

Yan Huai closed his eyes slightly and lowered his head to kiss her hair. His hand moved downward. “Still hurting?”

She nodded slightly, then quickly shook her head. “It’s much better.”

“I told you not to lie to me.”

Yan Huai controlled his hand from moving further down, instead tugging at the hem of her robe. “If you weren’t lying to me, it wouldn’t hurt this much.”

He Wei didn’t understand what he meant. “...When did I lie to you?”

Yan Huai lowered his head slightly and said something softly in her ear.

He was referring to the time before, when he asked her whether she had slept with Yan Chen.

At the time, He Wei only wanted to make Yan Huai give up on her, so following the logic of those domineering CEO romance novels where male leads are obsessed with purity and virginity, she lied to him once. Who would have thought he would remember it until now.

She pushed him slightly. “Clearly it’s your technique that’s not good.”

As soon as those words came out, the air instantly froze.

He Wei: “……”

She seemed to have accidentally stepped on a landmine.

It seemed like no man liked hearing something like that.

She pressed her lips together. She hadn’t drunk water for a long time, so her throat was dry, but now she didn’t even dare to clear her throat out of embarrassment.

Yan Huai, on the other hand, didn’t think much of it.

He had wanted He Wei for a long time. Last night, the foreplay hadn’t been sufficient, and he didn’t know it was her first time, so he might indeed have been a bit heavy-handed.

Until later, when it ended and he carried He Wei to wash up, he clearly saw the marks left on the bedsheet.

The once clean white sheets were stained, and that patch of red was especially glaring.

He Wei had lied to him.

If Yan Huai had known it was her first time, no matter how much of a beast he was, he would not have gone at her so recklessly.

Regret was definitely there.

But more than that was excitement—an excitement that seeped up slowly from his bones, making him tremble.

All of this, He Wei would never know.

After a long silence, He Wei still couldn’t help but ask, “Are you angry?”

“No.”

Yan Huai let go of her. “Rest well for a few days.”

As if worried she wouldn’t feel at ease, he added, “I won’t touch you for this period.”

He Wei: “……”

???

He Wei suspected there was something wrong with her ears.

Just a second ago, she could still feel this man’s body reacting in the morning, and the next second, he said something like that.

He Wei thought to herself that Yan Huai must think she was too lousy.

So lousy that it wasn’t even as good as his own “golden right hand.”

He Wei thought about it the entire day.

The more she thought about it, the worse she felt—both wronged and frustrated.

That night, after filming ended, He Wei didn’t go to Yan Huai’s room. Instead, she curled up alone in bed, downloaded an adults-only film, and put on headphones to watch it like a thief.

She wanted to see what other women could possibly do in bed.

He Wei endured the discomfort and watched for five minutes.

After five minutes, she really couldn’t stand the greasy-looking male lead in the video anymore and immediately closed the page.

Just as the room fell quiet in her headphones, her phone buzzed: 【Come to my room.】

He Wei: 【I’m not going.】

Was she going over there just to humiliate herself?

【Be good, come over.】

【I’m going to sleep.】

【Sleep together.】

He Wei ignored him.

She exited the chat with Yan Huai and opened the group chat instead.

The variety show had already been filming for two days. Yesterday, the chief director created a group chat and added all the guests and other staff.

Inside, everyone was mostly discussing the filming schedule for the next few days.

Just then, the director sent the schedule for tomorrow: they would continue filming there in the morning, have half a day of free time in the afternoon, and take an 8 p.m. flight back home.

Only then did He Wei remember to ask Yan Huai when he was leaving, and she sent him another message.

Yan Huai: 【9 a.m. tomorrow. I have a business meeting.】

Two seconds later, he sent another: 【After that, I’ll be on a business trip for a week.】

In other words, after today, she wouldn’t see Yan Huai for at least a week.

He Wei suddenly felt a little restless.

Yan Huai: 【Coming or not?】

After a few seconds of hesitation, He Wei put on her clothes and left her room.

Although she had already washed up and was basically ready for bed, she still made sure to dress neatly before going out in a hotel.

She took the stairs. Just as she turned the corner of the staircase, she ran into another male guest from the crew.

This time it wasn’t Su Mu—it was Fu Chengyu.

They had been filming for nearly two days, but He Wei hadn’t spoken much to him off-camera. When they met, she only gave a faint nod as a greeting.

The man didn’t respond, but his motion of opening the door paused.

He Wei felt his gaze on her was a little strange.

She couldn’t quite tell where it was strange.

Just as she was about to look away, she heard the system’s voice: “Host, don’t you think Fu Chengyu is looking at you in a very strange way?”

“Strange.”

Fu Chengyu in front had already opened the door and walked in expressionlessly.

The system tried to hint at her: “Host, don’t you think his name sounds very nice?”

“…It’s okay, I guess.”

He had an odd way of looking at her—what did that have to do with whether his name sounded nice or not?

The system got a little anxious. In its panic, it started stuttering uncontrollably: “He he he—this name at first glance is definitely not a cannon-fodder male supporting character!”

He Wei retorted: “Yan Chen’s name doesn’t sound like a male lead either.”

“……”

The system was actually left speechless.

After a few seconds of silence—just as He Wei took the room card and opened Yan Huai’s door—she heard the system speak again: “Ho-host, Fu Chengyu is the or-or-original host’s first lo-lo-love from middle school.”

“……”

He Wei froze at the door.

She didn’t know whether it was because she hadn’t reached the plot point where Fu Chengyu appeared in the earlier storyline, or because this character had been newly added by the author in this version, but she had absolutely no impression of him.

She didn’t even have the original host’s memories, so she was completely confused about this so-called “first love.”

Before she could figure it out, someone tugged her forward and pulled her into his arms. The sound of the door closing came from behind her, and only then did He Wei come back to her senses.

The system continued providing background on this new character: “The original host started having a crush on Fu Chengyu in first year of high school. In third year, she pursued him, probably for about three months, before Fu Chengyu finally accepted her.”

The system went on: “But because the original host is a tragic romance female lead, she has to be constantly tormented. Not long after they got together, after graduation, Fu Chengyu needed to go abroad for studies. But he didn’t want to break up after leaving, so in the end he even considered not going. His mother found the original host, gave her a one-million cheque, and asked her to leave her son.”

He Wei: “……”

She guessed that little white-flower original heroine definitely didn’t accept that one million, otherwise she wouldn’t be this poor.

The system seemed to know what she was thinking and said mercilessly: “Host, the original host accepted it!”

…What kind of devil author was this?

The system added: “At that time the original host’s grandmother needed surgery and required a large sum of money, so she had no choice.”

Fine—this was a classic breakup setup often seen in reconciliation-after-breakup plots.

The system said: “Host, you might want to look at Fu Chengyu’s interviews from the past two years. It might help with future plot development!”

As soon as it finished speaking, with a ding, the system directly went offline.

He Wei was still stuck on the painful fact that she had “dumped Fu Chengyu” and couldn’t recover for a long time.

Luckily, Yan Huai was on the phone. He only held her without doing anything further and didn’t notice anything unusual.

He talked for five minutes, and for five minutes he stood at the entryway holding He Wei.

After five minutes, he hung up, picked her up and placed her on the bed. “Thinking about who?”

He Wei quickly said obediently: “Thinking about you.”

Yan Huai curled his lips, clearly not believing a word of it. “I won’t be in the country for the next few days. If anything happens, look for my sister.”

He Wei nodded, hooked her arms around his neck, and kissed him. “Yan Huai…”

“What is it?”

Do you mind that I liked someone before?

Forget it—He Wei didn’t dare ask.

The words she had on the tip of her tongue were forced back down.

On the other hand, Yan Huai leaned down and gently kissed the corner of her lips. His kiss was extremely light—he didn’t dare deepen it. Even his voice was kept very soft: “Sleep early.”

He Wei hummed in response.

She really did fall asleep early that night.

But maybe because she slept too early, or maybe because she was frightened by the system, He Wei woke up a little after four in the morning.

In her mind flashed Fu Chengyu’s face, and his cold voice questioning her—

“So you dumped me for one million?!”

“Am I not even worth one million?!”

…Too terrifying.

He Wei was so scared her scalp tingled. Just as she pressed her phone awake and opened Weibo to search for Fu Chengyu’s interviews, an arm wrapped around her waist.

“What are you looking at?”