Chen Qingqing took the book up to the dorm and came back down again quickly.

Xu Ye drove her off campus, and this time Zhang Ruowei, Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu didn’t come with them.

Last year, whenever Xu Ye came to see her, Chen Qingqing usually brought her three roommates along.

This year the situation was different.

To Xu Ye and to her three roommates, that told them plenty. Chen Qingqing herself didn’t seem to have noticed she had changed at all.

She used to get nervous at the mere thought of being alone with him.

Now she was used to the feeling of being with him. She even looked forward to it a little.

“Where are we going?” Chen Qingqing asked from the passenger seat, head tilted.

Xu Ye laughed. “I don’t know. We’ve been to so many places, and I’m a bit tired today. I don’t want to go too far.”

“Let’s find somewhere quiet to sit, then.”

“A hotel it is.”

He added a moment later, “I didn’t sleep well last night. I want to lie down for a while.”

Chen Qingqing said oh, and didn’t argue.

Xu Ye drove into the hotel’s underground parking, and once they’d taken the elevator up to the lobby he fished his ID card out of his bag and handed it to her. “I’m going to the bathroom. You go and get a room.”

Chen Qingqing took the card without quite thinking about it. Then she watched him head off towards the bathrooms, hesitated, and went over to the front desk. She held the card out with her head down. “Hello. Could I get a room, please?”

“Twin room? Or double?”

Chen Qingqing was silent for so long that the clerk assumed she hadn’t heard and asked again.

Only then did she make up her mind. “Double, then.”

She was thinking that she would be going back to the dorm that evening anyway, so a double would be more comfortable for Xu Ye on his own.

By the time the check-in was done, Xu Ye was back from the bathroom.

They stepped into the elevator and were up on the fifth floor in no time.

“Which one is it?”

“502.”

She put the key card in and opened the door, and the room came into view. A double looked a little bigger than a twin, though the only real difference was the one big bed in place of two.

Xu Ye turned on the lights and the air conditioning, took off his jacket, stretched, and flopped straight down on his front across the bed.

This was the first week of term. He’d had a month idle at home over the New Year and hadn’t adjusted to being back — up early and to bed late every day, no nap at lunchtime today, and then forty or fifty minutes of driving to get here. He really was tired.

Seeing him lying face down and not moving, Chen Qingqing set her bag down and sat on the edge of the bed. She poked him in the back. “How come Qin Zhiwei didn’t come with you today?”

“He’s got class this afternoon. He said he’d come at the weekend.”

“The weekend?”

Chen Qingqing took her phone out of her jacket pocket, checked the contact name on WeChat and said, “It’s Shen Xinyi’s birthday at the weekend, actually.”

At that Xu Ye rolled over, propped one hand on the bed to hold his head up, and laughed. “So that’s why Zhiwei suddenly wasn’t so keen. It’s Shen Xinyi’s birthday this weekend.”

“It’s yours next month.”

“How do you know that? I don’t think I’ve ever told you.”

Chen Qingqing pouted. “You handed me your ID card just now.”

Xu Ye gave a foolish little laugh.

Chen Qingqing seized on it. “What do you want for your birthday?”

He shifted a little way across the bed, closer to where she was sitting, and said, smiling, “There isn’t anything I want.”

“No! You have to say something.” Chen Qingqing was not budging.

“Could I have something other than a present?”

Chen Qingqing: “Tell me what it is first.”

Xu Ye said at once, “On the day, you kiss me. That’s all.”

“I knew it!” Chen Qingqing turned away, the smile she couldn’t quite hide on her face, and said sourly, “That’s all you ever think about.”

“All right, I’ll pick something else, then.”

“Go on.”

“Buy me some clothes. Everything in my closet is summer or winter.”

Chen Qingqing asked straight away, “And what styles do you like?”

“Anything. As long as you bought it, I’ll like it.”

That made her happy immediately. When it came to taste in clothes, she had no doubt she could do better than him.

“What size do you usually take?”

Xu Ye yawned and pointed at the shoulder bag that had been dumped on the two-seater sofa. “I brought a change of clothes with me. Go and look for yourself.”

She got up and went over, and pulled the bag open.

Inside, apart from his wallet, a charger and his keys, there was nothing but the one change of clothes. Every Friday when he came over, Xu Ye would pack a clean set.

She lifted the whole lot out, and was looking for the size on the label when a pair of his underpants fell out from among them.

Chen Qingqing looked down at them and her face froze. She glanced instinctively at Xu Ye on the bed, found him still lying there and not looking her way, and hurriedly picked them up, red-faced, and stuffed them back into the bag.

“Phew~” She carried on as though nothing had happened. She found the sizes and packed everything straight back in.

“Did you see?”

“I did. Shirt’s XL, pants are L.”

Xu Ye patted the empty space on the bed beside him. “Come on. Let’s sleep.”

“I’m not tired.”

“Could you do something for me, then?”

“Do what?”

Xu Ye said, with a perfectly serious face, “You sit here. I want to know what it feels like to sleep in your arms.”

Chen Qingqing’s eyes went wide, and her face slowly grew hot…

She said haltingly, “Then… then you have to promise… to keep your hands to yourself. Otherwise I won’t agree next time.”

So there could be a next time.

Xu Ye hadn’t expected her to say yes at all, and was rather taken aback. He answered at once, “I promise.”

Chen Qingqing came over and sat down carefully on the bed, and Xu Ye laid his head on her thigh straight away. She was sensitive all over, and her thigh went numb and ticklish at once. She flushed to the ears. Then it struck her that from down there he was looking up at her from the most unflattering angle there is, and she turned her head quickly aside so he couldn’t see.

What she couldn’t know was that Xu Ye thought she never looked better than when she was red-faced and shy.

The room was neither cold nor warm.

Xu Ye shut his eyes, entirely comfortable. He really did nothing at all, and his breathing slowly turned soft and even.

Chen Qingqing stayed tense for quite a while before she realized he had actually gone to sleep. She was faintly disappointed. She put out a hand to pinch his cheek and then, afraid of waking him, drew it back again.

The second hand ticked round.

Chen Qingqing shifted position too, took her shoes off and sat leaning against the headboard, and though she hadn’t been sleepy at all, listening to the soft, even sound of his snoring she found herself drifting off without noticing.

Xu Ye woke once partway through. Seeing that she had fallen asleep sitting up, he got up, lifted her carefully, and slowly laid her down flat on the bed.

Then he lay down again beside her, and went back into his dreams.

(End of Chapter 212)