talking about underground love

Chu Yiqi looked at Chu Rou, her voice so soft it seemed she was afraid of getting an answer: "Then why did you stop and call the police at the alley entrance that day?"

Chu Rou remained silent for a long time, but in the end she didn't answer. She just said, "Do you know what I'm thinking every time I see you, with that face that looks a little like his?"

Without needing an answer, Chu Rou smiled sarcastically and said, "Why didn't I strangle you sooner?"

"Don't be stupid, Chu Yiqi. We already have enough to make us sick with this little bit of trouble."

Chu Yiqi remained noncommittal, knowing that Chu Rou had taken some of his words to heart, and then turned to leave.

Chu Rou stopped her again: "Chu Yiqi, do you think Xi Ai will really always be this good to you? People like them are not the same as you."

Chu Yiqi stopped, lifted the curtain, slowly put on her mask, and then spoke again: "How could this be?"

At that moment, it was as if something had entered a corner of Chu Yiqi's heart, and the vines had grown wildly, so it took a long time to see the original appearance.

Chu Yiqi couldn't figure out when he decided to drag Chu Rou down with him completely.

Was it this time, or the few days after the castle video was released, when Chu Rou once again used the video as blackmail?

Chu Yiqi compromised again that time.

On that same day, Xi Ai was scratched.

Looking at her hands covered in blood and the knife held by Xi Ai, Chu Yiqi couldn't recall any details. She could only hear Xi Ai's voice in her ears, repeatedly saying that it wasn't her fault.

She kept repeating that it was because Chu Yiqi had stopped her from cutting herself with a knife, an unexpected incident that led to a stalemate.

But Chu Yiqi could sense that it was Xi Ai who was going to stab her, and perhaps the original target wasn't her hand.

On that day, Chu Yiqi plotted a selfish departure.

That day, Xi Ai said for the last time, "If you still feel that it's your fault, then consider it on my behalf, be kinder to yourself, okay?"

...

In the night wind that spanned ten years, Chu Yiqi finally closed his eyes and asked Xi Ai one last time, "If I can't become the same as before, will you still see our relationship this way?"

"What?" Xi Ai raised her hand to comb the other side of her hair back, and with her eyes no longer hidden by the hair, her gaze fell on Chu Yiqi's eyes.

"all."

Regardless of differences in personality or the possibility of a mental illness.

Xi Ai smiled, and hearing faint voices, she stood up and extended her hand to Chu Yiqi, answering a question unrelated to her own: "I've always known."

I know you don't want to talk about the unspeakable past.

Know all the unbearable and struggling things you thought you were going through.

So, darling, can you reach out your hand?

Even if you hesitate, it's fine.

Chu Yiqi looked at Xi Ai, their eyes meeting in the center of the lake, and then she reached out and grasped a slightly cool finger.

Xi Ai went back and immediately immersed herself in practicing in the dance studio.

Chu Yiqi had planned to make two cups of lychee honey before going to sing practice, but just as he put down Xi Ai's cup, he saw the lawyer's message.

Chu Yiqi glanced at her water glass, then clenched a piece of chocolate, walked to the balcony, and picked a few Phalaenopsis orchids along the way.

"It would be easier if we had Miss Xi's record, since your case involves kinship."

Chu Yiqi pursed her lips and pressed the voice button: "There's no need. Chu Rou has more leverage than this. I don't want to drag Xi Ai into this."

She suddenly remembered what Nadia had said to her before: "What is it about Shiny that you need to treat her like the Princess and the Pea and put her on a high building? Of course, darling, you love her, but she may not want to be like this."

Just like when he heard those words that day, Chu Yiqi could only remain silent when he thought of them again.

What could she do? She just wanted her relationship with Xi Ai to be free of anything else.

In his office on the other side of the city, Teng Yan twirled his lipstick around and sent Chu Yiqi a message: "If it's convenient, please organize the medical records. Domestic violence is too old and difficult to prove, so I'm more inclined to focus on proving the extortion and gambling."

Chu Yiqi has always had the habit of organizing medical records, perhaps because he has been waiting for the book to serve as evidence.

—She had been waiting for a long time, and Xi Ai had been waiting for a long time too.

After talking with Teng Yan, Chu Yiqi checked the time and then video-called the psychologist.

After hanging up the phone, Xi Ai had already changed into her pajamas. Chu Yiqi casually asked, "Not leaving today?"

What a rhetorical question!

Chu Yiqi almost bit her tongue after asking the question.

Xi Ai nodded and said, "I'll go back first thing tomorrow morning."

Miss Xi's hand landed on the water glass, paused subtly for a moment, and then asked in a particularly light tone, "Is this for me?"

Asking questions you already know the answer to can be contagious.

Chu Yiqi nodded, and the two of them went to the table to set out the bowls and chopsticks.

"Where's the captain?" Chu Yiqi asked.

"She was recording a song, and then Xixi's music video needed a re-recording, so she left together too."

"Um."

Xi Ai didn't reply, but casually divided the mushrooms that Yu Nianxi had picked herself into half and set them aside.

"By the way, Yiqi." Su Luojian put down the bowl and said, "Remember to go to bed early, okay? There's an advertisement shoot tomorrow morning—actually, you have a lot to do tomorrow."

Nie Chuiying immediately chimed in, "Did you hear that? Staying up all night every day is not a good idea."

"I have good skin."

Nie Chuiying: "Tch."

Shi Yunshan turned Nie Chuiying's face back, handed her half a bowl of vegetable porridge, and said, "We're still talking. You have things to do tomorrow too."

"Okay, okay, I love my job, alright?"

Saying she would go to bed early, Chu Yiqi washed the dishes, went back to bed, hugged her pillow, and then turned on the group's variety show. She fell into a light sleep not long after it started.

...

The screen showed the beginning of last week's group variety show.

Zhou Qingxi pushed open the door, but Zhou Yangxi was the first to rush into the room.

The two sisters have almost identical faces, yet their personalities are easily distinguishable at a glance.

As soon as Zhou Yangxi rushed in, she hugged Chu Yiqi.

Caught off guard, Chu Yiqi couldn't put the green tea-flavored butterfly pastry into his mouth. It hung to one side, leaving one hand free for a long-awaited hug.

Although they all made it to the finals together, the two sisters were always closer to Chu Yiqi.

Perhaps it started with a guest appearance at a concert. The timing coincided with the period when Chu Yiqi was at her lowest point and hadn't yet begun to recover.

Perhaps it was Xi Ai's doing. Two people connected to that night at the castle were anonymously reported, and after some time, their shady dealings were exposed.

In court, both men gave the same story, completely exonerating Chu Yiqi. The complete surveillance video was finally released, showing Chu Yiqi smashing a cup, clutching the glass shards, and in the dim light, every move he made was resolute and desperate.

There were almost no signs of being drugged, but she was exceptionally fierce and beautiful, with eyes that seemed to echo a scene from a movie—from Xi Ai's debut work, where she was also alone and equally ruthless.

Later, Chu Yiqi heard that Xi Ai was busy shorting someone's stock during that time. The way she heard this was at a friend's gathering, when she heard Xi Yuchuan make a particularly distressed phone call: "Yes, you are living a life of unparalleled success and exhaustion in China, but I heard that bastard surnamed Chen has run away abroad. I might see him stabbing me in the back sometime."

Chu Yiqi couldn't know what the other person said, but she saw Xi Yuchuan glancing at her seemingly casually. Finally, she said to the other person, "How about I ask Mu Jin to give you his psychologist's contact information? You're all a bit sick."

Chu Yiqi could almost picture Xi Ai on the other side, perhaps by a floor-to-ceiling window, or perhaps on the lakeside terrace of her villa by the water. It would be afternoon, with a ray of sunlight streaming down, and the shimmering ripples reflecting in her eyes. And that person would smile nonchalantly and say, "Probably."

Perhaps there was another sentence, spoken to Chu Yiqi, though I don't remember the context: "I've said it before, none of us are normal people."

During this awkward period, Chu Yiqi received an invitation—the Zhou sisters, Zhou Qingxi and Zhou Yangxi, were holding a concert in the capital and wanted Chu Yiqi to be a guest.

With the doctor's permission, Chu Yiqi flew back.

The first stage after the comeback was truly a long time coming; even the memories in my half-awake state felt like a stroke of luck.

It's as if fate has turned again and again, and everything has finally come together in perfect harmony.

...

Following this illogical, light-sleep dream, Chu Yiqi suddenly saw the night of the final group formation that year.

Zhou Yangxi should have stayed because she was tied for sixth place, but she voluntarily gave up her position.

The two sisters walked off the stage together.

It was supposed to be an impromptu performance by the six of them, but after just one exchange of glances, they all ran off the stage, and the spotlight followed them, landing on Zhou Qingxi and Zhou Yangxi.

So that night, the six of them provided accompaniment, allowing those who were leaving to bid a farewell on stage—the song was the one from their first collaboration with all eight of them.

So, two years later, when Chu Yiqi should have been feeling down, the two of them went offstage to watch Chu Yiqi walk back onto the stage.

"The first warm cloud..."

Zhou Yangxi pressed down on the piano keys with her fingertips, and the next line of lyrics followed.

"Appearance, the cold green of the vast fields."

"Sunrise over a thousand mountains".

"Announcing the end of the long summer."

"Attending a banquet on a clear day with light snow."

...

"So, Ms. Xi, do you have time to have a secret relationship with me now?"

Chu Yiqi clearly saw that in her dream, she was carrying a bouquet of roses and looked up at Xi Ai.

She saw that the face, which was originally sharp-featured, was softened by the blue tones, and a strand of black hair was blown by the wind. It was like the protagonist looking back from the perspective of a lover at the end of an art film, and every pixel was beautifully filtered.

It was so real that Chu Yiqi couldn't even tell whether it was a dream he was in between waking up or a memory after waking up.

Xi Ai had just taken off her mask when their eyes met and she saw a rosy fringe of hair falling onto a white dress.

She looked at Chu Yiqi, her clear and beautiful eyes sparkling as if to say, "I knew you would agree."

But Xi Ai stepped forward and said, "Why can't I be seen in the light, child?"

Hearing that it was a joke, Chu Yiqi smiled, a slight curve appearing at the corner of her eye.

"Because... we're too busy to operate?"

Xi Ai smiled, did not accept the bouquet of flowers, suddenly took half a step back, knelt down, her trench coat fell on the sand, and reached out her hand to Chu Yiqi.

It was a silver ring, adorned with intertwined floral vines and a few pink diamonds, some resembling butterflies or petals, all flowing towards the main diamond, like a shimmering flower.

It wasn't until much later that Chu Yiqi learned there was another line of French on the inside.

The sudden change left Chu Yiqi somewhat bewildered, but she heard Xi Ai's reply.

"Teacher Chu, do you have time to have a very long and lasting relationship with me?"

Chu Yiqi stretched out her hand and said, "But you stole the plot I was thinking of."

Xi Ai put on the ring and took Chu Yiqi's hand.

"But I didn't receive the ring."

I would be honored if you were to give me a ring as well.

Chu Yiqi grasped Xi Ai's hand in return: "Perhaps you will see her someday."

When they got back, it was still quite early. Chu Yiqi pulled Xi Ai along, and before they knew it, their fingers were intertwined. Under the cover of a wisteria vine, Chu Yiqi looked into a pair of amber eyes.

Can I kiss you?

Xi Ai lowered her eyelashes and saw Chu Yiqi's chestnut-colored eyelashes trembling in the light. Then Chu Yiqi stepped forward and a warm breath brushed against her cheek.

A cascading wisteria vine fell behind me, swaying and bringing with it a summer breeze carrying the fragrance of flowers.

As a petal fell, Xi Ai blinked. Chu Yiqi bit her lower lip, holding a trace of pale purple in her mouth, then moved away, and the petal fell to her feet.

Chu Yiqi grabbed Xi Ai's collar, brushed aside a patch of flowers, leaned forward again, and gently bit Xi Ai's lips.

For some reason, she could taste a faint hint of rose.