Chapter 104: “He Stood So Straight...”

Qi Changbai was sitting immediately to Luo Xing’s left. Seeing her cough until tears came to her eyes, he picked up the paper cup beside her and thrust it into her hand.

Luo Xing drank it down in one breath. Qi Changbai filled it again, and she took several more gulps before finally suppressing the sudden, burning sting that had surged up her throat.

Shen Que put down the barbecue skewer in his hand and rubbed her back.

Gu Shiyan leaned forward, his hand hovering in midair.

He was seated between Qi Changbai and Xu Yan, a little too far from Luo Xing to reach her at all.

Luo Xing shook her head. “Thanks. I’m fine now.”

There was still a dull ache at the back of her throat, left behind by that sharp, spicy burn.

She held the cup in her palm and took a small sip. Only then did she realize that what Qi Changbai had handed her was beer.

Luo Xing set down the paper cup, now drained to a thin bottom.

For the rest of the gathering, it was mostly Xu Yan and Qi Changbai doing the talking, ranging from how Qi Changbai had pursued four girls and failed with every one of them to how, when Xu Yan was little, he had once held up a banana and been bitten in the backside by a dog.

“Shen Que? Why is your face so red?” Xu Yan stopped and looked at Shen Que, who was hanging his head in little fits.

“You’re amazing. You actually finished all the beer?” Qi Changbai stood up and glanced at the empty bottle beside Shen Que.

By now, Luo Xing was feeling the alcohol rise to her head as well. She looked over at Shen Que, patted his shoulder, and slurred, “Drink less... hic...”

Gu Shiyan rested his knuckles against his jaw. Seeing Luo Xing, drunk herself, still telling others to drink less, he let out a low laugh.

That faint sound was caught by Luo Xing. Just then, as Qi Changbai and Xu Yan moved to support Shen Que, Luo Xing half-lidded her eyes and kicked Gu Shiyan.

Gu Shiyan was stunned by the kick. Glancing at the footprint on his trouser leg, he asked, “Why did you kick me?”

Shen Que was so drunk he was practically unconscious, still muttering under his breath, though no one could make out what he was saying.

Supporting Shen Que from the other side, Qi Changbai looked back at the equally drunk Luo Xing and shouted, “Gu Shiyan, keep an eye on her. Don’t let her fall. We’re taking Shen Que to settle him in first.”

Gu Shiyan stood up, bent over, and brushed the dust off his trouser leg. In a muffled voice, he answered Qi Changbai, “She won’t fall.”

As soon as he said it, before he could even straighten his waist, there was a dull thud against his head.

Luo Xing had already toppled over. If not for the fact that she landed against Gu Shiyan’s head, she would probably have ended up flat on the ground, just as Qi Changbai had warned.

Gu Shiyan had not yet had a chance to cry out in pain when Luo Xing did first. Her hand was still clutching a fistful of his hair.

Gu Shiyan had to keep one hand on her, stopping her from tumbling off the little round stool.

“Let go.” He shook his head.

“You hit my head!” Luo Xing said irritably. “What kind of manners are those? Aren’t you even going to apologize?”

Gu Shiyan: ...

He did not argue with drunks.

Lifting his wrist, Gu Shiyan placed one hand around Luo Xing’s waist and used the other to pry at her hand, but she only pulled harder.

Gu Shiyan hissed in pain.

“Sorry.” In the end, he had no choice but to apologize.

Only then did Luo Xing let go. She even patted his head afterward.

“Behave yourself next time.”

Gu Shiyan, who had decidedly not been behaving himself, had his hair ruffled into a bird’s nest. He straightened up and stared at her.

He had not forgotten the lesson she had given him the last time she was drunk.

And now she was at it again, teaching him how to behave.

Fine indeed.

“Which tent are you in? I’ll take you back.” Gu Shiyan stood in front of her, one hand still steadying her shoulder.

Luo Xing shook her head. “Can’t go back. They’ll teach me a lesson.”

Gu Shiyan laughed.

Since Luo Xing did not want to go back, he did not force her. He stood beside her in the wind.

Luo Xing wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m a little cold.”

Her words were so slurred her tongue kept tangling, thick and muddled.

Gu Shiyan could barely make them out.

He lowered his eyes and glanced at the jacket he was wearing, but he did not take it off for her.

Instead, he crouched down, and from this angle their eyes were level.

Luo Xing was still hugging herself. She blinked once, then again. Her cheeks were rosy, her lips bright with a soft pink sheen.

Even her face had been tinted with warmth.

“Want to get warmer?” Gu Shiyan braced one hand on the stool beside her. The posture fully enclosed her, and his voice had softened as well.

Luo Xing instinctively leaned toward him. She nodded heavily, but had no strength to lift her head. Her face remained buried downward as she murmured dully, “I do...”

Gu Shiyan pinched her ear. “What a pity.”

He drew out the last syllable, carrying a thread of regret and teasing. “I’m not your boyfriend, so how could you wear my clothes?”

Luo Xing slowly rested her forehead against his shoulder. “Mm.”

Clearly, she had no idea what he had just said.

Gu Shiyan touched the bridge of his nose. Luo Xing’s strands of hair had stuck to it, tickling him faintly.

“Luo Xing, what do you like about him?” Gu Shiyan asked in a low voice.

Looking at the drunken, unfocused person before him, he gave a self-mocking smile.

He actually had the audacity to imagine that a drunk person would answer him.

He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her.

Then he heard her murmur, “Him? His face is good-looking, his body’s good too, I guess... and his voice is nice as well.”

Gu Shiyan frowned.

Luo Xing really did not discriminate at all.

Gu Shiyan thought that man from the dessert shop looked a bit too delicate, almost feminine, and as for his body, well, nothing special, not that you could tell much with clothes on.

Gu Shiyan was still recalling the man’s voice from that day when a small arm looped around his waist.

He sucked in a sharp breath and looked down.

Luo Xing had buried her face against him. He was only wearing a thin, fleece-lined cashmere sweater underneath, and it fit close to the body. At his lower abdomen, he could feel the clear rise and fall of her breathing.

Gu Shiyan’s body froze in place.

The cool night wind brushed over him.

Yet his own body was gradually growing hotter.

What a capable girl she was. Every time she got drunk, she found a new way to tempt him.

“Mm, I think I still...” Luo Xing pressed against the source of warmth. She hugged it tightly, pressing her chilled face against it.

“Mm?” Gu Shiyan did not catch what she said, so he bent lower and leaned in to listen.

But then he heard Luo Xing give a soft hum. “I checked. He doesn’t have eight abs, only six...”

This murmuring actually came through clearly enough for Gu Shiyan to hear.

And once he heard it, he was unhappy again.

His expression darkened, his tone urgent. “How long have you two even been together? And you’ve already seen!”

It was only then that Gu Shiyan realized that hearing Luo Xing was truly together with someone else, and had even seen another man’s body, was something he could not bear in the slightest.

He was more petty than he had ever imagined.

Even the desire that had surged through him moments ago had turned into irritability.

He crouched down so they were eye to eye, pinched her cheek, and lectured her in a dutiful, proper manner. “You can’t move that fast... you...”

But once he started speaking, he no longer knew what else to say.

What was he supposed to say? That she should take it slowly, one step at a time?

Or was it simply that he was jealous of that man, and the very thought of what the two of them might do was driving him nearly insane? Just imagining it was enough to make him feel deranged.

Luo Xing had her cheek pinched by him, her face and lips squashed into a little bundle. “His waist is pretty...”

Mm...

Back in the high school league, while he was playing, she had seen the straight line of his waist.

Lean, taut muscle, the wiry definition unique to a boy his age, all of it holding a power that was ready to spring.

At the time, all the girls in the arena had been screaming, and Luo Xing had been so excited she had even forgotten to raise the phone in her hand to record.

Gu Shiyan drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “What is his waist pretty...?”

Don’t tell him she had even touched the man’s waist!

Luo Xing was being squeezed so hard by his hand on her face that it was starting to hurt. She grabbed his wrist with both hands.

So cold.

Gu Shiyan ignored the hand clutching his wrist and pressed again, “Pretty what?”

Luo Xing’s face seemed to turn even redder, her expression almost dazed with a foolish smile. Then she suddenly stood up, leaving him no time to react.

Gu Shiyan was still crouched in front of her.

Luo Xing bent down again, wrapped her arms around his head, and whispered in his ear, “You’re not allowed to tell anyone. I’m only telling you secretly.”

Gu Shiyan was jealous, resentful, and desperate to hear it.

Absolutely hopeless.

“Okay!” he ground out.

Luo Xing’s breath brushed the side of his neck. She hummed softly, then laughed. “His waist... is pretty powerful.”