Chai Xiaomi angrily crumpled that piece of paper into a ball.
Just then, a certain unsteady footstep sounded behind her.
As usual, the figure swayed and wobbled, unsteady on his feet.
Chai Xiaomi glanced back at him but didn't go to help.
"Hmph, so you remember to come back?" She let out a light, feigned snort of displeasure, strode over to the bedside, and sat down, hands on her hips and a stern look on her face.
Her delicate, pretty brows were tinged with obvious anger, her lips pouted high, and her cheeks were slightly puffed out.
The look of gentle reproach and shallow anger made Wu Li pause for a moment.
He blinked blankly, his voice still husky with a slight drunkenness: "Mimi, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong!"
Her tone clearly meant "something is wrong."
"Didn't you like the fireworks just now?" he said.
As he spoke, his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. If she didn't like the fireworks, then why was she both crying and laughing under that brilliant sky that night at Ouyang Mansion?
Could it be that Ouyang Rui's fireworks were better than his?
"I really liked the fireworks." Chai Xiaomi clenched the crumpled ball of paper in her hand. Just thinking about those two words made her furious.
She hadn't been this angry when Old Ji had said it. But right now, what really infuriated her was that Wu Li himself had admitted it.
"I don't want to talk to you right now. Let's have a one-minute cold war. You count yourself, just count to sixty."
"No, that's too long." His long lashes, like raven feathers, drooped downward, trembling weakly.
Chai Xiaomi refused to negotiate: "Sixty is still long? Then one hundred!"
"At most, count to three."
He was getting pushy!
"Two hundred!"
Wu Li started counting on his own: "One, two..."
"Lili! That doesn't count! Who told you to start counting? I'm going to add... you! What are you doing?!"
"Three."
He softly uttered the last word, kneeling by the bedside.
In his hand, he held her foot, and the red embroidered shoe was slipped off by him.
To match today's wedding, Chai Xiaomi had deliberately painted her toenails a wine-red color. Now, with her instep pressed against his cool palm, her fair toes unconsciously curled.
Wu Li stared blankly at that foot, a misty haze over his dark eyes, yet his gaze was fixed, staring straight, as if he had spotted some prey.
Suddenly, he bent down, kissing it with devout reverence.
"You!"
Startled, Chai Xiaomi tried to pull her foot back, but he held it securely. Because of her resistance, her calf was also grasped.
He kissed very lightly, a soft, slightly moist sensation spreading up from the tips of her toes like an electric current, making her spine tremble.
Chai Xiaomi bit her lip, scolding teasingly, "Lili, what are you doing? It's so ticklish, let go of me!"
He didn't let go.
Instead, along the instep, inch by inch, he kissed slowly and devoutly, like a form of worship.
He stopped at her slender ankle, using his teeth to gently nibble and toy with the little silver bell there, making it produce a crisp sound. Then, he took the skin along with the bell into his mouth, lightly sucking, reluctant to let go.
"Don't be like this..." Her voice had started to tremble.
Wu Li lifted his eyes, those pupils hazy with alcohol, wet and misty, the corners tinged with a drunken flush.
"Big Sister," he called out in a hoarse whisper, with a cutesy, pleading tone at the end.
Chai Xiaomi's whole body stiffened.
What did she just hear?
Big sister?
He called her... big sister?!
Before this, she had tried every trick in the book, both gentle and tough, coaxing and commanding, trying to get him to say "big sister" just once, even "jie jie" would do. But he would either ignore her with a cold face, turn away with reddened ears, or simply leave, stubbornly refusing to speak.
She had fussed, gotten angry, thrown tantrums, and finally just had to accept it.
She thought to herself, this dead stubborn, proud-mouthed man, she would probably never hear it in this lifetime.
But now.
He said it.
His tone was completely different from when he had called Song Yueyao earlier.
It was syrupy, sticky, and laced with a huskiness of desire.
Chai Xiaomi felt like something had gently scratched the tip of her heart, making it both itchy and soft, that feeling spreading all the way from her chest to her fingertips.
She stared at him blankly, momentarily forgetting what to say.
He lowered his head again, kissing her ankle, fine and dense, unbearably gentle.
His clever, nimble tongue grazed over her skin: her calf, the back of her knee, her inner thigh...
He suddenly stopped, looked up at her, his drunken eyes blurry, blinking with a pitiful air:
"Big Sister, don't be mad, and don't ignore me. If I've done something wrong, just tell me, and I can change..."
"But, please don't despise me, don't stop liking me, okay?"
"What are you talking about?" Chai Xiaomi's momentum had already dwindled.
Internally, she was screaming in ecstasy.
Ahhhh! What's happening with this scene? How did my dream become reality again?
"That white cat was right. Deep down, I'm just as vile and despicable as my mother." He lowered his head and continued kissing. "So, you absolutely can't abandon me... Otherwise, I'll become crazier and more ruthless than her. I don't know what I might do..."
"Please, don't abandon me, Big Sister... please..."
His hoarse voice trembled with pleading, but his lips restlessly lingered across her leg.
The moment he kissed the back of her knee, she went completely limp.
"You, you're crazy!" she tried to scold him, but her voice came out so soft it was pathetic, not even sounding like a scolding to her own ears.
Chai Xiaomi clutched the bedsheet, her fingertips trembling.
What was wrong with this guy?
He used to refuse to call her that no matter what, and now he couldn't stop.
One call after another, throwing her heart into chaos. "We're already married, how could I ever abandon you? Does my face have the words 'heartbreaker' written all over it? What goes through your head all day? Can't you stop being so pessimistic?"
"Then what were you just angry about? And why won't you talk to me?" he asked softly, his tone a little pitiful, as he continued to kiss upwards, slow and deliberate, like he was savoring a delicious dessert. His body swayed dizzyingly, as if it might topple over at any moment, yet his kissing movements were steady and precise.
Chai Xiaomi's heart trembled violently. Seeing that he was about to follow her leg inwards and kiss higher, she panicked and, with a start, planted her foot on his shoulder, pushing him away a bit.
"I'm angry that you don't cherish yourself, don't love yourself, don't recognize your own worth!"
"Li, you were already brilliant from the start."
She looked at the young man kneeling before the bed, cupped his face in her hands, and said earnestly, word by word:
"It's not that you became good because I liked you; rather, it's because you were already good that I liked you. You don't need to seek affirmation from me. This sense of self-worth has to grow from within yourself. Recognition begged from others' mouths or sought in others' eyes doesn't count."
"Before I discovered you, you were already a luminous pearl. I merely brushed away the dust that had settled on you."
"But as for the oyster that produced the pearl, no matter how filthy or ugly it is, so what? An oyster is an oyster, a pearl is a pearl. 'Li' is 'Li'."
His voice was muffled, carrying a sad, nasal twang: "Li means inferior soil, rotten wood."
"You're wrong. 'Li' has another meaning."
"There is a line in a poem: 'Li li yuan shang cao, yi sui yi ku rong. Ye huo shao bu jin, chun feng chui you sheng.'" (It translates roughly to: Lush, lush the grass on the plain. Each year it withers, then springs again. Wildfires burn it but never kill. Spring winds blow and it regrows and thrives.)
"Li Li" refers to lush, green grass, full of tenacious vitality—no matter what hardships or suffering it endures, it will always be reborn.
She cupped his face, her thumb gently stroking the reddened corners of his eyes:
"That's you."
