Su Qiu didn't turn around. The scissors in her hand were snipping toward the bright purple hyacinth petals.
She planned to make all three bookmarks and then let Zhou Jingqian choose whichever he liked best.
So she had to repeatedly adjust and design the color scheme of petals and leaves for each bookmark until she was completely satisfied.
If she were making them all for herself, the process might have been a bit rougher, but these were gifts — whether for Zhou Jingqian or for friends, Su Qiu wouldn't cut corners.
Zhou Jingqian had said he'd come make them with her, but this was delicate work, and there was no need for four hands at once.
Zhou Jingqian didn't seem to insist either, as if he'd merely used those words as an excuse to wrap his arms around her from behind.
He rested his chin lightly on the top of her head, applying no weight, and looked down to watch her work.
Su Qiu's back pressed against his chest, making her a ready-made backrest.
At first, Su Qiu was a bit reserved, but as she focused on the task at hand, she unconsciously leaned her full weight back against him.
Zhou Jingqian watched her slender fingers — cutting, pressing, adjusting — as such a tiny petal formed different patterns in her hands.
Without looking up, Su Qiu reached out to grab the tool on her left.
Instead, her hand met Zhou Jingqian's palm, which he'd proactively offered.
Su Qiu: "…"
Only then did she remember there was someone behind her.
Su Qiu's hand was enveloped in Zhou Jingqian's warm palm, then her waist tightened as he turned her around, letting her lean sideways into his embrace.
Su Qiu's eyes widened slightly.
She felt the slight coolness and softness of the man's thin lips pressing against hers.
A flash of their kisses in bed at night crossed her mind — so deep and burning.
Kisses in the daytime and at night felt very different.
At this moment, both of them were fully awake.
Su Qiu even forgot to close her eyes.
She could see how deep the darkness in Zhou Jingqian's eyes was, could even see her own reflection shrinking inside them — small, held in his arms, quietly protected.
Their breaths intertwined.
He pressed in slowly, hooking her tongue and giving it a gentle suck.
Su Qiu's lashes trembled as she leaned back slightly, trying to pull away a little.
Zhou Jingqian leaned in, one arm circling her waist, the other hand cradling the back of her neck, his fingertip slowly stroking the skin behind her ear.
The kiss continued — long, gentle, warm and moist.
It wasn't laced with the physical desire of nighttime; what grew between their lips and teeth was something pure, yet a tingling sweetness that made the heart race.
Early summer afternoon sunlight, the scent of books, the fragrance of flowers, and their interwoven body heat.
Unlike every previous kiss, Su Qiu concluded between soft gasps.
After a moment, she thought again.
Actually, every kiss with Zhou Jingqian was a new experience.
When they parted, Su Qiu had gone completely soft, nearly relying on Zhou Jingqian's arm to keep from falling backward.
She sat sideways in his embrace, her hands still loosely clinging to his shoulders, having crumpled a few new creases into the front of his freshly changed loungewear.
She curled up in his arms like a little rabbit tucked in its burrow.
Zhou Jingqian didn't speak, waiting for her breathing to settle. He reached over, picked up the glass of guava juice from the table, and brought it to her lips.
Su Qiu didn't take it. She simply drank two sips from his hand. The sweet freshness of the juice spread across her tongue, and she unconsciously pressed her lips together, leaving a trace of moisture on her lower lip.
Zhou Jingqian raised his hand and gently wiped her lip with his fingertip.
Su Qiu looked up, her heart pounding at that moment even faster than during the kiss just now.
By the time the guava juice was finished, the three bookmarks had taken twice as long as Su Qiu had estimated.
As expected, Zhou Jingqian chose the grape-patterned bookmark made from purple hyacinth petals.
Su Qiu curved her lips, feeling a smug sense of having guessed the answer correctly.
He liked eating grapes, and he liked choosing grape-themed bookmarks too — she understood him a little more.
After several hours of handicraft work, Su Qiu shook her wrist, feeling her whole body lazy and boneless, wanting to move around.
She looked up toward the floor-to-ceiling window and realized it was already evening.
Almost instantly, something occurred to her. She turned to Zhou Jingqian and asked, "Want to go swimming together?"
She'd originally planned to come home only after wrapping up filming, but she happened to coincide with Zhou Jingqian's birthday.
Since she was already back, inviting him for a swim and to watch the sunset seemed only natural.
Zhou Jingqian: "Okay."
Su Qiu noticed that since they'd gotten married, Zhou Jingqian had never refused anything she proposed. He never probed into why — he simply went along.
She could see his sense of responsibility.
Su Qiu suddenly thought that even if they never cultivated particularly intense feelings in the end, given his sense of responsibility and his attitude of honoring the marriage, she would still be very satisfied with him.
The edge of the pool looked newly renovated, the jade stone curves carefully polished and rounded off considerably.
Su Qiu changed into her swimsuit and sat at the pool's edge, dipping both feet into the water.
In the garden, besides the usual greenery, several new flowers had been planted.
Su Qiu hadn't looked closely last night, but now she recognized them — these were the same varieties as those in the Xiang family's garden.
No wonder Zhou Jingqian had personally watered them this morning.
In Su Qiu's mind, a scene was already forming: Zhou Jingqian returning to the family home to have dinner with Grandmother, asking what flowers were planted in the garden, and then having the property manager plant them.
The two little rabbits had been carried by Su Qiu to the lounge chairs by the poolside, where they were now focused on gnawing their toys.
Su Qiu stared at the water's surface, her mind occupied with how she would naturally bring up the topic in a moment…
Thinking about it, the request was truly absurd, and she couldn't help but laugh out loud.
A moment later, footsteps came from behind.
Zhou Jingqian wasn't wearing swimwear—he had only changed into a pair of black swim trunks.
A white towel was casually draped over his shoulder, one corner hanging down and swaying gently with each step, revealing clean, well-defined shoulders and arms.
Su Qiu's gaze froze.
Zhou Jingqian walked over, stood at the edge of the pool, and took the towel off to place it on the lounge chair.
At this height, Su Qiu only needed to tilt her head up slightly to see his lean, firm abdominal muscles—not the exaggerated bulging kind, but the smooth lines of long-term discipline.
Zhou Jingqian was truly a good man.
She hadn't even figured out how to bring it up, and he was already being so generous.
Su Qiu's gaze traced down the contours of his muscles to the edge of his swim trunks.
"…"
Her lashes trembled, and she casually averted her eyes, but the ear facing the setting sun quietly grew warm.
Zhou Jingqian seemed to have only come over to put down his towel.
Then he walked further away, making sure that from this distance, when he dove in, the splashing water wouldn't land on Su Qiu.
Such a small detail, yet he always thought things through.
When the water reached his waist, the man bent forward and sank beneath the surface, disappearing entirely before resurfacing—already at the center of the pool.
Su Qiu didn't move, sitting at the edge watching him.
Watching his long, powerful arms cut through the water, clean and decisive, each stroke carrying a steady explosive force.
Water slid off the lines of his shoulders and back, clinging to his skin and revealing the muscular contours of his waist and back.
Both sides looked good.
Su Qiu summarized in plain terms in her mind.
Like a chef admiring a fish that had been pan-fried to a golden crisp on both sides.
Zhou Jingqian swam fast, yet without any hint of urgency.
Su Qiu propped her hands on either side of her, her gaze following him, having already forgotten that she was supposed to swim too.
Zhou Jingqian reached the opposite end and surfaced.
They faced each other across the long pool.
He seemed to curl his lips into a slight smile.
But the distance was far, and Su Qiu couldn't see it clearly.
Zhou Jingqian sank back beneath the water and began swimming back.
His rhythm remained steady throughout, yet it felt like only a blink of an eye before he had reached her legs and stopped.
He looked up at her, the water covering his waist and abdomen, water droplets clinging to his long, thin lashes. The next moment after emerging, he casually pushed his wet hair back, looking disheveled yet unrestrained.
"Not coming in?"
A single drop of water still clung to his Adam's apple, rolling down as he spoke those low, husky words.
"Coming."
Only then did Su Qiu remember the actual business of swimming.
She leaned forward and slipped into the water.
Zhou Jingqian reached out to catch her, and Su Qiu naturally fell into his arms.
His palm pressed against her waist, steadying her for a moment, and only after she had adjusted to the water level and temperature did he casually let go.
Su Qiu swam one and a half laps—today's exercise quota met.
She swam to the edge, resting her arms on the pool rim as she watched the sunset.
The honey-orange color at the horizon had already burned into streaks of golden edges, the sunset strangely blending with the city's skyscrapers.
Zhou Jingqian swam over, his arm reaching around from behind Su Qiu to rest on the pool rim, as if enclosing a small space around her.
His chest pressed against her back, the clear, cool water gently rippling between them.
Su Qiu turned sideways, and Zhou Jingqian turned as well, one side of each of their faces bathed in the evening glow.
The distance closed, her knee inadvertently brushing against his leg.
Zhou Jingqian suddenly reached out, lifting her from the water with one arm, pulling her entirely onto him.
Su Qiu let out a soft gasp, her arms instinctively wrapping around his neck, her palms pressing against the slightly damp skin of his nape. His short, wet hair prickled against the back of her hand, ticklish.
Lifted by him, her thighs brushed against his waist and abdomen, the height difference between them closing until their eyes met at the same level.
Zhou Jingqian simply looked at her like this, his originally pitch-black pupils now tinged with brilliant orange. His gaze remained as calm as when they first met, yet within that calmness there was now much more warmth.
Zhou Jingqian slowly leaned down.
Su Qiu thought he was going to kiss her. She felt his warm breath draw near, but instead he came to kiss the water droplets on her eyelids, then turned his head to kiss away a drop on her cheek.
Su Qiu froze.
She remembered the pool on the hotel rooftop last time—he had simply reached out to wipe the water from her face, knuckles bent, the gesture gentle.
This time, he used a more intimate method.
The water's surface rippled gently in the evening breeze, and neither of them spoke.
Su Qiu's heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly wanted to find something to say: "Oh, right—why hasn't Auntie Wu arrived yet?"
Zhou Jingqian tilted his head: "You really want to see her?"
"…"
Su Qiu opened her mouth but couldn't find a response.
She couldn't help feeling the implication was: You really want to see her—at this very moment?
But what Su Qiu wanted to say was that at this hour, Auntie Wu would normally have already come over to cook and would be smilingly asking her what she wanted to eat today.
Zhou Jingqian's thin lips curved slightly as he lifted her up by the waist and bottom, adjusting her position in his arms. "I told her to come an hour later."
Su Qiu swayed gently in his embrace, her knees brushing against his waist and abdomen again, even accidentally grazing the waistband of his swim trunks.
Su Qiu understood what he meant.
An hour later meant a little more time alone together.
Su Qiu curved her lips as well, her body gradually relaxing as she let Zhou Jingqian hold her, watching the orange-red glow at the horizon slowly fade away.
Sunday at noon, Zhou Jingqian and Su Qiu had lunch with both families' elders.
In the evening, Zhou Jingqian drove Su Qiu to the airport.
Su Qiu said, "Oh, by the way, I'll be attending the screenwriters' conference in the capital next weekend. You don't need to come see me."
Zhou Jingqian: "Alright, see you the week after."
Su Qiu gave a soft hum, already looking forward to the arrival of the week after.
She also looked forward to wrapping up filming two months from now, returning home, and continuing to build their married life together.