Xie Huai placed his ID card on the counter: “Two rooms.”
Xia Xia followed him like a gentle rabbit, unhurried. Hearing him ask for two rooms, she secretly cast spells in her heart, chanting: “No rooms no rooms no rooms…”
The receptionist: “Sorry, sir, we only have one room left today.”
Xia Xia: “!!!”
In her heart, she started chanting again: “King-size bed king-size bed king-size bed…”
Xie Huai: “Is it a twin room?”
The receptionist said: “Only a room with a king-size bed left.”
Xia Xia was amazed, wondering if she had somehow gained magical powers today, getting everything she wished for.
Feeling such good luck shouldn’t be wasted, she continued praying: “Xie Huai sleeps in my bed tonight, Xie Huai sleeps in my bed tonight…”
Xie Huai turned around, seeing her crafty expression, and asked: “What are you doing?”
Xia Xia immediately put on an innocent face: “Nothing, nothing at all.”
Xie Huai: “Let’s try another hotel, this one only has one room left.”
Xia Xia looked down at her feet with difficulty: “My shoes are rubbing, it hurts to walk.”
“Never mind then.”
Xie Huai handed both their IDs to the front desk for check-in and took Xia Xia upstairs.
Upon entering the room, he turned on the air conditioning first, then took off his coat and went to the bathroom to test the water temperature.
Xia Xia dawdled while taking off her clothes, her dark eyes darting around mischievously.
Xie Huai came out: “Take off your shoes.”
Xia Xia: “Huh?”
Xie Huai sat her down in a chair and removed her shoes and socks to check her toes and heels. Xia Xia’s feet were slightly sweaty from walking, and she felt embarrassed being held like this.
She tried to pull back, but Xie Huai gripped her ankle harder: “Where is it rubbed raw?”
Xia Xia just smiled without speaking.
“Lying to me?” Xie Huai stood up and used the hand that had held her foot to pinch her face.
Xia Xia yelped and dodged away: “I just saw how tired you were and wanted you to rest early.”
“Bullshit,” Xie Huai said. “There’s only one bed, how am I supposed to rest?”
“Sleep here.” Xia Xia pointed at the bed, completely unabashed.
“If I sleep here, where will you sleep?”
“Here too.”
Xie Huai ignored her. The bathroom water had heated up, and standing in the steamy cubicle, he asked: “You want to shower first?”
Xia Xia said: “You go first.”
Xie Huai had rushed over through the night and must be tired.
Xie Huai didn’t argue. He showered in ten minutes and came out with a towel on his head.
Xia Xia went in. He sat in the chair by the TV cabinet playing with his phone. When the shower started running, his gaze shifted from his phone, glancing in that direction.
The bathroom had a curtain, and steam clouded the frosted glass with a layer of mist that invited imagination. The orange ceiling light cast the girl’s silhouette faintly on the plastic curtain, a blurry black shadow. Xie Huai stared unblinkingly, not daring to look too long before averting his gaze.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he suddenly felt restless.
When the shower stopped, Xie Huai opened the window. The north wind blew in with snowflakes, cooling down his briefly heated body temperature.
Xia Xia came out wrapped in a towel, shivering as she complained: “Brother Huai, why are you opening windows in the dead of winter? I’m freezing!”
Xie Huai saw her reflection in the window glass.
—Soft white arms exposed, shoulders narrow and delicate, water drops from her wet hair sliding down along her layered collarbones.
Without turning around, his voice deepened: “Why are you dressed like that?”
Xia Xia thought to herself: Obviously to seduce you.
But she said aloud: “I didn’t bring pajamas.”
The hotel Xie Huai booked was upscale. He called the front desk, and five minutes later, service staff brought up a clean bathrobe.
Xia Xia reluctantly put it on. She sat on the bed, running her hands through her wet hair.
She stole glances at Xie Huai. He was unusually quiet today, seeming lost in thought and saying little.
He was worried. Xia Xia could sense this mood—was confessing his feelings to her causing him such concern?
Then Xia Xia thought, wait, when did Xie Huai confess to her? He only said she couldn’t date anyone but him, and she agreed without hesitation. Looking at it this way, she seemed to have let Xie Huai off too easily. Who would compensate her for all her previous grievances?
After careful consideration, she asked in a negotiating tone: “Brother Huai, I’ve kind of forgotten what you said in the store earlier. Could you say it again?”
Xie Huai didn’t speak. He found a hair dryer in the cabinet, walked to her, ran his long fingers through her hair, and turned on the dryer.
He stood in front of Xia Xia drying her hair, natural as a couple who had been together for many years.
Xia Xia’s ears were filled with the dryer’s noise. She saw Xie Huai’s lips move but couldn’t hear his voice.
She raised her hand and pressed the dryer’s button.
“Louder,” the girl blinked. “I couldn’t hear.”
Xie Huai’s face reddened slightly, speaking extremely quickly, using impatience to mask a young man’s shyness: “I can’t live without you, okay?”
Xia Xia was satisfied. She shook her hair and smiled obediently.
She had used shower gel and had a faint fragrance about her. Xie Huai wrinkled his nose and moved his gaze from her fair collarbone.
He had dried Xia Xia’s hair halfway and was about to return to his chair when she wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Brother Huai.” Xia Xia rubbed her face against his back, speaking in a girl’s unique soft voice, “Let’s have a secret relationship. If you don’t tell and I don’t tell, they won’t know.”
Xie Huai turned around, and just when Xia Xia thought he had been moved and was about to give her a passionate embrace, he bent down, wrapped her in a thin blanket like a silkworm cocoon, and threw her onto the bed.
Xia Xia: “?”
“Can you stop trying to seduce me?” Xie Huai leaned over, one hand pressing her shoulder. “Do you know how to write the character for ‘death’?”
Xia Xia nodded: “I know that, but I don’t know how to write the character for ‘date.’ Will you teach me?”
Xie Huai: “…”
The girl was passionate and bold. He was nearly driven crazy. The earlier slight romantic thoughts from seeing her shower through the glass had all transformed into an invisible flame shooting through him when she provoked him—hot and wild, coursing through every blood vessel and pore in his body.
That part of him was uncomfortably swollen.
Xie Huai grabbed Xia Xia’s ear: “Say that again if you dare.”
“Ouch————” Xia Xia wailed, “You stinky man, let me go——”
Xie Huai released her. Xia Xia rubbed her reddened ear and cursed: “You won’t be so arrogant for long. Don’t think I’ll always let you push me around. The day will come when you’ll kneel before me begging me to accept you. Don’t cry then!”
“You think I’m being arrogant?” Xie Huai sat back in his chair with a dark face, keeping his distance from Xia Xia. “Be quiet and sleep, or I’ll throw you out.”
Xia Xia deliberately huffed loudly to let Xie Huai know she was angry.
She hugged the blanket sulkily, curling herself into a ball.
Xie Huai turned off the room lights, apparently planning to sit in the chair all night until dawn.
Xia Xia pretended to sleep but kept her mouth active, tossing and turning while muttering curses: “Dog Xie Huai, stinky man…”
After listening to her cursing for a while, Xie Huai suddenly stood up and came to the bedside.
Xia Xia sensed him approaching and turned around, revealing two mercury-black eyes glaring at him in the darkness: “What?”
Without a word, Xie Huai lifted the blanket, climbed into bed, and held her.
Xia Xia’s soft body instantly stiffened.
“I’ll hold you while you sleep, stop making noise.” Xie Huai’s voice was low, clearly suppressing something.
Seeing Xia Xia silent, he asked in a deep voice: “Did you hear me?”
Xia Xia felt somewhat shy and said quietly: “I heard.”
After a while, she chirped again: “Why did you suddenly change your mind?”
Xie Huai: “Couldn’t resist.”
Xia Xia pushed her luck: “Then can you kiss me?”
Xie Huai went still, his arm around her suddenly tightening: “Stop teasing. If you keep teasing, I really won’t be able to hold back.”