As the last trace of sunset faded from the horizon, the moon rose bright and clear. Streetlights glowed dim yellow, and a slightly cool breeze brushed past her ears. In a good mood, Qiao Qingman thought that although the world she lived in had inexplicably turned into the world of a novel, and although she still had to complete some ridiculous kissing missions just to stay alive,
Heaven was fair, after all. Had it not sent her a male lead like this, a “cooperative partner” who could work with her?
Even if she suffered a bit in the course of this cooperation, it was all for survival. She could reluctantly be the one to show sincerity first.
There were only a little over ninety days left anyway.
It was just that she had no idea why the male lead would have a mission at all, and that made her uneasy.
“Qiao Qingman!”
A man’s voice, suppressing emotion, suddenly reached her ears.
Qiao Qingman froze before her hands could even touch his face. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the male lead staring at her coldly.
His low voice was filled with irritation and disdain. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
Qiao Qingman blinked in confusion. “?”
Did she know what she was doing? Of course she did.
Was she not doing this to make the mission go more smoothly? Why was the male lead being so fierce?
Qiao Qingman felt displeased. “Kissing you. Isn’t that obvious enough?”
Obvious.
It was precisely because it was too obvious that Gu Qianshi, who had come looking for her to make things clear, suddenly felt a surge of anger rise in his chest.
He did not like Qiao Qingman. No matter what she said or did, not liking her meant not liking her.
Yet this woman had not only made outrageous claims on his birthday night, but also stomped hard on his foot outside the bar, humiliating him in public.
She acted as if she no longer liked him at all.
And today? She had not only followed him to the private club, but had even calmly waited on the path he would have to pass to return to the restaurant, as if she were certain he would turn back. She openly puckered her lips and demanded a kiss from him.
Gu Qianshi was so angry he almost laughed.
“Qiao Qingman, I’ll say this one last time. Stay away from me. I won’t like you.”
Suppressing his anger, Gu Qianshi’s entire demeanor turned icy. “No matter what you say or do, I won’t like you. So know when to stop.”
With that, Gu Qianshi did not look at Qiao Qingman again. He turned and strode away.
Qiao Qingman was left standing there in a daze, watching Gu Qianshi’s tall figure, restraining his anger, gradually disappear from her sight. She still could not figure out what kind of logic this was.
Weren’t they supposed to kiss? What about the promised deep-kiss mission?
He just left like that?
And the difference in this man’s attitude before and after was far too great.
Could it have been because of that phone call?
Feeling baffled, Qiao Qingman casually asked the system, “Is there another man here who looks exactly like the male lead?”
The system replied decisively, “Of course not.”
With that certainty, Qiao Qingman concluded, “Then there’s something wrong with this male lead.”
Just as Gu Qianshi returned to the entrance of the club and was about to get into his car, he suddenly sneezed.
He frowned, got into the car, and the vehicle sped away.
Qiao Qingman, completely unable to understand whether Gu Qianshi truly had something wrong with his head, saw that he had already left and did not stay there either.
She had just lifted her foot to walk toward the entrance when she heard two club staff members speaking in hushed excitement.
“Did you see our boss’s back just now? He looks so good. Extremely handsome.”
“The front view must be absolutely stunning.”
“And more than that, I heard our boss is a super tycoon. The kind whose assets alone surpass the combined wealth of many big shots in Sucheng.”
“Ahhh, if only we could meet the boss. Too bad he rarely uses newcomers. I heard everyone by his side was brought back from overseas.”
Their voices gradually faded into the distance. Qiao Qingman did not pay attention to the “boss” they mentioned. But when she thought of strangers being present, she suddenly understood why the male lead had changed his attitude so abruptly.
He was afraid of being seen, worried it would damage his persona of “hating Qiao Qingman”?
Got it.
Qiao Qingman snorted lightly in the direction Gu Qianshi had gone and muttered indignantly, “Gu Qianshi, let’s see whether you’ll climb onto my balcony before midnight tonight…”
Since the male lead had deliberately followed her here but had not kissed her here, then for the sake of the kissing mission, he would definitely sneak into the Qiao family villa tonight… right?
Besides, the male lead might have a single day off. After all, he had not kissed her only yesterday.
Even so, Qiao Qingman could not help feeling jealous.
Ahhh, why didn’t she get a single day off?
As for the completely bewildered system: [Host still thinks the male lead has a mission?]
Qiao Qingman replied confidently, “Of course. Otherwise, explain this to me. Why would a man who has always hated me suddenly kiss me back every time after I kiss him? Even though he didn’t today, wasn’t that because Gu Qianshi was afraid of being seen?”
The system: [?]
Was it really like that?
The system was bewildered.
Behind her, Gu Qingshan, who had just returned after taking a phone call and happened to hear those words, looked at Qiao Qingman’s slender back. Recalling the scene of her reaching out and puckering her lips toward Gu Qianshi without distinguishing who was who, a trace of cold sharpness surfaced in the man’s deep eyes.
This Qiao Qingman could not even tell who was who? They had already kissed several times, yet she was still this careless?
And then there was this. One moment she was covering her mouth, her entire expression full of resistance, and the very next second she was actively reaching out and puckering her lips?
Before midnight tonight?
Climb the balcony?
*
After returning home, Qiao Qingman soaked in a comfortable hot spring bath. Sitting on the soft, comfortable swing, with a gentle breeze brushing past and the fresh floral scent of the backyard drifting in, she could not help but sigh. Nights without having to do missions were truly comfortable.
It was just that as time passed, and midnight was about to arrive, she still had not seen any sign of the male lead.
Did this male lead even have a mission or not? It was really giving her a headache.
Wait, something was off. She had kissed the male lead today, so why was she not sleepy?
Just then, the system received a response from its superiors and said, [Host, the superiors have checked. The host kissing the male lead will not cause the host to feel sleepy.]
It would not?
Then what had been going on in the past few days?
Surely it could not all have been an illusion caused by lack of sleep?
And the night before last, after midnight, when she kissed the male lead who was sleepwalking at Rongjing Villa, she had also felt sleepy.
So, did her drowsiness have anything to do with kissing the male lead or not?
Qiao Qingman could not figure it out.
Forget it. Whether the male lead would come tonight was more important.
Before going to bed, Qiao Qingman deliberately closed the sliding balcony door and even placed a strand of hair across it. Only then did she lie down on the soft bed and close her eyes to rest.
As her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, Qiao Qingman thought that it was fortunate the male lead always kissed deeply. That way, even if Gu Qianshi, like her, came for a “sneak attack kiss” after she fell asleep, she would be able to wake up immediately.
At the same time.
Not far from the Qiao family villa, a black limited-edition Pagani appeared nearby.
In the brightly lit second-floor bedroom of the villa, the balcony glass door was tightly shut. A slender girl fussed around by the door for a while, then drew the curtains.
Tree shadows mottled the ground, and the cool night breeze flowed gently.
The gracefully built girl walked into the room, and the lights went out.
The man leaned against the car window, his expression calm as he gazed at the expanse of darkness ahead.
Qiao Qingman had closed the balcony door. Was she hoping Gu Qianshi would come, or did she not want him to?
After a brief pause, Gu Qingshan sat down in the back seat of the car and asked lightly, “Where is Gu Qianshi?”
“Since entering Rongjing Villa, Gu Qianshi hasn’t come out,” Secretary Jiang replied.
The car fell into a cold, quiet silence.
An invisible layer of inexplicable oppression seemed to settle over the space.
“Keep an eye on him.”
“Yes.”
At the same time.
The male lead, Gu Qianshi, who had been put on watch by both Qiao Qingman and Gu Qingshan, finished his work and lay down on the bed.
After handling some urgent emails on his phone, he put the phone down and prepared to sleep.
Then, for no apparent reason, the image of the girl from earlier that evening surfaced in his mind. Her lips were softly puckered, pink and full, and she gently invited him, “Gu Qianshi, kiss me.”
At the time, the night was growing deeper. The warm-toned lights of the private club spilled onto the girl’s fair face, tinting it with a faint blush.
Her lips were beautifully shaped, and when she puckered them, they gleamed with a soft, hazy sheen that was especially alluring.
Gu Qianshi frowned and opened his eyes.
Why was he thinking of Qiao Qingman?
Thinking carefully, it was not only today. Earlier, after attending the banquet and leaving the hotel, he had also seen Qiao Qingman’s figure.
At the time, he thought he had seen wrong. Looking back now, could it be… thinking about something during the day and dreaming of it at night?
Gu Qianshi was startled by his own thoughts.
H-how could it be “thinking during the day and dreaming at night”? That person was Qiao Qingman, the Qiao Qingman he disliked.
Gu Qianshi stared at the pitch-dark night outside the window, his gaze deep and somber.
An invisible barrier suddenly descended, forcing him to suppress these surging emotions.
Gu Qianshi frowned deeply.
No matter what Qiao Qingman wanted to do, no matter whether she was playing hard to get, it had nothing to do with him.
Gu Qianshi put on his earphones and forced himself to close his eyes.
After finally falling asleep, in a hazy state, he dreamed of a man and a woman chatting happily beneath the orange-red afterglow of the setting sun.
Soft light spilled over them, outlining their refined, handsome faces with a hazy glow.
Romantic and enchanting.
As the view drew closer, the faces of the two gradually became clear. They were unmistakably himself, and Qiao Qingman, the woman who chased after him every day, pursuing him.
“Gu Qianshi, kiss me.”
Qiao Qingman’s brows curved as she smiled sweetly and puckered her lips toward him, asking for a kiss.
Gu Qianshi was startled and immediately pushed the girl away.
However, Qiao Qingman stepped forward again, puckering her lips and moving closer and closer…
“Qiao Qingman!”
Gu Qianshi jolted awake.
What met his eyes was the familiar ceiling in the dimness.
Outside, the bright moonlight spilled in. A thin layer of sweat beaded at Gu Qianshi’s temples.
The man’s gaze was deep and vacant, carrying a faint trace of shock beneath the moonlight.
Qiao Qingman? Again, Qiao Qingman?
He had actually dreamed of Qiao Qingman? And in such a scene…
He did not understand why he was like this. He clearly had no feelings for Qiao Qingman. Clearly, since meeting Su Xia, his heart had never once suddenly started racing.
He had never experienced a racing heartbeat for Qiao Qingman. At most, when he saw her crying pitifully, a faint ripple would pass through his heart, and that was only because he was moved by the girl’s fervent affection.
Yet now, he was actually having such a frightening dream.
No.
He could not let Qiao Qingman continue playing “hard to get.”