86 Chapter Eighty-Five

◎ Mr. Qiao was exhausted; he didn't kiss him before bed. ◎

Li Yingqiao didn't speak, and buried her face in his shoulder.

Yu Jinyang looked down at her quietly for a moment, then reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, letting out a soft "Hmm?"

Li Yingqiao: "No."

He nodded to indicate that he understood, as if it were expected. "I know, I'll ask you again when you've thought about it."

Li Yingqiao looked up at him and suddenly met his eyes. No matter when, she could always meet his gaze; his eyes seemed to be waiting for her to look at him forever.

She looked directly at him, and he looked back at her intently. She wondered if he was even a little unhappy.

Yu Jinyang didn't. He just looked at her calmly and gently, his eyes red from crying, making him look even more pitifully devoted.

Li Yingqiao couldn't bear it, so she cupped his face and said earnestly, "Yu Jinyang, I'm not rejecting you, nor am I not in love with you."

He instinctively wanted to nod again. He knew that, so he didn't ask if you were willing to marry me. He asked, "Do you want to get married?"

However, she held him firmly in place, and said:

“I think we both need time. You need to calm down, after all, you just finished crying, and you need time to recover your emotions. Although you didn't tell me why you cried, it must have something to do with me, right? That's why you brought up marriage. And I also need time to seriously consider this issue that I never even thought about before. We both need to calm down about marriage, okay?”

He suddenly laughed again.

He looked at her with an almost sharp and direct gaze, silent and restrained. In truth, he wasn't being irrational; he had bought the ring long ago. But when Yu Jinyang's gaze fell upon Li Yingqiao's face, the face he had known since childhood, it unconsciously softened and deepened, like a long, unchanging river flowing gently down from her brows and eyes…

He simply said in a cold voice, "No."

But he obediently put the ring back into his down jacket pocket.

Li Yingqiao laughed, cupped his face and kissed him. He just pouted, but she pulled away, pinched his earlobe which was red from the cold and said, "It's so cold, let's go home."

"not good."

He kept saying "bad" as soon as he came in, just kept saying it was bad, like a broken record repeating itself.

Li Yingqiao glanced at him sideways, took off her coat, and suddenly punched him twice in the back. He cried out in pain and fell onto the door, pretending to die, but at least he returned to normal and didn't utter those two words again.

***

In recent days, Li Shuli's phone has been constantly receiving video notifications about Xiaohuacheng (Little Painting City), which made her realize that Xiaohuacheng seems to be quite popular lately. Besides the fact that a celebrity filmed a program there recently, she also heard that there's a park event during New Year's Day, which has attracted the attention of many people from surrounding cities. Many have started inquiring about driving routes to Xiaohuacheng on social media platforms.

Li Shuli didn't understand these things, and she didn't watch short videos much. She only heard from Xiao Meng Meng Yidong that this year was different from previous years. She heard that all the hotels in the surrounding area were fully booked. She had a friend who ran a guesthouse, and all the rooms for the three days of New Year's Day were booked long ago. Even the small attic was booked.

Yu Renjie also received a call from Zhang Chong, the hotel manager. Zhang Chong, who was usually calm, sounded unusually excited and said that the hotel was fully booked for the New Year's Day holiday. Not only their hotel, but almost all the hotels and guesthouses in the city were fully booked for the New Year's Day holiday.

He just said "Ah," his first reaction being, "They're having a concert?"

The last time something like this happened was when a star-studded concert was held at the stadium in the southern city, which doubled the income of hotels and barbecue stalls in their county. So he subconsciously checked his phone to find out about the latest performances, but it seems like no stars are coming anytime soon.

“It’s not a celebrity,” Xiao Meng carefully poured some essential oil into her palm, rubbed it to warm it up, and then applied it to the customer’s back. She explained to Li Shuli, who was smoking blankly to the side, “It’s Yingqiao who’s really amazing. I heard she organized a very abstract park event, and her WeChat Moments are going crazy over it.”

How do we abstract? What is abstraction? Why is everyone going crazy over abstraction? Does booking a room guarantee a visitor?

Li Shuli was bewildered, taking puffs of her cigarette. She used to think that she understood her daughter the most. Perhaps no one in the world loved Li Yingqiao more than her, and no one understood what Qiaoqiao needed better than her. Later, she felt that the times were changing too fast, so fast that even her daughter's strengths required time to be re-understood.

She looked down at the screen full of unfamiliar words, like a train speeding up, with Qiaoqiao constantly changing trains and going further and further away, but she was always still stuck at the same old platform.

"How abstract can it be?" Yu Renjie got goosebumps on the phone, feeling a strange sense of excitement, like when he was a child and heard the village shouts at the entrance, even the dogs would come out to watch. He asked Zhang Chong curiously, "Can I participate?"

“I can’t make it,” Gao Dian told Li Yingqiao in a video conference. “My mom told me to come back after New Year’s Day. There’s a flower market here, and she wants me to wait until after the New Year to come back.”

"No, you're not going to class?" Li Yingqiao said sternly, "Did you ask me for leave through the OA system?"

Gao Dian was silent for a moment before saying, "...No, I'm just asking you for leave."

Li Yingqiao: "Have Wu Juan give you a leave slip on the OA system, extending it to New Year's Day. That'll take at least twenty-odd days. Your annual leave isn't high enough. If you take personal leave, your quarterly bonus will be deducted."

Gao Dian said indifferently, "Whatever. If I relied on Xiao Huacheng's meager salary to live on, I would have starved to death long ago. My dear Qiao Zong! Can you believe it? When I received my salary last month, I told the finance department to just transfer the money to me via WeChat. Why bother with bank accounts? Are banks opened for people like us to use for accounting?"

Pan Xiaoliang, with his extensive experience, interjected, "I can only say that my heart is as still as water."

Wu Juan said, "It's like still water."

At critical moments, how can the morale of the troops be unstable?

Li Yingqiao comforted him, saying, "I'll talk to General Manager Zhang after I'm done with this busy period."

Gao Dian immediately said, "No, I'm afraid Kongcheng will remember that I forgot to bring him food last time and deduct two thousand from my pay."

Wu Juan said, "It's okay, Mr. Qiao. My parents are fully supporting my job now. If my salary isn't enough, I can spend my mom's money, and my mom can spend my dad's money. My dad doesn't spend any money."

"..."

Pan Xiaoliang let out a disdainful sneer: "Li Yingqiao, you're also making empty promises to us. We thought you were different."

Li Yingqiao was quite frank about it.

A boss who doesn't make empty promises is as hard to find as a man who doesn't make a solemn vow when dating.

After hanging up the video call, I went to check on Yu Jinyang. The latter was leaning against the armrest on the other side of the sofa, with an upside-down book on his forehead and his shoulders trembling suspiciously. Sure enough, the book fell down, and he couldn't hold back anymore and burst out laughing.

The room was filled with his laughter.

Li Yingqiao grabbed an unopened bag of potato chips from the coffee table and threw it at his chest: "What are you laughing at! Do you think it's easy for me? I feel like I'm just coaxing a bunch of kids to work every day."

Yu Jinyang caught the flying object and pulled the person into his arms, whispering, "This is retribution. Think back to when Liang Mei and I coaxed you to go to school."

That's true, but that doesn't stop Qiao from feeling exhausted. Qiao didn't kiss him before going to sleep.

After showering, Yu Jinyang leaned obediently against the headboard, shirtless. His broad shoulders and narrow waist, his well-proportioned muscles, and alluring lines were captivating. One leg was casually propped on the floor, while the other draped lazily over the edge of the bed. A pillow was placed between his legs to cover his abs. His gaze followed her, offering no urging or invitation, only calm and composed accompaniment, waiting in this "half-hidden" manner for her to grace him with her presence…

Li Yingqiao recently wisely drew a line between them with a pillow, after all, she had just rejected his marriage proposal.

He's not feeling well again.

"Sleep? What are you sleeping for?" He lifted the pillow, pulled her over, and kissed her. Li Yingqiao was breathless from the kiss and thrashed wildly in the blanket like a fish on a chopping board. She couldn't escape. At first, the kisses were fierce and passionate, but later they became gentle and tender.

Yu Jinyang closed his eyes resignedly, his breath hot and intense. He stroked her cheek with his hand, his fingertips caressing her delicate skin, and kissed her silently. The opening and closing of their lips was unprecedented, like two fish that could not quench their thirst, desperately seeking each other's moisture and oxygen.

Li Yingqiao kissed him and instinctively caressed his entire body.

The mature man had a clean, thin layer of skin. He had a typical pale complexion, broad shoulders and back, and well-defined muscles. He was lean yet strong, and his skin felt smooth to the touch.

Yu Jinyang descended all the way down, like a ferocious beast heading west.

He kissed her bare skin thoroughly and meticulously.

Until it returned to her eyes.

"Um?"

Yu Jinyang's "Mmm" has many meanings: Is it okay? Do you want to do it? Is it comfortable? Do you want to continue or stop? Do you want it all the way in? Have you thought about me? Are you shy? Are you full? Do you love me? Want to get married?

...

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[Author's Note]

Bridge: Come on up, do it yourself. [doge][doge][doge]

Don't make a wasted trip tomorrow!

See you the day after tomorrow, 300 red envelopes~