Chapter 20

◎Shen Qingshi: A complete womanizer.◎

The next day.

Chu Zhixia rode back to Nancheng with her boyfriend Shen Qingshi in his car.

They had stayed one night at that hotel.

Of course, nothing happened.

Shen Qingshi was already being so excessive that he wouldn’t even let her hug him, let alone kiss or go any further.

The suite had several bedrooms, and they had slept in completely separate ones.

However, in a place like the car, it was obviously impossible to take it further — but he was still willing to let her kiss him.

Shen Qingshi sent her back to Rose Estate, the residential compound where they both lived.

It was Monday. He didn’t have any clinic appointments, but he did have to go to the A University lab in the afternoon to wait for data.

“I can’t… mmhm… go with you?” Chu Zhixia unbuckled her seatbelt and, reluctant to get out, held his hand and leaned in to lightly kiss his lips as she asked. The kisses were shallow, a quick brush like a dragonfly touching water, like sucking a soft, cool jelly. She absolutely loved it, even deliberately making some flirtatious little breaths—serves him right for bullying her these last few days!

Shen Qingshi didn’t verbally respond, but he also didn’t stop her from kissing him. He lowered his lashes and looked at her. “You’d have to wait a long time. Are you sure?”

Lately, his research had mainly been focused on iPS cells and the regeneration and repair of teeth and surrounding tissues — more specifically, on bio-engineering and root scaffold construction. There was a lot of data.

Also, she wouldn’t be allowed in.

“Then forget it.”

Running back and forth had tired Chu Zhixia out. Besides, she also wasn’t mentally prepared to meet his coworkers and interns and such.

“Mm…”

Thinking about separating so soon, Chu Zhixia suddenly felt reluctant to leave. Her soft little tongue gently swept over the seam of his lips again and again, grabbing onto his hand tighter — refusing to let go.

In the end, Shen Qingshi had no choice. He pulled her into his arms, wrapped an arm around her waist, and kissed her deeply.

—Once one tastes the sweetness, one needs to keep practicing it.

Chu Zhixia was kissed until her head felt foggy and her whole body tingled. His kissing skills just kept getting better and better — to the point where she could hardly keep up and almost couldn’t handle it.

Until someone knocked on their car window.

Only then did Chu Zhixia snap out of it, letting go of Shen Qingshi… and sparing herself.

It was the shop owner of a storefront by the side gate of the neighborhood. They’d parked there and were blocking the entrance.

Seeing the shop owner’s awkward expression, Shen Qingshi’s face also turned terrible — gradually flushing into a kind of pickled-vegetable red. “Sorry, I’ll move right away.”

After the owner left, Chu Zhixia couldn’t help laughing softly. She figured Shen Qingshi probably had never experienced something like this in his entire life — blocking someone’s store entrance, while in broad daylight making out with a sexy woman in his arms.

Yes, because she had basically worn all the clothes in her suitcase by now and only had this outfit left. She had originally planned to wear it to go party after finishing the exam — a magenta halter-neck crop top that exposed her waist and belly if she moved even slightly, with only a few pretty straps across the back. Below, she had on tight-fitting jeans — extremely sexy.

But they had left early in the morning, and the butler had brought a blanket. As soon as Shen Qingshi got in the car, he wrapped the half-asleep her up tightly in it.

Just now during that heated kiss, the blanket had gotten pulled here and there — half covering, half exposing — honestly might as well not have covered her at all.

Chu Zhixia didn’t even dare imagine what kind of scene the shop owner had seen from the front.

No wonder Shen Qingshi’s face looked so bad.

He quickly turned the car around, drove forward a bit, and parked again.

Since she had to get out anyway, Chu Zhixia rolled up the blanket and tossed it to him, revealing the pretty little camisole underneath.

“ tsk tsk tsk, what a scoundrel—” Before closing the door, she didn’t forget to fan the flames and tease him one more time — after all, once his rationality came back, he had turned into that cold and dignified (pickled-vegetable-colored) gentleman behind the wheel again.

She heard Shen Qingshi’s breathing deepen. His knuckles on the steering wheel tightened as he tried his best to hold himself back.

Turning around, she met the shop owner’s look of “young people these days are way too open” head-on. She calmly nodded and apologized, “Sorry about that, didn’t realize.” From the corner of her eye, she saw that the black Volvo stayed there for quite a while before slowly driving away.

Chu Zhixia knew Shen Qingshi — he only got angry about principle-related things. This kind of thing wasn’t worth mentioning.

At most he would silently sulk for a few seconds, just like last night.

But teasing him just once could make her happy for days.

Totally worth it.

An hour later, Chu Zhixia received a phone call and quickly rushed over to a rehearsal room near their neighborhood — one she knew extremely well.

Zhou Haoying was sitting on a small round stool under the barre, legs sprawled apart, hands resting on his thighs, leaning forward slightly. There was also a bottle of iced mineral water at his feet.

“Chu Zhixia, oh Chu Zhixia…”

Seeing Zhou Haoying, Chu Zhixia immediately felt guilty and ducked her head quickly.

She really didn’t know why — she had completely forgotten him!!! It wasn’t until she got his call and arrived at the rehearsal room that she suddenly remembered this whole thing…

Though it did feel like… that day… she vaguely forgot something, but just couldn’t recall it.

“Chu Zhixia, oh Chu Zhixia…” Zhou Haoying rubbed his slender fingers and repeated, “You’ve really got some nerve. Do you know how long you made your ge wait?”

Right — that day they’d apparently agreed to meet after her second-round interview.

Wait, something’s off—Chu Zhixia’s memory returned. It sounded more like he said he would wait for her to finish the interview.

Then where was he?

Surely she couldn’t say that Shen Qingshi was too handsome and she had completely overlooked the 1.84-meter-tall Zhou Haoying, right?

“Did you really wait a long time for me?” Chu Zhixia crossed her arms, calmed herself down to regain a little footing, and asked.

Hearing this, Zhou Haoying’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he looked a tiny bit guilty.

Chu Zhixia: “Then why didn’t I see you when I came out?”

Zhou Haoying turned his eyes away. “Ahem.”

“So where were you? What were you doing?”

Sure enough—Chu Zhixia knew it!

Otherwise there’s no way she would’ve just ignored him.

He’d probably said he’d wait, waited a bit, then went off somewhere to hang out. After all, no one knew exactly when she would finish. He probably went to have fun and when he came back, everyone was already gone, phone didn’t have signal, and the whole thing just ended like that.

And as time passed and she never came to question him, he simply decided to strike first.

“So where exactly did you go?” Chu Zhixia wasn’t angry at all — that day’s situation had indeed been rather unusual. No one could’ve guessed it would run so late — she was simply curious.

“You really aren’t mad?” Zhou Haoying stared at her face, let out a small sigh of relief, wiped his face, and explained, “But I really did wait for you. I waited until about 5:30 pm, and I was starving, so I went to grab something to eat, and then—”

“Mmhm?”

“Then I ran into a few little fans. They were also there for the exam and finished early. I didn’t think they would recognize me. Since they might be future junior schoolmates, I treated them to a few drinks…”

“Oh—yeah?” Chu Zhixia kept listening. She understood Zhou Haoying. In the past, he was a very obscure main dancer, but even then he still had some true fans — and he was extremely sincere. Zhou Haoying was the type who would treasure every little thing a fan gave him. When he got slightly popular, he even did small offline events. One time there was a girl who kept calling him “wife” and pestered him for two hours — and he still listened patiently and gently.

Hearing the latter part of that sentence — the word “alcohol” — Chu Zhixia slowly raised her eyebrows.

Zhou Haoying said, “Whenever I drink, I feel sick. I took some medicine and only started to recover when it was almost nine. By the time I went back, the gate guard said everyone had already left.”

“Why on earth did you drink? You know you’re allergic to alcohol, don’t you?”

Chu Zhixia was speechless — not being able to drink was actually one of the big reasons Zhou Haoying never got popular. He looked this good, but he couldn’t accompany people for drinks.

“It’s just a mild allergy. If I take medicine it’s fine.” Zhou Haoying’s voice became a little lower. “Besides, they wanted to drink. It’s rare for them to come take the test — wouldn’t it be rude to spoil the mood?”

“You…”

Future juniors, plus fans — whether real or fake fans, the BUFF was at max. Chu Zhixia walked up to him, bent down and pressed his temples, lowering her head as she examined his face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Maybe because she was standing close, Zhou Haoying couldn’t bring himself to speak in a rough tone. His voice was a bit gentler, and even carried a hint of concern. “But I called you several times — your phone was off.”

“That’s because I—” Chu Zhixia paused mid-sentence, suddenly remembering, and took a big step back, tapping her forehead with her fingertip. “Well… during the exam my phone was in the locker, so I turned it off… and then I never, um, never remembered to turn it back on.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell him — she just didn’t know how to say it.

“And why didn’t you remember to turn it back on?”

With his hands in his pockets, Zhou Haoying looked up slightly at her face. Seeing that rare moment of shyness and the faint blush on her cheeks — even the corner of her eyes and brows carried a tiny little smile — after so many years, he had only ever seen her look like this when she talked about one person. He understood. “That little dentist prince? He went to pick you up?”

“…Mm.”

Thinking about that day, Chu Zhixia still couldn’t help but smile.

Zhou Haoying’s eyes darkened slightly — but it disappeared in an instant. “So you’ve slept with him?”

“Senior!!”

Chu Zhixia was shocked by his bluntness. Who knows what kind of life he’d been living in that little flop group.

Yes, they were art students. Hugging and touching during rehearsals was normal — but overall, the vibe was still pure and innocent. For the sake of their future careers, none of them dared to date at all during those four years of university — they were terrified of creating a black history, okay?!

“Seems like not yet.” His voice had returned to calm. He picked up a bottle of mineral water from beside him and handed it to her. “Want some?”

After talking for this long, she was indeed a little thirsty.

Normally, Chu Zhixia would have taken it without thinking — but she was a girl with a boyfriend now! And not to mention what they were doing in the car just now…

“No, no. It’s too cold.”

She waved her hand and looked around. “Why did you ask to meet me here? I’ve already finished the exam. Come on — I’ll treat you to a nice meal to thank you for helping me so much.”

“I rented the rehearsal room until the end of this month — and I had nothing else to do. I originally wanted to practice dance a bit more and record the final version. Want to do it together?”

“How could I refuse your invitation to dance a duet*?” Chu Zhixia thought about it and understood his meaning, so she replied using the line from their script. This dance was originally prepared for the second-round audition — now that the exam was over, she’d probably never have another chance to perform it again. Practicing it during exam prep and practicing it now were two completely different moods. This would be the last time — a recording for memory.

Chu Zhixia smoothed her hair. Fortunately, she had worn something easy for dancing when she went out. She picked up her phone and placed it in front of the mirror, ready to record.

Zhou Haoying headed over to adjust the music equipment, obviously very familiar with it.

Soon, the music started—

It was a standard female dance piece, meant to show off her form and basic technique — but Zhou Haoying was a real main dancer. He had already redesigned it. A lot of the movements were changed into mirrored partner moves and male-dance movements — extremely graceful, but with precise, powerful accents. Long legs, long arms, a perfect partner — and he made her dancing look even better.

He had obviously dressed up today too — light blonde hair styled up in the front and half-loose at the back, wearing that fluffy white shirt that suited him so well. Fine feathery fabric fluttered gently down like snow.

Landing on both of their hair.

Chu Zhixia looked into the mirror and was stunned by her own beauty.

She regretted so much.

If she’d known the dance would come out this good, she would’ve asked Shen Qingshi to come over and watch — let him admire her seductive moves.

That would definitely kill that bona fide womanizer Shen Qingshi on the spot—

That afternoon, Chu Zhixia danced for the whole afternoon, recording several takes before finally choosing the best one and saving it carefully — after all, she’d need the clips for editing her “blossoming all the way” highlight reel someday.

With that thought, her mood — which had been soaring because of her relationship and finishing the exam — mellowed out a little.

Right… what was she even so happy about?

Yes, she had finished the exam, but she hadn’t passed it yet. The results weren’t even out.

At that thought, her mood sunk a bit.
No — she needed Shen Qingshi!

[Hubby where are you, I miss you. Are we not doing anything tonight?]

[I mean normal stuff, okay? I know what you’re about to think again ^ ^ ]

She waited for a while, uncertain if he was busy with his experiment.

It wasn’t until it was getting close to evening that he finally replied — with six crisp, clean punctuation marks:

[…… … …] ( “What do you want to do?” )

Chu Zhixia had already thought about it for a while — and actually felt a little annoyed over it.

[I want to go to your house. This is unfair. Why is it always you coming to my place? I don’t even know where your house is, and I’ve never been there — even though we live in the same neighborhood!]

She thought Shen Qingshi would try to deflect — after all, he was polite but a bit reserved. A beautiful man’s private residence likely had some level of privacy. It couldn’t be like her own little humble apartment.

But he actually replied very quickly:

[Okay. That’s my oversight.]

She could literally imagine him frowning ever so slightly, with a hint of apology.

[Then I’ll come to your place tonight. Send me the apartment number. But I’m saying this first — I don’t know how to cook, and you don’t look like you do either, so you’d better order food in advance, or have the housekeeper prepare it ahead of time. Otherwise I’ll order delivery.]

She still remembered — half a month ago, when she saw him picking up a package, it looked like some kind of instant food. Definitely not something a person who can cook would buy.

After a while, he replied, a little slower this time — as if thinking carefully:

[I can try.]