Dan Zi noticed her the first moment too, meeting Qiao Ling’s gaze from far away.
Qiao Ling was embarrassed, unnaturally nodded at her.
Chen Kuang was behind the bar counter, saw the two of them exchange glances, acted like he was about to come over, but was stopped by Xie Rouyin.
He was puzzled, Xie Rouyin gave him a reassuring smile: “Some things, it’s better if you men don’t get involved.”
“Girls have girls’ ways of communicating. Don’t worry, they’re both very civilized people, won’t fight or pull hair.”
“Your little Lingdang also won’t be wronged.” [Lingdang: literally ‘small bell’, affectionate nickname derived from Ling.]
Chen Kuang returned to his position, shaking his head with a laugh while rinsing the cloth: “Little Lingdang, what kind of nickname is that.”
Xie Rouyin was very satisfied: “How cute. And when the bell rings, all the wrinkles in the heart smooth out. She’s just that kind of lovable girl.”
………
Qiao Ling sat down opposite her, saw that there were already two empty glasses in front of her, “It’s only nine o’clock, you should drink slowly.”
Dan Zi didn’t speak for a while, quietly looking at her.
Qiao Ling was stared at until her scalp tingled, touched her own face, hesitating: “…Did my makeup come off?”
Only then did Dan Zi smile: “No, still perfect.”
“I saw you two go home together that day.” Her gaze fell, hiding all her emotions, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were his girlfriend.”
“Uh…” Qiao Ling touched her ear, feeling a little guilty, but still honestly explained.
“Actually, not quite yet.”
“But I can tell—Chen Kuang really likes you.” Dan Zi silently added the second half in her heart: Compared to the fondness he had for her back then, it wasn’t even on the same level.
“Actually, even now, I still feel that if Chen Kuang hadn’t met you, maybe I’d still have a chance to make up for it.” She was very frank, not minding if the other party might look down on her.
“If nothing had happened in his family, maybe we wouldn’t have missed each other.”
Dan Zi clenched her fingers tightly. “Because at that time… I really, really liked him.”
A few days had passed, and Qiao Ling, having understood everything now, already clearly understood Chen Kuang’s excellence and charm.
A girl like Dan Zi not forgetting him for so many years—she felt it wasn’t exaggerated at all.
But the Chen Kuang from university days, and the Chen Kuang now—
They were already two different people.
The Chen Kuang she and Dan Zi were chasing—were two different shadows.
“Forgive me for saying something unpleasant.” Qiao Ling looked timid, yet the words that came out were harsh and real: “Even if his family hadn’t gotten sick, you and he wouldn’t have lasted long.”
Dan Zi froze, her brows gradually knitting.
She stared at her own fingers fiddling with each other. “I heard about you two from Chen Kuang. Just standing from a spectator’s point of view…”
Qiao Ling raised her head, looking straight at the other person: “You broke up—not because his father got sick, but because you were selfish.”
“Even without that incident, sooner or later, you and he would’ve split because of your selfishness.”
Dan Zi choked, couldn’t say a single word for a moment.
“But people make mistakes, and also grow.” She stopped at that, “That’s probably why Chen Kuang doesn’t hold a grudge against you.”
Dan Zi’s shoulders collapsed. She had sat here aimlessly for two hours, as if finally gaining a little meaning.
What she actually least wanted was to hear Chen Kuang’s current girlfriend expose this reasoning—but she also had to admit it, couldn’t refute.
After a while, she drank down the last sip of the glass in front of her, picked up her bag, said goodbye to Qiao Ling: “You’re right. Let’s leave it at that.”
“I’m heading back to Nancheng tomorrow. If there’s a chance, see you again.”
Qiao Ling watched her walk farther and farther away, patted her chest and let out a breath of relief, then received a new WeChat message.
【Gum: I’ll go say a few words to her.】
She was stunned for a moment and met Chen Kuang’s gaze at the entrance of the bar.
Qiao Ling suddenly felt shy, pretending to nod casually.
What do I care who you go talk to? Reporting about such a small thing.
“Not bad. Didn’t expect you to be so good with words.”
A familiar pleasant voice approached.
Qiao Ling looked at Xie Lisheng, who didn’t know where he appeared from. He sat across from her, taking Dan Zi’s spot. “I also have a flight tomorrow. Heading home.”
“You’re leaving too?” She was surprised. “Also… when did you get here, I didn’t even see you.”
“Just now. In the bathroom.”
Xie Lisheng held his glass, index finger pointing at her, reminding: “Don’t forget what you promised me.”
Qiao Ling blinked.
Xie Lisheng’s eyelids drooped, guessing she had forgotten, impatient.
“Help me persuade him to go back to Qinnan with me to do IT, can you handle it like a proper matter, Miss Qiao.”
………
Having gotten permission, Chen Kuang walked out of the bar, following Dan Zi’s footsteps.
Dan Zi was waiting for a taxi. Seeing him come out, she sighed: “What, you all want to take turns educating me now?”
“No, just sending you off.”
Chen Kuang took out a mint candy from his pocket, unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth, simply saying: “Take care.”
She kept her face cold, clutching her bag tightly, couldn’t hold back asking: “So what exactly do you like about her? Her looks?”
“I didn’t know before that you actually liked the ‘moe girl’ type.” [萌妹: cute, soft-spoken girl image in anime/fandom culture.]
Chen Kuang stood lazily, lowered his head and hooked up a smile, “Mm, why is that.”
“Don’t really know, by the time I reacted, I already liked.”
Dan Zi’s chest suddenly felt blocked, her eyes swelled uncomfortably, “You…”
“After my parents passed away, I always felt like I couldn’t hold onto anything, really useless.” He decided to say his honest feelings to her.
“So I kept my distance from everyone, might as well not try to keep anything at all.”
“But now.” Chen Kuang’s gaze clearly thinking of someone’s face, “I’ve kind of changed my mind.”
Back then he was too proud, also too stubborn.
The key thing was, he didn’t like the other person enough, so he never confessed honestly to Dan Zi. He also had his own faults.
Hearing this, Dan Zi felt as if the grievance she’d bottled up for years was finally comforted.
He was just that kind of person. Even if someone had hurt him, the rejection he spoke would always be gentle, a little easier to accept.
Seeing Dan Zi red-eyed and not speaking, Chen Kuang had his hands in his pockets, sighed, and added: “Don’t take it to heart anymore.”
“I actually never blamed you.”
Dan Zi finally let her tears fall, turning her head to quickly wipe them away.
Chen Kuang bit the mint candy into pieces, looked at Dan Zi, “The one you can’t let go of, is the version of Chen Kuang you’ve idealized in your head.”
He shook his head, “That’s not the me right now.”
The taxi that came to pick her up slowly approached.
Dan Zi gritted her teeth, like venting her anger, shouted at him: “You better always stay like this, never have a time where you regret.”
“I will definitely be happier than you, Chen Kuang. I’ll climb to a height you can’t even see, and I’ll find a man even better than you, who’s even more into me than you ever were.”
In that moment, she seemed to return to her bright and proud university self.
Even over small things, she had to compete for the upper hand.
Chen Kuang finally relaxed his brows, hands in his pockets watching her leave, pulling a smile: “Wish you success.”
Shan Zi wiped away those two lines of unpromising tears and walked away without turning back again.
That night, Qiao Ling did not wait at the bar for Chen Kuang to get off work and go home together, but instead stayed for a while then left first, as usual going back to her parents’ house on the weekend.
Qiao Ling wasn’t unaware of Chen Kuang’s faint, seemingly hinting gaze wanting her to stay and go home together when she left.
Although she also felt itchy in her heart, seeing him unable to get what he wanted, she still felt secretly pleased more than anything, leaving without hesitation.
Wasn’t this exactly called “to capture, one must first let loose”?
Hee hee, chasing a sharp-minded man, even she herself became smarter.
………
After entering autumn, Binyang’s temperature kept fluctuating up and down. Last night, it was hot to the point of hallucinating that it was summer.
At home, they forgot to open the window again. Chen Kuang, nestled on the sofa bed, slept feeling hot and restless, one dream after another without stopping.
He opened his eyes; the scene returned once again to the night they ate hotpot and got drunk.
And Qiao Ling was leaning in front of his chest, clear and bright little deer eyes looking at him, like the most natural seduction.
【Chen Kuang, don’t you want to do something to me.】
Her eyes were wet, hair also a little damp, like she had just taken a shower.
The sleepwear on her body stuck to her skin, faintly revealing the pink steamed out from heat. In this position, kneeling on the edge of the sofa, she looked like an apple that could be easily plucked.
Chen Kuang couldn’t help but reach out, fingers touching her cheek as soft as water, fingertips sliding, pressing against her vermilion pink lips.
Too soft.
He couldn’t control the madly surging desire, increased the force, pinched and rubbed her lips.
Qiao Ling seemed to be rubbed to the point of pain, frowned and opened her mouth: “Chen…”
As a result, taking advantage of the gap when she opened her mouth to cry out in pain, Chen Kuang’s thumb happened to slip into her mouth.
A piece of hot softness wrapped around his fingertip, Chen Kuang’s eyelids trembled suddenly, no longer suppressing himself, single-handedly lifted her from the ground, pressing his body down.
Qiao Ling was pressed into the sofa, the folds of the nightdress on her body revealing skin, her gaze looking up at him carried a few points of fear, yet also had open arms, expecting him.
She was so small that with just a few moves he could finish eating her clean.
Chen Kuang’s heart thumped heavily.
He wanted to dirty her, to let her body from head to toe be covered in his scent alone.
Chen Kuang supported the back of her head, both devout and in the posture of a hunter lowering down, rubbing against her ear and temple, answering.
“Want, always want.”
As the words fell, Chen Kuang pinched her chin and ruthlessly ate up that pair of lips—
………
Chen Kuang’s forehead tensed, letting out a muffled groan, suddenly awakened from the dream by the heat.
He was dazzled by the glaring morning light outside the window, irritably pulled the blanket up to cover his line of sight.
The blanket’s length was limited, covering his upper body and head, but there was no cover for the lower half.
After a few seconds, Chen Kuang pulled the blanket open, looking down at the bulging shadow in his gray sleep pants.
“……”
How long had it been since this happened?
He sighed, simply covering his eyes again.
Just leave it, it would go down in a while.
“……” Then once more brewing sleepiness.
The apartment was quiet, the cartoon clock Qiao Ling had bought quietly ticking its second hand on the shoe cabinet.
After one or two minutes, Chen Kuang irritably pulled the blanket open again, staring at that part of himself… falling into thought.
It wouldn’t go down?
The scene from the dream—Qiao Ling’s enticing figure—kept replaying in his mind.
A man’s badness, wishful thinking, and sneaky desires all surged up at once.
Qiao Ling wasn’t here.
There was only him alone in the house.
Thinking about this, in the end, he still couldn’t hold back. He grabbed the blanket again to cover his lower half, and at the same time, his right hand followed into the blanket…
……
After more than thirty minutes on and off, only then did he pull his hand back out.
The waves settled.
The man alone stared at the ceiling, his breathing still heavy.
As if enjoying the aftertaste of the double stimulation from imagination and physical motion.
Chen Kuang glanced at his right palm, his jawline tensed, turned his eyes away with self-mockery.
Fuck.
What kind of appearance was this.
After a few seconds, he curled his waist up to sit, grabbing some tissues to clean up, planning to throw the sleep pants and blanket into the washing machine together in a while.
However, just at that moment, the sound of the front door lock being opened suddenly came.
Chen Kuang’s movements froze, his gaze like a knife shooting toward the entrance.
Qiao Ling came in cheerfully carrying a breakfast bag, placed the key on the shoe cabinet, tilting her head in surprise: “Eh? You’re up so early today?”
“I left my tools at home. I was already almost at the shop, then turned back to get them.”
She couldn’t be bothered to change shoes and just stepped straight in, sweeping a glance at the coffee table and floor, seeing several crumpled balls of white tissue scattered about, confused: “What were you wiping? Using so much tissue.”
Chen Kuang’s Adam’s apple tightened, he swiftly threw all those tissues into the trash can, calmly lying:
“Oh, the cup spilled water, I was just cleaning it up.”
Qiao Ling stood there, nodded, placing the breakfast on the dining table: “Then I’m heading out first, still in a hurry to open the shop.”
After speaking, she went into the bedroom to grab the toolbox, hopping away again like a little sparrow.
When the door was closed, Chen Kuang’s taut shoulder line finally relaxed, clicking his tongue.
Doing bad things, sure enough, there’s retribution.
………
However.
The just-now Qiao Ling who had left looking all innocent was now standing in front of the elevator, covering her mouth tightly, her face redder than a tomato.
She turned to look back at the apartment door, both embarrassed and angry, hating herself for thinking too fast, understanding too much.
He, he…
Chen Kuang, just now was…
Qiao Ling covered her face with both hands, silently screaming.