Chapter 76
The boldest thing they had done so far was hold hands in class behind everyone’s backs. The rest of the time, they acted completely normal. On top of that, their two roommates were both simple-minded straight guys and had not noticed a single thing off, at least not until they heard that Lin Huaixi would once again be spending the night out and moving in with Qi Wang.
Liu Zhengnian was thoroughly puzzled. “Qi Wang has other things to deal with, sure, but Huaixi, why are you leaving the dorm too? The dorm is closer to the classroom. You could sleep a whole extra ten minutes in the morning!”
Lin Huaixi, patron saint of sleeping in, found those extra ten minutes irresistibly tempting. He licked his lips. Saying something against his own will made his heart bleed. “It’s fine if I lose five minutes, no, ten minutes of sleep in the morning. It just so happens I’ve got some things to do lately, and I want to stay up at night doing problems. I’m afraid I’ll disturb you.”
When Liu Zhengnian heard that, he sighed in admiration. “As expected of top students. You two are way too intense!”
Lin Huaixi really could not bring himself to smile, so all he could do was tug at the corners of his mouth stiffly.
After saying goodbye to the two of them, he and Qi Wang headed out of campus together.
Qi Wang said smoothly, “Sorry. Because of me, you can’t stay in the dorm anymore, and you can’t sleep in either.”
Lin Huaixi’s face abruptly grew a little warm. He waved his hand. “It’s fine. This really isn’t your fault. Don’t think too much about it.”
Qi Wang paused. “Isn’t it because you want to try being with me that you moved out?”
Though Lin Huaixi had been the one to suggest it in the first place, he still could not face it openly. Now that Qi Wang had brought it up so casually in public, the heat in his face shot upward at once. Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he exploded and jumped up to cover Qi Wang’s mouth.
“Lower your voice! What if someone hears!”
Lin Huaixi quickly looked around and only relaxed after confirming there was no one nearby. That made the sensation against his palm all the more distinct.
His wrist trembled, and, as if possessed, he turned to look at Qi Wang.
Qi Wang’s eyes were deep and dark, gazing at him quietly. His eyes seemed to hold a thousand unspoken words, yet in reality, he simply let Lin Huaixi cover his mouth obediently and did not utter a single word of protest.
All at once, Lin Huaixi felt a pang in his chest.
“It’s not that I don’t want to admit my relationship with you. I just…” He withdrew his hand awkwardly and racked his brain, trying to explain himself clearly.
Qi Wang’s response was beyond his expectations. He reached out and pinched Lin Huaixi’s cheek. “I know. You’ve always been thin-skinned.”
Lin Huaixi stared blankly at him. The place that had just been pinched felt hot.
His own stunned expression was reflected in Qi Wang’s eyes, silly and adorable, with the little tuft of hair on top of his head swaying back and forth. Qi Wang could not help laughing out loud and gave an objective assessment. “Your skin really is thin.”
Even without looking in a mirror, just from how hot one side of his face felt, Lin Huaixi knew exactly how embarrassing he must look right now.
“It’s all your fault!” He had been comforting Qi Wang just moments ago, and now he dumped the blame squarely onto him. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t need to be thin-skinned at all!”
Lin Huaixi flared up on the spot, not entirely sure what he was even mad about. But after making such a fuss, the tension coiled too tightly in his shoulders and back finally loosened, and his expression came alive again.
That was exactly what Qi Wang wanted most. No matter what kind of relationship they had, no matter where they were, as long as Lin Huaixi was by his side, he could always be his truest self.
They had grown up together, and in the strictest sense, had spent even more time with each other than with their own families. They knew each other inside out. On the way home, they chatted casually. Even when the conversation lapsed into silence, another topic would naturally pick up again. It was never awkward, and neither of them ever had to rack their brains to keep the conversation going.
When they got home, Qi Wang had already ordered takeout. After dinner, instead of each returning to his own room to study, the two of them sprawled lazily on the sofa and watched TV.
Patting his full, rounded stomach, Lin Huaixi stared blankly ahead, feeling a little drowsy from being too full, absently stuffing peach slices into his mouth.
Qi Wang took the peach away from him and glanced at his belly. “If you keep eating, you’re going to get indigestion.”
Lin Huaixi had no choice but to put the peach down. “Then I’ll eat it later.”
Qi Wang: “…”
He said nothing more and simply put the remote control into Lin Huaixi’s hand.
While flipping through shows, Lin Huaixi came across a poster that looked very familiar.
The girls sitting in the front row that day had been discussing this very drama.
The show was incredibly popular. According to them, it was extremely sweet, the kind of thing that made people ship the couple to death. Those girls had practically been glowing as they talked about it, so excited they had nearly forgotten to keep their voices down.
Since neither he nor Qi Wang had any actual relationship experience and they were trying this out, maybe watching a drama like this would be a good way to learn.
Once Lin Huaixi made up his mind, he instinctively glanced at Qi Wang. Qi Wang was looking down at his iPad, the cool bluish light falling over his focused face, clearly not paying attention to what was happening over here.
For no reason at all, Lin Huaixi felt guilty. He hurriedly clicked into the drama, then immediately tossed the remote aside, as though this had all been an accident, as though his finger had slipped.
The drama’s quality lived up to the hype. The newly released episode was indeed incredibly sweet. Even though Lin Huaixi did not really know the two leads or understand exactly how far their relationship had progressed, just watching the scenes made him smile like an auntie without meaning to.
Once he noticed his own reaction, he marveled at it and instantly decided to treat the drama as a model to study from.
The sweetest scene involved the couple peeling shrimp for each other… Qi Wang had peeled shrimp for him more times than he could count, and he had peeled shrimp for Qi Wang too, just… while he was busy eating, he had peeled a lot less.
There was also a scene where the couple watched a horror movie together, their shoulders pressed tightly together… He had dragged Qi Wang into doing that countless times too, but in the drama there were pink bubbles and racing hearts from just their shoulders touching. Meanwhile, he had once been so scared during a horror movie that he had practically jumped into Qi Wang’s arms, and yet he had not felt anything extra at all. He had been too busy watching the movie.
There was also going to watch the stars together… They did that all the time. Qi Wang had even named one star “Lin Huaixi Star” and had said that whenever he missed him, he would look at it.
And then there was…
As Lin Huaixi mentally counted off all the sweet moments in the drama, he suddenly realized that he and Qi Wang had already done every single one of them countless times. Qi Wang was even more attentive and gentle than the male lead in the drama, and, most importantly, much more handsome. The heroine, meanwhile, was also very romantic, always giving the hero an equally passionate response. Of course it was sweet when both sides were equally devoted.
As for him… he had basically only served as decorative scenery.
Lin Huaixi was thinking so intently that he did not even notice Qi Wang had at some point moved over to sit beside him.
“We’ve already done all of these things.”
Qi Wang’s voice was not loud, but it yanked Lin Huaixi straight out of his own head. Lin Huaixi stared at him in shock, unable to recover his voice for quite a while.
Qi Wang asked in return, “You pulled up this drama because you wanted to study it, didn’t you?”
Lin Huaixi was astonished. “How could you tell? Was it that obvious?”
Qi Wang nodded mercilessly. “You write all your thoughts on your face.”
The little tuft of hair on Lin Huaixi’s head drooped. He felt very disappointed in himself.
At just the right moment, Qi Wang added, “But there’s one thing in that last scene we haven’t done yet.”
Lin Huaixi instinctively looked up at the screen.
Three seconds passed.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
A full minute later…
“We…” He licked his dry lips, his tone hard to read. “We really haven’t done that.”
“Then we can try.”
Lin Huaixi’s first instinct was to refuse, but then he remembered that before, he had never once given Qi Wang any response. Qi Wang must have felt lonely and hurt. He was completely unlike the male lead in the drama.
Feeling sorry for him, Lin Huaixi acted on a hotheaded impulse and forgot all about his own boundaries. “Sure. Then let’s try it.”
Qi Wang sat on the sofa, adjusted his posture, then looked at Lin Huaixi calmly and patted his thigh.
“Come sit here.”
