Even more strange was that Qing had opened her eyes to say “Happy Birthday,” then turned over and fell back asleep, not waking again all night, leaving Xing Wu sleepless until dawn.

On the morning of the second day of the New Year, just like the previous day, Xing Wu went home early. He needed to look after his grandmother and prepare some food. He returned half an hour later than yesterday because making dumplings took some extra time, but they were still hot when he brought them back for Qing to eat.

After eating and drinking her fill, Qing took a bath in the bathroom and finally felt comfortable. Today was particularly cold outside, perhaps because of the melting snow. When Xing Wu returned, he brought the cold air with him, so after her bath, Qing quickly got back into bed and wrapped herself up tightly.

She suddenly remembered something and said to Xing Wu, “Oh right, today is your birthday. Did I tell you last night that I prepared a gift for you?”

Xing Wu took off his coat, put it aside, and gave her a strange look: “You forgot?”

Qing suddenly sat up, wondering if she had done something embarrassing while drunk yesterday. She blinked her large eyes nervously and asked weakly, “What… what did I do?”

Xing Wu gradually moved closer to her, pressing against her front and staring at her: “You woke up at midnight saying you burned a piece of clothing for me. If you hadn’t turned over quickly, I would have thrown you down the stairs.”

“…”

Qing blinked, imagining the scene, which seemed quite terrifying, and burst into laughter. She rolled around laughing on the bed until tears came out, then looked at him pitifully while wrapped in the blanket and said, “The clothes are in the wardrobe. I was planning to give them to you on New Year’s Eve.”

Xing Wu sighed: “I also prepared a gift for you, but unfortunately, it was also burned.”

Qing immediately became curious: “What were you going to give me?”

“It’s a secret.”

“If it’s gone anyway, why keep it a secret?”

“Since it’s gone, might as well not say anything.”

“Was it something you had to buy?”

Xing Wu made an affirmative sound, and Qing asked again, “Was it expensive?”

Xing Wu sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed her hair near her cheek: “Would you be satisfied with something cheap? I’ll make it up to you later.”

Qing suddenly felt very troubled, mainly because she felt bad about the money. She hugged the blanket and said with distress: “This would have been the first time I celebrated your birthday with you, and now I have nothing to give you.”

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a meaningful smile: “That’s not necessarily true. It depends on whether you want to give it or not.”

His warm hand slipped under the blanket, and Qing suddenly slid deeper under the covers, leaving only her eyes visible as she looked at him coyly: “It’s broad daylight.”

“We have nothing else to do anyway.”

“Mmm…”

Qing’s clear eyes held an indescribable allure as they moved. Xing Wu leaned down and gently kissed her neck, and collarbone, moving gradually downward, his breath hot as he said to her: “You know what I want most.”

Qing was lost in his tender gaze, the faint dimple at the corner of her lips utterly captivating.

Xing Wu truly unwrapped her like a gift, casually removing the obstacles before his eyes until Qing’s exquisite form was completely revealed to him. His desire, held back all night, finally broke free like a burst dam.

The intersecting waves of pleasure were so intense and clear. It took just one day for Qing to go from innocence to gradually surrender to passion, while Huang Mao and Pang Hu frantically called Xing Wu without being able to reach him.

It wasn’t until evening that Xing Wu returned their call. They had almost thought something had happened to him and had gathered people together – even Lang Dai and the others had gone to wait at Huang Mao’s place.

After contacting Xing Wu, they called him to come over, saying they wanted to celebrate his birthday. Xing Wu moved the phone away and asked Qing: “Want to go?”

Qing’s body had long since melted into a puddle, and she weakly said: “You go ahead, I won’t go.”

So Xing Wu directly replied to them, saying he had something to do and wouldn’t be coming, telling them to go ahead and enjoy themselves.

He indeed had something to do. For two full days, from the second day to the third day of the New Year, Qing barely left the bed. If the first night was Xing Wu opening the door to a new world for her, then these two days were him taking her through mountains and streams, galloping horses, and surging waves.

During these two days, except for Xing Wu going out morning and evening to check on his grandmother and bring back food, they spent the rest of their time in bed. Qing would open her eyes only to feel Xing Wu’s presence, continuously surrendering to his endless caresses, day and night.

She never imagined that her casual mention before the New Year about not doing homework or studying and letting loose for a few days would come true, though the way it happened was quite different from what she had originally thought.

So their first birthday together was this passionate and intense. They were almost like conjoined twins – even when Xing Wu went back to prepare food every evening, Qing would cling to him for ages. A ten-minute journey became like a heart-wrenching farewell, and though they both found it amusing, sometimes when feelings ran deep, reason simply didn’t apply.

Therefore, Xing Wu tried to leave when Qing was asleep and returned before she woke up.

Fortunately, during the New Year period, the hotel had few guests, and the rooms on their side were probably all empty, so when they got a bit loud in the evening, Xing Wu didn’t particularly try to hold back. After they finished, Qing blinked her misty eyes a few times before falling asleep in Xing Wu’s arms.

Xing Wu held the soft Qing and also rested for a while, but he woke up again after about an hour. Looking at Qing breathing softly in his arms, her neck and below the collarbone covered in mottled kiss marks, showing an indescribable allure, Xing Wu suddenly felt a bit sorry and kissed her forehead, starting to reflect on whether he had been too unrestrained these two days.

While his mind was thinking about showing more restraint, his body reacted again. Whenever he held Qing, this feeling was impossible to shake off, like an addiction.

He simply got up and leaned against the window to play some games. Qing didn’t wake up until eleven o’clock, and she closed her eyes, rolled over, and fell beside her, immediately frowning her delicate eyebrows in displeasure.

“I’m here,” Xing Wu’s voice came from within the room, and only then did she reluctantly open her eyes to see him sitting by the window, looking at her with a smile while holding his phone.

Qing stretched out her fair arms from under the covers towards him, and Xing Wu put down his phone, walked to the bedside in a few steps, and bent down to hug her. Qing immediately buried her face in the crook of his neck and nuzzled him. Xing Wu said to her, “Want to get up? If you lie down any longer, your limbs will atrophy.”

Qing mumbled: “Get up for what?”

“How about we go set off the fireworks?”

Qing’s eyes suddenly brightened from their dreamy state as she let go of him: “Oh right, we haven’t set off the fireworks yet.”

That night when Xing Wu brought Qing to stay at the hotel, he had left that box of things with the chubby woman. Only now did Qing remember, and she immediately jumped out of bed as if injected with chicken blood. However, as soon as her feet touched the ground, she stumbled and swayed. Xing Wu quickly grabbed her waist, his eyes full of undisguised amusement: “Didn’t I say your limbs would atrophy?”

Qing angrily punched him: “Atrophy my ass, don’t you have any self-awareness?”

Xing Wu steadied her while just smiling without speaking until Qing walked into the bathroom, and only then did he leisurely say: “Well, after all, anyone who’s been in my bed needs to hold onto walls to walk.”

Qing slammed the bathroom door with a “bang,” and the curve of Xing Wu’s lips grew wider.

Because Qing truly hadn’t gone downstairs for two days, she didn’t know when the snow outside had mostly melted. They found an open space, and Xing Wu took out the biggest firework. Qing quickly shouted: “Wait, wait, don’t light it yet.”

Then Xing Wu watched as she ran almost two streets away. He laughed and said: “Why are you running so far?”

“Afraid it’ll explode.”

“It won’t explode, come here.”

“No.”

Xing Wu simply hugged the firework and walked towards her, and Qing frantically started running backward again, as if he was carrying an atomic bomb.

Xing Wu stopped in his tracks, speechless, and could only crouch down to light the firework. Qing clasped her hands together nervously and swallowed, both excited to see the fireworks and afraid Xing Wu would get hurt. She kept calling out to him: “Is it done? Is it done yet? Come over quickly.”

Hearing her worried urging, Xing Wu found it amusing. He had been brave enough to light firecrackers with adults’ cigarette butts when he was just two years old, and now this everyday thing had scared Qing like this – she was a young lady from the big city.

After lighting the fuse, he stood up and walked unhurriedly towards Qing, who was stretching her neck to look at the ground behind him. When nothing happened for a while, she asked: “Did you light it properly?”

Just as she finished speaking, there was a “bang,” and a bright light shot straight into the sky. Qing’s gaze followed the light upward. Everything fell into silence, the night so quiet that even the wind seemed to disappear, but then suddenly the sky behind Xing Wu, which had fallen into darkness, exploded with light. He walked towards her like this, with flowing light filling the night sky as if wearing a robe of seven-colored clouds. The stunning scene struck directly at Qing’s heart, the brilliant colors illuminating her crystalline eyes. She broke into a run towards Xing Wu, jumping directly into his arms. Xing Wu stretched out his arms and caught her steadily, with fireworks blooming above their heads as he said in her ear: “Happy birthday.”

That was the most unforgettable of all Qing’s birthdays. She had lost her family, lost her home, but this man had given her the whole world.

They only returned after setting off all the fireworks, big and small. Qing had never felt so carefree before, even singing the birthday song with her arm around Xing Wu’s shoulders on their way back, telling him that since their birthdays were just two days apart, they could celebrate together from now on. Xing Wu had to bend his neck to accommodate her height as she hung onto him.

Passing by a vending machine, Xing Wu stopped and said to her: “Wait a moment, I need to buy some of that.”

Qing followed his gaze and covered her face in disbelief: “Did we use up the entire box?”

Xing Wu coughed lightly: “What do you think?”

Qing rubbed her hands together as she waited by the roadside, nervously looking left and right, afraid that passersby might see them, acting like a thief.

They had been out enjoying themselves for two hours in the middle of the night, and it was already 2 AM when they returned to the hotel. After showering and lying in bed, they held hands under the covers, but neither felt sleepy. Xing Wu asked her: “Do you have any birthday wishes?”

Qing was silent for a moment before saying: “I don’t know, there are too many. I hope my father will be okay, hope I perform well in the college entrance exam, hope your grandmother’s condition stays stable, hope…”

She turned her head to look at Xing Wu: “Hope that in ten years, you’ll still be lying beside me asking me this question.”

Xing Wu’s grip on her hand gradually tightened, but he remained silent.

Qing suddenly got excited thinking about life ten years later: “Will we have a baby by then?”

Xing Wu laughed: “You’re still a baby yourself, a giant baby. If you have another baby for me, that would be terrifying – I’d have to carry one in each arm.”

In the darkness, Qing giggled, her voice clear and melodious.

The future was a somewhat confusing concept for people their age, impossible to predict, only to be imagined freely.

After a while, Xing Wu checked his phone and said to her: “It’s almost three, let’s sleep.”

Qing quietly closed her eyes, but two minutes later they both opened them again, feeling the bed move with the kind of rhythm they’d become familiar with over the past two days. However, they were lying side by side with their hands still clasped together, definitely not moving.

Neither spoke, silently listening to the sounds and realized it wasn’t their bed moving but the sound coming through the not-so-soundproof wall from the next room.

Then… the quiet night… became filled with those… indescribable sounds.

To be honest, when Qing first heard these sounds, her initial reaction wasn’t surprise or embarrassment, but rather a sudden enlightenment about what Xing Wu had meant that day when he said he “liked her voice.”

Although such sounds were somewhat embarrassing and wanton, sounds she was too shy to make, she believed that with her voice, she could probably sound better than the woman next door if she tried. So, she even cleared her throat.

Xing Wu finally turned his head to look at her: “Not sleeping?”

Qing said with strange embarrassment: “How can we sleep? Who comes to get a room in the middle of the night?”

“During New Year’s, it isn’t with their spouse.”

Qing thought he was right – during New Year’s everyone stays at home, except for people like them whose home had burned down. Who would get a hotel room with their husband or wife? It must be an affair, and coming out at 3 AM showed real dedication.

This was the second time they had laid together listening to such sounds. The last time, they weren’t even together yet. Qing suddenly remembered and asked him: “That night at your place, when we were discussing this, did you get aroused?”

Xing Wu didn’t make a sound, and Qing playfully rolled over onto his chest, pinching his chin to make him answer: “Did you? Otherwise, why wouldn’t you let me discuss it? You must have had ulterior motives even then.”

Xing Wu smiled rakishly, his eyes containing scattered light: “In that situation, it would’ve been abnormal if I hadn’t reacted.”

Qing suddenly felt very embarrassed and quickly buried her face in Xing Wu’s chest, punching him: “Shameless!”

Xing Wu rolled over and held her in his arms: “What about you? When did you start having feelings for me?”

Qing thought carefully: “That time in the bike shed, the day when Da Cao was giving me trouble, were you… going to kiss me?”

Xing Wu smiled again, lowering his head to kiss her deeply without hesitation, asking in return: “If I had done this to you that day, how would you have reacted?”

“I would have slapped you twice and called you a ruffian.”

Xing Wu nuzzled her lips, his voice husky and sensual: “You would have still kissed me back.”

“Where does that confidence come from?”

“You were scared that night, that’s why you warned me to stay away from you.”

Qing remembered this and got angry, glaring at him: “So you did stay away? You even stopped seeing me completely. Why didn’t you just disappear from Zhazha Pavilion altogether?”

Xing Wu smiled devilishly: “Women who say one thing but mean another.”

He punishingly pinched her softness, and Qing reflexively let out a moan. Xing Wu discovered that after two days of education, Qing’s body had become increasingly sensitive, so he became even more unrestrained.

So what started as a conversation somehow turned into Xing Wu unconsciously parting her legs and taking possession of her.

Qing didn’t know if other boyfriends were this fierce, but her boyfriend could easily send her to the peak and pull her back down in these matters. Finally, those broken sounds escaped from deep in Qing’s throat, and Xing Wu became even more uncontrolled. By then, the next room had long gone quiet, but they continued for quite a while. She wondered if the man next door would question his abilities after hearing Xing Wu’s prowess.

But Qing had completely fallen into love’s abyss, her whole body feeling as if the tendons and bones had been extracted.

Her slightly curled long hair lay scattered beside her flushed body, her delicate collarbone deeply hollowed, a section of fair calf exposed, extending to her slender ankle. The scene was so enchantingly delicate that Xing Wu couldn’t look away.

He got up and put on his clothes, and Qing asked weakly with closed eyes: “Where are you going?”

“I was planning to prepare a gift for you tomorrow, but now I probably can’t wait. You sleep first.”

Qing mumbled an “mm” in response, and Xing Wu took out the clean drawing paper he had prepared earlier that day and laid it on the small round table by the window.

The room was very quiet except for the scratching sound of the pencil. Qing weakly lifted her eyelids to look at him once – he was very focused, his profile extremely attractive. She smiled silently, then closed her eyes again and said in a soft voice: “Hey, I’ve wanted to ask you something for a long time. That day when I first came, why did you pretend to crash into me with your motorcycle?”

When Qing heard no response for a while, she opened her eyes to find Xing Wu staring at her intently.

“If I said I fell for you that day, would you think I’m talking nonsense?”

“No, attracted by looks, captivated by talent, loyal to character – it’s hard not to be infatuated with me.”

Hearing that familiar tone that seemed to look down on the world, Xing Wu lowered his head and smiled: “Why don’t you add ‘obsessed with your body’ to that list?”

“Mmm… you were after my body all along…”