PSE - 53

Because the main customer base consisted of truck drivers and loaders, most dining establishments near the logistics center lacked elaborate decorations. The small shops, each about twenty square meters, were dim and greasy, winning customers over with cheap and plentiful food.

At 2 PM, the small noodle shop was deserted except for the boss’s two children doing homework at the table closest to the heater and Ha Yue and Xue Jing as the only customers.

The big red menu on the wall listed only text descriptions. Apart from clay pot rice, there were two or three types of noodles. Xue Jing wasn’t very hungry, so to avoid wasting food, Ha Yue ordered a stir-fried knife-cut noodle dish and asked the boss to split it into two portions.

Before the noodles arrived, Xue Jing took the opportunity to almost eagerly help Ha Yue pour water and wash the utensils. However, there weren’t many details to fuss over when eating noodles. Finally, with nothing else to do, he picked up half a head of purple garlic from a small bamboo basket on the corner of the table, muttering Aunt Siqin’s frequent saying: “Eating noodles without garlic reduces the flavor by half,” and began peeling the garlic skin for Ha Yue.

The garlic was peeled cleanly and placed on a napkin. Xue Jing slowly took a sip of the shop’s aged tea, frowned, and silently pushed their teacups a little further away. He clasped his hands together on the table, took a deep breath, and finally called out Ha Yue’s name.

Ha Yue was replying to work messages on her phone. Hearing that he was finally about to speak, she put down her phone and looked up at him.

But as soon as she looked at him, it was as if Xue Jing were a criminal sitting in front of an interrogation table. Just being swept by Ha Yue’s bright gaze made him panic inside. He pursed his lips to hide his embarrassment and picked up the teacup again to take another sip of the “mop water” inside. This time, the broken tea leaves went straight into his throat, and he suddenly covered his mouth and nose, starting to cough violently.

Tears streamed out, along with snot. The tea leaves even flew out of his nostrils.

Xue Jing rushed to the restroom with a tissue covering his face.

Ha Yue was amused by this clownish behavior, shaking her head as she continued to reply to work messages.

By the time Xue Jing came out of the restroom with wet hands, the stir-fried noodles had already been served. Without waiting for him, Ha Yue had already started eating heartily.

Ha Yue hadn’t eaten all morning and was starving, so she ate with great relish. On the other side of the table, however, Xue Jing was delicately picking at his food with his chopsticks. He lifted a strand of noodles to his mouth, and with every chew, he glanced at Ha Yue across from him.

By the time Ha Yue was almost finished, he had only eaten ten strands of noodles. Feeling full, he set down his chopsticks and called her name again.

“Yueyue.”

Ha Yue glanced at his plate and asked, “What’s wrong? Doesn’t it taste good?”

It didn’t taste good, but he didn’t say so.

Xue Jing picked up his chopsticks again, gave Ha Yue an innocent smile, and pretended to eat with great appetite: “No, it’s delicious. I’ve discovered that as long as I’m with you, everything tastes good.”

“Oh,” Ha Yue ignored his oily sweet talk, popped a clove of garlic into her mouth, and cleaned up the last bite of noodles. “Then why do you keep calling me? Do you have something to say?”

Only today did Xue Jing realize how remarkable it was when Ha Yue apologized to him back then. She naturally admitted the mistakes she had made in the past, and during the apology, she showed no hesitation or awkwardness. But now, when it came to himself, he couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth.

Even today, he still wasn’t a completely carefree person, at least not in handling romantic relationships. In this aspect, he was not as open-minded as Ha Yue.

The last time he confessed to Ha Yue in a “scumbag” manner, it was because he had no other choice but to take a gamble. Ultimately, those analyses were still tools to deepen their bond. But this time, he already had too much affection and attachment. Without knowing how Ha Yue would react, he simply didn’t dare to reveal everything he had said before.

“Mm.” Xue Jing stuffed another large mouthful of knife-cut noodles into his mouth. After chewing and swallowing, he solemnly said, “I really, really like you.”

“Like you a lot, a whole lot.”

“Hey!” The elementary school students behind them, who were doing their winter vacation homework, suddenly burst into giggles because of Xue Jing’s soap-opera-like confession. Ha Yue felt as if needles were pricking her back and immediately stomped on his foot under the table. “Shut up!”

As if his leg had eyes, Xue Jing not only deftly avoided her attack but also grabbed her knee beneath her skirt. His slender fingers tightened inch by inch over her calf through her long boots, massaging it like a flirtatious chiropractor until her cheeks burned red.

He didn’t shut up; his perfectly shaped lips kept talking. He said, “So can you like me a little more? Favor me a bit more. Depend on me a little more.”

If she loved him a little more, he thought he might dare to sincerely apologize for his past behavior. If she couldn’t live without him, then he wouldn’t have to worry so much about losing her in the future.

Thus, after much self-reflection, he concluded that the root of solving the problem lay with Ha Yue.

Ha Yue twisted her legs, wrestling with one of his arms. The stool beneath her, unable to bear the weight, let out a “squeak squeak” sound on the tiles.

The winter vacation homework was closed, and the older child began lip-syncing with their sibling, deliberately mimicking Xue Jing’s cheesy lines. The younger girl was even more mischievous, suddenly raising her shrill voice to sing, “On the grassland in the east, there are two cows. The bull says to the cow, ‘I love you.’ The cow says to the bull, ‘Aren’t you ashamed?’”

The boss, who was dozing off in the kitchen while listening to an audiobook, slapped the counter hard upon hearing the commotion and immediately scolded the two children: “Damn it! Are you going to do your homework or not? Are you two itching for a beating?”

The children suddenly fell silent and quickly reopened their winter vacation homework, writing furiously. Ha Yue clenched her teeth, making a “gritting” sound. Unable to create a scene in the noodle shop, she stopped struggling and stared at him with her clear, dark eyes. Without moving her vocal cords, she whispered through her breath, “Xue Jing, stop acting crazy! Let go!”

From glaring so hard, the crease of her double eyelids disappeared entirely. Her originally charming eye shape now appeared incredibly innocent due to its roundness. Xue Jing held her calf with his right hand, rubbing it up and down with his palm. His voice lowered in response to her volume.

“Then promise me first.”

A wise man avoids present trouble. Ha Yue immediately nodded and blinked, behaving obediently as if she were a hostage taken by bandits. “I promise you, I promise everything.”

“What do you promise?” Xue Jing’s fingers had reached her ankle. Even in such cold weather, for both business and warmth, aside from wearing thin fleece tights, she had also put on a pair of knee-high suede boots under her long skirt. The boot shaft was soft, like the skin of a short-haired dog. He almost pulled her entire leg onto his stool to squeeze it.

Ha Yue resisted the urge to roll her eyes and, with a wrinkled nose, mumbled vaguely, “I promise to like you a little more, to love you a little more. Not just that, in the future, I’ll chase you relentlessly from all angles. Xue Jing, just wait and see. I’ll make you suffocate in a tornado of love, clinging to you like a parasitic vine, wrapping around you until you beg your ancestors for mercy, crying your eyes out, asking me to give you some space.”

Ha Yue was telling a horror story, but Xue Jing took it as a beautiful vision. He released her leg and handed her a disposable mouthwash, resuming his usual poised and elegant demeanor. “Ha Yue, you’d better be serious.”

When Ha Yue came out of the noodle shop, it was Xue Jing’s turn to go to the restroom to rinse his mouth. She picked up her bag and quickly ran to the car. As soon as Xue Jing unlocked it, she immediately opened the backseat door and sat in the farthest row.

It was really embarrassing to be teased by children in the noodle shop, especially since the lyrics of the song they sang were quite fitting. Xue Jing was really sick, possibly very ill. Was he seeking emotional satisfaction because of his career setbacks? In any case, for her own safety, she wanted to stay as far away from this mentally unstable patient as possible during the rest of the journey.

When Xue Jing opened the driver’s seat and looked back, he asked Ha Yue, “Don’t you want to sit in the front?”

Ha Yue just hummed a response while keeping her head down, her face clearly signaling not to disturb her. After closing the door, Xue Jing didn’t get into the car but went around to the back, opened the door, and squeezed into the backseat.

“Hey! I’m replying to a client’s message.” Ha Yue frowned when he kissed her cheek.

“Hmm. Kissing won’t delay your messages. Or do you want to do something else? Although I also want to, it might not be possible here. The previous owner of this car put on window tint that’s too light, making visibility too high during the day. We’d better not take risks.”

Xue Jing’s fingers traced along her eyebrows, the corners of her eyes, all the way to her lips. For a couple deeply in love, their current situation meant they saw each other infrequently due to their busy schedules. After a week apart, their pent-up impulses were understandable. If it weren’t for the troublesome new book promotion, would this kiss have waited until now?

Save the delicacy for last. First, he kissed her cheeks, her eyelashes, her hair, and her earlobes.

He didn’t kiss her lips, only scorched them with a wild gaze and touched them with the texture of his fingertips.

Why was a grown man’s mouth so soft? It felt like kissing a marshmallow covered in frost. Moreover, Xue Jing naturally had delicate skin. Even in the dry city of Suicheng, his lips maintained a healthy pink hue.

Ha Yue was dazzled by this pink hue, and her phone slipped from her palm, her voice breaking intermittently, “If you wanted to kiss, you should’ve said so earlier…”

She had just chewed on a piece of garlic raw, truly a romantic mood killer.

With his thumb pressing against her teeth and stirring inside her mouth, Xue Jing didn’t mind at all. He even encouraged her to open wider so he could see the structure inside. “So you did rinse your mouth.” Now both of them tasted like green grape mint.

“Your lips look a bit dry; let me help you.” Ha Yue didn’t know what nonsense he was spouting. She had reapplied lip gloss after eating. His rubbing on her face was more like removing her makeup.

The taste in their mouths intensified with friction, their breathing became rapid. Though the car hadn’t started yet, the cold winter air quickly turned warm with minty fragrance. Both people sitting in the backseat heated up, and if it continued, it might become inappropriate for young audiences.

After the kiss ended, Xue Jing returned to the driver’s seat. A smear of oolong milk tea-colored lipstick rolled on his pale thumb. Upon closer inspection, there were a few brown-gold glitter specks under his eyes—liquid eyeshadow that Ha Yue had dabbed on her eyelids.

Ha Yue’s entire makeup was nearly ruined; her highlighter and blush melted into one mess on her face. When the car started, her first action wasn’t to pull out a mirror to fix her makeup. Still catching her breath, she turned her back and reached her hands under the hem of her shirt, fumbling with the hooks of her bra that had slightly come undone.

Seeing Ha Yue reposition all her clothing through the rearview mirror, Xue Jing finally spoke: “Ha Yue, think about it. Everyone might have been annoying when they were kids, but they should grow out of it. Everyone needs a process of learning, correcting mistakes, and maturing, right?”

Ha Yue thought his reflection was aimed at the children who had mocked their relationship in the noodle shop. Her voice showed surprise: “What are you talking about? Don’t you hate kids who oppose you? Last time, you told me that you can tell someone’s future at three years old. That little girl riding the kiddie ride was named Niu Niu, and you gave her the nickname ‘little monkey.’”

“No, she started it! She called me a big dummy as soon as she saw me! Is being tall illegal? Let her try not growing then. Stay under a meter forever.”

Xue Jing lost his composure after being provoked by Ha Yue. Realizing how childish he sounded, he calmed down for a while, passed two traffic lights, and launched another attempt at self-consoling apologies. This time, he changed the conversation method.

“Ha Yue, let’s talk about something else. If a couple’s relationship is very stable, shouldn’t they avoid new changes caused by small past incidents?”

“Last time we watched the sunrise, you also said that the best outcome for past events is to let them go, right? We should focus on the future.”

As soon as Ha Yue heard Xue Jing say this, her radar immediately went up. She narrowed her eyes, suspecting that he had been setting traps for her since earlier. Without alarming him, she applied lip gloss with her cushion compact, pretending not to care much. “It’s not that absolute. What I said last time was about me and my mom. Each situation requires specific analysis. It depends on what exactly happened in the past, as everyone perceives the severity of events differently.”

“If one person considers something minor while another sees it as major, then it’s hard to say.”

“Especially between men and women, many things can happen. For instance, alcoholism, violence, infidelity, prostitution…”

“Hey!” Seeing Ha Yue getting increasingly off-topic, Xue Jing quickly stopped her train of thought. “How could that be! The person I’m talking about wouldn’t stoop so low, right? It’s just someone who isn’t particularly bad saying some wrong things when they were young.”

“What kind of things?”

“Nothing much, just some pretentious words.”

“Oh, pretentious words.”

For example, Xue Jing had publicly stated many times that his success was all because Ha Yue had dumped him. Not only that, but he also hinted that his ex-girlfriend was a materialistic woman who liked to cry in a Bentley. Ha Yue knew these things even before Xiaoyu sent them to her. She had even joined Xue Jing’s book club in Jixi City.

After making Xue Jing sweat for a while, Ha Yue suddenly raised her face and looked at his eyes in the rearview mirror, which kept glancing at her with an “epiphany” expression. “Xue Jing, are you talking about yourself?”