Chapter Sixty-Three: You and I Before the Mirror

Su Xuefei smiled softly, taking my hand and leading me to the edge of the bed to sit down. I sat there, sluggishly feeling the silky texture against my palm, momentarily forgetting to pull my hand away.

Sitting on the bed, I pretended to casually place my hand to the side while nervously looking down at the tank top and beach shorts I had somehow been changed into overnight. Awkwardly, I asked, "Goddess Su... um, did I do anything I shouldn't have last night?"

"Anything you shouldn't have?" Su Xuefei asked, looking at me in confusion as she gently gathered her smooth, long hair and began to slowly brush it with a wooden comb.

I scratched my head and explained, "I mean... how should I put it..." I gritted my teeth and blurted out, "I mean, did I lose control because of the alcohol and touch you inappropriately?"

Hearing me say this, Su Xuefei instantly stopped brushing. Her face, which had been turned toward me, lowered, and a blush crept across her cheeks. Seeing her react this way, my heart sank. I thought to myself that I was doomed. If I had truly done anything worse than an animal, I would have been better off just drinking myself to death the night before.

"No..." Su Xuefei stood up, walked over to the vanity table by the bed, and sat down. Looking at her own reflection in the mirror with her back to me, she whispered, "You drank so much last night. If that older sister and Yang Xiaoyu hadn't helped, I wouldn't have even known how to bring you back... You were completely unconscious when you got here."

I breathed a silent sigh of relief, thinking thank goodness for that. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter much for a guy like me, but if I had taken advantage of Goddess Su, let alone what she might do to me, she wouldn't be showing me any mercy if she didn't skin me alive.

"Goddess Su, I honestly can't remember anything from last night. How did you even end up there?" My mind was still not entirely clear, feeling groggy, and I couldn't recall a single thing that happened later in the evening. What frustrated me the most, though, based on Su Xuefei's words, was that I seemed to be the only one who had completely blacked out.

Hearing this, Su Xuefei turned her body slightly sideways to look at me, a trace of bewilderment in her eyes as she whispered, "You were the one who called and asked me to come over."

"I asked you to come?" I stood frozen in place. It seemed that a lot of things had indeed happened right before I passed out. However, that must have occurred after the alcohol had completely numbed my brain, leaving me with zero memory of it.

"Can you tell me what happened last night? I just can't remember..."

Judging by the current situation, nothing terrible must have happened last night, or else I wouldn't be sitting here safe and sound. My biggest worry now was whether I had made a fool of myself after getting drunk...

Su Xuefei turned around once again, looking at the two of us in the mirror, and smiled as she asked, "Yang Chen, could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Come over here."

I stepped closer to Su Xuefei. In the mirror, she was wearing a clean, white, light-cotton pajama top. Her full breasts were faintly discernible beneath the loose fabric, and the smooth, fair skin near her sexy collarbones made me swallow hard. Looking at her pure and beautiful face in the mirror, my heartbeat began to steadily accelerate.

"Could you help me comb my hair?" Su Xuefei turned her head to look at my red-faced self, asking softly.

"I'm not really good at that..."

Back when I was with Zhang Jiaxin, I had never once helped her comb her hair. Jiaxin was the carefree, tomboyish type. Sometimes, after secretly pulling an all-nighter with me at an internet cafe, she would just run back to her dorm the next morning to splash some water on her face before rushing off to class. At that time, I didn't have the delicate mindset required for the trivial details of daily life. Although our time together had its share of sorrow and heartbreak, the vast majority of it was filled with wild abandon and joy.

"It's fine," Su Xuefei turned back around and sat up straight.

Standing behind her, I picked up the wooden comb. Looking at the blushing Goddess Su in the mirror, I felt completely at a loss as to where to begin.

A cool sensation touched my hand as I looked down and saw Su Xuefei reaching out to steady my hand holding the comb. Guided by her strength, I gently pressed it against her smooth, dark, long hair.

Carefully lifting her silky locks, a faint fragrance drifted into my nose. I used the wooden comb to gently smooth out her cascading hair from top to bottom.

"You're only the second man to ever comb my hair," Su Xuefei closed her eyes and told me, her face flushed red.

"Was the first one your father?"

"Mhm."

Bit by bit, I started to pick up the technique of brushing hair. Fearing that my clumsiness might hurt her, I moved the wooden comb down very slowly. Su Xuefei's hair was extremely long; managing it entirely on her own must have been quite a hassle. If I were Su Xuefei's boyfriend, I figured I wouldn't feel the least bit tired even if I had to spend a long time every single day helping her with her hair.

Goddess Su always possessed a unique aura, one that seemed capable of intangibly purifying the anxiety and sorrow in my soul. Every time I spent time alone with her, I could forget many of the headaches and troubles that plagued me, allowing my chaotic inner world a moment of peace.

"Why is it that you completely forgot everything that happened last night?" Su Xuefei seemed quite fascinated by the phenomenon of alcohol-induced blackouts.

"I just drank too much, I guess." Too embarrassed to meet her eyes, I asked quietly, "What actually happened last night?"

"I was originally planning to go to sleep, but then I got a call from you. You said you were singing at a bar and wanted me to come over."

"And you just came?" I stopped brushing my hair, paralyzed by awkwardness. "If you heard I was drunk, you shouldn't have paid any attention to me. Sometimes I..."

"I didn't think that much about it," Su Xuefei said with a smile. "When I heard you wanted to sing for me, I rushed right over. Who knew that by the time I arrived, you were already dead to the world?"

"That's a relief..." I let out a sigh. Not making a fool of myself after drinking was the best possible outcome.

"However, that older sister who helped me bring you back seemed really sad at the time," Su Xuefei said after a moment of thought.

The woman Su Xuefei was referring to must have been Zhao Kewen. I remembered that Kewen and I had been drinking together the whole time. Did something else happen after I passed out?

"I'm not clear on the exact details, but I just saw her crying continuously because she was so upset. Then Yang Xiaoyu kept comforting her on the side. Afterwards, she told me she had to make sure you were sent back safely, and then she went outside to make a phone call." Su Xuefei gently draped her smoothed-out hair over her right shoulder and continued, "Then, after Yang Xiaoyu and I helped you into the car, she came back and stayed until we got you settled into bed at the hotel."

I nodded, though I still had no idea what Sister Kewen could possibly be so sad about. Was she crying because she was calling Zhang Chuand? I remembered Kewen promising me last night that she would end everything between herself and Zhang Chuand. Did she shed tears because she had actually developed genuine feelings? If that was truly the case, was what I did right or wrong?

I sighed. "Sorry for the trouble. You had to take care of me."

Su Xuefei smiled, waved her hand dismissively, then stood up, spun around in front of me, and whispered, "Everything else was fine, except your pants were way too hard to take off."

I instantly turned crimson with awkward embarrassment, my mind receiving the answer to my final lingering question.

Taking advantage of the time while Su Xuefei was washing up, I hurriedly got dressed and called Sister Kewen, only to be met with the automated message that her phone was temporarily unavailable.

After tidying up, Goddess Su and I went out for a quick, simple breakfast, after which she accompanied me back to the cold drink shop. Seeing Yang Xiaoyu sitting behind the counter with her eyelids drooping heavily, I felt an even deeper sense of guilt.

Gently waking the half-asleep Yang Xiaoyu, I said softly, "Xiaoyu, go home and get some proper rest. I'll take care of things today."

"Boss Yang," Xiaoyu rubbed her hazy eyes, looking back and forth between me and Su Xuefei before muttering to herself, "You really have endless energy. To think you can still come to work after spending the night sleeping with such a great beauty..."

"Stop spouting nonsense and hurry home to sleep." I chased Xiaoyu away from her seat, watching her stagger as she left. Still feeling a bit uneasy, I asked Su Xuefei to walk her to her ride.

Sitting behind the counter, I calculated that Christmas was only a few days away. During a lull in customer traffic, I called over our female service staff and learned from my inquiries that Yang Xiaoyu actually had a solid plan in mind. After listening to their description, I nodded, thinking Xiaoyu's idea was indeed a very eye-catching concept for a low-cost promotional event. Now, all that remained was the coalition of small storefronts I had mentioned earlier, so I needed to act quickly and waste no time.

"Goddess Su, can you watch the shop for a bit? The price list is on the counter. I need to run an errand for a couple of hours. Sorry for the trouble." With time running short and the task pressing, I had to temporarily leave Goddess Su in charge of running the cold drink shop while I hurried off to negotiate joint promotional proposals with the surrounding small business owners.

Stepping out the door, I visited the small storefronts one by one in the order I had pre-planned in my mind. Just as I expected, the very first few shop owners felt that such an initiative carried too many risks and refused to cooperate. I didn't take it to heart, as this was well within my expectations. However, all it would take was a few shop owners nodding first, and the rest would naturally fall in line with the majority. At that point, I had enough confidence to change their minds.

After nearly two hours of persuasion, a floral gift shop and a small supermarket finally agreed to my proposal. I discussed the details and key focus points thoroughly with the owners of both shops, and they both nodded in agreement. Following that, I turned back around to visit the shops that had previously rejected my idea, playing the card that "the other owners have already agreed." Sure enough, things became much smoother. Accustomed to following the crowd, they ultimately gave in and successively agreed to jointly plan and participate in this Christmas event.

Returning to the cold drink shop, I was dumbfounded to find Su Xuefei sitting quietly behind the counter while a line of college-student-aged young men stood in front of it, seemingly waiting for something.

"What... what is going on here?" I leaned in close to Su Xuefei's ear and whispered.

"Who the hell is this guy? How dare he whisper to my goddess!" someone in the line muttered aloud.

Hearing that, my face darkened. What did he mean by "how dare he"? I wanted to ask the exact same thing: since when did Su Xuefei become *your* goddess?