Free Web NovelChapter 223: Chapter 141: A Pair of Sneakers
Objectively speaking, it was not a pleasant experience. At least, not on a physical level.
Anya had absolutely no experience. Her entire understanding of the act likely came from romance novels passed around in secret or whispered gossip among her girlfriends.
...
After a moment, Anya stopped, panting heavily, her cheeks puffed out.
She looked up, her gaze a little hazy but also holding a strange, unreadable meaning as she stared at Li Wei.
Before Li Wei could say anything, she puckered her lips and lunged at him.
"Give me a kiss!"
Li Wei’s face fell. "No—"
After a bit of a fuss, Anya rinsed her mouth and lay back in Li Wei’s arms.
"So? How was it?" Her finger traced circles on Li Wei’s chest as she spoke, sounding quite pleased with herself. "Did it blow your mind? Hmm? Am I talented or what? I even asked an older girl for lessons."
"You asked someone?" Li Wei asked, surprised. "Who?"
"Hey!" Anya blushed and grabbed a handful of his pectoral muscle. "You’re not allowed to ask!"
"Oh, right... why didn’t you want to kiss me just now?" Warming to the subject, she flipped over and straddled his lap, staring at him intently. "Are you disgusted with me? Or with yourself?"
’Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs, after all...’
Li Wei changed the subject. "Hmm... it was pretty good. Keep up the good work."
"Keep up the good work?" Anya ground her teeth, her expression menacing. "You want there to be a next time? You never think about doing something like that for me."
She flailed wildly, trying to tackle Li Wei onto the bed, but ended up sitting right on his face.
"I don’t mind," Li Wei’s muffled voice came from beneath her, "but don’t you go begging for mercy later."
Anya’s face flushed red. She said nothing, just squeezed her soft, pale thighs around Li Wei’s head and wriggled her bottom a little.
...
「45 minutes later.」
Anya was wrapped in the blanket, having a bit of an existential crisis.
She weakly patted Li Wei’s thigh and let out a soft murmur.
Li Wei got the hint. He grabbed an energy drink, twisted it open, and handed it to her. "How about that?" he said with a smile. "Convinced yet?"
Anya nodded, looking a little dazed.
It had been a completely new experience for her. The chain of unending climaxes had made her feel like she was about to dehydrate.
When she recalled how Li Wei’s large hands had lifted her by the hips, followed by his stormy assault, she wanted to bury her face in the blanket.
’I really... said all sorts of nonsense just now.’
She couldn’t help but think of her older friends back in Russia and their conversations, how they’d complain about how inadequate their men were—things like their bellies hitting first, or how they needed pills and surgery just to get a semblance of satisfaction. Comparing them to Li Wei made her want to giggle.
"What are you smiling foolishly about?" Li Wei brushed her sweaty forehead, where a few strands of hair were stuck. "Still haven’t come back to your senses?"
Anya was suddenly overcome by a strong impulse. She grabbed Li Wei’s arm and bit down hard, then, satisfied, she hugged his arm and fell into a deep sleep.
When Anya woke up the next day, her whole body was sore. Especially the tops of her thighs, which felt like they’d been forcibly stretched for the splits the day after a first dance class.
She decided to take the day off to rest at home, while Li Wei, ever the model worker, drove off to pick up Elizabeth.
Compared to the co-ed, populous Horace Mann School, the Brielley Girls’ School that Elizabeth attended was a standard Upper East Side private girls’ school.
With a grade size of just over 50 students, a base tuition of 70,000 USD a year, and extracurriculars so expensive that a single project could drain the annual income of a middle-class family of three, it was a school only the ultra-wealthy could afford.
Brielley’s prom wasn’t held at the school. Instead, it was on the rooftop terrace of the castle-like Athena Plaza Restaurant, just south of Central Park.
Compared to the prom at the Horace Mann School, the Brielley Girls’ School prom felt quite restrained.
In the hall, decorum was the sole guiding principle. Everyone here was like a carbon copy of Elizabeth Mellon—except far less beautiful. All the young people wore standard smiles and impeccably tailored, logo-free clothing.
Li Wei spotted Elizabeth through a gap in the crowd. She was wearing a beautifully tailored, logo-free green satin gown, standing sideways as she listened to a man in a matching tailcoat hold forth.
The moment the man turned to get a drink, Elizabeth quickly turned her back, covered her mouth with the back of her hand, and her body trembled slightly—she was letting out a deep yawn.
When she lowered her hand, before she had a chance to wipe away the tear that the yawn had squeezed from the corner of her eye, her gaze met Li Wei’s.
Two patches of red bloomed on Elizabeth’s otherwise fair cheeks.
"You’re here," she said, smoothing her hair as she walked over. "What do you think?"
"The view is nice," Li Wei shrugged, grabbing a glass of sparkling water from a passing waiter’s tray and handing it to her. "But it feels a little boring. Didn’t you get much rest yesterday?"
"Thank you..." Elizabeth took the glass and took a small sip, careful not to ruin her perfectly applied lipstick. "My art gallery has a new theme next month, so the gallery is being rearranged. We have to recalibrate the climate control system, and I was supervising the workers until 4 AM last night."
Li Wei nodded and extended his hand. "Care to dance?"
Elizabeth smiled and placed her hand in Li Wei’s. They glided to the edge of the dance floor, moving slowly to the gentle rhythm of a waltz.
Li Wei noticed that Elizabeth seemed to know almost everyone here.
"More or less," Elizabeth said vaguely. "If you really trace it back, a lot of us are related in one way or another. My mother’s maiden name was Vanderbilt, for example, and that person over there could loosely be called my cousin."
Li Wei followed her gaze to a young white man in a white suit, his hair combed immaculately. He was holding a glass of wine, chatting and laughing cheerfully with a member of the school board.
Li Wei saw a flash of ridicule and contempt in Elizabeth’s eyes.
"You two don’t seem very close?" He noticed that every time they moved a step closer to her so-called cousin, Elizabeth would subconsciously glide a step to the side.
"He’s a direct descendant of the Vanderbilts. His name is Anderson Cooper Vanderbilt," Elizabeth said quietly. "The most restless of the Vanderbilt clan. He disappeared for three whole months a while ago. The official story was that he went on a study tour in Europe."
She gave a slight laugh, her tone tinged with mockery. "But in reality, he went into cardiac arrest from a cocaine overdose and was forcibly sent by his family to a ’farm’ in Connecticut to recuperate."
Li Wei looked at Anderson Cooper, with his smooth, tight skin, clear eyes, and perfectly steady hands that showed no signs of nervous tremors. He couldn’t possibly associate him with a drug addict.
"He doesn’t look like someone who’s been in rehab for three months," he said, recalling what Kevin had told him before. "He looks more cheerful and healthier than most of the students here."
"Of course he does," Elizabeth said. "The ’farm’ has a dedicated medical team that performed a full-body blood dialysis on him. They even did a complete nano-enamel restoration on his teeth."
Li Wei couldn’t help but glance at the Elizabeth dancing in his arms. "How do you know so much?"
"How do you think I knew he was sent to Connecticut?" Elizabeth glanced at Anderson Cooper. "He told us himself at a family gathering, as if he were bragging."
After a few dances, Elizabeth suddenly offered an apologetic smile.
"Sorry," she said, suddenly letting go of Li Wei’s hand. "I have to take care of something."
Li Wei went to the central food table to grab a bite to eat when a quest window suddenly popped up in his vision:
[Quest: The Princess and the Knight - Complete]
[No one attempted to challenge the Knight’s position. Well done. The Princess is generally satisfied with you.]
[Quest Reward: +0.1 Free Attribute Point]
Li Wei decisively added the free attribute point to his Spirit.
[Spirit 2.7] -> [Spirit 2.8]
’Just 0.2 more attribute points until the next tier!’
Li Wei let out a long breath and looked up, searching for Elizabeth. He was about to ask her if she had anything else to do later.
But after scanning the area, he couldn’t find her anywhere.
"Strange..." Li Wei muttered. "Where did she go?"
In a shadowy corner, far from the crowd, Elizabeth Mellon was hiding behind a massive Roman column, completely devoid of her usual poised demeanor.
She was standing with great difficulty on one foot, her body leaning against the cool pillar. Her priceless custom-made high heels had been kicked to one side.
She was trying to apply a flesh-colored bandage to the back of her heel. The skin there was rubbed raw and bloody, and the bright red blood had soaked into her translucent stockings, a shocking sight.
"Ouch... Hsss..."
Her fingers accidentally brushed against the wound, and she couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. Tears of pain welled up in her eyes.
She had been walking in high heels all day yesterday, then supervised the art gallery until 4 AM, only to get up again at 7 AM to do her makeup and then stand for another four straight hours.
Her feet had gone numb long ago. It was only when she felt something slippery on the sole of her foot that she realized she had rubbed her skin raw again.
"Sigh."
She sighed, without a single word of complaint, and with practiced ease took out another bandage, intending to stick it on her squished and deformed pinky toe.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over her. Thinking it was someone else, she looked up in a panic, only to find herself looking right into Li Wei’s eyes.
At that moment, she felt utterly hideous. If the pain wasn’t making it impossible to walk, she swore she would have jumped straight off the rooftop terrace.
Li Wei looked at the wretched girl before him, wincing in pain, barefoot, her feet bloody and covered in bandages. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
He suddenly turned and walked away, his steps hurried, disappearing through the entrance to the terrace.
Elizabeth froze, the bandage in her hand fluttering to the ground.
A huge sense of loss washed over her. ’Does he think I’m disgusting? Or that I’m too much trouble? That’s fair. Who would like an idiot who can’t even walk without rubbing her feet raw? Anya would never be like this.’
The next few minutes felt like centuries to her.
The wind on the terrace was a bit chilly, and it sent a piercing pain through her bare feet.
She wanted to leave, but the moment she tried to slip her foot back into her high heel, a cold sweat broke out from the pain.
Just as she was about to grit her teeth and force herself to walk back, the sound of heavy footsteps returned.
Li Wei was back.
He was holding a white Nike shoebox.
"Got pretty lucky, didn’t have to pay," Li Wei said with a smile. "The clerk recognized me as a Nike spokesperson and just gave me a pair of shoes, with a pair of socks included."
