“Life advice: don’t casually tattoo a male friend’s name,” Chen Luzhou walked over and pulled her up, then emphatically added, “Not even initials.”
Xu Zhi: “…”
Cai Yingying: “…”
Tattoo artist: “……”
Everyone in the room stared at him in shock, looking at him seriously and confusedly, except for Zhu Yangqi, whose face showed empathy and righteous indignation. The tattoo artist looked bewildered as he adjusted the machine, inserting the needle while asking Xu Zhi, “His name is Cherry?”
Chen Luzhou: …?
Zhu Yangqi suddenly realized: “Huh? Cherry?”
Cai Yingying came to her senses and explained from the side: “Haven’t you heard of cherry freedom? It’s one of Xu Zhi’s small goals since she was eight. But now that you mention it, it does seem that way. Maybe you shouldn’t get this tattoo. People might think you tattooed Chen Luzhou’s name.”
Xu Zhi’s fair arm was still casually sprawled on the table. She glanced at Chen Luzhou somewhat indifferently and said, “You mind such a coincidence?”
Chen Luzhou leaned against the table edge next to her. He slowly put the phone he hadn’t had time to put away into his pocket, looked down at her with clear and straightforward black pupils, and spoke even more earnestly: “I’m worried you’ll mind in the future. How about tattooing a cherry image instead?”
Xu Zhi was quite indifferent, thinking she could just remove it in the future if needed. But it was indeed a coincidence, and she hadn’t even thought about it that way. He was making such a big deal out of it, so she leaned back in her chair, sighed helplessly, and said: “But if we tattoo an image, wouldn’t I need to tattoo a whole basket of cherries to achieve cherry freedom?”
Chen Luzhou looked at her skeptically, his expression somewhat amused yet still stubborn and unwilling to compromise. Half-jokingly, he said: “If it’s not okay, then don’t get a tattoo. You might as well get ‘Loyal to the Country’ like Cai Yingying.”
Xu Zhi rolled her eyes: “Why don’t I just tattoo the national emblem on my forehead!”
In the end, she didn’t get the tattoo. As they paid and left, the tattoo artist curiously examined the handsome guy before him, unsure whether to call him a player or righteous. It was the first time he’d seen someone so adamantly prevent someone from getting a tattoo. Tsk tsk.
By now, the moonlight was quiet, and the streets were sparsely populated. Occasionally, car wheels would roll smoothly across the road surface, making soft, scattered sounds. Along the way, there was a cat shelter. Cai Yingying, unable to resist fluffy things, walked in. Xu Zhi followed her inside. Chen Luzhou and Zhu Yangqi went to buy them each a cup of milk tea nearby. As he handed it to Xu Zhi, she still asked reluctantly, “Not even for a girlfriend?”
Chen Luzhou pulled out a chair and sat down with his legs spread, leisurely watching her tease a cat with a cat toy. The pale lamplight enveloped her tall, slender figure, accentuating her contours perfectly, smooth and gentle, like the most becoming red flowers and green leaves in the rainy season, also tender. Looking at that silhouette, his heart stirred with the most innocent excitement of youth. He asked, getting to the root of the matter: “Do you need to get a tattoo? Can’t date without one?”
Xu Zhi was engrossed in teasing the cat in the cage, only sipping her milk tea. Without turning her head, she said: “That’s not really what I mean. I’m just curious. I feel like you’re different from when I first met you. At first, I thought you were the type of guy with messy relationships, rebellious. Yingying said you’d be hard to pursue.”
“And now?” he leaned back, his gaze softening.
Am I easy to pursue?
Xu Zhi turned around, put down the cat toy, and met his eyes, black and bright yet clear and pure, somewhat soul-stirring yet open and fearless. Every time Xu Zhi looked into his eyes, she felt she would never encounter such heart-stirring eyes again. She sat down in front of him and said: “Now I feel like you’re the type of guy who grew up in the spring breeze and should be pinned under the national flag.”
“Are you mocking me?” Chen Luzhou more or less caught this meaning, his gaze fixed on her, direct and cold.
Xu Zhi had been sucking for a long time and finally got the pearl particles from the bottom. Afraid he might misunderstand, she hurriedly clicked her tongue, with a sincere expression of “young man, you’re being sensitive,” and said, “Do you know what ‘bright pearl pressing the sword’ means? For someone like you, I’m praising you.”
The cat shop was quite empty at this time, with only the four of them and a few staff members. Zhu Yangqi and Cai Yingying were teasing a chubby little orange cat in another cage on the other side. The whole shop was filled with their childish bickering.
“Zhu Yangqi, do you even know how to tease a cat? You’re going to poke its eyes out. Can’t you pull it out a bit?”
“Cats aren’t as stupid as you! Look how quickly it’s jumping up and down.”
The atmosphere on their side was quiet, but there was an indescribable, subtle entanglement in the gaze between the two.
“You just want to say I can’t play around, right?” Chen Luzhou was quite self-aware. He leaned back in his chair casually, his gaze serious when staring at someone, inevitably revealing a kind of fierce determination to dominate and youthful romantic spirit. “Xu Zhi, if we play, you can’t beat me.”
At that moment, Chen Luzhou felt that Xu Zhi was right about one thing – he did think too highly of himself. He had a bad habit of photography: whenever he saw a good scene, he wanted to capture it first and hide it away, saving it to appreciate slowly later. But he forgot that often, the experience of the moment is the most real and intense.
“I want to experience it, Mr. Popular,” Xu Zhi said, drinking the milk tea he bought her. The warmth slowly surged into her stomach, making her almost burp from fullness.
Chen Luzhou was used to others calling him that, but hearing it from her felt strangely uncomfortable. He coughed and said: “Come on, I seriously doubt you’re only interested in my looks.”
“Your looks are part of you too, Mr. Popular,” Xu Zhi said frankly.
“Call me that again and I’ll hit you,” he smiled helplessly, but it was an empty threat.
Xu Zhi smiled and asked him: “What are you planning to do tomorrow?”
Chen Luzhou leaned back in his chair, his legs sprawled idly. He looked down at the time on his phone on the table. At the bottom was a schedule reminder: July 15th, Northwest, still a few days away. He said: “Want to meet up?”
“What were you originally planning?”
Chen Luzhou locked his phone, leaned back in his chair looking at her, his gaze flirtatious, the corners of his eyes and mouth curled in a half-smile. He said: “I was planning to invite someone to watch a movie, at my place. Want to come?”
Xu Zhi suddenly realized that when he said “You can’t beat me at playing around,” he might not have been joking. Her heart suddenly thumped twice. “I’ll come.”
He looked at her sharply and directly for three seconds, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind, before nonchalantly humming in agreement and taking a sip of water from the table. “Then wait until I finish playing ball, after 7 pm?”
“Okay.”
Xu Zhi’s gaze was bright, shining like a moon soaked in water, honest and clear.
In terms of honesty, he couldn’t compare to her. She didn’t hide her emotions; all the mountains and waters inside were in full view. Looking at her, Chen Luzhou suddenly felt that if some things needed a clear ending, they should take a few steps forward first. At least as long as she was happy.
Given her personality, in the end, at worst, he would be the sad one, he would be the one who can’t forget.
Chen Luzhou had somewhat overestimated his self-control. For the 7 pm appointment the next day, he had already started feeling distracted from 3 pm. So he didn’t even go to the gym to play ball. Zhu Yangqi couldn’t persuade him either. He stayed at home reading for two hours, but could only get through two pages before he couldn’t turn anymore. Then he found a movie to watch, half-heartedly and listlessly leaning against the headboard watching for nearly two hours. Let alone the plot, he couldn’t even remember the names of the main characters. Then he scrolled through his Moments and found that Xu Zhi still had the leisure to make cookies, enthusiastically posting:
Xu Zhi: “My cousin said my cookies look like – even Cupid wouldn’t shoot arrows so blindly. Where are they ugly?”
Chen Luzhou replied: “Is this a little turtle?”
Xu Zhi quickly replied to Chen Luzhou: “Wow, you figured it out. This is indeed a little turtle without a shell. My cousin is asking which agency recommended such a shill.”
Chen Luzhou also admired his imagination. He had guessed the most unlikely thing, and it turned out to be right. He leisurely replied:
Cr: “Mm, tell him the shill was recommended by Cupid.”
After replying, he exited WeChat and while browsing fruit wines on a food delivery platform, he self-deprecatingly thought, Chen Luzhou, you’re quite pathetic. It’s just a date between a guy and a girl, do you need to be so flustered? He hadn’t done a single proper thing all afternoon. Looking at the competition classics on his bookshelf, he almost wanted to pull them out and do them all over again from the beginning.
The next second, even though his phone was in his hand, he couldn’t help but look down at the black wristwatch on his hand for the hundred and first time. Why wasn’t it 7 pm yet? Damn, he was almost dried up from waiting.
So, Comrade Zhu Yangqi had seen through him since childhood. He was probably 80% a romantic at heart, and 20% just hadn’t been in a relationship yet, so he left himself a bit of leeway, waiting to reassess after he dated someone.
**
As soon as Xu Zhi entered the door, Chen Luzhou was standing by the dining table, pouring two buckets of popcorn into a large bowl. He glanced up at her without greeting or speaking, his expression very natural. He jerked his chin towards the sofa coldly, indicating for her to sit there.
She was an hour late and knew she was in the wrong, so she didn’t dare speak rashly. She obediently sat in the spot he had pointed to, watching him bustle about unhurriedly. After finishing with the popcorn, he took two bottles of wine from the cabinet, placed them in front of her, and handed her a bottle opener, still without speaking.
Xu Zhi thought he was angry about her being late, and immediately explained: “My cousin’s family came over today, and my dad got drunk with them. They drank until 8 before leaving. I couldn’t leave while they were still here.”
Chen Luzhou brought two glasses from the kitchen and placed them steadily in front of her. His hands were incredibly steady. He finally looked up at her strangely, chuckling, and explained nonchalantly: “I’m not angry, why are you so nervous?”
He was just annoyed at his poor performance this afternoon, mainly because it was his first time properly, ambiguously inviting a girl to his home. He felt a bit awkward and inexperienced, not knowing how to start a greeting that would seem appropriate.
The two sat side by side. The movie was already cast to the screen, paused on the classic dragon logo. Xu Zhi picked up the remote and clicked on the interface, only to see it was Kar-Wai Wong’s “In the Mood for Love,” which she happened not to have seen.
Chen Luzhou leaned back, his back against the sofa, pretending not to know as he asked: “Have you seen it?”
Xu Zhi shook her head, turning back to look at him with pleasant surprise: “This is the only one I haven’t seen. You’re quite accurate in finding things, hitting the mark every time.”
“You’re lucky,” he said, “It just happens to be the only one,” he nodded towards the sofa again, “I bought fruit wine for you. The alcohol content isn’t high. I’ll send you home after we finish drinking.”
Xu Zhi said okay, and as she picked up the glass to drink, her eyes secretly glanced back at him, her expression like a mouse stealing someone’s fermented rice wine. “Why do I feel like you’re a bit different today?”
The movie screen was as dark as usual. Chen Luzhou was casually leaning against the sofa back, one hand holding the remote to adjust the brightness, the other reaching behind the sofa to turn off the lights. The room instantly dimmed. At this moment, the sky outside wasn’t completely dark yet, with a grayish light scattered under the ink-blue sky. The atmosphere was dark enough, so Chen Luzhou didn’t bother to draw the curtains. After turning off the lights, he turned to look at her. His gaze on her, the restrained blackness of his eyes now like a pool of water with all worries cleared away, bright and stirring: “Isn’t my intention in inviting you over clear enough? Do I need to make it even more obvious?”
Xu Zhi wanted to hear him say it, but his expression clearly said, “If you make me say it out loud, I really will hit you.” So she nodded understandingly: “I get it.”
Halfway through the movie, Xu Zhi felt thirsty and wanted to ask Chen Luzhou to pour her a glass of water. Seeing how focused he looked, she figured he probably wouldn’t budge, so she got up to get water herself. But her foot caught on something, and she fell directly onto Chen Luzhou’s lazily sprawled legs.
Xu Zhi: “…”
Chen Luzhou, leaning on the sofa, looked quite calm. He looked down at her with a somewhat smug expression, “What, movie not interesting? Sitting on my lap more interesting?”
Xu Zhi: “…”
Just as she was about to get up, her hand was grabbed. Without a word, she was pulled up, her feet straddling his legs. She was directly circled into the space between those annoyingly long legs, changing positions, and pressed onto his other leg. His tone was a bit helpless, “This leg. The other one hasn’t fully healed from a fight a few days ago.”
At this moment, the lights outside suddenly brightened, like small fireballs in the pitch-black sky, burning from one end of the city to the other.
The room remained dim, with only the weak light of the small floor lamp in the hallway. Besides this, there was no other light in the room. Xu Zhi still felt like the lights outside had burned into her heart, blazing fiercely in her chest. Her gaze at him gained a hint of passion and boldness, also the heart-fluttering of a young girl.
“Did you shave today?” she asked.
The light and shadows from the TV screen flickered, reflecting in their pure yet exploratory eyes as if it were the best catalyst. Somehow, this fire suddenly blazed up fiercely. Hot, they were both hot, the hidden magma between them was restlessly stirring.
“…I did.” In his eyes, as he looked at her was the youthful, inexperienced, and unknown heat.
Xu Zhi leaned in. The moment she cupped his face, perhaps to make up for the regret of the first time, or to verify if he had really shaved, she first gently and slowly pecked his chin tenderly, before inevitably tilting her head up to inexperiencedly capture his lips, which ended up seeming quite skillful.
Two young and passionate bodies pressed tightly together in the night with no one around. The heat almost scorched the sky. Their whole bodies tingled, the nerves in their scalps jumping uncontrollably. Just like that afternoon when they first met, no one could tell who was more intense, but their hearts were beating wildly, almost bursting out of their chests. All that remained in their ears were the shallow yet lingering, inexperienced kissing sounds.
Author’s Note: I know you’re all anxious, and to be honest, I am too. But some parts need to be laid out properly so that the later developments have the right impact. That’s why the beginning is a bit slow, but from here on, it should mostly be focused on their interactions.