Power Outage, Heavy Rain, A Night of Drinking and Chatting

“Ow!”

“Ah!”

The three women pummelled, pinched, and bumped into him all at once.

Although Su Yang cried out as if he were suffering terribly, the truth was that none of it hurt him in the slightest.

Those tiny blows felt no different from being tickled—if anything, they were even less effective than that.

Still, he did his best to play along and let the three of them vent their emotions. As he did so, he occasionally took the opportunity to sneak a few liberties.

After all, no one was paying attention in the current situation.

After venting for about three minutes, the three women finally tired themselves out and stopped.

For all their “venting,” they hadn’t actually used much strength.

Li Yuanying sat down on the carpet, breathing heavily as she glared at Su Yang. “You nearly scared us to death, you know that?!”

“Yes, yes, I know. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“Hmph! Ow, my poor heart.”

“What’s wrong with your poor heart? Let me feel it.” As he spoke, Su Yang sat up and reached out toward her.

Li Yuanying shot him a glare. “Stop right there! Are you trying to take advantage of the situation?”

“I’m just worried about you.”

“I don’t need you to worry about me! Hmph.”

“Su-san, please don’t do something like that again. You really scared us to death,” Yoshie said from the side.

“Yes, yes, I know. I got carried away and didn’t think about the consequences. It was my fault.” Su Yang looked at the three of them and apologized again with an appropriately contrite expression.

Qingxia huffed angrily. “Fine. Since it’s your first offense, I’ll forgive you.”

“Hehe, thanks!”

After resting for a few more minutes, the three women finally returned to normal.

Once everyone had settled back into their seats, Su Yang smiled and asked, “Are we still telling scary stories?”

“No way. That was scary enough for one night! Even if the power comes back on tonight, I’m sleeping with the lights on.” Li Yuanying rolled her eyes.

“Then let’s drink. A little alcohol should help.”

“Fine.”

Su Yang stood up. “I’ll go get the drinks.”

“Wait! You’re not planning to pull another stunt, are you?” Li Yuanying watched him warily.

“Do I look like I dare? Look, you’ve already pinched my hands red.”

“You brought that on yourself!”

“I’m coming with you!” Li Yuanying rose to her feet. “To make sure you don’t try anything else, I have to keep an eye on you.”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go.”

The two of them headed toward the kitchen.

Once they entered the blind spot near the kitchen, Li Yuanying suddenly shoved Su Yang against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m still not satisfied!”

“Then what would it take to satisfy you?”

“I…” Li Yuanying’s face instantly flushed in the darkness.

Su Yang smiled faintly, slipped behind her, and pinned her against the wall. Without another word, he leaned in and gave her a deep kiss.

“Mmph…”

“Su-san?!”

Ten-odd seconds later, when Su Yang and Li Yuanying still hadn’t returned, the two women on the sofa began to panic again and shouted.

Su Yang released Li Yuanying and replied with a laugh, “Coming!”

Only after hearing his answer did the other two finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“What are you two doing? Hurry up and come out!”

“Okay, okay, we’re coming.”

Su Yang glanced at Li Yuanying, whose face was flushed with embarrassment. “I’ll let you off for now. We’ll talk about this later.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand!” Li Yuanying quickly slipped away, bent down, picked up the half-case of beer that had already been opened, and hurried out.

Su Yang followed with a full case of beer.

When the two returned to the sofa and sat down, Li Yuanying was still slightly flushed. However, the lighting was dim, so Yoshie and Qingxia didn’t notice.

“My phone really is out of battery. I’m going to turn off the light.” Li Yuanying switched off her phone’s flashlight.

Now, only the lights from the other three phones illuminated the area around the sofa.

“Wait, I just remembered. I think there are candles over by the bar. I noticed them when I was making coffee earlier.” Su Yang pointed toward the nearby bar.

“What? Why didn’t you say so earlier? We’ve been using our phones this whole time.”

“Wait here. I’ll go look for them.” Su Yang stood and walked over to the bar.

The bar area was clearly visible from the sofa, so the three women didn’t say anything. Still, none of them took their eyes off the area, worried that he might try something else.

Su Yang quickly found a short, squat white scented candle in a transparent glass container.

Besides providing a little light, it also gave off a faint fragrance.

He brought the candle back to the sofa, took out a lighter, and lit it.

A thread of yellow flame wavered and spread, barely illuminating the area around the sofa.

“That’s better. Now we don’t have to waste our phone batteries.”

Su Yang and the three women switched off their phone flashlights, and Yoshie opened a bottle of beer and poured the drinks.

“Come on, let’s celebrate our second rainy night at Dreamy Slope.” Su Yang raised his glass with a smile.

“What’s there to celebrate?” Li Yuanying rolled her eyes at him.

“We just need an excuse. Come on, come on, stop complaining and drink!” Su Yang downed his drink in one gulp.

The other three smiled and finished their drinks as well.

“Keep them coming.”

The four of them sat there, taking turns drinking glass after glass until they had gone through seven or eight bottles.

“Wait a minute. Oh, this isn’t right. We’re just drinking straight alcohol. I’m already getting dizzy.” Qingxia spoke up.

“There’s food right there. Open some of it and eat,” Su Yang said, pointing at the pile of snacks on the table.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m asking whether we could play some kind of game.”

“We played rock-paper-scissors all night yesterday. Tonight, let’s just sit quietly and have a few drinks. Besides, it’s pitch-black in here. What could we even play?”

“Okay…”

“Then let’s chat.”

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?” Su Yang looked at Qingxia.

“Oh, wait! You said earlier that you climbed out through the kitchen window, went around to the balcony, and came back in. How come you weren’t soaked when it was raining so hard outside?”

“There’s a covered walkway running around the outside of the house. The eaves keep the rain off.”

“Oh, I see.”

Li Yuanying spoke up. “That’s your question?”

“No, I just suddenly thought of it.” Qingxia explained herself, then looked at Su Yang. “Anyway, I have a question for Su-san.”

Su Yang poured himself another drink and smiled. “Go ahead.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?” After drinking a little, Qingxia got straight to the point and brought up a private question.

Su Yang downed his drink. “No steady girlfriend.”

“No steady… What does that mean?” Qingxia stared at him blankly.

Li Yuanying had already had several drinks and was beginning to feel slightly tipsy. She had been drinking every day lately, and since she still hadn’t fully recovered from the previous night, the alcohol was affecting her more quickly tonight.

She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Seriously? It’s obvious. He means he has a lot of girlfriends.”

“Huh? A lot?”

Su Yang laughed. “I’m just kidding.”

Yoshie didn’t really care whether Su Yang had a girlfriend. Instead, she looked at Li Yuanying with a smile. “Yuanying, do you have a boyfriend?”

Li Yuanying glanced at Su Yang. “No. I’ve never even been in a relationship.”

“Really?”

“Of course. With our relationship, would I lie to you?”

“If you’ve never been in a relationship, have you ever had someone you were romantically involved with?” Qingxia asked with a playful blink.

Li Yuanying waved it off. “I wouldn’t really call it that. He was just a male friend I was fairly close to. We went out for a meal once, and paparazzi happened to photograph us and post it online. After that, people started spreading rumors about us.”

“But honestly, I’m not interested in that person. Still, there have been quite a few rumors about us, so I guess you could call them someone I’m seeing casually.”

“What about you?” Li Yuanying asked after finishing.

“Me? You mean a boyfriend?”

“Yeah. Are you seeing anyone right now?”

Qingxia shook her head. “I’m single right now. I dated someone before, but we broke up in less than six months.”

“Oh, oh. So how far did things go while you were together?” Li Yuanying pressed, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Qingxia blushed slightly. “This... isn’t that a little too personal?”

“What’s the big deal? We’re all adults. Besides, given our relationship now, is there anything we can’t talk about? Right, Sis Mie?” Li Yuanying turned to Yoshie.

Yoshie nodded with a smile. “That’s right.”

“Sis Mie! You’re not taking my side either,” Qingxia grumbled.

Su Yang joined in, egging her on. “Come on, tell us.”

Qingxia took a sip of her drink first, her eyes drifting as she replied, “What was the question again?”

“How far did things go?” Li Yuanying repeated.

“Um... you know, that step you’re all thinking of. We did everything we were supposed to.”

“Haha, that’s more like it!” Li Yuanying picked up the bottle and topped off Qingxia’s glass.

“My turn to ask! Su-san, how many girlfriends have you had in total?” Qingxia asked Su Yang.

Then she thought of something and added, “Wait, I mean the ones you officially announced.”

Su Yang smiled. “Officially announced? Then just one.”

“How many?”

“One.”

“Oh, you idiot. That’s not how you should ask,” Li Yuanying cut in. “You should ask how many ambiguous relationships he’s had.”

“Oh, oh, that works too.”

Su Yang scratched his cheek, then started counting on his fingers. “If we’re calling anyone who went just a little beyond being friends an ‘ambiguous relationship,’ then probably somewhere between ten and twenty.”

......