Chapter 71: They Started Arguing Again
The three of them were so awkward that they wished they could disappear into the ground.
As the owner of the place, who else could take the heavy job of breaking the awkward silence besides Gao Ming?
“I think… we should go eat first.”
“Agreed.”
“We haven’t started filming yet anyway. We can still make changes on the way.”
After Gao Ming spoke, the other two quickly agreed. The three of them hurried downstairs one after another, almost bumping into each other.
But when they got downstairs, the meal still wasn’t finished. Cheng Fei also seemed distracted. While cooking, she would occasionally turn around to look behind her. And where she was looking, those two women both had dark expressions, looking like two angry fighting roosters that had just finished a big argument.
Things had been lively upstairs for quite a while. They thought three women together would create a gentle atmosphere, but after coming downstairs, they realized things here were not peaceful either.
The three men looked at each other and deeply understood the bad result of rushing things too quickly…
But since they were already downstairs, they had no choice but to face it bravely.
Zhou Lin was basically family to Cheng Fei. He originally wanted to help in the kitchen, but Gao Ming got there first. So he could only go sit across from Zheng Qi instead. Without the annoying person in front of her anymore, Zheng Qi instantly became energetic again like a husky. While eating snacks, she chatted with Zhou Lin about something unknown.
They looked like they were playing games on their phones, but also not quite.
“I feel like this kind of character setting isn’t very likable…”
Zhou Lin was an honest person and spoke very directly. Zheng Qi also disliked beating around the bush, so she did not mind and asked openly.
“Why? Isn’t being honest good?”
“Honest people usually aren’t good at making others happy.”
Zheng Qi curled her lips.
“Everyone likes different things. It’s true that bad boys can make people happy, but they also hurt people badly!”
On the other side, Ye Dong had no choice. The only person he could really talk to was Bai Xi.
Their conversation topic became glasses.
“It looks like one side is a little lighter, and the other side is darker.”
Bai Xi smiled lightly.
“The transparency is just right. It doesn’t affect daily use.”
“That’s pretty good. At least the students will pay more attention to the front of the classroom.”
“Then… heart-shaped lenses would be even better.”
“And add two whiskers too.”
Bai Xi finally laughed out loud, her voice clear and pleasant.
From arguing when they first met to now calmly sitting together, Ye Dong realized he had never properly looked at this hardworking teacher before.
She really was cold and distant, but her attractive elegance was also impossible to ignore.
While laughter and conversations continued here, Gao Ming and Cheng Fei were whispering on the other side.
“What happened between those two just now…?”
“They started arguing because of different tastes.”
Gao Ming glanced at the table and noticed two plates of sweet-and-sour pork. He instantly understood everything.
“The salty-versus-sweet food war?”
Cheng Fei kept a straight face and nodded heavily.
From rice dumplings to mooncakes to tofu pudding, the battle between the two sides had lasted for a very long time. Online, people argued about it nonstop. Especially near the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, all kinds of discussions and analysis would appear endlessly, giving bored internet users plenty of drama to watch.
As the saying goes, heretics are worse than unbelievers, and enemies inside the group are the most dangerous. When both sides believe they are the “real original version,” war can start at any moment.
“Sigh…”
Cheng Fei and Gao Ming sighed together. These people were clearly just too full and had too much free time to argue about food flavors.
They were leaving early tomorrow morning, which was why everyone had gathered here today. The goal was to let these office workers, who usually ignored everything except eating, drinking, and surviving for work, properly enjoy the beauty of nature for once, the sunrise.
The dishes on the table were completely wiped clean. There was barely even soup left. The way everyone ate like starving ghosts showed just how good Cheng Fei’s cooking really was.
Cheng Fei became proud, almost like she was standing on a mountain peak holding a cooking spatula and laughing proudly toward the sky.
“If only I could—”
BOOM!
The sky that had been calm a moment ago suddenly filled with dark clouds. Thunder and lightning flashed, and then heavy rain poured down instantly.
The imagined scene disappeared.
Back in reality, Cheng Fei was half lying in the bathtub, her wet hair stuck all over her face. It was obvious someone had poured water over her like this.
Bai Xi stood with her hands on her waist, while Zheng Qi crossed her arms. The two had instantly united again and were now targeting the person in front of them together.
Afraid Cheng Fei was still lost in her own imagination, Zheng Qi snapped her fingers in front of her.
“Wake up!”
Cheng Fei pushed her hair aside and spat out a mouthful of water mixed with bath soap.
“You eat your fill and then scold the cook? Ungrateful much?!”
“If your head wasn’t busy daydreaming, we wouldn’t need to yell at you like this.”
“I…”
“Anyway, no changing the subject first!”
The two of them worked together perfectly, one speaking after the other. Cheng Fei had seen this more than once before, but today… she could clearly smell danger in the air.
Her instincts immediately told her to run away. She wanted to use her “husband” as an excuse. Surely they would not have a reason to refuse then.
But it was already too late.
Her feet soaking in the water had already been grabbed, one by each of them.
What exactly were they planning to do to their “best friend”?
Could it be that the excuse about her personality changing and suddenly liking to touch them was no longer believable?
Cheng Fei regretted it a little. She really had not hidden herself carefully enough.
While she was secretly regretting things inside her heart, Zheng Qi took out her phone. She unlocked it, opened a video, and played the security footage from the accident a few months ago that had been uploaded online.
Cheng Fei’s eyelids twitched nonstop as she helplessly watched the scene that had held a place among her deepest fears for over twenty years.
But no matter how scary that past event was, it was already over. Right now, the feeling of having her secret exposed was what truly made her collapse inside.
Ripples spread across the water again and again, all coming from the person with only her head above the water.
A drop of water fell from the ceiling. In this warm room it was not cold, but when it landed on her back, her whole body still trembled.
The two pairs of eyes across from her did not move even once. Their eyes narrowed slightly, like fierce tigers staring at prey.
“Th-this…”
“How do you explain this?”
Explain what? Was she supposed to directly say that the soul inside their friend had been replaced? She would probably be drowned in the bathtub on the spot.
“At that time, the person had already passed out… and after waking up, they were already in the hospital…”
“But you still should’ve told us!” Bai Xi complained. Too much time had passed for them to really do anything now, so she could only complain verbally.
“Hehe… weren’t you both busy back then? I thought I was fine, so…”
“Something this dangerous happened, and you even hid it from us. Do you still think of us as sisters?!”
“Exactly!” Zheng Qi rolled her eyes too. But after staring at Cheng Fei’s smiling face for a moment, she suddenly reacted and spat lightly.
“Pah! What nonsense am I even saying? Talking after everything is already over is pointless. Since nothing bad happened, forget it. But Feidei, look carefully. Weren’t you lying on top of someone back then?”
Of course she recognized that person.
That was her own body from more than twenty years of life. There was nothing more familiar to her than that.
Seeing the video freeze at the moment of the fall, Cheng Fei suddenly felt sadness rise inside her again.
She started regretting things once more. If she had not gone to Fengxiang that day to join the crowd of uncles and aunties fighting over instant noodles, maybe none of this would have happened.
She really should not have tried to save a little money.
Maybe she had even been cursed that day.
“As far as I know… this person is already gone…”
Thankfully, Miss Zheng used gentler words instead of directly saying “dead.” But that only made Cheng Fei feel even worse.
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
Zheng Qi’s eyes suddenly lit up. She quickly opened a webpage.
“Gender-swap novels! A man’s soul enters a woman’s body! A successful young man dies unexpectedly, and his soul travels into the body of a married woman!”
Hey! Was someone secretly watching her with a telescope nearby and then using all her embarrassing experiences as story material?!
“I… don’t really understand.”
Cheng Fei forced herself to stay calm, even though she felt so guilty she was almost ready to kneel down and beg for mercy at any second. Still, she managed to keep an expression as steady as a mountain.
Thankfully, all those years working in sales without shame or limits had given her incredibly thick skin. Otherwise, with her old personality, she would have been finished long ago.
“I’ve honestly never heard of something like soul transmigration.”
“Oooh~”
Zheng Qi crossed her arms, looking like she had already seen through everything.
Cheng Fei forced herself not to swallow the saliva stuck in her throat, afraid those two tigresses would notice something strange.
“Let me ask you something first. Do you remember when we were sophomores and there was trouble during the campus event? A junior wanted to become famous through the event, but the judge happened to be someone who hated him and kept targeting him. Later the guy got angry and used a shot put like a volleyball during the competition and smashed it at someone!”
Cheng Fei’s eyes rolled around quickly after hearing that.
Whoa! Something that crazy happened?
Cheng Fei and her original body were around the same age. When “she” was a sophomore, Cheng Fei herself had been a junior at a nearby school.
First of all, a shot put was extremely heavy. If it hit someone, the lightest result would be broken bones or limbs, and in serious cases it could kill someone.
And with revenge this serious, the school definitely would have announced punishment publicly.
So why explain the details so clearly? It was obviously a made-up story.
Which meant Zheng Qi was throwing out smoke bombs to confuse her and trick her into revealing the truth.
She looked like a husky, but deep down she was actually a cunning wolf.
Cheng Fei narrowed her eyes.
“That never happened at all!”
Zheng Qi clicked her tongue while Bai Xi covered her forehead helplessly.
“But during the relay race, someone ran too fast and accidentally pulled down her teammate’s pants while passing the baton. And it was another girl too… tsk tsk!”
Cheng Fei relaxed slightly inside.
That incident was still recorded in their group chat, luckily not deleted yet. Good thing she had seen it before, or today…
“Miss Zheng, can we stop talking about these meaningless things—mmph!”
“Sigh~ One last thing.” Zheng Qi covered Bai Xi’s mouth with one hand, finally getting revenge for always having her own mouth covered before. “In our second year of high school, on October 8th, I caught a cold. Who was it because of?”
Cheng Fei smiled.
It was not because these tiny little details could still be found in old records. It was because she had suddenly thought of a way to fight back.
She shook her head slowly. Then, under Zheng Qi’s excited glowing eyes, she calmly opened her mouth.
“But I do remember how Wang Xuan first met you back in freshman year.”
The moment she heard that, the light in Zheng Qi’s eyes dimmed a lot.
“I also remember how long he brought you meals every day since freshman year, and exactly what dishes he brought.”
After Cheng Fei finished speaking, Zheng Qi’s body visibly trembled.
Bai Xi’s mouth was still being covered. At this point she was rolling her eyes so hard her pupils were almost disappearing. Seeing Zheng Qi still refusing to stop, she ground her teeth together, opened her mouth, and bit directly into the center of Zheng Qi’s palm.
“Yaaah!”
Zheng Qi screamed and pulled her hand away, baring her teeth angrily at Bai Xi.
“Are you a dog or what?!”
Bai Xi had finally reached her limit. She splashed water straight into Zheng Qi’s face.
“You’re the one who’s like a dog! A stupid dog too! You still wouldn’t let go! We already talked about something this serious, and you’re still obsessed with whether there’s a man’s soul inside her head? Huh? Let’s say, just for argument’s sake, she really is what you imagined. What kind of man could act all lovey-dovey with another man, get married, and even… even sleep together? And what, it just so happens that guy was gay too?”
Inside her heart, Cheng Fei silently gave Bai Xi a thumbs-up.
This woman really was good at judging people.
But I truly am straight. I am really not gay. Heaven and earth could witness it!