Chapter 86
Footsteps began to sound outside the door, gradually fading into the distance. After a long while, even the kitten's meows could no longer be heard.
Before opening the door, Lin Langyi glanced behind her and asked, "Do you need me to get you a piece of clothing?"
Yuan Chuyu leaned against the counter, shook his head, and said softly, "I'll arrange it. You can go now."
A smile spread across his lips; it was so rare to see him smile so genuinely tonight.
He urged, "There are three layers of filling, all of which you'll like. Go quickly."
Lin Langyi hesitated for two seconds, nodded, and whispered "Happy Birthday" to him before leaving.
He gave a slight smile.
She asked, "Does your head still hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt anymore now."
So what's your birthday wish?
Yuan Chuyu did not reveal his true wish. The adult world is full of strange and selective taboos. If you care too much about a wish, those words that sound like "feudal superstition" will always carry more weight on that particular wish.
If saying it out loud doesn't work, what should I do?
He changed it to: "I want to spend midnight with you."
Lin Langyi was easier to talk to than she had imagined. The moment he spoke, she nodded and said, "Okay."
Anyway, she's going to live in G City for a long time soon, so leaving her with some good memories before she leaves will make it easier to talk when we meet again.
The house was oppressively quiet, with the occasional echo of her high heels echoing down the corridor. She gradually left behind the loneliness, walking closer and closer to the bustling crowd. After a while, the golf course was still lively and bustling, just as it had been before she left.
It wasn't until we were almost back near the stadium that we saw Cheng Yanjin holding a cat. He was looking up, as if admiring the moon, and didn't make any other moves for a long time.
Lin Langyi glanced up at the sky, and when she looked away, she saw that he was now looking at her at eye level, staring intently at her.
"The cat was so worried about you." Cheng Yanjin's face showed no sign of anything unusual as he walked steadily toward her and handed the cat to her. "Here, you hold it. I'm going to wash my hands."
As the two walked toward the court, Lin Langyi glanced to the side out of the corner of her eye. Cheng Yanjin, as if nothing had happened, twirled the cat hair on his sleeve, rubbed it, and watched it drift away in the wind.
He waved to her as he walked to the restroom next to the restroom area and went inside, saying, "Go find Yuan Fei and the others first. I'll wash my hands and come back later."
In Lin Langyi's arms, the black butterfly shell's tail swayed, brushing against her chin, and it would turn its head to meow.
She stroked its fur and saw Cheng Yanjin walk into the bathroom without looking back. She stood outside the door for a few seconds before carrying the cat back to the bustling center.
...
Cheng Yanjin finished cleaning the cat hair off his body in the bathroom. Before leaving, he only tentatively stepped half a foot out of the door frame, turned his head slightly to look outside, and breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw that Lin Langyi was not outside.
This time he moved quickly, bypassing the crowd and returning to the house, closing the open front door and locking it without hesitation.
As he passed through the corridor, he glanced at the deepest part of the corridor, then took three steps at a time and went straight up to the third floor. He opened the door to Yuan Chuyu's room, which was empty.
Cheng Yanjin didn't even turn on the lights. He walked straight to the wardrobe by the dim moonlight outside the window, opened the door, grabbed a random item, and went downstairs with a gloomy face.
Back in the first-floor restroom, he kicked the door hard and yelled, "Get out here!"
The door trembled, but Yuan Chuyu didn't hesitate for a moment. He opened the door, saw the clothes in Yuan Chuyu's hand, reached out, and said calmly, "Thanks."
Cheng Yanjin glared at him coldly, his expression so fierce it seemed he wanted to tear the person in front of him to pieces.
He threw the clothes at Yuan Chuyu's face, his tone icy: "You're really crazy! I'm warning you, hide your true colors outside, don't let anyone catch you red-handed and make things difficult for her in the end."
After Yuan Chuyu finished dressing, he carefully ironed his collar, returning to his usual refined and elegant demeanor.
Cheng Yanjin found him irritating and mocked him: "Don't you know how to advise her? She chases after you like a shark that smells blood at the first opportunity. I've seen people take one step for the other and then take ninety-nine steps for themselves, but I've never seen anyone take one step back for every one step they take for themselves."
“Just before we parted, she said she would stay with me until midnight,” Yuan Chuyu suddenly said. “I don’t need you to sow discord between us.”
"Is that so?" Cheng Yanjin sneered repeatedly. "But your father invited quite a few people to stay overnight in this house, and the rooms are all tidied up. I don't think she would take such a risk to see you. If you're willing to wait until midnight, then wait."
He raised his hand, still clutching a box of T-shirts he had taken from the bedside table on the third floor; the box had been crushed by his hand.
Cheng Yanjin said, "It's like you're the only one who knows how to seduce. She won't come looking for you; she's too busy."
Yuan Chuyu raised his eyelids and glanced at him, but didn't say anything.
The two spent less than five minutes alone together, but they quickly grew tired of each other and parted ways after finishing their conversation.
When Cheng Yanjin returned to the court, Chu Guanqian was on the phone. Upon seeing him return, he quickly hung up and asked, "Yanjin, did you just come out of the house? Xiaoyu didn't answer his phone. What is he doing? He's about to cut the cake."
Cheng Yanjin glanced at Lin Xiangshuo, who was also eagerly waiting, and said calmly, "He's in his study. There's something urgent at the company. I've already urged him, and he'll be here soon."
Yuan Chuyu arrived in less than ten minutes. He straightened his clothes and hair, made the first cut on the cake according to procedure, and then handed the cake knife to the waiter.
The cakes were served in small, elegant dishes. First, the excited children lined up, followed by the other guests.
Cheng Yanjin sat back in the rest area, slumped into the chair, leaned his head against the back of the chair, and stared blankly at the twilight sky.
Suddenly, a hand appeared in front of me holding a small plate. The cake on the plate smelled delicious, and the neat cross-section revealed three different layers of filling, with juicy and fresh fruit on top.
Cheng Yanjin's unfocused gaze froze, paused for a moment, then tightened his jaw and looked ahead.
Lin Langyi held the plate of cake and pushed it towards him again, looking down at him intently as she spoke to him.
She stood before him, so close that he could easily pull her into his arms with a single arm.
He just stared at her blankly, forgetting even to blink. He didn't know if he was daydreaming again or completely lost in a dream.
The way she appeared before him was so relatable, it was hard not to recall their shared moments. The moon hung overhead, and the bright spotlights on the basketball court shone behind her. For some reason, he remembered his high school friend's failed attempt to woo a girl.
That friend cried for two weeks, so much so that all her roommates couldn't bear to watch anymore.
Having never known what heartbreak felt like, Cheng Yanjin naturally couldn't understand. Half encouraging and half disappointed, he advised his friend to think more positively, saying that the girl wasn't the school beauty who was the center of attention, and that there would be girls who were prettier, gentler, and smarter than her.
That friend said, "You don't understand. When you fall in love with someone, you'll notice the hair clips she changes, the stickers she puts on her pen caps, and all the trivial changes that happen around her. But you won't notice her freckles or the pimples on her face. If you do see them, you'll just think she's incredibly cute and the most beautiful girl in the world."
Lin Langyi had a small fork in her mouth, and a small corner of the cake in her other hand had been cut off, indicating that she had already sneaked a bite on the way there.
Because she had a small fork in her mouth, her speech was muffled: "Do you want some? I picked out a piece with lots of fruit for you. I just tasted it, and the cream isn't too rich or sweet. You might like it."
Cheng Yanjin remained seated with his legs wide open, staring at her intently.
For a fleeting moment, he seemed to understand what it meant to have a spotlight shining forever above her head. Because this light was always on only for her, all the trivial things that others couldn't understand and that seemed insignificant would be deeply etched on his life's timeline. Even if she only appeared in his fleeting moments, these fragments would remain in his world forever, never expiring and never fading.
How despicable.
He said to himself.
Cheng Yanjin, you're so despicable.
That friend said that people will always remember the lover who hurt them the most, not because she did something outrageous that made her memorable, but because the person who hurt them the most was someone they had indulged.
You love her so much that you've crossed all boundaries for her, and even knowing that piercing her to the very end won't bring any reward, you still tolerate her treating you this way.
You found every reason for her, said every nice thing to her, and shed countless tears for her, yet you still hoped that your tears would nurture a flower.
She hurt you so deeply not because she was so powerful or had any particularly effective methods, but because you never let go of her hand, and because you didn't even try to dodge when she stabbed you. She was such a despicable person, but you were blinded by your own irrecoverable emotions, and because you loved her the most.
When you keep saying you hate her, the swallowed word "love" is silent.
"Do you want some? Animal-based cream will melt if left out too long." Lin Langyi moved forward an inch more, making gurgling noises with the fork in her mouth as she spoke, making him feel like a black butterfly shell whose chin had been scratched, which would also act coquettishly.
It might not have been a coquettish gesture; he smiled, and it was as if he had lost his mind. He willingly regarded her as the most beautiful, gentle, and intelligent girl in his heart, the center of everyone's attention.
There will never be another one.
"Eat up." Cheng Yanjin sat up, took the small plate from her hand, and pulled the empty chair next to him closer, patting the cushion. "Eat together."
Lin Langyi finally had a free hand, took out the small fork she had been holding in her mouth, scooped out another piece of cake, and sat down next to him to eat slowly.
Cheng Yanjin ate the cake bite by bite. The fruit pulp balanced the sweetness of the cake, and as she said, it wasn't greasy or too sweet; the taste was very good.
He liked it very much.
"When you went to the restroom just now, Chu Guanqian said that rooms had been arranged for us," he himself was surprised that he could talk about her going to the restroom so calmly, "We might stay here for the night, and they will take care of us."
"Huh?" Lin Langyi was dumbfounded. "I didn't even bring a change of clothes."
Cheng Yanjin ate quickly, finishing his food in a few bites. He then imitated her, holding a small fork in his mouth, and said to her, "They will arrange it. If you're not used to it, I'll have someone bring it over."
"That's too much trouble." Lin Langyi glanced at the time. "I'm not that particular. It's just for one night anyway."
When Cheng Yanjin came out after washing up in the evening, he didn't leave any lights on. Instead, he slightly opened the curtains, and the moonlight, like an old-fashioned movie projector in the village, cast a wider shadow of him as he lay half-reclined on the bed.
"Are you asleep?" Lin Langyi asked in a low voice, uncertainly.
Then, she saw the mist rising from his mouth in the shadows, like a wisp of smoke as thin as a cicada's wing.
"You're smoking in the room?!" Lin Langyi exclaimed in shock, quickly climbing onto the bed to stop him. "What if there's a smoke alarm—"
Before she could finish speaking, he grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto his chest. The moonlight cast his handsome, sculpted face onto the wall from the side, and a wisp of smoke rose from the shadow, like a spirit disguised as a human in the mountains.
“It’s edible dry ice.” He chuckled softly, hugged her, and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I saw videos of men who flirt with the law on my phone, and I saw that they all do this.”
After he finished speaking, he poked his head out from her long hair and whispered, "But I saw them covering their eyes with those translucent black ribbons with wide borders, and exhaling smoke through their eyes like ghosts... I don't have a ribbon."
Lin Langyi was speechless: "...? Cheng Yanjin, you're still watching videos of male bloggers who push the boundaries?"
"It's not that I want to see it!" he shouted, like a dog jumping up and down in a rage. "It's that I want to learn it so that—"
He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, feeling extremely annoyed, thinking to himself that a man should do more and say less.
There were two or three ties next to the pillow. He had prepared them while she was taking a shower. When he confronted Yuan Chuyu in the bathroom on the first floor, he had quickly glanced at the shirts and ties scattered on the counter. It was as if a thin needle had pierced his eye. He quickly and hastily looked away.
Cheng Yanjin placed the flexible ties in her hands: "You can use them to blindfold me, or tie my hands."
He heard Lin Langyi gasp softly.
"Where did you learn that from?" she asked. "Are you also a male blogger who skirts the edge of the issue?"
“No.” Cheng Yanjin frowned and said coldly, his tone unfriendly, “It was a shameless person who inspired me.”
Lin Langyi said, "That's not good," "That can't be," "Oh, how can that be?" without hesitation, and pulled the tie forcefully to both sides, making a "plop plop" sound as the fabric stretched in the air.
Tying someone's eyes and wrists in the dark is no easy task, but in this hazy, moonlit environment, Cheng Yanjin pulled out an enormous steak lid from under the bed. As soon as it was opened, thick steam rose slowly into the air.
The entire room instantly felt like stepping into a fairy cave.
That was edible dry ice placed on the dinner tea break table, cascading down from the glass goblets and white porcelain along the white gauze that trailed to the ground, like a waterfall cascading down a mountain stream.
He crushed a piece of dry ice and threw it into his mouth, then lazily lay back down, casting an indescribable shadow play on the wall thanks to his excellent and three-dimensional bone structure.
Lin Langyi's initial interest turned into a strong one. She got excited and tried to tie him up, but her technique was not good and the tie was too slippery. She tried several times with great enthusiasm but failed.
"Can you see clearly in the dark? Should we turn on the light to tie it?" He let her play around and asked in a low voice.
Lin Langyi's clothes had been lifted up, and his hand rested on her hip bone, his long index and middle fingers caressing the delicate skin on her lower back.
"No!" Lin Langyi refused decisively.
With such a wonderful smoky atmosphere, you can't see anything once the lights are turned on.
His fingers twitched and froze in mid-air.
For a long time afterward, his breathing was barely audible.
Is it because there are marks left on your body that you don't want others to see?
Cheng Yanjin's eyes were blindfolded, and the blindfold was tied quite tightly. The fabric was tightly bound to the most delicate skin around her eyes, as if it were pressing on her eyeballs through the thin eyelids, causing an unbearable soreness and swelling.
Before tying her hands, he stretched out his arms and hugged her, burying his head in her stomach for two seconds.
He no longer had the cake fork in his mouth, but his words were still unclear.
He said, "It's okay, Lin Langyi, it's fine to turn on the lights."
His hot breath sprinkled on his skin in scattered drops, and he seemed to be trembling uncontrollably, but he still managed to say what he wanted to say clearly:
"I can't see, Lin Langyi, I can't see... Don't worry, it's nothing... It's a small matter."
He kept trying to comfort her until his wrists were also tightly bound, at which point he gradually stopped talking. The constricting feeling strangely gave him a sense of security, as if the dull pain from the tightness digging into his skin represented her presence.
Dogs with leashes around their necks have homes; those without are stray dogs.
Lin Langyi, lacking experience, even poked at the knot with her fingers after tying it, asking him, "Is it too tight? Does it hurt?"
He shook his head; because of his superior physique, he did indeed look somewhat alluring.
He raised his chin, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. He lifted his bound hands, touched his lips, and called to her, "Sit up here, keep moving forward."
*
Lin Langyi woke up suddenly in a daze, her first thought being that she seemed to have forgotten something.
She reached for her phone next to her pillow, glancing back at Cheng Yanjin before turning on the screen.
He lay flat on his back, breathing deeply and rhythmically, his right hand covering the back of her hand, enveloping her as he slept peacefully.
Lin Langyi looked away and glanced at the time on her phone.
It will be midnight in less than ten minutes.
The main problem was the dry ice and the tie... I was sleepy afterward and accidentally dozed off for a while.
Her eyelids twitched, and she sat up furtively, lifted the blanket, carefully put on her slippers, and then slowly and discreetly withdrew her hand from his.
Cheng Yanjin slept very soundly; he always had excellent sleep quality, and the two were very similar in this respect.
Lin Langyi escaped.
She was wearing slippers and a plain long-sleeved cotton pajama set. She ran down the stairs, holding onto the handrail, her long, unbound hair flowing down her back and swinging back and forth with the movement of her body as she ran down the stairs.
She sent a message to Yuan Chuyu, only to realize afterward that she had blocked him. She quickly unblocked him from her contacts and dialed a number directly.
The other party answered immediately, but still didn't speak first.
She was breathing heavily as she ran, and asked into the microphone, panting, "Where on the third floor?"
"The southernmost room was unlocked."
She was lucky and didn't encounter anyone along the way, but as she passed through different rooms from top to bottom, light shone through the cracks in some doors, indicating that the guests staying inside were not resting.
Lin Langyi found the southernmost room, which wasn't hard to find. There were very few rooms on the three-story building, and that room was particularly large and impressive.
She raised her hand to knock on the door, but the door opened from the inside as soon as she made the first knock.
Yuan Chuyu stood in front of her. She quickly squeezed through the door, turned around and closed it. Her first instinct was to lock it.
But as soon as her hand touched the bronze doorknob, she reached down and found only an empty gap.
Lin Langyi was stunned. She lowered her head and stared intently, shocked to find that the lock on the door had been removed.
“It can’t be locked.” Yuan Chuyu said calmly from behind. “When I was little, they wanted to come in anytime to see what I was doing, so my room was never locked.”
Lin Langyi's hand was still touching the door when she heard this, and she was even more shocked.
So when he said the door wasn't locked, was it really unlocked?!
She turned her head and saw his calm and composed face. She opened her mouth, but finally asked, "They're not still installing surveillance cameras in your room, are they?"
"Hmm." He was able to nod calmly.
Lin Langyi felt a chill run down her spine and instinctively leaned against the corner of the wall: "Are there any now?"
“No more.” He chuckled, taking her arm and pulling her into his embrace. “Just like door locks, when we were little, even if we managed to get a room with a lock, the lock would be removed. Now, even if there’s no lock, no one dares to come in directly.”
"I don't live here often, so I haven't changed it."
His heartbeat was steady, thumping softly through her skin to her chest. Yuan Chuyu bent down slightly and rested his chin on her head, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being embraced.
He recounted: "When I was little, I made a wish for a long time that I would have a room with a lock. Later, my dream came true. Every room in every house can be locked. If I want, I can even put a lock on every drawer in the study."
“My wishes always come true. When my mother was still alive, I wished that I didn’t want to live with my father and that I could be with my mother every day.” He smiled and rubbed his chin against the top of her head, making a soft rustling sound.
"And it came true. I was separated from her until after she passed away and was buried."
“Now, I’ve made another wish.” He tightened his arms, pulling her completely into his embrace. The intimacy of sharing body heat soothed all his unease and allowed him to relax completely.
"So your wish came true again?" Lin Langyi hugged him back, strained to reach out and glance at her phone, reminding him, "It's almost midnight."
Yuan Chuyu didn't say anything, but simply tucked his chin in and gently sniffed her pleasant scent from her hair, like a black butterfly burying its head in her favorite ball of yarn.
"But you didn't blow out the candles last night, so will your wish really come true?" Lin Langyi patted his back to make him let go.
Yuan Chuyu pulled his arm back, looking quite reluctant to let the person go.
"Hurry up, it's almost midnight." Lin Langyi struggled to break free from his embrace with a sense of urgency.
As soon as she got away, she pressed her ear to the door and listened for a while. After thinking for a moment, she squatted down and peeked out through the keyhole a few times.
No one was there. She opened the door and walked out, with Yuan Chuyu following closely behind. Thinking she was going back, he whispered, trying to stop her: "Where are you going...?"
Lin Langyi didn't answer, but walked straight to the end of the third-floor corridor near him, where there was a window, but it was tightly covered by curtains.
She drew back the curtains and found a small dish hidden on the windowsill. On it were slices of mousse cake from the dinner party, along with a candle and a plastic lighter.
Yuan Chuyu saw what was there clearly, and slowly stopped behind her, standing still and staring at her intently.
The bright moonlight streamed in through the window, casting a dreamy filter over her beautiful profile. She picked up the small plate and carefully placed the slender candle on the cake.
As she turned to face him, a cool breeze blew in from the half-open window, gently swaying her long hair along with the white curtains, strands flowing forward like a spider web capturing its prey.
He smelled a very faint fragrance, the lingering scent of densely planted vegetation in the suburbs, carrying the coolness of the moonlight and the dampness, as if ice cubes had been added to a cup of fruit and flower tea.
In the meantime, the most invasive thing is the sweet fragrance emanating from her, carried by the wind.
He stared at her intently from the other end of the corridor. His broad shoulders and long legs completely obscured her figure, creating an intimate yet possessive distance.
The surroundings were quiet, and she stood there in front of the window filled with moonlight. The intricate and luxurious window frame was like a fine picture frame, capturing her image in this moment forever.
She held the small plate forward, as if afraid that a strand of hair would get caught on it and ruin the cake's shape. She looked so devout and graceful that if she wanted, no one could escape her gentle knife.
"I'm here to sing you a birthday song." She smiled slightly at him. "Since you didn't blow out the candles, let's blow them out again before the day is over."
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