Chen Qingqing knew perfectly well Xu Ye was lying to her.
This was the seventeenth floor — there was no way a stray cat was sitting on a windowsill up here.
Still, she hesitated. She wanted to go ask him directly whether he really had told everyone she was his… girlfriend.
She glanced over at the closed door beside her own, then crept down the hall to Xu Ye’s room. She didn’t dare knock — instead, she texted: “Open the door!”
Xu Ye was there in seconds, pulling the door open.
Seeing Chen Qingqing’s stony expression, he laughed sheepishly. “Why so serious?”
She ignored him, brushing past him into the room. Once he’d shut the door behind them, she finally rounded on him, pointing a finger at his chest. “Did you tell everyone I’m your girlfriend?”
Xu Ye blinked, then nodded. “Yeah.”
“You… you… you have no shame!”
That was the thing about Xu Ye — even when he was completely in the wrong, he could make it sound perfectly reasonable. And sure enough, he already had a justification ready to go.
“You have no idea — our school’s got way more guys than girls. People were already hitting on me the first day of orientation. If I hadn’t told everyone I had a girlfriend, the line of girls chasing me would’ve stretched from the dorm gate all the way to the front entrance.”
That left Chen Qingqing speechless.
On the very first day of school, Xu Ye had played the role of her boyfriend. By now, all three of his roommates were completely convinced they were a couple — even if she tried to deny it now, they’d never believe her.
And the whole reason she’d agreed to let him play that part in the first place was to keep people from bothering her on campus.
Now he was using that exact same logic right back at her, which left her with nothing to argue against.
She pouted. “Whatever — I still never said yes to you.”
Xu Ye grinned. “So when are you planning to say yes?”
Chen Qingqing turned her head away, heart hammering, while her face stayed carefully composed. “I don’t know.”
Her acting, unfortunately, was terrible — completely transparent.
But Xu Ye didn’t call her out on it. He just smiled and nodded toward the room. “There’s a hairdryer on the vanity in the bedroom — want to dry your hair?”
She hesitated, then walked in.
Even in a five-star hotel, the room itself was simple — a big bed, a wardrobe, a vanity, and a dresser at the foot of the bed. That was about it.
Chen Qingqing sat down at the vanity, reached back, and pulled out the black hair tie, letting her long, dark hair tumble loose over her shoulders. She’d just reached for the hairdryer when Xu Ye beat her to it, picking it up first.
“I’ll do it.”
“I can do it myself,” she said quickly.
“It’s fine, I’m a professional.”
A professional at what, exactly — blow-drying hair? she thought to herself, but in the end she didn’t win the argument.
As the warm air streamed out, her damp hair slowly dried strand by strand, and the scent of shampoo bloomed through the room — something like a faint lavender, soft and pleasant, not overpowering at all.
Once her hair was dry, Xu Ye set the dryer down and gently ruffled the top of her head with his left hand. “There. All dry.”
Her face burned. Every time his hand brushed against her during the whole process, her body had gone rigid on reflex before slowly relaxing — only to tense right back up again a moment later. By the end, she’d almost gotten used to it.
…
Next door.
Jiang Meilin had just gotten off a call with a coworker confirming the schedule — she’d have to head back to Pudong first thing tomorrow morning for the cosmetics expo. She worried Chen Qingqing might still be asleep by the time she left, but she also worried that going to talk to her now would just come across as nagging.
After going back and forth, Jiang Meilin decided to go have a word with Xu Ye instead.
Tell him to take good care of Qingqing. Tell him to keep her posted on anything that came up.
The “mother-in-law” line that afternoon might have been said half in jest, but by now, in Jiang Meilin’s mind, Xu Ye had drifted almost entirely into the role of her daughter’s actual boyfriend.
She stepped out of her room, passed by Chen Qingqing’s closed door, and walked up to Xu Ye’s, pressing the doorbell.
Ding-dong~
The sudden chime startled both of them at once.
It had to be Jiang Meilin.
Chen Qingqing spun around, staring up at Xu Ye with wide, urgent eyes that clearly said: What do we do now?
Xu Ye swallowed hard. “I don’t know either.”
Her eyes widened further, practically screaming: If you don’t figure something out, you’re a dead man.
Finally, Xu Ye spoke. “Why don’t you go hide in the bathroom — I’ll go deal with her. She probably won’t stay long.”
Chen Qingqing thought it over for a second, and the moment the doorbell rang again, she bolted into the bathroom.
Xu Ye pulled the bedroom door shut, walked to the suite’s front door, took a breath to compose himself, and opened it.
Sure enough — Jiang Meilin.
He forced a smile. “Auntie? Looking for me?”
Jiang Meilin stepped inside. The instant she crossed the threshold, her brow furrowed slightly — her eyes flicked toward the closed bedroom door — before smoothing back out almost immediately.
“I have to head out early tomorrow for work,” she said. “I’ll cover the room for another night before I go — explain it to Qingqing for me in the morning.”
“No problem.”
“It’s going to start getting cold by the end of the month. Remind her to dress warmer when the time comes — if I say it myself, she’ll just think I’m nagging.”
“I will, I’ll definitely tell her.”
“What time do you usually go to sleep at night?”
“…What?”
Jiang Meilin repeated herself. “What time do you usually go to sleep at night?”
“Oh — around eleven.”
“Don’t stay up too late. Staying up late too often isn’t good for a girl, in all sorts of ways.”
A girl?
Xu Ye turned the phrasing over in his head for a beat, then said quickly, “Got it — I’ll try not to keep Qingqing up too late from now on.”
Jiang Meilin had slipped, technically — she hadn’t expected him to catch the implication that fast. A smile spread across her face. “Where are you thinking of taking Qingqing tomorrow?”
“Haven’t decided yet — we’ll figure it out tomorrow. Honestly, where doesn’t really matter. What matters is who you’re with.”
“Don’t think you can sweet-talk your way through everything. My daughter’s not a fool — a few smooth words won’t fool her.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
In the bathroom, Chen Qingqing could hear every word through the door, and the flush on her cheeks deepened by the second, her eyes darting nowhere in particular as her hands twisted absently at the hem of her shirt.
“All right. Get some sleep soon.”
Jiang Meilin turned to go. Xu Ye walked her to the door, said his goodnight, and was just about to close it behind her when she suddenly dropped the smile and lowered her voice.
“Is Qingqing in your room?”
Xu Ye’s stomach dropped. “Auntie — h-how did you know?”
“Your whole room smells like my daughter,” Jiang Meilin said. “The second I walked in, I caught the scent of that shampoo she always uses.”
“We were just talking!” Xu Ye said hurriedly. “She got worried you’d misunderstand, so she hid in the bathroom — we didn’t do anything, I swear.”
“Xiao Xu. I can keep trusting you on that, can’t I?”
“Yes.” Xu Ye nodded firmly.
Jiang Meilin gave a faint, knowing smile and turned to head back to her own room.
“Phew~” Xu Ye let out a long breath of relief once the door clicked shut, muttering to himself, “Should’ve never let her hide in there in the first place. We didn’t even do anything and I still felt like I’d been caught red-handed. So damn annoying.”
…
(End of Chapter 103)