He scanned the guarded look on her face and walked toward her without concern.
“Stop right there. Don’t come any closer.” Wen Quhua snapped at him, afraid he would do something improper like that night.
Yang Qin obediently stopped. There was still some distance between them. From somewhere, he took out a box of freshly washed, glistening red cherries and held it out to her.
Wen Quhua looked at him in surprise and confusion.
“I thought you would like them.” The last time he delivered cherries from Xiao Xin’s family, he had noticed her eyes light up. This afternoon, after finishing work, he had specially gone to buy them. He brought them along when he went out, wondering if he would have a chance to give them to her.
But Wen Quhua did not take them. Was he really just here to give her cherries?
“I don’t want them.” Accepting them would only make things feel stranger. They were not in that kind of relationship.
The smile on his face faded slightly. “Alright. If you don’t want them, I’ll throw them away.”
There was a trash can in the alley. Seeing him really walk over to throw them away, Wen Quhua said helplessly, “Don’t throw them away. That’s wasteful.”
He walked back and held them out again, clearly meaning that if she did not take them, he would throw them away.
Wen Quhua had no way to deal with this rogue and could only reach out to take them. There were not many cherries, but each one was crystal clear, obviously carefully selected.
“Try one?”
“I’ll eat them later. I’ve taken the cherries, so you can leave now.” She urged him to go. Even though it was the back alley, she was still afraid Aunt Lu might suddenly come over to get something.
Yang Qin did not move and instead said, “I moved.”
Why was he telling her this?
He cleared his throat, unsure how to explain.
Wen Quhua recalled the shabby room he had taken her to during the rain that night. She roughly understood what he meant. He probably felt embarrassed about his previous place and had moved, but there was no need to tell her. She was not going to visit anyway.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m going back. You should leave too.” She wanted to go upstairs, not stand here feeding mosquitoes with him.
Unexpectedly, he reached out and pressed against the door. The safe distance he had maintained was crossed. His face was in shadow, but his gaze burned.
Wen Quhua immediately tightened her grip on the box of cherries in her arms.
“Wen Quhua.”
He felt a little awkward. The words in his heart were hard to say. He wanted to see her, but there were really no opportunities. Bringing cherries tonight was partly because of the courage from alcohol. He missed her too much and came to try his luck.
But he could already foresee that if he did not come to find her, he would probably not see her at all.
“I’ll come again tomorrow night to bring you cherries?” he asked tentatively.
His deep voice sounded by her ear. Even without seeing clearly, Wen Quhua could feel his gaze fixed on her.
His meaning could not be more obvious.
Wen Quhua felt like she was about to explode. He wanted to come again? The cherries were just an excuse. He was asking if he could come to see her again.
She understood, but she did not expect him to press forward step by step.
She swallowed. “Eating too many cherries gets cloying…”
“Then I’ll bring something else.”
His gaze dimmed slightly. Hearing her attempt to refuse made his heart turn cold.
If she did not allow him to come, he really did not know how else he could see her.
Just as Wen Quhua was about to find another excuse, the light above flickered with a crackling sound. The sudden brightness startled her.
In that instant, he seized the opportunity and stepped inside through the back door.
He was tall. With a simple reach, he could touch the light bulb. After checking it, he said, “The filament’s burned out.”
“I’ll find someone to fix it tomorrow. You…”
He smiled casually. “That scared of me? Don’t worry, I won’t do anything else. I’m really just fixing your light.”
Wen Quhua: …
Even he should not believe what he just said.
Yang Qin told her to cut off the power. Wen Quhua thought that if he wanted to fix it, he could just do it, so she went to the meter box.
As she raised her hand to switch off the power, a hand reached from behind her and pulled the switch down first.
Now it was completely dark.
Her heart pounded. She heard him ask, “Where’s the new bulb?”
“In the cabinet…”
He took out a flashlight from his pocket, turned it on, and placed it in her hand. “Hold this.”
Wen Quhua could only hold the flashlight to give him light. She watched him open the cabinet, find a new bulb, then go over and unscrew the broken one and replace it.
It was not difficult. He fixed it easily.
Wen Quhua thought he would leave after fixing it, but then she heard him say, “I’ll check the other lights for you too.”
…
“If you don’t want to leave, just say it,” she glared at him.
“Mm. I don’t want to leave,” he said directly, frighteningly straightforward.
From outside the window, someone saw the flashlight beam and curiously looked inside.
Yang Qin noticed it immediately and lowered his head to say to her, “Someone’s looking in from outside.”
What?
That instantly set Wen Quhua on edge. Without thinking, she grabbed him and pulled him behind the wall to hide. That way, no one outside could see them. She quickly turned off the flashlight as well.
In the darkness, the two of them stood close against the wall.
She could hear his steady breathing and feel his unconcealed gaze in the dark.
She could not help thinking, how did this happen again…
Every time, the two of them seemed to fall into this ambiguous and awkward situation.
She could not help but complain, “It’s all your fault.”
“My fault,” he agreed, coaxing her, resisting the urge to touch her.
Wen Quhua’s whole body was tense. She could still hear voices outside.
Seeing her cautious state, he wanted to laugh and also wanted to kiss her, but he could not. If he kept doing that, she would be even more unwilling to see him.
In the darkness, he took the box of cherries from her hand, opened it, picked one, and held it to her lips.
The sweet fragrance of the cherries drifted toward her. Wen Quhua was about to refuse, but the moment she parted her lips, the cherry pressed against them.
She had no choice but to take it into her mouth. The juice burst open, sweetness spreading.
He even asked deliberately, “Is it sweet?”
He had tasted them one by one when selecting them. They were indeed sweet.
Wen Quhua did not want to respond.
After a moment, he seemed to think of something and asked, “Can you give me your number?”
He had seen her making a call earlier. Yang Qin wondered if one day she might also speak to him so cheerfully on the phone.
“No.”
She refused immediately, but he did not seem to mind.
“Then I’ll give you the office number of the construction site. If anything comes up, call me.”
Wen Quhua did not think she would have any reason to call him. If he wanted to leave it, then so be it.
Seeing that no one was outside anymore, Yang Qin went to the meter box and switched the power back on. The light came on instantly.
He found paper and pen on her table and wrote down a string of numbers.
He really had to leave now. In the end, Yang Qin could not resist reaching out to gently touch her hair. “I’m leaving.”
Wen Quhua watched him leave through the back door, still holding the box of cherries he had given her.
She picked up another one and put it into her mouth. It was indeed very sweet.
As for the number, she did not pay much attention to it. She turned off the lights and went upstairs.
When Yang Qin returned to his place, he first took a cold shower, then lay down on the bed.
Thinking of her, there was a faint smile in his eyes. He could feel that things between them were gradually improving.
She was not as resistant to him anymore, and that made him feel good.
He knew her conditions were good. With the old station project, he would earn quite a bit. If he worked harder, he could also give her a good life.
He was not someone who felt inferior. If he lacked conditions, he would create them. If he was not worthy, he would work harder until he was.
He wanted her. From the very first glance, he had wanted her. Love at first sight had actually happened to him.
And he accepted it.
Thinking of Wen Quhua, his heart felt warm. A kind of impulse and hope he had never experienced in the first half of his life had now come to him.
Yang Qin’s brows and eyes carried a smile. In dreams and waking moments, it was all her.
The next day, Wen Quhua was in the shop developing new items when Aunt Lu came over to chat after finishing her work.
“Boss Wen, I got a fresh mandarin fish today. I had the chef prepare it for you.”
“Thank you, Aunt Lu. I’ll come over later to pay.”
“No need, it’s my treat.”
Wen Quhua looked up at her in confusion. Aunt Lu smiled. “Manman is my relative. You gave her a job and she can learn skills. What’s wrong with treating you to a fish?”
Hearing this, Wen Quhua smiled lightly. She did not stand on ceremony and instead brought out her new product for Aunt Lu.
“Then please help me taste this new item as well.”
Aunt Lu took a bite, and her eyes immediately lit up. Ever since this great beauty from Hong Kong City came to their small Langcheng, she had truly been enjoying good food.
“Oh right, Boss Yang came over here last night. Speaking of it, Yang Qin is really capable. Something went wrong with the construction project here, yet in the blink of an eye, he managed to take over the old train station.”
“Mm.” Wen Quhua listened casually, but after a moment, she suddenly paused, lifted her head, and looked at Aunt Lu. “Yang… what?”
“Oh my, after knowing each other for so long, Boss Wen still doesn’t know Boss Yang’s name?” Aunt Lu teased. Yang Qin had come over in the middle of the night yesterday. Who else could it have been for?
Aunt Lu recalled the last time she ran into Yang Qin in the alley behind the shop. She covered her mouth and laughed, and she also deliberately spoke well of him. “Yang Qin is still so young. He’ll definitely have great prospects in the future.”
Yang Qin.
Wen Quhua lowered her gaze, and a chill rose in her heart.
She had always forgotten to ask his name, and she had never imagined that he would be the person she had been searching for everywhere. At this moment, the closer she had been with Yang Qin over the past few days, the more she regretted it now, and her whole body turned cold.
She had come to Langcheng for a mission, but she had never intended to get close to that man who was destined to go down the wrong path. She did not even want to have any interaction with him. As long as she could help him get through a few difficult situations in secret, that would be enough.
But now… she finally realized that the man who had been intimate with her several times, and whom she had been growing closer to, was exactly the person she had always guarded against and feared deep in her heart.
“Boss Wen?” Seeing that she had fallen into a daze and that her expression did not look good, Aunt Lu was a little confused.
“It’s nothing, Aunt Lu, I…” She stood up, seeming somewhat at a loss. “I have something urgent. I need to go out for a bit.”
“Alright, go ahead. I’ll watch the shop for you first. Manman will be here to start her shift soon.”
Wen Quhua nodded absentmindedly. She walked out the door and headed to the old train station.
Along the way, she thought about many, many things, until her whole body felt cold. By the end of it, she gradually became clear-headed. There was absolutely no way she could be in a relationship with a future criminal.
When she arrived at the old train station, she searched for that person’s figure among the busy workers. It was strange. Among so many people, she could spot him at a glance.
He was arranging for materials to be brought in, keeping an eye on the progress of the construction.
Suddenly, she heard the Supervisor Wang, who had ordered sweet drinks earlier, call out to him, “Yang Qin, come over here.”
Yang Qin… it really was Yang Qin.
Her palm tightened as she turned around, preparing to leave.
Yang Tian happened to catch sight of her figure and immediately ran over to Yang Qin. “Brother, look, isn’t that Boss Wen? Is she here to find you?”
Yang Qin turned his head at once. The moment he saw her back, his brows lifted slightly, and an unconscious smile curved on his lips.
“I’ll go over first. Tell Old Wang I’ll find him later.”
“Alright.” Yang Tian agreed readily, smiling as he watched Brother Yang go to meet the person he liked. Boss Wen had even come to the construction site to look for him. Did that mean something good was about to happen between them?
He felt both envious and happy for Brother Yang.
Yang Qin’s strides were long, and he quickly caught up with her at the entrance of the construction site.
“Did you come to find me?” He grabbed her arm, his tone carrying surprise.
But in the next second, his gaze fell on her cold expression.
“What’s wrong?” The smile faded from his face as he asked with concern, “What happened?”
Wen Quhua looked up at him expressionlessly, seeing the urgency on his face. On the way here, she had been regretting why she had not asked his name from the very beginning.
Even if she had known a few days earlier, it would not have become so troublesome now.
She pressed her lips together, first pulling her arm out of his hand, then taking a step back and looking at him with distance.
“I came to tell you, don’t come looking for me tonight.”
The smile on his face completely disappeared. His eyes darkened as he looked at her, unable to understand how she had changed so much overnight. He even saw the undisguised disgust in her eyes.
His heart sank slightly. He rubbed his thumb against his index finger, forcing himself to remain calm as he looked at her. “Tell me what happened.”
Why was she suddenly avoiding him like this? Why had her attitude changed so drastically?
“If there’s some misunderstanding, I can explain.” He frowned, trying to think where things had gone wrong for her to misunderstand him.
Thinking of something, he explained, “About that blind date last time, it was an accident. I only went to deliver cherries to you. Because of Uncle Zhang’s face, I just went along with it—”
“This has nothing to do with me. I don’t care.” She cut him off coldly, avoiding his sharp gaze.
“I just don’t want to drag things out and let you misunderstand. I thought about it for a long time last night. I really don’t have any feelings for you. Instead of that, it’s better to make things clear to you.”
“Don’t come looking for me anymore.”
She felt that her rejection was thorough enough and turned to leave.
Yang Qin stepped forward and blocked her path, his expression turning cold and fierce, his gaze dark and frightening.
Wen Quhua frowned tightly. Based on her understanding of him, he was not someone who would pester endlessly.
Yet she heard him speak to her in a voice that tried to remain steady, almost coaxing, “Wen Quhua, don’t be like this.”
Don’t say such harsh and resolute words.