Chapter 168

A sentence mixed with Chinese and English, the tone erratic—if Michelle hadn’t studied Chinese for a few years herself, she really wouldn’t have understood what Zhong Ning meant.

Luckily, there was a 24-hour fast-food restaurant nearby. Zhong Ning insisted on buying something herself, so Michelle had no choice but to support her as they walked over.

After buying a strawberry sundae, Zhong Ning held the cone, took one lick, and tears immediately began to fall.

“So cold…”

She burst into tears, sobbing as if a dam had broken, “So cold, how can it be this freezing… Why are you doing this to me? What did I do wrong!”

It was as if a lethal wave of sorrow had exploded from within her, drowning her soul in an instant and draining every bone from her body.

Zhong Ning felt as if she had fallen into an icy pit, her whole body shivering, teeth chattering uncontrollably. If Michelle hadn’t been holding onto her tightly, she would’ve collapsed to the ground.

She leaned sideways and murmured, “Didn’t I love you? Didn’t I love you! Why… I really don’t understand… What do you want me to do!”

“You say you love me.”

As if remembering a joke, she suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. It started with a short snort and gradually escalated into a string of wild, hysterical laughter. Tears ran down her temples, soaking her hair, making her look like she had just been dragged out of water—completely disheveled.

“Ha ha ha ha… Love me? That’s hilarious. Did you hear that? She said she loved me. Ha, how funny, just too funny…”

“This is love? So this is love? I’ve finally learned.”

The freshly bought sundae fell to the ground. Zhong Ning stared blankly at the ice cream—pink side down, smashed into a flat mess. The cone rolled away onto the road, picking up dirt and dust.

Her crying stopped abruptly.

“…I really want to go home.”

Zhong Ning mumbled in a daze, like whispering the vaguest and most secretive of dreams.

“I want to go home.”

In the next moment, the waves of alcohol completely drowned out her consciousness. Zhong Ning’s head slumped to the side, and she fell into a deep sleep.

By the time she woke up again, it was already noon the next day.

Her head hurt—throbbing like someone had hacked at her skull with an axe and left the weapon stuck in it.

“Ugh…”

She clutched her forehead and slowly tried to sit up, but failed and collapsed back onto the bed.

Matsutake, who had been curled up at the foot of the bed, whimpered softly, jumped off, pressed the doorknob with its paw, and ran out after opening the door.

A while later, Michelle came in holding a cup. She helped Zhong Ning sit up. “This is hangover tea. Want to drink some?”

Zhong Ning furrowed her brows and sat up with Michelle’s help. “What? I drank that much yesterday?”

The hangover tea tasted terrible, but she still took the cup and downed half of it in one go.

“I really can’t remember anything. I didn’t do anything crazy while drunk, did I?”

Her memory only reached as far as when she was dancing. Everything after that was a complete blank. Strangely though, she felt inexplicably light, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her chest.

Michelle said, “You didn’t do anything crazy.”

Then, in very brief words, Michelle recounted everything Zhong Ning had done the previous night.

Zhong Ning: …

If that wasn’t a drunken episode, what was!

She really wanted to lower her head in embarrassment, but after thinking it over, there wasn’t much need for that. No point in being overly concerned about her image.

“I had a breakup,” Zhong Ning said.

“Obvious,” Michelle replied. “Would you like the hotel to send up breakfast?”

She didn’t seem to consider what had happened yesterday to be anything strange or unusual. After all, everyone goes through a breakup.

Zhong Ning was affected by that attitude, and her mood inexplicably calmed down.

Holding her cup, she suddenly felt the urge to confide. “My girlfriend… we were already engaged. She’s an excellent, capable, and beautiful person. Looks absolutely perfect.”

“Not gonna lie, it was love at first sight for me. But she has some psychological issues. She just can’t bring herself to trust anyone.”

Zhong Ning lowered her head and took small sips of the hangover tea. “I tried so many ways to heal her, and for a while, it looked like things were getting better. But in the end, it turns out everything I did was pointless.”

Michelle was silent for a moment. “Would you like to hear my opinion?”

“Go ahead.”

“People like that are like black holes. Don’t ever think your light can outshine it, or fill it. A black hole only swallows up all the light. The only solution is to stay far away. Even just seeing it, getting a bit closer, the black hole will still pull you in.”

Michelle spoke like someone who had been through it before. “Not getting close—that’s the best way.”

Zhong Ning gave a bitter smile. “I was just too confident.”

She let out a deep breath and rubbed her face. “Thank you for bringing me back yesterday.”

“Are there still opera tickets available?” she asked, her eyes brightening. “I want to see something cheerful.”

“Yes,” Michelle said. “I’ll go get them now.”

The next day, she left City A.

She went bungee jumping, rode a drop tower, went to an amusement park to watch the parade and fireworks show, went diving, took a hot air balloon ride, fed tigers at the zoo—and the happiest thing of all was during her visit to the aquarium, when a mischievous beluga whale suddenly surfaced and sprayed Matsutake with water.

Haha—Matsutake got so angry she started barking and cursing, while Zhong Ning laughed so hard she doubled over. Then the whale sprayed her too.

There was actually a warning sign nearby, stating that this beluga whale liked sneak attacks. Zhong Ning had seen it but pretended she hadn’t—she thought it was amusing.

“Can you travel for work?” Zhong Ning asked Michelle. “I want to extend the employment period.”

She now somewhat understood why some people couldn’t bear to part with their live-in housekeepers, or why a butler might stay with a family for life. A good assistant, an all-rounder like that, was truly rare. Once found, it made people want to keep them forever.

Over the past week, every part of her schedule, no matter how big or small, had been handled single-handedly by Michelle. No matter how many sudden whims she had, Michelle always managed to accommodate them on the spot, without a single complaint.