Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Just from the look on those two girls' faces, he could tell they were hoping to sneak a peek. But let them peek—it hardly mattered. They were his women, after all, and he had nothing to hide from them.

Yang Shuoxuan stopped paying attention to Chen Shutang and Lin Yanhe. Zhou Yanning, on the other hand, had been worked into such a fever by Yang Ce that she noticed nothing of the world beyond him.

"So someone's beaten us to it," Chen Shutang said with a grin, lowering her voice to Lin Yanhe.

"Mmm—Sister Jiajia is so bold," Lin Yanhe said, her face flushing as she looked at Zhou Yanning's bare breasts.

"Heh, Sister Lin, that is the pot calling the kettle black. If it were you in Yang Juehuan's arms, I daresay it would be the same," Chen Shutang teased.

"I—I would never," Lin Yanhe denied, blushing furiously.

"Yang Ce is truly wicked," Chen Shutang said, watching as Yang Ce kissed Zhou Yanning while his hands were far from idle, making mischief at her breasts. Flustered, she said, "Neither his hands nor his mouth are still."

Lin Yanhe was privately thinking that this was rather nice—when Yang Ce was with her, his hands and mouth were never still either—but she could not bring herself to say so aloud.

Little did she know, Chen Shutang was entertaining much the same thought at that very moment.

"Sister Lin, tell me—do you think Yang Ce will push Jiajia down today?" Chen Shutang caught herself: what was wrong with her, to utter such wicked words?

"Ah!" Lin Yanhe was startled, then said, red-faced, "I don't think so. Jiajia still hasn't recovered her memory. Losing her first night in such a muddled way—that surely isn't what Yang Ce would want, is it?"

Since she had once been through something similar herself, Lin Yanhe felt Yang Ce would not be so rash.

"Sigh, I suppose you're right. And here I was rather hoping to watch," Chen Shutang said, somewhat disappointed.

"Sister Mengyan, why are you so lewd?" Lin Yanhe said with a bashful giggle.

"I'm not! You're the lewd one, dragging me along to keep Yang Ce company," Chen Shutang retorted, deeply embarrassed.

Listening to the two of them whispering back and forth, Yang Ce was enormously pleased. It seemed his grand design for a threesome—or even a foursome—might yet come to pass. This Lin Yanhe was a rare treasure indeed, to harbor such heavenly notions; she deserved commendation.

Still, Lin Yanhe was right. Though Zhou Yanning had come to him of her own accord today, beyond kissing and holding her, Yang Ce truly had nothing more in mind.

Yang Ce's thinking ran much along the same lines as Lin Yanhe's. Chen Shutang's lies could hold for a time, but not forever. If Zhou Yanning should one day recover her memory and recall the past, and he had rashly pushed her down, would she come to regret it?

And so Yang Ce left the decision to Zhou Yanning herself. Everything would wait until her memory returned. He would not leave a regret in her life.

Zhou Yanning was panting softly in Yang Ce's arms when it suddenly struck her that her mother was still waiting for her in the room. She had only come here to hold Yanzhou for a while, yet she had never expected to be kissed and fondled for so long.

Startled, she struggled free of Yang Juehuan's embrace, hastily did up the buttons of her pajamas, and bolted for the door. "Wait—" Yang Ce tried to stop her, but it was too late. Disaster. They had crashed into each other.

Chen Shutang and Lin Yanhe had been enjoying the spectacle immensely when, to their surprise, Zhou Yanning came charging headlong toward the door.

Chen and Lin were aghast. What was the matter with Zhou? Surely she hadn't discovered them peeking and come for revenge? But no—that didn't fit either. With that bashful look on her face, she seemed not to have noticed them at all.

Even if she hadn't noticed them now, though, she was about to. Chen Shutang and Lin Yanhe had no time to hide. Yang Juehuan's room was at the end of the second-floor hallway—where was there to hide?

By then Zhou Yanning had already spotted them. "Ah!" she cried, frozen on the spot, and it was a good while before she managed, "Sister Mengyan, Sister Zhiyun, you two—"

"We didn't see anything! We just came to talk to Yang Yanzhou—we only just arrived," Chen Shutang explained hastily, afraid of embarrassing Zhou Yanning.

Little did she know that no one, not even an idiot, would believe such an explanation. Seeing nothing—was that not a case of protesting too much? Zhou Yanning was mortified. With a flustered little cry, she covered her face and fled at a run. Chen Shutang and Lin Yanhe were helpless; they would have to have a proper talk with Zhou Yanning tomorrow. "Mengyan, Zhiyun, since you're here, come on in. Let's play a game together—that game where you push the train," Yang Ce called shamelessly from the big bed in the room.

"Play a game?" Chen Shutang snorted. In her heart she thought: as if anyone would play with you—dream on. She had come out of kindness to keep him company, and instead he had gone and lured Zhou Yanning here. And from the look of Zhou Yanning, she had undoubtedly been dragged in by Yang Ce halfway through.

"Sister Lin, let's go. Let him push his train all by himself in here," Chen Shutang said, turning to head back to her own room.

Lin Yanhe gave Yang Puqi a pitiful look, sighed in sympathy, glanced at the already-distant Chen Shutang, and hurried after her.

"Hey—" Yang Ce shook his head helplessly. What rotten luck—what kind of mess was this? They came together and left together. Was this meant to be the death of him? No, this could not go on. Once he had a free moment tomorrow, he would draw up a duty roster, fix their times and dates, one a day—heh heh—Yang Ce thought most wickedly.

Zhou Yanning ran all the way back to her room, her heart still pounding violently. She shut the door, pressed a hand to her chest, and gasped for breath.

"Jiajia, what's the matter?" Mother Zhou looked at her daughter strangely. "What took you so long in the washroom?"

"N-nothing," Zhou Yanning said, waving her hand hastily. She tried hard to feign composure, but could not hide the flush on her cheeks. "Mom, I—"

"There, there, I won't ask." Mother Zhou was a shrewd woman; a guess told her that her daughter had been pining so badly she had gone off to do something intimate with Yanzhou.

"Mom!" Zhou Yanning caught her mother's odd look and could not help but pout coquettishly.

"Silly girl, I've been through it all myself. I won't scold you," Mother Zhou said, stroking Zhou Yanning's hair affectionately. "Besides, you're grown now. I'm not some old fossil without an open mind."

At her mother's words, Zhou Yanning's shyness only grew. She lowered her head and dared not speak.

To be continued

1013. Jiajia Grows Suspicious

"Mom, please stop," Zhou Yanning said, deeply embarrassed. In the past, she had been full of resentment over her mother's high-handed ways—she had even come close to running away from home because of it.

She had never liked Wang Lin, nor been willing to dine with Wang Lin's family as her mother wished. Had the shooting incident not happened, Zhou Yanning would in all likelihood have run away from home.

"Heh, all right, I won't bring that up," Mother Zhou said with a smile, patting the bed beside her. "Come, Jiajia, lie down with me. It's been so long since the two of us had a heart-to-heart. Today's the perfect chance—let's have a talk."

"Talk about what?" Zhou Yanning was nervous. Her mother's topics today had mostly circled around Yang Yanzhou, which made her blush furiously.

"Let's talk about you and Yanzhou," Mother Zhou said with a smile.

"Mom, didn't you say we weren't going to talk about this anymore? Why are you bringing it up again?" Zhou Yanning blushed and protested with a coquettish pout.