“You—!”
Chen Qingqing started to get up out of his arms and was pulled straight back in. “I was joking,” Xu Ye said quickly, laughing. “Don’t get worked up.”
“You jerk.”
She twisted about a couple of times and settled back against him anyway. Xu Ye could still feel how tense she was, though, so he changed the subject and started talking to her about his plans for the first half of the year. As she listened, her attention was drawn away.
With her guard down, she never noticed that she was pressed right up against his chest, or that the hand he had rested on her shoulder had, somewhere along the way, come round her waist.
It was only when Xu Ye finally stopped talking, and Chen Qingqing felt clearly how much hotter he had become, that she realized something wasn’t right.
“I’m hungry,” she said quickly. “Are you hungry?”
Xu Ye had his head lowered, breathing in the scent of her hair. His dry throat worked twice before he answered, low. “I’m hungry.”
“Shall we go out to eat?”
“All right. But you have to let me kiss you first.”
“No.” Chen Qingqing sat straight up off the bed, hid her lips away and pressed them shut, with the look of somebody who would sooner die than give in.
“Just one kiss!”
She shook her head stubbornly to say no.
Xu Ye cupped her cheeks in one big hand, pressed lightly with thumb and middle finger, and the mouth she had hidden away pouted out again.
He leaned in over her, looking down into eyes as clear as autumn water, and slowly lowered his head.
Without thinking, Chen Qingqing put a hand against his chest to hold him off, and it made no difference at all. Xu Ye had her mouth in a moment, and kissed her greedily, once, twice, three times…
The strength went slowly out of the hand braced against his chest. It was as though a current ran from her lips out through the whole of her, numb and prickling, until her body went limp.
When it felt as though she couldn’t breathe, she asked him pitifully, “Have you kissed me enough yet?”
Only then did Xu Ye stop, and even then he said, with no shame whatsoever, “You taste sweet.”
Her whole face scarlet, Chen Qingqing grabbed his pig’s trotter of a hand and bit down on it. Only when he cried out did she let go, and then she got down off the bed and hurried into the bathroom to wash her face.
Xu Ye looked at the toothmarks on his arm and followed her to the bathroom door, grinning. “Come on. Let’s go down and find somewhere to eat.”
“I’m washing my face first!”
Chen Qingqing shouted it through the door, and then went on muttering to herself, “You’re infuriating, you dumb pig. My face is covered in your spit.”
Several minutes went by.
Only then did Chen Qingqing come out. She had washed her face and put fresh lip balm on. Seeing Xu Ye waiting outside, she looked up, glared at him, and walked off without a backward glance.
“Wait for me~” Xu Ye grabbed his phone and wallet and hurried after her.
“If you ever do that again, I really won’t speak to you!”
“Do what?”
“Kiss me without asking me first.”
“You didn’t refuse just now.”
“I shook my head.”
“Did you? I didn’t notice. I was only thinking about kissing you.”
“Hmph.”
The elevator doors opened and two more girls got in. Chen Qingqing stopped talking at once — but Xu Ye lowered his voice and said, “I’ll definitely ask you first next time, then.”
Her face went red all over again. She had only said any of that because there had been nobody else in the elevator; now that there were two strangers in it, hearing that made her want to put on a mask and a hat and pretend she had never met him.
The two girls had heard him, and turned deliberately to look at them both, which made Chen Qingqing more uncomfortable still. She reached over to his waist and pinched him, hard.
When the elevator reached the underground parking level, Chen Qingqing was out of the doors the moment they opened.
Xu Ye followed along behind.
They walked for several minutes before she stopped and asked, “Where’s the car parked?”
Xu Ye pointed behind them. “Over there.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Chen Qingqing turned round again and set off toward the car.
Xu Ye went straight after her, putting on his most apologetic face. “I was wrong. All right? I was wrong. You’ve bitten me and you’ve pinched me — so tell me, what will it take for you not to be angry?”
Chen Qingqing thought about it. “Swear. Say, I’ll never dare do it again.”
Xu Ye raised two fingers. “I’ll never dare do it again.”
“I didn’t hear you.”
Xu Ye promptly bellowed at the top of his lungs, “I’ll never dare do it again! I’ll never kiss you without asking again! Is once enough, or shall I shout it again?”
He was gathering himself for a second go when Chen Qingqing rose onto her toes and clapped a hand over his mouth, warning him with a fierce look. “Once is enough. Don’t shout any more.”
Xu Ye nodded obediently.
Only then did she take her hand away — and a second later a pig’s trotter had hold of it.
…
After dinner.
The two of them wandered around the mall for a while, and at seven or eight o’clock drove back to the hotel.
The moment they were back, Zhang Hong called on video, and Chen Qingqing took the chance to go and have her shower.
Once Xu Ye had reported in safely to Old Zhang and Old Xu, he messaged Pei Youwei to find out how things were going.
She came back fast.
Pei Youwei: the factory’s ours. I was about to message you. what do I do next?
Xu Ye: hire. get a Taobao operations person first, then build an e-commerce team around them
Xu Ye: get your designs drawn up as soon as you can, and get the factory running early if you can manage it
Xu Ye: send me the designs when they’re done
Pei Youwei: you understand design as well?
Xu Ye: I understand men
Pei Youwei: I’ll have Xiaonuan post the job ads online tomorrow, then. stay in touch — I don’t have the first idea where to start
Xu Ye: don’t rush. we do it one step at a time
Pei Youwei: mm
They talked for ten minutes or so, and when Chen Qingqing came out of the bathroom Xu Ye put the phone down and went in for his own shower.
By the time he came out she had turned the main light off, leaving only a small night light at the head of the bed.
Xu Ye dried his hair, lay down and looked at the markets for a while, and when his eyes got tired he put the phone on the nightstand to charge and switched the night light off while he was at it.
“Are you asleep?”
“Not yet.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Go on.”
“Do you know why a wife used to be called niangzi?”
“Why?”
“Because you revere her as your 娘, your mother, and love her as your 子, your child.” [TL: 娘子, the old word for “wife,” is written with the characters for “mother” and “child.” The explanation is folk etymology, made out of the two halves.]
“I see.”
“And do you know why a wife is called laopo now?”
“Why?”
“Because love begins with Yue Lao and ends with Meng Po.” [TL: 老婆, “wife,” takes its 老 from 月老, Yue Lao, the god who binds couples with red thread, and its 婆 from 孟婆, Meng Po, who serves the broth of forgetting at the end of the underworld road — so the word spans a love from its beginning to the far end of it.]
“That’s lovely.”
“Then do you know what a woman calls her husband once they’re married?”
“Laogong~”
“Well. Your laogong is right here.”
(End of Chapter 199)