When his mind was finally clear, he suddenly started to worry. Would Yan Zheke find that they were advancing too fast? Would she be unable to accept such rapid advancement and psychologically reject this relationship? Or would she feel that he's too impatient and misunderstood him as a guy who only focused on carnal desire, but not true passion?
He had thought of these questions before. His plan for the first kiss was to test the waters, yet when he achieved it, he started to worry about his gains and losses. He was afraid that he would destroy his own image in the girl's heart.
But he really could not control himself at that time...Furthermore, the girl in front of him was not just any other girl, but someone he loved a lot. When she looked at him shyly and revealed a seductive look, he just could not control his desires...
Lou Cheng sat at a corner of a flower bed and allowed the chilly breeze to blow against him. He took out his phone, and started wondering if he should apologize to Yan Zheke.
Nah, apologizing after a kiss would be too irresponsible as a man. This would make the girl think that the guy only wanted to take advantage of her...
Yup, I need to show her that I'm a responsible man with a pleasant attitude, and that I want to treat her better...
Even though there were many discussions on topics like "Women shouldn't get married", "Men shouldn't trust women" and "One night stand is the new norm" all over the internet, Lou Cheng figured that he was a conservative man. Since he had not gone through too many sufferings in the society, and since he had held her hands and kissed her lips, he felt that he should be responsible for her for life.
While his thoughts were running deep, his phone beeped and showed a notification from QQ. Yan Zheke was "pissed" and replied to his previous smiley emoji: "I'm not going to talk to a pervert!"
Seeing such reply, rather than being surprised, Lou Cheng was pleased. He noticed that his girl was shy and not mad at him.
He heaved a sigh of relief and "looked pitiful" as he replied: "I just couldn't control at that moment."
"At that moment?" Yan Zheke questioned and followed up with a "rolled eyes" emoji. "Humph, now that I think back, I feel that all these were part of a plan! Be honest, did you already have those bad thoughts when you asked me out for a stroll by the lake?"
"You can even see through this? Lou Cheng blushed and felt guilty. Fortunately, the girl was not beside him now.
He considered for a moment and decided to be honest with her. He confessed his thoughts to the girl, without hiding anything from her.
"Yes... Not only did I thought of kissing you when we were by the lake, I felt like kissing you when we were in the cinema as well. However you were too focused on the movie so I didn't bear to interrupt, and I didn't manage to get a chance after that... I guess guys tend to be more impulsive and anxious about such things. I keep thinking of getting closer to you. Moreover, you did mention you need more time to get used to having one more person in your life before accepting my confession. You also said you had not reached the stage of being crazy about me, didn't you?"
"I'm not trying to pressurize you, but I'm afraid that you'd leave me someday, and tell me that we should just be friends. Thus I want to get more assurance and more confirmation from you..."
After typing the reply from the bottom of his heart, he corrected some words to ensure that they accurately described how he truly felt.
He would always remember what Ming told him: In relationships, honesty is better than hiding secrets, and communication is better than cold wars.
After sending out the reply, Yan Zheke kept silent for a while before she replied.
"Fool..."
"Fool?" Lou Cheng was initially confused, then he realized what the girl actually meant.
Fool! If I'm not used or not prepared, do you think I'd let you kiss without pushing you away?
Fool! Do you need me to say it out that I like you before you can understand?
Fool! Stop filling your head with nonsense!
Lou Cheng was surprised and happy as he felt that he could understand what his girl was thinking. He hurriedly replied, "Yes, I'm a fool, a big fool! It's obvious that our relationship is getting better, yet I still worried about losing you and couldn't trust myself..."
"Humph, glad you understand." Yan Zheke used a "face palm" emoji and she added, "I'll forgive you this time round, Big Pervert. You'd better not anyhow kiss me next time!"
"Eh, does that mean I can kiss her as long as I don't anyhow kiss?" Lou Cheng chuckled. He was feeling was much more assured now. He immediately replied, "Sure sure sure, definitely will not anyhow!"
After they chatted for a while as well as confirmed the time and venue for tomorrow's treat with her dorm mates, Yan Zheke hurriedly rushed Lou Cheng to wash up as it was almost 10.30 p.m. She did not want him to sleep late and affect his morning training the next day.
While Lou Cheng whistled a tune on his way back to the dormitory, he was mocked by Cai Zongming as "Lecher riding on the crest of success" when he revealed his ground floor face.
After he was done with the wash-up, he went to his bed and was ready to send Yan Zheke a goodnight message when he noticed that she had sent him three voice messages a few minutes ago.
"Eh?" Lou Cheng felt doubtful as he opened the voice messages and placed his phone near his ear, switching it to listening mode.
"Hais, Cheng, be my rubbish bin for a while. Just listen and don't reply."
Yan Zheke's soft clear voice was heard from the phone.
Her surrounding sounded pretty quiet and spacious, with some sound of the blowing wind.
"She's on the balcony..." Lou Cheng was certain about his judgment, as he continued to listen to the messages.
"I'm terrified. When I gave up on resisting and chose to accept it, I felt really uneasy about my future..."
"Cheng, can we last? Are we able to hold on to each other's hand to withstand all the struggles and tests till we get old and sick, and still rely on each other?"
"I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I give it my all and put my true feelings to this relationship, I'll end up being defeated by reality and I've to watch you leaving me painfully. If that's the case, my heart will ache badly, so badly that I could just die..."
"They always say that first love never lasts. I'm very worried. I'm worried that one day the person I marry isn't you. That'll be such a nightmare..."
"Alright, I'm done pouring out these negative thoughts... I never had such nonsense thoughts or worries. It's all because of you!"
Lou Cheng listened to her words quietly. Whatever random conversations going on in his room could no longer be heard. His heart and mind were clear as he started to tear.
He took a breath and without heeding to Yan Zheke's instruction, he replied,
"I'm afraid as well, and I'm also fearful of how the future will be like. However, if we don't even dare to take the risk, then wouldn't we miss each other? Risk it and work hard on it, then there'll definitely be hope!"
"I work hard on practicing martial arts and strengthening myself, so that I could get hold of my own destiny to seize that opportunity and hope in life."
"Even though I'm too young to say all these, but I'm going to say this. I'm confident with myself, and I'm confident with what I like. You're my destiny."
After a while, Yan Zheke sent him a scolding emoji and replied,
"Thought I told you not to reply!"
"Go sleep, Pervert!"
Lou Cheng grinned and immediately replied, "Goodnight!"
"Goodnight, see you tomorrow~!" Yan Zheke seemed to have forgotten the awkward confessions and replies exchanged moments ago.
"See you everyday!" After sending this message, Lou Cheng patiently waited. He had a feeling that the girl would reply him something special.
He waited for 10 minutes before he finally saw a new message from Yan Zheke.
"Yes, I'll work hard as well..."
He seriously stared at this message for a few minutes, before he revealed a smile and went to sleep.
...
The next day, he woke up early as usual for his morning training. He then went for the special training, bathed and changed before running to the entrance of the female changing room to wait for Yan Zheke.
The weather was unexpectedly cold today, and Yan Zheke wore a thick outer jacket that made her look like a cute teddy bear. The moment she saw Lou Cheng, she pretended to be annoyed and turned her head to another direction as she retorted. "Pervert! Big pervert!"
Lou Cheng kept quiet and laughed. He then used his left hand to hold her lean hand. "Yes yes yes, I'm your pervert, exclusive to you only!"
"What kind of description is that?" Yan Zheke had never thought that Lou Cheng could be that thick-skinned and was speechless for a moment. She immediately changed a topic and said, "Let me give you a heads-up about my two dorm mates. One is named Le Liantong, who we often called her Dirty Tong..."
While they were happily chatting and joking, both of them left the martial arts arena and walked towards the crowd at the school building. They decided to pass by the building, crossed the long bridge, walked along to pedestrian walkway at the dormitory area and finally meet Zong Yanru and the others at the Academy Cafeteria.
On their way, Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke noticed a big group of people gathered in front of them, and all of them seemed to be looking at the roof of a building. Out of curiosity, they joined the group and were shocked to realize an unknown man was standing outside of the seventh-floor window, staring towards the groundfloor.
"Someone's going to jump!" Yan Zheke said with a trembling voice and held on to Lou Cheng tightly.
This was her first time seeing such incident.
Before Songcheng University opened its new school campus area, about one to two students were jumping off the building every year. After moving to the new area, there were no more of such incidents for almost half a year. In fact, someone said that the principal had sighed with relief and said that the Feng Shui was much better here. Never did he expect that someone was going to make the first jump today...
Lou Cheng's mood had changed instantly. He took a breath and said to Yan Zheke, "You stay away. I'll go over to take a closer look."
"Alright, be careful." Yan Zheke understood what Lou Cheng was thinking, so she urged him.
Just as Lou Cheng was getting closer, the man's face turned pale as he smiled and decided to plunge down.
"Damn it..." Lou Cheng cursed softly as he channeled his energy to his feet before leaping forward. He leaped to the right position based on his judgment and without caring much about his injury on his right arm, he extended his arms in the midst of all the screaming.
Bam! Lou Cheng managed to catch the suicidal man. The moment he grabbed the man, his feet suddenly sank, causing cracks to appear on the cement ground where he stood. Yan Zheke looked upon them worriedly.
There was a strong rebound. He forcefully straightened his back, sank both his arms, and withdrew an inch before he jerked both of them outwards.
This caused the man who had plunged down from the building to be tossed out and onto the ground not far away. The man was filled with fear and bewilderment as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.
Lou Cheng exhaled. He felt that his sports shoes were about to split, and the injury on his right arm seem to have aggravated.
But no matter what, all these were not as important as a human's life.
As he noticed that the teachers and security guards were joining the crowd, as well as the over-lookers were shockingly staring at the man and himself, Lou Cheng shouted,
"What is there to be afraid of, since you're not even afraid of death?"
He then turned around, walked off and joined Yan Zheke outside the second school building. This incident had secretly given him fame and honor.