After the Early-Deceased White Moonlight of a Wealthy Family Returns (GL) - Chapter 39

The cold wind howled, and the boisterous crowd indulged in noisy revelry.

Separated by only a door, in the girl’s lounge, the woman’s wrist was scalding hot.

She cherished every drop of blood, rolling it onto her tongue and bringing it into her mouth.

Su Wu saw that as the moonlight vanished, the monster’s form began to recede. The black shadows stopped their frantic growth and instead gradually became gentle and calm. The bone wings, like a blooming flower closing its petals at night, retreated bit by bit beneath the girl’s skin.

It was a marvelous scene.

It was as if Su Wu’s blood contained some kind of inhibitory component. Or perhaps, because the appetite was satiated, the hungry beast had retreated and departed.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Su Wu felt as if that inch of skin on her wrist was about to be licked away when the girl finally emerged from the black mist. The tail tightly bound around Su Wu’s waist disappeared, and a human-shaped Shen You’an collapsed into her arms. Su Wu reached out to catch her steadily.

The girl’s face was serene, looking as if she were asleep.

She was completely different from the terrifying and eerie presence of moments ago.

Su Wu looked down at her wrist; the wound had expanded slightly due to the constant licking, but it was no longer bleeding, having congealed into a red mark. She reached out to brush the girl’s hair back, revealing her exquisite and beautiful face.

Whatever her thoughts were, she simply watched her; after a while, she reached out to smooth the girl’s furrowed brow and held her even tighter.

They couldn’t stay here long. Meng Dongdong might return.

Su Wu took off her trench coat, draped it over the girl, and picked her up. Thanks to years of consistent exercise, lifting Shen You’an was not a difficult task for her.

Walking to the door, she swiped the card and took one last look at the room. Su Wu took Shen You’an’s phone, planning to have the room sealed and find another place for Meng Dongdong.

Her plan was clear, but just as she was about to push open the door, a loud alarm blared throughout the entire cruise ship.

Su Wu’s phone vibrated. She ignored it, pushed open the door, and ran past staff members who were too preoccupied to care who she was carrying. They only shouted to her: “CEO Su, there seems to be a fire on the ship, please disembark quickly.”

An assistant found her and arranged for security personnel to escort her away.

“CEO Su, let me take her,” a tall bodyguard suggested, seeing her carrying the girl.

“No need,” Su Wu said coldly. “Let’s go.”

Astra’s emergency protocols were comprehensive. Su Wu placed Shen You’an in the car and got out to inquire. The person in charge was handling the situation, sweating profusely upon seeing Su Wu.

“CEO Su, I don’t know what happened, this…”

“Evacuate the crowd first,” Su Wu said. “Where is the fire?”

“The system says it’s the engine room. it hasn’t fully ignited, and we’ve already begun handling it. But danger might still exist; we’ll check again after everyone has left.”

“Human life comes first,” Su Wu instructed.

The manager wiped the sweat from his forehead with shaking legs: “Yes, yes, of course.”

Su Wu glanced at the quiet car and stood beside the manager. “Make absolutely sure there are no casualties.”

She watched the thick smoke rising from the 13th floor. Thinking of Shen You’an’s sudden mutation.

“Prepare a guest list and a staff list and give them to me tomorrow. Also, investigate the cause of the fire. All suspects are to be detained; I will speak with them myself.”

Su Wu stood in the sea breeze, issuing orders in a clear voice.

“Meng Dongdong!” Meng Xi shouted at the top of her lungs. “Meng Dongdong! Where are you!”

She searched against the flow of the crowd. Ji Lan came down from the cinema hall and, seeing her like this, grabbed her and asked with a frown: “Meng Dongdong isn’t here?”

Meng Xi was at her wit’s end: “No.”

“The friends who were drinking with her said she went back to her room halfway through. I went to the room; no one was there, and it was a mess.”

“We’ll split up and search,” Ji Lan decided immediately. “Meng Xi, don’t panic. The fire is under control now; as long as there’s no secondary explosion, there’s no danger.”

Ji Lan pointed to the fork in the path. “I’ll go this way. Meng Xi, stay in touch.”

Meng Xi nodded and kept moving, worrying in her heart about her damn sister who chose the most critical moment to pull a disappearing act.

Ji Lan ran through two floors, checking everywhere, and finally found Meng Dongdong in a corner overlooking the sea. She was sitting by the railing, her head resting against the bars.

Ji Lan was speechless. With the ship in such a state, this girl could actually fall asleep.

Ji Lan walked up and lifted her up bodily.

Meng Dongdong’s eyes snapped open, and she screamed: “Who is it! What do you want!”

A silver-blue head entered her blurred vision. Meng Dongdong squinted, confirming repeatedly: “Ji Lan?”

Ji Lan found it funny: “Rude brat, you don’t even know how to greet people when you’re this drunk?”

Meng Dongdong pouted: “I’m not calling you anything!”

Ji Lan didn’t bother arguing. Seeing she was awake, she grabbed her arm to lead her out. Meng Dongdong refused to budge, clinging to the spot like a squatter and reaching out to hug the railing: “I’m not going! I’m not going with you!”

Ji Lan’s patience was wearing thin. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked, truly baffled. “Meng Dongdong, hurry up, let go.”

Meng Dongdong wailed: “I’m going to cause a scene!”

“Ji Lan, you don’t know a damn thing!” She hugged the railing and turned to glare at her.

The little rascal.

Ji Lan fell silent, didn’t answer, and bent down to hoist her over her shoulder.

Meng Dongdong let out a series of yelps, her legs wrapped around Ji Lan’s waist and her hands around her neck, hanging on her like a koala.

Fine. The posture was a bit strange, but saving her life was the priority. Ji Lan carried her out like she was holding a child.

Meng Dongdong was still shouting: “Ji Lan! I hate you, I hate you!”

“Why do you hate me?” Ji Lan was getting a bit angry too. “Am I not good to you?”

Among all her juniors, Meng Dongdong was the one she doted on the most. The Ji family had more sons than daughters, and Meng Xi was close to her in age, but Meng Dongdong had followed her around since she was a child calling her “Auntie,” sticking to her like chewing gum.

“Tell me,” she sneered. “What do you hate about me—”

Before she could finish, a pair of youthful lips pressed against hers in a clumsy, unpracticed manner.

Meng Dongdong really didn’t know how to kiss.

Ji Lan understood instantly—this was Meng Dongdong’s first kiss.

She was too awkward. First, she simply pressed her lips together with great force, as if she were looking for a fight. Then came the rubbing, lip against lip; it was lucky Ji Lan wore lip balm every day, otherwise, in this dry season, the rubbing would have broken the skin. Finally, Meng Dongdong decided to try using her tongue, poking and prodding without rhythm or nuance—it was purely comical, like she was playing Whac-A-Mole with her tongue.

Ji Lan reached out, pinched her face, and pushed her away.

“Drunkard,” she scolded.

Meng Dongdong’s face was pinched out of shape, her round cheeks overflowing like dumpling filling. She shed tears of grievance: “Bully!”

Ji Lan was amused: “I’m a bully just because I won’t let you kiss me?”

Meng Dongdong spat: “Other people would let me kiss them!”

Ji Lan’s eyes narrowed. With a shift of her body, she changed her posture and pinned Meng Dongdong’s back against the wall. Outside were the fleeing crowds.

Ji Lan stared at her with burning eyes and asked: “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“None of your business!” Meng Dongdong snorted and turned her head away.

“None of my business?”

Ji Lan felt like she had gone mad. She was very unhappy, mostly because the “cabbage” she had raised was being uprooted by some wild boar she didn’t know. The key point was that the cabbage hadn’t even mentioned it to her. Meng Dongdong wasn’t like this before; she used to tell her everything. If the boy sitting behind her in kindergarten pulled her pigtails, she’d tell her. If her desk mate in primary school kicked her chair, she’d tell her.

When she received love letters in middle school, she’d tell her too. She would even ask: “Auntie, do you think I should say yes to him?”

“Do you like him?”

“I don’t know,” Dongdong would say.

“Then why are you conflicted?”

“Everyone else is dating,” Dongdong replied naturally.

Kids these days were getting more precocious by the year.

When Ji Lan took Meng Dongdong to school back then, she had looked at the boy who sent the letter—he was at that “chuunibyou” age, acting all casual and pretending to be a gangster.

“You’re not allowed to date,” Ji Lan had said. “There’s something wrong with your taste if you’re even considering this.”

Meng Dongdong pouted: “He’s okay, he’s not ugly.”

Ji Lan tapped her on the head and warned her again: “You’re not allowed to date.” Then she added, “If you really want to date, bring the boyfriend to me first.”

They had made an agreement. The kid was silly and had a bad memory; she probably forgot.

Actually, Ji Lan had suspected before that Meng Dongdong was dating. Every time she saw her lately, her face was covered in heavy makeup—it was very strange. When asked why she wore it, Meng Dongdong wouldn’t say, acting both proud and mysterious.

Having a boyfriend whose aesthetics were problematic was a possibility.

Today, Meng Dongdong’s aesthetics were back to normal. She was delicate as a flower, soft all over. Hanging on her now, she was still soft.

Ji Lan suppressed the irritability in her heart, stopped the lips that were trying to approach again, and said warningly: “Don’t play around, go kiss your boyfriend.”

Meng Dongdong giggled: “I’ll do just that.”

After saying that, she still pressed her mouth toward Ji Lan.

Fine. Ji Lan finally understood. She was being used as a substitute.

Feeling flustered and annoyed, she pinned Meng Dongdong down, her lips sealing all the girl’s small movements, her tongue circling the girl’s lips with practiced, mature skill.

“There, we kissed,” Ji Lan said. “Satisfied? Now, Meng Zhouxi, don’t move. If you move again, I’ll throw you into the sea.”

Meng Dongdong truly stopped moving, hanging obediently on her body. Ji Lan carried her out, placed her on a chair, and messaged Meng Xi.

Meng Xi was still inside looking for her sister. Getting the news, she sighed in relief and then started worrying again, asking someone: “Where’s Su Wu? Has your CEO Su come out?”

The person she grabbed happened to be the manager leading people upstairs to check the problem. He hurriedly said: “Assistant Meng, CEO Su has come out. She seemed to have something busy to attend to and has already left by car.”

A message flashed. Su Wu asked if she and Meng Dongdong were safe and added that she wasn’t feeling well and was taking You’an home first.

Meng Xi’s hanging heart finally settled. She replied:

[We’re fine, everyone is fine. Go home and rest quickly.]

The car sped along the coastal road.

Suddenly, Su Wu slammed on the brakes.

She looked toward the passenger seat. The girl wrapped in her pajamas was frowning deeply; she was still in a deep sleep, but an disobedient tail had grown from her tailbone, winding itself hauntingly around Su Wu’s wrist on the steering wheel, affectionately rubbing against that fresh, bright red wound.

It was like a form of suggestion.