Upon seeing this message, Jiang Xiao was momentarily stunned. He then gripped his phone tightly and stared deeply at the door to his girlfriend’s room.
He suddenly felt that QQ not having a ‘read’ notification was actually quite nice. Before, it was always Xi’er who would read messages and pretend she hadn’t seen them. This time, it was his turn.
He deliberately pretended not to have seen it, stuffed his phone back into his pocket, strode over, and knocked on the door at a leisurely pace.
“Qia’er, I won’t tease you anymore, come on out.”
“Huh?”
Hearing Jiang Xiao’s words from outside the door, Song Qiuyu blinked in confusion, glanced down at the successfully sent message, and clenched her hands.
Huh?
Did Jiang Xiao not see the message? Or… did he see it but is pretending he didn’t?
She frowned in slight annoyance, thinking, her clean fingertips unconsciously twirling the hair at her side.
The room lights had been turned on when she entered, and under the warm yellow glow, her neatly trimmed nails shone with a glossy sheen. The ends of her hair spun in little circles, lightly tickling her still-flushed, delicate cheeks.
She lowered her gaze, leaning back against the door, her straight legs standing naturally, but her feet inside her shoes shifted restlessly.
Did he see it? Or didn’t he?
The knocking didn’t sound again, but the person outside hadn’t left either.
Song Qiuyu looked again at the message sent to him on her phone screen, took a shallow breath, and had already decided to open the door.
“It seems the trust between us is this fragile now. Well, I can’t help it. I’ll go take a shower first then.”
Jiang Xiao seemed to have given up. He sighed, turned, opened the door to the next room, went in to get his change of clothes.
Seeing this, Song Qiuyu was taken aback. She turned her head towards Jiang Xiao’s general direction, not quite knowing what to say.
If Jiang Xiao had just persisted for a few more seconds, she would have opened the door.
Even now, she could still open it, but she suddenly wanted to take back her earlier thought. It felt like, since Jiang Xiao had already thought that way, her opening the door now would be a bit… lacking.
Might as well wait until Jiang Xiao finishes his shower and give him a surprise then.
So she stood firmly by the door, crossed her arms, pricked up her ears, calmed her mind, and eavesdropped on the sounds Jiang Xiao was making outside.
Listening, a wave of uncontrollable heat welled up from deep within her, roasting her from the inside out.
The sound of running water from the bathroom fell clearly into her ears.
Her mind seemed to slip out of control, starting to wander, fantasizing about the current situation in the bathroom. Her eyes widened as she belatedly realized what a perverted thing she was doing!
No, no, no…
Must be reserved!
Wait—
Hold on, he’s my boyfriend, what’s wrong with fantasizing a little?
Hasn’t Jiang Xiao fantasized about me, his girlfriend, plenty of times?
Thinking this, she quickly regained her composure, turned around with righteous confidence, pulled open her room door, took her phone, and walked out.
She just glanced in the direction of the bathroom before heading to the sofa, sitting down, casually opening a match-three puzzle mini-game to pass the time.
The game was simple, yet surprisingly addictive. But once you get hooked, you start hitting walls.
She battled her way through to level fifty.
“Xi’er!”
Suddenly, Jiang Xiao’s voice called out from the bathroom, particularly loud, as if afraid she wouldn’t hear it inside the room.
“Wh-what is it?”
Song Qiuyu also raised her voice, responding to Jiang Xiao with equal volume.
“My clothes fell on the floor. Can you go to my room and get me another set?”
Jiang Xiao’s tone held a hint of laughter and a bit of pleading.
“Okay!”
Song Qiuyu responded without thinking, got up from the sofa, and walked into Jiang Xiao’s room.
Having lived with Jiang Xiao for a while now, she was quite familiar with what kind of clothes he wore to sleep at night.
She easily found a light orange set of pajamas from the wardrobe, carefully held them, and walked out of the room.
Arriving at the bathroom door, she tentatively called Jiang Xiao’s name.
With a creak, the door opened.
With just one glance, Song Qiuyu’s beautiful almond-shaped eyes lit up, and her face flushed crimson.
As expected of Jiang Xiao, his physique management is getting better and better. He looks super strong!
Good thing he’s mine.
She took a shallow breath, feeling a strong sense of satisfaction, yet couldn’t help but shyly turn her face away, even though they had already done more intimate things.
Can’t be helped. Having such a good-looking partner, no matter how much time passes, she can’t control her racing heart.
And thinking that this person also likes her immensely makes her heart race even more wildly.
She felt like she was about to drown in the happiness of being a girlfriend!
“Here, take it.”
Song Qiuyu didn’t dare look any longer. The next second, her wrist was caught by a damp hand and held tightly.
“Huh?”
She belatedly reacted, but it was too late. Jiang Xiao pulled her into the bathroom in one swift motion, closed the door, and effortlessly lifted her up with one arm.
“Jiang Xiao, why did you pull me in here?”
Song Qiuyu was startled, instinctively wrapping her legs around his solid, powerful waist.
“I just suddenly wanted to play a pretty exciting little game with you, Xi’er. Do you dare play with me?”
Jiang Xiao challenged with a raised eyebrow, staring unblinkingly into her eyes, his voice low.
“…”
Song Qiuyu pressed her lips together tightly, lightly furrowing her brow. For some reason, she had a strong feeling—the feeling that Jiang Xiao was digging a pit for her to jump into.
Her brain was telling her to stay calm, but it was useless.
She couldn’t back down in this situation.
“Are you looking down on me?”
“Xi’er, so you’re accepting the challenge, right?”
The expression on Jiang Xiao’s face was unusually serious, as if the upcoming little game was anything but ordinary.
“Hmph!”
Song Qiuyu forcefully suppressed her slight nervousness, stared into Jiang Xiao’s eyes, nodded, and then smiled, saying, “Because no matter what game it is, the one who wins in the end will definitely be me!!”
Jiang Xiao frowned, the serious look on his face gaining an extra touch of sternness.
“I’m really looking forward to it then.”
Jiang Xiao looked at her and said.
“I’m looking forward to it too!”
Song Qiuyu blinked and said.
“This little game is simple. We both keep staring at each other. If I look away first, I’ll let you down, and we’ll sleep in separate rooms tonight.”
Jiang Xiao said.
After hearing this, a drop of sweat slid down Song Qiuyu’s cheek.
Jiang Xiao’s pupils, like a snake’s, locked onto her, patiently waiting for her response.
Under that gaze, Song Qiuyu’s pretty face wrinkled slightly, her lips pressed tighter together, and she inhaled a breath of the bathroom’s hot air.
This…
She seemed destined to lose.
She feigned composure with an “Mhm,” and began the little game whose outcome was already decided.
But even though her heart was already leaning towards him, she gradually became serious, not wanting to concede directly. She glared fiercely into his eyes.
As they stared, her heart gradually ceased to belong to her, as if the control over her heartbeat had completely fallen into Jiang Xiao’s hands.
It was just eye contact, yet from her hands and feet to her whole body, she was rapidly heating up and growing weak.
“Qia’er…”
The sound of Jiang Xiao suddenly speaking pressed some strange switch, making her unconsciously tighten her grip around his waist.
His masculine scent brushed against her face, her mouth and nose filled with Jiang Xiao’s scent.
Her already precarious resolve became even more fragile, but she still gritted her teeth, refusing to look away.
As a girlfriend, as the passive one, enjoying her boyfriend’s affection was certainly nice.
That feeling, so refreshing it made her tremble, was like the most delicious candy in the world.
Anyone would become addicted, would fall for it.
But, she also wanted to be the active one—not just as prey, but as the hunter who could turn the hunter into prey!
She and Jiang Xiao were the same; they were both born predators.
Even though her body and gender had changed, the inherent desire to conquer the strong, to conquer her lover, still existed.
Being conquered by Jiang Xiao was undeniably exhilarating, but the taste of conquering Jiang Xiao wasn’t bad either.
Jiang Xiao suddenly said coldly, “I agree with you.”
“What?”
Song Qiuyu didn’t understand the meaning of this sentence for a moment.
However, it was this brief moment of relaxation. Jiang Xiao’s gaze burned so hot she almost turned her face away.
She hurriedly steadied herself, already finding it very difficult to endure.
She felt a bit exasperated: “Jiang Xiao, are you trying to cheat?!”
“Leaving aside the fact that I’m not trying to cheat, just talking about this little game, I never said we couldn’t use tricks to distract the other person’s attention.”
Jiang Xiao looked at her unhurriedly and said.
Hearing this, Song Qiuyu, unable to refute, could only say indignantly, “So? What did you want to say just now? What did you agree to?”
“I agree…”
Jiang Xiao paused, lowered his voice, and said slowly, “Starting tomorrow, we officially start dating.”
Hearing this, Song Qiuyu froze completely.
Plop.
The clothes she had brought finally fell to the floor.
“Ah.”
Song Qiuyu instinctively tilted her head, looking at the clothes rapidly getting soaked by the water on the floor, her lips moving slightly.
“Qia’er, looks like I won.”
Jiang Xiao chuckled lightly.
“Wait, that just now doesn’t count!”
Song Qiuyu blurted out a bomb in her haste.
With a bang, it hurt the enemy three thousand but herself seven thousand.
She took two breaths, not daring to speak anymore.
“Qia’er, what did you just say?”
Jiang Xiao grabbed her bottom, pressed his face closer, deliberately putting on an expression of wanting to get to the bottom of it.
Instantly, the distance shortened even further.
Their lips seemed to brush against each other faintly. Song Qiuyu felt her breath catch, her chest burning, almost unable to breathe.
The bathroom’s hot steam intensified the blankness in her mind.
Warm drops of water slid from Jiang Xiao’s hair, dripping onto her face, her neck, her collarbone, detonating the shameful thoughts buried deep in her heart one by one.
In just a moment, her mind turned into a complete mess.
Her body, clumsy and stiff, froze in place. Faced with his question, she could only hold her breath, widen her eyes, looking utterly dazed.
If it’s not a topic she likes, it’s better to just skip it, right?
“I…”
“Me?”
Jiang Xiao’s gaze, as if determined to get to the bottom of it, still met hers. The distance had stopped at the most ambiguous position.
Feeling the heat of the girl’s breath as she exhaled, he narrowed his eyes slightly, just staring at her eyes unrelentingly.
“I wanted to say…”
Song Qiuyu’s pupils dilated.
She had lost completely. Her whole body went limp against Jiang Xiao, her forehead resting against his broad, warm left shoulder.
Jiang Xiao followed the momentum brought his lips to the top of her head, lifting her higher and more securely.
Then he heard her voice, as faint as a mosquito’s hum, sound by his ear: “Mhm, I lost.”
“So, no separate rooms tonight?”
Jiang Xiao glanced at her twice.
“No separate rooms. We’ll sleep together.”
Song Qiuyu cut Jiang Xiao off Jiang Xiao finished speaking and immediately replied.
The night wind was cold, but tonight’s bed, because of Jiang Xiao, became very warm.
However, what she didn’t expect was that waking up the next morning felt like jumping straight from spring into the beginning of summer!
She glanced at the thirty-degree temperature displayed on her phone and frowned.
“It’s only early March. This year’s spring is even shorter than last year’s. How are we going to get through this summer?”
“Lao Song, the most important thing is this semester we still have swimming class, right? Are you really okay? With your situation, you probably can’t attend class with us guys, right?”
Of course, this wasn’t said by Jiang Xiao.
Xie Zhuran had come over early this morning.
Besides mooching breakfast, he was also there to tell them that a very troublesome new club had set up next to the Drama Club’s recruitment booth.
The Swimming Club!
Every start of the semester is when various clubs showcase their skills at recruitment booths. The school even secretly sets certain recruitment targets for the clubs.
Originally, the Drama Club should have been one of the most popular clubs at Nanxi, not needing to worry about recruitment numbers at all.
But because of the special season and their unique location, they had to take this new neighbor seriously!
If the Drama Club’s recruitment was affected, that stingy club president would have a reason to cut their wages.
“Hmm, as for swimming class, no need to worry. My dad already handled it for me. When the time comes, I just have to observe, I don’t need to wear a swimsuit and get in the water.”
Song Qiuyu would be eternally grateful for her dad’s reliability.
If her dad hadn’t come back during the winter break, for this semester’s swimming class, she might have had to run to the medical office with all her might.
Even if the ‘little steamed buns’ could be explained away as pectoral muscles, she couldn’t stand the thought of exposing her body in front of so many people now, especially since she now has a boyfriend!
Hearing this, Xie Zhuran breathed a sigh of relief. He looked towards Jiang Xiao, who was silently toiling away in the kitchen, preparing breakfast alone, squinted his eyes, clicked his tongue twice, feeling quite overwhelmed with emotion.
The future household status of Lao Song and Lao Jiang after marriage is一clear at a single glance.
Really can’t imagine Lao Jiang is so virtuous and industrious.
I must have been blind back then, mistaking lovers for father/son, love for filial piety, letting Lao Lin and Xia Qi secretly laugh at me for so long.
But, for the two of them to be together so smoothly is really quite rare.
“As for that new Swimming Club you mentioned, Lao Xie…”
At this point, Song Qiuyu shrugged, somewhat helplessly said, “Lao Xie, aren’t you being unnecessarily anxious? Actually, even in summer, probably not many people like swimming that much. So no matter how you look at it, our Drama Club is still more attractive!”
“No, no, no! I’m not exaggerating! It’s just that you, Lao Song, haven’t seen how they’re recruiting!”
Saying this, Xie Zhuran heaved a deep sigh, looked at Jiang Xiao who had walked out: “I’ve already had Lao Lin hold down the fort at our Drama Club booth. I’ll have him take a few photos of the Swimming Club’s recruitment area right now, and send them to our dorm group. You’ll understand the situation once you see them!”
Moments later, three photos were added to the 602 Dormitory Group Chat.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.