When Lou Fan spoke Japanese, her tone became much softer, her sentence endings trailing off with a flirtatious smile. Combined with her being intoxicated, the whole person looked as though she were immersed in lust.
Qin Peiran wore a cold expression as she hauled Lou Fan up from the dining table.
“What are you doing? It hurts.” Lou Fan tried to pull her arm out of Qin Peiran’s grasp, but instead got her waist pulled into an embrace and was dragged stumble-after-stumble toward the entryway.
“We’re heading back first.” Qin Peiran said to the two still-tipsy people at the dining table.
“Have a safe trip!” Yu Huai rested her head on Lu Siyuan’s back, waving her hand hazily.
Pulling the security door shut, Qin Peiran changed her shoes and then half-crouched down to help Lou Fan put hers on.
“I can do it myself.” Without Qin Peiran’s support, Lou Fan’s legs were so weak she couldn’t stand steadily, so she had to lean half her body against the wall while stubbornly attempting to crouch down.
“Don’t move.” Qin Peiran put shoes on her with one hand while resting her other hand on her waist.
Her piping hot knuckles accidentally swept upward from below the hem of the shirt, clamping onto the defenseless skin around the waist. Lou Fan couldn’t help hissing, “Don’t tickle.”
People who are drunk are never aware of what they are saying. Qin Peiran began to regret that she had only touched her lips to alcohol a few times just to keep a clear head.
“All done.” Qin Peiran released Lou Fan and stepped back a few paces. “Can you walk by yourself?”
Lou Fan lowered her head slightly, as if pondering, before helplessly furrowing her brows at Qin Peiran and softening her tone, “Give me some support, will you? My head feels so dizzy.”
Qin Peiran’s face was chillingly cold. She stepped closer, supported Lou Fan, and tilted her head to question the face inches away from her own: “Didn’t you weigh how much you could handle before drinking?”
The flushed, slightly intoxicated face looked like a wild fruit accidentally exposed in the mountains, half-hidden among dark strands of hair, only to be blown apart by the oncoming breeze, revealing a countenance that could only be described as innocent.
Lou Fan’s tender, watery eyes furrowed and blinked. “I was happy for them. I’m an adult, not a child. It’s just drinking some alcohol. Plus.”
The elevator doors slowly closed, and right under the surveillance camera inside the cabin, Lou Fan pinched Qin Peiran’s cheek. “Plus, I haven’t even lectured you about your puppy love yet.”
That white Mercedes-Benz E300 Coupe waited quietly by the roadside. Qin Peiran shoved her into the back seat first, then went to a nearby pharmacy to get a bottle of water and hangover medicine.
Lou Fan sat crookedly. Qin Peiran got in, first supporting her to sit straight and lean against her shoulder, then unscrewing the bottle cap and spreading the pills from her palm right before the other’s lips. “Take this.”
Lou Fan rubbed against Qin Peiran’s side, curling downward, and raised her head slightly. Those charming, liquid peach-blossom eyes stared at Qin Peiran from below, before suddenly bursting into a smile, forming a pair of curved, pouch-like under-eye creases beneath her lower eyelids.
“Hm?” Qin Peiran was clueless, shaking her shoulder.
Lou Fan chuckled, placing one hand on Qin Peiran’s fingertips, pulling that open palm closer, and lowering her head.
Her palm caught a soft, damp touch without warning, like a dragonfly skimming the water surface. The dragonfly didn’t stay long, yet it left behind a tingling, long-lasting ripple on the water.
Until the bottle of mineral water in her other hand was snatched away, Qin Peiran lowered the hand that had remained suspended in mid-air.
“I’ll call a designated driver.” Qin Peiran said, massaging her own palm.
The designated driver arrived quickly, looking as though he lived nearby. He wore a disposable blue face mask and a black baseball cap, raising the memo app on his phone for the two of them to see.
“What is this?” Lou Fan’s drunkenly hazy eyes narrowed and widened. Qin Peiran gently pushed her aside and read it out to her.
“My vocal cords underwent surgery, so I can’t speak for now.” Qin Peiran’s voice was light and calm as she looked up to tell the designated driver, “Sorry to trouble you.”
Qin Peiran stared at the driver’s seated back, a hazy figure flashing across her mind, but the moment she tried to think deeper about it, her temples throbbed with a stabbing pain.
Must be thinking too much.
The designated driver’s skills were mediocre. Lou Fan was already feeling miserable from the alcohol, and now her dizziness became even worse, so she simply buried herself in Qin Peiran’s chest, hugging her and refusing to let go.
Qin Peiran looked down at the embrace. This “elder sister” who was already twenty-eight years old and had entered society for several years was currently leaning against her without a shred of vigilance. Her eyes were tightly closed from discomfort, her long brows furrowed, her black eyelashes trembling slightly with her breath, and her lips red as dripping blood.
Like a wild rose with its sharp green leaves stripped away, revealing only the tiny bit of the innermost flower bud.
“So dizzy, this driving.” Lou Fan murmured softly. Qin Peiran couldn’t be sure if the driver in front had heard it.
“I’ll have my driver’s license next week.” Qin Peiran wasn’t drunk to Lou Fan’s extent, but her mind was still thrown into turmoil. “From now on, I’ll be your exclusive driver.”
The words were far too ambiguous, and Qin Peiran regretted them the moment they left her mouth.
Hearing this, Lou Fan raised her face, pure and unmasked joy rippling through her pitch-black eyes. “Why are you so good?”
Yet, as if suddenly thinking of something, the smile in her eyes abruptly dimmed. “But my supporting you isn’t asking for a return. You don’t need to be this good to me.”
“You not wanting it doesn’t mean I won’t give it.” Qin Peiran gently pulled out a strand of hair that had accidentally caught at the corner of Lou Fan’s lips, and then smoothly ruffled her hair ends. They were so soft they made her doubt whether she was holding a long-haired kitten in her arms. “Besides, there’s never any free lunch in this world. Even biological sisters wouldn’t do things like this, let alone the fact that we’re still.”
The words stopped abruptly. Qin Peiran opened her mouth, and fell silent.
Lou Fan was extremely dizzy, sluggishly noticing nothing, and simply kept staring fixedly at Qin Peiran.
“Why?” Qin Peiran switched topics.
“Hm?”
“Why pick me?” Qin Peiran released Lou Fan, letting her lean back against the seat cushion. “There must be quite a few poor students in this world who can’t afford to study. Even if I really am that lucky, why do you have to be so good to me?”
“Goodness?” Lou Fan tilted her head, looking completely softened all over, wanting nothing more than to wrap herself around Qin Peiran, only to be held back in place.
“Even with financial support, it wouldn’t go as far as letting me live at your house, changing my bedsheets with your own hands, cooking breakfast, let alone sending me to school or taking me to meet your friends, right?”
She shouldn’t have kept pressing, Qin Peiran thought, let alone with outsiders present.
Yet these questions were like arrows leaving the bow. The tightly stretched string in her mind had endured to its absolute limit. The moment her reason relaxed even slightly, the questions snapped away and flew out tonight.
Qin Peiran gazed fixedly at Lou Fan, waiting for her answer.
That aura of assured victory was carved onto Qin Peiran’s naturally cold and restrained face. Lou Fan’s heart skipped a beat, and under Qin Peiran’s gaze, she leaned forward and kissed her.
“Because you’re pretty.” Lou Fan’s warm, soft lips parted from Qin Peiran’s nose tip, licking the corners of her mouth like a satisfied little wild cat, her alluring eyes reflecting the decadent neon lights on both sides of the street, her tone coquettish. “Not allowed?”
The rearview mirror captured Qin Peiran’s fleeting panic. She turned her head away, gazed out the window, and reached out to brush the tip of her nose.
When it was time to get out of the car, Qin Peiran looked back to find that Lou Fan had already fallen asleep at some point. She gave her a gentle nudge, only to be met with a few murmuring grunts.
Qin Peiran sighed. After sending off the designated driver, she half-dragged, half-carried the person back home.
Even though Lou Fan had irregular dietary habits year-round and was considered light, she was still an adult after all, and Qin Peiran had drunk a bit too, leaving her feeling as though her bones were about to fall apart.
Arriving home, she placed her on the sofa, put a cushion behind Lou Fan’s soft body, and barely managed to prop her against the corner of the sofa.
Qin Peiran intended to go to the kitchen to make a cup of warm honey water for Lou Fan to sober up. Just as she turned around, her waist was unexpectedly wrapped by something. Looking back, she saw that Lou Fan, who had been fast asleep just moments ago, was now sitting on the edge of the sofa and hugging her waist from behind.
Lou Fan tilted her head up hard, using her chin to gently rub against Qin Peiran’s waist and abdomen like a kitten begging for snacks. She must have been completely out of her mind from drunkenness to say such a thing, Qin Peiran thought.
Because she heard Lou Fan say in a sweet, sticky voice: “Want a kiss.”
As natural as any greedy cat master, entitlement written all over her face as she begged the person in front of her.
Seeing that Qin Peiran didn’t speak, she rubbed against her again, her mist-veiled eyes drooping slightly into a pitiful expression: “Kiss me.”
“You’re drunk.” Qin Peiran lowered her head, her gaze indifferent.
Lou Fan didn’t speak, simply repeating mindlessly: “Want a kiss.”
Qin Peiran pressed her lips together. She suddenly recalled the taste of honey water, and so she reached out to pinch Lou Fan’s rampantly rubbing chin: “Do you know who I am?”
Lou Fan squinted her eyes open, then squinted them shut again. Then her expression shifted.
The arms wrapped around her waist instantly released. Her feet stepped onto the sofa edge, and she hugged her knees and shuffled backward.
She shook her head like a rattle-drum, muttering, “No, can’t kiss.”
Can’t kiss. Qin Peiran chewed on those three words repeatedly and turned her head away with a smile.
She didn’t look at Lou Fan: “Why?”
After waiting a few seconds, there was no response.
Uncharacteristically, Qin Peiran lost her patience. She turned back and looked Lou Fan up and down from head to toe with a gaze that could only be described as scrutinizing.
Lou Fan sat leaning against the corner of the sofa with a lazy posture. Her long hair cascaded past her waist, brushing against her fair, tender toes.
She was still completely intoxicated, yet Qin Peiran felt this was her truest, purest state.
“Little kid.” Lou Fan spoke suddenly, then tilted her head and laughed with her profile resting against her knees. “Because you’re still a little kid, you’re Qin Peiran.”
Qin Peiran couldn’t describe what her mood was. It felt like a folding table in a roadside restaurant crowded with seasoning bottles, all kinds of messy flavors dripping upward, blending into a chaotic mess that attracted a bunch of flies buzzing wildly in her heart.
She looked down at Lou Fan and sneered, “Fine, I’d like to see just how much like an elder sister you can be.” With that, she turned around and walked toward the master bedroom, pushing open that unlocked door.
Retrieving pajamas from the master bedroom, Qin Peiran fetched a basin of hot water from the bathroom. The steaming mist vaporized against the snow-white towel draped over the rim of the basin, while the owner of the towel was by now slumped on the sofa, drifting in and out of sleep. Hearing the commotion, she managed to pry her eyelids open just a sliver.
“What are you doing?” Lou Fan muttered softly, her sentence trailing off into nothingness.
Qin Peiran didn’t speak. She simply placed the basin onto the coffee table, knelt one knee onto the sofa, and bent down to begin untying Lou Fan’s shirt.