Qiao Qingman had always known that this male lead’s outward conditions were exceptionally outstanding.
Cool and noble, cold and aloof, yet refined, coupled with those deep-set eyes. No matter where he stood, he was the kind of person who made others unable to resist glancing at him again and again.
What she had not expected was that once that outer layer of clothing was removed, the man’s physique would be so sexy and alluring.
Especially when the man was gazing at her with such deep intensity…
Qiao Qingman swallowed again. The steps she took forward suddenly felt hesitant and uncertain.
Just then, the system’s urging voice sounded in her mind: [Host, what are you waiting for? Have you forgotten how tight the timing was the past two days?]
Qiao Qingman: […]
How could she forget? That day, she had been so pressured that she had almost not wanted to continue the task.
With no choice, Qiao Qingman quickened her steps. At the same time, to maintain her so-called “deeply-in-love” persona, she had to lift the corners of her mouth and look at the man before her with fervent eyes.
“Gu Qingshan, g-good evening.”
Before her words even finished, Qiao Qingman gathered her courage and walked straight up to him, cupped the man’s face, rose onto her tiptoes, and kissed him.
As the system’s broadcast sounded in her mind: [Day eleven kiss, check-in successful.]
Qiao Qingman released the man’s lips.
Only then did she belatedly realize that her thin white shirt seemed a little damp.
She lowered her head and saw that where the two of them had been pressed together, the water droplets on the man’s bare chest had already soaked into her own shirt.
In other words, she had used her own shirt to wipe the water off his chest?
The most outrageous part was that because of this unintentional action, parts of her shirt had become somewhat “thin.”
Certain contours were faintly visible.
Qiao Qingman’s fair face instantly flushed red. She hurriedly raised her hand to cover the neckline of her shirt.
Then she heard the man’s low voice. “If I remember correctly, Miss Qiao said she would come look for me tomorrow?”
Qiao Qingman: “……”
Wasn’t she thinking that since she had to kiss him tomorrow anyway…
Wait. What time was it now?
Wasn’t it almost midnight already? Why had the male lead not gone to sleep yet?
And he was even bathing in the middle of the night?
The moment the words “bathing” came to mind, Qiao Qingman felt flustered and instinctively lifted her head. Sure enough, she saw the man gazing at her with intense eyes.
His gaze did not linger on her hand for even a moment, as if he had not noticed anything different about her at all.
Qiao Qingman relaxed slightly and secretly let out a breath. “Isn’t it because… I really didn’t want to wait until tomorrow. I just wanted to see you earlier.”
In her heart, Qiao Qingman thought the male lead was really annoying.
If she had a single rest day or double rest days like the male lead, she would not need to run over to see him every day.
Speaking of which, judging by the schedule, was the male lead about to have a single or double rest day again?
What if he did not let her kiss him then?
While she was still thinking about this, Qiao Qingman heard the man respond with a calm “Mm,” then watched as he walked straight past her.
He went upstairs and closed the bedroom door.
Leaving Qiao Qingman standing there alone, staring blankly at the tightly shut door on the second floor.
Gu Qingshan just left like that?
After being kissed by her once, he just left like that? He did not kiss her back?
What, did his rest day arrive that quickly?
Then what about her kiss tomorrow?
Qiao Qingman took out her phone and checked the time. There were still ten minutes before it turned into the next day.
According to her original plan, she was supposed to kiss the male lead on two consecutive days.
But if she rushed up now, what if the male lead was changing clothes?
Besides, her clothes were still a bit…
That earlier scene replayed in Qiao Qingman’s mind, a thread of heat rising in her chest. Her breathing tightened.
She hurriedly shook off those inexplicable thoughts and walked over to sit on the living room sofa, obediently waiting for the male lead to come downstairs.
The hand pressed against her shirt, however, did not dare move at all.
Wait. There did not seem to be any maids around? No other people either?
The male lead was really leaving an outsider alone here without worry?
Fortunately, there was no one around. Otherwise, her covering her chest like this would have been far too embarrassing.
But as she waited and waited, seeing that the time had already passed midnight and there was still no movement from the upstairs room, Qiao Qingman grew unsettled.
Strange. Had the male lead fallen asleep while changing clothes?
Or had he simply forgotten that she even existed?
Recalling the last time the male lead had gone two days in a row without kissing her and had still been perfectly fine, Qiao Qingman felt displeased.
Even though he had rushed to kiss her on the third day, she still did not feel good about it.
Having rest days was so great, huh.
Just as her shirt had mostly dried, Qiao Qingman stopped worrying about whether the male lead was changing clothes or not. She stood up from the sofa and walked step by step to the door on the second floor. Just as she was about to raise her hand to knock, the door opened from inside.
The man, dressed in deep blue pajamas, stood tall and straight before her.
He was very tall. Especially at such close distance, the height difference between them was particularly obvious.
Qiao Qingman had originally wanted to take advantage of the moment he opened the door to complete the next kiss. But when the tall man appeared so suddenly, she forgot her next move entirely.
It was the man who slowly and calmly spoke first. “Does Miss Qiao still have something else?”
In fact, Gu Qingshan naturally knew that before completing tomorrow’s kiss, Qiao Qingman would not leave.
He even knew that the “tomorrow” she mentioned would arrive early, that very night.
What he had not expected was that when Qiao Qingman arrived, it would be exactly the moment he had just come out of the hot spring pool in the backyard.
He had never expected that while she was standing on her tiptoes to kiss him, she would end up dampening her own clothes in the process, to the point that…
The man slightly lifted his chin. His gaze was deep and intense, and his prominent Adam’s apple rolled faintly.
The movement was simple and instinctive. Even the subtle ripple that passed through his eyes went unnoticed by him.
As for Qiao Qingman, who was completely unaware of the man’s subtle changes, she felt nothing but helplessness in the face of his question.
In her heart, she complained silently. She also wanted to go home and sleep properly. Wasn’t it just that she had no rest days and had to work every single day like a miserable laborer…?
And then she thought about how this man could so brazenly question her and still not kiss her back. Wasn’t he just relying on the fact that he had rest days?
Qiao Qingman grew increasingly annoyed.
Thinking that the male lead only kissed her back because of the task anyway, and probably disliked her more than anything in reality, Qiao Qingman took a deep breath and forcibly squeezed out a smile that carried no trace of joy.
“Of course there is.”
Then she cupped the man’s face and kissed him again.
As the system’s broadcast sounded in her mind: [Day twelve kiss, check-in successful.]
This time, Qiao Qingman did not release the man’s lips as she had before. Instead, she bit down hard.
Immediately, she tasted blood.
And the man’s muffled groan.
Right after that, just as Qiao Qingman felt she had taken revenge and was about to end the kiss, the man reached out, wrapped a large hand around her waist, and without giving her any chance to refuse, deepened the kiss.
Threads of fresh scent rushed straight into her nasal cavity. With wave after wave of soft, numbing sensations from the touch of his tongue, Qiao Qingman’s mind went blank in an instant.
Only when the familiar drowsiness swept over her did Qiao Qingman suddenly jolt awake.
Oh no. How did she get kissed back by the male lead again?
That was not right. Wasn’t the male lead on a rest day? Or was it a single rest day?
Then why did he not take the initiative to kiss her while she was here, and instead only do it after she kissed him first?
What Qiao Qingman did not know was that Gu Qingshan had no deep-kiss task at all. If it had not been for the sudden pain throwing him off balance, he would not have kissed her back.
At this moment, Gu Qingshan was pushed away by Qiao Qingman. She looked at him pitifully, her captivating eyes misty, whether from sleepiness or something else, shimmering under the warm-toned lights above her head like scattered diamonds.
She looked unbearably fragile.
The man’s gaze shifted slightly.
That night, Qiao Qingman returned home and, as usual, washed up briefly and fell asleep instantly.
She did not even realize that a car had followed her after she left Jianyun Villa.
After that, Qiao Qingman rested at home for most of the day and went out shopping the next day.
On the evening of the following day, she appeared at Jianyun Villa again.
Just like that, half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Qiao Qingman’s kissing days gradually accumulated to twenty-four.
Victory was practically in sight.
“If only I could keep kissing like this forever,” Qiao Qingman sighed as she looked at the pouring rain outside the window.
Fortunately, she had completed today’s kissing task a little after midnight last night. Otherwise, if she had had to brave the heavy rain to look for the male lead again, she would definitely have been very unhappy.
Honestly, the male lead had been unbelievably cooperative lately.
She was starting to feel dazed, sometimes even thinking that this task was far too easy.
“Ding-ling-ling—”
A burst of phone ringing sounded.
Qiao Qingman picked up her phone and saw that it was the male lead’s previous phone number.
The reason she said “previous” was that over the past ten-plus days, the male lead had never contacted her using this number.
He had not even used the new WeChat account again.
Strange. What was going on?
Just as Qiao Qingman was about to answer the call, the other party hung up first.
Immediately after, a message arrived from the old WeChat account tied to that phone number:
[Be here in half an hour. Otherwise, never see me again.]
Qiao Qingman: “?”
She opened the address sent from the male lead’s old WeChat account and saw that it was very far away. Even if she set off immediately, it would be impossible to arrive within half an hour.
What did this mean? What was the male lead trying to do?
And the wind and rain outside were raging…
At this moment, the system spoke up: [Host, hurry and go. What if the male lead refuses to let you kiss him again?]
Qiao Qingman: […]
To be honest, although the male lead’s lips were very nice to kiss and even a bit sweet, suddenly pulling something like this was really infuriating.
At the same time, after sending the WeChat message, Su Xia immediately deleted both the message and the call record.
She then lifted her head and looked at the dark sky outside, filled with lightning and thunder. The soft and sweet-looking girl curled her lips faintly and casually pushed the phone in her hand to the spot beside the coffee cup across from her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a tall man walking over. She withdrew the smile at her lips, picked up the coffee beside her, and brought it to her mouth.
When the man arrived in front of her, Su Xia spoke softly, “Mr. Gu, Yiyi said she wants to wait for me somewhere else, but the rain outside is very heavy, and I’m a bit scared to drive alone. So… could I trouble Mr. Gu to drive me there?”