Never mind Chen Qingqing — even the desk clerk was stunned.

It took her two seconds to snap out of it and take the ID from Xu Ye. She ran through the registration, charged him two hundred sixty-nine for the room, and handed over the key card. Then the two of them headed for the elevators — except that a minute ago Chen Qingqing had been holding Xu Ye up, and now Xu Ye had an arm around her.

The second the elevator doors shut, Chen Qingqing took a step back, shook him off, grabbed her bag and started swinging it at his back, swearing at him under her breath. "You jerk. You lied to me again. I'm telling you right now, I am never believing anything you say ever again. You big liar. Big liar. Big liar…"

Xu Ye stood there and didn't move, and took a solid ten or so hits. Only when she stopped did he step forward, smiling. "All right, all right. Don't be mad. I wasn't trying to trick you. I was mainly covering for Zhao Ming."

"There you go dragging somebody else into it."

"It's true." Xu Ye explained fast. "Zhao Ming messaged me this morning. He wanted me to give him an opening tonight so he could tell Zhang Ruowei how he felt. He's the one who wanted to drink — otherwise he couldn't get the words out."

"I don't believe you."

"Then go ask Zhang Ruowei when you get back. Before we left school, didn't I pull her aside to talk to her on her own? That's what it was about."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Fine. I'll ask her as soon as I'm back. And if you're lying to me, then don't ever expect to… to…" Chen Qingqing had meant to say don't ever expect to see me again, but that felt like too much. She hemmed and hawed for a while and finally finished, red-faced, "Then don't ever expect to kiss me again."

She'd barely gotten the words out before Xu Ye pulled her in and kissed her on the forehead. Chen…