Chapter 37

Because it was their first kiss, Jiang Du was extremely clumsy. Her teeth seemed to be chattering like a tightly shut city gate, and the rhythm of her breathing felt wrong. The more nervous she got, the stiffer she became. 'How embarrassing would it be to admit this? Having my first kiss with a man at 28?'

Wei Qingyue slowly furrowed his brows and said, "You're just like before, you don't look very smart." As he spoke, he deliberately stayed close to her skin, his voice low and tinged with a smile. The breath he exhaled was ticklish, like the light brush of a feather.

Those words were too damaging to her pride. Jiang Du blinked in extreme embarrassment, mumbled for a moment, and said, "I'm not very good at it." But not forgetting to defend herself, she asked him, "So, are you very experienced?"

"It's my first time too, but I can do it very well."

Wei Qingyue was in an excellent mood. He caressed her lips with the pad of his finger, repeatedly confirming their temperature and feel. He gave a very ambiguous smile, his voice dropping lower again, "One more time? This kind of thing gets better with practice, don't you think?"

It was late, and there were noticeably fewer people in the residential complex. Occasionally, someone walking their dog would pass by. A lazy owner leading an enthusiastic-looking husky with a silly face glanced at the two of them before continuing on their way.

Wei Qingyue suddenly pulled Jiang Du's hand, crossed the lawn, and walked into a corner where the streetlights didn't reach and passersby couldn't see. He brushed aside her loose, long hair with his fingers and once again captured her soft lips.

The taste of a kiss was wonderful, like riding in a hot air balloon. Their breaths mingled, their sounds intertwined. Jiang Du had the feeling of doing something naughty in the dark—it was both nervous and exciting. She pulled Wei Qingyue's shirt out of shape, gripping it tightly. 'After all, if your mouth is busy, doesn't it feel weird if your hands don't have a place to go?'

In the end, her lips went numb, as if from an allergic reaction. Jiang Du suspected her lips might be swollen like a sausage on a grill, and one that was about to burst from the heat.

Wei Qingyue let her go, panting lightly. He seemed to chuckle and asked, "Was the experience any better?"

Jiang Du was mortified. She replied nonsensically, "You should go home, it's already very late."

"Oh, it is very late. How about I stay at your place?" Wei Qingyue teased. As expected, Jiang Du showed a terrified expression and shook her head vehemently. "How could that be okay?"

Wei Qingyue hugged her, burying his face in her woolly curls, nuzzling her again and again like an animal. He asked her what brand of shampoo she used; it smelled so good.

'Huh? Twelve years ago, he was so aloof, and a single word from him could drive you up a wall. But now he's acting like a big, fluffy dog?' Jiang Du's heart pounded erratically. She suddenly understood the meaning of intimate whispers and caresses.

Wei Qingyue started kissing her hair, then her ear. Wherever he kissed, Jiang Du would shiver. He also liked to call her Ghostwriter. That QQ Number... she didn't use it anymore; the profile picture had been grey for many years.

"Why do you call me Ghostwriter?" Jiang Du couldn't help but ask amidst her pleasant shivers.

Wei Qingyue smiled and asked back, "Why do you think?" He seemed to really like her hair, winding it around his finger, letting it go, and then winding it again.

Jiang Du blushed, her gaze lowered to the ground. "How did you know?"

"Because I'm smart," Wei Qingyue's tone was quite conceited. "Unlike you, who doesn't understand anything. No matter what I say, you're just a block of wood."

"What did you say?" Jiang Du's eyes stung. 'You never said you liked me.'

"I hinted to you time and time again that you could keep writing to me, but you either pretended to be clueless or you really didn't get it, didn't you?" Wei Qingyue held a meaningful smile.

Jiang Du said sullenly, "Why didn't you write to me? You always made me write to you."

Wei Qingyue's smile faded slightly. He switched to a serious tone. "I did write. Before I went abroad, I tucked the letter into the last issue of Book City. I thought I had made my feelings clear enough. If you still didn't understand, then you were really so dense that I had nothing more to say."

Jiang Du looked at him, bewildered. "You wrote me a letter?"

"Why would I lie to you? Didn't you see it?" Wei Qingyue's eyes flickered. "Don't you really like Book City magazine? You didn't read it?"

Jiang Du's lips moved, and she silently shook her head.

"How can you be so dense? Don't you love reading books? You didn't even look at the one I gave you?" Wei Qingyue seemed to get angry again, the kind of helpless anger that couldn't be fully expressed, yet he was unwilling to let it go.

"Why do you always call me dense?" Jiang Du was good at picking up on things. She remembered the pecking order at Mei Zhong, where liberal arts students were synonymous with low intelligence.

Wei Qingyue deliberately teased her, "Are you angry? Jiang Du, so you're the type who can't handle the truth. Do you think you're smart? You can't really be considered smart, right? Back then, you almost failed physics."

Jiang Du couldn't refute it, so she naturally reached out and hit him lightly. The gesture carried the coquettishness of a girlfriend, which she herself didn't realize, but Wei Qingyue felt it. With both hands in his pockets, he tilted his head, leaned down slightly, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a smile:

"Admit it? Alright then. Though not that smart, your honesty is a virtue. Can I ask another question? Jiang Du, I'm your first love, right?"

This guy was truly shameless.

'How come I never noticed before that Wei Qingyue was so narcissistic and thick-skinned?' Jiang Du pressed her lips into a thin line and didn't answer.

"So stingy? Unwilling to say? Well then, I'll be generous and tell you something. My first love is you." Wei Qingyue was completely candid. After saying this, he felt refreshed, as if the sludge that had been clogging his chest for twelve years had been cleared away in an instant. He didn't forget to tease the easily blushing Jiang Du again. "I say, you don't happen to not know what 'first love' means, do you? After all, you didn't even know what 'Ghostwriter' meant."

Even old stories had to be brought up for a bit of teasing. Jiang Du blushed easily and also tended to confuse jokes with facts, but looking at Wei Qingyue's faint expression, she could tell the difference.

Moreover, and most importantly, her lipstick had all been eaten by Wei Qingyue. Suddenly realizing this, Jiang Du quickly said, "Spit it out." As she spoke, she rummaged through her small crossbody bag and handed him a tissue. "Spit on the paper, or you can just wipe your mouth."

What a strange request. Wei Qingyue first laughed, then said good-naturedly, "Spit what out? You're really something, Jiang Du. I've never heard of someone being asked to spit after a kiss."

He took the tissue with great interest. Although he said that, he still did as she asked, readily accepting her advice. Jiang Du was always genuinely good to him; Wei Qingyue never doubted this point. Without it, he didn't know how he would have endured one three-year period after another.

Jiang Du took the paper back, ran to a trash can, and threw it in. Standing in the light, she said, "It's really late. You should go home. Be safe on the road. When you get home," she took a deep breath, "you must give me a call." Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to sleep soundly all night.

She didn't explain her intention for asking him to spit earlier, and surprisingly, Wei Qingyue didn't ask. He said, "Okay," and wanted to watch her go upstairs, but Jiang Du said no. She wanted to watch him leave and insisted on walking him to the complex entrance.

"I don't like people watching me from behind." Jiang Du was very stubborn about this, so Wei Qingyue couldn't argue with her. Hanging from his car key was a Tweety Bird keychain. It was very old, and dangled incessantly in his hand when he took it out. Jiang Du had seen it long ago. She held back from saying or asking anything. Some things were too obvious. She repeatedly encouraged herself not to hesitate anymore. 'Agree to him, agree to him, agree to whatever he says.'

Just as Wei Qingyue opened the car door and was about to get in, Jiang Du suddenly called out to him, "Wei Qingyue."

Wei Qingyue raised his eyes and looked at her.

"Is your health okay?" When she asked this, she felt very sad.

How mean could Wei Qingyue be? He gave a wicked smile. "Want to try? You'll know once you try in the future. I don't even mind trying tonight."

This guy was too bad. Heaven knew with what a self-reproachful and sorrowful heart she was asking about old wounds, so why was he still smiling? Jiang Du didn't grasp his insinuation at first. She asked foolishly, "Me? How can I test your health? I'm not a doctor."

"The male rabbit fainted, didn't it? Don't worry, I won't. I'm more afraid you'll be the one to faint." Wei Qingyue gripped the steering wheel, turning his head to look at her, smiling the whole time. That popular science magazine in her living room—she had probably forgotten about it herself.

Jiang Du froze for a moment. When she understood, the roots of her ears turned red. 'Oh my, how has Wei Qingyue become like this now? Is this even appropriate?'

"Just go already," Jiang Du muttered, urging him.

But Wei Qingyue didn't forget to keep making her blush. "Still want to kiss me? If you do, come over and give me one more kiss, and I'll leave."

Jiang Du's temples throbbed.

She stood there stiffly and said, "If you don't leave, I'm going home."

Wei Qingyue sat in the car. In the dim light, the gaze from his deep eyes was tender. He finally became a bit more serious:

"I'll come pick you up again tomorrow after you get off work."

'You have so much free time,' Jiang Du thought.

She still hadn't properly processed everything that happened today, but how could she bear to refuse Wei Qingyue? She knew it. The moment Wei Qingyue appeared, she would fall, thud, right into his world.

"Then I'll wait for you." Jiang Du walked over and closed the car door for him. The window was halfway down. Wei Qingyue suddenly reached out, grabbed her hand, and brought it to his lips, pressing a light kiss against it while his gaze fixed deeply on her, captivating and soul-stirring. "Wait for me. I'll come for you."

I'll come for you.

Jiang Du wanted to cry again. 'I've been waiting for you every single day, waiting for you to come for me, to come into my world.'

The car started, and he slowly released her hand, letting it slide gently away.

The realness of touching a lover's skin, that warmth, was simply incredible.

At 11:27 PM, Wei Qingyue arrived home. The first thing he did was call Jiang Du.

There was no answer. He wondered if she had gone to wash up, then sent her a WeChat message.

Soon, she called back. Wei Qingyue held the phone with his shoulder and ear while pouring himself a glass of purified water.

"I'm home. Were you busy just now?"

Jiang Du's voice was very gentle over the phone. She said, "Grandma was talking to me."

Wei Qingyue laughed. "What did you say?"

"I said I had something to do with a colleague today and came back late."

The sound of Wei Qingyue swallowing water was very clear. On the other end, Jiang Du could even imagine his Adam's apple bobbing and felt ashamed of her own imagination.

"Oh? Since when did I become your colleague?" Wei Qingyue retorted playfully.

"You should go take a shower and go to bed," Jiang Du said.

"'You should go home,' 'You should take a shower,' 'You should go to bed,'" Wei Qingyue imitated her tone perfectly. "You're not even married to me yet, and you're already nagging so much."

'Hey, who said anything about marrying him?' Jiang Du tried hard to suppress the curve that wanted to form on her lips.

"What nonsense are you talking about," she said softly.

Wei Qingyue lay down on the sofa, lazy and relaxed.

"I was trying to say that I'm full of bad habits and need someone to manage me."

Jiang Du held her breath and said, "But I remember Zhang Xiaoqiang said you were the most rebellious in middle school. If anyone tried to persuade you to change something, you would immediately turn hostile."

"Is that so?" Wei Qingyue smiled faintly. "Why do you care what Zhang Xiaoqiang says? Why not come and ask me? Right now, I actually appreciate being managed. Of course, anyone other than my dear classmate Ghostwriter still won't do."

He held the car key up in one hand, moving his arm and watching the Tweety Bird keychain swing.

Behind the Tweety Bird keychain was a large clock on the wall. The room was silent, the clock ticking incessantly. The housekeeping auntie had a cold and hadn't come to clean, so the house was actually a bit of a mess.

On Jiang Du's end, she said flusteredly, "I have to go, Grandma is knocking on the door, asking why I'm still not asleep."

"Say you love me," Wei Qingyue said abruptly, his tone unusually forceful. Perhaps it was because Jiang Du was about to hang up that he felt a strong palpitation.

On the other end, the call had already been disconnected. Jiang Du didn't hear him.

Wei Qingyue stared at the ceiling, lost in thought for a while. Hearing the clock, he got up to turn on his computer and deal with new emails.

A man's home. It was cold and impersonal. There was actually very little furniture, and the kitchen was only used when the housekeeping auntie came. Many of his habits were the same as in his youth. He didn't much like to tidy up. Without the housekeeping auntie, Wei Qingyue could turn his home into a pigsty.

Of course, with so few things in the house, the possibility of it turning into a pigsty was still quite low.

He handled emails alone until very late. The light was on. The room was large and as quiet as the depths of the sea. Wei Qingyue was like a lonely whale, keeping a distance from the world, yet infinitely close to it.

On his phone, there was a message from Zhang Xiaoqiang. She had left a message: Do you have time this week?

She had helped him schedule an appointment with the most authoritative neurology expert, reminding him to find some time.

He had stayed in touch with his old classmate to this day, and the result was that this Zhang Xiaoqiang had never given up on making appointments with various doctors for him.

Wei Qingyue picked up his phone and replied to her with one word: No.

It was always "No."

After a thought, he replied with another message: I saw Jiang Du.