Why run?
Of course because she was afraid of being seen by others.
She had boldly declared in front of everyone that she would absolutely never pursue Gu Qianshi again.
If someone saw her now, did she still want her dignity?
No, wasn’t Gu Qianshi extremely disgusted by her? He had even told her to hurry up and get lost outside the villa.
Then why was he now holding her and kissing her instead?
No, not just that…
This man actually, actually used his tongue to pry open her teeth?
Qiao Qingman suddenly widened her eyes, instinctively wanting to push away the man restraining her.
But after the noises inside the room stopped, the sound of footsteps grew closer instead. Qiao Qingman’s body tensed up, her mind turning hazy.
The moment she relaxed like that, delicate, dense, gentle sensations landed on the tip of her tongue.
The unfamiliar fresh scent from the man’s body wrapped around her even more dominantly.
Qiao Qingman’s breathing tightened. The man’s warm touch, so gentle it was almost as if he were savoring her carefully, sent a fierce shudder through her body, like an electric current passing through.
A deep flush spread from her cheeks down to her neck.
Qiao Qingman was completely stunned.
Hearing the footsteps about to reach the balcony, Qiao Qingman, her breathing intermingled with the man’s, tightly grabbed his clothes with trembling hands and pressed them against his firm chest.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the balcony curtain, Gu Qianshi, who had just ended the small birthday party, lay on his bed. Thinking of the harsh words Qiao Qingman had left behind, he let out an annoyed cold snort and got out of bed.
He wanted to go to the balcony to get some air.
Ever since he had accidentally met Qiao Qingman a month ago, her affectionate gaze seemed glued to him.
No matter how cold his words were, no matter how people around mocked her, even with tears filling her eyes, she would still say firmly, “Gu Qianshi, I like you.”
After being ruthlessly driven away by him, she would still appear in his sight the very next day without fail.
Gu Qianshi had never imagined that Qiao Qingman would say what she did tonight.
Why throw herself at him? She was tired of it and would never see him again?
Heh—
Just then, with a “bang,” the sound of something shattering rang out from outside the door.
Immediately after came a girl’s sharp scream. “Ah—”
Gu Qianshi’s thoughts were interrupted. He frowned, collected his scattered emotions, and turned to walk toward the door.
Little did he know that this brief interruption was enough to leave the girl on the other side of the balcony curtain with her heart tightly strung.
Qiao Qingman’s whole body felt almost stiff. The hand gripping the man’s clothes tightened until her fingertips turned pale.
Yet this man was completely unaffected, as if he were not afraid of being seen at all.
Well, the one who would lose face if they were seen was not him anyway.
Qiao Qingman cursed “damn man” in her heart. Hearing the paused footsteps turn back into the room, she soon heard the sound of a door opening and closing.
She abruptly let out a breath, finally relaxing.
Then, without hesitation, she bit him hard.
As her tongue tasted the metallic tang of blood, she forcefully pushed the man away.
“Gu Qianshi—”
Qiao Qingman suppressed her voice and accused the man in front of her. “You, what are you doing?”
Kissing was one thing, but what was with a deep kiss?
And the “male lead” in Qiao Qingman’s eyes, at the moment he felt the pain on his lips, showed a brief look of surprise.
Gu Qingshan did not expect that this girl, who was calling him by the name “Gu Qianshi” while kissing him, would not only make him taste a faint sweetness for the first time in his life at the moment of the kiss, but would even make him feel pain from being bitten.
In the dim light, Gu Qingshan’s deep gaze fixed on the girl who had taken the initiative to kiss him.
Then, upon hearing her accuse him while calling him “Gu Qianshi,” a trace of amusement surfaced at the corner of his otherwise indifferent lips.
Catching the grievance in the girl’s eyes, the man raised his hand and wiped away the bright red bead of blood from his lips. Suppressing the intense shock caused by the sudden pain, he slightly lifted his brows. “If I remember correctly, you were the one who kissed me first. Why are you biting me?”
That single cold, magnetic sentence instantly stalled the flames of anger burning in Qiao Qingman’s heart.
Well… it did seem like she was the one who had spoken arrogantly first, then gone back on her word, and kissed Gu Qianshi the moment they met.
Then him kissing her back did not really seem wrong.
But, but hers was just a light peck. What was Gu Qianshi doing?
He was gnawing on her!
Could she not bite back?
A strong wave of sour frustration welled up in Qiao Qingman’s heart.
Her panicked heartbeat had not yet returned to normal when she lifted her eyes and saw the man’s gaze fixed on her. His deep, intense eyes carried a strong sense of scrutiny.
As if saying: one moment she claimed she did not like him, and the next she turned around and kissed him. In the end, the one who went back on her word was her.
The words of grievance reached Qiao Qingman’s lips, but suddenly she did not know what to say.
Recalling the suffocating pressure when the man had kissed her deeply, as well as the entwined, lingering intimacy, Qiao Qingman’s flushed cheeks burned hot.
She no longer dared to say another word and turned to leave.
But before she could move, she suddenly remembered something. Her father had warned her not to expose the fact that she knew martial arts.
Uh…
The male lead probably did not see how she jumped onto the balcony, right? Otherwise, how could he be so calm? Not even asking a single question?
But under normal circumstances, the male lead would not deeply kiss a girl he disliked who had snuck onto his balcony either, would he?
“So, didn’t you say you like me? Why did you bite me?”
The man’s low voice, tinged with a coaxing undertone, reached Qiao Qingman’s ears again.
She was not sure if it was an illusion, but Qiao Qingman seemed to hear a faint cold scoff.
Qiao Qingman: “?”
Who liked him?
If not for staying alive, how could she possibly run back to kiss him after being chased out of the villa?
What, biting him once was such a problem? Then why did he turn around and kiss her deeply?
If he had not kissed her, he would not have been bitten, right?
Men really were all big pig trotters.
“Yes. I like you. I bit you.” Qiao Qingman lifted her chin and looked straight at the man towering over her. “So what?”
Anyway, she had completed her first day’s kissing task. And when she was not involved in plotlines related to the male and female leads, she did not need to maintain any damn deeply-in-love persona.
Why should she care about him?
Yet when their eyes met, the bit of resentment in Qiao Qingman’s heart slowly retreated under the man’s deep, unreadable gaze.
Strange. Why was he staring at her like that?
As if he did not recognize her at all.
Just then, a faint wave of drowsiness washed over her. Qiao Qingman did not have the energy to continue wasting time here.
Whatever. She would go home first and think about it later.
Having made up her mind, Qiao Qingman casually pointed at a spot and lowered her voice, putting on a surprised expression. “Huh? What’s that?”
She was preparing to wait for the male lead to look over there, then use a hand chop or something.
But not only did the male lead not look in that direction, but he stared straight at her instead, looking utterly calm, as if waiting to see what trick she was about to pull.
Qiao Qingman: “……”
Well, that took all the fun out of it.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Qiao Qingman felt a headache coming on.
Honestly, did the male lead not have anything else to do?
Why was he so free to stay with her on this balcony? Was he not sleepy?
But she was.
The quieter it got, the sleepier she became.
Qiao Qingman forced herself to stay alert, knowing she could not fall asleep now. She still had to make her escape.
But for some reason, the drowsiness surged uncontrollably. She even felt like yawning.
She was in a standoff with the male lead. How could she yawn at a time like this?
Qiao Qingman clenched her hands tightly behind her back, using all her strength to suppress it, barely forcing the rising yawn back down.
But because of that, her nose stung and her eyes turned red.
In the dim night, with the cool breeze hazy around them, the girl could not help blinking. Two warm tears slid down from her misty eyes.
Qiao Qingman: “……”
She quickly lowered her head and turned slightly, wanting to wipe away the tears.
At the same time, another idea surfaced in her mind.
When she lifted her head again, Qiao Qingman looked toward the inside of the room in surprise. “Gu Qianshi, I think I heard someone calling you.”
If an ordinary person heard something like that, they would probably turn around to look, right?
The facts proved that Gu Qianshi truly lived up to being the male lead. He was not an ordinary person.
After Qiao Qingman said that, he continued to look at her calmly, as if nothing had happened.
Qiao Qingman had no other options left. On top of being unbearably sleepy, she decided to just knock Gu Qianshi out and go home to sleep.
However, at that moment, the man unexpectedly withdrew his gaze from her and turned to look inside.
Not only did he look, he even took two steps inward.
This caused Qiao Qingman, who had been planning to take the opportunity to knock him out with a hand strike, to miss her chance.
Qiao Qingman could not care about anything else anymore. Taking advantage of the moment when the male lead had not turned back, she quickly jumped off the balcony.
After landing steadily on the ground, Qiao Qingman looked back and realized that the male lead was no longer on the balcony.
Could it be that someone really was looking for him?
Qiao Qingman did not have time to think further. In the pitch-black night, she moved swiftly and lightly, leaped over the villa fence, and got into a car she had parked in a concealed spot.
She started the engine, stepped on the accelerator, and the car quickly disappeared into the soft moonlight.
Only after the car had driven far away did Qiao Qingman’s wildly pounding heart gradually calm down.
As her thoughts settled, Qiao Qingman finally could not hold it in anymore and let out a huge yawn.
She wiped away her tears and pulled the car over to the side. She took a cup of coffee from the refrigerator and gulped it down.
Forcing herself to stay awake, she continued driving.
She complained to the system, [This male lead, Gu Qianshi, really says one thing and does another. In front of others, he acts as if he hates me so much, but behind the scenes, he actually…]
Thinking back to that kiss that made her ears burn, Qiao Qingman could not continue.
The system was completely confused. [What’s wrong with the male lead? What did he do behind the scenes?]
Qiao Qingman: [……]
The system already knew and still asked? This system was really awful too.
The more Qiao Qingman refused to say anything, the more the system grew restless and kept pressing her. [Host, host, what happened to the male lead?]
What a pity. The moment the host kissed the male lead, its senses were blocked. Otherwise, it would have known what happened. Ah, ah, ah, it really wanted to know the gossip.
That said, why was the host so angry?
How could Qiao Qingman not be angry?
That had been her first time, her first kiss.
In Qiao Qingman’s view, lips touching lips just to complete a task did not count as a real kiss at all.
But a deep kiss, that…
Qiao Qingman felt like crying without tears.
Forget it. Looking at it from another angle, if the male lead was so easy for her to kiss, and even to kiss her back, then maybe… staying alive would not be that hard after all.
It just felt like something was not quite right.
Thinking of this, Qiao Qingman casually asked, [The first day’s kiss should count as completed, right? Why wasn’t there any notification?]
The system was shocked. No notification?
Could it be a bug that occurred during the system repair period?
At the same time.
At the Gu family villa.
Gu Qingshan stood on the second-floor balcony, watching the entire scene of the woman who had taken his first kiss getting into her car and fleeing in panic.
The man raised his hand and lightly touched his lip, which she had bitten until it bled. A trace of fluctuation passed through his deep-set brows and eyes.
The woman’s lips were very soft and sweet, yet carried a hint of blood.
This made Gu Qingshan’s heart tremble. He had not tasted anything or felt any pain for a long time.
When he recalled the moment the girl had shed tears…
Her eyes, filled with mist, were pure and innocent. Her long lashes, dampened by tears, trembled lightly, like something drifting uncertainly over a snowy mountain, ethereal, fragile, and heart-wrenching.
Her nose bridge was straight, her lips warm and lovely, and her fair skin was suffused with a deep flush. Under the dim light, she carried an indescribable sense of cold, broken beauty.
A hint of darkness rose in Gu Qingshan’s clear eyes.
He had only come today to see the older brother he had never met. He had not expected to encounter a girl who inexplicably kissed him and mistook him for Gu Qianshi.
According to what he knew, the girl who kissed him was called Qiao Qingman, and she was Gu Qianshi’s loyal pursuer.
Loyal? She could not even tell she had kissed the wrong person.
Not only did she bite him that hard, but she even foolishly used such a clumsy excuse to try to divert his attention.
But…
Why was she able to give him such a different experience?
What was different about Qiao Qingman?
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Gu Qingshan saw Gu Qianshi’s cousin, Chen Leyan, seemingly chasing in the direction where Qiao Qingman’s car had left, looking puzzled.
Gu Qingshan casually tossed something, diverting Chen Leyan’s attention.
Before long, the sound of a door opening echoed again. Gu Qingshan lifted a corner of the curtain and, through a layer of thin gauze inside, saw a man who looked exactly like him standing at the doorway, with a girl apologizing to him.
“I’m sorry, cousin. I didn’t mean to break that vase. Please forgive me.”
“How about I treat you to drinks at a bar tomorrow night to make up for it, okay?”
Hearing this, Gu Qianshi said indifferently, “It’s fine. It’s just a vase.”
But Chen Yiyi refused to let it go and insisted on making it up to Gu Qianshi.
With no way to deal with her tugging on his arm, Gu Qianshi gave a flat “Mm.”
For some reason, he seemed to sense something and glanced toward the balcony. After Chen Yiyi left satisfied, Gu Qianshi closed the door thoughtfully and strode to the balcony, only to find that there was nothing there.