Chapter 20 Would people who aren't very familiar with each other hug like this?
A ding-dong sound.
Accompanying the sound effect of a friend accepting the request is a notification that the headset has been activated.
Ning Jiu's fingertips, which were operating on the screen, paused almost imperceptibly. She looked up and caught Qiao Bolin's departing figure.
Yuan Qi, who was standing to the side, noticed that Ning Jiu didn't want to elaborate on this topic, raised an eyebrow, and said nothing more.
In the spacious conference room, many people were already packing up to leave. Ning Jiu said goodbye to them one by one, walked a few steps quickly out the door, and Qiao Bolin was no longer in the corridor.
She frowned slightly, wondering if she had gone too far, and walked towards the stairwell.
Students rarely come up to the fifth floor except for psychology classes and extracurricular activity rooms. When Ning Jiu passed by the psychology classroom, the door was closed and the curtains were drawn, which meant that the psychology club's activities had probably all ended.
Looking at the rows of new greetings on her WeChat, she thought for a while and decided to reply to them one by one.
Just as I was returning to the second one, I heard the door of the psychology classroom creak open a crack. Before I could even look away, my wrist was suddenly grabbed and pulled away.
I'm sorry, I'll be gentler next time.
So that's what it meant.
The light was compressed and distorted, and the moment the door closed, Joel Bolton's profile was blurred by the constantly changing light and shadow, making it impossible to see clearly.
Even in such darkness, Ning Jiu could still see the glint in his dark eyes when she looked up; the impact of his striking, sculpted features was only amplified.
Ning Jiu felt the heat of his palm, which tightly enveloped her wrist, coiling around it like a snake, from which she could not escape.
She vaguely sensed that Qiao Bolin was a little different now; his aura was much calmer. She reviewed her behavior just now in her mind and had to admit that it was a bit of a perverse sense of humor.
However, he didn't follow the rules of the game either; he took off his headphones when he felt uncomfortable and didn't continue wearing them just to accommodate her.
Thinking this way, Ning Jiu felt more confident. Ignoring the fact that he was still holding her wrist, she took a few steps closer, stared intently at his face for a long time, and showed a surprised expression.
"Why is it you?"
In the pitch black, Qiao Bolin did not speak immediately.
Rather than continuing to guess his thoughts, Ning Jiu preferred to take some practical actions to test his inner thoughts.
Her bright eyes sparkled, her gaze sweeping unabashedly over his sharp, defined features before sliding down to rest on his strong, muscular waist.
She looked up, met his gaze again, and suddenly chuckled softly.
The moment Ning Jiu reached out and wrapped her arms around his waist, she felt Qiao Bolin's body stiffen for a split second.
He gripped her hand tightly, his knuckles tightening slightly, revealing an unconscious desire to control, but he didn't... push her away.
The slender forearm rubbed against the fabric, stirring a restless heat. The boy's waistline was sharp, his body supporting a burning sense of power, like a fully drawn bowstring, taut and firm—as expected, a pleasant touch.
He wasn't really angry.
Ning Jiu confirmed this in her heart.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, though her voice was even more languid than when she had forced him to wear headphones earlier. "I didn't intentionally cut off that last song. There were too many people around, and I didn't have time to cut off the next one."
I was just kidding, I just wanted you to listen to this song.
"Please forgive me," the girl said softly, sounding incredibly aggrieved. Her arms around his waist tightened, taking advantage of his vulnerability. "To make it up to you, I'll sing you a song. Which song do you want me to sing the most?"
As Qiao Bolin felt the soft, tight embrace around his waist, it was hard not to wonder who else she had used such skillful coquettishness on before.
Whom should I forgive, Ning Jiu?
Qiao Bolin had no doubt that if he were truly angry, she wouldn't try to appease him like she was doing now. Instead, she would smile and gently break free from him, asking him why he took it so seriously.
He couldn't find a single word to describe her.
In the darkness, George Berlin did not respond or move.
As Ning Jiu pondered whether she should take things a step further or stop, the boy suddenly took a step forward. She couldn't dodge in time, and her arms were still wrapped around his waist, so their bodies were pressed together.
She looked up in surprise, but Qiao Bolin seemed to have done nothing, looking down at her with his usual expression.
In fact, it seems he really didn't do anything.
She was the one who hugged him, she was the one who offered a fake apology, and all Qiao Bolin did was take a step forward.
But it was just one step forward.
The ambiguous atmosphere between them was drawn into a closed circle by him, trapping her within it, leaving her no room to back down.
His clear voice fell from above, like a drop of stagnant dew, light and cold, landing on the skin, then slowly sliding down the curve of the spine, dripping into the heart.
Would people who aren't very familiar with each other hug like that?
He subtly brought out that hidden meaning, but deliberately left half of it in the shadows.
Ning Jiu roughly guessed what he meant, but she didn't intend to say anything in line with his meaning. Instead, she fixed her gaze on his neck.
At such close range, you can even see a small, not-yet-fully-healed wound next to Jobelin's mole—her masterpiece.
"Of course. People who aren't very familiar with each other might even kiss on the neck."
Her voice still trembled with laughter, but her hand withdrew from Qiao Bolin's waist without any hesitation. He felt his embrace suddenly empty, and when he looked up, Ning Jiu had already returned to a polite distance from him.
The girl's smile faded, her words still carrying the warmth of her earlier coaxing, but the content she spoke was completely different from her tone—decisive and straightforward.
"Anything is possible, Qiao."
-
The Club Culture Festival has just ended, and the first monthly exam is just around the corner. During the break between the last class after the exam, you can still hear the lively discussions. Some people feel that they didn't get enough fun at the Club Culture Festival and are already looking forward to the sports meet.
Old Qin strode into the classroom with an imposing air, called for all the students in the corridor to come in, and slammed his teacup onto the podium.
"I advise you to focus on the sports meet for now. Our school always holds the sports meet after the midterm exams, so it's still a long way off," he said, glancing around and becoming more enthusiastic. "After the monthly exams, there are still the midterm exams. Think about the sports meet after you do well on the midterms."
Okay.
"No pain, no gain"—that's the life motto of high school students.
As usual, everyone complained a few times, but the next second they buried themselves in a sea of questions and did practice tests. In the second half of the class meeting, as usual, Lao Qin called out the names of the students who needed to have a "face-to-face meeting" and went to his office for tea.
In the past, Cai Liming and Li Mingyuan were the ones who received the most "interviews" at this time. The latter was already prepared for Lao Qin to accept his usual nagging, but this time he called two classmates with good grades to go to the office with him.
The two of them were stunned when they were called over. Ge Kai went over first, while Luo Yu and Ruan Qianyi next to him were talking about something. When they followed behind, their eyes were red.
As soon as the two left, the people who were just doing practice problems suddenly became lively, their gossip instincts kicking in.
“Hey, do you think Luo Yu and Ge Kai might really…” Li Mingyuan excitedly leaned over to discuss with Gao Hexin, “They don’t seem to have said more than a few words to each other usually.”
"Hehe, Li Mingyuan, what can I say about you?" Gao Hexin looked at him with a mocking gaze, "You are truly the most naive person I have ever met. Wouldn't you just lay it all out in the open and let me know if you're dating or not?"
That's what he said, but Gao Hexin was actually curious himself. He winked at Ruan Qianyi in the front row, and after receiving a signal from her, he quickly darted to Ruan Qianyi's table to watch the drama unfold.
"What's going on?" she asked, turning into a reporter on the front lines of gossip. "The first person Lao Qin called out to, could it be that they've been caught red-handed?"
"Sigh, don't even mention it," Ruan Qianyi said with a helpless expression. "It was clearly Ge Kai who was pursuing her, but Yu Yu didn't want to date in high school. He kept bothering Yu Yu, and then Lao Qin saw her after school..."
Gao Hexin: "What did you see? Could it be two people...?"
"Ugh, okay, stop gossiping," Ruan Qianyi said, her face full of annoyance. She rubbed Gao Hexin's face as if to vent her frustration. "Midterm exams are coming up soon, and this whole thing is driving Yu Yu and me crazy with that guy."
More than ten minutes later, Luo Yu and Ge Kai returned from the classroom. Ge Kai's eyes were lifeless, and Luo Yu's were even more so, with her eyes redder than before. After sitting in the classroom for a while, she ran outside to the corridor to cry.
Upon seeing this scene, Gao Hexin's interest in gossiping vanished instantly. He cursed Lao Qin inwardly for being heartless and breaking up young couples every day.
Just as I was feeling sentimental, the culprit peeked out from outside the door and started calling out names again.
This time, he deliberately paused for a while, observing the expressions of different students in the class, his tone full of meaning.
"Don't all stare at me like that, do you all want me to pick you out?"
The people who had just been looking up suddenly lowered their heads to who-knows-where.
Old Qin chuckled softly, his gaze falling on the seat by the window, and said slowly.
"Ning wine".
Ning Jiu had just finished her English test and was checking and correcting her answers when she was suddenly called on by Lao Qin. Instantly, she felt the eyes of the entire class focused on her.
Being called out by Lao Qin isn't so scary; what's truly terrifying is suddenly becoming the subject of everyone's attention.
Her hand holding the red pen paused almost imperceptibly. She pointed to herself, and after receiving confirmation from Lao Qin, she stood up without hesitation.
"Teacher Qin, is there anything you need me to bring?"
Old Qin: "No need, just bring yourself."
Ning Jiu said "oh" and walked around the desk to Lao Qin's side, only to find that he still showed no sign of leaving.
Old Qin's gaze slowly shifted back, settling on the back of the classroom, and he called out another person's name.
"Joe Bolin, you come here too."
......
coax.
It exploded with a loud bang.
The classroom erupted in a frenzy, as if it had been set ablaze.
Even after reaching the teacher's office, Ning Jiu could still hear the deafening noise coming from the classroom.
Some people even couldn't suppress their curiosity and secretly peered through the door frame to watch what was happening in the teachers' office.
Compared to the noise in the classroom, their place was unusually quiet.
Old Qin wasn't so old that he was deaf, so of course he heard the commotion in the classroom. He sighed and said nothing more, opening his office door to let Ning Jiu and Qiao Bolin sit opposite him.
The air conditioning in the classroom and office was very cold, and it was the time of year when the temperature was dropping. Ning Jiu was wearing shorts and felt a bit cold. Just as she was about to sit down on the stool, she heard the boy next to her speak.
"Teacher Qin, could you turn the air conditioner up a bit?"
Old Qin was drinking water when he heard this and immediately gestured to Qiao Bolin to get the air conditioner remote.
Qiao Bolin turned up the temperature, adjusted his seat, and sat on the side.
The cold wind that was originally blowing was blocked by his tall and upright figure. Ning Jiu was stunned for a moment, and then sat back down in her seat.
Looking up, she met Old Qin's probing gaze.
......
He put the lid on the water glass, and with a thud, the glass was placed back on the table without much movement.
"I know everything about what happened between you two."
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Author's Note: The next chapter will be a long, 6k+ chapter, and it will also feature Xiao Qiao's boomerang, hehehe...
Tangtang has seen all the free tickets and nutritional supplements you sent! A huge thank you to all my lovely babies! [kiss][kiss][kiss]
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