None of the five of them were coming to the Bund for the first time.

The only trouble was that parking anywhere nearby was genuinely hard to find. Xu Ye drove around for a long while before he turned up a paid lot half a mile from the Bund.

The Bund was never short of people at the best of times, and tonight there were more still. It took the five of them a long walk to reach the edge of it. Looking across at the lights blazing on the far side of the Huangpu River, Shen Xinyi and Zhang Ruowei both got their phones out and took photos, then sent them home to report on their whereabouts. Seeing that, Xu Ye took out his own phone, took one, and sent it to Old Zhang.

Chen Qingqing finished taking a photo and wondered whether to send it to One Big Happy Family — but looking at the name of the group, she felt slightly embarrassed about it.

So she reached over and poked Xu Ye, then held her phone out in front of him.

Xu Ye looked down at the photo she had just taken and said at once, “Send it to the group so your mom and dad can see. Let them know we’re out for the Lantern Festival.”

“I’m not sending it.”

Chen Qingqing said that on purpose, and the result was that Xu Ye took the phone off her immediately and posted the photo to the group.

She had known he would. Xu Ye could read her mind — he could guess every thought she had — so she made no attempt to stop him.

Jiang Meilin appeared in the group almost at once. First she sent /thumbsup/ /thumbsup/ /thumbsup/.

Then she added a line: “Qingqing, are you out with your roommates, or with Xu Ye?”

Xu Ye switched Chen Qingqing’s phone to selfie mode, held it out, reached around her shoulder and half-embraced her, smiling. “Here. Look at the camera. Give me a smile.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying~”

Chen Qingqing hadn’t even pushed him away before he’d taken several shots in a row. He sent them to the group and typed: “I’m here, and so are Qingqing’s roommates.”

Chen Hansong surfaced as well.

“Get back to school early tonight. Be careful.”

The old man still wasn’t easy in his mind. Having sent the message, and afraid his daughter would find him a nag, he thought about it and dropped a red packet into the group as well.

Xu Ye opened it on Chen Qingqing’s phone first and found he’d only taken thirty yuan, so he immediately grabbed one on his own phone too — and to his surprise came away with over ninety.

Chen Hansong, having sent the packet, tapped it himself out of habit, and got twenty.

He had spent all day thinking that if Chen Qingqing were still at home he could have found an excuse to go round and see Jiang Meilin. The thought that term hadn’t even started and Xu Ye had already made off with his daughter left him a little unhappy.

He typed straight into the group: “Ha. Not one of us beat the outsider with a different surname.”

Xu Ye read that and was hardly going to take it lying down.

He turned straight around and @-ed Jiang Meilin: “Mom, somebody here is looking down on us outsiders!”

Christ.

Chen Hansong was floored.

He hadn’t expected Xu Ye to find the hole in it that fast.

That little bastard. He really has no shame at all.

Sitting on her sofa, Jiang Meilin looked at what Xu Ye had just posted, wore the biggest doting-auntie smile, and typed: “Ignore him. All he ever does is talk crap.”

Xu Ye came back beaming: “Love you~”

Seeing that wicked grin on his face, Chen Qingqing guessed he must have said something bad in the group again. She hurriedly unlocked her phone and looked, and her pale little face went scarlet on the spot.

This dumb pig had actually come right out and called her Mom.

The message plainly hadn’t come from her, but at that moment she wanted nothing so much as a small corner to hide herself in.

Xu Ye carried on as though nothing had happened. Seeing her face gone pink, he even asked, knowing perfectly well, “What’s the matter with you?”

Chen Qingqing lifted her head and gave him a small fierce look. “Say one more thing you shouldn’t and I’ll bite you!”

Xu Ye put on a great show of being frightened and shook his head quickly. “No more, no more. Last time you bit me it took two days for the toothmarks on my arm to go.”

“As long as you know it.”

“Biting me on the mouth is still allowed, though.”

Chen Qingqing, mortified, raised a foot to stamp on him. Xu Ye took half a step back, saw that she had no intention of letting it go, and turned and ran.

“You stay right there.” She went after him.

Zhang Ruowei leaned back against the railing, watched the two of them run off into the distance, shook her head and sighed. “The sour stench of love~”

Shen Xinyi heard that and giggled.

What she didn’t know was that Qin Zhiwei, beside her, had been watching her left hand — the one not carrying a bag.

…

“We’ve finally shaken them off.”

About two hundred meters out Xu Ye came to a stop and let Chen Qingqing pinch him as much as she liked. None of it hurt in the slightest anyway.

“If you go saying stupid things in the group again, I’ll kick you out of it!” she warned him, one more time.

Xu Ye agreed readily enough out loud, but he certainly wasn’t going to stop.

Besides, Xu Ye was the group admin. How was she going to kick him out of it?

He opened his arms and pulled her in against him, smiling as he soothed her. “All right, all right. Your mom isn’t going to be angry, so stop being angry.”

“Let go of me.”

“Just for a minute. It’s fine, Zhang Ruowei and the others can’t see.”

“You’re always like this.”

Xu Ye said quietly, “I’m heading back tonight. Next time you see me it’ll be five days from now.”

At that she stopped twisting about. She rested against him quietly, and the noise around them slowly faded, replaced by the strong beat of his heart. She reached up and slowly put her arms around his waist, and in that moment she felt utterly safe.

Xu Ye kept one hand on her back and rested the other lightly on her head. She still smelled sweet — like a White Rabbit candy just melting, giving off a scent to make the mouth water. Without meaning to he tightened his hold on her again, and could not bear to let go at all.

People came and went around them, but not many paid them any particular attention, because there were countless couples on the Bund tonight and people holding each other everywhere you looked.

It was at that point that Xu Ye let out a small sigh. He said quietly, “I’m starting to regret something.”

Chen Qingqing asked, curious, “Regret what?”

“If I’d known, I’d have applied to your school as well. Then I could be with you every day.”

Chen Qingqing dug a small hand into the small of his back and said in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s, “If we were together every day you’d get sick of it.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“How do you know you wouldn’t?”

“Because I know we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”

Chen Qingqing gave a small huff, embarrassed into indignation. “Saying a thing like that without even getting my agreement first.”

Xu Ye ruffled her hair, his eyes full of indulgence. “Do you agree, then?”

Chen Qingqing: “I’m not saying now.”

“Then when will you say it?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve noticed something.”

“Noticed what?”

“All this time, you’ve never once said I love you or I like you to me.”

Chen Qingqing’s cheeks were burning. She had no idea how to answer that.

Xu Ye went on, “I’m giving you a chance right now. Say it to me.”

“No. There are too many people here.”

“Say it quietly and they won’t hear.”

Chen Qingqing lifted her head and looked around, thought about it for quite a while, then tugged at his sleeve and said softly, “Come down a bit, then.”

Xu Ye bent forward and brought his ear close to her.

Chen Qingqing half-cupped both hands around it, went up slightly on her toes, and said quietly beside his ear: “I… like… you.”

(End of Chapter 205)