She swore, he must have seen it…
Would he think she opened it on purpose?
If because of this… it would really be a big loss.
But this gentle, lingering kiss was so hard for her to resist, she was helpless against it.
She liked him, liked his gentleness, liked how good he was to her for no reason. Was it enough? Was it enough to keep going? She was a little breathless, edging into a state where she couldn’t think straight. Push away? Give in? With no answers to her struggles, until that warmth moved from her lips, along her cheeks, neck, finally stopping at her ear.
“Don’t often write passionate scenes?”
Huh?
Wasn’t this moving a bit too quickly?
She gave a stifled murmur of agreement.
…Who writes passionate scenes for no reason.
“Sometimes, you don’t need too much dialogue,” he whispered in her ear, his voice a few shades darker and hoarser, “If you love someone, you won’t be able to control wanting to get close to her, touching her hand, kissing her face, watching her panic. Repeated touches, just wanting to repeatedly confirm, prove, that we really are together, that she really is mine. So the best passionate scenes should start from lightly touching each other’s bodies, slowly building the atmosphere.”
What he said sounded quite serious.
But he didn’t need to demonstrate it live…
The shadows of the two of them were layered on top of each other against the glass, the city lights too dazzling, the starlight faded in comparison.
“Just like this, I would unconsciously pay attention to you, wanting to see every tiny detail more clearly, and not just for the final step,” his five fingers threaded through the gaps between her fingers, lightly caressing, “When you’re nervous, your five fingers curl up into a little ball, and I always want to think of ways to get you to relax your hand, to hold it and look closely,” his gaze fell to her hand, “Very small nails, trimmed very neatly, very slender, long fingers.”
She had sighed before at his nice looking hands, at that first press conference they met at.
And now, he was carefully looking at her hand, resting in his palm.
She couldn’t help following his gaze to look at her own hand, because she was skinny, the joints were a bit protrusive, the veins stood out a lot…they were so ugly. She felt weak, uncomfortably taking her hand back.
Then, she realized, she really was a bit nervous, unconsciously keeping her hand half curled.
Both their bodies were hot, even though the air conditioner was on in the room, they were covered in sweat. From the reflection in the glass you could see his silhouette, and the room behind them. Jia He watched as he lowered his head again, instantly tensing all her nerves, the warmth at the back of her neck like a lit fuse, igniting all her blood, something in her heart fluttering anxiously, wanting nothing more than to eliminate any tiny gap between them…
The phone suddenly rang again.
She gave a violent start, almost crashing through the window.
Reaching shakily for her phone, it was Qiao Qiao again.
“No, I can’t sleep, I need to vent.” That end was still pitifully looking for comfort, unaware of the role she was playing. “Wait,” tears filled Jia He’s eyes, for the first time discovering how timely her breakup was, covering the phone as she helplessly gave Yi Wen Ze an apologetic look, “It’s Qiao Qiao again.”
Yi Wen Ze gave a resigned laugh, pecking her on the nose, “Tell her, no more calls after ten o’clock from now on, that’s refusal-to-pick-up time.” Jia He’s heart was thumping wildly, the corners of her mouth frozen in an awkward smile, “You go to bed first, I’ll go back to my room to talk on the phone.” He helped her pack up her computer, handing it to her, “Sleep early.”
Only when she was back in her room, leaning against the door, holding her computer, did she calm herself down.
“Did I interrupt something exciting? Screenwriter?” Qiao Qiao finally clued in.
“Mr. Yi said, don’t call me after ten anymore.” Jia He passed it on verbatim, completely collapsing onto the bed.
“Ah,” Qiao Qiao meaningfully sighed, “Too early, your married life is starting too early, too tiring.”
……
She suddenly realized, everyone around her was very eloquent, except herself.
“Say it, didn’t you want to talk it out?”
“I just wanted to tell you… congratulatory telegrams have been coming in from people nationwide this past half hour, congratulating me on the breakup.”
“So, am I the last congratulatory telegram needed from Tianjin?”
Qiao Qiao giggled, “To be honest, how’re things going with you two? Have you guys already, you know?”
“That’s enough.” Jia He turned over, stared at the ceiling, murmured something about how unreal it was, then started rambling about the messy, complicated events recently, until Qiao Qiao finally concluded, “So in other words, you’ve taken the most coveted boyfriend ever, and hid him away like an embarrassing secret?”
“…What nonsense.”
Jia He reflected, it was fine, right? Those lottery winners of millions, aren’t they all wearing masks, sunglasses, afraid people will know it’s them who got smashed in the head with a pie? Should be about the same feeling, right?
“Actually, I understand how you feel,” that end started conscientiously counseling her, obviously forgetting why she called in the first place, “Being with someone like that, the ordinary things normal people could do, you can’t do any of it. It sounds really fantastical but actually is pretty stifled to live like that. And it’s just the beginning, in the future he’ll take months long shoots here and there, and every so often rumors will fly everywhere, you’ll have headaches and heartaches you can’t do anything about, not even able to accompany him on a simple doctor’s visit—”
“Stop,” Jia He was distracted, “talk about yourself, I don’t need you to counsel me.”
She just mmhmm-ed at anything else that end said. Actually, heartbroken people only needed one listening ear. Whether you counsel them or not, it’s useless either way, they’ll still feel sad.
Besides… her mind was full of Yi Wenze’s words just then.
“The media meet for ‘Eternal Peace’ is scheduled next week, Beijing. Will you still be here then?”
“Should still be here, my scenes for this movie are almost wrapped, it’s just the original author who’s being difficult,” Jia He frowned thinking about it, “Didn’t want to take this kind of adaptation project originally, heard it’s a female author, book sales weren’t that great, but quite the temper.”
Qiao Qiao gleefully sympathized, “Told you before, if the adaptation is good, credit goes to the original author. If not good, the screenwriter gets all the blame.” Jia He was depressed, “What’s that got to do with the screenwriter, come across a strong investor, the screenwriter’s just a typewriter, no control over the plot whatsoever.”
Since she took this job, she had this feeling deep down that this production absolutely would not go smoothly.
One conversation lasted until daylight started peeking through, resulting in Jia He having to show up for lunch with Yi Wenze with dark eye circles. As she ate, she continued thinking, it actually wasn’t that bad. Look, ordinary people dating couldn’t stand her schedule, if she really found some office worker type, waking up early without breakfast every morning, going to bed with the space beside her empty every night, they probably couldn’t last half a year before splitting up…
She stared blankly at her chopsticks.
“Didn’t sleep well last night?”
“Mm,” Jia He finally bit into the fish on her chopsticks, took his bowl as she ate to ladle him some soup. A small white ceramic bowl, hugged in her hand. Because it was scalding hot she unconsciously curled her fingertips, quickly placing it in front of him, “Burnt me.”
She watched him intently as he ate spoonful by spoonful.
In this boisterous city, no matter whether your face is recognizable by all, we still live the same lives as everyone else, still need to eat, still get sick. Look how real that is?
Just as she was sighing emotionally, she suddenly felt her nose get hot. Wiping it with her hand, it was covered in bright red blood.
She was so startled Yi Wenze had already put down his bowl, swiftly pulled her into the washroom to rinse her nose clean, “What’s with the sudden nosebleed?” Jia He looked at herself very dejectedly in the mirror, Yi Wen Ze already pinching the bridge of her nose, a very amusing gesture, “Don’t know, the weather’s too dry probably.”
Spring moods, ah, spring moods!
Luckily it wasn’t bleeding last night…
“Wash your hands clean.” He reminded her.
Jia He mm-hmm’ed, hastily twisted on the tap to scrub her hands clean.
Just like that, him pinching for a couple minutes, before the bleeding finally stopped. He took out the complimentary cotton balls the hotel provided, about to stuff them for her when Jia He saw those tender pink cotton balls and was thoroughly embarrassed.
Let her walk around with pink cotton balls stuffed up her nose in front of him?
Ugly to death.
Yi Wenze smiled as he bent down, very carefully stuffing them for her, “Very pretty, suits you a lot.”
Jia He was about to spit fire from her eyes, “Who looks good with cotton balls stuffed in their nose?”
“My girlfriend.” His response was smooth.
Jia He wanted to reach out to take them out but he had swiftly grabbed her hand already, “Jia He, I need to seriously say something to you.” From the corners of his mouth to his eyes, he had conjured up a completely solemn expression, allowing no questioning.
She was dumbfounded. No way, all that just for some cotton balls?
One second, two seconds, she was so nervous she was about to start bleeding again.
But who knew, he would suddenly break into a smile, lightly hooking her nose, “In the future, when you get sick, your complexion will definitely be pale, hair a complete mess, even uglier than now. Are you not going to see me then?” Jia He was struck speechless. Made sense, he then pulled her to sit on the sofa, “What if one day you get pregnant, figure gone, swollen legs, are you not going to see me for ten whole months?”
Boom, she was thoroughly cooked.
From her face to the top of her head, she felt like she was giving off steam, yet the person speaking was still smiling at her.
Jia He bit her lip corner, forcing herself to calm down.
But this topic was too much, escalating from cotton balls to pregnancy…
She swore, Yi Wenze was definitely a romance expert.
Why hadn’t she noticed earlier?
Ever since the cotton ball incident, Jia He kept feeling like something between them had changed. It was like he had stepped out from the screen, no longer playing the prince who kissed awake the princess. What he gave her was not only passionate kisses and popcorn in the theater, but also cotton balls…ergh, why did she keep thinking of cotton balls.
In her entire lifetime, just three or four nosebleeds at most, and it had to happen in front of him.
Jia He gnawed on chocolate as she secretly peeked at the person making a phone call by the window. Her nose just felt hot…wiping with her hand, only to immediately see stars as she raced into the bathroom.
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