[It seems there’s an addiction to wanting to kiss.]

That night, the two of them opened a room in a hotel near Zhou Leqi’s maternal grandparents’ house.

In the early hours of the first day of the Lunar New Year, small hotels and the like were all closed, leaving only a five-star hotel where they could still book a room. Zhou Leqi accompanied Hou Zihai to check in, sitting in the empty hotel lobby waiting for him.

Unexpectedly, he came over to her from the front desk after a short while, looking very embarrassed, and said, “Um... could you go over and check me in?”

“Huh?”

He looked away, his face a little sullen: “...Minors can’t book rooms.”

Zhou Leqi was stunned, and then she realized: he was still a few months away from turning 18...

Oh, this...

...This is too funny.

Zhou Leqi kept laughing even after entering the room, her eyes curved into small crescent moons, occasionally glancing at him teasingly.

Eventually, he got annoyed by her staring and couldn’t help but ask with a hint of temper, “Is it that funny? I’m only a few months away from being an adult, okay?”

Of course, it was funny... If her ID card hadn’t happened to be in her coat pocket, he would have been sleeping on the streets tonight.

However, Zhou Leqi thought it wouldn’t be nice to keep laughing at him during the New Year, so she tried hard to suppress her laughter and walked into the room. After looking around, she found all kinds of snacks in the minibar, which should be enough for his late-night snack.

He had rushed all the way from City A and probably hadn’t had dinner yet.

She rummaged through her pockets and found three hundred yuan, which she took out and gave to him, saying, “Then remember to get something to eat yourself—I’ll go back now.”

She really should leave him some money, because he was already broke. Yesterday morning, he couldn’t reach her, and around noon, he finally couldn’t help but come to find her. However, he couldn’t buy any plane or train tickets on New Year’s Eve at such short notice. He had no choice but to call a taxi and paid five times the usual price to persuade the driver to take him all the way from City A to City D. Now he only had a few dozen yuan left, and she had paid for the hotel room just now.

She casually placed the money on the cabinet by the door and then turned to leave, but just as her hand touched the doorknob, he stopped her—one of his arms propped against the door, and the other had already wrapped around her slender waist, his tall figure completely enveloping her from behind.

“Don’t go...” he said in a low voice, “It’s the New Year, are you just going to leave me here alone?”

A little pitiful, yet a little forceful.

Very subtle.

His breath made the back of her ear itch slightly, and at the same time, her cheeks flushed again. The enclosed space magnified the ambiguity tenfold, and her heart beat faster and faster.

“I, I’ll come find you again tomorrow,” she said weakly, already unable to resist him, “It’s very late now...”

He could completely guess her thoughts, knowing that she was now softening. Therefore, not only did he not let go, but he held her even tighter, deeply inhaling the fragrance of her hair, and continued to coax, “Then stay for fifteen minutes, I’ll take you back in a while... Let me rest for a bit first...”

This was a very effective method—the word “rest” at the end of the sentence was clearly an seemingly unintentional reminder of the fact that he had been traveling all day, silently appealing to her guilt and affection.

It worked very well.

She compromised, her breathing already a little uneven from his casual kisses, and replied, “Alright... then fifteen minutes...”

They sat on the floor together and watched TV for fifteen minutes.

Why sit on the floor? Because they both felt that the bed was a dangerous place, especially in tonight’s atmosphere where neither of them could maintain control, so they actively chose to avoid it. Sitting on the chairs in the room would put too much distance between them, which also didn’t suit their desires. Therefore, after looking around, they still felt that sitting side by side on the floor, leaning against the end of the bed and very close to the TV, was the most suitable.

The TV was on, but no one was really watching. Their attention was all on each other, and after a while, they couldn’t help but kiss again.

It was inevitable.

Their attraction to each other was too strong. Fortunately, this time they regained a bit of rationality, unlike the impulsive and messy kiss on the street just now. They slowly moved closer to each other, feeling their breaths intertwine and the warmth of each other’s lips. He would kiss her deeply, but also occasionally release her lips for a light kiss, but no matter what, he had to be entangled with her every moment, as if he had an addiction to wanting to kiss.

He moved closer and closer to her, almost pushing her down on the floor. His body language revealed his dominance in this intimate relationship and his difficult-to-conceal possessiveness. Zhou Leqi’s body went limp, and she had to rely on his arm supporting her waist to sit up. Later, she completely leaned into his arms to receive his kisses, and he gradually became insatiable, kissing her more and more intensely, even... she felt that he had...

The moment she realized what it was, she pushed him away. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if she was panicked or shy. They were both panting heavily, and the air in the room was filled with a tense, explosive atmosphere.

It was a frenzy of agitation, hormones almost exploding in their blood.

He sensed that she was a little scared, which made him feel very guilty, but he really couldn’t control his physiological reaction. Even at this moment, he could still feel a desperate, crazy thought in his mind, which also made him feel at a loss.

The two of them remained silent for a long time, the only sound in the room being the noise from some program on the TV.

Finally, Hou Zihai tried hard to find a topic to break the deadlock and asked, “...Was the Spring Festival Gala good this year?”

Hearing this question, Zhou Leqi’s fingers couldn’t help but tighten. When she turned her head to look at him, she suddenly realized that he had been on the road all day and hadn’t even had time to watch the Spring Festival Gala.

The feeling in her heart became even more complicated, and besides that, it swelled up again. After a moment of silence, she replied, “It was pretty good... well, you know, the Spring Festival Gala.”

Awkward and embarrassed.

And Hou Zihai was already a little afraid to look at her. At this moment, her lips were particularly delicate because of the intense kissing just now. Every extra glance would increase the risk of his reason collapsing. He felt that maintaining stability was more important at the moment, so he simply looked away.

This was killing him.

She quickly noticed his deliberate avoidance of eye contact, and for some reason, this action pleased her, doubling the sweetness in her heart. She couldn’t help but chuckle softly, her attitude also becoming more natural as she asked, “Then how did you explain it to your aunt and uncle? What about the New Year’s Eve dinner?”

The opportunity she offered at this moment was very precious, and he quickly took it, following up, “Our family eats lunch, so it’s not a big problem...”

He paused and added, “I told my dad about coming out. As for my mom... sigh, it depends on my dad.”

The way he said this made Zhou Leqi feel nervous too.

“Y-you didn’t tell your mom?” she stammered, “Then, does Auntie know it’s because of me?—No, does Auntie know me?”

What if his mother had a bad impression of her...

Her nervousness was too obvious. This time, Hou Zihai also laughed, finally becoming natural as well. He glanced at her and teased, “What’s wrong, worried about future mother-in-law conflicts?”

Zhou Leqi was in no mood to joke with him. She reached out and hit him, saying anxiously, “I’m talking to you seriously.”

He sighed, took the small, fair hand she used to hit him, and said, “I haven’t mentioned it to my mom directly, but she should have heard about you from my dad. Anyway, she at least knows I’m pursuing you.”

Zhou Leqi became even more flustered upon hearing this: the scenes where his dad met her were all a bit awkward, like the police station and the hospital... This...

If only she hadn’t shown her face so easily in front of his dad in the first place!

Zhou Leqi became even more nervous, but she couldn’t think of any solutions for the moment, so she could only vent her anger on Hou Zihai. One of her hands was held by him, so she used the other to hit him, complaining, “It’s all your fault, you’re the one who made Uncle and Auntie have a bad impression of me...”

Both angry and coquettish.

He patiently let her hit him a few times, then took her other small hand as well, pulled her into his arms, and coaxed, “Okay, okay, it’s all my fault, don’t be angry...”

She ignored him, seemingly still furious. He felt a little helpless, sighed again, and said, “My parents are both open-minded people. They know I’m the one缠着 you, so why would they blame you? Besides, you’re so good, who wouldn’t like you? My parents definitely have similar taste to me. I like you so much, how could they possibly dislike you?”

He was actually speaking from the heart, without any intention of coaxing her, but precisely because it sounded so good, it seemed like a lie, so he was met with her complaint again: “Big liar—let go, don’t hug me.”

Saying that, she pushed him away.

He was speechless, looked her up and down, then crossed his arms and said, “Fine, you can kiss me, but I can’t hug you—you tell me, is that reasonable?”

His tone was both angry and muffled, like an unhappy German Shepherd wagging its tail.

Zhou Leqi was amused by his words, and at the same time, she blushed because he mentioned her previously taking the initiative to kiss him.

She pointed out, outwardly strong but inwardly weak, “That’s because I’m a very upright person, unlike you who has so many bad intentions.”

“I have bad intentions?” Hou Zihai was so amused by her that he laughed, “We were just like that, and I stopped. What level is that? That’s a level that even Liu Xiahui would be ashamed of!”

He said confidently.

Zhou Leqi really didn’t want to laugh, but she didn’t know why she found it so easy to laugh whenever she was with him. Now, she was laughing uncontrollably at his words again, so he took the opportunity to gently pull her back into his arms.

She felt him gently pinch the soft flesh of her waist, and then she heard his sigh again.

“Why isn’t the college entrance exam happening yet? I’m so done,” he kissed her hard on the side of her neck, “Can you believe we’ve counted so many days and still haven’t reached February?”

The urgency in his words made her even happier. She could feel the sincerity in the person who was currently embracing her, it was so earnest and passionate that she felt undeserving, yet even so, she still wanted to possess him forever.

Sigh... so she was also such a possessive person?

She reached out and wrapped her arms around his broad back, gently leaning on his shoulder, and said, “Actually, we now...”

Actually, that agreement was almost a formality now. The way they were now... what difference was there from really being together?

“Of course, it’s different,” this time he firmly disagreed with her, “There’s a huge difference between having a title and not having one—just like now, without a proper relationship, you won’t even let me take you to the train station with Auntie.”

...He was still bothered by that.

Zhou Leqi felt a little helpless, but the affection she felt for him grew even stronger, even stronger, to the point where the shadow Zhou Lei’s appearance yesterday had cast on her became insignificant. Her heart became light and clear again, no longer heavy and breathless.

He seemed to be ten thousand times more effective than sertraline.

Her heart sighed because she was very clearly aware that she was becoming overly dependent on him, and she knew even more clearly that this was very dangerous—she shouldn’t place her psychological support on anyone other than herself, after all, no one could guarantee that he would always be by her side.

If one day he was gone, then she...

Zhou Leqi closed her eyes, instinctively refusing to think about this chilling possibility.