Xiang Di’s brain was in the middle of a frenzied internal battle.

Inside her head, there was a manic version of herself urging, hurry up and kiss him, the person you’ve been thinking about day and night is less than half a meter away from you, what exactly are you waiting for, at worst you can kiss him and run, never see each other again for the rest of your lives, anyway, get the satisfaction first and talk later.

And there was another rational version of herself trying to stop it, if you like him, then you have to respect him, regardless of gender, forcefully kissing someone is an extremely disrespectful behavior, she cannot satisfy her own bestial desire at the cost of doing something that would offend him.

The person she liked was right in front of her, the pair of lips she had coveted for so long was right before her eyes, anyone facing this kind of situation would be unable to stay calm, Xiang Di’s heart was already beating so fast that she was starting to worry she might pass out in the next second.

This isn’t a dream, right? But if this isn’t a dream, then why does the Bai Jiangxin in front of her look like a wooden dummy? Not moving at all.

According to reality, he should have pushed her away long ago by now. Even if not, at the very least, he should ask, “How long are you planning to sit on me,” and then she could naturally retract those improper thoughts and quickly get off him.

But no. He was just letting her sit on his lap in a daze, his arms still wrapped around her waist, as if… at this moment, he was also waiting for her to do something.

But she quickly denied that guess.

Impossible. She would rather believe that the world she was in was a supernatural one, that time had stopped, and that was why he hadn’t pushed her away.

【No, if time really stopped, then why do I still have consciousness? …Eh, I can clearly still blink.】

Xiang Di cautiously blinked, her eyelashes fluttering, enough to prove that time had not stopped at this moment.

Then why…

Her breathing gradually became rapid within a certain guess, the peach-flavored fruit wine surged back up her throat once again, making her dizzy.

She even felt the arm wrapped around her waist slowly tightening, as if to ensure that if she tried to flee at the last moment, he could restrain her at any time.

Bai Jiangxin’s Adam’s apple rolled lightly as he watched, bit by bit, her face dye itself with a pink blush, listening to her guesses move from the absurd idea of time stopping, step by step, closer to the truth he wanted her to realize.

No.

He heard Xiang Di say in her heart.

During this period of time, she had only just managed to draw closer to him; she could not ruin everything because of a moment of impulse.

He was the moon in the sky that she admired. She liked him so much that even if it was just a friendship, she cherished it beyond measure. No matter how wild the fantasies in her head were, it didn’t matter, but in reality, she could not, and absolutely must not, do anything that would make him feel disgusted.

Her cherishing and respect for him, in this second, far surpassed her desire and longing for him. Xiang Di turned her head aside with great difficulty.

If he couldn’t hear her thoughts, Bai Jiangxin would definitely think she was a coward again.

But he happened to hear them, and so no matter what, he couldn’t bring himself to say that word.

Bai Jiangxin had always thought that her physical interest in him far exceeded that kind of simple, pure liking. Until this moment, he finally understood that it wasn’t.

She was indeed very lustful, but compared to her sincerity and cherishing toward him, all of that was insignificant.

Under the colorful ambient lights, the ambiguous glow fell on him, illuminating his black clothes and his cool, detached face. Fine, fragmented light swayed within his pupils, like flickering candle flames gently wavering.

A warm, heated sensation wrapped around his entire heart. Bai Jiangxin clearly sensed his chest violently trembling. What it felt like to be treasured like a priceless gem and held carefully in someone’s heart—he felt it from her.

She was not a coward. She was, in this complex world of human emotions, the only person he wanted to constantly maintain a connection with.

Sensing that Xiang Di seemed to want to get off him, Bai Jiangxin subconsciously didn’t want to let this soft warmth leave just like that. He tightened his arms and forcibly pressed her down onto his lap.

In her slightly startled gaze, Bai Jiangxin pressed his lips together, his cool face faintly furrowed, flickering eyes holding a few traces of struggling impulse, and also helpless embarrassment.

She did not plan to kiss him, but he very much wanted her to kiss him.

He wanted to kiss her.

She was a gentleman whose rationality outweighed impulse, but he was not.

He leaned in shamefully. In that instant of soft contact, the hand pinching at Xiang Di’s waist lightly trembled with the force. Xiang Di’s entire body stiffened, and immediately after, the private room was completely shattered out of its quiet by a loud shout.

Having finished unloading, Wang Sichen was now refreshed and energetic, forcefully pushing open the private room door.

“Comrades, sorry to keep you waiting! Your king has returned!!!”

Only after shouting did he realize there were only two people in the room.

Both looked a bit strange.

Bai Jiangxin was sitting on the sofa, his outstretched arms not yet pulled back, looking at Xiang Di on the floor with a complicated expression.

Xiang Di was sitting by his feet, one hand supporting her lower back, her expression pained.

Wang Sichen walked over. “What are you two doing? Xiang Di, why are you sitting on the floor?”

“I just accidentally fell…”

She answered reluctantly. Facing Bai Jiangxin’s motion to reach out and help her, she lowered her eyes and avoided it, supporting herself on the sofa and standing up on her own.

Wang Sichen: “Why is it just you two? Where are the others?”

“They went out,” Xiang Di said. “I’ll go find them.”

After saying that, without waiting for Wang Sichen to respond, Xiang Di held her waist and, like a loach, slipped past Wang Sichen at the doorway and darted out of the private room.

Wang Sichen didn’t even manage to call her.

That nimble little figure disappeared from the resplendent corridor at flash-like speed.

He had no choice but to turn his gaze to Bai Jiangxin, trying to see something from him.

He was sitting on the sofa, hunched forward, legs spread, elbows propped on his knees, one hand hanging down with nowhere to go, the other covering his forehead. His lips were pressed tight, eyes closed, not knowing what he was thinking.

Being classmates for two years, Bai Jiangxin had always carried himself with lofty pride, an arrogant and aloof top student. Wang Sichen had never seen him look so dejected before. He spoke cautiously: “…What’s wrong with you?”

The Adam’s apple rolled uneasily, swallowing air. Bai Jiangxin still kept his eyes closed, his voice hoarse: “Nothing.”

Nothing?

Did he think he was an idiot?

Late at night, alone with a member of the opposite sex in a dimly lit private room—even immortals would find it hard to restrain themselves.

Wang Sichen knew Bai Jiangxin was definitely lying, but unfortunately, he didn’t dare to ask.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

Zhou Linxiao and the other two hadn’t gone far. They each bought an ice cream cone at a milk tea shop not far below the KTV and stood at the entrance, eating and chatting.

Until Xiang Di ran down, found them, and said Wang Sichen was back and they could go.

The three returned to the private room. After confirming that Wang Sichen had recovered his lively spirit, and that the extended time had just ended, the group could finally go home.

It was already past seven in the evening. Large and small neon signboards along the street lit up, and the group walked along the road toward the place to get a taxi.

Xiang Di linked arms with Liang Qianqian and walked at the front, while the four boys walked behind them.

Just like during the day, as they walked, Ye Minjia and Wang Sichen caught up, saying they refused to be green leaves for the other two.

The lighting at night wasn’t great, but the various advertisement lights along the street still managed to light up the good looks of two extremely handsome guys.

Unlike during the day, Xiang Di didn’t turn her head even once.

Even though she could clearly see the amazement in the eyes of several passersby who brushed past her, and even heard bold girls behind them asking for their contact information, she still forcibly suppressed the urge to look back.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to.

She simply didn’t dare.

She was afraid that if she turned around and met Bai Jiangxin’s gaze, she would die on the spot.

What happened in the private room during those few minutes—she still didn’t dare believe it.

That actually wasn’t a drunk dream she had after drinking too much.

If it were a dream, it would at least be explainable.

Because the Bai Jiangxin in her dreams would be controlled by her deep subconscious. So whatever Bai Jiangxin did in her dreams would merely be some kind of projection and desire from her own heart. When she woke up, even if she felt disappointed that it was only a dream, Xiang Di could distinguish between dreams and reality, and she wouldn’t be absentminded just because of a dream.

But that just happened to not be a dream.

In the afternoon she had only drunk low-alcohol fruit wine, nowhere near the point of hallucinating.

So when she accidentally fell onto him, and was incomparably tangled over whether she should take advantage of the chance to secretly kiss him, she had just given up—

And yet, at that very instant, Bai Jiangxin suddenly leaned in.

His breath brushed against the corner of her lips, and the corner of her lips seemed to, in that second, really touch something soft carrying the scent of peach fruit wine.

So… did they touch?

Xiang Di didn’t dare think about it at all.

Once she thought about it, she estimated she wouldn’t even have the strength to walk anymore.

She subconsciously bit her lower lip, seeming to smell again that cold yet sweet fragrance mixed with peach fruit wine.

【I’m done, my legs are really weak.】

If Bai Jiangxin weren’t right behind her, she truly wanted to squat down on the spot, bury her head in her knees, and let her heart properly calm down for a few minutes.

Xiang Di suddenly leaned back onto Liang Qianqian.

Liang Qianqian’s arm suddenly gained a human-shaped pendant. She tried shaking it twice but couldn’t shake it off, and said helplessly, “Do you have no bones?”

“Let me lean for a bit,” Xiang Di clung tightly to Liang Qianqian’s arm, weakly. “I can’t walk anymore.”

Wang Sichen beside them twitched the corner of his mouth.

“Girls are so lucky. They can be this clingy and no one will suspect they’re lesbians,” Wang Sichen said. “If it were two guys, they’d have been taken as gay long ago, right, class monitor?”

Ye Minjia shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. Zhou Linxiao, who was walking behind them, also saw the two sticking together and said to Bai Jiangxin, “Girls seem to really like sticking together. That girl who asked you for your WeChat earlier was also holding hands with her friend.”

Not only that girl who asked Bai Jiangxin earlier—along the way, several girls who asked them for contact information also had friends accompanying them. That way, even if they were rejected, at least they still had friends with them.

What that girl earlier looked like, and whether she had a friend with her or not, Bai Jiangxin didn’t care about at all. Toward Zhou Linxiao’s words, he only gave a perfunctory mm.

Although Xiang Di and Liang Qianqian were walking at the very front, the distance between them wasn’t far.

Bai Jiangxin could still hear what Xiang Di was currently thinking.

She was making excuses for him in her heart.

【He definitely didn’t do it on purpose. It must have been because he was drunk, so his body was a bit out of control. After all, drunk people really do sway around easily. That accidental forward lean, and then… they touched. Right, that must be it. Very reasonable. So I just need to pretend nothing happened. Maybe after he sleeps and wakes up, he’ll forget about it?】

【Anyway, it only lightly touched the corner of my lips, it wasn’t mouth-to-mouth completely pressed together, the tongue didn’t even stick out, it doesn’t count as a first kiss at all, okay? Maybe he didn’t even feel it? He didn’t take it to heart at all, and here you are caring so much—if you care, you lose, OK?】