Act Wantonly Chapter 3

Chapter 3 She Is So Beautiful

Tan Xingwei’s mind went blank.

Three meters away, Su Xu leaned a hand on the cart, and upon confirming it was Tan Xingwei, a confused expression appeared on her face. However, she quickly tilted her head and smiled at Tan Xingwei.

That smile almost made Tan Xingwei erase the past four years.

Seeing that Tan Xingwei hadn’t moved, Su Xu’s confused expression reappeared, accompanied by a smile.

Tan Xingwei knew she couldn’t escape, so she walked over.

“You really came,” Su Xu said.

Tan Xingwei looked down at the buttons on Su Xu’s clothes, first greeting her, “Sister A’Xu,” then adding, “I dropped a friend off at the airport this afternoon, she just flew out. My older sister said you were arriving today, so I came to see you. Haha, what a coincidence.”

Su Xu said, “Is that so.”

Su Xu’s trailing tone was a little soft, like a whisper.

It was also a questioning tone, especially since Su Xu’s gaze had already moved to the flowers in Tan Xingwei’s hand.

The veteran liar Tan Xingwei almost dropped to her knees to say, No, no, no, you have no idea how hard I worked to find your flight, Wuwuwu, this trip was really not easy, and the flowers were carefully selected until my eyes went blind. Sister, sister, please favor me.

But in the end, Tan Xingwei could only manage a vague, “Mm,” and thrust the flowers, which were impossible to explain away, into Su Xu’s arms.

It was a bit sudden, and Su Xu let out an “Oops” before laughing, “Thank you.”

Tan Xingwei said, “You’re welcome,” and placed her hand on the cart, trying to nudge Su Xu aside.

Unfortunately, Su Xu blocked her.

“Mmm~” Su Xu made a sound of refusal, “No need.”

Tan Xingwei didn’t care and squeezed closer again.

This nudge amused Su Xu, and she grabbed Tan Xingwei’s wrist, “I said no need,” she handed the flowers in her hand to Tan Xingwei, “Can you hold these for me?”

Tan Xingwei was still holding the cart, “No.”

Su Xu said softly, “Why are you still so stubborn.”

Tan Xingwei, “Then you push the cart for me.”

Su Xu, “I won’t.”

Tan Xingwei choked up for a moment, her mind unable to keep up, and replied, “You’re stubborn too.”

Su Xu burst out laughing this time, “Alright,” she didn’t negotiate and directly handed the flowers to Tan Xingwei, “Take them,” and added, “You haven’t changed at all in four years.”

Although Tan Xingwei conceded, she still had to retort, “You haven’t changed either.”

Su Xu nodded in agreement, “Yes, yes.”

The flowers returned to Tan Xingwei’s hands, and Su Xu pushed the cart. The two walked side by side, maintaining a distance of one person between them.

The familiar feeling instantly returned. Su Xu had always been like this with her: a faint smile, faint care. Tan Xingwei was obedient and reasonable before, but when she wasn’t, Su Xu would just do as she pleased, not caring about Tan Xingwei at all.

Tan Xingwei understood in that moment why she had fallen for Su Xu again and again.

She was just so easy to like!

It made her furious.

But there was still a sense of distance!

Even more infuriating!

Su Xu had already arranged a car. The two got into the car after leaving the airport. Once the car started moving, Su Xu took the flowers Tan Xingwei had brought.

“Let me see,” Su Xu placed the bouquet on her lap, “Phalaenopsis orchid, is this a rose?”

Tan Xingwei nodded, “Cool Leather.”

Su Xu praised, “You’re so professional.”

Tan Xingwei’s lips curved slightly, “This is Gomphrena globosa.”

“So pretty,” Su Xu was delighted, her eyes curving, “Such beautiful flowers,” she then placed the flowers next to Tan Xingwei, “They match you perfectly today.”

Tan Xingwei said, “That’s why I bought them for you.”

Su Xu, “You want to match me?”

Although Tan Xingwei had indeed secretly intended to flirt a little, Su Xu saying it out loud made her panic immediately.

“Uh, I…”

Tan Xingwei was saved by her phone, which rang and vibrated simultaneously. Tan Xingwei quickly pulled it out of her pocket.

The screen showed “Tan Yinqing,” and both Tan Xingwei and Su Xu saw it.

“Hello,” Tan Xingwei answered.

Tan Yinqing, “What are you doing? Why answer so fast but not reply to my message.”

Tan Xingwei, “Say what you need to say.”

Tan Yinqing, “Where are you going? Are you coming back for dinner tonight?”

Tan Xingwei only replied, “Not coming back, you guys eat without me.”

Tan Yinqing, “Okay, bye-bye.”

Before Tan Xingwei could say anything, the line went dead.

“Why are you and your older sister still like this,” Su Xu commented.

Tan Xingwei, “Like what?”

Su Xu, “Always bickering.”

Tan Xingwei, “She wants to bicker with me.”

Su Xu nodded helplessly, “Okay.”

Tan Xingwei thought for a moment, “I have a very good temper,” she paused, then added, “I’m only like this with my older sister,” she paused again, “We haven’t done anything, we have a great relationship. She’s been following a celebrity lately, and I helped her snag a lot of merchandise.”

Su Xu tilted her head, listening intently to Tan Xingwei.

Just as Tan Xingwei thought Su Xu was about to make some profound statement, Su Xu asked, “Your older sister doesn’t know you came to pick me up?”

Tan Xingwei instantly choked up, and after a long pause, managed a dry, “Ah, no.”

Su Xu, “Why?”

Tan Xingwei pursed her lips.

Before she could fabricate an excuse, Su Xu spoke again, “I’m having dinner with my family tonight, want to join?”

From what Tan Xingwei knew of Su Xu, Su Xu probably guessed Tan Xingwei wasn’t going home for dinner.

From what Su Xu knew of Tan Xingwei, Tan Xingwei would never agree.

“No thanks,” Tan Xingwei said, “I have plans with friends tonight.”

“Okay,” Su Xu nodded, “Should I drop you off there?”

Tan Xingwei, “Sure.”

Tan Xingwei casually mentioned a shopping mall, and Su Xu immediately added it to the ride-hailing app.

Soon the car was on the expressway. The sunset glow over Haicheng was beautiful today. The setting sun poured in from the car window on Tan Xingwei’s side, illuminating her face, the flowers, and Su Xu’s lap.

Su Xu seemed busy, her phone constantly buzzing with new messages at first. Later, she simply muted the sound.

With Su Xu buried in her phone, Tan Xingwei became bolder. She went from only glancing with her peripheral vision to daring to turn her head and look directly at Su Xu.

She looked at the hoop earrings on Su Xu’s round earlobes, the small mole on the side of her nose, her long eyelashes, her pursed lips, her slender hands, and the narrow ring on her index finger.

After watching for a while, Su Xu brushed back her bangs.

After watching a little longer, Su Xu raised a hand to push up her glasses.

After watching a bit more, Su Xu opened her mouth and yawned.

“A little sleepy.”

Su Xu said this, then turned to look at Tan Xingwei.

Tan Xingwei subtly averted her gaze, looking down to unlock her phone.

“Look up,” Su Xu said again.

Tan Xingwei didn’t know what Su Xu meant by telling her to look up, but she obeyed and raised her head.

Su Xu’s eyes immediately curved into crescents. She pushed some of Tan Xingwei’s bangs aside, “You are so beautiful.”

Tan Xingwei took a shallow breath.

“Don’t move,” Su Xu picked up her phone, tapped a few times aimed at Tan Xingwei, and as she pressed the shutter, she sighed with admiration, “Wow, you look great.”

Tan Xingwei slowly exhaled.

It was annoying when a straight girl got handsy.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Su Xu turned the phone to show Tan Xingwei after taking the picture.

Tan Xingwei looked at herself on Su Xu’s phone. Because the car had changed lanes, the sunlight was now coming in through the rear window, making Tan Xingwei’s face look fluffy and glowing.

She really was beautiful.

Fine, she would forgive Sister A’Xu then.

Tan Xingwei’s lips curved up again. She touched her nose, then her hair, and said to Su Xu, “I want to take one of you too.”

Su Xu didn’t think much of it, “Okay,” and hugged the bouquet of flowers.

Tan Xingwei took a few pictures of Su Xu, mimicking the composition of Su Xu’s photo.

As the picture was taken, she suddenly felt a pang of emotion.

Over the years, many people had asked Tan Xingwei, Do you have a picture of your white moonlight?

Tan Xingwei should have had them. She had Su Xu’s graduation photo, a group photo of Su Xu and Tan Yinqing, and a side profile photo of Su Xu giving her medicine. But unfortunately, the day after Su Xu left for the UK, Tan Xingwei deleted them all.

She deleted them and then permanently deleted them from the recently deleted album.

So there were many times she regretted it.

She regretted it so much; she regretted it that very afternoon.

“You’re good at taking pictures,” Su Xu praised after seeing the photos, “Send them to me.”

After that, the two exchanged photos on their phones.

“Wake Up,” Su Xu read out Tan Xingwei’s WeChat ID.

Tan Xingwei laughed internally twice.

Su Xu, sx, Wake Up.

Tan Xingwei was truly a genius.

She had almost forgotten about this ID from overuse, but hearing the actual person say it again sent waves crashing through Tan Xingwei’s heart—five hundred waves of childishness, and five hundred waves of how cringey her past attempts at flirting had been.

Fortunately, Su Xu didn’t ask what it meant. What could “Wake Up” mean? It just meant waking up.

They hadn’t been on the expressway for long before the car arrived at the shopping mall Tan Xingwei had mentioned.

There wasn’t much conversation, but they seemed both familiar and unfamiliar with each other. After the car stopped, Tan Xingwei said to Su Xu, “Welcome back to Haicheng.”

Su Xu said, “Thank you for picking me up, and thank you for the flowers.”

Tan Xingwei just smiled back and got out of the car.

Closing the door, she walked toward the shopping mall without looking back.

So she didn’t see Su Xu holding the flowers she had given her, slowly rolling down the car window. Su Xu stared at Tan Xingwei’s retreating figure for a long time before slowly rolling the window back up.

The smile faded, and a sigh was swallowed inside the car.