IMH - 43

Late at night, the hotel room was lit by only a single nightlight, directly above the bedside table.

The light wasn’t harsh; it cast a soft, warm glow on the tabletop, where Cheng Xiaonan’s diamond-studded watch and Yu Qian’s usual small gold watch lay quietly on the wooden grain.

Yu Qian was used to falling asleep in the dark and didn’t wear an eye mask, so the nightlight still made her open her eyes.

It must have been past midnight; Yu Qian couldn’t pinpoint the exact time.

She woke from sleep in the darkness, her blurry eyes opening, and saw Cheng Xiaonan’s dazzling watch.

Then she felt the soft mattress behind her sink.

Turning her head, she saw Cheng Xiaonan’s sleeping face.

They had fallen asleep embracing each other, but after so many years, Yu Qian was accustomed to sleeping alone. She wondered what kind of “person-driving” behavior she had done in her sleep. At this moment, Cheng Xiaonan, a tall, well-built man, had only a small corner of the blanket, huddled on the very edge of the bed.

A little further back, and he would fall off.

He looked quite pitiful.

The bedroom was quiet, with only the faint sound of wind howling outside the window.

They said this winter in the Imperial Capital was unusually harsh, with either strong winds or snow. In previous years, there might still be a few lingering leaves on the branches, but this year, the trees were all bare.

Yu Qian had heard the model girls from the south complain more than once in the makeup room, saying that the climate in the Imperial Capital was dry and that the wind was like a knife, as if it could blow off one’s ears.

But for her, this winter was a gentle one.

________________________________________

Actually, Cheng Xiaonan hadn’t forgotten to turn off the nightlight.

Before falling asleep, Cheng Xiaonan was still very much awake. He pulled her into his arms, kissed her forehead, and said goodnight.

So, leaving a light on wasn’t something he had forgotten.

Yu Qian thought that he must be accustomed to sleeping with some light, as he himself didn’t like dark environments.

Today, it was just a temporary oversight that he hadn’t turned it off.

When it came to meticulousness, Yu Qian was far less meticulous than Cheng Xiaonan.

He would notice that she preferred to sleep in complete darkness, so he would accommodate her by turning off all the lights before bed every night.

Just as he always remembered to take off his wrist-watch whenever he kissed her, fearing it might scratch her.

And she always forgot such small things.

A few days ago, when they were kissing in the car, she had embraced his neck, and his watch dial happened to turn to the inside of her wrist, pressing against Cheng Xiaonan’s neck with the coldness of winter.

He hissed from the chill but instinctively grabbed her hand and enveloped it in his palm, “This weather is really cold. Look how cold your hand is, like an ice cube.”

Yu Qian looked at Cheng Xiaonan’s sleeping face. His eyelashes drooped, his usually sharp eye corners hidden, making him seem much more docile.

She had said it before, his docility was a facade.

Just now, when he had held her wrist and huskily said, “Sister, help me,” he certainly wasn’t like this.

A playful leopard.

Yu Qian thought to herself.

________________________________________

She stirred slightly, intending to reach for her phone, but accidentally knocked over the cigarette pack that had been on the bedside table for many days.

The sound wasn’t loud, but as she picked up the cigarette pack, someone came from behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

He smelled of the same shower gel and shampoo as her, but his body temperature was warmer, clinging to her like a hand warmer.

Yu Qian turned her head and saw Cheng Xiaonan with the back of his hand over his eyes, still looking half-asleep. He paused for two seconds before opening his eyes.

Seeing the cigarette pack in her hand, Cheng Xiaonan chuckled for a long time, “What are you doing? In the middle of the night, looking for a post-coital smoke?”

Actually, Yu Qian hadn’t intended to smoke. With Cheng Xiaonan saying that, she simply raised an eyebrow, took out the last remaining cigarette, put it between her lips, found a lighter, and lit it.

She provocatively blew a puff of smoke at him.

“You’re actually smoking?”

“Mm.”

Yu Qian thought that after finishing this cigarette, she might as well quit for good.

Seeing how nervous Cheng Xiaonan was, asking all sorts of questions in the hospital department that day, if she really got lung cancer or stomach cancer from smoking, he would probably make a huge fuss.

But even this last cigarette, Cheng Xiaonan wouldn’t let her finish properly.

He leaned in and kissed her amidst the blueberry-flavored smoke.

When it came to smoking and drinking, Cheng Xiaonan was indeed well-behaved. He leaned in to kiss her, but then choked on the half-smoked cigarette in her mouth and turned his head to cough.

He asked with a pained expression, “What’s so good about smoking?”

“I don’t know, I learned it from my mom.”

Yu Qian had talked to Cheng Xiaonan about her parents, and Cheng Xiaonan now used it to retort, “Learn something good from your mother.”

“What’s good about her?”

“Well, her faithfulness. Unlike you, always teasing younger men.”

The remaining half of the cigarette, Yu Qian found an ashtray and put it out.

The light was dim, and Yu Qian used the nightlight to clearly see a red scratch on Cheng Xiaonan’s neck, extending below his collarbone.

Cheng Xiaonan also noticed her gaze, and rubbed his neck, “Did it leave a mark?”

“A little.”

That was when their emotions were most intense, and Yu Qian lost control and scratched him.

Cheng Xiaonan didn’t mind the scratch, though. He just lifted his chin and asked Yu Qian, “I just remembered, you have a scar on your body. How did you get it?”

There was a scar on her upper left ribcage. At this moment, Yu Qian was loosely holding her silk robe, and the scar was hidden beneath the fabric. Perhaps Cheng Xiaonan had seen it before.

No wonder his movements suddenly paused then, and he arched his back to kiss her body; he must have seen the scar.

It was actually an old injury.

It happened in Yu Qian’s first year abroad, when she took on a job. During a photoshoot on a hillside, the precarious rock she was standing on was covered in snow. She accidentally slipped and almost fell down the mountain. Fortunately, she only slid and rolled a short distance along the rocky slope.

The clothing for the shoot was very thin, and a broken piece of wood pierced her skin. It wasn’t very serious, but it later got infected, and so the scar remained.

Yu Qian said lightly, “It was a bump during a shoot, not serious.”

Even though she said it so casually, Cheng Xiaonan still frowned and complained, saying she never told the truth and it was probably a dangerous situation, maybe she rolled down from the top of the hill.

Seeing Yu Qian didn’t speak, Cheng Xiaonan sat on the edge of the bed, pulled her into his arms, and caressed her scar through the fabric, “Did it hurt then?”

Yu Qian asked, slightly ruining the mood, “Are you really not taking advantage of me?”

What happened next was a natural progression; neither of them had any intention of sleeping anyway. Cheng Xiaonan’s well-defined hand reached in, truly taking advantage.

________________________________________

When Yu Qian woke up the next day, Cheng Xiaonan had already gone to the company. He left a box of pastries for her on the table and a note, asking her to wait for him for lunch.

His handwriting wasn’t particularly good-looking, but the strokes were very flamboyant. Just seeing the note, you could tell how flamboyant he was at heart.

Yu Qian stared at the note, inadvertently recalling the previous night.

When he kissed her, her eyelids drooped. The warm glow of the nightlight enveloped his sweat-dampened neck, where there was a small patch of reddened skin, whether from himself or from her grazing him, it was very sexy.

He said to her in a deep voice, “Let’s do it.”

Later, when they were going to sleep, Cheng Xiaonan was about to turn off the light when Yu Qian stopped him.

She said, “Don’t turn it off. Aren’t you afraid of the dark?”

This remark made Cheng Xiaonan “tsk” in annoyance, saying he wasn’t afraid of the dark, just didn’t particularly like dark environments.

“I know.”

“Did Shen Shen and Ji Ran tell you?”

Cheng Xiaonan turned off the light, leaned in the darkness, and kissed Yu Qian. “It’s not that sinister. I just don’t like darkness. In the dark, I sometimes miss her a lot, but it’s different when you’re here.”

“How is it different?”

“When you’re here, thinking of my mom, I feel a little hopeful. I wonder what she would be like if she met her future daughter-in-law.”

Cheng Xiaonan’s voice was tinged with sleepiness. “She’d probably really like you.”

________________________________________

When Peter arrived, Yu Qian was eating a late breakfast.

But Peter’s routine was even more irregular than hers; he had just woken up and was sitting at the dining table, helping himself to a portion of Yu Qian’s porridge.

Yu Qian asked Peter if he knew anyone familiar with the real estate industry in the Imperial Capital.

Peter was stunned, “What are you doing? Are you buying a house?”

“I want to sell the old house Qu Liwen left behind and add some money to buy a new one.”

This surprised Peter greatly. Yu Qian was very casual about money and had never thought about buying a house.

She used to say that renting and staying in hotels were both good, offering freedom to go wherever she wanted without being tied down by property.

Now wanting to buy a house, it must be related to Cheng Xiaonan.

Peter put down his porridge bowl, “No, are you and Cheng Xiaonan discussing buying a house? Why would he let you pay for it?”

Yu Qian shook her head, “We haven’t discussed it.”

She had thought last night that it wouldn’t be good for him to keep staying in hotels. If she bought a house and moved out, Cheng Xiaonan would probably go back home too.

She had inquired about Cheng Xiaonan’s neighborhood. The housing prices were ridiculously high, utterly beyond the reach of an average person’s three generations of salary earners. She planned to buy a smaller place near his home.

Being close would also make it convenient to meet.

She wasn’t familiar with real estate, couldn’t distinguish between commercial and residential properties, nor did she understand how to assess common areas or convenience. So she wanted to find a reliable person to guide her.

Peter moved his lips but said nothing.

He wanted to say that buying a house was something she should discuss with Cheng Xiaonan.

What if the man had other plans?

But Yu Qian was also accustomed to making her own decisions, and for a moment, Peter didn’t know how to advise her.

________________________________________

Before Peter could figure it out, Yu Qian saw the cigarette pack on the table.

She had finished the last cigarette last night, so it should have been an empty box.

But when she picked it up, there was weight inside.

Yu Qian held the cigarette pack and shook it gently.

In that instant, she inexplicably felt like she was shaking a fortune-telling cylinder in a temple, but what fell out was a silver key.

Peter was stunned, “This is...”

Yu Qian also hadn’t expected it. She just felt that Cheng Xiaonan had put it there. She called him, “What’s the meaning of the key you put in the cigarette pack?”

“Hold on a moment.”

Cheng Xiaonan was talking to someone, his voice very formal. A few seconds later, his surroundings quieted down, making it seem like he had found a suitable place to talk.

He asked her over the phone, with a flippant laugh, “What else could it mean? Of course, it’s our house key. I thought about it yesterday, staying in a hotel isn’t a long-term solution. Why don’t we just move back to my place? When I bought the house two years ago, my dad even had a Feng Shui master look at it. My place is definitely a golden nest, only one thing is bad, it’s missing a mistress.”

His words somewhat disrupted Yu Qian’s original plan, and she seemed unresponsive, falling silent. Moving in together seemed feasible?

But Yu Qian always felt she was a boring person. She didn’t always have topics to chat about with others, nor was she very considerate of others.

At least when it came to moving out, she hadn’t considered that the two of them could live together.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like him, it was just...

“Why aren’t you saying anything? You don’t want to? If you don’t like the decor style or anything, we can redo it. If you’re not satisfied with the house, I can change to another one...”

Yu Qian frowned, “It’s not about that...”

“Sister, don’t tell me you’re thinking of getting rid of me after using me? I’m very loyal. When I kissed you at 18, I felt that you had to be my bride.”

She didn’t answer, so he kept talking on the phone, getting more and more outrageous.

Finally, he pushed the blame back onto his dad again—Old Cheng said, I’m useless with my hands and don’t know my grains from my vegetables. If I live alone, I might eat the wrong thing and poison myself. Who knows, I might eat daffodils thinking they’re chives someday and die at home without anyone finding out...

Yu Qian looked at the key in her palm and felt that he was truly no different from when he was 18.

She suddenly called out to him, “Cheng Xiaonan.”

“Yes, I’m listening.”

“Then let’s live together.”