The size of the blood stain near Tang Nuan"s b.u.t.t continued to grow. After a few seconds of silence, Song Qingchun pretended to receive a call. She pulled out her phone from her pocket, and while she pretended to look at the caller ID, she surrept.i.tiously and speedily unlocked her phone and speed-dialed Su Zhinian"s number. She placed the phone to her ear and lowered her voice intimately to call out against the dial tone. "Zhinian?"

This was the first time in her life that Song Qingchun had referred to Su Zhinian intimately as "Zhinian". When the words escaped her lips, the skin on her back crawled.

Song Qingchun took a long pause as she nodded; she was actually waiting for Su Zhinian to pick up. However, Su Zhinian was probably busy. Song Qingchun felt if she kept up the silence, her jig might be up, so she forced herself to enter a monologue. She said into the phone, "Hmm, what did you say? You"re pa.s.sing s.h.i.+n Kong Place? You want to buy me a present…"

Song Qingchun tried to make her voice as gentle as possible. She even added in a few giggles here and there to her monologue. Suddenly, the phone was picked up. "Tingting? What"s wrong?"

Her monologue had reached the climax, so she couldn"t just give up now, could she?

Song Qingchun had no choice but to ignore Su Zhinian"s question and powered on through her one-woman show. "Chanel"s latest bag? You shouldn"t have…"

"What?" Su Zhinian"s completely confused tone came over the line.

"Dior"s necklace? That works too…"

Su Zhinian frowned. "Tingting, what are you…"

Before Su Zhinian could finish his question, Song Qingchun began again. "You saw YSL"s lipsticks too? Which color? But I like all of the colors from their latest series…"

By then, Su Zhinian knew better than interrupt, so he shut up.

"You want to buy flowers for me too? I don"t like red roses; I prefer the pink ones…"

Su Zhinian believed that he understood what was happening. Song Qingchun was reminding him about the presents that he should prepare for their dinner date later that night, right?

"Okay," he said softly.

Okay? What are you being okay about? Can you tell what I"m doing? Song Qingchun mocked him internally, but the smile on her face glowed brighter. "Okay, I understand, I will be careful on the road; I"ll see you at Golden Corner tonight."

Golden Corner? This means that she wants the dinner to be at Golden Corner? Su Zhinian added another "okay". He was about to bid Song Qingchun goodbye when Song Qingchun"s soft and shy voice came over the line. "Goodbye, Zhinian."

Zhinian… such an intimate term of endearment… Su Zhinian could feel a s.h.i.+ver crawl all over his body; even his abdomen squeezed with excitement. With a tremble of his fingers, the phone slipped, and it landed on the marble stone floor, creating a crisp sound.

What was that? Song Qingchun hesitated, but realizing that she had something more urgent to take care of, she hung up, turned around, and smiled apologetically at Mrs. Huang. "I"m sorry, I had to take that call. Where were we…"

Song Qingchun took a meaningful pause. She knew all these socialites were clever people, so she must have heard everything that she said on the phone. Song Qingchun"s multiple repet.i.tion of "Zhinian" must have gotten the point across already.