Gu Qingshan?
Could this be a WeChat request sent by the male lead, Gu Qianshi?
Strange. Hadn’t the male lead already blocked her? How did he add her again using a new account?
A new account?
With curiosity in her heart, Qiao Qingman opened the WeChat friend request page and accepted the request.
The other party immediately sent an address, which displayed: [Jianyun Villa.]
Other than that, there were no further messages.
Jianyun Villa? Why would the male lead suddenly send her this address?
Qiao Qingman did not think too deeply about the difference between this new WeChat account and the previous one that had blocked her. She opened the address and discovered that it was only 1.8 kilometers away from her home.
So close?
Where exactly was this place?
“If you need to find me again in the future, come here.”
The words the male lead had said when he brought her to that magnificent place the night before last suddenly surfaced in Qiao Qingman’s mind.
Wait. So, the address the male lead sent her now, could it be that same villa from that night?
Was this the place where the male lead wanted to complete the kissing tasks with her?
Qiao Qingman grew excited.
This villa was so close to her home. That way, even if the male lead deep-kissed her here, she could still barely rely on coffee and sheer willpower to drive herself home.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Looking down again at the WeChat request on her phone, Qiao Qingman also figured it out. The male lead must have created a new WeChat account specially to make it easier for the two of them to kiss.
No wonder he had deliberately blocked her previous WeChat account. So he had planned this all along.
Unexpectedly, the male lead was actually quite sensible.
An hour and a half later, Qiao Qingman’s car stopped at the entrance of Jianyun Villa.
Just as she was thinking of rolling down the window to speak to the security guard, the barrier gate at the entrance automatically lifted.
Clearly, arrangements had already been made in advance.
So Qiao Qingman drove her car into the villa’s front courtyard.
Unlike the last time, when it had been so late at night that she could barely see anything, now the evening glow spilled over the exquisitely shaped greenery, casting unique, dappled light and shadow.
Qiao Qingman reached out her hand, warm light pooling in her palm. For a brief moment, it felt as if time itself had softened.
She could not help sighing. This place was far more beautiful than any resort she had stayed at before.
Soon, the car stopped in front of a villa.
Well-trained staff approached and opened the car door for Qiao Qingman, respectfully making a “please” gesture. “Hello, Miss Qiao. President Gu is waiting for you in the study on the second floor.”
Hm? He was already waiting for her?
How did the male lead know she would come over at this time?
“Alright, thank you.”
Qiao Qingman did not think too much about it. She gave the staff a polite smile and walked into the villa, step by step going up to the second floor.
When she reached the study door the maid pointed out, she raised her hand, suppressed her nerves, and knocked.
Honestly, this was her first time completing a kissing task in this kind of way.
It felt rather strange.
While she was still letting her thoughts wander, Qiao Qingman heard the man’s rich, pleasant voice come from inside. “Come in.”
So Qiao Qingman pushed the door open.
What entered her view was the man seated upright at the desk, working intently.
The man was undoubtedly good-looking, the kind of flawless appearance that left nothing to criticize.
At this moment, he was backed by the floor-to-ceiling window. The colorful evening glow streamed in through the wide glass, outlining his figure with a soft halo. It diluted the man’s inherent coldness and instead added a hazy, restrained, and indescribably upright sense of abstinence that made one’s heart race instantly.
Qiao Qingman’s heartbeat inexplicably skipped a beat.
She could not help wanting to raise her hand to cover her rapidly beating chest.
However, when she lifted her gaze, she met the man’s deep eyes.
His gaze was dark and bright. There was clearly nothing special about it, yet Qiao Qingman guiltily lowered her hand again.
As if afraid of being seen through.
Then she heard the man speak calmly, “Miss Qiao came quite early today.”
He even deliberately emphasized “today.”
Qiao Qingman froze. “?”
Only then did she realize that she had come to see the male lead before night had even fallen.
Previously, had she not almost always gone to see the male lead at night? Unless it was an accidental encounter, she would only seize the chance to steal a kiss during the day to complete the kissing task.
Thinking carefully, had she not originally planned to look for the male lead before midnight tonight?
After all, that way she could complete two days’ worth of kissing tasks at once.
It must have been because she was too excited when she received the male lead’s WeChat message and came over without thinking, right?
Then the way the male lead asked her this…
Qiao Qingman cleared her throat. In the next second, her “deeply-in-love” persona went online. “Because I missed you very much.”
Before the words even finished leaving her mouth, Qiao Qingman curved her brows and added with a sweet smile, “Mr. Gu Qingshan, you know this. I like you very much, so much that I want to see you every single day. So now that I’ve seen you, I’m very happy. Um, I’ll come look for you again later—”
Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, Qiao Qingman sensed that something was off. Why did this sound like she was confessing without being asked?
Combined with the man’s earlier remark about her coming early today, Qiao Qingman suddenly understood.
Was the male lead asking about her sneaking into Rongjing Villa last night?
Thinking about it, that made sense. No matter how much a girl liked a man, she would not normally sneak into his villa in the middle of the night, especially by climbing over the wall, which was rather extreme.
Ah, this…
How was she supposed to explain that?
Could she say that she missed him so much she could not sleep and came just to take a look?
The male lead would probably call the police and have her arrested, right?
Just as she caught the man’s meaningful gaze, Qiao Qingman fell silent.
She quietly took a deep breath. “What I mean is, I was afraid you didn’t like me and didn’t want to see me, so I could only… only use some special methods to see you once.”
“So Miss Qiao braved the heavy rain last night and climbed onto the balcony of Rongjing Villa…”
The man lifted his eyelids casually. “It was just to see me once?”
Qiao Qingman thought to herself: as expected, the male lead really did ask her this question.
She knew it. She really could not let the male lead discover it. Otherwise, it would be genuinely hard to explain.
But since it had already been discovered, not explaining it was clearly not an option.
Fortunately…
Qiao Qingman blinked her clear, limpid eyes. Her long eyelashes were lively and playful. “So Mr. Gu was being considerate of me, which is why you took the initiative to ask whether I still wanted to kiss you? And you even carried me and jumped down from such a high wall?”
Since the male lead brought this up, she could only throw it back at him.
Even though she did not understand why the male lead insisted on bringing it up.
He clearly knew what she had climbed the villa wall for, yet he still asked?
He had even taken the initiative to ask whether she still wanted to kiss him, and he still asked?
What Qiao Qingman did not know was that when Gu Qingshan heard this answer, the originally clear and gentle look in his eyes turned dark and unreadable.
He naturally knew why Qiao Qingman had gone to Rongjing Villa last night. It was nothing more than because she believed he was Gu Qianshi.
Even though he did not know why Qiao Qingman had formed such an understanding, since that was the case, he could only go along with the mistake.
He just had not expected her to come so early today, and to start talking about “missing you” and “liking you” the moment she arrived.
As for whether to kiss or not, that question was not important.
What mattered was this. If the person sitting in front of Qiao Qingman right now were the real Gu Qianshi, would she also say those words without the slightest hesitation?
Immediately, the man became clearly aware of one thing. The man Qiao Qingman wanted to kiss had always been Gu Qianshi, not him, Gu Qingshan.
Gu Qingshan’s face darkened. “……”
Qiao Qingman was still wondering why the male lead was not answering her question when she suddenly felt that something about the atmosphere in the study was not quite right.
She immediately understood. The male lead did not want to bring up the matter of him also having a kissing task.
To be honest, she did not want to bring up last night either. It was embarrassing, okay?
So why hurt each other?
Qiao Qingman felt she understood the male lead’s mood very well. Smiling with her eyes curved, unlike before, she did not chase after the question of whether he liked her a little too.
Instead, she directly said, “If Mr. Gu doesn’t mind, I’ll come look for you again tomorrow?”
Although she said “tomorrow,” Qiao Qingman was actually planning to come tonight.
And she had it all planned out. One kiss before twelve o’clock, one kiss after twelve o’clock. In one go, she would complete two days’ worth of kissing tasks, and at the location the male lead had specially chosen for kissing.
Perfect.
Especially when the man fixed his deep, dark gaze on her for a few seconds, then calmly responded with a soft “Mm.”
Completely unaware that when he heard the word “tomorrow,” a trace of confusion flashed through his cold eyes.
Then, when he caught the fleeting little scheme on her fair, tender face, the corners of his lips tugged faintly.
That very night, shortly after ten-thirty, Qiao Qingman eagerly drove to Jianyun Villa.
Much like earlier in the evening, she passed through unimpeded and arrived at the villa’s main entrance.
As soon as the villa door was opened by a maid, Qiao Qingman stepped inside and saw that the big villain who had seemed rather restrained and abstinent in the evening was now bare-chested, his firm, cold-white upper body completely exposed, a white bath towel wrapped around his waist, exuding a seductive, dangerous allure as he walked out from the open backyard of the villa.
Perhaps because he had just taken a bath or gone for a swim, the man’s cold-white skin was tinged with a faint flush. That typical cold-white complexion, under the warm orange indoor lighting, gained an extra layer of soft, hazy warmth.
The man’s brows and eyes were deep and captivating, his nose bridge high and sexy, his lips attractive and gentle.
Lower down were his prominent Adam’s apple and defined collarbones, and further still, the powerful muscle lines across his bare chest.
Gu Qingshan’s hair was still wet, water dripping down. A cool breeze blew in from the backyard, and clear droplets slid from the hair at his temples, traced along his flawless, refined profile, flowed down his cold-white chest, passed over the most pronounced muscle lines, and finally disappeared into the white bath towel wrapped around his waist.
The entire scene before her eyes carried an intensely cool restraint, yet at the same time an irresistible allure.
In just one second, her heart began pounding wildly.
Qiao Qingman abruptly widened her eyes, reflexively covering her rapidly beating heart and swallowing hard.
At the same time, she remembered that she still had to kiss the male lead.
Without realizing it, Qiao Qingman stepped toward the man.