I’m A Scumbag Woman—I Flirt, But Never Marry [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 5

“Miss Chen?” Xu Tinglan froze slightly. “Which Miss Chen?”

The lobby manager maintained his professional smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know. She didn’t give me her full name.”

Zhi Zhi tugged at Xu Tinglan and scoffed. “Who cares who she is? One look tells me there can’t be anything good inside. Let’s not take it. What if she stuffed a huge glob of HIV in there?”

Zhi Zhi was only speaking out of anger. HIV was completely incapable of surviving outside a living host unless a professional laboratory simulated an environment resembling the human body.

Although the manager hadn’t said which Miss Chen had left the parcel, anyone could have guessed with a single strand of hair that it had to be Chen Xiyao.

Xu Tinglan nodded slightly, thanked the lobby manager, and accepted the paper parcel.

It was very light and rustled whenever it moved, rather like the little paper packets that small clinics used to hold white tablets.

The outside had been wrapped in layer after layer of narrow transparent tape without leaving the slightest gap in the paper. Tearing it open was absolutely impossible.

Xu Tinglan felt around it and vaguely located the end of the tape. However, because she painted, she never allowed her fingernails to grow. Even after struggling with it for a long time, she still couldn’t open it.

Zhi Zhi linked arms with her and led her through the revolving door. Seeing Xu Tinglan fail repeatedly made curiosity scratch at her heart like a cat, so she simply snatched the parcel away.

“Let me do it. By the time you get this open, even the cucumber salad will have gone cold.”

Zhi Zhi had small hands, slender fingers, and beautifully manicured nails. After picking at it a few times, she easily peeled up the end of the tape.

She unwound it one loop after another until part of the paper was finally exposed. By then, Xu Tinglan had hailed a taxi and climbed into the back seat.

When she looked back, Zhi Zhi was still standing foolishly outside the open car door, head lowered as she impatiently tore at the final two layers of thin paper.

“Zhi Zhi, get in the car first.”

“Okay, okay! Right away!”

Without raising her head, Zhi Zhi bent down and climbed inside, exerting a sudden burst of strength with her hands.

Clink!

A flash of silver fell into the gap between the seats.

Bang!

The car door closed.

The driver smoothly released the clutch, turned the steering wheel, and pulled onto the road.

Xu Tinglan bent down, retrieved the object, and held it between her fingertips. Bringing it close to the window, she examined it carefully.

It was a silvery-white stud earring designed in the shape of winding branches, set with a ring of tiny diamonds and a Sri Lankan blue sapphire. The gemstone was brilliantly clear, perfectly cut, and substantial in size. A matching pair would have cost at least fifty or sixty thousand.

Zhi Zhi clicked her tongue beside her.

“Wow, this earring definitely wasn’t cheap! I saw that bitch wearing it earlier. Why did she take it off and give it to you?”

She paused before realization suddenly dawned on her.

“What did that lobby manager say again? She was ‘returning it to its rightful owner’? Could Wang Jianfei have given this to her? Logically, you should have noticed if he suddenly spent that much money. How did you know nothing about it?”

Of course Xu Tinglan hadn’t known.

Before she married, her parents had managed her money, but they had been very lenient and allowed her to withdraw and use it freely.

After she married, however, her parents handed over all the savings they had accumulated for her throughout the years. Before she even had time to warm the money in her hands, Wang Jianfei took it away.

And it wasn’t only those savings.

For the past two years, buyers had transferred the money earned by her gallery directly into Wang Jianfei’s account. She had never even touched it.

Wang Jianfei claimed he was doing this for her own good.

She had never lacked money growing up, so she had no real concept of it and spent without restraint. Marriage was about building a life together over the long term, and they couldn’t afford to be so wasteful. Therefore, he said, allowing him to manage the money was the most appropriate choice.

Now, Wang Jianfei transferred a fixed amount for the household expenses on the fifth of every month, as though he were an employer paying her wages. On the rare occasions when it wasn’t enough and she asked him for more, he would even grumble about it.

She didn’t know how much money they currently had in total, let alone how much Wang Jianfei had spent.

Xu Tinglan stared at the earring, a mixture of complicated emotions filling her heart.

Before, she had only suspected that the mistress might also be a victim. Now, there was no longer much room for doubt.

Chen Xiyao was another pitiful woman deceived by Wang Jianfei.

The values instilled in Xu Tinglan since childhood wouldn’t allow her to hate another victim. Yet as a woman, she couldn’t stop herself from resenting the mistress who had destroyed her family.

She almost wished Chen Xiyao weren’t innocent. At least then she could hate her freely and without reservation.

She knew such thoughts were foolish, irrational, and wrong.

The person she should truly hate was Wang Jianfei, the culprit behind everything—not this innocent woman.

She understood all of that, yet she simply couldn’t control herself!

The sapphire’s brilliant, star-like gleam suddenly filled her with intense self-loathing. She turned and pressed the earring into Zhi Zhi’s hand.

“You can have it.”

“Really?!”

Zhi Zhi was delighted at first, but her expression quickly fell.

“How could I accept something this expensive? Besides, that mistress gave it to you. It wouldn’t be right for me to take it. Forget it—you should keep it. When you divorce him, you can use it as evidence of his affair and make him leave with his bare ass showing!”

Divorce?

Xu Tinglan leaned wearily against the side of the car and closed her eyes. She instinctively struck her chest twice with her fist.

Her mind was in chaos, and her temples throbbed fiercely. It felt as though all her internal organs had been crammed into a narrow passage, unable to move up or down, yet somehow suspended in empty space with nothing to support them. The suffocating discomfort was impossible to describe.

She didn’t want to think about anything anymore. She only wanted to go back and sleep properly.

Zhi Zhi glanced at the earring in her hand, then looked at Xu Tinglan. Belatedly remembering that the driver was an outsider, she closed her mouth.

Silence settled over the car.

Outside the window, streetlights passed one after another. Warm orange light spilled in shifting patches across Xu Tinglan’s paper-pale face, yet it brought her no warmth whatsoever.

Her bloodless face remained just as pale. She resembled a sickly beauty like Lin Daiyu or Xi Shi—beautiful and fragile, making others instinctively ache for her.

Zhi Zhi’s gaze repeatedly drifted toward Xu Tinglan.

Once.

Again.

And once more.

She sighed.

Why would anyone have an affair after possessing someone so wonderful?

If it were Zhi Zhi, she would hold Lan Lan tenderly in the palm of her hand. She would treat Lan Lan well for the rest of her life and never allow her to suffer the slightest grievance.

Unfortunately, she was a woman.

Why did she have to be a woman?

How wonderful would it have been if she were a man?

After restraining herself again and again, Zhi Zhi finally stretched out one slender arm and gently guided Xu Tinglan’s head onto her shoulder. Even then, she awkwardly offered an explanation.

“The car is unsteady. I don’t want you to hit your head.”

Xu Tinglan didn’t open her eyes. She obediently rested against Zhi Zhi.

Her broken heart continued to ache fiercely, yet this silent tenderness seemed to offer it the faintest trace of comfort.

Ding!

【Female lead’s Satisfaction Value +5. Total Satisfaction Value: 25. Please continue working hard!】

Wearing a snow-white bathrobe, Gu Shuofeng leaned comfortably against the headboard. Her legs were crossed, her ankles hooked together, and her soft, fair feet swayed idly through the air.

With one hand, she used the remote control to flip through television channels. With the other, she leisurely dried her half-damp chestnut hair.

Knock, knock, knock.

A hotel attendant’s voice came from outside the room.

“Hello, Miss Chen. The clothes you asked for have arrived. Please accept the delivery.”

Gu Shuofeng glanced at her phone.

Only half an hour had passed. That truly was fast.

Sure enough, money could make even ghosts turn millstones. She had casually slipped the attendant a hundred-yuan tip, and the woman—who had initially offered excuse after excuse to avoid running the errand—immediately contacted the lobby manager and volunteered to help solve the guest’s problem.

Gu Shuofeng opened the door and accepted the clothes.

She looked through the bag. Aside from underwear, it contained only the simplest white shirt and jeans, along with a pair of skate shoes.

The hair dryer she had requested was also inside.

The attendant handed her the remaining money, but Gu Shuofeng lazily waved it away.

“Thank you for your trouble. Keep it.”

The smile on the attendant’s face immediately became far more pronounced, and she thanked Gu Shuofeng twice.

“Then please rest well. I won’t disturb you any further.”

Including the hundred yuan from earlier, she had received more than two hundred in tips. If only every guest were this generous every day!

The attendant had just begun turning away with delight when Gu Shuofeng called her back. Holding her thumb and index finger close together, she gestured to indicate something tiny.

“I have one more very, very small favor to ask.”

Having accepted so much money, the attendant naturally felt too embarrassed to refuse.

“Please tell me what you need.”

“The guest in Room 212 will bring a bag of clothes to the front desk later. Could you please accept it for me? Remember not to tell him that I’m also staying at this hotel. I’m afraid he’ll harass me.”

The attendant nodded knowingly.

For a woman this beautiful, encountering a few men who refused to leave her alone was perfectly normal.

“All right. Once he brings it down, I’ll deliver it to you.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Gu Shuofeng smiled faintly. Her captivating allure carried a trace of bewitching languor, inexplicably making the attendant blush.

After closing the door, Gu Shuofeng carried the bag of newly purchased clothing into the bathroom.

She plugged the sink and filled it halfway with running water. Then she tore open two packets of disposable shampoo, squeezed all of it into the water, and stirred.

Milky-white foam rose to the surface.

She removed the jeans, which might bleed dye, and soaked everything else in the water.

How could anyone wear new clothes without washing them first?

They were filthy.

Gu Shuofeng was mildly obsessed with cleanliness. It wasn’t only the new clothes she considered unclean—even this new body made her uncomfortable.

She had already showered once in Wang Jianfei’s guest room. After arriving here, she had washed herself all over again, inside and out, with meticulous care.

Only then could she barely accept using the body temporarily.

Gu Shuofeng rinsed the foam from her hands and dried them. Returning to the room, she found her phone and called Wang Jianfei.

“So you still remember to call me?!”

The instant he answered, Wang Jianfei began shouting at her.

“I called you so many times! Why didn’t you answer?!”

Gu Shuofeng moved the phone away from her ear. Only after Wang Jianfei finished yelling and began panting did she reply unhurriedly, “I was on the road just now and didn’t notice my phone.”

Wang Jianfei had no desire to dwell on such a trivial matter. He went straight to the point.

“What exactly are you trying to do? What kind of performance were you putting on in front of my wife earlier?!”