Chapter 53: Inviting You to Kiss at My Place

“I just called Sister Zhou—she said she has another job nearby. She told us to find a designated driver and go ahead.”

“Alright.”

Shi Ying strode briskly ahead, while Cheng Simin trotted behind him.

As soon as they exited the restaurant, Jin Gang was already waiting by the small truck with Beibei. Cheng Simin pointed toward Shi Ying’s red car, and the two of them squatted next to the Xiali.

All the car doors were open. Jin Gang hesitated about where to sit, but Beibei didn’t wait for them—he had already jumped into the passenger seat, curling up comfortably.

Jin Gang climbed into the backseat, closing the door and sticking close to the edge. Shi Ying stood beside the car, lowering his head to look for a designated driver, while Cheng Simin tiptoed behind him, peeking at his face and softly scolding him: “Who drinks red wine in a beer glass? Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“So much! Did you drink it all? Are you stupid? Didn’t you see me giving you signals?”

“You didn’t see—those two are terrible at finger-guessing games! I won several rounds earlier; I only let one slide. If you’d waited a little longer, we could’ve finished the drinks without me needing to drink much.”

It wasn’t just finger-guessing—during company-organized dealer team-building events, Cheng Simin was part of the “atmosphere team” and excelled at dice games, bluffing, word games, poker, and other refined yet entertaining drinking games. She was especially skilled at card counting, eagerly hoping someone would suggest mahjong or Landlord after meals so she could win a small fortune.

Shi Ying thought he had played the role of the heroic Black Knight, but in reality, he had unnecessarily intervened.

As he listened, Shi Ying’s brow lightly furrowed. When he looked up again, his gaze was already slightly unfocused. He had downed at least two liters of red wine in one go. Even with a high tolerance, the rapid intake caused the alcohol concentration in his blood to spike quickly.

He quietly gazed at Cheng Simin. With his hearing gradually becoming muddled, her sharp reprimands turned into soothing lullabies. Her lips moved as she continued talking, but as he listened, he grew too relaxed. Suddenly, exhaustion overwhelmed him. He had intended to plead for leniency, but as he opened his mouth, his head tilted back, and he nearly lost his balance.

Leaning against the car for support, he managed to maintain a towering posture as he looked down at Cheng Simin.

Seeing him like this, Cheng Simin stopped scolding him. She gently supported his arm, hugging his waist, letting him lean on her. Concerned, she asked, “Are you feeling unwell? Is your stomach hurting? Do you feel like throwing up?”

“If you can’t handle it, sit in the car first. I’ll go get you some milk.”

“Don’t let your stomach get irritated.”

Shi Ying leaned close to her, his nose brushing against her soft hair whorl. Half-closing his eyes, he bent down to embrace her. Despite his tall stature, he bent his body, resting his head on her shoulder.

His lips brushed against her earlobe—warm to the touch. As he spoke into her ear, his nose nestled into her hair.

“I’m fine.”

His voice was nasal, his breath hot, but his cheeks were cool. He nuzzled from behind her ear to her neck, like melting ice, with a hint of coquettishness.

“Just cold… and a bit sleepy.”

The designated driver who accepted the order lived in a village behind the winery—a sturdy villager who arrived on a folding bike. From afar, he saw a man and woman embracing intimately next to the red Xiali under the night sky. Fearing he might witness something indecent, he awkwardly coughed loudly.

“Is this the gentleman with the phone number ending in 1409 who called for a designated driver?”

“Yes! To Huangheyuan, please drive carefully. There’s a dog in the car, and someone is drunk.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Cheng Simin spotted the designated driver. She quickly lifted Shi Ying’s chin, snatched the car keys from his hand, and tossed them to the driver before shoving him into the backseat.

The rear space of the Xiali wasn’t large, especially with Shi Ying’s long legs and arms taking up so much room.

She initially considered squeezing into the front passenger seat with Beibei, but Shi Ying’s right hand kept tugging at her sleeve. In front of the driver, she felt too embarrassed to untangle herself, so she squeezed into the back, pulling her limbs in tightly to barely close the door.

The car started moving, and the wind blew through the partially open window of the front passenger seat into the back.

Shi Ying’s hair brushed against the roof of the car, his feet wedged against the crossbeam, curled up in the middle of the three-person seat, cradling Cheng Simin’s canvas bag as he drifted off to sleep.

Seeing his pale face and how miserably cramped he was, Cheng Simin hung the canvas bag on the front seat and shifted her body forward again, squeezing her space to make room for him. She tugged on his arm, signaling that he could sit more comfortably in the back.

Dizzy and disoriented, Shi Ying opened his eyes briefly, saw Cheng Simin’s face, and instinctively leaned closer to her.

When his eyes closed again, his right hand reached out to the empty space, wrapping around Cheng Simin’s back and accidentally brushing against her wrist resting by her side.

The vibrations of the car caused his fingertips to graze her pulsing wrist, quickly generating unusual warmth. Cheng Simin’s entire spine trembled within the crook of his arm, and sweat broke out on her forehead.

The car sped along, the driver focused on the windshield ahead. Beibei slept in the passenger seat, while Jin Gang pressed his face against the window, counting the passing utility poles one by one.

In the unnoticed corners, in the narrow space between the car door and seat, someone secretly held hands, tracing the lines on each other’s palms.

Shi Ying’s wisdom line and life line were intricate and intersecting, but his heart line was delicate and thin, like a gently flowing stream.

Cheng Simin repeatedly caressed his right hand—the slender fingers, the bony joints. Whenever the dim yellow light of a streetlamp illuminated the car, she would turn her head and trace the contours of Shi Ying’s profile with her gaze.

The overwhelming sense of joy made her feel unexpectedly wistful.

She should have brought an extra lip balm before leaving. After hours near the bonfire outdoors, her lips were as dry as the Sahara Desert.

After twenty minutes, the car pulled back into a free parking spot outside Huangheyuan. Jin Gang walked ahead with Beibei, while Cheng Simin supported Shi Ying’s waist, slowly following behind.

Shi Ying’s drunken demeanor was surprisingly docile. If she said east, he wouldn’t go west. But his speech was slower, less sharp, and his thinking time stretched, his voice trailing off softly.

Passing by the greenery downstairs, Shi Ying suddenly remembered something amusing and lowered his head to say to Cheng Simin: “Cheng Simin, let me carry you on my back. Right here in front of this poplar tree.”

Cheng Simin looked at his flushed expression and couldn’t help but laugh. “How can you carry me in this state? If I jump on, you’ll definitely fall into the flower bed.”

Shi Ying smiled along with her, his chest vibrating like a child’s. He looked up at his 12th-floor balcony and pointed it out to Cheng Simin. “During summer, from the balcony, I saw people kissing under this tree.”

“A girl asked a boy to carry her, but he couldn’t lift her up after trying for a long time. Then they leaned against the tree and kissed.”

“What, are you envious of their kiss?” Cheng Simin’s eyes held a hint of mockery.

“Mm.” But Shi Ying answered earnestly. He gazed into Cheng Simin’s eyes and loosened his tie. “Envious. At that moment, I thought if Cheng Simin asked me to carry her, I could carry ten of her. I wouldn’t be as weak as him.”

“Unfortunately, my first love got married—not only married, but to an illiterate man with two kids, even buying bunk beds from me.”

“Hey!” Cheng Simin pinched his arm hard. Though she had spread the lie, she suddenly felt flustered and hurriedly dragged him toward Building 6. “It’s inconvenient to buy second-hand furniture. What if the seller was a bad person? I had to pretend.”

“Don’t act so pitiful. How am I your first love? At most, a playmate. We were young and ignorant back then—those feelings don’t count.”

“How can they not?” Pushing open the building door, with Jin Gang and Beibei waiting by the elevator, Shi Ying unabashedly argued: “You’re the one who doesn’t understand. I realized I liked you a long time ago. Afraid you’d think I was disgusting, I only dared to make small gestures.”

After their falling out, Shi Ying had been waiting for Cheng Simin to reconcile. They used to argue frequently, big and small quarrels, and he was accustomed to her always seeking reconciliation.

In cold wars, Cheng Simin never stood a chance.

But after a week, Cheng Simin remained steadfast, refusing to even look at him. So, Shi Ying steeled himself and went to a silver jewelry stall at Chunhui Mall to get his left ear pierced.

He chose the most exaggerated earring—an eight-point zircon embedded in his ear cartilage. It didn’t catch Cheng Simin’s attention but landed him in the principal’s office instead.

Punished to stand in the hallway in the afternoon, Cheng Simin passed by with a mop for cleaning the classroom.

He deliberately turned his left cheek toward her, shuffling his feet. Under the sunlight, the earring sparkled as prominently as his features, but she didn’t even glance at him, rushing past like she was avoiding a plague.

Later, he did many such foolish things—deliberately showing off, standing out in front of the whole grade—but every attempt fell flat. Only then did he realize Cheng Simin truly no longer cared about him.

After transferring schools, the wound on his left ear refused to heal, repeatedly inflamed and oozing due to water exposure during showers. Each time he cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide, the pain was excruciating. Eventually, he gave up, allowing the wound to close, leaving a small indentation in the cartilage.

How could this not be a first love? No matter how many years passed, when spring breezes blew, old bones sprouted tender shoots.

Cheng Simin chuckled and looked up at him. “So, do you know when I realized I liked you?”

“I was indeed slow back then—slower than you. It was after we stopped talking.”

How could she not notice that earring? Even if it was cheap and plastic-looking, worn on a boy, it carried a rebellious charm. Didn’t he know he was the object of everyone’s admiration? She always watched him from places he didn’t notice.

The more she tried not to think about it, the more it lingered. The more she avoided looking, the more vividly it appeared before her eyes.

Cheng Simin’s first love was a grand tectonic movement—internally, mountains collapsed, lava erupted, but outwardly, she remained calm, eerily still. The admirer suffered from self-doubt, but this solitary torment became part of her self-admiration.

It was like playing hide-and-seek with her own emotions. As long as she suppressed them, hidden from his notice, there was a secret pleasure in the endless gloom.

Youth is a thick cocoon—it must undergo an ugly, painful process of breaking free.

At this moment, Cheng Simin no longer cared for that evasive kind of emotion. Tonight, she gained the courage to openly express her feelings to Shi Ying.

When the elevator opened on the 12th floor, Jin Gang yawned and unlocked his door with the key around his neck. Cheng Simin waved goodbye toward apartment 1202. She should have let Shi Ying go home to rest, but instead, she led him toward her own place.

Passing by 1201, Shi Ying stumbled, turning back to remind Cheng Simin.

“I’m here.”

The key was already in the lock, but Cheng Simin tugged at Shi Ying’s tie and quickly planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Are you very drunk?” she whispered softly.

Without waiting for him to respond, she added another statement. “There’s surveillance in the hallway. I’m inviting you to my place—for a real kiss, the kind lovers share.”

Shi Ying’s reaction lagged by half a beat. Before he could fully process what Cheng Simin had just agreed to, his wavering vision caught her gently turning the doorknob. The door opened, and like being pulled into a time tunnel, he was dragged inside and pressed against the door as soon as it closed behind them.