Yu Weiwan recalled how Qi Chi had previously said they played a bit wild.
If it was already like this, was it really only a bit?
The class monitor urged them, You two stop standing there dazed, get moving.
Get moving to do what? This was way too over the line; Yu Weiwan couldn’t stand it.
She grabbed the bottle of liquor on the table and was about to pour it into a glass when Qi Chi stopped her. Yuyu, don’t drink it. We’ve slept together so many times already, nibbling a piece of paper is a total piece of cake.
Classic Qi Chi style. Something that was originally completely innocent sounded impossibly hard not to misunderstand when uttered from her mouth.
Yet the most maddening part was that Qi Chi’s usual sharp perceptiveness always vanished completely at moments like this; she herself would never let her thoughts stray in that direction at all.
That left only Yu Weiwan, whose heartstrings vibrated uncontrollably from being so thoroughly teased.
Across from them, Chao Ying cast an unabashed, deeply intrigued glance their way, leaving Yu Weiwan utterly at a loss.
Qi Chi maintained the same nonchalant attitude, so entirely natural about it that Yu Weiwan began to doubt if she herself was simply being overly sensitive.
At this point, a sort of reckless resignation flared up inside Yu Weiwan.
If Qi Chi wasn’t afraid, what was she afraid of?
Let’s do it. Yu Weiwan tilted her head back, the curve of her neck tracing a graceful arc under the dazzling lights.
Qi Chi adapted on the spot, directly tearing open a fresh pack of tissues and soaking a sheet with the liquor.
Drenched in alcohol, the tissue turned translucent, sticking paper-thin against the side of Yu Weiwan’s neck without leaving a single gap.
Qi Chi propped her hands on the sofa and leaned down close. As Yu Weiwan reclined against the sofa, the back of her hand was lightly brushed by strands of hair, bringing a faint, cool breeze.
The neon light shadows danced and shifted, dimming the overall brightness of the karaoke booth. The classmate holding the microphone happened to start singing an ambiguous, romantic love song.
Breaths of varying lengths hit her skin. Soft lips tentatively rubbed and slid back and forth, trying to nudge the tissue into a crease.
However, the tissue clung far too tightly; after trying for a long while to no avail, Qi Chi was forced to change her strategy.
Qi Chi had two canine teeth. When she smiled, the tiny, sharp white tips would peek out, looking endlessly cute and playful.
Right now, those two teeth pressed directly into Yu Weiwan’s neck. Their hard texture pressed small indentations into her skin, and as their sharp edges lightly scraped across, the sense of danger from having her vital area controlled by someone else made Yu Weiwan tense her muscles uncontrollably.
Qi Chi bit down on a corner of the tissue to tear it outward. The un-dried liquor trickled downward along her skin and dripped onto her collarbone, forming a small pool of golden spring water.
The sudden sensation of coldness sent a body-wide shiver through Yu Weiwan. The paper was already fragile to begin with, and with Yu Weiwan’s sudden movement, it split open just as expected.
At this point, Qi Chi had only managed to nibble away a third of the tissue.
Disliking the awkward angle of bending over from a lean, Qi Chi straddled her legs and directly knelt up onto the seat, her smooth, bare knees pinning down Yu Weiwan’s scattered long skirt.
Suppressed exclamations of excitement resonated around her ears, but Yu Weiwan had long lost the capacity to care.
The sofa wasn’t wide enough to support their current posture. Fearing Qi Chi might fall, Yu Weiwan had no choice but to rest her hand lightly behind Qi Chi’s waist.
Driven by a surge of competitiveness, Qi Chi’s movements became energetic. The sudden increase in force against her neck caused Yu Weiwan to tighten her grip, clutching Qi Chi’s lower back before quickly letting go.
The waist under her hand just a moment ago was slender yet possessed a subtle flexibility; one could even faintly trace the contour of a mermaid line.
It mindlessly brought to mind young bamboo shooting up in spring, green willows swaying by the lake, and every vibrant, beautiful thing in the world.
A final, stubborn remnant of the tissue remained, which Qi Chi was meticulously scraping off with her teeth.
Yu Weiwan lowered her gaze. The golden glitter at the corners of Qi Chi’s eyes shimmered brightly, and the lipstick on her lips had smudged across her face from the prolonged rubbing, making her look like a little stray cat with a painted face.
Suddenly, Yu Weiwan’s arms felt empty.
All done! Qi Chi turned proudly to the others and raised the crumpled ball of tissue, shaking it slightly. As the blue-violet spotlight swept across, a crystalline glimmer reflected off her slender fingertips.
Yu Weiwan touched her burning ears and sat up straight, discovering that at some point, only the instrumental backing track was left playing in the room. Everyone was staring at them in a daze.
Yu Weiwan let out two soft coughs. Are we still playing?
The frozen silence shattered, and everyone scrambled to express their admiration, sending the room into an instant uproar.
The class monitor exclaimed, You guys are insane! Especially you, Qi Chi! I knew you had a strong competitive streak, but I didn’t know it was this strong! Impressive, seriously impressive!
The girl with the bun cupped her hands in respect: I am thoroughly outdone and humbly yield!
Participant Number Three shook his head: Speechless.
Chao Ying raised her glass: Utterly convinced and deeply impressed.
Qi Chi accepted all these compliments without hesitation, nodding from time to time to signal her agreement.
The monitor chimed in, Hey, hey, hey, that’s taking it too far! You guys are all using four-character idioms; it makes me look so uncultured! No way, I have to do one too!
The monitor straightened his clothes, built up his emotion, and said solemnly to Qi Chi, As expected of you!
With a pfft, nobody could hold back their laughter, and the class monitor broke character as well.
After laughing for a while, everyone gathered in a circle once more to continue the game.
Before drawing the cards, Yu Weiwan offered a suggestion: Let’s tone down the games from here on out. That kind just now was way too over the top.
She adopted an intentionally nonchalant tone as she joked casually, If we do that one more time, my sexual orientation is going to end up in critical danger.
Deal, the monitor agreed readily. I didn’t expect that penalty to work in the first place, I just wanted to make you guys drink more.
After the previous three rounds of games, the atmosphere had completely warmed up.
Except for Yu Weiwan, everyone else unleashed their wild sides one after another, coming up with game ideas that were increasingly absurd.
For instance, one person had to stand at the door and yell, Her Highness the Eldest Miss has arrived, everyone out of the way! while another followed right behind shouting, Eldest Miss, wait for your old servant!
Or two people had to stand together in front of the restroom door: one would say Welcome! and the other would add It was delicious, please come again!
Or one person had to princess-carry another while holding a mouthful of water, and the person being carried had to recite love confessions matching the expression of their very first emoji on their phone. The love speech had to be delivered with rich emotion, and both parties had to maintain eye contact without blinking the entire time.
And so on and so forth.
Watching all this, Yu Weiwan was left marveling in amazement, even beginning to feel relieved. Although the previous penalty had been somewhat adult-rated, at least it didn’t make her look like an abstract performance artist in broad daylight.
Yet Murphy’s Law, though delayed, inevitably arrived. Yu Weiwan had just finished sighing inwardly when she and Qi Chi were selected together.
The person who drew the Joker card this round was Chao Ying. Yu Weiwan actually had a pretty good impression of her, straightforward and open, so she likely wouldn’t propose a penalty intended to embarrass anyone.
Before Yu Weiwan could fully let out her breath of relief, Chao Ying spoke up: Qi Chi leans against Yu Weiwan’s shoulder and asks, ‘We’ll always be together, right?’ Yu Weiwan replies, ‘Right.’
On the surface, this requirement seemed devoid of any difficulty, as standard and conventional as it gets, and any of the previous rounds’ games had been far more out of bounds. But in reality, the critical hit it dealt to Yu Weiwan surpassed all the other games stacked together.
Yu Weiwan abruptly snapped her head up to look over. Chao Ying didn’t dodge her gaze at all, even winking at her.
It was crystal clear: she had done this on purpose.
Chao Ying said with a beaming smile, Considering Student Yu is still a beginner, I intentionally picked an easy one. No need to thank me. However, you two better move fast, complete it within one minute, or else…
She pulled up the stopwatch timer on her phone and set it on the table: Or else, double penalty drinks.
Qi Chi made an OK gesture with her hand and leaned right into Yu Weiwan’s embrace: We’ll always be together, right?
As if a blade were lodged in her throat, Yu Weiwan’s response came out with immense difficulty: …We will.
The next few rounds were quite ordinary; no one pitched any nasty ideas, and everyone managed to survive to the end with their dignity intact.
The moment the game ended, Yu Weiwan felt a genuine relief, as if she had escaped a life-or-death crisis.
Qi Chi, on the other hand, had worked herself into high spirits and looked at the playing cards with reluctant affection.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much time left on the karaoke room booking. They were supposed to head over to Zhulixiang for dinner next, which involved catching the subway along the way, so there was no spare time to keep playing.
Yuyu and I will go to the restroom first to freshen up. Let’s meet at the entrance, Qi Chi said, picking up her bag by her index finger.
Reaching out her hand to Yu Weiwan against the light, she said, Let’s go, Princess Yuyu.
The path leading outside was full of twists and turns, looping left and right along the signs for a good while before reaching the restroom.
Golden Years truly lived up to its prominent reputation. The restroom decor was in no way inferior to the private booths, though the architectural style differed, it followed an Art Deco design.
Vibrant, rich color schemes, stark contrasts between warm and cool tones, cleverly utilized geometric patterns, along with mirror inlay work and relief carvings, every detail exuded an aura of indulgence and luxury.
Compounded by her and Qi Chi’s disheveled clothes and the lipstick marks covering their bodies, it painted a remarkably subtle picture for anyone’s imagination.
The two began cleaning up the mess left behind by the earlier game. Yu Weiwan had quite a few lipstick marks on her neck covering a large area, which would take a while to wipe off. Qi Chi’s situation was simpler, just a quick wipe and a touch-up of her makeup.
Applying her lipstick while looking into the mirror, Qi Chi casually remarked, Yuyu, what perfume are you wearing today? Send me the link.
Perfume?
Yu Weiwan raised her arm, hesitated, and sniffed twice: I didn’t spray any perfume.
I did take a shower this morning, though. Do you want the brand of my body wash? Yu Weiwan asked thoughtfully.
Hearing this, Qi Chi leaned closer, took a few deep whiffs of the scent on Yu Weiwan, and stated with certainty: We use the same series of body wash. I remember it, it doesn’t smell like this.
Yu Weiwan thought carefully about it: I remember hearing a theory that everyone’s skin carries its own unique natural scent. This scent is formed by many complex factors. So when people spray perfume, different chemical reactions occur, creating subtle and unique variations. I suppose body wash works the same way.
Qi Chi’s deer-like eyes lit up: That explanation is so romantic!
Yu Weiwan: Romantic?
Qi Chi: Yeah! According to your theory, everyone pays the exact same price to buy mass-produced industrial products, yet ends up with a scent that is uniquely their own. This scent can become her distinct identity and symbol. Isn’t that romantic?
Yu Weiwan said softly, You’re right.
In that single instant, it transformed into a butterfly, fluttering right into her heart.
This explanation, and you, both are romantic.