The night curtain outside the window slowly descended with the passing of time. Stars dotted the sky with a bright moon hanging high. Shanghai’s night scenery gradually emerged in the darkness – flowing traffic and twinkling lights, all visible from the top floor.
Under Yan Cheng’s scholarly and obedient kneeling posture, and his tireless deep self-reflection and self-criticism, the indescribable events that happened spontaneously after their nap due to abundant energy were finally put to rest.
After all, it takes two to clap.
“…” Chen Jinyao secretly blushed.
Hearing him seriously declare that “all men are scoundrels,” she finally couldn’t hold back her muffled laughter. After rustling around for a while, she stretched out her arms and looked at Yan Cheng, “Come, carry me to the tatami.”
Like a little romantic gesture, implying forgiveness.
As expected, Yan Cheng froze for two seconds before quickly getting up, jumping off the bed, wearing his slippers, walking around the foot of the bed, lifting the blanket. Chen Jinyao cooperated with him as he used just the right amount of strength to easily lift her up, then with reddened ears walked briskly toward the living room.
Chen Jinyao wore the hotel’s bathrobe, which opened slightly at the slightest pull. Moreover, she wore nothing underneath. Yan Cheng tried his best to keep his eyes straight ahead, acting particularly gentlemanly at this moment. When he placed Chen Jinyao on the tatami, he finally lowered his eyes and reached out to fix her bathrobe, pulling it to wrap her up completely. As Chen Jinyao raised her eyebrows with an ambiguous smile, he fake-coughed once, then told an obvious lie: “Be careful not to catch cold.”
Chen Jinyao smiled slightly, raising her hand to stroke his abdomen, her voice soft as she asked him: “Then why are you shirtless?”
“You know about Lian Po asking for forgiveness?” Yan Cheng pinched her nose, “When he asked for forgiveness, he took off his shirt and carried thorns on his back.”
“Oh.” Chen Jinyao dodged his hand, raising her chin proudly, asking seriously: “But you don’t have thorns on your back?”
Yan Cheng narrowed his eyes: “Who says I don’t?”
Almost as soon as the words fell, he turned around, exposing his back to her eyes. Under the bright, almost piercing light, she could clearly see several prominent red scratch marks on his sexy spine that moved slightly with his breathing.
Yan Cheng: “See? All left by invisible thorns.”
After a few seconds, he got cheeky again, “All your handiwork.”
Chen Jinyao: “…”
She instinctively raised her hands before her eyes, looking at them repeatedly.
Yan Cheng puffed his cheeks, clicking his tongue: “You need to trim your nails.”
While Chen Jinyao remained silent with no response, he walked toward the bedroom. Shortly after, he came back wearing a white T-shirt, swaying lazily.
He was holding nail clippers.
After Chen Jinyao made room for him, he sat down and wordlessly pulled her right hand over. He lowered his head, drooping his eyelashes, starting with the thumb, carefully trimming her nails.
Chen Jinyao didn’t react at first, her eyes showing surprise, followed by amazement. She uncomfortably tried to pull her arm back but failed. After receiving a low “don’t move,” she stayed quiet for a moment, blinked, and said in wonder: “You even brought nail clippers?”
Yan Cheng glanced up at her, then looked down again, muttering softly: “Yeah, just tossed them into your bag.”
“…”
Chen Jinyao: “Let’s take some time away from the group tomorrow.”
“I want to get my nails done, I never have the chance usually,” she pursed her lips, “because of the nature of my job.”
Yan Cheng nodded, having no objections: “Alright.”
Perhaps because they had slept so deeply and contentedly in the early afternoon, both of them still had no hint of sleepiness even very late, after finishing their late-night barbecue. They gazed at the brilliant lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the bustle belonging to a big city.
Besides these, everything around was quiet.
It somehow gave rise to a feeling of peaceful contentment.
Chen Jinyao glanced at the class group chat’s itinerary on her phone, and after finding they were all normal procedures, she stopped looking, locked the screen, and tossed it aside.
She suddenly felt like chatting.
More accurately, the topic was first brought up by Yan Cheng. It had felt awkward at first, but after their intense pleasure, it seemed like they could talk about anything.
Yan Cheng held her tightly, sincerely proposing: “Could you be remembering wrong? Maybe your teaching assistant wasn’t secretly in love with you.”
Chen Jinyao leaned against him, getting comfortable however she wanted.
She didn’t answer his hypothesis, just frowned slightly, using his statement to find a new angle for herself.
“Time can fade everything,” she lowered her eyes, playing with his long, fair fingers, pinching here and there. Then, suddenly turning around to create distance between them, she faced him very seriously, “Do you understand what I mean?”
Yan Cheng raised his eyebrows roguishly, not saying anything.
Chen Jinyao simply brought the topic back again, “I had no mutual emotional output with him during university. Maybe he output emotions to me, but I didn’t. After learning about his feelings, I even avoided him. In such situations, it means he won’t get a response, so after being apart for so long, he very likely has let go of that period too. I believe this is something time can do, and now that he’s agreed to attend our class reunion, I guess he just wants to find and liberate his past self.”
Yan Cheng was stunned, his first reaction being admiration for Chen Jinyao’s eloquence.
At the same time, he couldn’t help thinking off-topic, feeling that if they continued talking about such principles, it would surely have a hypnotic effect, and maybe they’d both be sleepy within half an hour.
Unexpectedly, the next second Chen Jinyao’s eyes sparkled, and she suddenly turned the fire on him, throwing him a question, “Also, different premises but still time, in most cases the outcome is the same.”
“What do you mean?” Yan Cheng frowned slightly.
Silvery moonlight showered over them.
Softening their expressions.
This moment seemed too perfect for a heart-to-heart talk.
Chen Jinyao smiled, not hiding anything from him, suddenly straddling him, arms around his neck, the distance suddenly close again. She stared straight into his dark eyes, “It means that even though we’re inseparable now, maybe when we hit the seven-year itch, our feelings will fade too.”
“Don’t you think even the deepest feelings can’t withstand the erosion of time.”
“Hey hey hey, don’t glare at me, aren’t we just chatting? Can’t I make a hypothesis?” Chen Jinyao noticed the atmosphere wasn’t right and quickly tried to salvage it, “Besides, in reality, this hypothesis accounts for a large portion.”
“But you can’t generalize,” Yan Cheng said expressionlessly, his tone tinged with seriousness, “These things vary from person to person.”
Chen Jinyao pondered for a moment, agreeing with his words.
Yan Cheng narrowed his eyes: “You’ve told me before that marriage needs maintenance, so why are you saying such discouraging things now?”
Chen Jinyao: “This isn’t discouraging, I said it’s just a hypothesis!”
“Oh.” This “oh” sounded very perfunctory.
Yan Cheng was rarely rational: “I’ll say it again, it varies from person to person.”
“Take class reunions for example, some people will recognize their youthful feelings and move forward, like Mr. Gu Ci, but some won’t. Haven’t you seen the news about married people having affairs after meeting their first loves at class reunions?”
“Never mind about feelings fading or not, some people only have one true love, but privately have a long queue of people they’ve slept with.”
Yan Cheng licked his lips: “In the end, it primarily depends on self-awareness.”
Yan Cheng looked very steady and reliable when analyzing seriously.
“True,” Chen Jinyao continued to be persuaded.
Yan Cheng: “I know what you’re trying to express. I’ll say it again, you need to have confidence in yourself, and in me too.”
“????” Chen Jinyao gritted her teeth, feeling he had strayed from her main point. She raised her hand to swear, her face full of black lines, “No, I really didn’t mean anything else this time, really just discussing!”
Unfortunately, there’s a story called “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
Yan Cheng didn’t believe her.
This was what you’d call lifting a rock only to drop it on your own feet.
Chen Jinyao’s chance to argue might as well have been non-existent.
In the end, Chen Jinyao prepared to use her trump card, ready to sacrifice herself to stop his endless grumbling born of resentment.
However, Yan Cheng said: “Just based on how you called me husband several times this afternoon until my legs went weak, my feelings for you definitely won’t fade in the future.”
Chen Jinyao suddenly froze: “…”
There was no self-sacrifice, just death from embarrassment.
She also lost all interest in stargazing, moon-watching, chatting, and having heart-to-heart talks with him.
Better to just go to sleep.
🙂
The next day.
The weather forecast showed sunny.
It was destined to be a scorching hot day that would be hard to bear.
According to the class group’s itinerary, they would return to their alma mater in the morning, probably spending half the day touring the campus.
They would have lunch together, then could split into teams to play in the afternoon, gather for dinner in the evening, then go karaoke…
It was really nothing new, just reminiscing about lost youth.
But even so, the vast majority of people would appear very excited, perhaps out of courtesy, perhaps sincerely. After all, before entering society, university friendships were the last pure relationships barely mixed with personal interests.
The series of cosmetics Chen Jinyao brought came in handy.
She woke up early and got herself ready early.
It wasn’t heavy makeup, but it made her look more refined.
A bit more refined than usual.
When everything was ready and she went to wake up Yan Cheng, he rolled over in his blanket before finally opening his sleepy eyes slowly, probably still confused, but what he blurted out was: “I’m ashamed, my ugliness doesn’t deserve to meet a fairy.”
Then he buried his head in the pillow.
“…” Chen Jinyao’s mouth twitched, and she couldn’t help but give him a pat, “You’re crazy.”
Chen Jinyao: “Get up quickly.”
The gathering time in the lobby was at nine o’clock.
After finishing breakfast and forcefully making the straight man Young Master Yan apply sunscreen, when they hurriedly arrived downstairs, they were clearly already late.
Two minutes late, nine-oh-two, no big deal.
After all, the departure time was nine-fifteen.
Anyway, Yan Cheng didn’t care about this at all, he lazily let Chen Jinyao pull him along.
“Don’t rush,” he lifted the corners of his mouth lazily, smiling: “Wearing high heels and still so fierce, tsk, be careful.”
Chen Jinyao sighed: “High heels look good.”
Yan Cheng glanced down: “They look good, but they’ll ruin your feet.”
“…”
At this time, in the first-floor lobby, not far away, quite a few people had already gathered there, chatting and laughing.
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