Shadow and Light: The Bride Who Clicks Her Way to Love-Chapter 111 - 112: You Decide How to Handle This Drink
Suddenly, a voice interrupted her thoughts: "Xingyu, congratulations on winning the street photography competition. Come on, cheers!"
She looked up to see an editor from Cloud Magazine holding up a glass, smiling at her to clink with her juice. She couldn’t help but smile too, mustering the energy to clink glasses and down the juice.
People laughed and heckled, one after another coming to clink glasses with her.
Su Xingyu then realized she still lacked experience at the drinking table. She thought not drinking alcohol would be fine, but who knew these people could be terrifying even with juice, as if they wouldn’t stop until she was down? "No more, no more," she laughed, pleading for mercy, "If you keep going, I’ll burst from all this juice even if I don’t get drunk!"
"That’s what you get for dodging alcohol! Haha, serves you right!" They relentlessly plied her with drinks.
She cried out repeatedly, "Ouyang, Ouyang! Don’t let the waitstaff bring more juice! I can’t drink anymore, I really can’t!"
"Ouyang, don’t listen to her. We have to show her who’s boss today!" they clamored.
Ouyang Yi held a glass of whiskey, his slender body leaning lazily on the long sofa, his shirt half undone, revealing his unbelievably sensual chest in the dim light, like a god of beauty reborn. Well, a male god of beauty.
He shrugged helplessly at Su Xingyu, a mischievous smile on his face: "Can’t help you."
He put down his glass and waved his flickering phone screen: "I need to take a call."
He stood up and departed breezily, leaving the crowd behind.
"Haha, there goes your savior. Keep drinking! Drink up!" A few people continued heckling, holding Su Xingyu to pour juice down her throat.
She squealed and struggled, taking advantage of a moment of inattention to run outside: "You guys keep drinking, see ya!"
"How disloyal!"
"Where are you going?"
"Come back quick!" echoed the voices in pursuit.
Su Xingyu distantly responded, smiling as she tidied her disheveled long hair and walked towards the restroom.
After leaving the restroom, she found herself lost. Which way was back to their private room? She vaguely remembered passing through the area near the dance floor and then heading upstairs... As she tried to recall, she headed towards the noisy dance floor and the open seating on the first floor.
The dance floor was loud, the laser lights swung around, making people dizzy. Bodies twisted everywhere, constantly bumping into others. Su Xingyu stumbled along, and one push from who-knows-who suddenly sent her tumbling towards a table nearby.
"Oh no!" she gasped, barely catching herself on the table.
However, a few glasses on the table were knocked over, spilling drinks onto the people sitting at the table edge.
"Sorry, sorry!" Su Xingyu apologized repeatedly.
When she looked up, she saw that the table was surrounded by men with brutish faces, each with a beautiful young woman in his arms. The women clung closely to the men, dressed provocatively, clearly not the most respectable types.
Not wanting trouble, she apologized and turned to leave.
But unexpectedly, the man closest to her seized her wrist, his face filled with lascivious intent: "Pretty girl, how can you just leave after an apology? You got us all wet. Tell me, how will you compensate?"
As he spoke, he reached towards her waist.
Su Xingyu sidestepped, realizing she was in trouble: "I’m so sorry for spilling your drinks. How about I cover the bill today? Waitstaff—! Waitstaff—!" she called out loudly several times, "Come see what these gentlemen were drinking, and bring a couple more bottles for them!" She anxiously hoped the waitstaff would come to her aid.
The brutish man saw through her plan and laughed: "Pretty girl, it’s your first time in the nightlife scene, isn’t it? You don’t naively think the waitstaff will intervene in this kind of business, do you? Haha, haha, hahahaha..." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
His laughter was echoed by the other rowdy men and scantily clad women around him.
Su Xingyu grew desperate, trying with all her might to break free from his grip, but she couldn’t.
The brutish man signaled to a companion to fill a glass to the brim, then placed it with a thud before Su Xingyu: "Pretty girl, if you’re smart, drink this for me, and I’ll let you off. How about it?"
"Dao, you’re truly a generous man." A woman in a black mesh outfit laughed seductively, her fingers lacquered in dark blue, dropping an unknown substance into the drink right before Su Xingyu, "Now, that’s more like it."
The crowd laughed unscrupulously again, watching Su Xingyu as if savoring a show.
Su Xingyu felt a cold shiver under their gaze, knowing today’s situation wouldn’t resolve easily, desperately thinking of a way to escape. She turned her head towards the private rooms on the second floor, each one providing complete privacy, and indistinguishable in the dim light from the room she had come from. The surrounding music and noise were deafening, with no one paying her any attention.
In her panic, her gaze swept back to her wrist, and she said to the brutish man: "Dao, you can take this bracelet I’m wearing. It’s genuine jade, worth a fair amount. Consider it my compensation to you."
"Oh, turns out you’re a little rich lady," a voluptuous woman draped over a man spoke with a hint of jealousy, turning to smile coyly at the brutish man, "Dao, I wonder how her skills compare in bed to us. Without clothes, would she be more... hehe."
At her comment, the men’s gazes on Su Xingyu became even more explicit, as if wanting to devour her on the spot.
Su Xingyu nearly trembled under their leering stares, but she forced down her fear and said, "Don’t touch me, my husband isn’t someone you can afford to provoke."
"Ha, I’m so scared!" Dao threw a glass of wine at Su Xingyu without warning, "You stupid bitch, don’t you know I hate being threatened more than anything?"
Su Xingyu couldn’t dodge it, enduring the large glass of wine poured over her, soaking her from head to toe. People in the dance floor nearby were splattered and screamed, dodging away, creating chaos. Many finally noticed the commotion and turned to look.
Su Xingyu’s wrist remained tightly gripped by Dao, with her other hand covering her front to prevent her soaked blouse from revealing too much.
One of Dao’s brothers, feeling sorry for her, advised: "That’s enough, leave her with the jade bracelet. It’s not a small thing." The unspoken implication was, what if this woman really had some background? No one could say for sure.
Dao looked at Su Xingyu with a wicked smile: "This body looks juicy, but as for the noises she’ll make in bed, who knows?"
Su Xingyu bit her lip, clamping down on tears threatening to spill, a girl just over 20, having never faced such a situation. She only wanted to resolve the issue and leave safely, lowering her head, biting back her humiliation she said to Dao: "It’s all my fault, I beg you to forgive me, spare the little girl."
"Spare you?" Dao laughed, suddenly raising his voice, "Fill it up!"
The people behind him quickly filled another large glass to the brim.
"Keep filling!"
"Keep filling!"
"Bring over a bucket!"
With each order Dao gave, it was unclear what authority he held, but it seemed substantial. Not long after, a waiter actually brought over a wine bucket for him. He pointed to the drinks on the table and the bucket on the floor, saying to Su Xingyu: "The drinks are here, it’s your decision—drink it all, or pour it from head to toe, and then you’re free to go."
