Mr. Tycoon's Daring Wife

Today’s work ended quite early for Zhao Lifei who finished everything on her schedule, including the paperwork for the day. Seeing as she had a few hours to burn, she made her way to Cerulean Water Pavillions in hopes of checking upon Yang Ruqin, but to her dismay, the young woman was nowhere to be found. After contacting her, she discovered it was because Yang Ruqin was still at the studio designing her next fashion line. Thus, she made her way to the studio, a place she had not been to before.

Zhao Lifei took off her sunglasses and admired the layout of the simplistic and small building at the edge of the city, which was a short walk from the seaport.

It was a cute little place that was five-stories high and had a nice little rooftop that overlooked the floral gardens which were a frequent tourist spot. She could see why Yang Ruqin would choose this location to be her studio. With an endless array of colors, beckoned by the garden of flowers to the left, and the calm seashore to the right, it was a harmonious combination.

The outside of the building was painted white, with a nice little cafe at the bottom, frequented by the locals there. A pleasant aroma of coffee could be smelled from down the block, small black chairs and tables were laid out in the front to add a vintage minimalist appearance.

Small pots of plants added a splash of color to the white building. The fourth-floor had a window that took up the entire wall, revealing the studio, but because it was so high up, not many people knew what was going on inside. Besides, with the curtains always drawn, no one could look in anyways.

Zhao Lifei checked the text again. It seemed Yang Ruqin’s studio occupied three floors in total.

She went into the cafe, grabbed an americano for herself and then an extra sweet caramel latte for Yang Ruqin who always had a sweet tooth when it came to coffee. Then, she made her way upstairs. Stopping in front of a cute pastel door, she placed down the coffee cups on the small table next to the door. Then, she typed in a passcode and walked into the studio.

Instantly, she spotted Yang Ruqin by the oakwood table. She was standing up and hunched over it, her hand moving at an incredible pace while she drew something.

"Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually seeing the genius at work." Zhao Lifei teased, closing the door behind her with her legs as she attempted to juggle the drinks and her purse that dangled between her arm and elbow.

"I can’t recount the last time I’ve seen you so focused over a table." She added on, placing the cup of latte beside Yang Ruqin.

"Oh please, don’t act like you’ve ever seen me work in the first place. I barely did anything on the desk at school, except using it as a pillow for me to nap on." Yang Ruqin chuckled, raising her head and settling the pencil down.

"Of course, how can I forget? As the class president, I always had to reprimand you." Zhao Lifei rolled her eyes. "It also didn’t help that you sat right beside me and in the front of the class where the teacher could have the perfect view of you snoring as you wandered off to La La land." She scoffed.

"Hey, for the record, the teacher got a free show that he should appreciate! In my glory days, people would die just to lay their eyes on the Supermodel Ruqin!"

"Yeah, the appreciative view of you drooling." Zhao Lifei snorted, taking a sip of her coffee and peering over Qinqin’s shoulders. She was in the process of designing...gym clothes? It was interesting to see the athletic clothing drawn to be so stylistic.

"Gasp! I do not drool!" Yang Ruqin argued, even though she did wake up with a wet sleeve...but that was only one time!

"Sure you don’t." Zhao Lifei grinned, dodging the rolled-up canvas paper tossed at her head.

"Ugh, can we just change the topic?" Yang Ruqin pouted, hating the fact that she was always wrong. From beating people with carrots to drooling, she could not believe she was such a weirdo.

"Fine, fine, I suppose we should." Zhao Lifei took a sip of her Americano and glanced around the surprisingly tidy studio.

Seeking praise from one of her favorite people in the world, Yang Ruqin wrapped her arms around Zhao Lifei. "Feifei, I clean up my studio all by myself! I organize it at least five times a month. Aren’t you proud of me?" She gleefully showed off the meticulously clean studio.

"Wow, you’re finally being an adult. Of course, I am very proud of you." Zhao Lifei laughed, her eyes landing upon the sofa and coffee table in the far left of the room, right beside the large window that overlooked the street. She walked to it, Qinqin in tow, and decided to open the curtains a bit and let in the sunlight. To her pleasant surprise, there were two layers to the curtain, a heavy layer and a thin one. She adjusted the heavy layer to the side and allowed the thin, flowy layer to remain in place.

"I know right! It was so tiring at first, but I prefer to know where everything is, so that’s why I clean up the studio all by myself! If I hire other people to do it, they might misplace my putty eraser or put my design and notebooks elsewhere. It would be a disaster." Yang Ruqin babbled, setting her caramel latte onto the coffee table and sitting down on the heavenly comfortable turquoise couch. There was a yellow comforter slung over it, paired with matching throw pillows that had...prints of baby chicks in eggs?

"So Feifei, what brings you here today?"

Zhao Lifei took one last sip of her americano before also placing it on the table. She sat down beside Yang Ruqin and turned to face her. "Actually, yes. I was wondering if you’d like to have brunch this Sunday."

"Just brunch? Well, you could’ve asked me this over text and save yourself some gas, but of course, I would love to have brunch." Yang Ruqin happily replied. Margaritas sound amazing right now.

"I mean, I could, but I also wanted to discuss something else with you." Zhao Lifei quickly changed the topic. "I know you mentioned him in the past before, but we were stupid drunk back then, so I don’t remember much." She began. "What is your relationship with Yu Pingluo?"

Yang Ruqin’s cheerful expression turned sour. "What about him? How do you know him? Why? Did he ask about me?"

Zhao Lifei was taken back. "No, he didn’t—"

"Because I swear if he did, I’m going to ask Feng-ge to give him a thorough beating the next time he sees him. Yu Pingluo promised he would leave me alone, but damn it, I should’ve known! He never keeps his promises, and because of that, we always— anyways, nevermind." Yang Ruqin cut her rambling short, which was a very unusual quality for her.

Zhao Lifei was quick to catch onto the strange pause as well. "What did you guys always do?"

"Nothing, don’t worry about it. Let’s go back to the topic of brunch, okay? So, I was thinking La Roche would be nice, but if you want a change of pace, we should head to Bellovaurd where I have a membership—"

"Don’t try to change the topic on me, young lady. What did you guys always do?" Zhao Lifei pestered on. She paused, her brain thinking abnormally wrong. "Wait, did you guys always sleep together as in have one night stands a lot?!"

"What?! Oh goodness no! Feng-ge would chop off his manberries if we did!" Yang Ruqin had a horrified expression on her face. "I meant we were always arguing a lot! Like the couple-fights... well shit." Yang Ruqin slapped a hand over her mouth, letting out a groan. She hated having such a big mouth that always babbled in front of her Feifei.

Zhao Lifei’s eyes widened. "You guys dated?! How come I didn’t know about this?"

"Ugh, can we not talk about it? He’s the one mistake in my life that I want to forget. Okay?"

"Wait wait, just one more question. Is he the reason why you refuse to have a serious relationship?"

Yang Ruqin responded by downing the rest of her caramel latte as if it was a shot of vodka at some flashy club. She drank all of it and then shotglassed the Americano as well. "I’d kill for a rum right now." She muttered under her breath. "I can’t do this sober."

"Well, who said we can’t get drunk and stupid?" Zhao Lifei found the story too juicy to ignore. "I saw a local bar down the street. Let’s go." She grabbed her wallet, ready to bounce but Yang Ruqin profusely shook her head.

"Alcohol at five in the afternoon? Are you crazy?"

"Hey, at least it’s not ten in the morning like how I used to be." Zhao Lifei rolled her eyes.

"I thought you quit drinking?"

"I did. I was just planning on watching you drink and hopefully go on a rant." Zhao Lifei sat back down, placing the wallet down after seeing Yang Ruqin deeply rooted to the couch. "Will you tell me about Yu Pingluo one day?"

Yang Ruqin glanced at her nails, seemingly finding it to be the most interesting thing in the world. "Maybe...But today is not that day."