Xiang Yu woke up in a hotel suite. She had stayed here several times previously and the furnishings were fairly familiar. Maybe because it was a New Year, the bedside vase changed to a red one and a box of chocolates wrapped in red paper was placed by the bedside.
They drove back from the suburban “Mengshi” at around 3 in the morning.
In the early morning of the party, there was actually a place to stay in “Mengshi”. However, Jin Fubai said that the room was not adequately kept warm and it would be easy to catch a cold. He also said that the bed board was hard and it would make it difficult to rest.
All the while, Xiang Yu was wrapped in a blanket sitting on the sofa on the rooftop and after partying all night her mind was knocked out; she was so sleepy that she couldn’t open her eyes. She mumbled casually, “You are quite weak.”
Jin Fubai held the car key around his fingertips and approached her amidst the noise. His voice was mixed with exhaustion from staying up late, and the agarwood scent stained on his clothes mixed with the smell of chocolate stains, soft and sweet. He said, “Did you lose a few brain cells? I am scared of you catching a cold, and I am worried you won’t be able to rest well.”
She tilted her head and looked at him silently in the night breeze without answering. While she was sleepy she could still feel moved by someone.
It was around 4 o’clock in the morning when they arrived in the city and Xiang Yu didn’t insist on going home. She chose a bedroom near the stairs in Jin Fubai’s suite and fell asleep.
When she woke up, the room was covered by thick blackout curtains, it was dim.
Xiang Yu turned on her cell phone in the dark and before she could take a look at the time there was a call coming in, it was Tang Yuchi.
“Xiang Yu! What’s the matter with you? I called you more than a thousand times and tried to facetime you 800 times but you didn’t answer. I thought you had food poisoning from takeout you had yesterday!”
Xiang Yu was nestled in the quilt with her eyes still closed, “Bah, what kind of takeaway would I eat, the app was shut down yesterday and it couldn’t take orders.”
“Then what did you eat? Don’t tell me you ate the instant noodles on New Year’s Eve.”
“Do you want me to spit it out and show you?”
“Don’t be disgusting!” Tang Yuchi pinched his throat and retched over the phone, “Hey, let me tell you, my grandmother fell down yesterday and I won’t come to look for you today. “
Xiang Yu suddenly opened her eyes, “Is it serious?”
“Not serious, it’s not serious, just pulled a muscle in her waist and she is lying in bed to recuperate. ” Tang Yuchi lowered his voice, “Sorry ah, today, I cannot eat with you.”
“You don’t need to accompany me for breakfast.”
“Dumbass, it’s now one in the afternoon, what breakfast? “
She hung up the phone and looked at the time. It turned out that it was already 1:13 in the afternoon.
She had woken up once in the morning. Because there were stairs just outside the room she had vaguely heard Jin Fubai’s footsteps walking down the stairs, a little hurried. It was 6 o’clock in the morning, and he had only slept for an hour, she didn’t know what he was rushing to do.
After getting up to wash, Xiang Yu walked out of the suite. The European-style corridor was covered with a festive red carpet. When they came back in the early morning, she was too sleepy and she didn’t pay much attention to the surrounding environment. At a glance, Li Chi although he has poor taste, it was quite traditional. It was the first time that she stayed in a hotel where couplets were attached to every room during New Year.
Jin Fubai probably said not to stick anything on her room. The couplet on the opposite door was very interesting-
The upper side was, “Le Le Le Le Le”
And the lower side, “Chao Chao Chao Chao Chao”
Xiang Yu searched it up on her phone and she finally knew how to read this couplet. After Xiang Yu finished searching, she looked back at the furnishings in the suite. The coat that Jin Fubai wore yesterday was hung up by the door and the chocolate stains had been cleaned up.
A line from a couplet of a building in the Forbidden City, though the word is the same the pronunciation changes. Creating something like le ye le ye chao zhao chao zhao.
Last night was like a dream leaving no traces. Xiang Yu closed the door and standing in the corridor she stretched her waist not sure what to do later.
When Jin Fubai hurried back to the hotel it was past two o’clock in the afternoon. After he drove back in the early morning, he just stood at the window smoking a cigarette after taking a shower and he didn’t even have time to close his eyes as he received a call saying that the things he ordered had been shipped back from abroad in a hurry. But the weather was bad and the plane had made an emergency landing at the airport of a neighbouring province.
He needed the item immediately so he could only drive to a neighbouring province and hurried back when he got it.
The suite was quiet and still, the door by the stairs where Xiang Yu lived was open, the bed was neatly arranged and the staff had cleaned it. Xiang Yu had probably already left.
Jin Fubai frowned, leaned against the door, and touched his coat pocket irritably. He could not find his smoke, maybe he had left it in the car.
Actually, when he saw Xiang Yu yesterday, he had hesitated.
She certainly had some feelings for him. But she is really rational, if she didn’t to be with him, she would directly say no.
Throughout the night he hadn’t seen much enthusiasm either. She hadn’t smiled much either when talking to him.
He vaguely remembered Li Chi saying, “Brother Jin, it’s been two years. Are you emotionally invested now…” How did he reply to Li Chi at the time? Didn’t he say that he knew his boundaries?
But did he really know his boundaries? He couldn’t tell.
Was there even a boundary… He shouldn’t have messed with a girl like Xiang Yu.
At the beginning there was no miscalculation, to avoid it, Jin Fubai had even gone abroad. But what was even worse was that on the street in a foreign country, the architectural style was very different from that of Beijing. But, standing in front of a huge billboard of a diamond ring, he actually remembered what he had said to her.
“What’s there to admire, it’s just a ring, I can buy it for you.”
This conversation probably took place on a very ordinary evening. Xiang Yu ran out of the company after working overtime and an advertisement for a diamond ring was placed on the commercial building opposite the company.
But even such a trivial matter, he had also remembered clearly.
Jin Fubai wandered around abroad, stayed at home for a few days and then walked around ostentatious areas, all of which were dull. Finally, he ran to order a ring from a well-known designer, simple and stylish.
On the way back to China, Jin Fubai thought, he hadn’t agreed to her suggestion back then, should the ring be given or not. As for the development of their relationship, to put it into words.
Xiang Yu didn’t give him a chance to “talk about later” at all. Didn’t she wish him happy days with bright eyes last night…
She woke up and just left?
Jin Fubai felt like gas was trapped in his chest, and he was about to suffocate to death.
A hotel staff pushed a cart, passing by and they saw Jin Fubai and said hello politely, “Mr Jin, good afternoon.”
He was not very good.
The staff member did not go away before he hesitated for half a second, and then said, “Mr Jin, Miss Xiang is in the restaurant.” Jin Fubai raised his eyebrows suddenly, suspecting that he had misheard, “Who?”
“Miss Xiang Yu.”
When he entered the restaurant, Xiang Yu sat quietly at a dining table by the window. The weather was not so good, the outside hazy and she was wearing yesterday’s outfit. A high-rise skinny jean and a loose sweater.
The sweater had a unique style, and the hem is a circle of fluffy bears. The sweater was short and when she slightly moved, the hem stretched revealing the high-waisted jeans underneath. She is dressed like a high school student, conservative.
In fact, she was really young, only 22 years old after Chinese New Year. Her nominal age was indeed too excessive. With her birthday on New Year’s Eve, after careful calculation, she is only 20 years old now?
Jin Fubai saw her quietly eating. He didn’t know why but he wanted to laugh inexplicably.
He walked over, pulled a chair and sat across from Xiang Yu, “Waiting for me?”
Xiang Yu didn’t hide it, “I didn’t wait, just thinking that maybe I can run into you when I eat here.”
“Why not just give me a call in case you didn’t run into me?”
“If I don’t see you, then whatever”
The waiter brought up a serving of soup. Xiang Yu turned her eyes away for a while, thanked the waiter, and then slowly looked back again, her gaze fell on Jin Fubai’s face. She smiled and said, “If I knew you were going to come at such a time, I would have ordered a serving of soup for you.”
Xiang Yu took off the soup’s cup and a silver thing flew in with a ‘plop’. She raised her eyes and asked Jin Fubai, “What is it.”
The person being asked leaned back into the chair, hiding a trace of tension between his eyebrows that was hard to spot, “Didn’t you want us to be together, look, I got you a ring, did I surprise you?”
Xiang Yu got up and left, Jin Fubai paused for a few seconds. Then he caught up with her, grabbed her by the wrist, and swept the person into his arms, “Great aunt, why are you angry?”
She looked at him resentfully, “In your eyes, is dating a child’s play?”
Jin Fubai couldn’t argue with her, he could only hold back his breath and drag the person to the dining table, saying that the ring was not bought casually but it was handmade and took a long time. He also said that he drove to the neighbouring province this morning to pick up the ring like it was an ancestor and he didn’t even sleep.
Xiang Yu kept silent, and glanced at him, “Picked up the ring like it was an ancestor, then you used it to make soup and drink.”
Jin Fubai patiently took out the ring with a spoon, wiped it with a wet wipe and ordered two more soups.
The ring was placed on the table, in front of Xiang Yu. On the surface it looks like a plain ring but inside is inlaid with a circle of diamonds, sparkling under the light of a crystal chandelier.
Xiang Yu scooped the fresh soup and drank it quietly. She couldn’t figure out how sincere Jin Fubai was but when she lowered her head, she could see her shiny eyes reflected in the soup.
She wanted to agree even if his confession was not serious.
Xiang Yu drank half of the soup and raised her eyes, before she could say anything she first saw Jin Fubai’s expression.
Jin Fubai may not have had such a tense moment in his life before, frowning and licking the corner of his mouth inadvertently. She guessed that he hadn’t slept all night and there were some dark circles under his eyes.
Xiang Yu picked up the ring and put it on the ring finger of her right hand, “It’s pretty.”
Jin Fubai smiled, “You like it already?”
Seeing his wide smile, maybe he really likes her. Xiang Yu glanced at the diamond ring on her hand, so be it, being in love, she could give them a go again.
After eating, Xiang Yu said she had to go back to the bedroom to get her purse.
Thinking of her clean bedroom, Jin Fubai asked casually, “Where is the purse?”
“Under the pillow.”
The two of them stood in the elevator and Xiang Yu moved slightly forward. Then Jin Fubai approached her and kissed her on the back of her neck, “Going away so secretively? Were you trying to frighten me on purpose?”
“Were you scared?”
He sucked, making her voice tremble a little.
“I thought you were gone.” Jin Fubai said.
Back in the bedroom, she knelt by the bed and reached out to get her purse under the pillow. The room suddenly became dark, Jin Fubai had pulled the curtains.
He held her purse in his hand before her, and patted her on the hip with the long purse, “Sleep with me for a while.”
Jin Fubai hugged her in his arms from behind, and Xiang Yu fell down with him on the bed. His voice was very low, rubbing the loose ring on her hand, and his warm breath spread along her neck, “Your hand is so slender.”
Author: 殊娓
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