"Qiao Jie!" Peng Lili's voice was shrill. Wincing, Su Qiao pulled her ear away from the receiver. "Oh my god, you've finally picked up."
She sounded like she was about to hyperventilate. Su Qiao had suspected that this might have been the case, which was why she had finally caved and answered her phone. After blocking the calls of Lin Zizhou, her entire family, and her manager.
"Manager Zhao is furious!" Peng Lili said."Qiao Jie, she said you've ignored all her attempts at contacting her, what's going on? Did you know that your cars caught fire?"
Boy did she ever.
"Mm?" Flopping back onto the Montis Axel sofa beneath her back, she ran her hands over the soft fabric and sighed in contentment.
She was single again. And this time around, she'd been the one to break it off. Even the police showing up on her doorstep now wouldn't be able to put her out of a good mood. Not that they were likely to since the only property that had been damaged was hers and she wasn't doing this for an insurance claim. The garage had been built with her savings too and at any rate, she didn't think her father, who was so invested in the family's reputation, would call the cops on her because that would drag the skeletons in their family's closet out into the media eye.
If he really wanted to though, she would be more than happy to go along with it.
"Qiao Jieeee." Peng Lili's voice was exasperated. "Your father has been blowing up the company's lines with calls for your and Manager Zhao has been tearing out her hair for the past hour, she looks like she's about to commit murder and I'm the only person in her vicinity. What's going on? Everyone's looking for you, where are you now?"
It felt strange to have people wanting to keep tabs on her location. Su Qiao had long since forgotten what it felt like to be important enough of a celebrity to have a team that would panic when she went MIA. Pity she didn't give a shit about Manager Zhao and her thinning hairline.
"I'm crashing a friend's couch." Well, more specifically, she was currently crashing a very extravagant couch in an equally fashionable guest room, with no intention of getting up anytime soon. After all the excitement she'd had today, she wanted nothing more than to curl up with a tub of ice cream and binge-watch dramas.
"Okay, so I can report that you're safe at least? Are you coming in to HQ tomorrow? Manager Zhao found out about your meeting with the stylist, she's raging mad about it."
"Let her." Su Qiao yawned. "When has she ever been not raging mad about something?" She twirled the ends of her curls around her finger with a satisfied smile. She'd always wanted to try some daring curls out, not just the wispy little waves that had been the most she'd gotten away with.
Ah, what was the point in being obedient? There was no fun in it, especially when no one appreciated it anyway.
"…Qiao Jie, are you at least going to report to the film location next Monday? You're supposed to join the crew then."
"Of course." Su Qiao sat up suddenly. She'd been so caught up in the nitty-gritty of revenge that she'd forgotten all about her actual job. Even if she'd have appreciated it a bit more if Peng Lili had reminded her of this tomorrow morning instead, letting her have just one night of being a salted fish. "Send me a copy of the script again?"
"You've lost the script?!" Peng Lili wailed. "Qiao Jieeee, what's going on?! You've always taken your work so seriously, is this mid-life crisis?"
"Huh? I just turned 21, are you cursing me, Peng Lili? It's a quarter-life crisis at best, this young mistress fully intends to live till her 80s at least, thank you."
This young mistress. Su Qiao has never used such an arrogant term to address herself before, not even when joking around with her close friends. It reminds her of the rich playboys that often try and coax her to join them in clubs, referring to themselves with a cocky 'this young master' or 'this crown prince'.
It was so ridiculous. She kind of enjoyed it.
To speak of the devil, she'd just had that errant thought when a knock on the door interrupted her conversation with Peng Lili.
"Qiaoqiao," a young man's voice called through. "It's me."
If Su Qiao could describe Yao Xun's voice in one word, it would be 'womanising'. If there ever were a dandy in their high society circles, he was their uncrowned king.
Peng Lili clearly felt the same because the second she heard him speak, in his distinctive frivolous lilt, she had an anxious meltdown on the other line.
"QIAO JIEEEEE!!!!" she all but shrieked. "You went to Young Master Yao's house?! ALONE?!"
Su Qiao sighed. This was why she'd made sure to withhold details earlier. Yao Xun had a reputation for going after good-looking people, their gender didn't even matter to him. As his good friend, Su Qiao hadn't been spared the flirting, but she knew she could at least trust him not to make a move that she didn't want. Yao Xun might change partners—if they were hot enough, he didn't even care about gender, apparently—with each turn of the seasons, but he was a gentleman where it mattered.
"Qiao ah, open up."
"I'll call you back later," Su Qiao said, putting down decisively on Peng Lili's, "No, wait! Don't let him in—"
"What is it?" she muttered, grumpy that she had to haul herself off from her comfortable supine sprawl to answer the door. "Couldn't you text?"
Yao Xun raised an eyebrow. He had a face that fit his voice and Su Qiao knew that he was often mistaken to be her costar whenever they were spotted out in public together. The media knew that they were close and had known for a long while even before Su Qiao entered the industry, which was why her fans didn't attack him rabidly on Weibo whenever new photographs of the both of them surfaced.
Plus, it helped that he was super high profile with all his lovers and Su Qiao most definitely wasn't one. It would be like dating her brother. A particularly disgusting brother.
"Wow, Big Young Mistress," he said, clutching at his chest in exaggerated hurt. "This kind young master humbly provides you, a potential arsonist, with shelter and food and warmth and this is how you choose to repay me? By asking me to waste my phone data on messaging you?"
"You're not much of a young master if you're concerned about running out of data." She ran a hand through her hair. "Well, what is it? I was going to 'mourn' my newfound freedom by watching soppy K dramas. Care to join?"
Yao Xun wrinkled his nose. "Or you could come out and have fun with the boys."
She's about to say 'no thanks', rejecting all the invites to nightclubs by reflex because that was what had been requested of her by her father and by DFE's management.
But suddenly, she didn't think it was such a bad idea.
"Where are you headed?"
"Come on, learn to live a little—what?" Yao Xun's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "You—you're agreeing?"
Su Qiao folded her arms. "Yes, why? Were you just asking out of courtesy?"
"Of course not!" He grinned, charming face brightening up instantly. "Shit, hang on, I'm going to text everyone to come, the precious little flower of the Su Family is finally descending from her holy temple to bestow her presence upon us lesser folk—"
He dashed off before she could hit him, crowing back with a jubilant, "11 pm, Club Apex!"
Su Qiao rolled her eyes but she couldn't conceal the frisson of excitement in them. Last lifetime, she'd been so busy being good that she'd never stepped even once into a posh nightclub as a young mistress out for an evening of dancing with her friends. And then after being good meant nothing anymore, the closest she'd ever gotten to the experience was the seedy bar in the red light district that she'd waited tables at, in such thick makeup and with her uniform cap pulled so far over her face that she hadn't ever been recognised.
This time around, she was going to try out all the things that she refrained from doing in the past. She still didn't know why she'd been reborn again but she was going to make the most of it. So that, if one day, if she woke up in the future again as that ruined wreck of a girl, she would have no regrets.
Closing the door between her, she gave Max Lao a call as she stared at the heaps and heaps of shopping bags in front of her. She'd had these clothes delivered by same-day express after she'd maxed out all the subsidiary cards that her father had given to her. She'd never been so prodigal in her life and had only done it because she suspected he was going to cancel them after dinner tonight.
Okay, she might have done it for petty vengeance too. So what? Sue her.
"Hello? What can this very busy stylist do for his Young Mistress Su? Who should really be making an appointment beforehand?"
Su Qiao smiled even though he couldn't see her.
"Max ah," she said winsomely. "What do girls wear to Club Apex?"