Chapter 1354 - 1350: You’ve Seen Me Shameless Before
Chloe Winston was so infuriated by his words that all the color drained from her face. She lowered her voice and snarled, "You’re shameless."
"You’ve seen me when I was even more shameless." The refined, scholarly man reminded her mildly, the darkness in his deep eyes darker than the night itself.
His gaze grew even deeper as he closed in on her. At her ear, white and smooth like a shell, he rasped in a hoarse whisper, "Remember now?"
Chloe glared at him in a fury, teeth clenched. No matter how perfect and gentle Constantine Stewart appeared in the eyes of others, always impeccably dressed, he never bothered to conceal in front of her the viciousness in his bones and his attitude of playing with the world.
She had met Ignatius Leclair, the Crown Prince of Nanyang, also born into a noble family. Ignatius was wild and arrogant, yet he still bore some restraints and markings of his lineage—a true aristocratic young master. But Constantine was different. Born into a powerful family wrapped in layers of constraint, he treated it all as nothing. Everything he did was dictated purely by his mood.
Tired of the stagnant life in France, he returned to the Imperial City, adopted her, married her, and when he was bored, discarded her without mercy. She even felt that the appearance of Wendy Starling was merely an excuse Constantine used to get rid of her.
Now he had run into her by chance and, seeing that she no longer feared him or adored him like before, he developed a mild interest in toying with her—waiting for her to fall for him again as she once had, only to toss her away in bored indifference.
She had followed Constantine for six years; from the day he adopted her, she’d been forced to learn every little thing about this man.
"You used to be vile but not shameless. Now you’re both vile and shameless." Chloe’s mind had never been as clear as it was now. In the desolate Grand Northwest, the sky hung over the world like a fallen curtain. Before nature, they were so tiny, so tiny that all those sharp, ecstatic emotions weren’t worth mentioning.
At her words, the mocking curve at Constantine’s lips flattened slightly. Chloe was mildly nearsighted, so her pupils appeared deeper than most people’s, misty, like a hot spring hidden in a mountain perpetually shrouded in fog. He had once loved her eyes most of all, but now the girl’s eyes were clear as glass, and he couldn’t see himself in them at all.
Constantine frowned, feeling that something was slipping out of his control. So this little thing he’d raised for six years had only been gone for half a year, and she’d already quit him completely, dug out every mark he had ever left on her?
The man’s lips pressed into a straight line.
Chloe didn’t know where the strength came from, but she shoved him hard and landed a vicious slap on his face.
It was the second slap that night, in the exact same spot. Such a loud sound naturally drew some attention, but dusk had fallen, and it was hard to see clearly from far away.
"Ms. Winston." Charles Taylor, who had been watching Chloe the whole time, appeared by the tent at some point and called out calmly.
"Mr. Taylor, do you need something?" Chloe’s voice trembled a little. Her fingertips still tingled from the slap. Constantine’s face was dark, his gaze on her icy cold. Instinctively, she turned and ran toward Charles, and this time the man didn’t stop her.
Chloe’s heart was pounding wildly. When she was confronting Constantine, she hadn’t felt nervous; it was only afterward that the fear crept in. For so many years, the balance of power between them had always been man strong, woman weak. When he was her guardian, Constantine had the final say. When he was her husband, Constantine had the final say. Now she had openly challenged his authority; perhaps she would face the man’s insane retaliation.
Chloe let out a rather bleak little laugh. What could Constantine even do to retaliate against her? Sleep with her again and dump her again? Or blacklist her one more time, drive her into a dead end? She was already at rock bottom. Things from here on out couldn’t get worse than they were now.
"You look awful." Charles smiled with gentle concern. "There’s some freshly boiled water over there. I’ll take you to have a hot drink and sit for a bit."
Even though it was night, the campfire burned bright in the camp. He had clearly seen that Mr. Stewart of that prestigious Imperial City family had just forced a kiss on Chloe. So Charles, even at the risk of offending Constantine, had spoken up to pull the girl from his clutches.
Charles reined in his thoughts. What exactly was the relationship between Constantine and Chloe? Wasn’t he Wendy Starling’s sugar daddy?
"Okay." Chloe didn’t dare stay in a secluded place, so she nodded and walked toward the still-rowdy campfire. She wasn’t sure what Charles had seen or heard, but he tactfully kept silent about everything, and she felt grateful for that.
"Chloe, where did you run off to? Your face is as white as a ghost. Come warm up by the fire." Desmond Wood had just finished singing and dancing through another song, treating the open-air campsite like his own concert. Seeing her return, he hurriedly tugged her down to sit beside him.
The crew members were thrilled to be listening for free to a live concert by a musical genius, so no one paid much attention to the fact that Chloe and Constantine had disappeared for more than ten minutes.
The group kept things lively until very late before they each went back to their tents to sleep. To lighten their luggage, the tents this time were two to a tent. Chloe shared one with Grace, everyone else was paired up, and only Constantine and Wendy Starling each slept alone in their own tents.
"Why don’t the two of them just sleep in the same tent?" Before bed, Grace changed into her pajamas and said with a hint of mockery, "Look at how smug Wendy is, like she can’t wait for everyone to know Constantine is her sugar daddy."
"Go to sleep." Chloe knew she had always been at odds with Wendy. The show had probably invited her specifically to stir up fights and hype. She turned off the light and quietly closed her eyes to sleep.
The night passed peacefully. Early the next morning, everyone got up one after another while the staff cleaned up the mess left from last night’s party.
Chloe was still in her little leather jacket and pants, her delicate features bare of makeup. She straightened her backpack, still carrying five kilos of bottled water and vacuum-packed food. Seeing Grace stuffing her jars of cosmetics and various branded clothes into her suitcase after getting up, Chloe said flatly, "I suggest that for the next three days, you leave all that here at the camp and have the crew send it to the airport. I asked yesterday—there will be a Helicopter filming this shoot."
"If there’s a Helicopter, why did we have to jolt around in a car for five hours to get here?" At the mention of a Helicopter, Grace thought of the backache and sore waist from yesterday and was instantly speechless.