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She was dazed for quite a while.
It was not until Gu Ci withdrew his finger, and the cool touch at the corner of her eye disappeared, that Yan Luqing finally came back to her senses as though waking from a great dream.
What he had just said… was that he must first ask her own eyes, why they would see him looking at her.
It was twisted logic, but indeed, it easily tossed the question back onto her side.
Yan Luqing took a deep breath, steadying her chaotic emotions: “Of course I look at you because… because I came here together with you.”
After Gu Ci withdrew his hand, his gaze and expression did not change, still looking at her: “Then I am the same.”
That posture seemed as though, if the reason she spoke aloud had been something else, he would also have said, “I am the same.”
This thought suddenly emerged in Yan Luqing’s mind, and she found it strange.
What other reason could there be?
None. Only this reason.
The atmosphere instantly dropped down from its previous height.
“…Watch the movie, it’s almost ending.”
After speaking, she was the first to turn her head toward the big screen, forcing herself to concentrate on the images.
At this moment, the male and female leads had already passed the “lights-out” segment. The camera shifted from the bed to the window, recording the night until sunrise, indicating that one night had passed.
The next morning, the camera once again swept back to the bed, from the foot of the bed to the head, once more showing the two leaning against each other, asleep.
The male and female leads opened their eyes and looked at each other, followed by another round of kissing.
Yan Luqing: “…”
Fortunately, after kissing for a while the scene changed, returning to a comedic style, and all the way until the ending no more overly sticky scenes appeared.
But no matter what, that inserted intimate scene still remained the most deeply imprinted—when Yan Luqing saw the final joke, and laughed out loud along with the rest of the audience, upon leaving the theater, the scene replaying in her mind was still that kiss scene.
The angle, the lighting, the sound of breath, the close-up of lips…
From the mall all the way to the parking lot, and then to getting into the car, scenes from that moment kept popping up in Yan Luqing’s mind from time to time.
After sitting firmly in the car, she irritably pushed at her own hair, not noticing that the ears she had originally hidden were now fully exposed.
Immediately afterward, the sound of the car door closing came from beside her. A shadow flashed past the corner of Yan Luqing’s vision, and in the next second—
Her ear was suddenly pressed against something icy cold.
Her whole body froze. Only after several seconds did she raise her eyes to look.
Gu Ci was leaning against the backrest of the car seat, sitting lazily, his fingers lightly touching her earlobe.
The icy fingertip touched the burning hot skin. That feeling was rather peculiar, as though all the pores around her had opened, every trace of sensation magnified to the extreme.
As if discovering some amusing thing, he laughed and sighed: “Too hot, isn’t it.”
“……”
Gu Ci then asked: “From watching the movie?”
“……” Yan Luqing refused to admit it, so she randomly accused: “Clearly it’s because your hand is cold.”
“My hand is cold?” Gu Ci laughed as he repeated her words. After speaking, he suddenly raised his hand and touched his own earlobe, then leaned over in her direction, lowering his head slightly before her, and grabbed her wrist to lift it to his own ear—
Then he said in an even tone: “Try the temperature.”
Everything came far too unexpectedly, and the tone in which he spoke was far too natural.
Gu Ci’s grip on her was not strong. Yan Luqing obviously could have broken free, yet because of that sentence, she involuntarily opened her fingers—as if imitating how Gu Ci had just pinched her earlobe, she too pinched his.
Warm, soft, smooth.
The texture was extremely delicate.
It was simply too good to touch. After pinching once, Yan Luqing subconsciously pinched again.
“……”
Not until Gu Ci lifted his eyes to meet her gaze did she realize what she had just done.
A few seconds later, a soft laugh sounded in the car.
Gu Ci looked at her, the corners of his eyes curving: “I let you test the temperature, not to play.”
…!
At this moment, Yan Luqing once again gave rise to that nearly exploding feeling she had just now in the cinema.
But Gu Ci still had not finished. With a smile at the corners of his lips, he moved her wrist to her own earlobe.
“Try your own temperature again.”
Yan Luqing: “……”
What kind of? operation?? is this???
Letting her pinch her earlobe, then pinch his earlobe, all just to prove that indeed her earlobe was very hot and not that his hand was cold???
Yan Luqing was both shocked and ashamed. She did not know whether Gu Ci had gone mad, or the world had gone mad, or she herself had gone mad. She quickly drew her hand back, straightened her hair, firmly covering her ears, and glared fiercely at Gu Ci: “It’s my earlobe that’s hot! Is that enough!”
In this appearance she was simply like a little milk cat baring its teeth.
“Oh, now you admit it.” Gu Ci smiled as he continued to ask, “So, why is it hot?”
“Because I am pure, I am shy.” She shamelessly said, “I just can’t watch that kind of scene, is that not allowed!”
Gu Ci’s smile deepened, and he nodded: “Allowed.”
Afterward, the two simultaneously looked toward their respective car windows. Only, on one side of the glass was reflected a joyful smiling face, and on the other side, a face flushed red with shame and anger.
That night after arriving home, Yan Luqing hardly spoke to Gu Ci. When he took the initiative to find her to talk, her responses were mostly ill-tempered.
But her anger came quickly and went quickly. Returning to her room and finishing her bath, that inexplicable anger toward Gu Ci vanished, replaced instead by a jumble of strange, messy emotions.
She began recalling that gaze in the cinema, when he touched her eye.
And afterward, when he touched her earlobe in the car, when he held her wrist through her clothing…
Thinking and thinking, she suddenly realized—today she had actually had so much physical contact with Gu Ci!
Damn!!!
Yan Luqing exploded with a curse in her heart, then grabbed the life-sized pillow printed with “peerless beauty” and barked at it: “Who allowed you this kind of physical contact! Who allowed you, huh!”
How could this person be so lacking in self-respect!!!
Completely unaware that her own logic had a huge problem, she just glared at the pillow for a few seconds, before slowly loosening her grip, smoothing out the wrinkles, hugging it, burrowing into the covers, and turning off the light to sleep.
Ever since that time she had seemingly been counter-hypnotized, Yan Luqing’s sleep quality had returned to her former top level. And with the pillow now, she slept even better and faster.
Having gone so long without dreaming, she actually began to dream again.
In the dream, there was no bizarre strangeness, no terrifying or horrific scenes—just a simple replay of that intimate scene in the cinema.
From beginning to end, and even further refined, zoomed in and out, close-ups and long shots, every angle, every camera position.
She watched again the part that had been broadcast in the movie.
And the parts the movie had not broadcast—her dream completed them for her.
Even the atmosphere was the same as in the movie, carrying that same intensity right before the go/to/bed moment.
By the end, as if the scene had come alive again, she could no longer endure it and turned her head—only to find herself meeting a pair of smiling eyes.
They were a pair of strikingly recognizable, jet-black, beautiful eyes.
At a glance, it was Gu Ci.
After such a dream, when Yan Luqing woke the next morning, she was utterly bewildered.
Was she simply not suited to watching movies, getting far too absorbed, which was why she dreamed afterward?
But even if she dreamed—why was it not just the movie scenes… but instead, she dreamed of the prelude to the go/to/bed moment with her and Gu Ci together???
Would the dream evolve?
Would tomorrow be her and Gu Ci holding hands watching porn together???
Stuffed full of complaints, Yan Luqing washed up and changed clothes, then went downstairs for breakfast.
When she met Gu Ci in the dining room, seeing him smile as he greeted her, those eyes appeared vividly before her again, and last night’s dream seemed to replay.
Yan Luqing practically could not look him straight in the eye.
Perhaps her mask of suffering was too obvious, because after greeting her, Gu Ci very humanely asked with concern: “What’s wrong?”
He probably asked casually: “Did you have a nightmare?”
Yan Luqing was silent for a few seconds.
“To tell the truth,” she said solemnly, “I don’t know either.”
Though it had nothing to do with nightmares, it did make one suspect that one’s brain was broken.
“……”
Seeing her somewhat exaggerated expression, and no trace of poor sleep on her face, Gu Ci did not bring up the topic again.
After breakfast, the two each went off to school.
After Yan Luqing finished reading that post on the forum—or rather, after experiencing that idiotic dream last night—her tolerance for many things seemed to have increased. For example, regarding the secret glances that beautiful girls cast at her, she no longer cared much at all.
Moreover, something more important lay before her—
Today was November 10th, only two days away from Gu Ci’s birthday.
In the classroom, Yan Luqing stared at the incomprehensible text on the screen in front of her, twirling her pen in hand, her thoughts drifting far away.
She still had not figured out what gift to prepare for Gu Ci. The whole set of birthday celebration arrangements she had left entirely to Da Little Black and the others to prepare. But the gift—she definitely had to give one as well.
Thinking and thinking, she could not help but tug on the braided pigtail of Little Mahua beside her: “Tell me, what birthday gift is good to give a boy?”
Little Mahua immediately smelled something unusual: “Gu Ci’s birthday is coming soon?”
“Mm…” Yan Luqing nodded. “I don’t have much experience.”
Little Mahua: “But why are you asking me?”
Yan Luqing found it strange: “Don’t you have a boyfriend? Giving gifts to boys, I thought you’d have plenty of experience—”
“No no no, giving gifts to a boyfriend and giving gifts to a boy are two completely different concepts!” Little Mahua interrupted, laughing quite slyly. “Hahaha~ Be honest, haven’t you already considered Gu Ci as your boyfriend in your heart?” She slapped her thigh: “I knew it! It’s sugar, it’s sugar!!”
Yan Luqing: “…………” Damn it, you can ship even this?
Yan Luqing ground her teeth in hatred: “Hey, I’m talking to you seriously! I really don’t know what to give.”
“Gu Ci, that kind of person, has seen countless expensive things since he was young, he surely wouldn’t look at them twice.” Yan Luqing analyzed earnestly. “As for saying something novel, I can’t think of anything that is both novel and suitable to give as a birthday gift. And also…”
Little Mahua watched her side profile. The girl was counting on her fingers, eliminating one by one, seriously troubled.
She suddenly thought that love, before the veil was pierced, was also extremely beautiful.
Just looking at Yan Luqing’s expression of being in love without knowing it…
She could keep shipping for another hundred years!
After Yan Luqing finished speaking, and after Little Mahua had finished appreciating, as one who very much hoped for these two to marry, she also very seriously answered Yan Luqing’s question.
“I think,” Little Mahua said, “a gift isn’t better just because it’s more expensive, nor because it’s more peculiar. The more it’s something he wants, the better it is.”
“……”
Yan Luqing had felt stifled all morning, constantly thinking about what kind of thing could count as novel, what would be suitable as a gift.
Hearing Little Mahua’s words, she suddenly felt as if she had found her direction.
She gave Little Mahua’s shoulder a heavy pat: “Consort Mahua, what you just said, I am willing to call the most nutritious words you’ve spoken so far.”
Then, regardless of how Mafei fussed, Yan Luqing began to concentrate on recalling every past moment she had spent with Gu Ci.
From the beginning until now, he seemed to have rarely stated clearly what he wanted, or what he desired.
Only once—
After she had gone out to learn hypnosis, and returned to the villa with a guilty conscience, as usual trying to appease her own conscience, she went to the back garden, attempting to pick flowers and make another flower crown to give to Gu Ci.
Unexpectedly, in the back garden stood two people early on—one Princess Ci watering flowers, and one servant Little Black also watering flowers.
After the servant left, Yan Luqing exchanged a few brief words with the princess. He saw through her intention of wanting to give him a flower crown.
