Chapter 1416: A Life-Saving Mistake (Part 1)

"Xiao, you’re here? Come on in."

Ah Shuang spoke with a thick tongue. Xiao Rou nodded at him, then came in and immediately asked, "Where’s Zhou Qi?"

"Brother Qi is upstairs."

Xiao Rou glanced around at them, politely greeted everyone, then headed straight upstairs. The smell of alcohol hit her—just like An Rui had said, it seemed everyone had drunk quite a bit.

Xiao Rou had been to Zhou Qi’s room before, so she found it quickly and went in.

Zhou Qi was lying on the bed, one hand over his forehead. The moment Xiao Rou walked in, a sharp reek of alcohol rushed over.

How much did He drink? The whole villa was practically saturated with the smell of booze.

"Zhou Qi? ...Zhou Qi?"

She walked to the bedside and softly called him twice. He didn’t respond. She reached out and moved his hand away. He still didn’t react at all. Xiao Rou frowned. Was He really drunk to the point of blacking out?

She turned and went to the bathroom, wrung out a towel, then slowly wiped Zhou Qi’s face. The man on the bed still didn’t move.

Downstairs, everyone stared at the staircase. After seeing Xiao Rou go up and not come back down, the "drunkards" who had just been sprawled or lying on the sofa all stood up.

"Brother Rui, do you think I can get Brother Qi to reimburse that bottle of liquor?"

Everyone below reeked of alcohol, but not a single one of them looked even the slightest bit drunk.

An Rui shot the speaker a look. "With this little scheme of yours, be careful He doesn’t come after you later."

"Come after us for what? This is a god-tier assist."

"Exactly, exactly. With Xiao looking after him, Brother Qi’s not gonna be in the mood to settle scores with us."

The young guys all chimed in at once, voices overlapping, the mood lively.

Earlier, Zhou Qi’s dark face had seriously scared them, and once they got back to the team base, after a bit of plotting together, they came up with this whole setup.

They waited downstairs for a while longer, still didn’t see Xiao Rou coming down, and finally everyone drifted back to their rooms.

An Rui knocked on Zhou Qi’s door. "Xiao, the room you rested in last time is still empty. Don’t worry too much about Zhou Qi. If you get sleepy, go crash there."

"Mm, thanks."

Xiao Rou responded. She had zero experience taking care of drunk people, and right now Zhou Qi didn’t look like he needed much taking care of. He just seemed to be asleep, but Xiao Rou still felt a bit uneasy, afraid that in a while He might start throwing up like a lot of people do when they’ve had too much.

Xiao Rou brought out a basin from the bathroom and set it by the bed. Then she quietly sat down at the bedside, occasionally wiping Zhou Qi’s face and neck.

Xiao Rou turned off the room’s main lights, leaving only a small desk lamp on. Her gaze fell on Zhou Qi’s face.

Ever since she’d realized her own little feelings, she’d been somewhat shy around Zhou Qi, never daring to stare at him like this, totally unrestrained.

But now, with Zhou Qi fast asleep and his eyes tightly closed, she suddenly felt a lot braver.

In every way, inside and out, Zhou Qi was a man standing at the very top of the pyramid. Someone like him—could He possibly like her?

Xiao Rou pressed her lips together, suddenly remembering the joke Cheng Chen had made with her before. She said she wanted her to be her sister-in-law.

Could that ever really happen?

Xiao Rou sat there dazed, spacing out a little as her mind drifted into unrealistic fantasies. But soon she pulled herself back, shook her head, her cheeks a little flushed. Honestly, what was she even thinking?

Whatever happens later, at least right now, she was really happy.