Zheng Yun glanced at the oversized cup sitting in the middle of the table and felt a headache coming on.

He had already been pressured into drinking quite a lot by these people. If he downed a cup that large in one go, he would almost certainly end up drunk.

“I choose truth.”

“Ha, look at that — Squad Leader Zheng is backing down.” A chorus of whistles broke out around the table.

“Stop the chatter. Who’s asking the question?” Zheng Yun’s face had taken on a faint pallor — apparently those who could truly hold their liquor tended to grow paler the more they drank.

“Me, me, I’ll go.” Bai Jin was the first to jump in. “Actually, I’m asking this on everyone’s behalf, because we all care very deeply about Squad Leader Zheng’s romantic future. So my question is: does Squad Leader Zheng currently have someone he likes?”

As he finished, everyone looked over in unison.

Zheng Yun held his cup in his hand, his eyes cast slightly downward. After a moment he spoke: “No.”

The men had all expected this answer. Only Ling Ai’s smile grew slightly unnatural. She worked hard to maintain the upward curve at the corners of her mouth, while inside her heart felt a little sour.

Yan Qing quietly glanced at Ling Ai. Though her expression appeared calm on the surface, a trace of disappointment was still visible.

At some point, her feelings for Zheng Yun had grown deeper and deeper. The trouble was that Zheng Yun was a block of ice — who knew whether she had the confidence to melt it.

“How boring.” Bai Jin clicked his tongue. “Next round, next round.”

This round, it was Qiao Yiran who lost. She picked up her cup openly and without hesitation: “I’ll drink.”

“Miss Qiao has impressive capacity!”

“Miss Qiao, is there some secret you’re afraid we’ll find out?”

Qiao Yiran ignored the teasing all around her and drained her cup cleanly.

“Are you all right? Drinking that much?” Ling Ai was a little concerned.

She had misunderstood the nature of Qiao Yiran and Zheng Yun’s relationship before. Afterward, Qiao Yiran had taken the initiative to befriend her, and she had come to genuinely like Qiao Yiran’s personality — open and natural, without any pretense.

“I’m fine.” Qiao Yiran winked at her. “I can hold my liquor just fine. You, on the other hand — be careful.”

Despite being very careful, Ling Ai still ended up losing a round in the end.

She didn’t dare drink that cup of liquor, so she had no choice but to choose truth.

The one asking the question this time was once again Bai Jin. His narrow eyes swept back and forth between Ling Ai and Zheng Yun before he spoke loudly: “Miss Ling Ai, our Squad Leader Zheng is a man of outstanding appearance and polished bearing. Do you like him?”

Everyone took it as a joke and laughed along, because in their eyes it was an absurd question — naturally Ling Ai’s answer would be no, and there was nothing worth lying about there.

But Ling Ai was taken aback.

No one had ever asked her this question before. When Bai Jin asked it in that half-serious, half-joking tone, she suddenly found she had no answer.

She was asking herself the same thing: did she actually like Zheng Yun? If she didn’t, why had she gone all the way up to Cang Mountain to pick red berries for him? If it was simply to thank him, she could have easily bought something expensive and sent it over. And why had she come to his birthday party and prepared a gift so carefully — was it really just because she thought of him as a friend?

“Oh my, it seems the question has stumped Miss Ling Ai.” E’Yuan put on an expression of someone who had seen everything clearly. “I think Miss Ling Ai is just trying to spare our Squad Leader Zheng’s feelings.”

Ling Ai wanted to say that wasn’t it at all, but her lips moved and no words came out.

In the end, she looked toward the cup of liquor. Even though drinking all of it in one go would knock her out completely, she decided to keep her secret hidden.

Just as her hand reached for the cup, a pair of long-fingered hands got there before her and picked it up: “Stop putting her on the spot. She’s not familiar with our customs here. I’ll drink this cup for her.”

Ling Ai stared in astonishment as Zheng Yun tilted his head back and drained the cup dry. She was left completely stunned.

Zheng Yun turned the empty cup upside down to show there was not a drop left: “Come on. Next round.”

The game continued. No one dwelt on what had just happened. In everyone’s eyes, Zheng Yun had simply drunk on her behalf to spare an out-of-town guest from embarrassment, and Ling Ai had simply declined to answer the truth question out of respect for him.

Only Yan Qing had taken in every detail, and she felt a quiet joy inside. Perhaps Zheng Yun was not quite the wooden block everyone thought him to be — he did have moments of awakening.

“Squad Leader Zheng, how is it you again?”

Zheng Yun rolled a four, and it was still the lowest number.

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” Zheng Yun’s face had already taken on a flush. He had been drinking a great deal this evening, and drinking fast.

Bai Jin raised his hand again, his grinning gaze sweeping across Ling Ai and Qiao Yiran’s faces: “If there were only two women left in the entire world — one being Miss Ling Ai and one being Miss Qiao — which one would you choose?”

Ling Ai had been worried Zheng Yun was drinking too much, but when she heard this question, her whole body went rigid.

“Old Bai, that’s ruthless.” Someone laughed loudly. “No matter which one he picks, he offends someone. Squad Leader Zheng, you’d better just drink — this is a death-trap question.”

“That’s right, just drink. Drink.”

“Fine, I’ll drink then.” The question was indeed a lethal one. Zheng Yun could not possibly make either Qiao Yiran or Ling Ai lose face.

Just as he reached for the cup, someone moved faster than him.

“Squad Leader Zheng drank a cup for me earlier. This one is to repay him.” Without giving anyone a chance to react, Ling Ai picked up the cup and drank from it in large mouthfuls. She couldn’t manage it in one gulp the way Zheng Yun had, but she finished it quickly all the same.

Zheng Yun stared at her with hazy, wine-blurred eyes in surprise as her face rapidly turned red.

“Done.” Ling Ai mimicked the way Zheng Yun had done it and turned the cup upside down: “It’s all gone.”

“Miss Ling Ai, well done!”

“Squad Leader Zheng, you’ve narrowly escaped disaster.”

After Ling Ai sat back down, her head began to swim. She tried hard to keep her eyes open wide, but the harder she tried, the more blurry everything became.

“Ling Ai.” Yan Qing took hold of her. “Let me take you to rest for a bit.”

“Okay.” Ling Ai could tell that if she stayed any longer, the alcohol would rise further and she would embarrass herself.

Yan Qing led Ling Ai away from the drinking table. Zheng Yun was in the middle of rolling the dice just then. After rolling a six, he instinctively glanced toward the direction in which Ling Ai had gone.

The moment Ling Ai touched the bed, she collapsed onto it at once. She closed her eyes and refused to open them again.

“You foolish girl.” Yan Qing took the blanket and covered her. “If you can’t hold your liquor, why show off?”

After getting Ling Ai settled, she went to ask the chefs to make some sobering soup. The drinking out there showed no signs of ending, and she suspected everyone would end up drunk before the night was over.

They played until very late before everyone reluctantly left — though by that point each of them was swaying and unable to walk a straight line. Shi Ting had Old Zhao drive the car and send everyone home one by one, while the people Bai Jin had hired were cleaning up the leftover food from the tables.

“How is Ling Ai doing?” Zheng Yun came over, his complexion faintly flushed. Though he too had drunk quite a lot, fortunately he hadn’t gotten drunk.

“I couldn’t find the guest room, so I set her up in your room.” Yan Qing said: “I’ll wake her in a while and give her some sobering soup.”

“All right.” Zheng Yun said: “Once she wakes up, I’ll take her home.”

“Are you still able to drive?”

“Yes. I had the sobering soup earlier. I just need to rest a bit more and I’ll be fine.”

Yan Qing thought to herself that in the modern era this would count as drunk driving — but fortunately in this day and age there were hardly any motor vehicles on the roads. Outside of rickshaws, even bicycles were a rare sight.

A household with a bicycle was the equivalent of owning a Mercedes-Benz.

Yan Qing went back to the room and tried to wake Ling Ai, but no matter how long she called, Ling Ai didn’t stir in the slightest. The girl had probably never drunk this much before, and had done so at such speed — with the alcohol surging through her like that, it was a wonder she hadn’t drunk herself into oblivion.

“I can’t wake her. Why not carry her to the car?” Yan Qing looked at Zheng Yun. “She’s this drunk — it’s probably better not to send her home tonight. I’ll have Shi Ting send word to Hui Cun’s household. You can take her to the medical school dormitory.”

“Does she usually stay in the dormitory?”

“Sometimes. Let me come with you.”

Zheng Yun was just about to agree when Shi Ting walked over and said: “Let Zheng Yun go alone. Old Zhao’s car doesn’t have much fuel left. At this hour there’s nowhere to refuel, and making a trip to the medical school and then back to the Shi household might not leave enough. The road from here to the medical school passes right by the Shi household first anyway.”

“But I’m still worried about Ling Ai…”

“I’ll take good care of her.” Zheng Yun’s tone was firm. “Sister-in-law, don’t worry.”

“All right then. Thank you for the trouble.”

When Old Zhao’s car returned, Zheng Yun lifted Ling Ai from the bed. Even drunk, she was still remarkably light — no more than around eighty-some jin, he guessed.

Zheng Yun carried her all the way to the front gate and onto Old Zhao’s car.

Once everyone was in the car, Ling Ai naturally let her head rest against Zheng Yun’s shoulder.

Zheng Yun seemed to go rigid for just a moment, but rather than pushing her away, he simply said: “Brother Zhao, let’s go.”

The car stopped at the Shi household first. Yan Qing and Shi Ting got out.

Yan Qing gave a few more instructions before Old Zhao drove the car away.

Watching the car disappear into the distance, Yan Qing let out a soft sigh: “What a foolish girl.”

“Zheng Yun will take good care of her. Besides — isn’t this exactly the opportunity you were hoping for?” Shi Ting drew her into his arm. “Let’s go home.”

“I want to go home.” In the car, Ling Ai suddenly murmured.

Zheng Yun heard her and said softly: “I’m taking you to the school dormitory for tonight.”

“I don’t want to go to the dormitory.” Ling Ai shook her head with her eyes still closed. “No. No.”

She probably didn’t want her roommates to see her in this drunken state. Even half-conscious, she still cared about keeping up appearances.

“Squad Leader Zheng, what should we do?” Old Zhao, listening to the exchange from the back, spoke up to ask.

Zheng Yun also felt a headache coming on. If she refused to go to the dormitory, the only other option was Hui Cun’s place — but if Hui Cun saw his daughter in this state he would certainly demand a full account of what had happened.

“Brother Zhao, stop at the Ping Cheng Inn up ahead.”

“Got it.” Old Zhao had always been a man of action and few questions. He pulled up in front of the Ping Cheng Inn and drove straight off.

Zheng Yun carried Ling Ai into the inn. The innkeeper’s wife hurried forward with a cheerful smile: “Young man, checking in? A double room, or a single?”

As she spoke, her gaze traveled back and forth between Zheng Yun and Ling Ai.

—