Chapter 40: Hungover
The moment Anning’s eyes snapped open, a sharp pounding pain instantly spread through her head while sunlight poured directly into her face.
"Fuck..." she whined weakly, turning onto her side and throwing a hand over her eyes.
For a few moments, she remained like that, breathing slowly and trying to gather her thoughts. Her head felt heavy, her body felt strange and even opening her eyes suddenly seemed like too much work.
After a while, she finally forced her eyes open and slowly pushed herself upright.
The first thing she did was glance around the room. She paused and then blinked several times. Before her eyes slowly widened in realization, this was Wanqing’s room.
Anning stared blankly at the familiar furniture around her before her gaze shifted toward the bed beneath her.
Wait, the bed? Why was she on the bed and not her luxurious sleeping floor!?
At that moment, she actually wanted to cry. No, she preferred to die.
"Why am I up here?" She asked herself.
Ever since arriving at the Gu residence, she had always slept on the floor. Always. So why was she suddenly waking up on Wanqing’s bed?
Anning immediately lowered her head and stared at her hands as if answers would magically appear.
Did she secretly climb into the bed in the middle of the night?
Just the mere thought made her frown. No, that couldn’t be right.
But it wasn’t impossible though.
Anning sat there for a few moments trying to remember what happened the night before, but the harder she thought, the more confused she became.
The only thing she could clearly remember was speaking to the imperial princess’s attendant.
After that, everything felt blurry.
Everything after that point felt like someone had taken scissors and cut pieces out of her memory.
"...Did I get drunk?" she asked quietly, tilting her head to the side.
The pounding headache definitely felt familiar enough. This was typically the sign on a hangover.
Anning slowly raised a hand and pressed it against her forehead.
"Wait..." she muttered.
If she really got drunk, then how exactly did she even get home?
And the most important question, why was she still alive?
Anning bit on her lower lip, her body going stiff instantly. Because now that she carefully thought about it....
She knew Wanqing, whatever nonsense she pulled last night definitely couldn’t have ended well.
Not with her personality, her mouth and definitely not with alcohol involved.
She was very sure she did something stupid, especially in front of the guests. Just thinking about it made her heart skip a beat.
What if she had killed someone or even insulted Wanqing?
Anning immediately shook her head, ignoring how her brain seemed to pulsate. She shouldn’t be thinking about this, whatever happened last night could wait.
If she thought too much right now, she’d probably die from stress before Wanqing even got the chance.
Anning carefully shuffled toward the edge of the bed before standing upright.
The second her feet touched the ground, dizziness washed over her without warning. Anning stumbled forward immediately but grabbed the edge of a nearby shelf.
"Oh God." She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut.
She couldn’t do this now, definitely not today.
She stood there quietly for a few moments, taking slow breaths and waiting for the dizziness to disappear.
"You can do this, Anning," she muttered softly.
She still had work to do and being hungover wasn’t an excuse. Especially not in the Gu residence.
After taking a few moments to compose herself, Anning slowly began moving around the room. She arranged the scattered parchment papers neatly on one of the shelves, grabbed a small cloth nearby and dusted the furniture carefully.
Anything to stop herself from thinking, because the more she spent her time thinking, the worse her headache became.
But just as she was about to straighten the blankets on the bed—
The sound of a knock echoed through the room and Anning froze instantly. Her fingers tightened around the blanket she had in hand.
Then she slowly turned toward the door. Her heart had begun racing within her chest.
Please, don’t let it be Wanqing.
Anning prayed silently, biting down on her lower lip. For now, she could only pray she hadn’t done anything stupid last night and hoped whoever stood outside that door wasn’t coming to drag her to some dungeon.
Because at this point? Anything felt possible.
With slightly trembling hands and a racing heart, she hurriedly ran her fingers through her messy hair before slowly walking toward the door.
"W-who is it?" she asked cautiously, stopping in front of it.
She refused to open the door until she was sure it was anyone but Wanqing.
"It’s Han Luo."
Hearing that name had Anning frowning instantly. The anxious expression on her face slowly faded and turned into something colder.
Even if she had forgotten whatever happened toward the end of the gathering, she still remembered what Han Luo had said to her.
Very clearly. Still, as the baddie she was, there was absolutely no way she was letting him know his words affected her.
She ran her tongue over her lower lip before finally sliding the door open.
"To what do I owe this unexpected visit?" Anning asked, lifting her head to stare directly into Han Luo’s eyes.
But the moment their eyes met, Han Luo instantly looked away.
Anning blinked, wondering what was going on? Why wouldn’t he look her in the eyes?
"How are you feeling?" Han Luo asked quietly. "Do you remember what happened last night?"
His voice sounded strangely soft and because Anning stood close enough, she heard every word clearly.
Her brows slowly pulled together. This was weird, actually she wasn’t finding anything weird this morning... It was terrifying.
Because Han Luo was actually weird, he wouldn’t look at her directly and was even avoiding eye contact.
And considering the fact she was already scared out of her mind, this wasn’t helping her situation at all. Not even a little bit.
Anning nervously began playing with her fingers.
"I have a nasty headache and I don’t remember anything..." she paused briefly before looking at him carefully.
Then, with a small amount of panic slipping into her voice, she asked,
"Did I do something wrong?"
