That slightly petulant trailing tone carried an electric current across the phone screen, making Su Qinghan’s ears tingle. Every word seemed to have hooks, gently scraping against her eardrums. An image uncontrollably surfaced in her mind.
It was Yan Yu right after taking a shower.
A loose white bath towel was wrapped loosely around her body, held up only by the meager support at her chest, revealing smooth, rounded shoulders. Water droplets traced down her collarbone hollow, like a crystalline thread sliding along the faint curves of her chest. Above the towel, the fabric vaguely outlined the shape of her soft chest line, exuding a seductive allure that begged to be left unsaid.
Further down, her flat lower abdomen glowed white in the warm light, and even the indentation of her navel was faintly visible.
In the image, Yan Yu tilted her head slightly upward, her wet strands of hair clinging to her cheeks. Her eyes were hazy, as if still immersed in the lingering warmth of the steam. Those eyes, usually so calm, were now covered with a thin film of mist, the corners tinged with an alluring flush, and her long lashes trembled lightly with each breath.
She bit her lip hard, chasing the image away.
‘Seriously, what am I thinking? How ridiculous!’
She needed to calm down. She was Su Qinghan, after all. She pinched her thigh hard, nearly letting out a hiss from the pain.
Maybe she had been silent for too long. On the other end of the line, Yan Yu finally lost patience and asked softly, “Qinghan, is something wrong? You said you wanted to talk… What did you want to talk about?”
Su Qinghan opened her mouth, but found her mind completely blank, unable to come up with any topic. She couldn’t just say, “I just wanted to hear your voice,” could she? Too embarrassing.
As she was about to make up some random topic to brush it off, Yan Yu spoke first.
“Qinghan, don’t worry.” The voice was still very soft and gentle, but now carried a bit more sincerity. “I know you had a disagreement with Classmate Jiang and are in a bad mood, which is why you came to me. It’s fine. Don’t worry—I won’t tell anyone about our call.”
There was a pause on the other end, and Yan Yu’s voice grew even softer. “As long as it makes you feel a little better, that’s enough.”
Another critical hit.
Su Qinghan felt her fingertips go numb. The numbness spread from her fingertips to her wrists, then up her forearms to her shoulders, until finally her whole body was enveloped by a soft, tingling sensation.
Strange. Had Yan Yu always been like this?
Su Qinghan closed her eyes, trying to recall every moment she had spent with Yan Yu over the past three years. In her memories, Yan Yu was obedient, quiet, like a tamed kitten. Whenever she was in a bad mood, Yan Yu wouldn’t say anything—she would just quietly accompany her, then bring her a pot of hot tea at the right moment.
She used to think that was Yan Yu being considerate. But today, she suddenly felt that it had been too silent. So silent that she had almost forgotten Yan Yu could speak. So silent that she had almost forgotten what Yan Yu’s voice sounded like—soft, with a hint of restrained daring.
When did she change? Or was it that Yan Yu had always been this way, and she herself had never seriously, attentively listened?
The more Su Qinghan thought, the more tangled her mind became. Those thoughts were like a knotted ball of yarn, impossible to unravel. Reason told her she should hang up, should go find Jiang Muyun, should clear things up from today. But her hands wouldn’t obey, her mouth wouldn’t obey, and her heart certainly wouldn’t obey.
Then she made a decision even she found unbelievable.
“Yan Yu,” she said, her voice dry. “Um… are you free this weekend?”
“I am,” Yan Yu replied without hesitation.
Su Qinghan swallowed, her Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. She gripped her wine glass tighter, her knuckles turning white, her heart pounding like a drum in her chest.
“Um… A new aquarium just opened near my house,” she said, speaking faster than usual. “I happened to buy two extra tickets. Jiang Muyun… she’s not interested in this kind of thing. And I don’t want to waste the tickets…”
She paused. Her throat felt blocked, the remaining words refusing to come out. So she simply raised the glass and gulped down the rest of the red wine. A bit of wine spilled from the corner of her mouth and trickled down her chin, but she didn’t bother to wipe it.
“…So, can you come with me?” The last half of her sentence was so quiet she could barely hear it herself.
The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.
“Going out with you?” Yan Yu’s voice carried a hint of hesitation, as if she was seriously thinking about it. That hesitation made Su Qinghan’s heart leap into her throat, afraid she would hear a “no.”
“Is it really okay?” Yan Yu finally spoke again, her voice tinged with a hint of caution.
Okay. Of course it was okay.
“Of course it’s okay.” Su Qinghan answered faster than her own heartbeat. She paused, then added another sentence, trying to make her urgency less obvious. “It’s just a walk, don’t worry. I don’t have any other intentions. After all, we are friends, aren’t we?”
Friends. Su Qinghan chewed on those two words over and over in her mind. For the first time, she realized those words could also make her feel uneasy.
Yan Yu let out a soft laugh on the other end. The laughter was light and shallow.
“Mm, okay,” she said, her tone brightening a little. “I’ll be there on time, Qinghan.”
The call ended. The busy tone came through the earpiece: beep, beep, beep.
Su Qinghan held the phone, staring at the ended call log on the screen. The call duration read “07:48.” Less than eight minutes. But those less-than-eight minutes were harder to calm down from than all the conversations she had had in the past three days.
She put down the phone, leaned back against the sofa, and looked up at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling. The light refracted through the angular crystals, dazzling and brilliant, the light spots blurring into a hazy halo before her eyes. She slowly exhaled, and the wildly beating heart in her chest finally began to settle down bit by bit.
Then she suddenly realized something. She had just called Yan Yu and made plans to go out on the weekend, and Jiang Muyun knew nothing about it.
Her fingers gently, repeatedly rubbed the edge of the phone.
“I don’t have any other intentions.” She softly repeated the words she had just said, as if trying to convince Yan Yu, or perhaps to convince herself. Only her voice echoed in the empty room, dispersing into the vast night, unheard by anyone.
On this side of the city, Yan Yu hung up the phone. She took the phone away from her ear, placed it gently on the nightstand, then leaned back onto her pillow, the corners of her mouth involuntarily curling up.
The smile spread from the corners of her lips to her eyes, from her eyes to her entire face, finally settling into a quiet, satisfied grin.
Another new event delivered right to her doorstep.
She had been wondering how much effort it would take to make Su Qinghan take the initiative to “secretly contact” her. She hadn’t expected the effect to be much better than anticipated. The lethality of that voice message was more than double what she had estimated.
It seemed occasionally stirring up Su Qinghan’s heart was still very necessary.
However, the fact that Su Qinghan would actually think of secretly making plans to go out with her behind her “ambiguous love interest’s” back did surprise Yan Yu quite a bit. She had originally thought Su Qinghan was an extremely rational person, with her own set of principles and bottom lines in everything, not easily swayed by emotions. But tonight’s call had completely shattered that understanding.
Su Qinghan could also hesitate, struggle, and under the combined effect of alcohol and emotion, do things that didn’t fit her persona. This added a new layer to Yan Yu’s understanding of Su Qinghan.
Regardless, since the agreement was made, she could not afford to take the aquarium date lightly. She had a feeling that if she performed well on this date, it would be a great opportunity to significantly increase her Acting Value.
Yan Yu picked up her phone, opened the calendar, and marked a small note on the weekend day.
Then she turned off the light and closed her eyes in the darkness.
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