Chapter 39
Qi Rui-Feng was a particularly direct and clueless person . At the dinner table, he chatted and joked around with Yun Duo, and so Yun Duo was infected by his mood and did not think any further on whether Tang Yi-Bai was angry . Tang Yi-Bai had such a good temper, so of course he wouldn't be angry . He must have just been kidding with them .
After the meal, Tang Yi-Bai wanted to send Yun Duo home, and Qi Rui-Feng insisted on coming along . Tang Yi-Bai had planned to refuse, but he suddenly seemed to think of something and merely said with a smile, "Okay . "
And so the three of them called a cab and headed towards his house . When they were almost at their destination, Qi Rui-Feng looked out the window from the passenger's seat and asked, "Tang Yi-Bai, isn't this the direction to your house?"
Tang Yi-Bai replied, "Yes, we are heading to my place . "
"Hey, we're supposed to send Yun Duo home . " Qi Rui-Feng was disgruntled .
Tang Yi-Bai threw a sideways glance at Yun Duo sitting beside him . It was too dark inside the car, so he could not see her expression very well . He only saw her turn her head away slightly and cough softly with a hand over her mouth .
His mood abruptly took a turn for the better . Some things only existed between the two of them, him and her, beyond the reach of others .
Qi Rui-Feng was still complaining, "Tang Yi-Bai, you're too shameless . Why didn't you say anything sooner if you wanted to go home first?"
Tang Yi-Bai calmly tossed out a bomb . "Yun Duo is staying in my room . "
Yun Duo: = . = Why does that sound so weird . . .
Qi Rui-Feng went silent . He stared at them intently, and when Yun Duo did not deny the claim, he came to the conclusion that Tang Yi-Bai had not been joking .
However, those words had really sounded like a joke . . . they couldn't have already gotten married, right?
"Ahem," Yun Duo suddenly felt kind of guilty . When she had first found out that she had actually rented Tang Yi-Bai's room, she had only thought that it was an astounding coincidence . Even when she had accidentally seen Tang Yi-Bai's naked body, she had not felt any guilt . However, now, as she faced Qi Rui-Feng's questioning stare, she suddenly felt uneasy, as if some hidden private corner of her inner self was being examined . She ducked her head and explained, "I just happened to rent a room at his home while I was finding a new place . Isn't it such a coincidence?"
Qi Rui-Feng's face was full of doubt . He did not believe in such a coincidence, and he also did not believe that there were parents who would rent out their son's room . He asked Tang Yi-Bai incredulously, "Your parents don't want you anymore? Are you not their biological son?"
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"I am their biological son . Our house still has other rooms . "
Qi Rui-Feng sniffed coldly . "I don't believe it . You think I'm stupid?"
Tang Yi-Bai was resigned . "Okay . Yun Duo and I should apply for a certificate already . We're just waiting till I turn 22 years old . So she has moved into our house . Do you believe that?"
Yun Duo was greatly flustered . "Don't make things up . . . !"
Qi Rui-Feng's gaze swung between Tang Yi-Bai and Yun Duo . After staring over them a good long while, he finally shook his head . "I don't believe it . Why don't you kiss her and see?"
Tang Yi-Bai's palms held onto Yun Duo's petite rounded shoulders, and with a gentle pull, the distance between the two of them was instantly much closer . Yun Duo watched with wide eyes as he pressed even closer . She was so shocked her eyes were as round as saucers . Damn, brother, you can't be serious, right? Is it really necessary to try this hard?!
She leaned as far backwards as she could in fright, but the sturdy back of the chair blocked her path of escape . She plastered her back tight to the back of the chair, until she could move back no further and could only watch as the shadowed figure before her loomed increasingly larger . In the darkness of the car, she could not see his expression clearly . She could only feel a foreign breathing suddenly drawing closer, smooth and prolonged like stretched silk, tightly surrounding her .
Her heart began pounding violently, the blood in her veins surging to her brain . Like at a carnival, she could hear a roaring as the blood continued to drum through the blood vessels of her ears .
She was so nervous that she was frozen stiff . He was approaching slowly, close and within reach . She suddenly thought to push him away, but found that her wrists had already been pressed firmly to the chair by his hands and were now unable to move .
He's going to kiss me . Tang Yi-Bai's going to kiss me . . . that was the only thought going through her mind .
Just then, a bright light flashed at the corner of her eyes, so glaring that she could not help but squint . She instinctively turned towards the light, only to see that Qi Rui-Feng had already shifted positions to face them . Apparently he had been worried he could not see clearly, so he had turned his cell phone into flashlight mode and pointed it at them . His expression was one of intent interest .
Seeing that Tang Yi-Bai stop moving, Qi Rui-Feng grumbled, "Kiss her! Why aren't you kissing her?"
Tang Yi-Bai swore mentally and returned to his seat . He closed his eyes and suppressed his internal turmoil .
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—— He had actually really been about to kiss her!
That surge of excitement was like that when a vampire suddenly caught a sniff of fresh blood — worked up, hungry, on the verge of losing control . . . he had wanted to just kiss her no matter what .
The feeling was so very strange — he had never felt that way before in all the past twenty odd years of his life . And the feeling had been so intense, so intense that he had been completely unable to control himself . If not for Qi Rui-Feng's interruption, he would really have kissed her .
This damnable feeling . . . what . . . what else could it be?!
He leaned into the back of his seat, resting his eyes . His outward demeanour was calm and composed, but his internal world was in chaos .
When had this began? The first time they met? No, no . His first impression of her was that she was really fun, even a little funny, cute at best . He had met dozens upon dozens of cute girls before, so it was impossible for him to have taken a liking to her so easily . And after that? He had seen her one more time at school . At that time? At that time, she was just no longer a stranger . She had still been cute, otherwise he would not have teased her . But that was just joking around and had nothing to do with liking her .
And then after that? She helped tutor him in English, and he had been very grateful to her . Had the gratitude at that time already been coloured with something different?
And even later after that . . .
Tang Yi-Bai was surprised to find that every encounter he had with her, every interaction, even down to every phone conversation or text chat — he actually remembered every single one, clearly and vividly as if they had just happened . Behind his closed eyelids, the compilation of memories were being presented in an ordered series, forming a unique trajectory of events . Tang Yi-Bai knew he had a pretty good memory, but not to this level . He had even remembered the slight tremble of her long lashes when she was happy, the hard yet sweet frozen sugar block sound of her voice when she was angry . . . he remembered all of it .
Not just remembered, but remembered in clear detail .
And yet he still could not find when and where this inexplicable bit of love began . All those details were the extension or traces of his feelings, but the origin of the emotions were buried a thousand miles deep . Surreptitiously and without any warning, she had walked right into his heart, like gentle cool rain on a spring night silently nourishing its surroundings .
He sighed softly and turned to look at her .
Her head was ducked low as she uttered stiffly, "Don't make this kind of joke again in future . "
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Tang Yi-Bai was taken aback for a moment, and then it was like he had been drenched by a basin of ice-cold water . So not only did he have feelings for her, these feelings were one-sided . . . ?
He made a muted sound of assent .
At the front, Qi Rui-Feng was completely oblivious to the strange atmosphere in the backseat of the car . He said almost musingly, "Okay, I really believe now that the relationship between the two of you is innocent . "
Tang Yi-Bai thought, 'It's no longer that innocent . . . '
Yun Duo did not say a word the entire trip . When they reached their destination, Tang Yi-Bai was worried that his mum would get mad at him when she saw him (because he was only back to send someone home), so he did not get out of the car . When he saw Yun Duo get out of the car without saying anything, he felt rather crestfallen . He quickly wind down the car window and called out to her, "Yun Duo . "
"Hm?" Yun Duo turned around to look at him .
"Bye," he said, trying to give his best harmless smile .
"Oh, bye . " She waved her hand at him .
Even Qi Rui-Feng sensed something off about the situation . After the taxi had turned back out onto the road, he said reprovingly to Tang Yi-Bai, "You scared her . "
Tang Yi-Bai was so frustrated he didn't know where to start . "You're the one who asked me to kiss her . "
Qi Rui-Feng was indignant . "So you're going to do whatever I tell you to? Why were you never this obedient before? Who's to say you didn't have any ulterior motives yourself?"
His thoughtless argument just so happened to nail Tang Yi-Bai's inner thoughts right on the head . Tang Yi-Bai huffed coldly and ignored him, bedning his head to look down at his phone and send a message to Yun Duo: Frightened?
After a moment, Yun Duo responded with a question mark .
Tang Yi-Bai explained: Just now, it was just a joke .
Yun Duo: Ok . It's fine .
Tang Yi-Bai: Really?
Yun Duo: Don't worry . I won't misunderstand .
Pushing aside the restlessness he felt when he saw her reply, Tang Yi-Bai sent back: That's good .
Yun Duo looked at those two words and thought, 'This is not an issue of misunderstanding or not, okay . . . '
She found that . . . she might just have that little bit of unrealistic expectation with regards to Tang Yi-Bai . . .
Still, it was not for sure . The feelings between a man and a woman were sometimes just in the heat of the moment, just a mutual spasm of the mind . After the moment had passed, everything would become calm once again .
Right, that must be it . Her heart had been moved for that one instant — that did not mean she really liked him . A handsome young man pressing closer to steal a kiss — anyone in her position would have become a little excited, right? It wasn't anything special . . .
Thinking this way, Yun Duo consoled herself .
However, this consolation did not last very long . When she laid down in the bed Tang Yi-Bai had slept in before after her shower, some peculiar thoughts and emotions grew rampantly like weeds within her . The bedsheets and the covers had all been used by Tang Yi-Bai before; Yun Duo could detect an indistinct trace of Tang Yi-Bai's scent . She knew it was all in her mind, because she had just washed the sheets and covers a few days before, but this logical reasoning could not prevent her senses from straying down a path of madness . She was laying on Tang Yi-Bai's bed, and she was using Tang Yi-Bai's covers . . . it was like she had been wrapped up in the smell of Tang Yi-Bai .
She was really about to go mad .
Yun Duo sat up, blushing furiously . She got out of bed and turned on her computer, and then purchased a new set of sheets and covers online .