Extra seven
08
Li Yingqiao had thought that last night's provocation would make him lose control. But to her surprise, he was exceptionally gentle, insisting that she count to twelve, and in the sticky, wet sounds of water, he wouldn't allow her to escape for even a moment.
The curtains were tightly drawn, and the atmosphere inside the room was chaotic and oppressive. The person on the sofa buried their head in the cushions, their head pressing against the back of the sofa. Yu Jinyang held their hands protectively in the middle, and the movements below suddenly intensified.
As she counted to twelve, his chest pressed against her back, his hot breath near her ear. After a few ambiguous "hmm?" sounds, he expertly tucked her wet hair behind her ear and whispered, "Want to spit again? Is that what boyfriends use to spit? Spit again."
Li Yingqiao always grants every request, ptooey ptooey ptooey.
"Um--"
She cried out unexpectedly, her fingers almost digging into the sofa.
We only did it once that night. After being apart for so long, I was actually more restrained than when we saw each other every day in the small painting town.
Li Yingqiao couldn't help but want to talk to him more; she missed these moments so much.
After taking a shower, Li Yingqiao was held tightly in Yu Jinyang's arms, lying on his chest and chattering incessantly, listening to the resonance between his heartbeat and her own voice.
Without him saying anything to express his opinion, just hearing his steady heartbeat gave her a huge sense of security, as if he was methodically gathering her recent thoughts, so she wanted to express herself without reservation.
Yu Jinyang has a natural, light scent of wood chips on him, not the kind of branded perfumes you see everywhere. It's a scent that makes you feel at ease, a scent that's uniquely his.
Li Yingqiao pressed her head against his firm and warm chest, earnestly recounting the thoughts she had had to suppress in Beijing during this time—thoughts that were unthinking, whimsical, and might have led others to suggest she see a doctor.
The two skipped dinner and went straight to their business after work. Even though the night was long and the moon hadn't risen yet, time was never enough for lovers. He had to report to WG the next day and meet other partners with You Xiaofan, so he wouldn't have time for her.
Yu Jinyang, worried that she was hungry, listened as she rambled on for a while: "You know what? To prove she wasn't Chaoxiong, Villy got a very gentle, wavy perm. Zhang Zongxie said it looked like a mop, and it kept distracting me during meetings—"
He picked her up and cooked her a steak. While saying it was You Xiaofan's revenge, he thoughtfully prepared a full fridge for them; Yu Jinyang's brother, like him, believed that even if the sky fell, eating was the most important thing.
The steak was from Australia, the pot from France, the stove from Germany, and the kitchen knives from Russia. In addition, there was a chef from Fengtan, China. Li Yingqiao said nonsensically, "Yu Jinyang, you're really something, becoming the head chef of the United Nations."
"..."
He chuckled, not finding it absurd. Li Shuli said that Qiaoqiao had started taking medication very early and obediently, so the intervention was early and the condition was well controlled, with no relapses. But Yu Jinyang didn't dare tell her that Li Yingqiao had suffered from anxiety in Beijing. ADHD patients are indeed more prone to anxiety in adulthood than the general population, but for him, it was just a matter of time; Li Yingqiao would get better.
Li Shuli was always a little worried. When he left, he told her: "Auntie, my dad and I have said that Li Yingqiao will be the same person she was before marriage. She will not become anyone's wife, nor anyone's daughter-in-law. She will simply be herself."
Yu Jinyang took a steak out of the refrigerator, turned to her and asked gently, "How well-done? Medium-rare?"
She exclaimed "bingo" with a gleam in her eyes; he always knew her preferences best.
M9+ grade Wagyu beef, you can almost smell the milky aroma as soon as it hits the pot. Li Yingqiao leaned her head on his shoulder and watched him skillfully flip the steak, still muttering with lingering satisfaction: "Yesterday I received the budget and strategic direction for next year from the marketing vice president. He said Convey wants to go global next year. They don't even understand the domestic market, let alone global. I said this budget is enough for Cambodia. May I ask what your target market is? He said Europe and America."
She laughed first: "I turned around and told Xu Quyu that I really couldn't do this job. Xu Quyu told me to be patient and fire him after the New Year. His salary is enough to buy a week's worth of LED screen advertising in Times Square, New York. No wonder he comes from a capital background, he found a solution right away."
Before he could answer, she continued her rambling: "Yesterday I was having dinner with a business partner and we passed through Sanlitun. Guess what I saw? Your WG brand. You Xiaofan is such a sly fox. His billboard looks like a patchwork, hanging right below Nike, like someone else's QR code. When I scanned it, I realized I'd been scammed. Welcome to the WG+ world."
Before Yu Jinyang arrived, he had a general understanding of Xiaofan's business scope. WG's headquarters are in Beijing, with a branch in the provincial capital, and they have an underground dance troupe training base. They are now pursuing a global brand strategy, currently relying on a few popular dance competitions and street dance contestants to maintain their image. In addition to organizing global street dance competitions, they also offer a series of online "street dance+" industry services, selling everything from expert instruction and online street dance lessons for beginners to merchandise from star dancers and a wide variety of coffee and tea drinks. Their business is extensive, and they have offline beverage stores in almost every major city, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and various new first-tier cities. They are indeed very popular among young people.
Yu Jinyang: "You scanned it?"
Li Yingqiao not only scanned the QR code, but also ordered a cup of G+ fruit tea, which was so expensive that it gave her mouth ulcers: "It tastes terrible. But what kind of cooperation do you have with him now?"
“Partner.” Yu Jinyang turned his head to look at her leaning on his shoulder, and while frying the steak until it was sizzling and releasing oil, he said slowly and deliberately, “You Xiaofan wants me to be in charge of the brand’s globalization strategy and breaking competitions. However, I plan to open the studio in Beijing. I will only take on competitions at WG, and the studio will focus on the STEAM educational toy series for Fool’s Paradise. It just so happens that Ice Cream Cone will be starting kindergarten next year, so I’ll also see what her interests are.”
"Are you talking about those wooden children's toys, like wooden puzzles that can be used to create world maps, or model sets that explore the universe, architecture, and physics? Are you designing educational models for all industries so that Ice Cream Cone can choose from them?" After getting his nod, Li Yingqiao couldn't help but yell in his ear, "Damn it, Yu Jinyang, give the kids a childhood!"
Yu Jinyang laughed: "Do you know what kind of childhood she wants? Do you know what Ice Cream Cone's dream is? Li Yingqiao, back then you said I didn't say that. You said I truly loved studying."
He put down the tongs, lowered his head, and touched the head hanging on his shoulder with his thin lips, deliberately forcing her to admit: "Li Yingqiao, do I love studying?"
She rolled over onto his shoulder to stop him from kissing her, and mumbled, "Isn't that right?"
His voice was deep and seductive: "Am I fun?"
"It's not fun."
Yu Jinyang raised an eyebrow, a half-smile on his face that seemed to say, "You still won't tell the truth?" He replied, "If it's not fun, why have you been playing for so long?"
Li Yingqiao found that he had become a bit unbearable in Beijing, "When he's cooking, what are you talking about?"
Yu Jinyang laughed again. "What are you thinking, Li Yingqiao? I asked exactly what you meant." He lowered his head again, turned off the stove, and poured black pepper sauce over the steak. "You moved away after graduating from elementary school. Liang Mei came to me, and I agreed without hesitation. Why do you think that was? Besides studying, back then I wanted to see you openly and honestly. What other reason could I have?"
Actually, there isn't any.
Liang Mei's appearance changed Li Yingqiao's life trajectory, and also theirs. Without Liang Mei, they would have completely parted ways the year she moved away from Xiaohua City. Without the solid foundation built over nearly five years of junior and senior high school, her feelings for Yu Jinyang, based solely on that elementary school impression of him, had long since vanished.
Does Yu Jinyang still have a crush on her?
“Why not?” After Li Yingqiao finished enjoying the 250-gram steak that cost nearly 500 yuan, Yu Jinyang picked up the spaghetti in front of him and said earnestly, “You were the most charming in elementary school. I risked my life and bled for you. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
Li Yingqiao barely touched the 500-yuan steak, but instead picked at the spaghetti on his plate, her expression blank.
?
Yu Jinyang found it somewhat amusing. He put down his chopsticks and pushed the whole plate towards her, intending to give her both plates so he could finish the leftovers. However, he didn't let her off the hook with his words: "It feels like ever since we started dating, you've been eating shit with me. But when we were little, I gave you jelly, and you hit me. You didn't forget how you poked my nose in class and made it bleed, did you?"
"Yu Jinyang, I feel there's something hidden in your words."
"No." He glanced at his phone, which was constantly popping up with Taobao logistics notifications. He had ordered a lot of items for two while waiting for her to get off work. He tossed his phone aside, leaned back, and said casually, but his gaze was fixed on her. "Just chatting. Did you ever like Zhang Zongxie?"
Li Yingqiao understood the meaning behind his words and finally realized what he had been trying to ask after going around in circles.
"Why are you asking this question?" Li Yingqiao asked without any politeness, turning the spaghetti over to eat. "Why didn't you ask in Fengtan?"
It was obvious that this was a question Feng Tan had been avoiding and unwilling to discuss. He was constantly jealous, but had never explicitly asked him about it.
"Do you want to hear the truth?" Yu Jinyang leaned back, his expression actually quite blank, as if he were just asking casually. "I didn't dare to ask in Fengtan because I knew you were coming back to work with him, and I was afraid I would overthink things and we would end up arguing every day. After a while, I was afraid you would get annoyed with me. But in Beijing, I don't have that concern. I want to know."
"So you waited until you got to Beijing to ask?"
He hummed in agreement.
Li Yingqiao also put down her chopsticks and changed the subject, saying, "By the way, why doesn't You Xiaofan consider developing you into a star player?"
You Xiaofan had indeed considered it. With his looks and physique, it would be a waste not to capitalize on it. Plus, from a professional perspective, he believed Yu Jinyang would definitely gain a lot of fans after the show aired. If possible, he even considered discussing with Li Yingqiao about creating a childhood sweetheart romance persona to subvert the audience's stereotypical image of B-boys. A persona was indeed easy to establish; with a few more variety shows and events from the label, he could make a fortune.
But after two nights of careful consideration, Yu Jinyang declined, preferring to work behind the scenes.
"Understood."
Avoiding something means you've liked it before.
He lowered his eyelashes, picked up his phone from the table, which was still sending shipping notifications from Taobao, and decided to return her bath towel and make her stand there dry for a while as punishment after her shower.
He would never hug her.
Li Yingqiao: "By the way, did you know? Zhang Zongxie thought he was going to be sent to work in Africa. This afternoon, he asked Lilith what the success rate of seducing Xu Quyu was. Lilith took it seriously and analyzed for an entire afternoon that the current success rate was 1%, and it would decrease year by year as he got older. She suggested that he implement the seduction plan as soon as possible."
"……oh."
“…I’ve tried it before,” she said, looking at him.
Yu Jinyang looked up at her.
"But it didn't work out. Strangely, during this process, I realized that I seemed unable to forget someone who had grown up with me since childhood. I wasn't sure if it was more of a friendship or a love, so I decided to go back to Fengtan to try my luck."
He looked at her quietly, then suddenly sat up straight and coughed. "I'm not angry."
"Come on," Li Yingqiao laughed, "but I'm telling the truth. What about you? If Brother Siyi hadn't gotten into trouble, would you have gone back to Fengtan?"
Only Zhong Su knew about this.
A month before Brother Siyi's incident, he had actually written his resignation letter. After learning that the person in charge of the Chicago office in China had gotten married in China, he had no chance to return to China for nearly five years. On the night of the transfer, he wrote his resignation letter, but his boss kept telling him to wait, at least until the end of this year, because there was a regional supplier for a movement that no one else could negotiate with.
At that time, Zhong Su even asked him if he was crazy, giving up such a promising job to go back to China and start over.
At that time, he replied to Zhong Su on WeChat: I suddenly really want to see her, Zhong Su. I have a very good friend in Fengtan.
That day, he received a call from Gao Dian, who excitedly said with a sigh of relief, "Meow Meow, I've paid off my debts! I'm finally free! I'm going back to Fengtan! There are only three years left until my 30th birthday celebration. When are you coming back?"
That year, Zheng Miaojia suddenly came up with the idea of a thirty-year-old pact. He didn't care at first, but later he never thought about it.
He spent most of his time in Chicago in anticipation of his reunion with Li Yingqiao when they turned thirty, because he knew Liang Mei would definitely be there.
This agreement, which he once scoffed at, became the last gamble of his life.
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