Because the main customers are truck drivers and loaders, most of the restaurants near the logistics center are not well-decorated. The small shops, about 20 square meters each, are all dark and greasy, and they win customers by offering cheap and large portions of food.
At 2 p.m., the small noodle shop was deserted. Apart from the owner's two children doing their homework at the table closest to the heater, only Ha Yue and Xue Jing were customers.
The bright red menu on the wall only had text. Besides claypot rice, there were two or three kinds of noodles. Xue Jing wasn't very hungry, so to avoid wasting food, Ha Yue ordered a stir-fried knife-cut noodle dish and asked the owner to divide it into two portions when serving.
Before the noodles were served, Xue Jing took advantage of the break to pour water for Ha Yue and wash the bowls and chopsticks. However, there were no other details to pay attention to when eating noodles. Finally, when he had nothing else to do, he took out half a head of purple garlic from the small bamboo basket on the corner of the table and began to peel the garlic for Ha Yue, reciting what Aunt Siqin often said: "Eating noodles without garlic is half the taste."
The garlic was peeled clean and placed on a paper towel. Xue Jing slowly took a sip of the shop's aged tea, frowned slightly, and silently pushed the two teacups a little further away. He clasped his hands together on the table, took a deep breath, and then called out Ha Yue's name.
Ha Yue was replying to work messages on her phone when she heard him finally preparing to speak. She put down her phone and looked up at him.
But when she looked at him like that, Xue Jing felt like a criminal sitting in front of an interrogation table. Just being swept by Ha Yue's bright gaze made him panic. He pursed his lips, trying to hide his embarrassment, and picked up his teacup again to take a sip of the "dishwater". This time, the broken tea leaves went straight into his throat, and he suddenly covered his mouth and nose and began to cough violently.
Tears welled up in my eyes, along with snot. Tea leaves even flew out of my nostrils.
Xue Jing covered his face with a tissue and rushed to the bathroom.
Ha Yue was amused by this clown and shook her head before continuing to reply to work messages.
When Xue Jing came out of the bathroom with his hands wet, the fried noodles had already been served. Ha Yue and the others didn't even wait for him and had already started eating the noodles heartily.
Ha Yue hadn't eaten all morning and was starving, so she ate heartily. On the other side of the table, Xue Jing was embroidering with chopsticks in his mouth. He picked up a noodle and put it in his mouth, glancing at Ha Yue across from him with each chew.
By the time Ha Yue was almost finished eating, he had only eaten ten noodles and was already full. He put down his chopsticks and called out to her again.
"Yueyue."
Ha Yue glanced at his plate and asked, "What's wrong? It doesn't taste good."
It didn't taste good, but he didn't say so.
Xue Jing picked up his chopsticks again, smiled innocently at Ha Yue, and pretended to continue eating with a good appetite: "No, it's delicious. I've found that anything tastes good when I'm with you."
"Oh." Ha Yue drew out her words, ignoring his greasy sweet talk, and popped a clove of garlic into her mouth, finishing the last bite of noodles. "Then why do you keep calling me? Is there something you want to say?"
Only today did Xue Jing realize how remarkable Ha Yue's apology to him was that day. She spoke so naturally about the mistakes she had made, and there was no hesitation in her apology. But when it came to him, he just couldn't bring himself to say it.
Even today, he is still not a completely carefree person, at least when it comes to handling romantic relationships, he is not as open-minded as Ha Yue.
Last time, he made a "scumbag" confession to Ha Yue because he had no other choice but to take a gamble. In the end, those analyses were still a tool for him to deepen their bond. But this time, he already had too much affection and concern. Unsure of Ha Yue's reaction, he didn't dare to reveal everything he had said.
"Mmm." Xue Jing stuffed another mouthful of knife-cut noodles into his mouth, and after chewing and swallowing it all, he said solemnly, "I really like you very much."
"The kind of feeling that I really, really like."
"Hey!" The elementary school students doing their winter break homework behind them suddenly burst into giggles because of Xue Jing's idol drama-like confession. Ha Yue felt like she was being pricked by thorns and immediately stomped on his foot under the table. "Shut up!"
Xue Jing seemed to have eyes in his legs, not only easily dodging her attack, but also grabbing her knee under her skirt. His long, slender fingers tightened and moved down her knee inch by inch through her boots. He stroked her calf little by little like a frivolous bone-setting master until her cheeks burned red.
He didn't shut up; his perfectly shaped lips continued to speak as he said, "So, can you like me a little more? Show me a little more favoritism? Make me even more inseparable from me?"
He thought that if she loved him more, he might dare to apologize for his past behavior without restraint. If she couldn't live without him, then he wouldn't have to be so anxious and hesitant in the future.
So, after reflecting on himself for a long time, he concluded that the solution to the problem lay with Ha Yue.
Ha Yue twisted her legs and wrestled with his arm, causing the stool beneath her to creak and groan on the tiles.
With their winter break homework closed, the older children started lip-syncing with their sisters, deliberately imitating Xue Jing's sarcastic remarks. The younger girls were even more mischievous, suddenly belting out a song in their high-pitched voices: "On the eastern grassland, there are two cows. The bull says to the cow, 'I love you,' and the cow replies to the bull, 'Aren't you ashamed? Aren't you ashamed?'"
The boss, who was dozing off in the kitchen while listening to an audiobook, slammed his hand on the counter upon hearing the noise and immediately started yelling at the two kids: "Damn it, are you going to do your homework or not? Are you two asking for trouble?"
The children suddenly fell silent, flipping back to their winter break homework and writing furiously. Their molars were grinding together, and they couldn't afford to put on a show with Xue Jing in the noodle shop, so they stopped struggling and just stared at him with their clear, dark eyes. Without making a sound, they said through their breath, "Xue Jing, don't go crazy! Let go!"
Because she stared so hard, the crease of Ha Yue's double eyelids completely disappeared. Her eyes, which were originally full of charm with every frown and smile, now looked very innocent because they were round. Xue Jing grabbed her calf with his right hand and rubbed his palm up and down. His voice also became lower as her volume increased.
"Then you have to promise me first."
A wise man doesn't fight a losing battle, so Ha Yue immediately nodded and blinked, behaving as obediently as if she had been kidnapped by bandits. "I promise you, I promise you everything."
"Promise me what?" Xue Jing's fingers were already pinching her ankle. In this cold weather, in order to be both business-like and warm, in addition to wearing thin fleece pantyhose, she was also wearing a pair of suede knee-high boots under her long skirt. The boot shafts were as soft as the skin of a short-haired dog. He almost pulled her entire leg up onto his stool to pinch it.
Ha Yue resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and mumbled a vague reply, squeezing her little nose: "I promise to like you a little more. To love you a little more. And that's not all, I'm going to relentlessly pursue you from now on. Xue Jing, just you wait, I'm going to suffocate you in this tornado of love, clinging to you like a parasitic vine, until you're begging and pleading for more space from me."
Ha Yue was telling a horror story, but Xue Jingquan took it as a beautiful vision. He released her legs and handed Ha Yue a disposable mouthwash, his posture returning to its usual noble and elegant manner. "Ha Yue, you'd better be..."
When Ha Yue came out of the noodle shop, Xue Jing went to the restroom to spit out mouthwash. She ran to the car with her bag. As soon as Xue Jing unlocked the car, she immediately opened the back door and sat in the last row.
It's really embarrassing to be laughed at by children in a noodle shop, especially since the lyrics of the song the child sang were so fitting. Xue Jing is really sick, and her condition may be quite serious. Is it because she's frustrated in her career that she's seeking happiness in her love life? In any case, for her own safety, she wants to stay as far away from this mentally broken patient as possible for the rest of the drive.
When Xue Jing opened the driver's seat door, he glanced back and asked Ha Yue, "Aren't you sitting in the front?"
Ha Yue lowered her head and gave a soft "hmm" as an answer, her face clearly saying "do not disturb." The car door closed, and Xue Jing didn't get in. Instead, he went around to the back of the car, opened the door, bent down, and squeezed into the back seat.
"Hey! I'm replying to a client's message." Shi Hayue frowned as she was kissed on the cheek.
"Hmm. Kissing won't stop you from texting, or do you want to do something else? I'd love to too, but it might not be possible here. The previous owner's windows were tinted lightly, making them too visible during the day. Let's not take any risks."
Xue Jing's fingers traced along her eyebrows, the corners of her eyes, and all the way to her lips. As normal lovers, they were currently separated due to their busy careers. After a week apart, the pent-up desires between them were understandable. If it weren't for the mess of promoting his new book, would Xue Jing have let this kiss wait until now?
The best food is saved for last. He first kissed her face, her eyelashes, her hair, and her earlobes.
He didn't kiss her lips, but burned with his gaze like wildfire and touched her with the lines of his fingertips.
Why are a grown man's lips so soft? Kissing them feels like touching a soft candy covered in fluffy white frost. Moreover, Xue Jing has naturally delicate skin, and even in a dry city like Suicheng, the skin on his lips has a healthy pinkish glow.
Ha Yue was mesmerized by his pink hue, her phone slipping from her hand, her voice broken, "Why didn't you say you wanted to kiss me earlier..."
She just chewed a clove of garlic raw; what a romantic disaster!
Xue Jing pressed his thumb against her pearly teeth and stirred it into her mouth, completely unconcerned. He even coaxed her to make a louder "ah" so he could see the structure inside more clearly, "So you didn't rinse your mouth." Now both of them smelled of green grapes and mint.
"Your lips look a little dry, let me help you." Ha Yue really didn't know what this person was babbling about. She had clearly reapplied lip gloss after eating, but he was rubbing her face like he was trying to remove her makeup.
The friction of the flavors in their mouths intensified, their breathing quickened, and the car hadn't even started yet. The winter chill was biting, but soon the air was filled with the warm scent of mint. The two people sitting in the back seat were getting warm, and if they got any warmer, it might have more undesirable effects on the children.
After the kiss ended, Xue Jing returned to the driver's seat. A smear of oolong milk tea-colored lip rouge rolled on his fair thumb. Upon closer inspection, there were also a few brownish-brown glitter particles under his eyes, which were liquid eyeshadows that Ha Yue had applied to his eyelids.
Ha Yue's makeup was almost completely ruined; the highlighter and blush had blended together on her face. When the car started, the first thing she did wasn't to take out a mirror to fix her makeup. Before she could even catch her breath, she turned her back and reached her hands inside the hem of her inner shirt to retrieve the loosely undone bra clasp from behind.
Seeing Ha Yue put all her clothes back in their original places in the rearview mirror, Xue Jing said, "Ha Yue, now that I think about it, everyone was probably quite annoying when they were young, but they should be better when they grow up. Everyone has to go through a process of learning, correcting their mistakes, and maturing, right?"
Ha Yue thought his remarks were directed at the child who had been singing and mocking their relationship in the noodle shop earlier, and said with some surprise, "What? Don't you hate kids who go against you the most? Last time you even told me that you can tell what a person will be like at three years old, and that the little girl riding the rocking horse is called Niu Niu, but you had to give her a nickname like Little Mischievous Monkey."
"No, she said it to me first! The moment she saw me, she called me a big, clumsy dummy! Is being tall a crime? If she's so capable, she shouldn't grow any taller. She'll never be a meter tall in her entire life."
Xue Jing was provoked by Ha Yue and lost his composure. After saying those words, he realized how childish he had been. After a long pause and two traffic lights later, he launched another attack on the issue of self-consistency in his apology, this time using a different approach.
"Ha Yue, let's talk about something else. Do you think if a couple has a very stable relationship, they shouldn't let small things from the past cause new changes?"
“Last time we watched the sunrise, you said that the best outcome for the past is to let it go, right? We should focus on the future.”
Upon hearing Xue Jing's words, Ha Yue's radar immediately went off. She narrowed her eyes, suspecting that he had been setting a trap for her from the beginning. Without alerting him, Ha Yue applied lip gloss to the cushion foundation in her hand and pretended to be indifferent, saying, "It's not that absolute, is it? What I said last time was about me and my mother. But we need to analyze specific situations and see what small things happened before, because everyone's perception of the magnitude of things is different."
"What if what one person considers a small matter is a big matter for another? Then it's hard to say."
"Especially between men and women, a lot can happen, such as alcoholism, violence, infidelity, prostitution..."
"Hey!" Seeing that Ha Yue's words were getting more and more outrageous, Xue Jing quickly stopped her from making the connection. "How could that be! The person I'm talking about isn't so inhuman, he's just a not-so-bad person who said some wrong things when he was young."
"What did you say?"
"It's nothing, just some pretentious talk."
"Oh. That's pretentious."
For example, Xue Jing has publicly stated many times that his success was solely due to Ha Yue dumping him. Not only that, he also implied that his ex was a gold digger who only liked to cry in a Bentley. Xiao Yu already knew all this before she sent it to her; she had even joined Xue Jing's book club in Jicheng.
Ha Yue left Xue Jing waiting for a while, building up her anxiety, then suddenly looked up at the pair of eyes in the rearview mirror that were occasionally glancing at her, feigning sudden realization, and asked, "Xue Jing, is the person you're talking about yourself?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
