At nine in the evening, in the hotel room.
After Lu Xingyan calmly told Pei Yue, “I won’t be coming back today, I’m staying at Li Chengfan’s place,” he turned off his phone. Then he carefully selected a channel playing an idol drama, leaned against the headboard, put on a serious expression, and waited for Shen Xingruo to come out of the bathroom.
Recalling the scene earlier that afternoon when Shen Xingruo ran out of the high-speed rail station, Lu Xingyan couldn’t help but feel a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
When Shen Xingruo said, “I don’t want to wait for you for another year to start dating again,” all Lu Xingyan could think of was, “It’s her,” “I want to marry her,” “I want to make her my wife!”
In the idle eighteen years of his life, it seemed that he had never been so certain.
The bathroom in this hotel faced the bed and was separated by semi-transparent frosted glass with blinds inside. Lu Xingyan couldn’t see inside, but Shen Xingruo could easily see all of Lu Xingyan’s little movements as he sat at the head of the bed.
He would glance at the bathroom now and then, then focus on the TV screen with a serious expression, and then he’d laugh again.
Seeing Lu Xingyan laugh, Shen Xingruo also felt like laughing, but when she saw her smile in the mirror, she forced herself to straighten her lips.
Shen Xingruo had always thought that her ideal relationship was with someone more mature than herself, someone with whom she didn’t need to argue over trivial matters or do stupid things that would only cause trouble.
But when Lu Xingyan suddenly matured to the point where he no longer tried to hold her back or acted unreasonably stubborn, she suddenly felt… very uncomfortable, and even a bit… sad.
Walking with Fang Jingran to the ticket checkpoint, she looked back several times, but Lu Xingyan never caught up.
Sitting in the waiting area, Shen Xingruo kept wondering what was wrong.
Just then, He Siyue sent her a WeChat message.
He Siyue didn’t say much, just forwarded her the schedule for a summer camp.
But when she saw the three words “He Siyue,” suddenly everything became clear to her.
If her ideal partner needed to be mature and sensible, why didn’t she just like He Siyue directly?
Turning back once wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined. At least when she turned back to Lu Xingyan, she got the result she wanted.
When Shen Xingruo came out of the bathroom, the TV was showing the male and female protagonists kissing.
Seeing her come out, Lu Xingyan actively sat up straight and waved the hairdryer in his hand, “Come here, I’ll blow-dry your hair for you.”
Shen Xingruo had good hair quality, but since she had it permed before, taking care of it would be a bit more troublesome.
Lu Xingyan blew her hair for a while, then rubbed some essential oil into it. Halfway through, Shen Xingruo felt like her sense of smell was about to fail her, the whole room was filled with the scent of jasmine essential oil.
“You put too much, don’t you have a sense of smell? Smell this fragrance.”
Lu Xingyan leaned in and sniffed earnestly. “Does it smell good? I think it’s alright, but not as good as you.”
Shen Xingruo paused. “You’re being weird.”
Lu Xingyan paused his actions, suddenly turned off the hairdryer, kissed her earlobe, then leaned his head on her shoulder affectionately, asking, “What’s weird about me?”
As he asked, he hugged Shen Xingruo and shifted her body backward.
Originally, Shen Xingruo was sitting at the edge of the bed, just barely touching the edge. Lu Xingyan was blowing her hair from behind, so there was still some distance between them. But with the sudden embrace, her back was against Lu Xingyan’s chest, and her tailbone suddenly touched something hot…
Normal.
He was just too normal.
Shen Xingruo pursed her lips, turned the hairdryer back on, and gestured for him to continue drying her hair.
They took the subway back to the city from the high-speed rail station and hadn’t eaten dinner yet.
The thing was, they weren’t in a hurry for anything. They weren’t experienced adults in a rush to get to bed—they hadn’t even eaten yet, but they took a shower first.
After showering, Shen Xingruo didn’t want to go out again, so they snuggled up in bed and ordered takeout.
Shen Xingruo leaned against Lu Xingyan’s chest and looked at the menu. “These are all barbecue options, do you want to add a fried rice with egg?”
“No,” Lu Xingyan shook his head, his hand sliding around Shen Xingruo’s waist, gliding over the screen of his phone. “There’s crayfish, don’t you like crayfish?”
“I just cut my nails, I don’t want to peel them.”
“I’ll peel them for you.”
He added the large crayfish to the cart.
Shen Xingruo turned to look at him and suddenly kissed him on the Adam’s apple.
A surprise gift from heaven made Lu Xingyan secretly pleased.
After ordering supper, Shen Xingruo started looking at milk tea options.
“I want a white peach oolong milk cap, but it’s the evening rush hour now, and they might not deliver it cold.”
Without hesitation, Lu Xingyan said, “I’ll chill it for you.”
As he spoke, he leaned forward, posing as if he was going to kiss her.
Shen Xingruo paused for a moment. “Do you think you’re a refrigerator?”
“…?”
Lu Xingyan thought for a moment, then shamelessly said, “I’m not, but I can call room service to bring some ice over. Anyway, if I say I’ll chill it for you, then I’ll chill it for you. But you have to kiss me first.”
Shen Xingruo sat up from his embrace and pushed his face away, but seeing him exaggerating a painful expression, she leaned forward and kissed him lightly.
They didn’t go out, spending the night in the hotel instead. They ate supper while watching a melodramatic idol drama, and then they started to critique every aspect of the show from the set design, costumes, and makeup to the logic of the lines.
Perhaps it was because the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” applied not only to new marriages but also to reconciliations after a breakup, both of them felt that this was the happiest night they had spent in many days.