She straightened her pants and top, fixed the bra inside that had gotten disheveled or slipped.
Blushing, Lin Qingya followed beside Cheng Minghao, holding onto his left arm as they walked out together.
When they arrived at school, it was still the Computer Lab.
“Are you really going to join the army?”
Lin Qingya asked in a low voice, glancing around at the classmates who were watching their intimate conversation.
“Mm.”
Cheng Minghao nodded, looking at Lin Qingya with a faint smile.
He tried to soothe the uneasiness in her eyes and heart.
This was a question Lin Qingya had already asked again and again.
But maybe it was the panic of parting, or perhaps the reluctance of temporary separation.
Maybe it was the shyness from Cheng Minghao’s boast that he’d join the army to support her, to let her go to college.
Or even the fear from Cheng Minghao’s bold claim that after he returned from the army and she graduated, he’d make her repay him with her body, maybe even have two children for him.
In short, Lin Qingya kept asking this question again and again, as if hoping Cheng Minghao would change his mind.
Feeling uneasy because of the kindness she received, Lin Qingya felt a lot of pressure.
To repay with her body for benefits she hadn’t earned—every day feeling the weight of it.
The answer Lin Qingya always got was that, because they were boyfriend and girlfriend, Cheng Minghao was willing to support her.
He hoped she’d go to college first.
She couldn’t accept this kindness as a matter of course.
She even worried, afraid she was just being kept as someone’s girlfriend or wife.
If one day, they were no longer in that relationship—
If she was no longer his girlfriend or wife, how would she repay him?
Where would she go from there?
For example, if, in an extreme case, Cheng Minghao, because of long-term separation, was tempted by another woman and cheated, got trapped, and had a child.
Or maybe just because her identity was exposed, or she wanted to leave and was too ashamed to stay.
All Cheng Minghao’s efforts would become wasted, gone like spilled water, evaporating under the sun.
Only a faint wisp of white smoke drifting away could be seen.
In such a state, she felt she owed Cheng Minghao and didn’t know how to make it up to him.
An emotional debt, one obtained while pretending to be ‘someone’ else.
Such feelings made Lin Qingya unbearably embarrassed, even miserable.
Such efforts from the other party, and her own secret attachment she couldn’t admit, made her feel a mountain of pressure, unable to bear or hide it any longer.
Each time she wanted to explain, the words would be swallowed and replaced with another question about identity, again and again.
And so, Lin Qingya repeatedly asked Cheng Minghao whether he was really going to join the army, give up the chance to go to college, and if he was really planning to support her through her university entrance.
Seeing Lin Qingya bite her red lips, Cheng Minghao reached out to pat her head in comfort.
“What’s wrong? You can’t bear to part with me? Or are you worried about me joining the army? Hm?”
Cheng Minghao smiled gently at Lin Qingya, trying to soothe her.
No matter how many thoughts Lin Qingya had inside, anything she didn’t say aloud, Cheng Minghao couldn’t know.
Even if Cheng Minghao truly liked her, even liked ‘her’.
But anything hidden deep inside, intentionally buried, was still out of Cheng Minghao’s reach.
Cheng Minghao deliberately avoided touching on such awkward or uncomfortable topics, never probing Lin Qingya about her avoidance or dislike.
Finally, Lin Qingya couldn’t hold back and spoke, sitting in her chair:
“You…”
Sitting to the right of Cheng Minghao, her hands gripped his right arm tightly, as if afraid of losing something.
She asked,”Have you noticed that I… I’m a bit different from before? Maybe I’m sick?”
“…Mm!”
Cheng Minghao was startled, then quickly nodded, smiling.
“If you’re sick, you need to get treated. I’ve saved up some money for a while now. Once I join the army, I won’t have time to accompany you, so let’s get your illness checked out first, alright? Maybe you’ll get better?”
“What if… it can’t be cured?”
Lin Qingya bit her lip, asking nervously as she looked at Cheng Minghao.
Cheng Minghao smiled, gently kneading her tense cheeks to comfort her.
“Can’t be cured? Then maybe I…”
“Maybe what? You won’t want me anymore?”
Lin Qingya’s voice was filled with a hint of heartbreak.
A faint, bitter smile forced its way onto her face.
But Cheng Minghao seemed ready to tease her even more.
However…
As Cheng Minghao parted his lips, he suddenly stopped smiling, his expression turning serious and steady as he explained.
“So what if it can’t be cured? Does that mean you’re not my girlfriend anymore? Or that you won’t sleep with me?”
As he spoke, an ambiguous smile crept onto Cheng Minghao’s face.
He leaned in close to Lin Qingya’s ear, whispering a few words that were almost impossible to hear.
Those words made Lin Qingya’s ears burn bright red.
She lowered her head, brushed her hair behind her right ear, and tried to explain.
“Of course…”
A blush mixed with shyness spread across her pale face, under her panic and fear.
She spoke softly.
“Of course, I’m still your… girlfriend. As long as you want… you want…”
“…Anytime, you can… Mm… As long as you like it~”
Lin Qingya blushed as she lowered her head, playing with her fingers.
In front of Cheng Minghao, she could be shameless.
Compared to other women, maybe her only advantage was giving in, doing what other women wouldn’t dare to do.
Only by doing this could she keep Cheng Minghao’s heart, so that even when he was away from home, he’d remember there was a gentle wife waiting for him to come home and enjoy happiness.
Hearing Lin Qingya’s passionate words, Cheng Minghao felt a fire in his heart.
He glanced around at the classmates nearby who were seriously registering for exams.
Some people occasionally looked at them.
Cheng Minghao asked, his heart burning.
“Then, if it was right here, under the desk in the registration classroom…”
“No way!”
Lin Qingya’s face turned red instantly, but then she nodded quietly, blushing as she explained.
“Actually… it’s possible…”
Lin Qingya shyly glanced at the surrounding classmates, seeing a girl on her right looking at her.
It was her former deskmate, waving and giggling at her.
She hesitated a little, thinking she had to be bold and reckless.
After today, everyone would go their separate ways.
Even if rumors spread about her being taught a lesson by Cheng Minghao in the classroom…
Thinking this, she didn’t give Cheng Minghao any chance to react.
She stood up lightly and slid under the desk.
With a flushed face, under the shocked eyes of her former deskmate, she crawled on all fours, kneeling and moving toward Cheng Minghao’s legs.
She accidentally kicked the foot of the girl in front, making that girl turn back curiously to see where Lin Qingya had gone and whether Cheng Minghao needed her for something.
Cheng Minghao had only meant it as a hot joke.
But now, he also had to deal with the conversation from the girl in front.
And handle the shocked, wide-eyed gaze of Lin Qingya’s former deskmate on his right, who was covering her mouth in disbelief.
Just as Cheng Minghao’s right hand landed on Lin Qingya’s head as she crawled under the desk, he suddenly felt a surge of heat and joy in his heart, as if entering a warm paradise of happiness.
He couldn’t push her away.
Lin Qingya’s former deskmate, sitting nearby on the right, froze, then instantly turned away, clamping her legs together and burying her face in her arms in embarrassment.
She felt like she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.
Like she’d betrayed her good friend Lin Qingya by seeing her boyfriend’s…
She felt she might die of shame, not knowing what to say about this ‘good girl’ Lin Qingya.
To be so obedient as to go under a man’s desk, just holding onto his legs and snuggling up to him…
Such bold and shameless behavior shattered all her previous ideas, leaving a deep and echoing impression.