Xu Ye had in fact woken once partway through.
But the feeling of having the person you like asleep in your arms was so good that once he was awake, he went straight back to sleep.
And yet.
That sleep.
Ran on until past six in the evening.
When Chen Qingqing opened her eyes the room was still pitch dark. She had no idea when she had turned over — she had started out with her back to Xu Ye, and yet here she was facing him, curled up entirely inside his arms.
She felt she was much too close to him, and was about to edge back a little when she found that those hands were still holding her tightly around the waist.
Chen Qingqing gave the idea up then and there. Seeing that he hadn’t woken, she carefully burrowed back into his arms, then laid her ear against his chest. Listening to the steady beat of his heart, she found a thought coming into her head out of nowhere:
It would be so nice if I could sleep in his arms like this every day from now on.
But even though it was only a thought inside her own head, it still left her feeling shy.
Red-faced, she checked the time on her watch. It was already past six, and only then did she bury her head and call softly, “Dumb pig. Dumb pig?”
Xu Ye smacked his lips and slowly opened his eyes, but his hands only tightened around her.
Chen Qingqing said immediately, “It’s… it’s already past six.”
“I still don’t want to get up, though.”
“You can’t. Get up. It’ll be dark soon.”
Only then did he let go and sit up on the bed.
Chen Qingqing scrambled up in a hurry. She smoothed her tangled hair back into order, then drew the curtains.
When the sunlight came in from outside Xu Ye found it dazzling and put a hand up to block it. Seeing Chen Qingqing standing at the window looking out, he quickly got up and went over, put his arms around her from behind and rested his head on her shoulder.
Chen Qingqing shrugged her shoulder. “We agreed we were going swimming this afternoon. Look, it’s past six already.”
“It doesn’t matter. There’ll be plenty of time later.”
“I’m hungry.”
“You’re always the first one to say you’re hungry, and then you don’t eat much anyway.” Xu Ye lifted his head and laughed. “By the way. Don’t move — let me weigh you.”
Chen Qingqing had just started wondering how he intended to weigh her.
She hadn’t expected him to simply bend down and sweep her up in his arms. “What are you doing?” she cried out immediately.
“How much do you weigh these days?”
“Around ninety-five.”
“That’s not right.” Xu Ye was teasing her deliberately. “Weighing you like this, I’d say you’re pretty heavy. Feels like more than two hundred.”
Chen Qingqing raised a small fist at that and hit him on the shoulder. “You’re making it up. My weight has never gone over a hundred. Put me down.”
“No.”
He carried her toward the bedroom door.
And yet.
What he didn’t know was.
Old Zhang and Old Xu had come up from downstairs and arrived at the front door too, and just as Xu Ye reached out to turn the handle, Old Zhang was turning the lock from outside.
Xu Ye freed one hand to open the door, and Chen Qingqing, afraid she would fall, immediately put her arms around his neck.
And just as Xu Ye opened the door and carried her out of the room —
The front door was pushed open from outside at almost exactly the same moment. Old Zhang and Old Xu stood in the doorway staring blankly at Xu Ye and at Chen Qingqing in his arms. The old couple had been bickering a moment before and now fell abruptly silent, both pairs of eyes flying wide.
Xu Ye froze too. He stayed rigid for a long moment before calling out, thoroughly bewildered, “Mom?”
Only then did Chen Qingqing, still held there, notice the two people in the doorway — and that they were Xu Ye’s mother and father.
“Ah!” Chen Qingqing shrieked almost on reflex, then buried her head straight into his chest.
Old Zhang was about to speak when Old Xu pulled the door shut, leaving only a crack, and said through it to the two of them, “Your mom and I will come back up in ten minutes. As far as you two are concerned, we were never here.”
The door slammed shut.
Old Xu pulled Old Zhang back downstairs with him.
Once Xu Ye had put her down, Chen Qingqing’s small face was as red as an apple. It had never once occurred to her that she would meet his parents this way.
Heavens.
How could this happen.
How could this happen!
Chen Qingqing wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the floor and crawl into it. She very quickly took all her resentment out on Xu Ye, a pair of soft pink fists raining down on him while she repeated over and over, “This is your fault, your fault, all your fault!”
Xu Ye was puzzled himself.
The note that morning had plainly said two days before they came back, so why were they home today?
Old Zhang, Old Xu — what the hell are you two up to?
He took hold of her wrists and tried to reassure her. “All right. Since it’s already happened, we might as well meet them properly while we’re at it. Sooner or later you’d have to meet the parents anyway.”
“I… I…”
“My mom and dad have known about us for ages. You should count yourself lucky they only saw us with our arms around each other and didn’t see us sleeping toget—”
He hadn’t got the sentence out before Chen Qingqing’s hand went over his mouth.
“Don’t say another word.”
Once she had calmed down she asked immediately, “Do you have a mirror?”
Xu Ye pointed to the bathroom. Chen Qingqing hurried in, saw how badly flushed she was, and rushed back to the room to get two wet wipes out of her bag and wipe her face.
Two minutes later.
Chen Qingqing stood in the bathroom doorway and asked, entirely serious, “Is this all right?”
“You’re beautiful without makeup anyway.”
Seeing that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer, Xu Ye added, “Tie your hair up, then. It’ll make you look more well-behaved.”
Chen Qingqing did it without a second thought.
Once everything was ready, Chen Qingqing sat on the sofa on edge, her left hand gripping her right and her right gripping her left, as nervous as it was possible to be.
Xu Ye kept trying to make her laugh and calm her down, and none of it had the slightest effect.
Outside the door.
Old Zhang put her ear to it, listened for a moment and asked quietly, “There’s no noise in there now. Can we go in?”
Old Xu nodded, then added quickly, “Don’t talk so much when we’re in there. The poor girl went red the moment she saw us.”
“I know.”
Old Zhang straightened her clothes and knocked.
Xu Ye patted the back of Chen Qingqing’s hand lightly, got up and opened the door, and immediately started in on the pair of them. “What is the matter with you two? Didn’t we agree you’d be at Grandma’s for two days? Why are you back tonight?”
“There were too many of us. Your grandmother’s house couldn’t fit everyone.”
“You two are unbelievable.”
Xu Ye sighed, then pointed at Chen Qingqing, cleared his throat, and said outright, “Let me introduce you. This is Chen Qingqing, your future daughter-in-law.”
Chen Qingqing stood behind him meekly and said, red-faced, “Hello, Uncle. Hello, Auntie.”
Old Zhang went straight over and took her small hand. A natural extrovert, she soon had Chen Qingqing sitting down with her on the sofa…
“Qingqing, you’re so much prettier in person than in the photos…”
“Is our Xiao Ye good to you? If he isn’t, you tell me and I’ll set him straight for you…”
“Have you two eaten this evening? Why not stay and have dinner here…”
“Auntie’s been through it all herself. Young people going out together, a bit of kissing and cuddling is perfectly normal. Auntie’s not some old relic. Don’t be shy…”
“Come over and see us often from now on…”
“…”
On the sofa, Old Zhang went on talking and Chen Qingqing went on nodding. Xu Ye clapped a hand to his forehead. An extrovert mother-in-law meets a shut-in daughter-in-law.
(End of Chapter 274)