The item she wanted was in Qin Mingyan’s hand, her fingers gripping it tightly as if she were embarrassed to speak.
Bo Liye considerately turned off the dryer and reached out. “Thanks.”
“It… it’s nothing,” Qin Mingyan stammered. “I washed it when I bought it but never wore it. It’s brand new. If you’re worried, you can put a pad in.”
Bo Liye completely ignored the second half of that sentence. She took the underwear and put it on, intentionally commenting on the texture: “It’s quite soft.”
She said this while looking at Qin Mingyan, it was unclear if she was referring to the fabric or to Qin Mingyan herself.
Qin Mingyan squeezed the sanitary pads and slowly walked back to put them in the cabinet.
The hair dryer looked like an old model, but its power was much higher than Bo Liye expected. In about ten minutes, her hair was mostly dry. Bo Liye put down the dryer and gestured to Qin Mingyan, who had been standing nearby. She asked casually, “Did I cause you trouble?”
Qin Mingyan followed her lead as usual. “No.”
“Tell me the truth, I won’t get angry.”
Perhaps because she had put Qin Mingyan through so much in the bathroom that her lips and legs were marked, Bo Liye had a rare moment of conscience and softened her tone.
“I barged into your house without your permission, disturbed your studies and rest, and treated you like that in the shower. Didn’t you fall just now trying to get away from me?”
Qin Mingyan didn’t dare to nod.
So, Bo Liye began to list her own “crimes,” though there wasn’t much true apology in her tone.
“Look, I bit your lip until it bled, I forced you to lick my shoulder for so long, we stayed in the water for ages… you were shaking from fear just now. After you fell, you couldn’t even walk straight, so I had to carry you. And then I just left you alone in the room to go shower first.”
Speaking of this, Bo Liye suddenly thought of something important. “Right, is it convenient for you to change your pants with that knee injury? You aren’t still wearing those wet under…”
Bo Liye grew more agitated as she spoke. Qin Mingyan suddenly stumbled forward and covered Bo Liye’s mouth, her voice pleading: “I changed… I changed. Please stop talking.”
Bo Liye caught her, feeling Qin Mingyan’s nervous breath against her ear. She blinked slowly.
She suddenly felt that she was being absolutely terrible.
She hated what that stalker did to her so much, yet every time she received a threat, her first instinct was to find Qin Mingyan to relieve her own fear.
That stalker had only offended her with words and didn’t even dare to do anything in person, only daring to kiss her hand.
But what she did to Qin Mingyan…
Bo Liye took a deep breath. Especially when she felt Qin Mingyan’s slight trembling again, she thought back to her own fear in the bathroom stall and, putting herself in the other’s shoes, began to seriously reflect.
Why hadn’t she felt she was doing anything wrong before?
How many times had she forced Qin Mingyan?
When she encountered a stalker, she could find Qin Mingyan to vent her psychological frustration, but who could Qin Mingyan turn to? She didn’t have many friends at school, she could only suppress her emotions by doing problem sets over and over to force herself to look away.
Bo Liye put her arms around Qin Mingyan’s waist, letting the girl lean completely against her.
She held her very gently, as if holding a fragile piece of art, using almost all of her patience to soothe her.
While gently patting Qin Mingyan’s back with one hand, she used the other to tenderly stroke her hair. Her voice became very low: “That… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so mean to you.”
Qin Mingyan froze.
She couldn’t quite process it.
Pushing Bo Liye away in the bathroom was because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control herself if they kept kissing, and she thought a little resistance might increase Bo Liye’s fondness for her. That was why she pushed her.
Although her knee hit the floor, the mark would disappear in a couple of days; it didn’t really matter.
She was clearly… playing the pitiful victim as usual. Why was Bo Liye apologizing to her?
Shouldn’t she have felt that Qin Mingyan was being ungrateful and then taught her another lesson?
What exactly went wrong?
Looking at Qin Mingyan’s bewildered expression, Bo Liye felt even more disgusted with her own behavior.
Qin Mingyan’s attitude toward her had been softening lately, she even showed signs of relying on or liking her. How could she bully her like this? Wouldn’t that leave a trauma?
Bo Liye gently released Qin Mingyan and helped her sit on the bed.
Her sharp eyes caught an inconspicuous red mark on the side of Qin Mingyan’s neck. It must have been left there when she forced Qin Mingyan to lick her collarbone earlier and used too much strength.
In the center of the faint pink mark was a tiny scratch, likely caused by her fingernails.
Thinking about how she felt when being forced by the stalker, Bo Liye simply couldn’t suppress her guilt. She leaned down and kissed it gently.
Every inch of Qin Mingyan’s sensitive skin tensed up.
Bo Liye originally wanted to pull back Qin Mingyan’s collar to check for other injuries, but as she gently pulled the fabric, she noticed how stiff Qin Mingyan had become. When she looked up, she saw the girl’s flustered, averted gaze.
Bo Liye immediately let go, realizing this action might have scared her again.
If she shouldn’t go against Qin Mingyan’s will, how was it right to pull off her clothes to look for wounds without permission?
Bo Liye’s logic was stuck in a loop. As long as she compared her actions toward Qin Mingyan to the stalker’s actions toward her, she couldn’t stop the self-reproach. She lowered her head rarely.
She tucked Qin Mingyan’s fearful hands behind her back. After a few seconds of deliberation, her eyes filled with apology. “Qin Mingyan, I’m sorry. Did I cause you trouble? Did I scare you? I didn’t mean to make things hard for you.”
“Don’t be afraid.”
Qin Mingyan was silent for several minutes before hesitantly reaching out to pinch the hem of Bo Liye’s T-shirt.
Bo Liye looked at her expectantly.
Qin Mingyan said, “I know you were in a bad mood. It’s okay. When you came over tonight, I said I wouldn’t leave you alone.”
Bo Liye breathed a slight sigh of relief. Thankfully, Qin Mingyan was as tolerant, simple, and kind as ever.
“I did encounter some unpleasant things when I went to the banquet with my parents tonight. I don’t really want to talk about it right now. Don’t worry, in the future, I won’t…”
Bo Liye’s voice came to an awkward halt.
What wouldn’t she do?
Stop forcing Qin Mingyan? Or stop ordering her around?
Bo Liye had a clear understanding of her own personality. If Qin Mingyan were just an ordinary friend, it would be fine. But since she already viewed Qin Mingyan as her possession, it was impossible for her to respect her the way she would a normal friend.
She could only try to control and restrain her temper a little, trying not to give Qin Mingyan too much of a shock.
Otherwise, wouldn’t she and Qin Mingyan really become just normal, loving classmates?
Bo Liye gently patted Qin Mingyan’s shoulder and finished her sentence: “Don’t worry, I won’t let you be unhappy in the future.”
As long as Qin Mingyan cried, she would definitely stop.
At that moment, the silent Qin Mingyan suddenly took half a step forward. As if making a gesture of goodwill, she said, “I wasn’t unhappy.”
Bo Liye was stunned.
Qin Mingyan let go of Bo Liye’s shirt and lightly grasped the back of Bo Liye’s hand. Her tone was serious: “You wouldn’t do these things for no reason. Something must have happened. The fact that you came to find me shows you trust me. I won’t be unhappy. I just hope you say those kinds of things less…”
Bo Liye had spent the whole night under high pressure, being told by her parents to be sensible and dignified, and being told by the stalker to keep her distance from others. Only Qin Mingyan was willing to consider things from her perspective.
It felt like a warm current had been injected into her chest, making her head spin as if she were being held up in the clouds.
She decided to care for Qin Mingyan a bit more. She cleared her throat and asked sincerely, “Say which things less? Do you want me to stop asking you to lick me, or stop pointing out that you’re reacting too much, or stop asking if you’ve changed your wet underwear?”
“Please stop asking. You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want. I won’t get angry.”
Every time Bo Liye “reflected,” Qin Mingyan’s hand would tremble slightly. If one looked closely, her earlobes hidden beneath her hair were turning pink.
It didn’t seem like she was scared; it seemed like she was shy.
Bo Liye’s voice instinctively turned husky: “Do whatever I want? Even if I do intimate things to you like in the bathroom, you’re okay with that?”
“It’s okay.” Qin Mingyan looked up at Bo Liye, then immediately looked away as if afraid she would discover something.
“With your grades, you don’t actually need to pay for extra tutoring. The part-time job you gave me has already helped me a lot. We agreed on everything else from the start. I’m willing.”
Bo Liye listened and gave a long, “Oh.” She suddenly leaned in, smiling brightly. “Since it’s just a transaction, why are you so nervous?”
Qin Mingyan’s pupils constricted, and her speech became faster: “I… I just wanted to make it clear.”
Her features were naturally cool and aloof, giving off an aura of having little desire. But when she said those things with her ears getting redder and redder, how could Bo Liye let her go?
Too many people had expressed their love for Bo Liye, openly or secretly. In the past, she had always been dismissive.
Especially after discovering at the sports meet that Qin Mingyan might like her, she hadn’t taken it seriously. She had even emphasized their informal relationship to Qin Mingyan, not wanting anything to affect her experience.
But now, Bo Liye felt she could allow Qin Mingyan to like her, to allow this small change to happen.
Besides that, she was in a good mood now and could soothe Qin Mingyan a bit more.
Bo Liye gestured to Qin Mingyan and said, “In the future, if you want to do something, you don’t need to report it in advance. Understand?”
Qin Mingyan’s brain, which was so useful for studying, seemed to have rusted. “…What do you mean?”
Bo Liye “tch” and said, “It means if you want to rely on me, you can just hug me. If you’re mistreated by others, you have to tell me.”
“This is a requirement, an order. Did you hear that clearly?”
Qin Mingyan seemed stunned by this massive surprise. Bo Liye wasn’t in a hurry, carefully admiring every vivid change in Qin Mingyan’s expression until she slowly nodded.
Bo Liye couldn’t help it and gave her a hug.
Before this hug, Bo Liye truly intended it as an act of comfort. She just wanted a simple hug without doing anything else.
But Qin Mingyan had just finished showering, and she smelled of the same body wash as her. Moreover, those clear eyes would occasionally peek at her, and the body pressed against her was just the right amount of soft.
Bo Liye was easily captivated. Everything about considering Qin Mingyan’s will or comforting her was thrown out the window, she only wanted to please herself.
She kissed Qin Mingyan’s ear, nipping and licking the lobe until Qin Mingyan let out a soft cry. Taking advantage of the moment, she sucked a red mark onto the skin behind her ear.
Sucking for so long made her legs tired, so she didn’t treat herself as a guest and knelt directly on Qin Mingyan’s bed, feeling the girl’s shoulders tense up inch by inch.