Step three of the seduction plan: Failure.
There was only one last step left in the guide.
The occasional display of coquettishness.
Adhering to a spirit of never abandoning and never giving up, Zhou Xiaqing resolved that no matter what the outcome was, she had to execute the final step perfectly.
Things had to be seen through from beginning to end.
After the movie ended, they went for a stroll around the shopping mall.
Zhou Xiaqing originally disliked this kind of aimless window shopping.
Coupled with the rapid draining of her stamina, under both psychological and physiological influences, she walked incredibly slowly, moving forward like a little snail.
Seeing that she could barely walk, Chen Jinshan raised his hand to check the time and offered a tentative suggestion: “How about we head back to school now…”
Before he could finish saying “so you can get some good rest in your dorm,” he was interrupted by Zhou Xiaqing’s overreaction: “No way!”
She had to find a suitable moment to implement the final step no matter what.
Even if there was no hope for the last step, she would drag things out until the dorms locked up; she was going to use every possible method to get them into a hotel room tonight.
Thus, she spoke against her true feelings: “I love shopping.”
Chen Jinshan looked at her listless appearance. “Alright then.”
He didn’t know what she was being so stubborn about either.
He simply followed her silently, drifting from one store to another.
Time ticked away minute by minute, and the dark aura of fatigue wrapping around her grew heavier and heavier.
Her eyes grew increasingly lifeless until a white scrunchie caught her attention, causing a significant portion of that dark aura to finally dissipate.
“Chen Jinshan, look at this scrunchie.” She pointed to it excitedly for him to see. “It’s the exact same style as the one I lost before.”
She was a very nostalgic person.
She had been using that scrunchie ever since she bought it.
Not only did it look exquisite and have great quality, making it go well with anything, but the most critical part was that wrapping it twice perfectly held her hair in place neither too loose nor too tight.
It was practically flawless.
Because of this, every time she used other, ill-fitting scrunchies, she would think back to that one.
It was such a pity she had lost it.
She had thought about buying another one, but it was a seasonal item that was already completely sold out online.
She hadn’t expected to find a rare piece of leftover stock here.
“Is that so?” Chen Jinshan followed her finger to look at the white scrunchie in the glass display case, the tips of his ears turning uncomfortably red.
“Yeah.” Noticing his lukewarm reaction, Zhou Xiaqing quickly reminded him, “When we crossed paths at the convenience store abroad, I was wearing this exact scrunchie.”
Pausing for a moment, she asked him full of anticipation, “Do you remember now?”
“No.” He shook his head, his ears turning even redder.
“Forget it. I knew you guys could never remember stuff like this.”
Zhou Xiaqing stopped dwelling on the question and turned to the sales associate at the counter. “Miss, could you please let me try on this scrunchie?”
She excitedly wore the scrunchie, looking left and right in the mirror.
Chen Jinshan sat on a cushioned stool, his eyes staring blankly ahead.
At a glance, it was obvious his mind was drifting.
He remembered that scrunchie.
White, satin, silky smooth.
He remembered it very clearly.
When he ran into her at that convenience store abroad, she had tied her hair into a casual low ponytail, her hair cascading over the front of her right shoulder.
She had been using this exact scrunchie.
Later on, that very scrunchie had ended up in the drawer of his dorm desk.
During the month when he couldn’t see her, every single time he missed her, he would bite down on her scrunchie, close his eyes, and fantasize vividly in his mind about making love to her to his heart’s content.
Different positions, changing backdrops.
She always had an alluring gaze, softly crying out his name from her mouth, looking so pitiful when her tears fell that he couldn’t help but thrust even harder into her body.
He wanted to sleep with Zhou Xiaqing.
He was going insane with want.
“Chen Jinshan!” Zhou Xiaqing called him again.
He snapped back to his senses abruptly, his expression slightly panicked. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve called you so many times.” Zhou Xiaqing sat down beside him, swaying the ends of her hair with her hand so he would notice her low side-ponytail. “Does it look good?”
He stared intently at her face, blurting out, “It looks good.”
A smile bloomed across her face. “Right? I think this scrunchie looks great too.
The more I look at it, the more I like it.
How does it look even better than the one before?
It looks like I absolutely have to buy it.”
“Alright, I’ll…” go pay the bill.
His words were cut short by her again.
The scrunchie in her hair completely dominated his line of sight, sending his thoughts into a chaotic mess once more.
Taking advantage of the moment while the sales associate was organizing the display case, and seeing that there was no one else around, Zhou Xiaqing seized the opportunity to deploy her final tactic, the ultimate act of coquettishness.
Unable to wait for Chen Jinshan to finish his sentence, she threw all her dignity out the window, put on a deliberately adorable smile, artificially strained her vocal cords, and whined in a high-pitched, dragging voice, “Then buy it for me~”
She intentionally elongated her tone, fully loaded with calculated intent.
Chen Jinshan’s face remained entirely unmoved.
His mind was completely filled with the scenes of how he had done such filthy things while biting her scrunchie.
His ears felt as if they were stuffed with cotton; he hadn’t processed her words clearly, and his gaze was entirely fixed on her scrunchie, failing to pay any attention to her expression.
He had given absolutely zero reaction.
Again.
The massive smile on Zhou Xiaqing’s face instantly collapsed.
Reaching this point, she couldn’t even summon the energy to be angry anymore; she just felt incredibly useless.
As they walked out of the store, she thought about just letting it go and heading straight back.
Every single step of the seduction plan had failed one by one, completely ineffective.
She was too lazy to keep struggling.
Her steps felt even heavier now.
Listlessly entering the restroom, she wore a mournful expression as she touched up her makeup in front of the mirror.
When her fingers brushed against the inner compartment of her bag, she happened to pull out her ID card.
To think she had actually brought her ID card along.
An ID card couldn’t be brought along for nothing.
Should she… try to salvage things one last time?
Her competitive spirit reignited.
She dragged Chen Jinshan along to keep wandering aimlessly around the mall.
When there was truly nowhere left to go, she took him to a nearby arcade, stubbornly stalling until the establishment forced them out at closing time.
It was already ten o’clock in the evening.
“Are you hungry? You didn’t really eat dinner, do you want to grab something light?” Chen Jinshan asked.
“Yes,” she said without the slightest hesitation. “I was just thinking about trying the local specialty snacks around here.”
Cut off his retreat first.
She couldn’t let him suggest heading back to the vicinity of the university to eat.
They went to eat wontons.
In order to stall for time, Zhou Xiaqing took tiny bites and ate incredibly slowly, watching the soup go from piping hot and steaming to lukewarm and cool.
Mucking around for nearly forty minutes over a single bowl of wontons, Zhou Xiaqing admired herself from the bottom of her heart.
Only after leisurely reapplying her lipstick did she pretend as if she had just noticed the time, saying insincerely, “Oh dear, how is it already ten-fifty? It’s probably too late to walk to the subway station now. It’s all my fault, my bad.”
She put on quite a performance, her apologetic tone completely on point.
“It’s fine, we’ll take a taxi back.” Chen Jinshan called for a ride on his phone. “We can make it back to school in twenty minutes.”
He moved incredibly fast, displaying his phone screen to her just a few seconds later. “The ride is booked.”
“You’re something else.” Zhou Xiaqing gritted her teeth in pure frustration.
“What’s wrong?” Chen Jinshan was bewildered yet again.
“I said you’re something else.
I’m praising you.
Still not satisfied?” Zhou Xiaqing stood up and walked out the door.
“I’m satisfied.” He shut his mouth silently.
She ignored him the entire way back.
Upon arriving at school, she was the first to get out of the car.
Gone was her previous deathly, sluggish exhaustion; she walked forward with brisk, flying strides.
Chen Jinshan was busy carrying the bag from the pharmacy and the luxury shopping bag.
The moment he closed the car door, he scrambled to chase after her.
How did he manage to make her angry again?
He didn’t understand either.
“Zhou Xiaqing!” Learning from his previous experience, he was quick on his feet this time, reaching out to grab her arm. “I know you’re in a hurry to get back to your dorm, but there’s still half an hour before the gates close. Let’s walk slowly.”
“I can’t walk slowly.” Zhou Xiaqing didn’t want to pay him any mind, turning around to keep marching forward.
“Walk slowly.” He firmly gripped her wrist, his gaze resolute. “I’ll walk you back.”
He had an attitude of absolutely refusing to give up until he achieved his goal.
It was that familiar standoff scene again.
Tired of dealing with this kind of situation, Zhou Xiaqing finally relented: “Whatever.”
The two of them walked along the outermost main avenue of the campus.
At this hour, the road was completely empty, with only the two of them walking side by side.
Zhou Xiaqing kept her head down, staring at the tops of her feet without uttering a single word.
Chen Jinshan didn’t say anything either.
The silence was like the light pouring down from the streetlamps, drowning them both completely.
She had already determined that she held absolutely zero attraction for Chen Jinshan.
Those two nights abroad were merely the result of emotions running high in a foreign country.
She had behaved so obviously today, even shamelessly resorting to acting cute to seduce him at the very end, yet he hadn’t given a single reaction, completely unfazed.
She gave up entirely.
Busy all afternoon and working hard all evening, subtly and overtly seducing him several times and look at how it turned out, she hadn’t gained a single thing.
So annoying. Why was she constantly putting in useless effort every day?
“Zhou Xiaqing, why are you unhappy?” Chen Jinshan spoke first, like tossing a pebble into a seemingly placid lake.
Don’t look at how he would occasionally tease her smoothly over WeChat or banter with her playfully all day today; the moment she turned serious and truly ignored him, he panicked so much that he didn’t know how to resolve the issue in a relaxed manner, leaving him able to only ask dryly.
“I’m not, I’m just tired,” Zhou Xiaqing stiffened her lip and offered a perfunctory excuse.
Was she supposed to confess to him that her multiple attempts to seduce him today had failed?
After hesitating for a brief moment, Chen Jinshan finally gathered his courage, looking at her profile as he spoke once more: “Then where do you want to go next weekend? I’ll arrange it.”
After sending a message to her dorm group chat, Plan change, I’m coming back to the dorm tonight, leave some hot water for me, Zhou Xiaqing pressed her phone screen off.
Without giving him so much as a glance, she declined casually, “I’m very busy.”
Busy studying.
For instance, after she went back and washed up tonight, she still had to use her rusty brain to force herself to memorize knowledge forgetting, right after memorizing, and memorizing again after forgetting.
If her mind drifted, she would just splash cold water on her face to dive right back into it.
Chen Jinshan didn’t speak again.
The fingers carrying the bags twisted unconsciously.
He lowered his eyes to conceal the self-blame and dejection swirling within them.
It was because he hadn’t performed well.
Clearly, when she came out at noon, she was still full of joy and energy, yet she returned looking thoroughly discouraged, her attitude and words dripping with the intention of keeping him a thousand miles away.
She definitely wouldn’t ask him out again, and she certainly wouldn’t reply to his messages anymore.
The next time she crossed paths with him, she undoubtedly wouldn’t say a single word to him.
The dream would eventually wake up.
After walking for a little longer, Zhou Xiaqing stopped in her tracks, raising her eyes to say to him, “I’ll cut through this side path. You should head back too.”
Without even waiting for his response, she hurried her steps, preparing to run toward the direction of the side path.
“Zhou Xiaqing.”
Chen Jinshan called out to her from behind, his voice sounding somewhat raspy for some reason.
“What?” She turned around.
She watched as he covered the distance between them in a few large strides, pulling the unopened box of eye drops out from the pharmacy bag and stuffing it into her hand, before handing over the shopping bag containing the scrunchie.
She didn’t accept the shopping bag and placed the eye drops right back into his bag. “I don’t need it.”
She didn’t want anything he bought; looking at it just made her annoyed.
“Didn’t you like it very much?” His voice grew significantly raspier, his breathing quickening slightly. “This scrunchie, I saw that you liked it very much.”
“Suddenly I don’t like it anymore.” Her mind was entirely consumed with rushing back to take a shower. “Is there nothing else?”
“No”, he said.
His voice sounded muffled.
Falling into her ears, it reminded her of the plum rain season in Shanghu.
Low pressure, damp, and gloomy.
Zhou Xiaqing cleared her mind, the tips of her feet getting ready to turn around once more.
Suddenly, the streetlamps on both sides of the main avenue went out.
The lights in the dorm buildings also vanished abruptly, followed by waves of commotion as startled voices rose up one after another.
The university had actually suffered a power outage?
Just as she was about to turn on her phone’s flashlight to light the path, her cheek felt a sensation of coolness.
A slightly cool pair of lips brushed against her cheek and retreated instantly, delivering a tiny, incredibly cautious peck.
In the darkness, Zhou Xiaqing stared at the person across from her, completely stunned. “Chen Jinshan, what are you doing?”
The gaze fixed on her was entirely filled with restrained composure and suppression.
Chen Jinshan moved his lips, stating the facts honestly: “A mistake.”
“What could you possibly be doing to make a mistake that lands a kiss on someone’s cheek?”
“I originally intended to kiss your mouth.”
Seeing that he looked entirely serious and didn’t seem to be playing a prank, realization dawned upon Zhou Xiaqing, leaving her astonished that her seduction had actually worked.
Under the hazy moonlight, the two looked each other right in the eye, intense emotions swirling between them as their hearts beat like thunderous drums.
He threw all caution to the wind as he anticipated her reaction.
Even if she raised her hand to slap him right now, he would accept it gladly.
She slowly raised her hand, but it was to wrap it around his neck.
He caught on instantly.
His large hand locked around her waist, leaning down to kiss her.
From the friction of their lips and teeth to the entanglement of their tongues, the kiss grew increasingly passionate.
The ID card she brought along had ultimately found its purpose after all.