This was the first time that Lin Fan had ever done something as bold as this, so he was understandably nervous. In his nervousness, he quickly let go of her and ran into his car after the single kiss.

He was so fast that Cheng Xi couldn’t even react before the car had already left, far away.

“……” She was speechless.

She hadn’t seen Lin Fan that embarrassed for many years.

Cheng Xi couldn’t help but laugh at the situation before putting both of her hands in her pockets and preparing to walk back inside. As she was turning around, she found herself looking at a car parked by the side of the building. It was black and hidden in the dark, just like a monstrous shadow.

When she looked at it a bit more closely, the headlights of the car suddenly turned on, and the strong, bright light shining directly into her face almost blinded her.

Even without seeing who was driving the car, she could feel the driver’s malicious intent. She quickly covered up her eyes, frowned, and prepared to leave. 

At this time, there weren’t many cars and pedestrians on the road, and Cheng Xi didn’t want an accident to occur either.

But just as she started to step away, a piercing honking sound shattered the quiet night air right next to her ear—

paa, paa, paa, paa, paa, paa

—a conspicuous disturbance in the dark and silent night.

When she turned and looked back more closely, she saw the car’s interior light up and then blink. Cheng Xi found that a familiar face was actually sitting in the driver’s seat.

Lu Chenzhou.

Why was he here this late?

After mulling over it for a moment, Cheng Xi slowly walked up to him. The car window slowly rolled down. Lu Chenzhou was alone in the car, sitting in the driver’s seat, with both hands clasped on the steering wheel. As his fingers tapped on it rhythmically, his gaze noncommittally looked at her.

“Eh, why are you here? Did something come up?”

“Get on.”

“Where to?”

He tilted his head, his gaze still on her face. He said nothing and merely pressed the middle of the steering wheel again, causing the deafening noise to blare out again.

It sounded as impatient as his mood.

Cheng Xi quickly got into the car.

She wasn’t worried that Lu Chenzhou would do something to her. Even though his personality was cold, she felt inexplicably like she could trust him with her safety.

Lu Chenzhou ended up bringing her to Donglai, immediately throwing her inside a beauty parlor. The female proprietor had already closed up shop for the day, but he called someone to get her over, pointed at Cheng Xi, and then said, “Clean her face.”

Both Cheng Xi and the salon owner, who had rushed over hurriedly, were somewhat speechless, looking at each other out of shared confusion. Cheng Xi was the first to say, “Sorry to bother you.”

The salon owner coughed and replied, “It’s not a problem.”

Then she took out some appliances and creams and indeed began washing her face as Lu Chenzhou waited in the lobby. Cheng Xi lay on the bed, feeling the owner’s soft fingers comfortably pinching and kneading her face. Not long later, the salon owner took out a large set of tools. “Are the two of you having a big event tomorrow, to clean your face this late?”

Cheng Xi’s face was dripping as she pondered Lu Chenzhou’s intentions. When she heard the salon owner’s question, she casually asked back, “What big event?”

The lady owner smiled. “Getting married, of course.” She put a facial mask on Cheng Xi, and her voice now sounded somewhat indistinct. “When I went out just now, Mr. Lu even told me specifically to do the deepest cleansing possible… I said that our deepest cleaning is generally for new brides right before they put their bridal makeup on, and he said to do that one…the two of you are getting married, aren’t you?”

“……”

She immediately remembered Lin Fan kissing her.

Lu Chenzhou….. couldn’t possibly be doing this because of that, could he?

She very much wanted to rub her forehead, a sense of terror overwhelming her. But she controlled herself, smiled vaguely, and said, “Don’t joke around. How could that be possible?”

The lady owner likely also thought that the probability of them getting married was very low, and when she saw that Cheng Xi didn’t want to keep talking about it any further, she immediately dropped the topic and concentrated on washing Cheng Xi’s face.

The facial wash was very intricate but unexpectedly comfortable. Cheng Xi didn’t feel particularly tired before the wash, but afterwards, she couldn’t help but yawn complacently.

The lady owner supported her face as she said, “This is going to take some time. Why don’t you sleep first? I’ll wake you up when we’re done.”

Cheng Xi didn’t want to sleep, but she still ended up dozing off during the comfortable massage.

When Cheng Xi woke up, she was still in the beauty salon, on the bed where she had had her face washed last night. The salon owner was sleeping next to her, and her clothes were to the side. What had woken Cheng Xi up was her phone, vibrating right next to her ear.

She sat up straight and took her phone out from her pocket. After looking at the soundly sleeping owner, Cheng Xi put on her shoes and walked out quietly. There was no one outside, not even Lu Chenzhou. She answered the call. “Hello, Shen Wei?”

“You’re awake?”

“Yep.”

“What happened to you last night? I sent you so many text messages but you never responded.”

“Really? Let me see.” Cheng Xi inspected her phone for a moment and indeed found a large number of messages from Shen Wei. After casually glancing at them, she found that they were essentially variations of two questions: ‘Did you dump Lu Chenzhou?’ and ‘Are you together with Lin Fan now?’

Clearly, Shen Wei was desperate for an answer.

Cheng Xi sighed. “I didn’t realize that you liked gossip this much in the past.”

“I’m bored because I had to wake up early to catch a flight.”

“Where are you going this early?”

“The capital… Don’t try to change the topic. Answer me honestly—are you together with Lin Fan now?”

“No.”

“I don’t believe you! You’re saying that even though you were with him that late at night yesterday?”

“If I said that I had a reason, would you even believe me?”

“I wouldn’t believe others, but if it’s you, then probably, yeah. But really, I have to remind you. If you don’t plan on entering into a romantic relationship with Lin Fan, then you shouldn’t act so intimately with him.”

“Hm?” Cheng Xi was somewhat surprised by Shen Wei’s comment. “Why not?”

“Because he clearly likes you. Didn’t I mention that I was going to introduce my friend to him last time? However, his reaction was to tell me that he first developed feelings for you in high school, and that he’d continue to wait for you. Ah, his feelings for you are really deep. If not for the fact that you already have Lu Chenzhou, even I would say that the two of you are really compatible.”

“......Just when did I get Lu Chenzhou?”

“Hm? Isn’t it true? Everyone’s saying that the two of you have met each other’s parents and are even living together now. Are they wrong?”

“Ev- everyone?” Cheng Xi was dumbstruck, so much so that she started to stutter.

“Yes. My Fu Mingyi saw it back in Donglai too. Heehee, don’t try to hide it from me. You know how fussy Lu Chenzhou is; everyone who has met him knows it. My Fu Mingyi told me that he has a room at the Donglai hotel that even Baldy and his other longtime friends can’t enter. However, that day, he saw Lu Chenzhou bring you inside. Oh, Cheng Xi, you’re really lucky to receive the love of two male idols. Oh, my youthful heart…… I shouldn’t have married this early; otherwise, I could have lived a life like yours!”

Cheng Xi was speechless. She’d only been to Donglai two or three times, and only inside Lu Chenzhou’s room twice. But Fu Mingyi had somehow seen her during one of these times; just how lucky was she?

And as she thought about this, she suddenly became mystified. She used to believe that Lu Chenzhou didn’t feel that way towards her. To her, his actions of resisting her but getting close to her were a sign of the inherent contradiction in his heart: he wanted to be treated, but didn’t want to acknowledge that he was ill.

Forcing her to sign a contract and become his girlfriend was, in Cheng Xi’s eyes, just a pretense for his mental dilemma. The reason why she had been so honest with him was because she was trying to break down his mental wall, and it wasn’t in any way to give Lu Chenzhou the impression that she was truly his girlfriend.

Was she too late?

 It was the first time that she had felt uncertain about her judgment. She hesitated for a moment and then asked Shen Wei, “If a man saw someone else kiss your face and then brought you to have your face washed, then… What does that mean?”

It took Shen Wei only a little while to understand. “Hahaha, is ‘that man’ Lu Chenzhou? He saw Lin Fan kiss you and then he took you to get your face washed? Hahahahaha, how cute!”

A hand suddenly leaned over and took her phone away. Cheng Xi turned around, greatly shocked, only to see that Lu Chenzhou was standing right behind her.

Looking down, he hung up on Shen Wei and, as he returned the phone to her, said, “You could always just ask me.”

“……”

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