On Saturday Xu Ye slept in at the hotel. Chen Qingqing was up early, and sent him two messages at around eight, but he never answered. She was afraid that turning up early would make her look too eager, so she stayed in the dorm all morning.
Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu went out together to collect a delivery, and when they got back the two of them started trying on the new clothes they’d bought online.
Zhang Ruowei had bought a long pencil skirt to go with little leather shoes and a denim jacket over the top. It looked rather stylish.
Jiang Yu, wanting her legs to look longer, had bought a pair of flares, and with five-centimeter heels her figure showed at once.
The two of them stood in front of the mirror on the back of the door for a while, and then Jiang Yu suddenly lifted her hair and asked, “What do you two think — should I keep it short or grow it out?”
Shen Xinyi was sitting backwards on a chair, hands in fists stacked on the chair back and her head resting on them. She smiled. “Have you ever had it long before?”
“School rules wouldn’t allow long hair, so I’ve had this cut since I started middle school.”
“Give it a try, then.”
Zhang Ruowei agreed. “There are plenty of boys with a real thing for long hair. Isn’t there a word for it online? What was it…”
“Long, straight and black.”
“That’s the one.”
Jiang Yu sighed. “But isn’t it too late to start growing it now?”
“It isn’t. There are still three months till summer, and in three months you’d have enough to tie back.”
Zhang Ruowei smiled. “You have to understand — there are three things we do that boys find most attractive.”
“Which three?”
Seeing that Zhang Ruowei was about to give another lesson, Chen Qingqing and Shen Xinyi both turned their attention to her.
Zhang Ruowei took on the air of a veteran about to lecture. “Biting your lip. Stretching. Pushing your hair back.”
Understanding arrived all at once for the three roommates.
Jiang Yu was puzzled. “Stretching and pushing your hair back I can understand. But how exactly do you bite your lip?”
She tried it as she said it, but she had no practice at all at it, and the result was not remotely alluring.
“Not like that.”
Zhang Ruowei demonstrated immediately. She caught her lip lightly between her teeth, and at the same moment her eyes turned soft and full of feeling. The effect was nothing like Jiang Yu’s.
How to put it?
A born fox spirit probably looks something like that.
Jiang Yu shoved her away, laughing. “You’re such a flirt~”
“I was demonstrating for you, so obviously I laid it on a bit.”
Watching the two of them scuffle, Chen Qingqing finally laughed. Zhang Ruowei dragged a chair over next to her and asked with a wicked grin, “Qingqing, why haven’t you gone to find Xu Ye yet?”
“I’ll go over at lunchtime.”
“And then stay out till the middle of the night, like yesterday?”
Chen Qingqing was exasperated. “Nothing like the middle of the night. I was back by eight.”
“What did the two of you do yesterday?”
“Nothing at all.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Zhang Ruowei said. “It’s that I don’t believe Xu Ye.”
At that Chen Qingqing immediately explained on his behalf. “He hadn’t slept well the night before, so he had a sleep at the hotel yesterday afternoon.”
“And you?”
“I ended up sleeping too—”
Zhang Ruowei got straight to her feet. “You slept together?”
“No.”
“You just admitted it.”
“We slept, but not the way you mean.” Chen Qingqing had thoroughly lost her grip on the explanation, and seeing the three of them start to grin, she gave up on it altogether. She turned her back on all of them and said haughtily, “You’re all filthy. I’m not talking to you.”
“Hahahaha.”
…
He had slept for a few hours yesterday afternoon, and after the video call with Pei Youwei that evening he lay awake again.
He woke once at around nine that morning but was still exhausted, so he went back to sleep and didn’t surface until eleven.
He saw the messages she’d sent just after eight, and called her while he walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
“Hello?”
“I’ve only just got up. I’m brushing my teeth.”
“Lazybones.”
“Shall we find somewhere to go this afternoon?”
“Where?”
“Is there anywhere you want to go?”
Chen Qingqing had never had much of a mind of her own. “No,” she said promptly, and then added, “Anywhere’s fine.”
“Should we bring Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu along?”
That gave her pause.
A year ago Chen Qingqing would have brought all three roommates without a second thought. Now she was stuck.
Not bringing them left her feeling slightly bad about it, since she had always invited them along before.
Bringing them meant that at certain moments she found the three of them a bit glaring, and a bit in the way.
Xu Ye could tell she was still thinking, and went on brushing his teeth without hurrying her.
Seeing her hold the phone to her ear for ages without saying anything, Shen Xinyi waved a hand in front of her face. “Qingqing? What’s the matter?”
Chen Qingqing shook her head quickly and went back to the phone. “You decide where we’re going first.”
Xu Ye wiped his face with a towel, got his phone out and looked at the map for a while, and then suggested, “There’s an outdoor barbecue and camping spot at the Binjiang Green Space. It’s less than five kilometers from here — twenty minutes by car, probably.”
Only then did Chen Qingqing lower the phone. “This afternoon Xu Ye and I are going camping and having a barbecue, over at the Binjiang Green Space. Do you all want to come?”
Zhang Ruowei asked, beaming, “If you don’t mind having the three of us there being third wheels, we’ll come.”
Jiang Yu laughed despite herself. “Zhang Ruowei, that’s too much. After putting it like that, how is Qingqing supposed to say no?”
Shen Xinyi found that funny too.
Her two clown roommates really were hilarious.
Chen Qingqing couldn’t be bothered with them. She said as much to Xu Ye, hung up and stood. “I’ll go and find Xu Ye first, then. I’ll drive over and pick you up around one.”
“OK~”
“Safe travels, Miss Chen~”
“Love you~”
Chen Qingqing walked out laughing, stopped at the canteen to pack up two lunches, and made her way to the hotel door like someone who had done it a hundred times. She rang the bell.
Xu Ye was up and had the door open in no time. Seeing the takeout boxes in her hand he took them from her at once. “I was about to starve to death. You’re so good to me. Qingqing, I’m telling you — carry on like this and I’m going to like you more and more.”
“Tch~”
They sat down on the sofa and Xu Ye picked up his chopsticks and started eating. Chen Qingqing scooped half her rice into his bowl, then said between small mouthfuls of her own, “I’ve told them. We’re leaving at one, so we’ll pick them up at their dorm first.”
“One? That’s ages away. We’ll have time for a cuddle after we’ve eaten.”
“Be quiet! Eat your food.”
“Don’t just eat the vegetables. Have some meat.”
“I’m not. I’m on a diet.”
“You’re this thin and you’re still dieting? Lose any more and there’ll be nothing to hold on to.”
“…”
“They say the first thing to go when you diet is your chest.”
“…”
“If you don’t eat properly at school I’m calling our mom and telling on you.”
“…”
(End of Chapter 214)