Chapter 39 The Young Lady in a Wheelchair 39: Who is Annie?

Taking the opportunity to leave, Xi Congshuang distanced herself from the glamorous banquet and appeared alone in the quiet, deserted corridor.

For the past few years, the birthday banquet has not been held at the manor where Ms. Xi usually resides, which has become her usual place of residence.

Instead, the event was held outside the hotel, this year at the Li Palace Hotel. After the banquet, guests could choose to leave or go upstairs to their rooms to rest.

Xi Congshuang is currently planning to go back to her room upstairs to rest; she won't return to Wenhai today.

It's not time for Li Mi to arrive yet, and Ni An, who was supposed to take her away, hasn't shown up either.

Just as she was thinking this, Xi Congshuang felt her phone vibrate in her handbag. She took it out and saw an unfamiliar phone number.

This is Xi Congshuang's private account; very few people know about it, and only one person called at this time—

She raised her hand, swiped to answer the call, and put it to her ear. Sure enough, Ni An's voice came through: "Boss, I'm sorry, it's me, Ni An."

Over the phone, Ni An apologized for being late.

Coincidentally, before entering the hotel, she discovered that she was out of the mints she often ate, so she went to a convenience store a little further away to buy a box.

I didn't hold my phone properly when I went out, and someone bumped into me and knocked it to the ground. The screen cracked and I can't turn it on right now.

Ni Anben had more than one mobile phone, but today he didn't need to do anything except take the boss out of the banquet hall, so he only brought one out.

As a result, the other party was willing to fully compensate for the cost of the new phone and transferred the money in front of Ni An. Ni An even borrowed the other party's phone to explain the reason to Xi Congshuang.

During the call, Xi Congshuang could hear someone sighing from next door: "It's really not easy. You have to report to the boss in advance if your phone breaks. By the way, is it time to get off work now...?"

“…So I might not arrive for another fifteen minutes.” Ni An’s voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from between her teeth.

"..."

It's rush hour now, and although the convenience store isn't far from the hotel, it's difficult to get a taxi, so asking her to walk several kilometers over is too much to ask.

Xi Congshuang told her not to come anymore, and that she would go upstairs to rest and wait for Li Mi to come tomorrow before sending her back to Wenhai.

Ni An breathed a sigh of relief and apologized again.

After being idle for a while, I was late for work, which is really irresponsible.

After hanging up the phone, Xi Congshuang sent a message to Li Mi, asking her to come again tomorrow. A moment later, her phone vibrated, and she received Li Mi's reply.

With no one around, Xi Congshuang was about to stand up from her wheelchair and push herself into the elevator.

Unexpectedly, the elevator not far away opened with a ding, and a waiter stepped out and saw Xi Congshuang.

Just as Xi Congshuang was about to stand up, she slowly sat back down, almost performing a medical miracle for the other party.

The waiter said, "You must be a guest attending the banquet today. I'll take you upstairs to rest."

Xi Congshuang wanted to refuse: "No need, I'll go up myself."

“Serving our guests is our duty, please don’t refuse, Miss.” The waitress said, taking the wheelchair handle and pushing her into the elevator.

The elevator doors slowly closed. Xi Congshuang's eyes flickered slightly as she watched the attendant take out the elevator card from his pocket and swipe it at the card reader. The corresponding floor number lit up.

Xi Congshuang reminded her, "I don't live in this building."

The waiter gripped the wheelchair handles tightly and replied, "There's a problem with the ventilation system in your room, Miss. The housekeeping staff notified our colleagues to fix it, but it's not fixed yet. Please rest in an empty room for a while, and we'll take you back when it's ready."

Xi Congshuang: "Really?"

The waiter's smile remained unchanged, showing his sincerity: "Yes, if you're still worried, would you like me to call the manager to explain it to you personally?"

Xi Congshuang withdrew her gaze and said calmly, "No need."

"OK."

The elevator then fell silent.

The numbers on the display screen kept changing, and after another ding, the elevator doors slowly opened, and a waiter pushed Xi Congshuang out of the elevator and headed towards the reserved room.

The wheelchair stopped in front of the door, and a waiter stepped forward, swiped his card to open the door, and pushed Xi Congshuang inside.

The room was dark, with no lights on. At the far end of the spacious suite's living room were floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the night view.

Xi Congshuang was about to turn around and say something about not turning on the lights when she heard a click, and the waiter had already left and closed the door.

"..."

Now that things have come to this, to say there's nothing fishy about it would be self-deception.

Let's see which audacious person dares to act recklessly towards her.

They even neglected to leave her there with her phone. With just one phone call from Xi Congshuang, getting away would be no problem at all, and everyone involved would be in deep trouble.

To call this a kidnapping is a clumsy and flawed approach.

Time passed slowly, and only about three minutes later, she noticed someone swiping a card to open the door.

A sliver of light from the corridor streamed in, and the other person, clearly not expecting the interior to be completely dark, stood silently outside the door for a long while.

The people in the living room turned their heads, remained silent, and stared at the half-open door.

A silent standoff ensued, with neither side willing to make the first move.

In the end, Xi Congshuang lost her temper first and raised her voice, "Who's outside?"

"You went to all that trouble to bring me here, and in the end you don't even dare to show your face?"

The person outside pushed open the door, and a tall, slender figure stepped inside with steady steps.

The only light source in the living room was the moonlight from outside. The person who came in was backlit, and the darkness blurred her face, making it impossible to see clearly.

For a moment, Xi Congshuang froze, and stopped talking.

At the same time, a voice that hadn't been heard in a long time but was very familiar said: "Honkai value +0.5, current Honkai value 51.5."

"..."

The other person seemed to notice the stunned look on her face, and with a slight twitch of his lips, he walked step by step to the window in the moonlight.

As the distance closed, the face in my memory became clearer. She had changed a lot, yet somehow nothing seemed to have changed at all, just like back then.

Her slightly lighter-colored eyes were fixed on the person in the wheelchair, as deep and intense as a predator before hunting, locked onto its prey.

Xi Congshuang stared intently, without uttering a word.

She stopped a step away and asked slowly, "Xi Congshuang, are you surprised to see me?"

The other person has indeed changed a lot; they've become more mature and more intimidating.

She leaned forward, her long, dark brown hair falling over her shoulders, her hands resting on the armrests of the wheelchair—a restrained posture that did not allow her to escape.

Those slightly lighter-colored eyes never left that face, starting from the beautiful eyebrows and eyes, lingering briefly on the beauty mark under the eye, then moving down to the lips, before returning to those smoky gray eyes.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Cheng Zhishu asked.

I thought that after so many years apart, I might feel nervous, surprised, or even resentful.

But there was nothing. Cheng Zhishu searched her mind carefully and found nothing. It was as if her emotions had died, leaving nothing behind.

In fact, Xi Congshuang's gaze never left her face. She thought she was sick, that there was a day when she couldn't speak to anyone.

When asked the question again, Xi Congshuang felt as if a barrier had been broken down. She could smell the scent of fir trees and a faint aroma of wine.

She replied, "I was indeed very surprised."

Before Cheng Zhishu could say anything more, the wheelchair under her hand suddenly moved backward, causing her to lose her balance and fall unexpectedly onto Xi Congshuang. Her cheek was slightly sore from the gemstone necklace on Xi Congshuang's collarbone.

Xi Congshuang grabbed Cheng Zhishu's wrist and lifted it up. Her clear voice, unique to her, became deep as she whispered in Cheng Zhishu's ear, "You still forgot that this wheelchair is electric. It's very flexible in both braking and moving forward."

"..."

Cheng Zhishu tried to stand up, but someone grabbed her other hand, and she couldn't break free or stand up.

After struggling for a moment, Cheng Zhishu realized she couldn't break free and said unhappily, "Let go."

Not only did she not receive a reply, but the grip on her wrist tightened, causing Cheng Zhishu's wrist bones to ache.

Cheng Zhishu gritted her teeth and said, "Xi Congshuang, let go of me."

Of course, Xi Congshuang wouldn't let go. She lowered her eyes to look at the person in her arms. The other person seemed to sense something and looked up, meeting her gaze. She instinctively felt that Xi Congshuang's eyes were not kind at all. Her heart skipped a beat for no reason, and she angrily looked away.

He adjusted his posture, lifted her onto the wheelchair, wrapped his arms around her back and held her shoulders tightly, holding her wrist firmly in his arms from beginning to end.

Cheng Zhishu called out "Hey!" with a look of anger on her fair face.

If Cheng Zhishu were to show such an expression in front of her subordinates, it would naturally frighten them, making them afraid to even breathe.

But in Xi Congshuang's eyes, it was no different from Naonao breathing on her; both were all bark and no bite.

Cheng Zhishu: "What's wrong with you?"

Xi Congshuang replied, "Have you been drinking?"

"..." Cheng Zhishu had no idea that someone could be so self-righteous, as if the person drinking was Xi Congshuang, taking advantage of being drunk to act crazy.

She had known for a long time that Cheng Zhishu was a stubborn person, so she bent down, intending to find the answer herself.

"!" Cheng Zhishu was startled and turned her face away, but Xi Congshuang took advantage of the moment and leaned close to her neck to sniff lightly.

Her warm breath brushed against her neck, and Cheng Zhishu's chest heaved violently for a moment. She couldn't see that half of her neck had turned red quickly.

Like red jade, it was exceptionally tempting.

"It smells like wine, quite strong, so it must have been drunk recently." The person who had been close to her neck looked up, their smoky gray eyes staring directly into hers. "How many glasses did you have?"

"Why should I tell you?" Since Cheng Zhishu couldn't leave anyway, she deliberately pressed her weight heavily onto Xi Congshuang's legs.

Keep pressing down on her, she can't feel her legs anyway, you won't kill her.

Xi Congshuang made a judgment: "For you to act so irrationally, the quantity must have exceeded three cups?"

For some reason, Cheng Zhishu was just unhappy, unhappy about everything, and her tone was also unpleasant: "Do you think I have such a low alcohol tolerance?"

"Yes." Xi Congshuang nodded without thinking. "You drank my wine before. Three cups made you slightly tipsy, and four cups was your maximum. You don't even blush when you drink. At first, I was almost fooled."

Cheng Zhishu choked, the alcohol she had drunk belatedly numbing her brain, and in her slightly tipsy state, she spoke her mind more frankly: "You haven't seen me for so many years, how do you know I haven't changed at all?"

"Four years, from the moment you left, should be 1,765 days."

Cheng Zhishu was inexplicably shocked and speechless.

Xi Congshuang lowered her eyes and asked again, "If we include the hour, it should be..."

"Enough, stop talking," said the person sitting in Xi Congshuang's lap. "What's the point of you saying all this?"

Cheng Zhishu lowered her eyes, her wrist was gripped tightly, and the moonlight streaming into the room stretched the intertwined shadows of the two people, the bright moonlight cool and refreshing.

She thought she must be crazy. Hearing that Flora had inspected H country reminded her of that person, and she followed her there overnight.

Flora was startled. She didn't know what had happened between the two of them. It just so happened that it was the birthday banquet of Chairman Xi, who had been retired for many years. She planned to come and offer her congratulations, so she asked Cheng Zhishu if she wanted to come.

Cheng Zhishu naturally refused. To be honest, she hadn't adjusted to the time difference after returning to H country, and her claim that she only came to see Flora after adjusting to the time difference was a lie.

She rarely lied, and Flora actually believed her. Cheng Zhishu stayed in the hotel and didn't contact any of her old friends.

She deleted the old account when she got angry, and now she has no way to contact it.

Being young, we often act without thinking and are easily swayed by our emotions. Even after a few days of sadness and the destruction of everything, life can still go on.

But Cheng Zhishu also wondered if she would make the same choice if she encountered these things at her current age. After thinking about it for a long time, she thought to herself—she would.

Because she can't help it, just like today, she couldn't help but appear in front of Xi Congshuang.

Throughout the day, Flora couldn't see anything wrong with Cheng Zhishu. Over the years, she had learned from Wen Lingwang and had become increasingly adept at concealing her emotions. After being refused again when she asked, Flora went to the banquet with gifts on her own.

Who knew that as soon as Flora left, Cheng Zhishu took out red wine from the wine cabinet. After a few glasses of wine, he became arrogant and ran up to Xi Congshuang.

"..."

Returning to the present, she had a premonition that Xi Congshuang would let go after she said those words.

She also had the opportunity to leave, and the two sides returned to a state of being even.

From north to south, we'll never see each other again.

To everyone's surprise, Xi Congshuang agreed, saying, "You're right. There's no point in saying all this. You need to rest now."

Xi Congshuang loosened her grip on Cheng Zhishu's wrist, reached under her knees, and still put her other arm around his shoulder and back.

While Cheng Zhishu was still confused, she moved her legs, used the heels of her high heels to push open the wheelchair footrests, and stood up with her feet on the ground.

"?"

"Wait!" Cheng Zhishu's gaze suddenly changed, and she was even lifted up to adjust her posture before walking past the living room sofa into the room.

During the struggle, her shoes fell to the ground. Xi Congshuang felt unsteady and threw off her high heels, then grabbed the person and continued walking.

Cheng Zhishu was a little nervous: "Xi Congshuang, are you crazy? Where are you taking me?"

Xi Congshuang calmly retorted, "I didn't, I'm very calm."

She even estimated the distance; her legs were strong enough to support her carrying the person around the room, and that distance was more than enough.

Cheng Zhishu, already slightly tipsy, became even more intoxicated by the alcohol. She reached out and pushed Xi Congshuang's shoulder away, but the hug was too tight, causing her to lose her balance and almost fall. She had no choice but to hold onto Xi Congshuang's neck to steady herself.

He thought to himself, "This tone doesn't sound right at all."

They quickly reached the bedside in the room. Xi Congshuang bent down and gently placed the person on the bed. After looking at her for a moment, she pressed one hand against the bed and bent over even more.

The face in front of me was getting closer and closer, our breaths mingled, and I could even see the shape of the beauty mark under my eye clearly.

Wait, wait, this distance is wrong!

Cheng Zhishu's breath hitched, her back pressed tightly against the bed. If there had been a gap in the bed, she would have crawled in long ago. Seeing that she could not resist, she closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling.

Xi Congshuang's lips curled up slightly, and she reached out her hand across her body to grab the other side of the blanket.

After waiting for ages, Cheng Zhishu was only met with a soft blanket covering her: "?"

Confused, Cheng Zhishu looked at the figure beside the bed, her heart pounding, unable to recall who was causing the drunken scene.

She was the one who drank, right? Did Xi Congshuang also drink? And how much did she drink?

Xi Congshuang, who hadn't touched a drop of alcohol but saw through Cheng Zhishu's gaze, asked, "Aren't you going to sleep?"

From the moment they met, Xi Congshuang noticed the dark circles under Cheng Zhishu's eyes. If Cheng Zhishu had looked in the mirror before leaving the house, she would have seen how severe the bloodshot eyes were.

She even forgot to hide her fatigue by wearing glasses; she must have been really tired.

Cheng Zhishu: "Whether I sleep or not is none of your business."

He retorted quickly, but his hands gripped the corner of the blanket tightly, and he stared intently at her with his amber eyes.

"Alright." Xi Congshuang sighed. "It was my fault for being ungrateful and disrupting your plans. Let me think about what it usually looks like..."

Cheng Zhishu stared at her suspiciously.

Xi Congshuang sat down on the edge of the bed, raised her hand to untangle the hair tied behind her head, and let her long hair fall down. Her raven-feather-like eyelashes drooped slightly, and when she deliberately restrained herself, she inexplicably exuded a fragile and vulnerable feeling.

Just like when Cheng Zhishu first met Xi Congshuang at the age of seventeen.

At that time, she was like a glass flower, clear and dazzling, making people want to take care of her. Cheng Zhishu also took one look and was instantly blinded by love, always eager to get closer.

Xi Congshuang glanced at Cheng Zhishu, swept her long hair back to one side, reached one hand to the back of her dress to pull down the zipper, and pressed the other hand against the chest of her strapless dress, revealing a hint of allure.

"Wait, wait, what are you doing?!" Cheng Zhishu sat up abruptly, grabbed her hands as she was unbuttoning her clothes, and pulled them in front of him to prevent her from moving.

What kind of normal situation is this?!

Why would Xi Congshuang suddenly play such a trump card?

Xi Congshuang was caught by the hand and was really confused. She looked at her with a puzzled expression. This look made Cheng Zhishu feel like she was dreaming and that she should be the one who was puzzled the most!

What on earth is this person wondering about?

"It wasn't you..."

When she was looked at, Cheng Zhishu subconsciously looked away, accidentally lowered her head, and after a moment of stunned silence, she hurriedly turned her head to the side.

The strapless dress was secured by the stylists, with invisible transparent shoulder straps, making the dress seem about to slip off, which only made the allure of that one line more obvious, and the white skin shone brightly in the shadows.

Xi Congshuang's voice rang in my ears: "After being heartlessly dumped, love turned into hatred. Years later, the returning heroine became completely corrupted, ordering her ex-girlfriend to be taken to a room and imprisoned, wanting to humiliate her to the extreme..."

"What is 'darkening'?" Cheng Zhishu interrupted.

Cheng Zhishu, who never reads online literature and has never been interested in watching any melodramatic dramas since she stopped living with Xi Congshuang, simply doesn't understand what the term means.

But she understood the second half. Cheng Zhishu was shocked and said, "Imprisonment is illegal, and so is humiliation. What are you thinking?"

Xi Congshuang raised an eyebrow, grabbed her chin, and turned her face towards him: "Breaking the law? So you know about breaking the law? Didn't you break the law today?"

Her lips, coated with nude lip gloss, meticulously recounted all her actions of the day.

"You bribed someone to smash Ni An's phone so she couldn't contact me in time, and you bribed hotel staff to lock me in my room to make sure I didn't leave. Do you know that if I call the police, your image as the heir to the Ander Group will be ruined?"

"Or do you think I wouldn't do that?"

Cheng Zhishu: "..."

How did she know the first one?

Did Ni An figure it out?

Xi Congshuang: "You spent four years abroad, or to be precise, 1,465 days. You learned to be bad very thoroughly."

Cheng Zhishu: "…………"

Holding her chin, the two drew close, and Xi Congshuang asked again, "Want to sleep? If not, let's do something else?"

"I'm going to sleep, I'm going to sleep, I'm going to sleep!" Cheng Zhishu finally broke down, wanting nothing more than to ask the other person to leave so she could calm down. "You get out! You get out first!"

Xi Congshuang was pushed haphazardly, let go of her hand, zipped up her dress, and got up to leave.

Cheng Zhishu didn't dare look at her back. She hurriedly buried herself in the quilt, pressing her cheek against the soft pillow. Only then did she realize that she had gone out without makeup, which saved her the trouble of removing it.

But... taking a red-eye flight for more than ten hours to H country, not adjusting to the time difference, getting drunk and going to find his first love, and only remembering taking a shower but not putting on makeup, none of these things seem like something a decent person would do.

Cheng Zhishu passed the test.

They have neither face nor substance.

"..." So why did she go back to China?

Is it shameful to rush back to China?

And Cheng Zhishu felt like something was wrong, but couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, and drifted off to sleep.

The person by the door looked back for a moment and saw that the bulge was a quilt. Then, the door was quietly closed.

Xi Congshuang found the hotel's loungewear in another room, changed into it, and returned to the living room, finally remembering the phone she had tossed aside.

It's almost 11 p.m., and I have several missed calls on my phone, all from Xi Hanran.

Just as I was about to reply to the message saying I was fine, my phone vibrated in my hand, and Xi Hanran called again.

Xi Congshuang swiped to answer the call, holding the phone to her ear: "It's me, what's up?"

After listening to a few words from the other side, Xi Congshuang sat down on the single sofa by the window, turned off the floor lamp, and replied, "It's okay, I'm in room 2602. I won't go to the rooftop to rest today."

"Also, please don't contact me these next few days. I won't have time even if the sky falls down."

"Why?" Xi Congshuang looked out the window at the moonlight, where she and the wheelchair behind the sofa were reflected in the glass.

Her face, now free of makeup, was expressionless, and her light-colored lips moved slightly: "Because someone has gone astray, and to prevent them from repeating the same fate, we need some time to correct them properly."

Xi Hanran on the other end of the phone: "?"

She asked, "Besides Nao Nao, what other creatures make you worry so much?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Xi Hanran's heart skipped a beat.

She remembered Flora, whom she had seen that night. The important thing was not Flora, but the people Flora had taken away.

She wanted to ask more, but the other end of the phone hung up, leaving her with no choice but to give up her questions.

The person being speculated about slept for a long time. Because she had something on her mind, Cheng Zhishu stayed up late to adjust to the time difference. She thought she wasn't sleepy, but actually fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When she woke up again, her whole body felt slumped over from sleep, and she had no idea what was happening outside.

Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, Cheng Zhishu thought she was at home. Hearing the noise outside the door, she instinctively called out, "Annie, get me a glass of water."

After a few seconds of silence outside, the door was opened and someone walked in.

A cup of lukewarm water at a suitable temperature is handed over.

Cheng Zhishu didn't even look at it, grabbed it and drank it. She had drunk the wine before going to bed, and after sleeping, she was even more thirsty.

She finished the glass of water quickly, but it wasn't enough, so she handed the glass back to her: "Another glass, please."

Cheng Zhishu was puzzled as no one took the cup that was extended.

The person beside the bed spoke: "Who is Annie?"

The voice sounded familiar, and in an instant, all her memories came flooding back. Cheng Zhishu almost crushed the cup in her hand.

Xi Congshuang bent down and asked, "Who is Annie who can enter your room and wake you up by your bedside?"

Cheng Zhishu: "..."

"Not later, is that right?"

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Annie: Don't ask me, I'm just a legend.