Lemon Soda Candy - 83

Chen Luobai's apartment was located near No. 2 High School, in a newly built upscale residential complex.

The primary color scheme was black and white, but unlike the feeling she had the first time he took her to that apartment in Beicheng, it didn't feel as empty. Looking around, there were plenty of everyday items, as if someone had lived here.

"Have you stayed here before?" Zhou Anran asked, turning her head to look at him.

Chen Luobai nodded. "I lived here for my final year of high school."

Hearing that, Zhou Anran wasn't surprised.

It was true that many day students in their final year at No. 2 High chose to rent places nearby.

The college entrance exam was a tough battle; saving even a little time was valuable.

After changing their shoes, Chen Luobai reached out his hand to her. "Thirsty? Want something to drink first?"

Zhou Anran, just like she had in the hotel lobby not long ago, placed her hand in his. "A little."

Chen Luobai led her to the sofa. "Sit here for a bit. I'll get you some water."

Zhou Anran nodded obediently.

Only after sitting down on the sofa did Zhou Anran realize she had forgotten to take off her small bag.

She took off the little black cross-body bag and placed it on the coffee table, then found herself staring at it, lost in thought.

That letter was still inside her bag.

—The love letter Chen Luobai had written for her.

Before entering the classroom this afternoon, or perhaps, until he appeared in front of her wearing that No. 2 High uniform, she had thought today was just an ordinary class reunion.

She never expected that he would have all her friends and his friends change into No. 2 High uniforms, partially recreating the scene from that day, and then use a new love letter to overwrite the old one.

Or rather, with this second love letter, he had transformed the previous one into a kind of sweet memory as well.

"Spacing out again?" Chen Luobai's voice sounded suddenly.

Zhou Anran turned her head and saw him sitting down beside her, a glass of water held in his cool, pale, slender hand being offered to her.

It was probably warm water; steam hovered at the rim of the glass.

Zhou Anran shook her head, took the glass, and drank from it slowly.

Before Chen Luobai could do anything after she set the cup down again, the girl had already burrowed into his embrace, her arms wrapping around his waist, pressing against him softly.

He was momentarily stunned, then couldn't help but laugh, his hand settling on her waist. "What's this? So proactive tonight?"

Even now, Zhou Anran's heart felt incredibly soft, as if she had so, so, so many things she wanted to tell him, yet she didn't know exactly what to say.

She had never been very good at expressing emotions.

Zhou Anran stared at the boy's sharply defined face for a few seconds, then buried her face in the crook of his neck. After a muffled moment, only one sentence finally emerged.

"I like you so much."

Chen Luobai's arm around her waist tightened.

This was the second time he had heard her say she liked him with her own words.

The first time was yesterday afternoon, but she had been crying so hard then, and he had been solely focused on comforting her. He hadn't even had time to properly savor it then.

It seemed he couldn't properly savor it this time either.

Usually, when she just acted a little cute with him, he could barely handle it.

Let alone her confessing to him in this almost coquettish tone.

Let alone the fact that his intentions in bringing her back tonight were far from pure to begin with.

"Zhou Anran."

Zhou Anran made a soft sound of acknowledgment.

Chen Luobai looked down. Her hair was slightly mussed from rubbing against his chest, and the half-section of her neck that was visible had a pink flush.

"Remember what I said to you this afternoon?"

Zhou Anran was slightly taken aback. "What?"

Chen Luobai reminded her. "You said I was going back on my word, and what I said right after that."

Zhou Anran realized which sentence he was referring to—

"Because I'm already trying my hardest to hold back."

Her face instantly grew hot.

Chen Luobai pinched the nape of her neck gently and leaned close to her ear. "You agreed to come back with me, and now you confess to me in this coquettish tone. Aren't you afraid—"

He paused, and the second half of the sentence was spoken with his lips completely pressed against her ear.

Zhou Anran had never imagined she would hear such words from him. Subconsciously, she seemed to forget her shyness, looking up at him in stunned silence, her almond-shaped eyes wide and round.

Chen Luobai seemed amused by her reaction.

He laughed so hard he collapsed against her.

Zhou Anran, pulled by his weight, fell back with him onto the sofa.

He was still laughing, his shoulders shaking slightly.

Zhou Anran, a beat slow, felt her already crimson face burn even hotter, unsure if she was more embarrassed or annoyed.

"Chen Luobai!"

Chen Luobai managed to stop laughing with effort, his hand pinching her cheek. "Didn't I say before, don't have any filter about me? The kinds of videos other guys watched during their adolescence, it's not like I never watched them either."

After a second's pause, as if remembering something else, the corners of his lips quirked up again.

"Now that I think about it, that night before we came back, when I asked you to call me 'senior', it wasn't wrong after all."

"!"

She couldn't tell if it was because she belatedly understood what kind of "videos" he meant, or because the memory from the night before their break instantly replayed in her mind like a movie due to his words.

Zhou Anran's face burned fiercely. Too embarrassed, she simply turned over and lay face down on the sofa, refusing to look at him anymore.

The boy hugged her from behind, as if coaxing her, yet still seeming to laugh. "Why are you still so shy? If you don't like hearing it, I won't say things like that anymore, okay?"

Zhou Anran's fingers fiddled with the cushion beneath her. She wanted to say it wasn't that she disliked it, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Really ignoring me now?" Chen Luobai lowered his voice, his hand brushing her hair aside, revealing a small section of her earlobe.

It was even redder than it had been this afternoon.

Zhou Anran shook her head.

"What does shaking your head mean?" Chen Luobai remembered her saying yesterday that her indulgence wasn't because she was well-behaved, but because she liked him so, so much. The mischievous part of him seemed hard to suppress again as he continued pressing close to her ear. "Is it that you don't dislike hearing it, or that you're not ignoring me?"

Zhou Anran's face was buried in the cushion, growing hotter by the second. After a pause, she finally spoke in a very soft voice.

"I'm not ignoring you."

The room was quiet enough to hear her clearly.

Yet the next second—

"So, you don't dislike hearing it, right?" he drawled, clearly doing it on purpose.

Zhou Anran: "…"

She believed him now when he said he usually tried hard to bully her less.

"Chen Luobai!" Zhou Anran's voice was muffled by the pillow and held no deterrence. "Don't twist my words!"

It felt like a feather was lightly tickling his heart. Chen Luobai lowered his head and kissed her flushed earlobe.

"If you're not ignoring me, then turn around and look at me."

Zhou Anran: "No."

If she turned to look at him, he would definitely find some new way to tease her.

"Don't want to turn over? Do you prefer lying like this, then?" Chen Luobai suddenly spoke again, his voice seeming a few notes lower than before.

"?"

What?

The boy behind her didn't wait for her answer, a more obvious laugh in his voice. "Never mind. Let's wait until you get more used to things. We can talk about it later."

His room probably had heating. It wasn't very noticeable when they first came in, but as time passed, the room's temperature seemed to rise higher and higher.

Zhou Anran felt extremely hot. Her loose black hair was damp with sweat, sticking to her neck unmoving, but she didn't have the mind to notice.

She half-lay on the sofa, shifting back a little, only to be immediately pulled back again.

A cushion hit the sofa armrest with a soft thud. The sofa was so soft it offered no leverage. Zhou Anran turned her head slightly. His hand braced beside her seemed also stained with sweat, the veins on his arm standing out.

Zhou Anran grabbed his wrist, unsure if she wanted to beg for mercy or simply call his name.

"Chen Luobai."

But it only seemed to make him intensify his efforts even more.

This person was just as mean as the night before they returned to Nancheng.

His voice sounded, laced with laughter, yet also breathless, like right after he finished playing basketball this afternoon. "Didn't I say you should call me 'senior'?"

The living room grew hotter and hotter.

And a certain someone grew more and more mean.

Then he finally got his wish, hearing the girl call out "senior" a few times, her voice fragmented.

The master bedroom had a whole wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The apartment was located on a high floor, and according to Chen Luobai, you could see the entire No. 2 High School from the window.

But by the time Chen Luobai carried her out of the bathroom, Zhou Anran was already exhausted, with no energy left to appreciate the school's night view.

Besides, it was winter break; there wasn't much of a night view to appreciate anyway.

After lying down on the bed, Zhou Anran didn't want to move a single finger.

The boy leaned down and kissed her forehead, being exceptionally gentle now. "Sleepy?"

Even though her body was tired, for some reason, her mind was very clear, not sleepy at all. Just as Zhou Anran was about to shake her head, her gaze fell on a glass bottle on his nightstand.

Though utterly exhausted, she still propped herself up slightly to take a look.

The glass bottle wasn't big. Inside were two cotton swabs and two adhesive bandages.

Chen Luobai saw her suddenly seeming to want to sit up. "What's wrong?"

Zhou Anran's arms were sore. Once she saw clearly, she lay back down. Her heart seemed to ache a little too, and she snuggled closer into his embrace. "The glass bottle on the nightstand... are the things inside from me?"

Chen Luobai glanced back at it.

He had brought this bottle from home during his final year of high school, and it had sat on this nightstand for over a year.

He made an affirmative sound, looking down at the girl in his arms with a soft laugh. "It seems even though you ran off quickly that day, you still remember clearly what you stuffed into my hand."

Zhou Anran didn't ask him why he had kept the nearly expired items, items that could hardly even be called gifts, in a glass bottle on his nightstand.

Because she also had an expired can of cola in her bedroom.

She just regretted a little not having been bolder back then and giving him a few more things.

Zhou Anran reached out and wrapped her arms around the boy's waist. "It seems like I've never really given you any proper gifts."

Chen Luobai tucked the hair by her cheek behind her ear. "Didn't you just give me one?"

Zhou Anran: "?"

The corners of the boy's lips curved up, his tone meaningful. "You gave me yourself."

Zhou Anran's face instantly turned red. Embarrassed and annoyed, she gently bit his chin. "Be serious."

Chen Luobai hugged her, laughing. "So it's true, even rabbits bite when cornered."

Zhou Anran glared at him.

Chen Luobai pinched her cheek. "You're even cuter when you glare at me like this."

Zhou Anran: "…?"

Chen Luobai brushed the hair away from her cheek. "Just now, you looked like you were about to cry again." So, was it because he didn't want to see her cry earlier that he deliberately teased her like that?

Just as this thought crossed Zhou Anran's mind, she heard his low voice sound by her ear again.

"Your continued affection is the best gift you could ever give me."

Zhou Anran's heart suddenly softened unbearably. "You are," she said very softly.

Your affection is the best gift I've ever received.

"I am what?" Chen Luobai asked.

Zhou Anran felt a bit too shy to say it.

The boy leaned very close, his eyes still smiling, threatening her just like when they first got together. "If you don't say it, I'll kiss you?"

Zhou Anran's fingers clutched at the fabric of his clothes. She took the initiative to lean in and kiss him.

This afternoon, when she found out he had asked her friends to wait for her at the school gate in advance, she had regretted not taking the initiative to kiss him when she got out of the car.

After the kiss, she tried to pull away, but the back of her neck was held in place again.

Chen Luobai gently pinched her chin, and the girl obediently parted her lips.

His tongue slipped in, entwining lightly with hers.

They shared an exceptionally tender kiss.

After pulling away, Chen Luobai rested his forehead lightly against hers. "You really liked me from the first moment you saw me on registration day in our first year?"

The tips of Zhou Anran's ears were warm, but she still nodded. "Mm. But you probably don't remember it at all, right?"

"Who says I don't remember?" Chen Luobai said.

Zhou Anran was a little surprised. "You remember? But you didn't even look at me that day."

Chen Luobai: "Zong Kai told me about it."

Zhou Anran wrinkled her nose. "So you don't remember after all."

"I just didn't know it was you, but I definitely remember the incident itself." Chen Luobai's hand slid down, coming to rest on the small of her back. "I held you around here, right?"

Zhou Anran thought back.

That day, when Zong Kai leaned out from the third floor, he could see him holding her, but probably couldn't see the exact position clearly.

Her surprise turned to delight. "You really remember?"

Chen Luobai pinched her cheek. "Why would I lie to you?"

"It's just... you didn't even look at me that day," Zhou Anran said, unconsciously being coquettish with him.

"I didn't look because that was the first time I'd been that close to a girl. I felt awkward and thought it was inappropriate, so I didn't look."

Chen Luobai paused, his gaze smiling as he looked at her.

"If I'd known she was my future girlfriend, I would have held her longer and taken a good look at her back then."

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