08
Shen Qingyu instantly became the focus of the entire audience, with everyone's gaze focused on her, filled with curiosity and inquiry. She smiled and nodded, her tone relaxed: "I usually play when I'm bored, but I don't play much. I'm quite bad at it."
As soon as he finished speaking, the people around him visibly breathed a sigh of relief, with expressions of "as expected" appearing on their faces.
Someone murmured quietly: "I said it, a goddess-level like Senior Sister Shen only relaxes and plays occasionally."
"It's actually more adorable this way, and a bit more down-to-earth." Voices of agreement rose one after another, and even the tension in the air dissipated a lot.
"?" Le Yan'er put her phone down with a bang, her voice blazing with anger. Her voice was so clear it drowned out the surrounding chatter: "You're still a bad player? Have you forgotten last week in the dormitory, when Lee Sin used his R to flash-kick five players and pushed the enemy crystal, who was the one who arrogantly slammed the table and yelled, 'This game only requires skills'?"
"..." The smile on Shen Qingyu's face froze instantly, the curve of her mouth seemed frozen. She turned her head and glared at Le Yan'er, her eyes clearly saying "shut up!", and she wished she could find a needle and thread and sew the person's mouth shut.
Wu Hao, who was sitting next to Le Yan'er, suddenly stood up straight, opened his mouth exaggeratedly, and his voice was full of shock: "What the hell? Is this true? There are not many girls playing League of Legends, and Senior Sister Shen is beautiful and powerful... Oh my God, what kind of magical configuration is this!" As he was about to stand up from the chair and pretended to kneel on one knee, but before his hand touched the ground, Lu Yiyi beside him pushed him back to his seat.
Lu Yisi frowned and cursed in a low voice, "Can you please stop embarrassing yourself? This is a social gathering, not a fan meeting."
"What do you know?" Wu Hao retorted with his neck stiffened, his face flushed red, "This is worship of the great god!" His serious yet funny look made everyone present burst into laughter. Even the waiter standing in the corner with a tray couldn't help but lower his head, covering his mouth and laughing, his shoulders trembling slightly.
The gathering passed quickly amidst laughter and joy. The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and neon lights shone through the glass, casting a warm orange glow over the venue.
When the party was over, a girl from the same class suggested going to a bar. As soon as she finished her words, Wu Hao immediately responded with a proud tone, "Let's go to Midie! I know the owner there. He can reserve a quiet booth for us and even give us a few bottles of wine."
When the word "Midi" entered her ears, Shen Qingyu's steps suddenly stopped, her fingertips unconsciously clenching the corner of her coat. She remembered this bar—the last time she accompanied Qu Shengsheng to get drunk, it was here that she had run into Yu Wang. That day, he was wearing a black hoodie, sitting in the corner of the bar, a cigarette between his fingers, his eyes as cold as ice, completely out of tune with the bustle of the venue.
She calmly glanced back at the crowd behind her, her gaze pausing at the very back row. Sure enough, Yu Wang was there, leaning against the wall, his head bowed, an unlit cigarette between his fingers, flicking the flint of his lighter to create a faint flame. The dim streetlight shone through the window, falling on his face. The flame flickered for a moment and then faded, and the smoke slowly drifted over his distinct jawline, outlining his hard, cold features. He seemed to be enveloped by an invisible barrier, shutting out the surrounding clamor. Only a careless laziness remained, completely out of place in this bustling scene.
"Let's go, Yuyu, what are you daydreaming about?" Le Yaner pulled her arm, and Shen Qingyu came back to her senses and followed the crowd out. Yu Wang also followed, falling behind her at the end of the group, three or four people away from her, not too far, not too close, but she couldn't help but glance at him out of the corner of her eye.
When we arrived at the "Midi" bar, it was already bustling with activity. The heavy metal music made the floor tremble, and the colorful lights swirled on the dance floor, casting a hazy halo on everyone's face.
Wu Hao led everyone up to the second floor with familiarity. The booths were U-shaped sofas, the soft leather emitting a faint aroma of wine as it sank in. Shen Qingyu found a seat by the window and sat down. As soon as she settled in, she felt someone sitting next to her—Yu Wang happened to be sitting to her left, with only a shallow armrest between them. Occasionally, their arms would inadvertently touch, feeling the warmth.
He leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxed, his fingertips twirling an empty wine glass. Drops of water on the glass slid down through his fingers and dripped onto the armrest of the sofa. His eyes were half-closed, his gaze somewhat unfocused, as if he were in a daze, or as if he was quietly paying attention to the movements around him. Shen Qingyu secretly glanced at him, then quickly looked away, her heartbeat inexplicably quickening.
Wu Hao hurriedly ordered drinks and a dice cup, placed the dice cup in the middle of the table, clapped his hands, and said excitedly, "Let's play Liar's Dice! If you lose, you can either drink or choose Truth or Dare. Do you dare?"
"What's there to be afraid of?" Le Yaner was the first to raise her hand.
Shen Qingyu picked up the lemonade on the table and took a sip, then said lightly: "I'm not very good at this."
Wu Hao believed it, and immediately came over, enthusiastically explaining the rules to her: "It's very simple! Each person rolls five dice, and after rolling, they call out a number. For example, if you call out 'three fives,' the next person can either add a number, like 'four fives,' or increase the number, like 'three sixes.' By the way, Yu Wang is really good at this. He got us all drunk last time, so you have to be careful of him."
Shen Qingyu nodded, but she didn't take it seriously. In the first few rounds, she deliberately called out conservatively, either "two threes" or "three fours", and she was cautious every time she opened her mouth. Until the third round, when she was about to call out "three twos", her knee was suddenly touched lightly - it was Yu Wang's knee, and the warm touch came through the thin jeans. She was stunned for a moment and looked at him sideways, but he seemed to have not moved, still half-closed his eyes, and twirled the wine glass with his fingertips, as if the touch just now was just an accident.
The next second, the person on the other side called out "four twos." Shen Qingyu hesitated as she was about to open the dice when her knee was bumped again. She made up her mind and said, "Open!" She opened the dice cup and saw that the other side only had three twos. She won.
Over the next few rounds, Yu Wang's hints became increasingly obvious—one tap for "open," two for "add," with just the right amount of force, imperceptible to others while still allowing her to accurately receive the signal. Relying on these subtle hints, Shen Qingyu won three rounds in a row, driving Wu Hao completely bewildered and into drinking several beers.
Wu Hao rubbed his swollen temples and collapsed on the sofa, shouting, "Something's wrong! It's absolutely wrong! You two must have colluded!" He pointed at Shen Qingyu and Yu Wang, his eyes full of accusations, but it made everyone laugh again.
Yu Wang curled the corners of his lips and said nothing. He just rubbed Shen Qingyu's leg lightly with his knee under the table, as if to signal her "don't panic".
In the ninth round, Le Yaner stared at Shen Qingyu's dice cup, her eyes full of suspicion. Before Shen Qingyu could speak, she suddenly shouted, "Open! I bet you don't have enough!"
Shen Qingyu's heart tightened as she slowly opened the dice cup—five dice were scattered inside. She had just called out "four sixes," but in reality, there were only three. A low murmur of laughter erupted from the people around her. Le Yan'er raised her eyebrows triumphantly, "I'll accept the loss. Let's choose truth or dare?"
"The truth." Shen Qingyu smiled.
Lu Yisi drew a card from the deck on the table and deliberately dragged out his words, his tone tinged with sarcasm as he read it out loud: "How many people can you be in love with at the same time?"
The whole place fell silent in an instant. Even the deafening music seemed to fade a little, leaving only the vague noise from the dance floor.
Wu Hao and Lu Yiwu stared at her with curiosity in their eyes. Even Le Yaner stopped joking and waited for her answer.
Shen Qingyu could feel that Yu Wang on her left also tilted his head slightly, raised his eyebrows, and his fingertips stopped on the rim of the wine glass without moving. His eyes fell on her face with a bit of inquiry.
"No."
"I can testify to this!" Le Yan'er immediately stood up, patting her chest, and said in a loud voice, "From freshman year to now, not even a male mosquito has been around her. Let alone falling in love, she has never even opened a love letter from a boy!"
Yu Wang chuckled softly, his voice was so soft, mixed in with the noisy music, like a feather gently brushing against the tip of his heart. Only Shen Qingyu could hear it clearly. He said, "Really?"
There was a hint of suspicion in his tone, which made Shen Qingyu's heart beat faster. She quickly picked up the lemonade and took a big gulp, not daring to look at him again.
The game continued, and by the fifteenth round, the atmosphere had reached a climax. Wu Hao stared at the dice cup, his face flushed, and shouted, "Fifteen fives! I don't believe it!"
When it was Yu Wang's turn, he finally stood up from the sofa, looked up nonchalantly, and glanced at the dice cup on the table. His tone was as flat as if he was talking about the weather today: "18 fives."
"Open!" Wu Hao slammed his hands on the table, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. He was so excited that he almost jumped up from the sofa. "Are you fucking crazy? 18 fives? There are only that many dice in the whole place, and you dare to shout that?!"
Everyone gathered together, opened their dice cups in a hurry, and counted one by one.
"A 5!"
"two!"
"There are three more here!"
…
After the final count, there were a total of 17 5s, just one missing.
Wu Hao clapped his hands in ecstasy and pulled out a dare card from the table. As soon as he saw the content on it, the smile on his face suddenly froze. He opened his mouth but couldn't say anything.
Le Yaner curiously leaned over, snatched the card, and read it out loud, her voice full of excitement: "Kiss the person of the opposite sex closest to you - for a full 3 seconds!"
The air froze instantly. Shen Qingyu's heartbeat thumped against her chest, threatening to burst from her throat. She could sense Yu Wang's breathing pause to her left, his body seemingly stiffening for a moment, but he didn't move. His fingertips gently stroked the rim of the wine glass again.
Wu Hao rubbed his hands, his eyes full of a smile of watching the fun: "Old Yu, accept the loss of the bet! Don't cheat!" The people around him also followed suit, and the whistles and laughter mixed together, making Shen Qingyu's cheeks even hotter.
Yu Wang didn't say anything, but slowly turned his head, his gaze landing on Shen Qingyu's face. The bar's lights just happened to sweep across his face, the warm yellow light falling on his eyelashes, casting a light shadow under his eyes, softening his originally cold and hard features. His eyes were deep, as if hiding a pool of water, and Shen Qingyu's heartbeat was out of control, and even his breathing became cautious.
Before Shen Qingyu could react, a warm touch suddenly landed on her lips. It was very light, with a hint of the bitterness of beer and a faint smell of tobacco, like a feather gently falling, but it made her blood boil instantly.
Three seconds was short, so short that it was just a breath, yet it seemed infinitely stretched, each second so clear that it seemed etched into one's bones. The surrounding boos and music faded away, leaving Shen Qingyu with only the thumping of her own heartbeat and Yu Wang's gentle breath on her lips.
It was not until Yu Wang retreated that Shen Qingyu suddenly came back to his senses. As if he had been scalded, he stood up from the sofa, his voice trembling: "I, I'm going to the bathroom."
She practically ran for the bathroom, the cool tiles against her palms only helping her calm down a bit. She reached the mirror and realized her cheeks were red as blood, and even the tips of her ears were burning. She turned on the faucet and splashed cold water over her face again and again. The coolness spread across her skin, but it couldn't suppress the burning sensation in her heart, and the tips of her ears were still burning painfully.
Just as she turned to leave, she saw Yu Wang leaning against the wall at the bathroom door. He held an unlit cigarette between his fingers, the smoke still lingering, only the faint aroma of tobacco lingering around. He looked at her with a clear smile in his eyes and a hint of teasing in his tone: "Are you shy?"
Shen Qingyu took a deep breath and walked forward with forced composure. She raised her hand, stood on tiptoe, and gently pinched his chin, forcing him to look down at her. She deliberately raised her tone to hide the panic in her heart: "Aren't you more nervous? I saw it just now in the booth. Your hands were shaking so much that you almost dropped your cigarette on the ground."
Yu Wang chuckled softly, and the low sound was like the strings of a cello being gently plucked. He lowered his head slightly, and his lips rested on Shen Qingyu's slightly red earlobe. The warm breath sprinkled on her skin, making her tremble involuntarily.
"But senior sister," his voice was very soft, but with unquestionable certainty, "your ears are red."
Shen Qingyu's heart skipped a beat, and the hand holding his chin unconsciously loosened a little. Yu Wang lowered his head to look into her eyes, which were so close to him. The light from the bathroom reflected in those eyes, like a starry sky, so bright that he couldn't look away. He suddenly chuckled, clasped her wrist with his backhand, and pressed her against the wall behind him. His palm was large, wrapped around her wrist, with a warm touch. His breath was hot and sprinkled on her nose, with the mixed smell of tobacco and beer, making her whole body tense.
His thumb gently stroked her lips, his movements as gentle as if he were touching a fragile treasure, and his voice was filled with a hint of sincerity: "Do you want to try again and see if my hands shake?"
Shen Qingyu's heartbeat was completely out of rhythm, and even her breathing became rapid. She didn't dare to look into his eyes again, so she could only turn her face away and said in a vague voice: "Boring."
"It's quite boring," Yu Wang's voice lowered a little, with a hint of subtle seriousness. His thumb still rested on her lips, rubbing it gently, "but those three seconds just now were not boring."
The restroom was quiet, with only the faint sound of music coming from outside.
Shen Qingyu could clearly hear Yu Wang's heartbeat, overlapping with her own, making a "boom, boom" sound. She tilted her face to the side and saw the Adam's apple on his neck roll slightly. Then, his breath came closer, carrying a warmth that made her panic.
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