Her voice had always been sweet and delicate, and combined with the stillness of the room, it carried an added air of budding intimacy without her even meaning it. He Yunqin could no longer be bothered with drawing his tool diagram—he set down his pen and stood up at once: “Then I’ll go bathe.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Hongdou secretly regretted them. She had only meant that since he’d been so busy these past few days, and tomorrow morning he had to accompany her back to her mother’s home for the post-wedding visit, and in the afternoon he still had to go to the school, she worried he’d be too tired and wanted to urge him to rest early. Who knew it would come out sounding like something else entirely.
Seeing He Yunqin head straight into the inner room without another word, clearly having misunderstood her meaning, she remained composed and unhurried on her stool, determined to show she was in no rush to go to bed.
Before long He Yunqin finished bathing, and came out with a bath towel in hand, carelessly rubbing his hair dry.
He glanced up—no one was on the bed. Looking further, he saw Hongdou still in the outer room, reading.
He tossed the towel back into the washroom and walked up behind her: “Not going to sleep?”
Hongdou studied his tool diagram with great seriousness: “I’m researching roughly what shape this could be made into.”
He pulled the diagram away from her: “That’s Inspector Wang’s business.”
Hongdou picked up the dictionary again: “Then I’ll study some more German.”
He pulled her up: “I’ll teach you.”
“I don’t want you to teach me.”
“How will you learn without someone teaching you?”
“I have plenty of aptitude.”
“A foreign language can’t be learned on aptitude alone—you need someone to teach you.”
“How is there such a shameless person as you, insisting on playing teacher for no reason.”
“Others beg me to teach them and I still refuse—I’ll only teach you.”
Hongdou was pulled by him into the bedroom. Passing by the daybed, he stopped and suddenly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down to sit.
“Weren’t we going to sleep?”
He held her waist firmly, making her sit on his lap: “Let’s take a nap on the daybed first, shall we?”
This was a scene never before heard of. Hongdou was both embarrassed and angry: “What exactly are you trying to do!”
He Yunqin also felt somewhat embarrassed, yet he had no intention whatsoever of stopping. He tilted his head back to kiss her neck, his hand slipping beneath the hem of her clothing: “You can sleep on the daybed too.”
Could things even be done this way? Hongdou was so embarrassed she wished she could crawl into a crack in the floor. She wriggled around and finally managed to jump off his lap, laughing as she ran toward the bed: “You sleep on the daybed yourself, I’m going to sleep in the bed.”
Although He Yunqin’s heart was set on trying something new with Hongdou, he was also afraid of upsetting her, and had no real intention of forcing her. Seeing her run off, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and had no choice but to get into bed.
She deliberately made mischief, lying as far from him as possible. He lifted the covers, and the moment he lay down, catching her off guard, he pulled her under him, then cupped her head and lowered his own to nip at the sliver of snow-smooth neck showing above her collar: “Sleeping in the bed works too, but let’s try a different way of sleeping.”
So saying, he reached down and hooked her leg, folding it, forcing her to wrap it around his waist.
This was all utterly novel to him; tonight he was determined to teach Hongdou.
Rare as it was, though Hongdou was terribly embarrassed this time too, she at least didn’t push him away and run off, only closing her eyes and saying: “I—I’m still a little sore. I’ve been enduring it all day.”
He Yunqin had already pulled half her clothes off, and hearing this, he froze—so she was still sore. Even though he wished he could charge ahead at once, out of consideration for her feelings, he couldn’t help but stop. He wasn’t in such a hurry that he couldn’t wait—why force things when she wasn’t comfortable?
Hongdou waited a while; some part of He Yunqin remained stubbornly unyielding, yet nothing further happened for a long time—he simply kept kissing her here and there, lingering repeatedly over the spot he liked best, and she guessed privately that he was deliberately being considerate of her. Her heart softened. Though her eyes were still closed, she groped her way to pulling down his neck and whispered something in his ear. Her voice was so low it was barely a whisper, just the movement of two lips.
He Yunqin froze, his heart filled with delight. He suppressed a laugh and kissed her: “Alright, I’ll be gentle.”
They carried on quite late into the night. He Yunqin cleaned Hongdou up afterward and pulled her down to lie beside him.
Hongdou was utterly exhausted, her head resting on his chest, eyes half-closed as she dozed.
His breathing stirred the loose strands of hair on her forehead, tickling her. Though neither spoke, there was between them a shared sense of fullness and contentment, faint, nearly transparent, deeply peaceful.
After some unknown time, she gave a satisfied little sigh, and thinking of the events of the day, felt that some doubts left too long in the heart would only ferment. Might as well seize the chance to clear them up now—she looked up at him: “Your bicycle is so old, why won’t you replace it?”
He Yunqin, who had been closing his eyes, letting sleepiness gather, opened them at this and looked down, meeting her eyes.
He wasn’t particularly surprised—she was clever enough that she’d inevitably notice that bicycle sooner or later.
He was silent for a moment. Not wanting to dance around the question, and even less inclined to lie and brush her off, he reached up to smooth her hair and said plainly: “I have my own reasons for not replacing it.”
Hongdou gazed steadily into his dark eyes.
He gave no ground at all. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and seeing there was no prying his mouth open, she didn’t want him to see her displeasure, so she pushed him away and turned to lie facing the other side, pretending indifference: “Fine, I won’t ask then.” There would be plenty of time ahead anyway—she’d surely have a chance to figure it out eventually.
He Yunqin looked at her back, the clear, warm lamplight from the bedside falling across her face, tracing the outline of her profile so fully that it always made him think of a fragrant, sweet-scented peach.
Except this peach was currently sulking, presenting only its backside to him.
He pulled her back: “Hongdou.”
Hongdou said with her eyes closed: “Hongdou is asleep.”
“Is that so?” He Yunqin raised an eyebrow. “Asleep and still talking?”
Hongdou said: “Not only can I talk, I can bite too.” She pulled his arm, which was wrapped around her chest, and bit down on it.
He Yunqin endured the pain and let her bite him. But she only bit once before pushing his arm away; he picked it up to look, and the mark was extremely faint—not even a tooth print left behind.
He suppressed a laugh and kissed the top of her head: “Hongdou, I never intended to keep any secrets from you out of malice, but some matters concern not just me, but other people too. I’ll have to wait until things are resolved before I can tell you.”
Hongdou still said nothing, but the shoulders that had been tensed relaxed slightly.
He Yunqin continued: “Tomorrow we’re going back to Tongfu Alley. The gifts are prepared—check tomorrow morning if there’s anything else to add. Eldest Brother isn’t a policeman anymore, and from what Mother-in-law said, he’s planning to reopen the shop. Tomorrow I’ll discuss it with them, see where we might find a storefront, and get the family business running again soon.”
Hongdou’s heart warmed, but if He Yunqin were to get involved in this matter, first, the storefront might end up too extravagant, which would actually hurt business. Second, given He Yunqin’s way of handling things, he would surely spend both money and effort, and her mother and brother were both extremely proud people who likely wouldn’t want to trouble He Yunqin with it. Besides, they’d only just gotten married, and the He family already had plenty of eyes and ears about—if word got out that He Yunqin was subsidizing the Yu family, it would surely invite gossip. So she said: “Let’s wait and discuss it with Mother and Brother tomorrow when we see them.”