201. Drunk and Disorderly
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Lin Nan was completely plastered for the first time in her life.
Chen Yao watched as Lin Nan downed bottle after bottle without a single pause, completely uninterested in the skewers that seemed to be silently screaming for attention. No, she just wanted to lose her senses in a cloud of intoxicating bliss.
In just half an hour, she put away seven or eight bottles like a champion! Now, she was slumped over the table with a hairdo that looked like it had gone through a wind tunnel.
“I didn’t want this… I really didn’t…” she muttered, her voice trembling like a leaf caught in a thunderstorm.
Chen Yao stood up, called the boss to settle the bill, and glanced at the barely touched skewers, feeling a grin creep onto his face, half amused, half pained.
He had no idea how to comfort her, so he thought maybe letting her vent might help her feel better—these past few hours had obviously been a rough ride for her.
He leaned in to gently shake her shoulder, but got no reaction, only more of that heartbreaking whining. “I didn’t want to be like this…”
“Let’s get you to an inn to sleep it off,” he called softly, but Lin Nan remained stubbornly facedown on the table.
Her head felt like mashed potatoes—nothing was clicking, and she felt as if she were floating away into the ether.
External sounds faded into the background as she was consumed by a whirlwind of emotions she couldn’t quite articulate.
A little while later, she felt someone gently lifting her up. She looked at the person beside her and gave a goofy smile before burying her face in her arms and mumbling the same helpless phrases over and over.
Chen Yao steadied Lin Nan as they made their way to a nearby Super 8 hotel, glancing over at her every now and then, worried about what tomorrow held for her.
It seemed like her mom treated her well?
At least the last time they met, it was all smiles. They even went to the beach, and her mom quickly accepted her back into the fold.
But why, oh why, had her mom suddenly vanished into thin air? Did she pick a bad day to go out?
“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Chen Yao asked, still getting nothing in return from Lin Nan, so he took the liberty of checking them into a room with a big bed.
Once inside, he guided her to the bathroom.
As soon as he let go, Lin Nan dove straight for the toilet, proceeding to hurl her guts out. Chen Yao couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that he had experience; otherwise, they’d have a hotel room that looked like a disaster zone.
Once she was done, Lin Nan’s alcohol-fogged eyes regained a bit of sparkle, albeit mixed with confusion and a bit of mist, making her look adorably dopey.
“Awake? Let’s sleep,” he said, staying close behind her, ready to catch her if she toppled over.
“Uh-huh.” Lin Nan wasn’t in any state for deep conversations. She unsteadily wandered out of the bathroom, flopped onto the big hotel bed, and stared at the ceiling mirror.
It was a couple’s hotel, bathed in seductive pink and purple light, yet both were as innocent as two foxes in a henhouse.
Chen Yao plopped down in a chair, stifling a yawn. “Tomorrow, I’ll help you grab your stuff. So what’s your plan?”
“Plan for what?” Lin Nan had already napped for ages that afternoon, and even though she was a walking party foul now, she wasn’t feeling particularly sleepy. Instead, she was turning into a bubbling fountain of words because of the booze.
“Where are you thinking of going?”
“Home…”
Finally, she was in the mood to respond as opposed to her previous tight-lipped self.
Chen Yao’s face twitched at that. “With your dad treating you like trash, why on earth would you go back? He’s just going to berate you again tomorrow! What happens when he goes full-on Hulk mode?”
“Eh, it’s not that bad?” Lin Nan flipped over, genuinely thinking her father wasn’t the worst.
“Seriously?! I can’t wrap my head around your thought process!” Chen Yao was fuming; he just couldn’t understand why Lin Nan was so adamant about earning her father’s approval.
She didn’t see her father as unreasonable, but he was feeling an ache in his heart for her that made it hard to breathe.
This was his friend, buddy, pal, the one he’d protected for six or seven years! Now he was at a loss. As long as Lin Nan clung to wanting her father’s acceptance and the guilt about being a girl, no amount of effort from him would change a thing.
Frustrated, Chen Yao kicked a chair in the hotel room. “I don’t care! Go find your mom!”
“My dad said I should look for her tomorrow anyway…”
Chen Yao shot forward, gripping Lin Nan’s arm with a look of gravity. “What’s your passcode? It’s still 2215, right? I’m calling your mom to come get you.”
Bashfully, Lin Nan turned her head away. “She doesn’t seem interested in me anyway.”
Aside from a few messages from her mother when she first returned to school, there hadn’t been a peep from her since the divorce—not even a phone call since the New Year was coming!
“She’s probably just busy,” Chen Yao said while fiddling with her phone, gathering her mother’s details. “You wouldn’t mind if I stuck my nose into your family affairs, would you?”
“Just a tad…”
“Are you kidding me?!” Chen Yao felt his bl**d pressure rise. He dropped her phone onto the table and crossed his arms, muttering, “If you weren’t my friend, I wouldn’t even bother.”
Hearing this, Lin Nan suddenly straightened up and, with her bleary, drunken eyes, stared at Chen Yao.
Caught off guard, Chen Yao met her gaze, and although she was drunk, there was a cute, silly charm about her.
“Do you like me?” Lin Nan, without a filter because of the booze, blurted out, “Or are you just after me?”
“Wha—?!”
Chen Yao’s anger evaporated, leaving only the lingering haze of embarrassment. He could barely maintain eye contact. “Uh, no…”
“Whatever, I can’t really fight back when I’m drunk anyway,” Lin Nan lazily flopped back onto the bed, dramatically raising her arms as if to say, “Take me!”
Chen Yao had no intentions of indulging in that. His only feeling was one of awkwardness as he glanced at the alluring Lin Nan and decided to just sit back with crossed legs, yawning, and plan to be the decent guy in this situation.
But when did Lin Nan learn how to flirt like this on her own?
He nodded to himself, thinking he’d better keep Lin Nan away from drinks when he wasn’t around, or else they’d end up in situations like tonight—wild and clueless.
After only a few minutes of back-and-forth, the sounds of Lin Nan’s steady, heavy breathing filled the air. Chen Yao stood up from the chair and moved closer to her, tucking her in with the blanket.
“What a dork.” He sighed, looking down at her delicate features. “Even if you were tempted, taking advantage of a drunk girl isn’t cool.”
Lin Nan sprawled out in the middle of the bed, and with no sleepiness in him, Chen Yao turned off the light and leaned against the wall, gazing out at the city lights.
Tonight, sleep was nowhere in sight.
