Xu Ye drove to the hotel, picked Qin Zhiwei up, and headed for the school.
Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu didn’t come down with Chen Qingqing and Shen Xinyi. For one thing the car wouldn’t hold them all, and for another the two of them didn’t want to be third wheels.
Once Chen Qingqing and Shen Xinyi were in, Xu Ye turned around. “Zhiwei, where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know. Where were you planning to go?”
“If you two are out walking around, I’ll take Qingqing to the hotel. If you two go to the hotel, then we’ll go walk around.”
Only then did Qin Zhiwei catch on. Xu Ye had put the question that way because he wanted time alone with Chen Qingqing.
Qin Zhiwei turned around at once to look at Shen Xinyi.
That startled her. She mumbled, “What… what are you looking at me for?”
Qin Zhiwei grinned like a fool. “Where should we go?”
Shen Xinyi gave a small huff. “I am certainly not going to a hotel with you.”
That answer made the choice, in a roundabout way.
Xu Ye said, “I’ll drop you at Xiangyang Park, then. We’ll eat at the IAPM this evening — I’ll message you when it’s time.”
“Okay.”
As they talked, Xu Ye dropped the two of them at the south entrance of Xiangyang Park, and Qin Zhiwei handed him the key card.
Xu Ye put it in his pocket and drove to the hotel.
Card in. Door open. Door shut.
He tossed the key card onto the cabinet by the door, sat down on the bed and beckoned to Chen Qingqing. “Come here and let me hold you.”
“No.”
“Hurry up, or I’ll misbehave.”
Chen Qingqing blinked, apparently weighing something in her mind, and in the end went over anyway, self-conscious about it. One light pull from Xu Ye and she fell straight into his arms.
He put both arms around her waist, one from the front and one from behind, and sat her down on his lap, where she stayed obediently put.
“You’re not allowed to grope me!”
“Hey.” Xu Ye was puzzled. “You can call my next move now, can you?”
Chen Qingqing pulled her mouth down, a little put off. “Ha. I saw through you a long time ago.”
With Chen Qingqing soft and sweet-smelling in his arms, the tiredness of half a day’s running around vanished like smoke. Xu Ye slowly rested his head against her and said, “I was at somebody else’s company signing contracts this morning and didn’t get back to school until two. There was traffic on the way over this afternoon too. If I’d known it would be like this I should have applied to a university near yours in the first place — then I could be with you every day.”
Chen Qingqing put a hand on his head and reached to press down a tuft of hair sticking up at the back. She tried several times, and it stood there stubbornly regardless.
At the same time she said, “You must be tired, then?”
“My eyelids were practically fighting each other on the way here. But… seeing you, I’m not tired anymore.”
“Do you want to sleep a while, then?”
Xu Ye nuzzled his head against her chest, and just as he was about to say something, she caught his ear and pulled it up.
“Ow, ow, ow~”
Xu Ye put on a pitiful face at once and started hollering. “What are you doing?”
Chen Qingqing had one hand over the spot on her chest he had just been nuzzling, her small face gone pink. “You were about to misbehave again, weren’t you? Hmph. Don’t think I don’t know.”
“Heh heh.” Xu Ye broke into a wide, foolish grin.
Chen Qingqing shot him a look, let go of his ear and stood up.
Xu Ye braced both hands behind him on the bed and looked up at her, beaming. “Do you know how famous I am at school now?”
“How famous?”
“People stare at me wherever I go. Every teacher in my college knows who I am. And this week the president called me in for a chat.”
Chen Qingqing was curious. “The president? What did the president want with you?”
“To praise me, obviously. Told me to build the company up big and strong so the school can be proud of me.”
“Tch.”
Chen Qingqing laughed. “All you do is brag.”
“Don’t believe me, then. Some day down the line the school really might be proud of me.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Chen Qingqing turned her head away, and the haughty little pout on her was adorable. Xu Ye sat up properly on the bed, caught her wrist and gave it a small tug, and she came down on top of him as he lay back.
His hands went everywhere, digging into her ticklish spots, and he said righteously, “That’ll teach you not to believe me. That’ll teach you… Do you give in?”
“Haha… get off… it tickles… haha… I give in… I give in!”
He wouldn’t let it go, and Chen Qingqing rolled back and forth across the bed.
By the time he stopped he had her pinned underneath him, with both hands braced beside her ears. She wasn’t struggling, but through two thin T-shirts each of them could feel how hot the other’s body was.
His breathing was getting heavier. He lowered his head.
With five centimeters left between their lips, Chen Qingqing suddenly put a hand over his mouth. Red-faced, she said, “Settle it first. How many times?”
Xu Ye forced her hand away. “This is negotiable?”
“Otherwise you’ll get your spit all over my face again.”
“Ten, then.”
“No. One.”
“Five.”
“One.”
“Fine, fine, fine. One it is.”
Only then did Chen Qingqing take her hand away. She closed her eyes and struck an I’m ready sort of pose.
Xu Ye laughed. “You said once. You didn’t say for how long.”
Chen Qingqing opened her eyes, about to negotiate that too.
Xu Ye covered her mouth with his own.
When Qin Zhiwei had asked him some time back whether there was any technique to kissing, Xu Ye hadn’t been able to answer. Now, if the same question came up, he would certainly say: “It’s simple. Use the tip of your tongue to write I love you in her mouth, over and over.”
“Mm… that’s… that’s enough, I… I can’t… breathe…”
Xu Ye rolled over onto his back and smacked his lips, entirely shameless. “You’re so sweet~”
Seeing that his rotten hand was still resting on her, Chen Qingqing grabbed it and bit down hard, and only let the matter drop once she had left a faint set of toothmarks.
He barely felt it. He turned onto his side and looked at the hollow of her neck and her earlobe — that whole stretch of skin was an inviting scarlet.
Then all at once he said furiously, “Qin Zhiwei, that dog. Had to take it on himself to book the room. I never told him to.”
“He booked the room in advance and you’re swearing at him for it.”
“I don’t want to sleep with him. I want to sleep with you.”
“Ha. You wish.”
“Don’t you think Monday to Friday goes especially slowly?”
“A little~”
“I need to make proper money. Once the two of us are married, I’m not working anymore.”
“What would you do all day if you weren’t working?”
“Keep you company.”
“Give it long enough and you’d definitely get sick of it.”
“I wouldn’t. And if I did get sick of it, we can always have a couple of kids to play with~”
Chen Qingqing’s small hand went over his mouth again. Red-faced, she said, “Shut up.”
Xu Ye took her hand away and held onto it, still smiling. “I’ve got it all worked out. We’ll buy a place with a pool. Sleep in until we wake up on our own, cook lunch at home, eat whatever we feel like. Afternoons we watch movies, swim, and if we get bored we invite the others over. Good weather, we go out somewhere, take a trip. Bad weather, we stay in. As for the evenings, heh heh…”
“What about the evenings?”
“Can’t say.”
“Why can’t you say?”
“Not suitable for minors. They’d ban it if I wrote it down.”
(End of Chapter 292)