“I don’t know…” Jiang Lingxue’s voice choked with sobs, her words coming out in broken gasps, as if saying one more sentence would leave her struggling for breath. Lin Cheng gently patted her shoulder. “No, it’s not your fault. It’s mine—I should have spoken up sooner.”
“I don’t know…” Her voice grew hoarse. “I… I… I don’t know…”
“I just wanted… I just wanted…”
I just wanted you to say, even a little bit, that you liked me. Then I would have done anything with you, gone anywhere, whatever you wanted. I would have followed you. I would have listened to you. But you never said you liked me. Not once… not a single word…
“I just wanted… you to say… you to say…”
“I just wanted you to say… that you liked me… You… you never… never said… I… I rejected you… only because… I wanted… to wait for you to say you liked me… liked me…” Her voice broke with each sob.
Tears had already streamed down to her collarbone, leaving it glistening. Lin Cheng gently pulled her into his arms and patted her back, letting out a soft sigh.
Suddenly, he recalled the questions Xu Wanyue and Litchi had asked earlier: Were you two dating? His answer had always been no, because he had never told Jiang Lingxue that he liked her, and she had never said it to him either. Maybe neither of them even knew what liking someone—or loving someone—really meant. They had just huddled together in that tiny rental apartment every day, seeking warmth from each other.
But maybe liking someone wasn’t something you said out loud.
In the end, it didn’t matter whose reasoning was right or wrong. Some regrets always came too late. Once a crack formed, it could never be fully mended. Lin Cheng kept patting her back gently as Jiang Lingxue’s cries gradually subsided.
In all these years, Lin Cheng had never seen Jiang Lingxue cry like this. She had always been so stubborn, enduring any grievance by hugging her knees in silence, biting her lip to keep the tears from falling.
If only these words had been spoken sooner. If only, on the day they fought, he had let them all out. Would the outcome have been completely different?
A long while later, the Jiang Lingxue in his arms had stopped crying. Lin Cheng gently lifted her up. There was a bathtub in the bathroom, and he placed her inside it. He grabbed the showerhead, tested the water until it was warm, and started filling the tub. Then he took a towel and softly wiped the tears from her cheeks. Soon, the water rose above her collarbone. Lin Cheng had a bathtub at home too, but Jiang Lingxue was the one who usually used it. Occasionally, she would drag him into it, facing each other as she teasingly rubbed her soft, pale little feet against him.
Lin Cheng squeezed a bit of body wash onto her skin and gently spread it over her collarbone. Jiang Lingxue’s body was incredibly soft, with remarkable flexibility. Even without training, she could perform all sorts of difficult poses, as if she had no bones at all. He handed her the body wash. “Take a bath.”
“Mm.” Jiang Lingxue’s eyes met his, but she couldn’t read the emotions in them. She timidly lowered her head and began washing seriously. Lin Cheng stepped out of the bathroom, gathered up the wet bedsheets, and sat on the sofa to watch TV intently. When Jiang Lingxue emerged, she wasn’t wrapped in a towel. Her porcelain-white skin glowed with a faint pink flush, and her eyes were still red-rimmed.
She sat on the edge of the bed. Lin Cheng picked up her underwear and helped her into it. Jiang Lingxue didn’t ask why they weren’t doing it anymore, so he didn’t need to explain. He fastened her bra for her, and she obediently lifted her long legs as he slid her black lace panties up to her thighs. She lowered her soft little feet to the floor, stood up, and pulled them the rest of the way on.
Lin Cheng handed her her T-shirt and shorts.
Suddenly, tears welled up in Jiang Lingxue’s eyes again. Lin Cheng reached out, tilting her chin up. “Why are you crying again?”
“You… you’ve gotten tired of me…” Her eyes looked so pitiful.
Lin Cheng shook his head. “Maybe we both need some time to cool off. If we did it now, things would just get messy again.”
Jiang Lingxue put on her clothes and sat on the bed’s edge, her fiery red hair still damp. Lin Cheng took her hand and led her to the vanity mirror, seating her in front of it. He grabbed the hairdryer and began blow-drying her hair.
“Why’d you dye your hair red?” Lin Cheng asked softly.
“The styling in the movie called for it…”
“Oh. I heard there’s a kissing scene with that Silver-Haired Adjudicator girl?”
“It was a body double shot… She wanted to kiss me, but I didn’t.”
“Oh.” Lin Cheng continued drying her hair. After a while, he heard Jiang Lingxue murmur softly, “My shoes…”
“You said you didn’t want them. I couldn’t bear to throw them away, so I gave them to her since she liked them.”
“What’s your relationship with her?”
“Well… we’re kind of dating right now? I traded Evolution Blood for seven days of dating her. It ends today.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I’ve never dated before. I wanted to try what it feels like.” Lin Cheng answered gently. Jiang Lingxue stared into the mirror and whispered, “She’s going to cling to you after this.”
“Nah, she doesn’t like me.” Lin Cheng replied helplessly. But Jiang Lingxue just said softly, “Just wait and see… She’ll cling to you.”
Lin Cheng smiled wryly. He soon finished drying her hair. “It actually looks pretty good.”
He gave her shoulders a light squeeze. “Alright, rest up. I’ll go check on the others.”
Lin Cheng went to Litchi’s room first and chatted with her for a bit. He learned which room Xu Wanyue was napping in and headed there, gently pushing the door open. Sure enough, Xu Wanyue was on the bed, scrolling through short videos.
Lin Cheng hopped onto the bed and lay down, rolling over to wrap an arm lightly around her waist.
“You’re awake?” Xu Wanyue’s voice was gentle.
“Mm-hmm.” Lin Cheng’s fingertips traced her waist lightly. Xu Wanyue was used to it and kept scrolling. After a while, she heard him mutter, “I want to fool around.”
“No fooling around.” Xu Wanyue’s voice turned wary.
“I wanna.”
Xu Wanyue turned to face him, her eyes gazing deeply into his. “Why do you suddenly want to fool around…?”
“A bad woman seduced me, but I stayed pure and didn’t do anything. Now I really want to fool around.” Lin Cheng declared righteously.
Xu Wanyue glanced down at her own pale little feet peeking from under her white bodycon skirt, which reached her ankles and hugged her legs snugly. Her frame was so delicate that her feet looked petite and exquisite—pale, with defined joints, slender yet soft. Her cheeks flushed slightly. After a long moment, she murmured, “But… I’m not wearing stockings.”
“Bare feet are cute too.”
“But, but…” Xu Wanyue’s cheeks stayed rosy. Finally, she whispered, “No stockings… it’s so embarrassing…”
“Hm? What kind of weird logic is that…?”
“My feet… they’re really sensitive too…” Xu Wanyue buried her face in his chest, whining softly. “No more fooling around, okay?”
“Huh, but I really wanna.”
Another long pause, and then Xu Wanyue seemed to think of something. She waved her pale little hand in front of him. “How about… this instead?”
Lin Cheng nodded eagerly, pushing his luck. “Then we do it with some kissing too.”
Xu Wanyue hesitated, then lay on her side next to him. She brought her pale palm to her tongue and gave it a tentative lick, murmuring, “Is this better?”
But the way her pink tongue glided over her fingers was incredibly teasing.
Xu Wanyue went off to take a shower.
She emerged from the bathroom a good while later. Luckily, she had the foresight to hike up her skirt first, or it would have gotten dirty. Her eyes gazed lingeringly at Lin Cheng lying on the bed, then she pounced, straddling him and poking at his chest.
“You’re too much.”
“Huh? How am I too much?”
“It’s daytime. No fooling around during the day from now on.”
“But tomorrow it all ends.”
“Huh?” Xu Wanyue tilted her head. “Oh, right. No more after that anyway.”
Her expression was dead serious, like a kindergarten teacher sternly lecturing a child, but Lin Cheng buried his face in her chest and nuzzled. “Then I gotta take a few more cheap thrills while I can.”
“You little rascal.” Xu Wanyue grumbled softly, but she didn’t pull away. She rolled onto her side beside him and hooked her leg over his waist. “So, what do you mean a bad woman seduced you?”
Lin Cheng had no choice but to explain what happened when he woke up to find Jiang Lingxue naked, skipping the fight part and framing it as him fleeing the room in panic.
“You two have such a weird relationship…”
“I can’t do anything with her.” Lin Cheng sighed helplessly.
“But… she really likes you.”
“How do you know she likes me?”
“Because when I went into the changing room today, I saw her wearing those shoes. She was standing in front of the mirror with this look—sad and happy at the same time, so complicated. She really loves those shoes. But if what you said before wasn’t a lie, her love for them is because they’re a gift from you. You were her whole world. How could she not like you?”
“But she still left in the end.”
“Did you… ever tell her you liked her back then? If you’d said it just once, maybe she would have listened to you obediently.”
Lin Cheng never had. He turned to Xu Wanyue. “Saying it might not have made a difference.”
“It definitely would have. Girls love hearing promises. I know you did a lot for her back then, but if you never said it, she’d always be insecure, scared that you didn’t really like her—that you just saw her as a toy you’d toss aside once you got bored.”
“You’ve got it all figured out. I’ve told you I like you tons of times, but you’ve never said it back.”
“That’s ungrateful of you. My hand’s still sore.” Xu Wanyue pouted at him accusingly, her cheeks flushing a beat later.
Lying on her side next to Lin Cheng, Xu Wanyue bumped her forehead against his ribs. “That short video was right after all. Men are all inching creeps. Once you give in to their little naughty request today, tomorrow they’ll push for even more… You gotta keep men on a leash…”
“…I have no idea what you’re talking about, but everyone’s limits do get pushed bit by bit. It has nothing to do with men being creeps. Keep talking like that and I’ll spank you.”
“I wasn’t talking like that.” Xu Wanyue puffed out her cheeks. “My life goal is to marry a rich, handsome guy so I can happily lie in bed all day scrolling videos, snacking, and napping.”
“Am I not perfect for that? Come on, admit it—you’re actually a super scheming monster secretly training me.”
“You’re perfect… but you wouldn’t love only me. A harem fight sounds scary.”
Lin Cheng was speechless again. He reached out and gave Xu Wanyue’s full, bouncy rear a light smack.
What a feel.
