Qiao Ling had never thought she would, on this day, in such an ordinary moment, and Chen Kuang, achieve fruition.
She felt herself like a bitten-into steamed bun, the cooked hot steam inside huffing as it rushed out.
Boyfriend… boyfriend, from now on Chen Kuang was her boyfriend.
Chen Kuang looked at her, his expression carrying slight subtle surprise, as if he hadn’t thought she would agree so straightforwardly.
“No need to think it over again?”
Qiao Ling thought: Think about what? If you’re the kind of man who needs me to weigh the pros and cons, I wouldn’t have boldly kissed you twice back then!
Her thoughts rapidly dispersed, she recalled that morning when the two of them slept on the sofa, using her finger to poke his chest muscles’ superb feel.
Like this, from now on wouldn’t it mean she could openly and justifiably use all five fingers to slowly feel it…
And the abs, maybe wouldn’t even need to touch through the clothes anymore, heehee.
“Talking to you,” seeing her spacing out with a flushed face, he shook her a bit in slight puzzlement: “What are you daydreaming about?”
Qiao Ling snapped back to her senses, quickly scattered the dirty thoughts in her head, laughed twice awkwardly, “What is there to think about?”
“For example,” Chen Kuang pondered, giving an example: “My conditions, personality and such.”
Many of her friends’ attitudes towards love were quite casual, just dating for fun, if the other person had some shortcomings it didn’t matter as long as I’m happy.
But Chen Kuang was obviously the type of person very cautious when starting a relationship.
Clearly possessing a very “not serious” looking face.
This kind of sense of contrast made Qiao Ling’s heart surge even more, lifting her free hand to rub her chin, pretending to consider: “Mm… personality, over these two months I’ve already understood, no problem.”
Chen Kuang raised his eyebrows: “Sure there’s no problem?”
“To be able to partner with the abstract Xie Lisheng, endure a boss like Qiao Jing that kind of mad dog, and then be coworkers with someone as serious as Xia Tian for so long.” Qiao Ling sincerely gave him a thumbs-up, “You’re simply the most patient person in the entire world.”
Chen Kuang actually agreed with this, thinking about it like this, really had put up with quite a few bizarre people.
“What else?”
“Other…” Qiao Ling looked him up and down, “Economic conditions then.”
She leaned in cleverly, asked in a small voice: “So exactly how much money do you have?”
Now with this status, there should be qualification to ask, right!
He teased using the words she had said before: “Not hostile towards the rich anymore?”
“The relationship is different now.” Qiao Ling thought for a bit, “Doesn’t have to be said so specifically, how about you just tell me how much you still have left in the stock market.”
Money can’t solve everything, but it is an absolute sense of security for people in society.
Chen Kuang wanted to use this to give her a sense of security, to let her know being in a relationship with him was something that didn’t need any concerns at all.
He lowered his head without even thinking, leaned close to her ear, and said a number.
After saying it, Chen Kuang looked at Qiao Ling who was like dried in place, frozen stiff, pressed down the corners of his mouth, “Give an evaluation?”
Qiao Ling lifted her eyes as if lagging, from the bottom of her heart: “…Feels like I won the lottery.”
Chen Kuang was amused by her, letting out a few low, happy laughs.
“Let’s go, really about to get a parking ticket.”
She nodded, suddenly let go of his hand.
Chen Kuang didn’t move.
Qiao Ling awkwardly wiped the sweat from her palm clean, then held his hand again, staring at him in the dark, correcting herself: “…Your hand was too hot.”
He tightened his hold on her and kept walking forward, “Then count that as my fault.”
She stuck close to his arm, taking small steps to keep up, lowered her head, smiling even brighter.
……
When they got home, Qiao Ling leaned on the shoe cabinet to change shoes, spoke curiously: “So what did Qiao Jing say to you?”
She pouted her lips, “He didn’t spill out all my bad things from childhood till now, did he.”
Chen Kuang hung up his clothes, “No, just said some things I wanted to know, but I think he cares about you quite a lot.”
“Really? But actually before these past few months, we didn’t really keep in touch that often.” She said.
“Even more proves that there are more people caring about you behind your back than you imagine.”
He occasionally would think, so many people liked her, cared about her — if he didn’t become the most special one to her early on, sooner or later even ‘liking her’ wouldn’t make the list.
“That’s true, my dad’s side of the relatives all treat me really well, during the holidays it’s always lively.” She spoke without any reservation, smiling as she invited him: “This year’s New Year you can come to my house, our house has a bunch of uncles and aunties gathering together, the atmosphere is really good.”
“Go home with you for New Year?” Chen Kuang gazed at her, “Are you sure?”
Qiao Ling realized she seemed a little too enthusiastic, it had only been less than two hours since they officially started dating.
Wouldn’t it scare him, make him think they just got together and now already meeting the parents or something.
“Ah… it’s nothing.”
She looked left and right, everything around looked no different from usual, always felt like the confession just now didn’t feel very real.
“But…” Qiao Ling looked around the house, then looked at him again, “We’re really together now, right? Always feels like something’s missing.”
“Missing what?” Chen Kuang wasn’t very experienced in this kind of thing either, thought for a moment, took out his phone and said: “Want a bouquet? Want some kind of gift? I’ll go now…”
The confession was a spur-of-the-moment decision just now, really hadn’t had time to prepare anything.
“Hey wait.” She hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, laughed: “It’s already eleven at night, where would there still be any for sale, if you want to give something, wait till tomorrow!”
Seeing that she really didn’t want to trouble things, Chen Kuang let her take his phone and put it away.
“Something’s missing…”
He glanced over, his gaze sticking to her face that tonight had repeatedly turned shy because of all kinds of things.
Chen Kuang bent down, and pressed a kiss onto her lips—
Qiao Ling was completely unprepared, her heartbeat was suddenly lifted sharply.
Chen Kuang didn’t linger too much, just lightly took in her lips and then let go, opened his eyes to meet hers, asking: “The thing you said was missing, was it this.”
Boom—her ears and cheeks flushed completely red, that thing she’d always lacked but couldn’t express was resonated by him, there was a kind of same-frequency sense of satisfaction.
That’s right, missing a kiss.
She held his arms with both hands, raising her head, after being kissed her eyes would uncontrollably soften, like cotton candy about to melt.
“From now on I finally don’t have to kiss you while taking advantage of the situation anymore.”
Chen Kuang gave a light snort, as he spoke he naturally reached a hand behind her waist, “So you’d long wanted to take advantage of me?”
The two of them got closer and closer.
Qiao Ling nodded.
He lowered his head, his forehead lightly rubbing against her bangs, whispering: “How long ago?”
Qiao Ling didn’t dare tell the truth, face red as she quietly tiptoed, “…A long time ago.”
As the words fell, she tilted her face up, closed her eyes to receive the kiss that fell again.
The two people’s lips merged tightly into one, in the entangling making space for the other’s tongue tip to invade.
The third kiss, Qiao Ling was already not as nervous as before, moreover, with the official relationship now backing it, she no longer needed to be anxious, she could wholeheartedly and boldly possess him, enjoy the intimacy with him.
Chen Kuang’s hands were very big, just the length of one hand could span across her waist, the warm palm smoothing over her excited sympathetic nerves.
When the strong fingertips of the other pressed into her skin, it made Qiao Ling shudder in waves.
The kiss with open mouths made both of them become wet and sticky, Qiao Ling’s lips were moistened by him into the slipperiest jelly, sucked and nibbled inside Chen Kuang’s mouth with endless enjoyment.
She hadn’t even had any kissing experience before, not to mention tongue-kissing, only knew to open her mouth, her tongue tip flustered, dodging and sweeping about.
Qiao Ling clenched his chest’s clothes tightly, the dull and fierce pulse of the other person vibrated so strongly her fingertips could feel it.
When she couldn’t take it she would unconsciously let out some hum-hum whimpering sounds, yet she didn’t know that these soft moaning noises falling into the man’s ears simply became the most natural aphrodisiac.
Chen Kuang cupped her face, paused midway, and looked at her, his breathing rough and disordered.
In his sight, Qiao Ling had been kissed until her hair, her gaze, and her lips were all disordered and messy without exception.
She raised her eyes to look at him, powerless and emotionally moved.
Chen Kuang’s neck veins pulsed, holding her face with one hand and kissed down again.
Couldn’t hold back at all.
He pulled her hands to circle around his neck, then squatted down and directly picked her up face to face.
Qiao Ling cried out in surprise, but before she could speak, her lips were once again taken in by him.
Because they were moving, he was kissing her with his eyes open. That gaze was bare and surging, Qiao Ling really couldn’t withstand it, tightly shutting her eyes.
Chen Kuang kissed her while carrying her toward the sofa.
He sat down, bringing Qiao Ling to fall down sitting together, both legs opened, straddling on his lap.
Chen Kuang tightly held her waist and back. Qiao Ling couldn’t resist the other’s strength, could only stick to his chest like a small piece of paper, turning her head while being licked and eaten.
Although most of the time he had that calm and gentle good-tempered appearance, it was always in these kinds of moments that Qiao Ling would sense the innate fierceness and dominance he had when they first met.
The occupying aura he subconsciously gave off made her shiver as if being stared at by a wild beast, yet she still sank into the tide of his hormones, unwilling to come up for air.
Qiao Ling moved her legs a bit, feeling unstable sitting like this. At that moment, Chen Kuang reached out to support her.
When touched on her leg, she suddenly shuddered twice.
Chen Kuang immediately moved his hand away.
At the moment of trembling, Qiao Ling opened her eyes, urgency and apology welling up, because her breathing was too heavy, she couldn’t tell him in time that she didn’t mind.
Seeing her pressing her brows down showing sadness, Chen Kuang straightened up, pressing her back as he pulled her into his embrace.
His voice was very low and slow, making people feel at ease just hearing it: “It’s okay, I know.”
“Take it slow, I’ll accompany you.”
Qiao Ling lay against his broad shoulder, sticking tightly to the other person, her eye rims a little swollen.
She leaned closer, burying half her face into his neck, smelling the fresh scent on him, her anxious emotions gradually calming down.
The steady patting falling on her back let her hear his silent lines.
She would get better.
With him here, she would definitely get completely better one day.
…………
The last day of the National Day holiday, Qiao Ling had a full day of arrangements.
Open the store until twelve o’clock in the morning, then in the afternoon go attend an exhibition, and at night all the relatives would come to their house for dinner. Naturally, she also had to go back to reunite.
At twelve thirty, after sending off the last customer of the morning session, Qiao Ling immediately closed the store, changed into proper clothes, and rushed to catch the subway.
Chen Kuang had worked the night shift last night. He said yesterday’s customers were the most during the entire National Day holiday. He and Xia Tian were both busy to the point of being overwhelmed, even store manager Rou Yin had gone into the bar counter to personally make drinks.
Right now he was sleeping at home. Qiao Ling glanced at the last WeChat message he sent, her heart feeling full.
If she really had to give happiness a vivid definition, it might just be the feeling she had now. Her body filled up full, feeling like every second of the future was worth looking forward to.
She turned off her phone and dozed for a while on the subway, getting off at the station where the exhibition hall was.
Today she was going to meet a special person, one of the exhibitors in this exhibition.
In terms of relationship, he could be considered her shixiong [senior brother, a male fellow disciple/apprentice or upperclassman in the same field].
Qiao Ling walked into the exhibition park area, looking at the large signboard in front of her—The 10th China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo.
She gripped the strap of her backpack tightly, following the flow of people into the venue.
Wu Zong was four years older than her, the eighth disciple accepted by her maternal grandmother, and also the last one.
After her grandmother passed away, Qiao Ling followed her parents back to Binyang, and never saw this little disciple whom her grandmother had valued so much again.