Extra 3: If-3

The hotel room was air-conditioned, so it was probably quite cool. When Lu Jin helped her take off her short-sleeved shirt, He Ye still felt cold.

But eventually, He Ye’s forehead and back were sweating, and the part covered by the quilt felt hot and stuffy.

Suddenly, she let go of her boyfriend’s hair, and the hand that was on his shoulder lost strength.

Lu Jin raised his head.

The night light was on in the guest room, enough for him to see He Ye’s appearance.

He had taken off her hair tie earlier, and her soft hair was messy, with some of it sticking to her red face.

She closed her eyes, her long eyelashes were wet, and her lips were slightly parted, like a weak prey that had just escaped from a wild animal’s sharp teeth. She was afraid of being noticed and was breathing carefully.

Lu Jin propped himself up, resting his left elbow on her side, and used his right hand to help remove the hair stuck to her face.

He Ye regained her senses and grabbed the quilt, pulling it up.

Lu Jin noticed her movements and helped her cover herself with the quilt, then he kissed her from her forehead to the corners of her mouth.

“Just now, wasn’t it? It was…”

Before Lu Jin could finish, He Ye covered his mouth with her arm, closed her eyes, and said, “You are not allowed to speak.”

Lu Jin didn’t say anything else, but He Ye could feel him smiling under her hand.

He must have guessed it.

What was worse, he was so persistent just because he wanted her to feel that way.

He Ye knew almost nothing about this kind of thing.

For the first eighteen years of her life, besides studying, she took care of her father. Her father ran a supermarket, so she did a lot of housework. She had never watched romance movies or read novels.

Girls in middle and high school might talk about these things, but He Ye never joined in or paid attention in class. After school, she would go home immediately to do her homework.

Because she loved studying so much, her best friend Zhu Qing rarely talked to her about these topics.

So, all of He Ye’s current understanding of love came from Lu Jin.

Is this normal?

He Ye didn’t know that when the sweat started to fall, shyness, embarrassment, and awkwardness all hit her at once.

At that moment, she was definitely afraid that Lu Jin would say something to make her even more embarrassed.

Lu Jin took her hand, looked at her seriously, and said, “He Ye, I really like you.”

“I never wanted to hide my reactions from you, and you don’t need to feel embarrassed about them.”

“He Ye, we are a couple. We will know each other’s bodies best. You just have to get used to it slowly.”

He Ye’s tightly closed eyelashes fluttered.

Lu Jin gently twisted her earlobe: “I’m going to the bathroom. Guess what I’m going to do?”

Do you still need to guess? He Ye replied without thinking: “Take a shower.”

Her voice was low but sure, with a hint of disdain for his silly question.

Lu Jin was touched by her cuteness and laughed quietly.

He Ye was confused. She opened her eyes and looked at her boyfriend still smiling above her.

Lu Jin leaned on her shoulder and kept laughing: “Just now, you really sounded like a student who confidently gave a wrong answer.”

He Ye: “…”

Lu Jin laughed for about a minute, then stood up again, saying to his girlfriend helplessly, “Okay, now I’m really just going to take a shower.”

He Ye: “…”

So, the right answer was that he wanted to do something more complicated?

Lu Jin had already stood up.

He had taken off his short-sleeved shirt before He Ye and was standing next to the bed, revealing his lean shoulders and back.

He Ye glanced and then covered her head with the quilt.

Lu Jin paused and went out.

When the sound of water was heard from inside, He Ye got up, put on her clothes, and went to grab her phone on the bedside table.

The screen lit up, and it was already 12:15.

He Ye: …

It was time to sleep, but her mind was still active.

He Ye stood on the ground in slippers, looking at her trousers.

They were casual and didn’t wrinkle easily.

Wait? Should she just sleep in her pants?

She figured she could go back to the dorm around five o’clock tomorrow morning, when her roommates would still be asleep, so they wouldn’t notice if her pants had some wrinkles.

After thinking this through, He Ye sat on the sofa and waited for her boyfriend to finish showering. She wanted to shower too.

She didn’t expect to wait for half an hour.

When Lu Jin finally came out, He Ye was already sleepy. She looked at his short hair and complained softly, “What’s taking you so long?”

Her boyfriend hadn’t washed his hair, but the water was still running.

Lu Jin: “…You probably don’t want to know.”

He Ye: “…”

She was too sleepy to think much about it and went to the bathroom.

There was a big bathtub in the bathroom, but she didn’t have time to use it. He Ye locked the door, hung up her clothes, and went into the shower room.

There were still droplets of water on the glass shower door. In the thin mist, He Ye smelled something strange.

Since she studied biology, thinking about Lu Jin’s hints made her face turn red.

After a quick shower, when He Ye was getting dressed, she realized something was off with her as well.

But there was no other option; she could only deal with it for one night and change clothes completely when she returned to the dorm tomorrow morning.

After closing the bathroom door, He Ye turned around and found Lu Jin already lying down, taking up half the bed.

He Ye tried hard to ignore his gaze, walked over to turn off the night light, and then lay down on the bed on the other side.

Before she could settle down, Lu Jin hugged her from behind.

He Ye pushed him away: “Go to bed quickly. I set the alarm for five o’clock, and there are only four hours left.”

Lu Jin refused to let go: “I’m not sleepy. I can catch up on two hours of sleep on the plane.”

He Ye: “…I’m sleepy.”

Lu Jin: “I’ll hold you, you go to sleep. I promise I won’t move.”

He Ye: “…If you keep this up, I won’t come out to hang out with you next time.”

Lu Jin: “Then I’ll let go. Will you still want to come out and hang out with me in the future?”

He Ye didn’t reply.

Lu Jin knew that if she wanted to say no, she would have clearly stated it. Since she didn’t say anything, it meant she agreed.

Lu Jin happily kissed her on the cheek.

He Ye nudged him with her elbow.

Lu Jin moved back to his side.

He Ye didn’t have as much energy as him and quickly fell asleep.

When the alarm clock woke her up, He Ye frowned and immediately turned it off.

She saw Lu Jin leaning beside her, one hand still on her phone on the bedside table.

Clearly, he hadn’t just woken up.

“Sleep a little longer? If you want, you can stay here until you wake up naturally,” Lu Jin said, hugging her.

He Ye didn’t want to be alone in the hotel: “I’ll go with you.”

Lu Jin smiled: “I knew you would say that.”

He Ye worried he would miss his flight: “Get up.”

Lu Jin: “I already washed up.”

He Ye noticed the minty smell on his breath and realized she hadn’t brushed her teeth yet. She stopped talking, took his arm away, lifted the quilt, and sat up.

She walked to the bathroom door, and Lu Jin followed her. The light illuminated his handsome features, and his gaze was focused on her.

He Ye: “…you should sit on the bed.”

Lu Jin: “I want to see you wash your face.”

He Ye didn’t mind him watching her wash her face, but she had other things to take care of, like brushing her teeth, which she didn’t want him to see.

“If you don’t leave, I’ll get angry.”

“Okay, I’ll go.”

He stepped back, and He Ye closed the door, turning around to look in the mirror.

Her long hair was messy, there was a pillow mark on her right cheek, and her eyes were slightly swollen from lack of sleep.

Thinking about Lu Jin’s gaze earlier, He Ye suddenly wondered: 

Maybe, just maybe, Lu Jin really loves her?

Shaking her head, she turned on the faucet.

Five minutes later, He Ye came out.

Lu Jin had already packed his backpack and pressed her against the door, kissing her for a few minutes.

Then he took her to the front desk to check out and pick up his camouflage uniform.

It was around five in the morning, and it was still dark outside.

There was hardly anyone on the road. After Lu Jin called for a ride, he pulled out a spare folding umbrella from his bag, opened it, and continued to kiss her under it.

Before, when He Ye saw people kiss in public, she would awkwardly look away.

She never thought there would be a day when she would hold on to her boyfriend’s clothes tightly, forgetting everything else.

Lu Jin timed it perfectly. Just as he let go of He Ye, their ride arrived from a distance.

He put away his umbrella: “I’ll take you back to school first.”

He Ye lowered her eyes: “It’s not on the way, I can just take a taxi.”

Lu Jin: “No, it’s just a few minutes.”

He insisted on pulling her into the car.

That morning, they drove faster than the night before and arrived in just seven or eight minutes.

On the way, they didn’t say anything, just held hands tightly.

When the car stopped in front of Jiaotong University, Lu Jin let go of her hand.

He Ye opened the car door and looked back.

Lu Jin smiled.

He Ye stepped out.

In movies, there are often slow-motion moments, but in reality, it happens quickly. As soon as the door closed, the driver drove off immediately to pick up more passengers.

He Ye stood by the road, watching the car drive away.

Suddenly, her phone dinged.

Team leader: [Don’t cry.]

He Ye’s tears began to fall.

Ye Ziyuanyuan: [You can’t come here again in the future.]

If he wasn’t around, she would be reading and doing homework seriously, so none of this would have happened.

Team leader: [Then you can still cry. I’ll come even if my legs are broken.]

_

He Ye had no classes on Wednesday night, but she had a training session for the robotics club she joined.

After dinner, she hurried over.

It was drizzling, and a storage bucket was at the entrance of the activity room. He Ye put her umbrella inside, knocked on the door, and pushed it open when given permission.

There were quite a few people inside, including seniors chatting while working and some freshmen observing.

“He Ye.”

A handsome boy with fair skin waved at her.

That was Yuan Fei, from the class next to hers. They had met during the club interview. During the first training session, he even added her as a WeChat friend.

Not just Yuan Fei, almost all the newcomers added each other as friends for easier communication.

He Ye smiled and walked over to the other girls.

Yuan Fei joined their conversation naturally.

He Ye wasn’t good at starting social topics but always responded politely when others spoke to her.

After training, He Ye left later than the others because she asked a senior for reference books on the subject.

When she left the room, she was surprised to find the drizzle had turned into rain.

A figure stood at the exit with his back to her, hands in his trouser pockets. He was obviously getting wet but didn’t seem in a hurry.

Hearing footsteps, he turned around and saw He Ye. Yuan Fei smiled sadly: “I saw the rain was light while eating in the cafeteria, so I didn’t go back to get an umbrella.” 

He Ye: “…Call your roommates and ask them to help deliver it?”

Yuan Fei: “We aren’t very close yet, and I don’t want to bother them.”

After saying that, he looked at He Ye’s umbrella and asked with a straightforward smile, “Can you lend me one? I’ll take it to the supermarket and buy one there.”

A man and a woman sharing an umbrella would be standing very close to each other.

There’s a polite way to handle this. He Ye didn’t want to be so close to another boy.

It didn’t feel right to reject a club member directly, so He Ye offered a compromise: “You can take my umbrella to the supermarket first, and I’ll wait inside for a while.”

The seniors were still doing research, and it looked interesting.

Yuan Fei was a little surprised but smiled and said, “Okay, will you wait for me?”