The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 68
by Little PandaGoing Home
They say this is especially alluring.
[I want to be a better version of myself in front of you, not out of vanity,
but because I always feel you deserve the best of everything in this world.]
The next morning, Yi Yu hummed a little tune as she walked into the company.
She went straight to Tao Tianran’s office, sat in the swivel chair opposite her, and spun halfway around with the tip of her foot on the ground. “Thirty thousand!”
Tao Tianran closed the search page on her phone for “what to eat with gastroenteritis,” lifted her eyelids, and glanced at her. “Why are you giving me money?”
“Because you suggested I adopt a capybara!” Yi Yu grinned, propping her elbows on Tao Tianran’s desk. “Let me tell you, this whole capybara-adopting business is actually incredibly fulfilling!”
What made Yi Yu feel fulfilled was not just adopting the capybara, but also the chain reaction it triggered.
In her life, Yi Yu feared boredom above all else, and she was also the most susceptible to it.
Because she had been born with everything, her thresholds in life had been raised too high, leaving her with a lingering sense of weariness toward the world.
Food? She had no idea what kind of delicacy could possibly stimulate her. Fun? Things like skiing and yachts didn’t necessarily strike her as genuinely interesting. Being fawned over by the masses? When she threw money around in KTV while singing 《Love Devoutly Even in Death》, she only felt a vast emptiness in her heart.
As for romance, she had never felt a spark of interest in anyone.
She chalked it all up to being too bored. So when Tao Tianran casually suggested she feed capybaras, she had actually taken it seriously.
When she stood under the blazing sun clad in rubber overalls, leaning on a pitchfork with sweat pouring down her forehead like rain, she squinted her eyes. Three lines scrolled continuously across her mind like bullet comments: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
Ultimately, when Qin Ziqiao handed her a bottle of Wahaha Pure Water, Qin Ziqiao appeared in her eyes haloed in gold, radiating a holy light.
Of course, it was also possible that her eyes were just playing tricks on her after a full day in the sun.
She usually struggled to even drink water, finding that even the most expensive volcanic mineral water from southeastern France scraped her throat, yet just now she had gone gulp-gulp-gulp, chugging down an entire bottle of Wahaha.
Once work finally wrapped up, she insisted on taking Qin Ziqiao out to dinner.
Forget a single steak—she felt as though she could eat a whole cow right then!
As it turned out, Qin Ziqiao had run off! She had even pegged her as a pig-butchering scam!
In her entire life, Yi Yu had only met people who respected her, feared her, or flattered her. She’d never met anyone who treated her like a pig-butchering scammer. It nearly killed her with laughter, and she immediately decided to continue sponsoring the capybara.
She’d said to Qin Ziqiao, “Why don’t we go back and finish the steak?”
Qin Ziqiao: “No. Pointless.”
Yi Yu: “Then what’s worth eating?”
Qin Ziqiao: “Fried sauce noodles.”
Qin Ziqiao then led Yi Yu to her usual noodle joint. The place sold only one thing—fried sauce noodles1. The ones rinsed in cold water after boiling were called “cold-rinsed noodles2”, while the ones served hot without rinsing were called “hot-served noodles3”. Beyond that, they didn’t even offer a single side dish.
When the fried sauce noodles were served, they came in a massive, substantial bowl. The surface of the cooked sauce gleamed with a layer of oil, accompanied by the standard pairing: a bottle of Arctic Ocean Soda4.
The meal utterly blew Yi Yu away.
Honestly, she’d never eaten such a delicious bowl of noodles in her entire life. French cuisine? Get out of here! After a grueling day of pitching straw, getting a bowl of carbs like this down her throat was a soul-satisfying moment.
Wiping her mouth in satisfaction with a tissue, Yi Yu felt that Qin Ziqiao, sitting opposite her, was starting to radiate that holy light again.
Squinting slightly, she asked Qin Ziqiao with a fox-like grin, “Say…”
Qin Ziqiao looked up.
“Did the zoo organize physical exams for you guys this year?”
“Huh?” Qin Ziqiao asked, bewildered.
“You…” Yi Yu squinted as she scanned Qin Ziqiao from head to toe. “Your health is pretty robust, isn’t it?”
One look at Qin Ziqiao was enough to tell her the girl was in superb shape! Great stamina, great rhythm, and those forearms sculpted from pitching straw looked so powerful!
When Yi Yu and Qin Ziqiao wound up in bed together, Qin Ziqiao still wore that cold, cool, scowling brat face.
“Hey, are you…” Yi Yu had just been about to ask, “Are you unhappy with this?” when Qin Ziqiao made her swallow the rest of the sentence.
Now, as mentioned earlier, Yi Yu had a very high threshold in life. Even though she’d never experienced this side of things before, her standards remained exceptionally high.
But this kid Qin Ziqiao really did have incredible stamina, rhythm, and strength.
Sinking into the pillows, Yi Yu kneaded Qin Ziqiao’s hair, her throat humming along with Qin Ziqiao’s rhythm.
Qin Ziqiao paused to look at her.
“What is it?” Yi Yu asked, her fingertips clutching Qin Ziqiao’s hair.
“Can you not make that sound?” Qin Ziqiao asked.
Yi Yu was practically the embodiment of Qin Ziqiao’s aesthetic preferences. She looked exactly like an otherworldly, ethereal artist. Qin Ziqiao imagined that if the end of the world ever truly came, and the last holy maiden on Earth played the final piano on Earth, she would look just like Yi Yu.
Particularly when Yi Yu shed her artist’s clothing, her figure was remarkably mature and full of presence. It formed a stark contrast with her face, giving off the vibe of an all-embracing earth goddess.
But… Qin Ziqiao pursed her lips.
When Yi Yu hummed from the back of her throat in rhythm with her movements, she sounded, quite frankly, like a certain bird species at the zoo.
Every morning when Qin Ziqiao went to work and passed the aviary, she would hear that exact call.
“But I…” Yi Yu sighed softly. “I can’t help it.”
Qin Ziqiao pursed her lips and couldn’t find anything else to say.
It was an experience Yi Yu had never experienced in her life. After a full day of hard work followed by the satisfaction of a full stomach, her empty soul was filled for the very first time in her life. Her voice had gone quite hoarse.
She gazed at Qin Ziqiao’s sweat-drenched face—still cold, still scowling, yet somehow so adorable.
She couldn’t resist gently biting Qin Ziqiao on the chin, wanting to take a little nibble. She’d intended for it to be a “gentle bite,” but in the midst of a certain physical reaction, she failed to control her strength and bit down too hard.
It was right then that Qin Ziqiao received a call from Cheng Xiang.
Propping a sweat-drenched arm by the pillow, Qin Ziqiao listened to Cheng Xiang’s tiny, hushed voice over the phone, asking if she could come to the hospital right now.
Qin Ziqiao: “Right now?”
Cheng Xiang’s voice sounded utterly desolate. “If you don’t come tonight, my life is over.”
Qin Ziqiao changed her clothes. Before heading out, she glanced at the tooth mark on her chin and grabbed a face mask.
Clutching the pajamas Qin Ziqiao had retrieved for her, Yi Yu asked, “By the way, kid, how old are you anyway?”
While changing her shoes, Qin Ziqiao said without looking up, “No need to ask.”
Yi Yu curled her lips into a smile. “Don’t want to talk about feelings, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“What a coincidence. That works perfectly.” Yi Yu didn’t believe in feelings either. Emotions were too volatile and fragile; everything in her family was built on unbreakable bonds, like bloodlines and mutual benefits.
Yi Yu thought to herself that she’d found a very suitable little companion.
Cheng Xiang felt she really did have a bit of a heaven-selected beast of burden5 constitution.
Her stomach had suddenly flared up at the critical moment last night, but after getting an IV drip, she was completely fine this morning.
Even when she walked into the office carrying steamed buns and caught the scent of jianbing in the hallway, she no longer felt nauseous.
While eating breakfast, she received a WeChat message from Qin Ziqiao: 【By the way, do you know how to do it?】
【Do what?】
【You know, that.】
Cheng Xiang’s eyes went lifeless once again. She didn’t want to chat about it, really. Honestly, whether she knew how or not was no longer important.
Tao Tianran hadn’t contacted her yet.
Cheng Xiang didn’t feel angry at all, really. In fact, she felt it was great that Tao Tianran hadn’t reached out. She was too ashamed to face her.
During the lunch hour, Cheng Xiang didn’t go downstairs with her colleagues. Slouching listlessly at her desk, she sipped a bowl of takeout porridge while aimlessly scrolling through her phone.
Suddenly, her eyes locked onto something, and her hand shook.
What, what, what did she just see?!
It was an anonymous post from a submission bot she followed. Today’s feature was: 【My girlfriend suddenly got a stomachache right before we were about to do it. What should I do if I’ve lost interest in her?】
Cheng Xiang threw her phone aside, collapsed onto her desk, buried her face in the crook of her elbow, and clenched her hand into a fist, thumping the desk, blow by blow.
It wasn’t until they were about to go off-duty that Tao Tianran finally contacted Cheng Xiang.
She sent a WeChat voice message: “Are you feeling any better?”
Even the sound of her breathing carried a cool, clear quality, accompanied by the faint honk of a car horn. It sounded like she was driving.
She was probably coming to find her.
Cheng Xiang sighed. Well, a breakup is definitely something that should be done in person. I understand.
She, Cheng Xiang—previously, the most humiliating moment of her life had been in her sophomore year of high school when she tried to throw a shot put, and instead of the shot put flying forward, she had launched herself instead. Now, the absolute most humiliating moment of her life was being hit with an abrupt breakup6 on the second day of her first romance, all because of a sudden stomachache right before they could do it.
She packed her canvas bag and went downstairs to wait for Tao Tianran.
When Tao Tianran pulled up in front of Cheng Xiang’s office building, she spotted a clean, neat young girl standing downstairs, wearing an indigo-blue hoodie paired with light-colored jeans, exposing a pair of pale, bare ankles.
She carried a white canvas bag, her head lowered as she rocked her feet back and forth on the edge of the curb.
Tao Tianran opened the car door and stepped out, walking over to her. The girl kept her head down, greeting her softly. “Hi.”
Watching the fine, soft hair draping over her eyebrows, Tao Tianran asked gently, “Is your body feeling alright now?”
“Completely fine, completely fine,” Cheng Xiang said. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m alright.”
“Then… how about we find a cafe to sit in for a bit?”
This was the best cafe near Cheng Xiang’s office. Its specialty was the olive oil latte, which cost an extortionate sixty-five yuan a cup. Still, Cheng Xiang ordered two cups and sat with her head bowed on a white, weathered wooden chair opposite Tao Tianran, her canvas bag resting limply beside her.
With the cafe’s pleasant atmosphere, Cheng Xiang figured it might at least take the edge off last night’s embarrassment.
So that when Tao Tianran recalled their breakup, it would look slightly more respectable.
Sitting across from her, Tao Tianran picked up her coffee and took a sip before setting the wide-rimmed glass back on the table, lightly spinning it with her fingertips.
She asked Cheng Xiang, “Given your stomach condition today, you probably shouldn’t be drinking coffee, right?”
Cheng Xiang thought, her heart like cold ashes: Please don’t mention my stomach condition.
She began cautiously, “So… do you usually use Weibo?”
“?” Tao Tianran said, “No.”
Cheng Xiang breathed a sigh of relief. At least the anonymous submission today hadn’t been from Tao Tianran herself, even if Tao Tianran’s feelings were probably identical to that person’s.
Cheng Xiang indeed hadn’t touched her coffee; she just felt that ordering only one cup for Tao Tianran while getting plain water for herself would make her look cheap. She lightly spun her coffee cup in tandem with Tao Tianran’s. “If you want to break up with me, I completely understand.”
A long silence fell over Tao Tianran’s side.
When Cheng Xiang finally couldn’t resist lifting her eyelids to peek at her, she found Tao Tianran staring straight back.
Tao Tianran: “You want to break up with me?”
Oh, goodness. Her tone was a bit cold.
Cheng Xiang was on the verge of tears, her hand shaking so much she nearly knocked her coffee over. “I really don’t know how to face you, Tao Tianran!”
Tao Tianran nodded. “So you want to break up with me. I see.”
Cheng Xiang watched wide-eyed as Tao Tianran stood straight up, grabbed her bag, and walked right out of the cafe.
“Hey!” Panicking, Cheng Xiang quickly gave chase.
Staring at Tao Tianran’s retreating back, an intense, borderless panic suddenly seized her heart for some reason.
She rushed out of the cafe, her push of the door clinking the windchimes hanging outside. Her breath was already in disarray, but then she saw Tao Tianran standing right by the cafe window, clutching her bag.
Cheng Xiang walked over, standing before her with her head down.
Tao Tianran asked quietly, “Why did you run out after me?”
Cheng Xiang rubbed her toe against the ground, her canvas bag looped over her forearm. “Then why did you wait for me?”
It was peak rush hour, with people constantly filing in and out of the doors, so both of them kept their voices low.
Cheng Xiang let out a sigh first. “Sigh, that’s not what I meant. I just thought… our very first meeting was so wonderful, wasn’t it? You might not remember, but you happened to be outside my family’s siheyuan one day when I was leaving for work. I noticed you right then. How could someone look so incredibly beautiful?”
“I looked decent enough that day too.” Cheng Xiang smoothed her bangs. “My hair wasn’t a total mess from sleep, I hadn’t eaten snacks the night before so my face wasn’t puffy, I was wearing my best winter down jacket, and a flock of pigeons kept by an old neighbor gentleman flew right over our heads.”
“I wanted to keep that good impression going, you know?” Cheng Xiang finally looked up at Tao Tianran. “I’ve been so careful not to act like a fool in front of you.”
And now, it was completely ruined.
Tao Tianran thought to herself: Actually, our very first meeting wasn’t as perfect as you think.
It was back during our sophomore year of high school. When you ran over with everyone else to look at me, you fainted from low blood sugar. Someone yelled, “Stop crowding, stop crowding! Someone here just fainted from Tao Tianran’s beauty!”
You’d already shown your foolish side back then.
A faint smile brushed past Tao Tianran’s lips, only to be tucked away just as discreetly.
“I didn’t want to break up with you,” Cheng Xiang said, lowering her head again. “It’s just… sigh, I think it’s really embarrassing.”
“I act foolishly too,” Tao Tianran said.
“No way.”
“Really.”
“What foolish thing did you do?”
“I bought ribs and went home to practice.”
“Really?” Cheng Xiang lifted her eyelids. “Ten kilograms?”
“No.” Tao Tianran frowned slightly. “I don’t even know how many kilograms… I just ordered them directly from an online supermarket and only looked at the price.”
Cheng Xiang smiled.
“So, did you succeed with the sweet and sour ribs?”
Tao Tianran pursed her lips in a subtle manner.
Cheng Xiang curled her lips up, lightly stomping her foot on the ground again. “But this is different!”
“It’s about the same.”
“How is that even close…”
“Anyway, since we’ve both acted foolishly already, we can just be natural from now on.”
“That won’t do.” Cheng Xiang bit her lower lip. “I have so many secrets. If you found out all of them, you’d think I’m completely different from what you imagined.”
“Oh?” Tao Tianran raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Well, someone like me…” Cheng Xiang looked left and right, stealthily lowering her voice as if making a monumental decision. “Do you know what flavor of potato chips I love the most?”
Tao Tianran’s brow relaxed, and she suddenly laughed.
She led Cheng Xiang into a convenience store. Standing half a step behind her in front of a shelf stocked with potato chips and cookies, she lightly nudged the back of Cheng Xiang’s leg with the bag she was carrying. “Let me guess. If I get it right, you have to apologize to me.”
With people bustling in and out of the convenience store after work, Tao Tianran leaned slightly closer to Cheng Xiang, bringing with her a waft of cool, clean fragrance. “Because you mentioned breaking up just now, and that made me sad.”
She was dressed in a sharp shirt and trousers, her suit jacket having been shed when entering the cafe and now draped over her forearm. Yet, she spoke these words with a trace of vulnerability.
Cheng Xiang stared at the shelves in front of her. “Then guess.”
Instead of taking a step forward, Tao Tianran reached her arm past Cheng Xiang’s side, brushing against her as she reached for the shelf. With a gentle tap of her slender finger, she pulled down a bag of White Rabbit Cream Candy-flavored potato chips.
Since the convenience store was crowded, they made no overtly intimate gestures.
Yet, Tao Tianran’s movement just now had felt like half an embrace, carrying a subtle, secret intimacy.
She went straight to the counter to pay for the chips.
Cheng Xiang trotted along behind her, completely stunned. “How did you know?! So many people call me a weirdo for liking those!”
Tao Tianran thought to herself: This time, it really was an open-book test.
Perhaps she was indeed a bit wicked, teasing Cheng Xiang on purpose like this.
Once they stepped out of the convenience store, Cheng Xiang glanced at Tao Tianran. Dressed in her formal shirt and trousers but carrying a bag of White Rabbit Cream Candy-flavored potato chips, she looked inexplicably sexy.
But she couldn’t help but worry. “Put your suit jacket on. It’s not that warm out yet; aren’t you afraid of catching a cold?”
She took the bag and the chips from Tao Tianran, watching her stand outside the convenience store to slip into her suit jacket. The moment Tao Tianran flicked her long hair out of her collar, she looked over. “You shouldn’t eat anything greasy today, right?”
Cheng Xiang did a mental facepalm.
She mumbled, “Can you please stop bringing that up?”
Tao Tianran smiled softly. “I mean, how about going to my place? I’ll make some porridge.”
Cheng Xiang froze, swallowing hard. “To… to your place again?”
Cheng Xiang was a person of weak willpower.
This was proven by the fact that she got into Tao Tianran’s car once again.
On the way, she quietly sent Qin Ziqiao a WeChat message: 【Tell my mom that I’m hanging out at your place again.】
Qin Ziqiao didn’t say much, only replying with a 「respect」 emoji.
Pfft!
Cheng Xiang ignored her.
Turning her head back, she stole a glance at Tao Tianran and raised a hand to touch the tip of her nose.
Tao Tianran asked, “What is it?”
Cheng Xiang bit the inside of her lip with her teeth, ultimately saying, “Nothing.”
Cheng Xiang thought about the fact that Qin Ziqiao had slept with Tao Tianran’s boss. She wasn’t the one involved, so it probably wasn’t her place to tell Tao Tianran.
When they arrived at Tao Tianran’s door, a bag from an online supermarket was already sitting outside. Tao Tianran bent down to pick it up, and Cheng Xiang peeked inside, finding a few light and mild ingredients.
So thoughtful, hehe.
They stepped inside and changed their shoes. As Cheng Xiang walked toward the living room, she passed the guest restroom and instantly snapped her gaze away as if she had received an electric shock.
I don’t want to face it, I really don’t.
Tao Tianran took off her suit jacket, tossed it casually onto the living room sofa, and headed toward the kitchen with the bag.
Pattering along in her slippers, Cheng Xiang followed her. “Let me help you.”
Putting the bag on the countertop, Tao Tianran rolled her white shirt sleeves up to her elbows and cast a sideways glance at her.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” Cheng Xiang said as she stepped into the kitchen. “It’s just that today… sigh, my stomach really is a bit fragile. Better to be cautious, just to be safe.”
Tao Tianran couldn’t help herself. She lowered her head, pressed the back of her hand against her lips, and laughed.
Cheng Xiang walked up beside her, slipped her toes out of her slippers, and tapped the edge of Tao Tianran’s slippers with her foot. “Stop laughing.”
Tao Tianran held back her laughter. “I’ll make the porridge, and you cook the dishes, all right?”
Actually, Cheng Xiang wasn’t even completely at ease letting Tao Tianran cook porridge.
She stood on the side, watching Tao Tianran add water, her eyes glued to the water line as she muttered away, “Yeah, yeah, a bit more… whoa, stop, stop, stop.”
Tao Tianran shut off the filtered water tap and glanced at her.
She grinned. “Hehe.”
Suddenly, Tao Tianran raised her hand, flicking a few droplets of water from her slender fingers onto Cheng Xiang.
Cheng Xiang ducked her head to the side. “Hey, hey, that’s cheating! This isn’t very yujie of you, Tianran-jie.”
Tao Tianran: “What did you call me?”
Cheng Xiang smiled. “You’re older than me, after all.”
Tao Tianran crossed her arms and leaned back against the countertop. “So you like calling me ‘sister’?”
Rather than bickering with her, Cheng Xiang said, her eyes curving in a smile, “No, I don’t.”
Then she asked, “Where’s your apron?”
She had seen Tao Tianran wearing an apron the last time she cooked.
Scanning the kitchen now, she didn’t spot it. It had likely been put away by the housekeeper.
If it really couldn’t be found, Cheng Xiang thought she’d just let it go. Anyway, the hoodie she was wearing had been bought at an outlet sale for only about a hundred yuan.
To her surprise, Tao Tianran said, “I have one.”
She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out an apron.
“Oh, look at you, knowing your way around your kitchen now,” Cheng Xiang teased. “As expected of someone who secretly practiced making sweet and sour ribs.”
Tao Tianran shot her a sidelong glance.
Cheng Xiang extended her hands, her eyes curving. “Well, hand it over. Look what time it is, are we going to eat dinner or what?”
Holding the apron, Tao Tianran stepped closer. “Arms out.”
Cheng Xiang obediently spread her arms.
Tao Tianran slipped the apron over her head, then stood behind her to tie it. Her breath brushed against the back of Cheng Xiang’s neck, cool and moist.
An intense itch tickled Cheng Xiang’s heart. She badly wanted to reach up and rub the back of her neck, but she barely managed to restrain herself. Deep down, she felt that the back of her neck was not actually the place she wanted to touch.
Dinner was simple tonight—a pot of plain white porridge, accompanied by a tomato egg soup prepared by Cheng Xiang, offering a decent nutritional balance.
While Cheng Xiang cooked, Tao Tianran washed fruit nearby.
Cheng Xiang told her, “Go wash them in the western kitchen. There’s oil fumes here. Still, your range hood is really high quality.”
She glanced up at it; it was a brand she had never even heard of.
Tao Tianran gave a soft murmur of assent, but made no move to leave.
As Cheng Xiang was adding salt to the tomato egg soup, she felt something cool press against her lips. Casting her gaze downward, she saw a strawberry being offered by Tao Tianran.
She was just about to open her mouth to take a bite.
Suddenly, Tao Tianran pulled the strawberry back. “You can’t eat this.”
“Are you teasing me?” Cheng Xiang pouted. “I’m starting to realize you’re actually quite wicked.”
Tao Tianran curled her lips slightly.
“Just one bite,” Cheng Xiang said, looking at the fresh strawberry. “I’m already completely fine.”
“Then… just one bite.”
Without taking her eyes off the pot, Cheng Xiang opened her mouth and bit off the tip of the strawberry.
Tao Tianran pulled her hand back. When Cheng Xiang turned her head to look, Tao Tianran was standing on the side with one arm crossed, watching the tomato egg soup in the pot as she naturally popped the remaining half of the strawberry into her own mouth.
She casually asked, “Is it sweet?”
Withdrawing her gaze, Cheng Xiang softly replied, “Yeah.”
Once dinner was ready, they carried everything over to the dining table together.
The white porridge was thick and smooth, paired with a stomach-warming tomato egg soup. Cheng Xiang still ate with restraint, whereas Tao Tianran didn’t hold back her appetite, finishing a whole bowl of porridge.
“Delicious, right?” Cheng Xiang said with a touch of pride. Director Ma hadn’t taught her how to cook for nothing.
After dinner, Cheng Xiang patted her stomach.
Excellent. Everything was perfectly normal so far.
After dinner, Tao Tianran washed the dishes. Cheng Xiang offered to help, but she declined, saying that since Cheng Xiang had cooked, it was only fair that she do the washing.
Cheng Xiang had originally wanted to go watch her, but on second thought, if Tao Tianran flicked water at her again, it would be soapy dishwater this time. Never mind, forget it.
Instead, she sat on the sofa to wait.
When Tao Tianran emerged from the kitchen, she brought out the bowl of washed strawberries, placed it on the marble coffee table, and walked over to the vinyl record player near the wall. She turned to ask Cheng Xiang, “Do you usually listen to instrumental music?”
“Huh? No, I don’t.”
Tao Tianran nodded. “Shall I pick one, then?”
“Sure, you choose.”
Facing the vinyl record shelf of her bookcase, Tao Tianran ran her slender fingers along the sleeves, slipped one out, placed it onto the player, and lowered the needle.
A soothing piano piece began to flow.
Tao Tianran returned to the sofa and sat down, crossing one leg over her knee. Holding her phone in one hand to reply to work messages, she rested her other wrist on Cheng Xiang’s shoulder, her fingertips casually playing with the soft ends of Cheng Xiang’s hair.
Cheng Xiang was slightly dazed:
We’ve only been dating for three days, right? What’s with this old married couple vibe?
And what’s with these rich people? There isn’t even a single screen in the living room. Is their idea of post-dinner entertainment really just listening to music?
Shouldn’t we be watching a variety show or something? Or at least 《A Bite of China》?
If we’re not watching anything, what are we supposed to talk about?
Cheng Xiang stole a quiet glance at Tao Tianran. Just as she did, Tao Tianran finished replying to her messages and looked over at her.
Cheng Xiang instantly averted her eyes.
She heard Tao Tianran let out a soft chuckle beside her. “Alright, I won’t look at you.”
When Cheng Xiang snuck another peek, Tao Tianran had indeed lowered her eyes back to her phone screen, her long, delicate lashes sweeping down, a subtle curve playing at the corner of her lips.
Cheng Xiang glanced at her canvas bag. The bag of milk candy-flavored potato chips Tao Tianran had bought was sitting right inside.
She had promised Tao Tianran that she would apologize. She had indeed acted poorly; no matter how embarrassing things got, she shouldn’t have thrown out the word “breakup” so lightly.
But… how was she supposed to apologize?
Cheng Xiang licked her lips.
Having grown up in a traditional household, words like “I love you” or “I’m sorry” were incredibly difficult to voice; they gave her goosebumps just thinking about them.
But a mistake was a mistake, and she had to own up to it.
Cheng Xiang scooted slightly toward the edge of the sofa, leaned over, picked a strawberry from the bowl, and carefully dried the water droplets on it with a tissue.
She held it to Tao Tianran’s lips. “Want one?”
Pretending to keep her eyes on her phone screen, Tao Tianran parted her lips and took a bite.
Right at that moment, Cheng Xiang leaned in. Her soft, slightly plump lips pressed against Tao Tianran’s cheek in a gentle kiss. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said those things today.”
The sweet juice in her heart burst forth in unison with the strawberry between her teeth. Tao Tianran stood straight up, turning her gaze toward Cheng Xiang.
Cheng Xiang kept her head buried, sitting on the edge of the sofa like a little quail, exposing her pale crown. She hadn’t actually intended to eat the remaining half of the strawberry in her hand, but under Tao Tianran’s gaze, she panicked and took a tiny bite of it.
Excellent, she praised her stomach. You’ve done well today. We ate a full meal and even had fruit, without a single bad reaction.
She could feel Tao Tianran looking at her, gazing down at her for a long time, before extending a hand.
Blushing slightly, she placed her hand into Tao Tianran’s palm. It was a calculated move—resting only the very tips of her fingers in her palm in a display of playing hard to get7. They say this is especially alluring.
She heard Tao Tianran let out a slow, steady breath, and then speak: “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
“Okay,” Cheng Xiang replied, maintaining her shy tone. Once the words registered, she suddenly whipped her head up. “Huh?”
Footnotes
- zhàjiàngmiàn; a classic northern Chinese dish consisting of thick wheat noodles topped with a rich, savory paste of fried sweet bean sauce and ground pork.
- guòshuǐ'er; a style of serving Beicheng fried sauce noodles where cooked noodles are rinsed in cold water for a firm texture.
- guōtiāo'er; a style of serving Beicheng fried sauce noodles where they are served hot directly from the pot without rinsing.
- Beibingyang qishuǐ; Arctic Ocean Soda, a classic local Beicheng orange soda brand.
- tiānxuǎn niúmǎ; 'heaven-selected beasts of burden,' modern Chinese internet slang for someone with an incredibly resilient physical constitution, born for corporate labor.
- duànyá shì fēnshǒu; cliff-like breakup, a modern dating term describing an abrupt, absolute severance of a relationship without any warning or transition.
- yù jù hái yíng; feigning refusal while welcoming, playing hard to get, a classic idiom describing a coquettish, flirtatious posture.
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