Kiss her!

Of course Qin Zhiwei wanted to kiss her.

But it was so sudden that he wasn't quite ready.

Still, what Shen Xinyi had said worked on him like a shot of adrenaline. He suddenly reached out and put both hands on her shoulders, and just as he was leaning in—

"Bang!"

The dorm door was shoved open from outside without warning.

Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu, of all people, appeared in the doorway at the same moment. The four of them stared at one another, eyes going round, like people who had all just walked in on some tremendous secret.

Qin Zhiwei snatched his hands back.

Shen Xinyi's face had gone scarlet, right down to her ears.

Jiang Yu had been about to step inside; instead she grabbed Zhang Ruowei and hauled her back. "Just pretend we were never here," she said, and shut the door.

Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi looked at each other. Then Shen Xinyi, too mortified to stand it, kicked him, ran to the door and yanked it open.

As it turned out, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu had shut the door and then pressed their ears straight to it to eavesdrop. When Shen Xinyi pulled it open the two of them nearly fell over.

"Um…"

"Sorry."

"We weren't trying to spoil things for you two on purpose."

Shen Xinyi didn't explain anything. Red in the face, she went off to hang up the laundry.

Qin Zhiwei was too awkward to know what to say either, and there was more sweat on his forehead than before.

Zhang Ruowei, though, clapped him on the shoulder and put her thumb up on the sly, and laughed. "Not bad. You've come a long way. Spent the summer picking up tips from Xu Ye, I take it?"

"Uh…"

Qin Zhiwei figured that if he stayed any longer an old hand like Zhang Ruowei would mock him to death, so he turned around fast. "Xinyi, I'll head back then. We'll talk tonight."

Shen Xinyi gave an offhand "Oh."

Qin Zhiwei left the women's dormitory quickly.

Once he was gone,…