Chapter 72 The Kiss [VIP]
Chapter Summary: Soft, warm lips pressed against mine. "This is my wish."
The New Year's Eve dinner is nothing more than a few dishes. There are only two of them, so naturally they can't afford the elaborate Manchu Han Imperial Feast.
After finishing her meal, Fu Xianyin felt restless and couldn't wait to go out and see the stars.
But after what happened earlier, she couldn't help but blush and feel her heart race when she looked at Gu Linzhao, and she couldn't say anything she wanted to say.
So she just stared at Gu Linzhao longingly whenever their eyes didn't meet.
Whenever Gu Linzhao glanced at her, Fu Xianyin would immediately turn her head to look outside.
She was acting all coy and hesitant, and Gu Linzhao across from her wasn't exactly being open either.
When the girl didn't say anything and just stared at him expectantly, Gu Linzhao felt like he could barely hold his cup.
Somehow, a feeling of timidity also welled up in his heart.
After finally mustering up the courage to look up, one immediately turns their head away again.
Gu Linzhao sighed softly.
Fu Xianyin's shoulders slumped slightly across from him.
The two were remarkably similar in their state of mind.
The same trepidation, the same awkwardness, the same timidity, the same anticipation.
Fu Xianyin felt she hadn't felt this restless in a long time.
She clenched her fingers into a fist, then relaxed them, and then clenched them again.
After repeating it several times, she took a deep breath, mustered her courage, and was about to speak when she heard Gu Linzhao say:
"Want to go out and see the stars?"
See, even now, it's still him who takes the initiative.
Fu Xianyin felt a mix of emotions she couldn't quite describe.
The lighting control at the Starry Sky Camp is very strict; the lights are still on inside the cabins, but it's dark outside.
The moment Fu Xianyin stepped from indoors to outdoors, everything went black.
She missed a step and fell forward uncontrollably.
Gu Linzhao grabbed her.
He gripped her tightly and forcefully. Fu Xianyin felt her hand being held firmly, and the bones in her metacarpophalangeal joints were even retracting inward.
Fu Xianyin suddenly remembered the time when she and Gu Linzhao recited poetry together at the arts festival when she first transferred to Beichuan No.1 Middle School.
The lights were deliberately turned up, and she felt just like she is now, dizzy and lightheaded, her foot slipped, and she almost fell.
It was Gu Linzhao who stopped her.
However, unlike that performance, she fell because the lights were turned up too high.
During that cultural performance, Gu Linzhao let go of her hand after she had regained her balance.
This time, even after she regained her footing, he did not let go.
Fu Xianyin suddenly remembered that since she transferred to Beichuan, almost everything that happened to her was because Gu Linzhao stopped her.
Her memory has never been as clear as it is now.
When she scraped her knee during a physical education test, Gu Linzhao pulled her up.
On that rainy night by the Linlan River, it was Gu Linzhao who pulled her back.
The near-embarrassment at the arts festival, her terrible chemistry grades, even when no one came to the parent-teacher conference for her, when Chen Huimei scolded her in the dress shop, when she was exhausted from training for the sports meet, and when Chen Huimei came to the school and made a scene—all these moments revealed the most unbearable side of her that she didn't want anyone to see.
From beginning to end, every single time.
Gu Linzhao was the one who stopped her.
From what moment did you stop letting go?
Fu Xianyin wanted to find that exact time from her own memory.
As the memories flashed through her mind, Fu Xianyin suddenly realized that it seemed that Gu Linzhao had never let go since the very first time.
That's why there were a second, a third, and countless times.
It seemed as if he had been slowly walking towards her for a very long time.
It seemed like he hadn't let go of her hand for a very, very long time.
It turns out that from the very beginning, it was Gu Linzhao who took the initiative.
Feeling the unique warmth of his touch in her palm, Fu Xianyin suddenly realized that she didn't need to dwell on what adjective was used to describe her anymore.
Haven't all the answers already been laid out before her?
She didn't need to ask questions, nor should she ask Gu Linzhao to repeat them to her again.
All she had to do was repeat Gu Linzhao's answer.
"Watch the road."
She heard Gu Linzhao say.
Actually, he had no intention of letting go.
But as Fu Xianyin looked at the large, well-defined hand peeking out from the cuff, a thought suddenly arose in her mind—a thought she had never felt so urgently before:
Why don't we try taking a step forward?
Anyway, he once said that he would cover for her.
As her eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light, Fu Xianyin slowly began to see a road in the night.
However, she said, "Then you hold my hand."
"Hold my hand, and even if I can't see the road, I won't fall."
Gu Linzhao remained silent for two seconds.
Then, Fu Xianyin heard a short laugh, and immediately afterward, she was led forward.
The night can devour everything: light, hope, and the road ahead.
But the night can also conceal everything, those fluttering hearts, those pounding deer, those thundering hearts.
The shyness and courage of those young boys and girls.
Gu Linzhao walked steadily, pulling Fu Xianyin along as they moved forward at a leisurely pace.
The two did not stand side by side, but rather slightly offset by half a body length, and Fu Xianyin let him lead her.
Ahead lay only darkness, with no end in sight and no light in sight.
Only the sky was a dazzling cluster of stars.
The mountain road was not smooth, and even though a small path had been repaired, Fu Xianyin still stumbled along it.
There were chairs on the observatory, and Gu Linzhao led her to two chairs with telescopes in front of them.
Fu Xianyin suddenly felt a little flustered. She said, "Are we just going to sit in front of the binoculars? Don't other people use them? Isn't that a bit inappropriate? Wouldn't that be a bit rude?"
She asked a whole string of questions in one breath.
Gu Linzhao could tell she was nervous, but he knew it wasn't because of the answers to those questions.
He didn't ask why; he simply squeezed Fu Xianyin's hand reassuringly and said, "I've made a reservation."
Fu Xianyin felt a little more relaxed.
The two chairs are not close together, and if you sit down and hold hands, it would seem a bit deliberate.
Just as Fu Xianyin was about to muster up the courage to grab Gu Linzhao's hand and sit down, Gu Linzhao suddenly picked up a chair and moved it to the middle.
The two chairs, which were once thousands of miles apart, are now almost touching.
A sweet feeling welled up in Fu Xianyin's heart. She squeezed Gu Linzhao's hand tightly, so tightly that Gu Linzhao turned his head to look at her.
She just smiled, biting her lip, and sat down on the simple camping chair. She gently shook Gu Linzhao's hand and said, "Come and sit down too."
It was completely dark by then.
The pitch-black night was like a curtain, its base color rich and flawless, reflecting the brilliant starry sky above.
This is not the first time Fu Xianyin has looked at the stars, and it certainly won't be the last.
Changes in celestial bodies are very small, especially when viewing galaxies tens of thousands of light-years away with the naked eye. Apart from the effects of weather and clouds, it is rare to see any changes in the stars.
But she just felt that these were the most beautiful stars she had ever seen in her life.
Every single one sparkles, every single one shines, every single one is round and full, every single one is there, so beautiful.
Sitting under this starry sky with the person she loves, a thought suddenly arose in Fu Xianyin's mind.
A thought that she could count on her fingers the number of times it had appeared in her more than ten years of life.
She suddenly felt that if the world were like this, if the world could be like this.
If she tries her best to live, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Suddenly, her fingers were squeezed hard, and Fu Xianyin's brick-like movements fell into Gu Linzhao's gentle eyes.
He asked, "Do you like your birthday present?"
“I like it,” Fu Xianyin said.
Gu Linzhao said, "This year's college entrance exam was rushed, but I'll prepare something you'll like even more next year."
next year.
Fu Xianyin couldn't help but laugh. Her eyes crinkled as she lazily said, "There's still next year?"
Gu Linzhao said, "Of course there will be."
That's strange.
She is someone who has little expectation for the future. The only thing she puts in the future, and has a concept of the future, is the college entrance examination.
And now, Gu Linzhao has forcibly filled the empty space in his heart with one.
next year.
She was actually trying very hard to restrain herself, to restrain herself from having expectations, and to restrain herself from looking towards the future.
Everything in the past told her not to expect anything, that she couldn't expect anything, that everything would only get worse and worse.
But now she can't help but wonder what next year will be like.
Next year, they should be in the same university, and the university will have holidays at the same time, so they will also return to Beichuan at the same time.
Will Gu Linzhao be able to run away from home again next year? Will he still bring her to see the stars, and will they see the same meteor shower again?
Or perhaps, Gu Linzhao will take her home to have New Year's Eve dinner with his family.
Fu Xianyin began to berate herself for being love-struck; she had nothing to lose, yet she was already thinking about going home with him for New Year's Eve dinner.
She cursed herself, "You're destined to be a wild vegetable digger. You'll be the one coldly washing my underwear in the future!"
After cursing for a couple of times, she suddenly let herself off the hook.
Let loose a little. Thinking about it isn't illegal. It's good to have something to look forward to.
Let's go a little wild.
Fu Xianyin changed her hands from clasped together to interlocking her fingers. She rubbed her thumb against Gu Linzhao's tiger's mouth and asked, "So what are you planning to prepare for me next year?"
Gu Linzhao asked, "What do you want?"
Fu Xianyin thought for a moment and said, "Can I have what I want?"
Gu Linzhao asked, "I can have everything I want, everything I can do."
It's not the kind of boastful, exaggerated promise like "I'll give you whatever you want," nor is it the kind of overly cautious one that's afraid of making even the slightest mistake, saying "We'll see when the time comes; it's not certain right now."
He simply assured Fu Xianyin earnestly, "I can do anything I want, and I will have it all."
Fu Xianyin suddenly asked, "What if I don't study in China next year, but still want to go abroad, and we're not in the same place?"
Gu Linzhao said almost without thinking, "Then I'll come find you."
"Wherever you are, I will go to find you and celebrate your birthday."
Fu Xianyin loosened her clasped hands, extended her little finger, and said to Gu Linzhao, "Let's pinky swear."
She didn't know where this stubbornness came from. Just a moment ago, she was telling herself that the future was uncertain, and it was okay to look forward to it now and be a little reckless. How could she take the future seriously?
But in that instant, she suddenly longed for a promise.
A definite, guaranteed, serious promise she made.
Fu Xianyin's pinky finger was hooked and shaken. She said, "Pinky promise, a hundred years without breaking up."
Gu Linzhao was amused by her and said in a coaxing tone, "Okay, pinky promise, hang yourself, and never change your mind for a hundred years."
As soon as he finished speaking, Fu Xianyin gave him a thumbs up and pressed it against his, saying, "It's stamped, there's no way to change it."
They did it so quickly, as if afraid he might change his mind.
It was clearly her who had changed her mind all along.
Several shooting stars had already streaked across the sky when Fu Xianyin heard the exclamations of the people around her and hurriedly looked up at the sky.
Several extremely bright stars streaked across the sky. Fu Xianyin stared blankly at them. From the crowd, someone shouted noisily, "Shooting stars! Make a wish!"
Fu Xianyin also quickly put her hands together, closed her eyes, and made a wish.
When she opened her eyes again, Gu Linzhao had placed a small cake in front of her from somewhere.
The candlelight on the cake flickered, and Gu Linzhao, standing in the wind, urged, "Hurry up and blow out the candles."
But it was still a second too late.
The candle was extinguished by the wind that rushed over first. Gu Linzhao covered it with his coat and was about to relight it for Fu Xianyin when his wrist was suddenly grabbed by Fu Xianyin.
She didn't know where she suddenly got the courage from. Maybe the shooting star was too beautiful, or maybe the wish was too attractive. She couldn't help but want to satisfy herself.
She grabbed Gu Linzhao's wrist and looked straight into his eyes.
She said:
"No need to order."
Fu Xianyin's chest heaved violently as she repeated, "I've already made my wish, no need to light it."
The hand gripping Gu Linzhao tightened unconsciously, and Fu Xianyin heard herself say:
Do you want to know what my wish is?
She could hear her own voice trembling.
Courage has its limits, and Fu Xianyin was too eager. She even asked hastily before Gu Linzhao had even nodded and spoken:
"Then can you... can you help me fulfill my wish?"
The girl's hope and urgency were so intense that Gu Linzhao looked at her and said:
"Varied"
What is your wish?
His words were cut off.
A soft, warm kiss landed on his lips, and Gu Linzhao's eyes widened in shock.
Fu Xianyin grabbed his collar, stood on tiptoe, and suddenly kissed him without warning.
He could feel her breath trembling, and the hand gripping her collar was so tight it turned white, but the warmth on her lips pressed firmly against his, tightly and forcefully.
Perhaps it was just a fleeting touch, or perhaps the kiss lasted a long time.
But extreme excitement had overwhelmed the last shred of rationality in his brain, and vague concepts such as time and space were all thrown to the back of his mind.
The commotion and excitement of the crowd became nothing more than a backdrop; in his world, there was only Fu Xianyin.
He noticed that Fu Xianyin's lips were very red, and her eyes seemed to be filled with tears.
He heard Fu Xianyin say softly:
"This is my wish."
[Author's Note]
Congratulations to the young couple for finally getting together and kissing!
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