The next day.
The group was having breakfast in the dining room when Gu Chi noticed Xia Wan’s absence and asked, “Is Xia Wan still asleep? I’ll give her a call.”
Just as he pulled out his phone, Ji Heng spoke up, “She’s not coming down the mountain with us. She’s taking the cable car down.”
Xu Haonan questioned with a teasing tone, “How do you know that?”
Ji Heng replied calmly, “We talked about it while hiking yesterday.”
Su Yi said, “Alright then, you stay here and accompany Xia Wan on the cable car down.”
He had been going to great lengths to create opportunities for the two of them to be alone.
“Why should I stay?” Ji Heng saw right through Su Yi’s intentions. “If someone needs to stay, any of you could do it.”
“That’s because you two are closer,” Chen Yubai chimed in.
Ji Heng raised an eyebrow, “We all met her at the same time.”
Xu Haonan countered, “But we haven’t spent as much time with Xia Wan as you have. You were hiking together all day yesterday.”
Su Yi added, “Right, Xia Wan is definitely more comfortable with you. If any of us stayed behind, she’d probably feel awkward.”
Gu Chi interjected, “I can stay. My idol definitely wouldn’t feel awkward around me.”
The other three looked at him and said in unison, “Get lost.”
“Fine, I’ll stay,” Ji Heng finally conceded. “But don’t tease Xia Wan about this in front of her later. She’s a girl and gets embarrassed easily.”
He had meant to talk to them about this last night after their teasing at dinner, but their interrogation had made him forget.
“No problem,” Su Yi agreed readily.
There was no need to rush things. He could tease them freely once they confirmed their feelings for each other.
“We’re heading out then. We’ll wait for you at the resort. Tell Xia Wan about tonight’s outdoor party and make sure she comes.”
Ji Heng leaned back in his chair. “Send me Xia Wan’s WeChat contact.”
Chen Yubai turned around, “Oh? Weren’t you too proud to add her when we were exchanging contacts before? Why are you asking for her WeChat now?”
Ji Heng maintained his composure, “I need to ask her when she’s planning to leave. I can’t just sit here waiting indefinitely.”
Waiting would be fine, but if Xia Wan skipped breakfast and went straight down the mountain, he would have stayed behind for nothing and wasted his time.
“Alright, you win,” Chen Yubai unlocked his phone. “I’ve sent it to you.”
Ji Heng clicked to add her on WeChat, typing his name in the friend request field.
This was to prevent Xia Wan from ignoring the request from an unknown contact.
Then he got up and returned to his room upstairs.
Xia Wan slept until she woke naturally. Probably because she was exhausted from yesterday, she woke up later than usual this morning.
The first thing she did after waking up was check her phone.
“Huh?” She was puzzled to see a red notification on her WeChat contacts list, wondering who could be adding her.
Curious, she clicked on it and was even more confused when she saw Ji Heng’s name.
Hadn’t he refused to add her yesterday? Why was he proactively adding her today?
Still, she accepted the request, wanting to see why Ji Heng was contacting her.
After adding him, Xia Wan tried to check his Moments.
However.
Ji Heng’s WeChat didn’t even have a Moments entry point. Xia Wan began to suspect he might have added her with a secondary account.
Unlike her – she enjoyed sharing things on Moments and only had family and close friends on her WeChat.
Just as Xia Wan was about to exit the app, she received a WeChat message from Ji Heng.
[Are you awake?]”Aren’t we supposed to be heading down the mountain now? Still time to check your phone?” Xia Wan thought to herself.
She then replied to him, [Just woke up, getting ready to get out of bed.]
Ji Heng replied instantly: [I’ll wait for you at the restaurant. Come find me there after you get up.]
Seeing this message, Xia Wan immediately sprang up from the bed.
[Didn’t you all plan to descend at six-thirty? Haven’t you left yet?]
Ji Heng: [The others have gone.]
[Then why are you still here?] Xia Wan had a guess in her mind, but she thought she might be overthinking it.
Until she saw Ji Heng’s message: [Waiting to go down the mountain with you.]
It confirmed her suspicion, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifted.
[I’m getting up right now, wait for me just a moment.] Xia Wan immediately tossed her phone aside and got out of bed.
The whole routine took less than fifteen minutes before she was already downstairs at the restaurant.
Seeing the person before him breathing a bit rapidly, her fair skin tinged with pink, Ji Heng asked, “Why the rush?”
Xia Wan steadied her breathing. “I was afraid I’d keep you waiting too long.”
Ji Heng poured half a glass of water into an empty cup on the table and placed it in front of Xia Wan. “I’ve already waited a long time; a little longer won’t make a difference.”
Hearing this, Xia Wan felt even more embarrassed. “Sorry for making you wait so long. I didn’t know you were waiting for me here.”
If she had known earlier, she definitely wouldn’t have slept in so late.
Seeing the apology written all over her delicate face, Ji Heng said, “I’m not blaming you.”
What he meant was that she didn’t need to rush; he didn’t mind waiting a bit longer.
She might have misunderstood.
Noticing no sign of impatience on the man’s face, Xia Wan asked, “Well, shall we set off now?”
Ji Heng raised an eyebrow slightly. “Not having breakfast?”
“Have you eaten?” Xia Wan countered instead of answering.
“Yes.” It was almost lunchtime; of course he had eaten.
“I’ll eat when we get to the resort.” She couldn’t bear to make Ji Heng wait for her to have breakfast again.
Although she was a bit hungry now, after all, she had eaten dinner quite early the night before.
Ji Heng parted his thin lips slightly. “If you want to eat, do it here. It won’t waste much time.”
“But…”
Ji Heng placed the menu in front of her, interrupting her. “Here, see what you’d like to eat?”
Xia Wan couldn’t refuse again and casually ordered a bowl of porridge.
“Are your legs sore?” Ji Heng suddenly asked.
“A little, but it’s not a problem.” After saying this, Xia Wan remembered what Ji Heng had brought her last night.
She took the massage gun and mosquito repellent from the paper bag beside her and handed them back to him.
“Thank you. These things you gave me really helped.”
Leaning back in his chair, Ji Heng didn’t reach out to take them. “Keep them for yourself. You can use them at the resort too.”
Xia Wan didn’t withdraw her hand. “But you’ll need them too.”
Ji Heng: “I have more.”
“Alright, thank you.” Xia Wan put them back into the bag. “Why didn’t you tell me last night that you were going down the mountain with me? Then you wouldn’t have had to wait so long.”
Ji Heng replied briefly, “It was a last-minute decision.”
“Oh.” Xia Wan asked with concern, “Are you taking the cable car too?”
“Otherwise?” Since he stayed behind, of course he was going down with her. “Or can your legs support you walking all the way down?”
Xia Wan shook her head lightly, answering honestly, “No.”
“Exactly.” Ji Heng picked up his coffee from the table and took a sip.
After Xia Wan finished her breakfast, the two of them went together to take the cable car.