As If I Never Existed

“...Fine, but why don’t you two go to a hotel? You can have as much fun as you want there. Doing this at home is making me really uncomfortable!”

“How was I supposed to know you were home? You told me you were going out on a date. Have you ever come back halfway through a date?”

“I... So this is my fault?”

“Whose fault would it be? You completely ruined the atmosphere we worked so hard to create,” Emma snapped.

“You!! Then I’ll leave?”

“You have to leave. Hurry up—we still have business to take care of!”

“Fine, fine, fine. You really are my dear little sister. I can leave, but...”

“But what?”

“I don’t care what you two do, but after I leave, don’t go messing around in my room.”

“We’re not that disgusting. Just go already.”

“Wait. Where am I supposed to go this late at night?”

“Weren’t you going on a date?”

“She suddenly had something come up and left,” Lucia said, rolling her eyes.

“Then go get a hotel. I’ll pay for it, okay? Hurry up!! I’m in a hurry here!”

“Wait a second! I haven’t even put on my clothes... Oh my God!” As she spoke, Lucia suddenly looked down and realized that she was wearing a semi-transparent black nightdress. Underneath...

“Shit!! He saw everything!!”

“So what if he saw? It wasn’t intentional. Besides, with me there, he isn’t interested in looking at you. Hurry up and get changed.” Emma walked over to the wardrobe, pulled out a set of clothes, and tossed them to Lucia.

“Hurry up!!”

“Hey! What are you rushing me for? Once I’m gone, you’ll have plenty of time.” Lucia glared at Emma, picked up the clothes, and began changing.

Meanwhile, Su Yang leaned back on the sofa and thought things over. Earlier, Emma had told him that her sister wasn’t home, so ever since he entered the house, he had assumed no one else was there.

Emma’s room was some distance from Lucia’s, and the door had remained closed the whole time, so he hadn’t paid much attention at first.

Who would have thought Lucia had been there from the very beginning? He had no idea whether she had heard what was going on earlier, but it didn’t really matter either way.

Inside the room, Emma stared at Lucia as she changed and asked, “Why did you go sleep in my room just now?”

“I got up to use the bathroom. When I reached the bathroom door, I heard water running inside, so I thought you were taking a shower. Then I figured I’d use the bathroom in your room instead.”

“But when I got there, I heard water running in that bathroom too. I’d just woken up, and my head was still a little groggy, so I didn’t realize what was going on. I lay down on your bed for a while, but the moment I did, I fell asleep again.”

“Wait!” At that point, Lucia seemed to remember something and suddenly stopped moving.

“What is it?” Emma asked.

“When I was half-asleep, I vaguely felt like someone was hugging me.”

“What?”

“It must have been your boyfriend! He took advantage of me while I was asleep...”

“Stop right there! How could that be? She probably thought the person on the bed was me, so she just...”

“Either way, he hugged me.”

“And what exactly do you want me to do about it?” Emma said speechlessly.

“Maybe I shouldn’t leave after all...” Lucia blinked and smiled.

Emma instantly understood what Lucia meant. She waved her little fists and shouted, “Go to hell!!”

“Hahaha, I’m just teasing you. Even if you wanted me to stay, I wouldn’t. I’m leaving.”

Lucia finished changing and walked out of the room.

Su Yang looked up, waved, and said with a smile, “Hi, sis. Nice to meet you.”

“You can call me Lucia. I’m Emma’s older sister.”

“I know. She’s told me about you.”

“Really? You’re quite handsome.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I have something to take care of, so I’m heading out. You two carry on and pretend I was never here. Bye!”

Lucia hurried to the door, put on her shoes, opened it, and left.

Bang.

The front door closed, and Emma came out of the room.

“Su... I’m sorry. I really didn’t know my sister was home.”

“It’s fine. She’s going out again?”

“Forget about her. Let’s continue!” Emma bit her lip and quickly ran to the sofa, then leaped onto Su Yang’s lap.

“Su!” She stared down at him, breathing heavily, and lowered her head to kiss him.

Click.

At that exact moment, the front door opened again.

Before Su Yang and Emma had time to react, Lucia spotted them from the doorway.

Her eyelid twitched. Grinning, she took a bag from beside the door and said, “Haha, sorry, sorry! Carry on. I’ll disappear right away!”

Bang.

The door closed again.

Su Yang tilted his head to glance at it, then looked back at Emma. “She’s not coming back again, right?”

“She’s driving me crazy. Should I go lock the door?”

“Forget it, forget it. Let’s continue!” Su Yang pulled Emma toward him.

Lucia did not appear again.

An hour later, Su Yang carried Emma back to her room.

The two of them finally settled down and fell asleep at three-thirty in the morning.

The night passed uneventfully.

At ten the next morning, Su Yang slowly opened his eyes.

A few seconds later, Emma woke up as well. She rubbed her eyes, and the two of them looked at each other.

“It’s ten o’clock. We should probably get up,” Su Yang said.

Emma stretched, sat up, and leaned against the headboard. “I’m exhausted.”

“Exhausted?”

“Yeah. It’s all because of you. My whole body is sore.”

“Then how about I give you a massage?”

“You know how to massage people?”

“Of course!”

“Then give me one.” Emma turned over and lay facedown on the bed.

Seeing this, Su Yang thought to himself, “I’m sorry, Emma!”

Ding! Emma’s affection for the host has increased to 100. Reward: eight million yuan and two attribute-point cards.

......

At noon, the two got up and went into the living room. Emma turned toward Su Yang and lightly smacked him, pretending to be angry.

“You’re so annoying!”

Su Yang smiled, walked over to the table, picked up a bottle of mineral water, opened it, and took a sip.

Emma turned around and asked, “Do you have any plans today? Is there somewhere you want to go?”

“I don’t feel like going anywhere.”

“You came all the way here on vacation, and you don’t want to visit anywhere?”

“Didn’t we go to the Arc de Triomphe yesterday? Then we walked along the Seine and went to the Champs-Élysées. How can you say we didn’t go anywhere?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

After thinking for a moment, she continued, “How long are you planning to stay in Paris?”

“I’ll probably be leaving tomorrow.”

“Leaving tomorrow? Isn’t that a little sudden?”

“Yeah. I have a friend in Switzerland, and I’m going to visit her tomorrow.”

“I see. All right. Will you come back to Paris afterward?”

“Probably not.”

Hearing this, Emma looked at Su Yang with a hint of disappointment. “Then will we ever get another chance to see each other?”

“Of course. If you ever go to China, just contact me. I’ll either be in Haicheng or Shanghai.”

“All right. If I go to China, I’ll definitely look you up.”

“Okay.”

Emma’s disappointment did not last long, and she soon returned to normal.

Su Yang took another sip of water and said, “By the way, Emma, have you ever eaten Chinese food?”

“No, I haven’t. Do you want some?”

“I’m asking whether you want some. If you do, I can cook for you.”

“You can cook?”

“I know a little.”

“Sure. But we might have to go out and buy ingredients. The food I have here probably won’t work for what you want to make.”

“Sure. I don’t have anything else to do right now anyway.”

“All right, let’s go.”

As they spoke, they pushed open the door and left. Emma took Su Yang to a nearby supermarket to buy some ingredients before returning home.

Su Yang prepared a simple meal of three dishes and a soup. After tasting Chinese cuisine, Emma seemed as though she had discovered an entirely new world. French cuisine was excellent in its own right, but when it came to variety, there were few cuisines anywhere in the world that could compare with China’s.

After dinner, with nothing else to do, the two of them returned to the bedroom and continued exchanging insights for a while.

It was not until five in the afternoon that Su Yang said goodbye to Emma and returned to the hotel.

He took a shower, changed into a fresh outfit, and then went out onto the balcony to sit down.

Li Yuanying had sent him a message earlier, but he had been too busy exchanging insights with Emma to reply. He only opened his phone now.

“Su Yang, I’m already at the fashion week venue.”

The message came with a beautiful selfie.

Su Yang typed back: “Sorry, Yuanying. I was caught up with something earlier and didn’t see your message. You go ahead and take care of things. Let me know when you’re finished.”

Li Yuanying did not reply for the time being. She was probably watching a show at the moment.

I’ll have dinner with Li Yuanying later, then head to Switzerland tomorrow to find Yoshie.

At the thought of this, Su Yang felt a little excited. Yoshie had left an especially deep impression on him.

Although the two or three days he had spent at Yoshie’s home had been brief, they had been an unprecedented experience—one whose effects had lingered long afterward.

Now that he had another chance to experience it, who could possibly resist?

……