“Xu Ye!!!”

“What is it?”

Chen Qingqing said, thoroughly wounded, “Why haven’t you saved your mother’s number under a name?”

Xu Ye laughed from inside. “I know all their numbers by heart — I never saved either of theirs at all… hold on, that was my mother just now?”

“Yes!”

“What did she say?”

Chen Qingqing muttered, “Nothing.”

She sat on the bed in a temper, her thoughts running in every direction, her mind in a tangle.

Xu Ye came out of the bathroom after his shower, saw Chen Qingqing sitting on the edge of the bed without a word, and sat down beside her. Drying his hair, he asked, knowing perfectly well, “What’s the matter?”

Chen Qingqing turned away. “Nothing.”

Xu Ye laughed. “Isn’t this a good thing? You’ll have to meet my mother sooner or later, and that ‘Auntie’ has to be said at some point, early or late. You’ve said it today, so next time it won’t feel awkward.”

Chen Qingqing heard him out and thought there was something in that.

But she asked quickly, “Have you told your mom and dad everything about me?”

“No. I just gave them the general picture.”

“Your mother just asked what you were doing and I said you were in the shower. Do you think she’s imagining all sorts right now?”

“Definitely.”

Xu Ye burst out laughing. “My mother is a terrible gossip.”

Chen Qingqing pouted at once, her whole face aggrieved. “What are we going to do? Your mother is definitely going to get the wrong idea about me.”

“It’s fine. I’ll call her in a bit and explain.”

Chen Qingqing pointed a finger at him, perfectly serious. “Make sure you explain it properly.”

“Don’t worry.”

“As if I could.”

Chen Qingqing sulking was a particularly adorable sight, and Xu Ye teased her on purpose. “I’ll just tell my mother we only kissed and then sat on the bed a while, and apart from that we didn’t do anything.”

Chen Qingqing couldn’t sit still for that. She got to her feet and said loudly, “You can’t say that!”

“What should I say, then?”

“Just… say… anyway, you can’t say that.”

Xu Ye put on a pained look. “But it’s the truth.”

Chen Qingqing grabbed hold of his ear and warned him, “Not even the truth. You can’t tell people about that kind of thing.”

“What kind of thing?”

“The kiss… the kiss…” Chen Qingqing saw the wicked grin on his face and realized he had been winding her up on purpose. She gave his ear a tug, then picked up her bag and made for the door.

Seeing that, Xu Ye caught hold of her at once. “Don’t rush off. I know what to say — I’ll tell her I left my phone with you and you came to the hotel to bring it, and I happened to be in the shower, so you answered for me.”

Chen Qingqing thought that was a very reasonable explanation, and said quickly, “Say that, then.”

“Right away.”

“Shouldn’t you be taking me back now?”

Xu Ye took her hand and pulled, not very hard, and Chen Qingqing came into his arms. He rested his head on her shoulder and said quietly, “What’s the hurry about getting back to the dorm? Don’t you want to stay with me a bit longer?”

Sitting on Xu Ye’s lap, feeling the warmth of his breath by her ear, Chen Qingqing said in a small voice, “Can I ask you something?”

“Ask.”

“Have you ever been in a relationship before?”

Xu Ye frowned, and asked back a little guiltily, “What’s brought on a strange question like that all of a sudden?”

Chen Qingqing answered quickly. “Zhang Ruowei says most boys who haven’t been in a relationship are just like Qin Zhiwei, but you’re nothing like him. She says Qin Zhiwei is too much of a ‘blunt instrument,’ and you’re too ‘bad.'”

Xu Ye said at once, “Not everyone is like Zhiwei.”

“So have you or haven’t you?”

“No!”

Xu Ye said it very firmly. “Ask Zhiwei if you don’t believe me.”

Xu Ye wasn’t exactly lying. He had chased Gu Mengyao in high school, but she had never agreed to anything, so even if Chen Qingqing did ask Qin Zhiwei, he would certainly say the same: Xu Ye had never dated anyone.

Chen Qingqing followed it straight up. “And in future? Will you still be the same as you are now?”

What Chen Qingqing had wanted to ask was: will you go on liking me forever?

But that was too mortifying to get out.

So she put it another way.

Xu Ye knew perfectly well what she meant, but he said deliberately, “Of course I won’t be the same.”

Chen Qingqing’s face was just starting to change when he laughed. “I’m going to love you more.”

“Ugh, you’re doing it again…”

Chen Qingqing was embarrassed and cross at once, especially since she was still sitting on his lap — at that distance, hearing something that cheesy, her head started swimming again.

Xu Ye stopped there and didn’t push it any further. He lifted Chen Qingqing up and set her on the bed, and just as she thought he was about to be up to no good again, all he did was flick her small nose.

Once he had blow-dried his hair, he picked up the car keys and took her downstairs.

On the way back to school.

Chen Qingqing stressed over and over that he should explain it properly to his mother.

Xu Ye agreed to everything out loud, but the moment he had dropped her at the dorm he turned around and called Old Zhang. His opening line was, “Look, Mom, next time, could you send a message before you call? Why are you always ruining things for me?”

Zhang Hong swore at him at once. “You little bastard. Luring a girl to a hotel late at night — are you even human?”

Xu Ye: “What am I if I’m not human?”

Zhang Hong: “You’re an animal.”

Xu Ye: “If I’m an animal, what does that make my father?”

Zhang Hong: “He’s an animal too.”

Xu Xiangdong got worked up at that. “Now hang on. If you and your son want to talk, talk properly. Why do you keep dragging me into it for no reason?”

“You shut your mouth.”

Zhang Hong asked again, “Are you still at the hotel?”

Xu Ye: “I took her back to the dorm. I’ve only just got back to the hotel myself.”

Zhang Hong: “That’s more like it.”

Xu Ye: “Mom, what were you calling about?”

Zhang Hong: “That call was your father.”

Xu Ye: “Oh. Nothing important, then. I’m going to sleep.”

Zhang Hong: “Wait a minute!”

Zhang Hong: “I’ve just been looking at your father’s chat history with Old Wu and I can’t make out what they’re talking about. You can translate it for me while you’re here.”

Xu Ye: “All right.”

Zhang Hong: “Old Wu sent your father three question marks first, and your father sent back three sleepy faces.”

Xu Ye: “Old Wu was asking Dad ‘what are you doing,’ and Dad said ‘tired, going to bed.'”

Zhang Hong: “Then Old Wu sent a Tencent penguin and two beer glasses, and your father sent back a tiger and a house.”

Xu Ye: “Old Wu said ‘come out for a drink,’ and Dad said ‘the tigress is at home.'”

Zhang Hong: “There’s more emoji after that. Old Wu sent three little dancing figures, and your father sent back a horse.”

Xu Ye: “Old Wu said ‘there are pretty girls,’ and Dad said ‘be right there.'” [TL: 马上, “immediately,” is written with the characters for “horse” and “on” — so a horse stands in for “right away.”]

Xu Ye had barely finished before he heard the phone drop onto the sofa, and then, from the other end of the line, came a sound out of Old Xu like a soul in torment.

“So I’m a tigress, am I!”

“Be right there, is it!”

“Mister Xu, don’t even think about getting into my bed tonight!”

“Love, let me explain!”

(End of Chapter 235)