Li Jinyu’s second round time was seven minutes and forty-five seconds, creating a new record. This score was like a hot coal thrown into a cold lake, water splashing, spectacularly erupting. That group of rich young heirs suddenly became excited, their nerve endings seemingly ignited like fuses, their brains bursting with crackling flames, eyes flashing with eager impulses, all beginning to flex their muscles in anticipation.
The deep night at Jiu Men Ridge, the mysterious peaks, the swirling thick fog, as if someone had poured a bucket of scalding water over it all, sizzling as though the entire mountaintop was boiling. The engine roars circled the summit one after another, endlessly. They seemed to be venting, or perhaps celebrating, rejoicing in the awakening of the forest king, celebrating the return of the dark youth.
…
Until everyone had their fill, the boiling blood gradually cooled down after rounds of competition.
Li Jinyu refused to take Ye Meng for more rides, leaning to one side, coldly observing several more rounds. Ye Meng didn’t ask him either, just endured it herself. Li Jinyu couldn’t bear to see her so accommodating. For the final lap, Li Jinyu couldn’t resist asking Li Chen to toss him the car keys. Leaning against the car, he caught them lazily and said to Ye Meng: “Let’s go one last lap.”
At that moment, Li Jinyu truly and completely experienced what could be called a woman’s adoring gaze, looking as if she liked him more than at any other time. He opened the car door and got in, feeling some inexplicable annoyance: “What virtue or ability do I possess to deserve such a look from sister?”
As he spoke, he shifted gears with a displeased expression, hardening his heart: “Last lap, no matter how much you beg me afterward, it won’t work.”
Ye Meng calmly dropped a line: “What if I’m willing to help you with my mouth?”
“Thanks, but I don’t need that,” Li Jinyu averted his gaze, looking out the window, absently asking, “How many laps does sister want?”
Ye Meng laughed until she got a stitch.
At three in the morning, everyone, exhausted, hungry, and sleepy, returned to Li Chen’s garage.
Tai Mingxiao had just furiously cursed Li Chen in the car until his voice went hoarse. Completely worn out, he flopped onto the sofa, put a cushion under his head, and shouted: “I’m so hungry! Will someone feed me?”
Once this rallying cry was issued, everyone responded in chorus, all expressing their hunger.
Throughout the vast garage, “corpses” were strewn everywhere. When Li Chen entered, there was nowhere to step. Without a word, he kicked Tai Mingxiao, who was closest to the door: “You’re crushing my wife’s cushion!”
“Fussy,” Tai Mingxiao said contemptuously with his eyes closed, pulling out the cushion from under his head and tossing it back.
Li Chen kicked him hard again.
Tai Mingxiao immediately covered his head and begged for mercy, “Brother, I was wrong, I was wrong. Help us get some barbecue, we’re starving!”
Li Chen, full of pent-up anger, kicked him once more and walked away without looking back: “Get lost.”
Once back at the low-lying garage, the Jiu Men Ridge opposite seemed to become an insurmountable peak. The mountain road on which they had just been screaming and sprinting wildly now looked like a spiral stairway to heaven, hidden behind thick fog, appearing and disappearing with the drifting clouds, like a mysterious fairyland.
“Was this mountain always so high?” Ye Meng looked at it soaring through the clouds, unconsciously feeling a bit frightened, murmuring.
The two didn’t go inside. Li Jinyu leaned against the car door, smoking and watching her, lowering his head to tap off some ash: “Scared?”
“Looking at it now, a bit,” Ye Meng said, still shaken. “It’s high, look, the peak is almost touching the moon. I suddenly feel like I just got a second chance at life.”
Li Jinyu leaned against the car door, smiling at her without continuing the thought, as if he didn’t take the mountain seriously at all, only asking lightly, “Hungry?”
Ye Meng suddenly felt his arrogant demeanor was quite appealing, the deer in her heart beginning to pound against the wall again. With a rumbling stomach, she replied: “A bit.”
“Want some barbecue?”
“Here?” Ye Meng thought it inappropriate, “They’re all inside.”
But Li Jinyu only cared about: “Do you want to eat?”
“Yes.” Ye Meng said without hesitation. She hadn’t eaten dinner, and now with her tense nerves suddenly relaxing, she was consuming a lot of oxygen. Her stomach hurt from hunger, and there were no late-night food stands nearby.
“Mm, wait a bit,” he said.
Ye Meng thought they would wait until everyone was asleep, then secretly cook something that wouldn’t be discovered. Who knew that Li Jinyu would finish his cigarette in a few puffs, drop it on the ground to extinguish it, pressing it with his toe while loudly calling to those inside: “Does anyone want barbecue?”
The response was overwhelming. Everyone raised their four lazy little hooves, voices carrying from inside like hungry cubs waiting to be fed—
“Me!”
“Me!”
“Me!”
“Me me me me!”
To openly grill a few skewers for her to eat, Li Jinyu ended up feeding almost everyone. Tai Mingxiao, in a daze, opened his mouth mechanically, demanding Li Jinyu stuff mushrooms in his mouth one by one, making Ye Meng so angry she wanted to knock him unconscious.
Li Jinyu’s shirt was already hopelessly dirty. He simply undid the cuffs and collar, exposing a large area of clean skin on his chest, with his waist hem loosely half-tucked, half-untucked outside his trousers. Strangely, Ye Meng didn’t find it slovenly at all—instead, she found it so sexy she wanted to pin him to the sofa and kiss him hard, especially that sharp, clear Adam’s apple, bobbing up and down as he talked and joked with Tai Mingxiao, impossibly casual.
Ye Meng sat beside him. Li Jinyu mostly watched her, occasionally glancing at the grill to flip things over before continuing to stare at her, while his mouth kept up casual conversation with Tai Mingxiao, who lay motionless on the sofa behind like a dead pig.
Tai Mingxiao’s eyelids were fighting each other, completely unaware these two were flirting right under his nose, his mouth still carelessly trying to play matchmaker—
“Li Jinyu, can you go help find where Yangyang is?”
Li Jinyu glanced at the girl sprawled on the floor, her sleeping posture almost identical to Tai Mingxiao’s, and said emotionlessly: “At your feet.”
Almost everyone was asleep except for four or five guys intensely playing games on a single sofa nearby; the rest were already lying down haphazardly. These rich kids were quite casual, though occasionally some had cleanliness issues—unable to accept such a chaotic pile of people lying together like “corpses,” they drove back to the city overnight. Most, though, were already accustomed to this lifestyle of young people.
Tai Yangyang had hung out with them since childhood and was even more used to it. She slept better than she would at home. Her sleeping posture wasn’t particularly elegant though, and she was still wearing a skirt. Ye Meng took the coats that the men had carelessly piled on the sofa and covered each of the young girls with one.
Tai Yangyang wasn’t sleeping well today. She was extremely tired, but before falling asleep felt like there was something she still hadn’t done. While sleeping, she felt like there was a thread constantly hanging in her mind. Half-asleep, half-awake, she felt someone covering her with clothes. Opening her eyes, it was surprisingly Ye Meng, followed immediately by the smell of food. Her drowsiness instantly dissipated by half as she sat up, rubbing her eyes: “Sister, why aren’t you asleep?”
Ye Meng asked: “I’m about to leave, don’t sleep on the floor, you’ll catch a cold.”
“Okay.” Tai Yangyang suddenly seemed to remember what she hadn’t done and stopped rubbing her eyes.
Then she heard Ye Meng say: “Do you want to get up and eat something?”
Tai Yangyang’s thoughts flew to Java, and she nodded repeatedly in haste: “Yes, yes.”
Ye Meng: “Li Jinyu still has some leftovers, they can’t finish it all. Get your friends up to eat too.”
Tai Yangyang looked at the man leaning lazily against the door with his shirt unbuttoned, her eyes immediately brightening: “Brother is so handsome.”
Ye Meng: “…”
When Tai Yangyang’s friends opened their eyes, they had the same reaction—Li Jinyu was truly an exceptional specimen of a man.
Li Jinyu gave all the grilled food to the group of young ladies and lightly reminded them: “If it’s not enough, there are more lamb skewers in the refrigerator that you can grill. If you don’t know how you can call me. Don’t set the place on fire.”
Tai Yangyang and her friends nodded obediently in unison like pecking chicks, eyes shining: “Brother, are you going to sleep?”
“I’m going outside for a smoke,” Li Jinyu picked up the cigarettes and lighter from the table, holding them in his hand while buttoning the fourth button of his shirt as he spoke, “After you eat, go upstairs to sleep. There are sofas there. Girls shouldn’t sleep on the floor.”
When he walked away, the girls huddled together, pushing and shoving, excitedly whispering: “Brother is abstemious.”
“He’s so cold,” one of the girls stomped her foot, “Brother is so attractive, I think he’s even more attractive than your idol. If he joined the entertainment industry, he’d probably be very popular, right?”
“Is he like this because he’s not familiar with us? Yangyang, is he also like this in private when he’s with your brother?”
Tai Yangyang gnawed on a small mushroom, “Brother is always like this. He seems to like nothing in particular, nor does he especially dislike anything. He’s just very indifferent, giving a sense of being completely alone.”
“It’s hard to imagine what someone so cold would be like when in love with someone.”
“Yangyang, are you still going to confess to him?”
Tai Yangyang carelessly chewed the small mushroom Li Jinyu had grilled. His grilling wasn’t very good—he hadn’t done such things since childhood. But Tai Yangyang still ate the charred parts: “I’ll think about it more. I suddenly feel like I’m not worthy.”
Just as she finished speaking, one of the girls returned from the bathroom, looking nervously at everyone: “I… I think I just saw brother going to find sister again.”
“Didn’t brother say he was going outside to smoke?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t see clearly, but I think I saw brother closing a door.”
“It’s probably nothing. Sister is already married, brother probably just went in to get something.”
“What are you all talking about?” A duck-like voice suddenly came from behind.
Everyone jumped in fright. Looking back, they saw Tai Mingxiao had woken up on the sofa. They quickly calmed their nervous hearts: “You scared me! It’s about Jinyu brother, he went to find Ye Meng sister again.”
“Oh, set your one hundred and eighty hearts at ease,” Tai Mingxiao lazily lay back, closing his eyes with reassurance. “I thought it was something serious. Those two are impossible. Stop gossiping, Ye Meng loves her husband very much. Besides, my buddy hasn’t gone crazy. With his conditions, he could have any woman he wants with a wave of his hand—why would he go after a married woman?”
These words were like a reassuring pill. Everyone seemed to have been given a sedative, nodding in deep agreement.
Unexpectedly, one of the girls suddenly remembered something, looking around and saying softly: “Did they go into the room where Yangyang put the camera?”
The young girls slapped their thighs! “Damn? Isn’t the camera connected to Yangyang’s phone? Wait, Yangyang, you didn’t turn on the camera, right?”
“Right, I didn’t turn it on,” Tai Yangyang said.
“I turned it on! Back at Jiu Men Ridge, didn’t Yangyang say she wasn’t ready to give up and wanted to try? I specifically came back to turn it on. I was afraid there wouldn’t be time later.” One of the girls raised her hand and said.
Tai Mingxiao turned over exasperatedly: “Don’t you all have better things to do? If there’s anything between them, I’ll cut off my head and let you use it as a football.”
Tai Yangyang also said: “Let’s not. What if brother and sister are discussing something important? That wouldn’t be good.”
Ye Meng had been searching for a while but couldn’t find the high heels she had changed out of.
Someone must have brought them to this room. She had just entered when Li Jinyu followed right behind her, closing the door, his shirt hanging loosely half-tucked, half-untucked outside his western trousers, leaning against the door panel, looking down at her as she changed shoes.
Neither said a word, but from his gaze, Ye Meng knew what he came in to do.
She felt there was fire in his eyes, slowly creeping onto her body. She couldn’t even locate the source of the fire, silently baking her. She felt increasingly hot, her heart as if being squeezed, so stifled she couldn’t catch her breath. She felt that if she stayed any longer, something would happen.
The camera was indeed turned on by Tai Yangyang. Because Gou Kai heard the commotion and got up too, he asked Tai Yangyang to open the cloud backup to check.
Tai Mingxiao still lay on the sofa with profound disdain and contempt: “Even if you don’t believe Ye Meng, you should trust the innocent fool—”
Before he finished speaking, there were sounds of sharp inhalations all around.
The young girl felt her scalp tingling, all her nerves numbing, covering her mouth, eyes widened in disbelief: “Are they kissing?”
Tai Mingxiao was thunderstruck, instantly sobering up, springing from the sofa like a carp.
Gou Kai smoked, his face as black as the bottom of a pot: “Turn on the audio.”
After turning on the audio, the entire scene became particularly sensual. They could now hear the kissing sounds because the room was so quiet you could almost hear silkworms eating mulberry leaves. Every exchange of saliva and the subtle moans produced by their intertwined lips and tongues could be heard clearly.
In the footage, the two were entangled in a desperate embrace at the door. Li Jinyu’s fingers were tightly interlocked with hers, raised high and pressed against the door panel above her head. He kissed her with closed eyes, not in a gentle, exploratory way, but in an extremely domineering manner with sexual overtones. The opening between their lips was very large as if they were devouring each other. Ye Meng seemed somewhat reluctant yet willing, partly afraid of being discovered by the others, partly unable to resist Li Jinyu’s blatant, direct seduction, pushing him away weakly.
Li Jinyu said softly: “Don’t dress like this next time.”
“Why?”
“I want to gouge out their eyes.”
Tai Mingxiao cursed “fuck” ten times in a row, unable to express his deep shock. Everyone perfectly embodied the idiom “dumbfounded.”
“He’s crazy, he’s crazy. Listen to that domineering tone, if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was the legitimate husband.”
“Li Jinyu dares to make a move. He doesn’t spare even married women, damn.”
“What do we do, what do we do.”
Tai Mingxiao was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, while Tai Yangyang remained composed: “Brother’s kissing is so intense.”
In the footage, the two finally seemed to separate from each other’s lips. The young girls watched with flushed faces and racing hearts, deer running wild, souls leaving their bodies. Then, Li Jinyu supported himself against the door with one hand, while the other absently played with Ye Meng’s earlobe. His voice was cold yet direct: “Come to my place later?”
Li Jinyu was truly determined to seduce Ye Meng into having an affair.
Tai Mingxiao was so anxious he scratched his head, wishing he could slap Gou Kai’s cool skull: “This is what you call stealing someone’s wife! A professional excavator! He never misses!”