There Were Always Some Late-Night Urges

Wen Ce withdrew his gaze and looked at the little cookies, still giving off their aroma. "They smell great. Thanks."

"No need. I really was rude earlier." Luo Lianqing sighed. "As long as you're not angry. I honestly didn't mean anything else. I was just so embarrassed..."

She looked at Wen Ce with a slightly reproachful gaze. "It feels like whenever I run into you, I'm either dying of embarrassment or on my way there..."

Wen Ce thought back. That did seem to be the case, and not just for her. He seemed to have suffered plenty of social death himself.

He couldn't help laughing, a little helplessly. "Seems that way. I don't mind about the cookies. I even ate a few. They were pretty good."

Luo Lianqing inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at that.

She handed Wen Ce the phone she'd used to scan the QR code to order. "Good, as long as you don't mind. Go ahead and order. Get whatever you want."

Wen Ce glanced at her phone, took it, then handed it back after a look. "Let me. As an apology for all those times I stumbled onto your scenes of social death."

As he spoke, he scanned the QR code and selected a few dishes Luo Lianqing had just chosen, then added two of his own and placed the order, brisk and decisive.

Luo Lianqing took her phone back and fell silent for a moment. "I'd be pretty happy if you didn't bring up the social death."

Wen Ce raised his eyes to her. "Does it really bother you that much?"

"If you were a stranger, it'd actually be fine." Luo Lianqing sighed. "But a neighbor and a student? What kind of death-trap question is that!"

Propping up her chin, she looked at Wen Ce across from her and said earnestly, "Good thing you're relatively... um, quiet. Otherwise, I feel like the whole university would've heard about this."

Watching her struggle to settle on the word "quiet," Wen Ce couldn't help laughing. "You mean I'm a loner?"

Luo Lianqing hadn't expected him to apply that description to himself. She paused. "I wouldn't go that far. I think you're pretty normal. Everyone has a different personality. If you were really a loner, you wouldn't have played in the basketball tournament. The genuinely unsociable kids I've met before wouldn't even make friends."

As though something had occurred to her, her lips curved into a smile. "But you really are a lot like that friend of mine. Your ears turn red first when you're embarrassed."

Wen Ce hadn't expected her to notice that too. He shifted his gaze away slightly. "I rarely get embarrassed."

Unless it was genuinely as mortifying as those earlier incidents.

Luo Lianqing didn't dwell on the subject. "Anyway, thanks for not spreading it around. Otherwise, I'd really be embarrassed."

At that, Wen Ce hesitated. "This is a little presumptuous, but you said this morning that I was the first guy to enter your apartment. Has your boyfriend never been there?"

After saying that, he added, "It's fine if you'd rather not answer. I know the question's a little presumptuous."

He shouldn't even have asked it.

Wen Ce sighed inwardly. It was all because of the nonsense Zhao Li had spouted.

That question of his was pretty awkward.

But Luo Lianqing only paused before understanding dawned on her. "I don't have a boyfriend. Those things I bought actually serve a purpose."

She exhaled, lowering her voice a little. "It's just that my father got his start in adult products, mostly imports and exports. The business is, um, pretty big..."

Her gaze grew a little distant. "My mother wants me to, um, inherit it, I suppose. I studied art and design before, then switched to management for graduate school. Isn't everyone on the forum curious about that? My mother wanted me to study it."

Luo Lianqing's emotions barely fluctuated as she spoke. "So, since I'd never really looked into those things before, I needed to buy some actual products to take a look."

She spoke quite openly. "I bought a whole bunch online. The night you first ran into me, I wanted to see whether the physical stores had anything different..."

Speaking of that, she suddenly remembered: hadn't Wen Ce also appeared at the adult store in the early hours of the morning when they'd first met?

He'd been wearing pajamas then too...

Luo Lianqing gave Wen Ce a slightly odd look. Judging by what she'd seen the last time someone confessed to him, he probably didn't have a girlfriend.

Then was this a hookup???

Wen Ce was still thinking that studying art and design probably didn't have much in common with designing adult products when he suddenly met Luo Lianqing's rather strange gaze.

"What's wrong?"

After asking, he honestly added, "Though I really didn't expect that to be your reason for going shopping in the middle of the night."

Luo Lianqing coughed lightly. "This area's too close to the university. I was afraid someone would see me during the day. Sure, a straight body needn't fear a crooked shadow and all that, but you know how three people can turn a rumor into a tiger. I'd really rather avoid trouble."

Wen Ce nodded, and neither of them dwelled on the subject any further.

But later, as they ate, Wen Ce kept feeling Luo Lianqing's elusive gaze land on him from time to time.

It was hard not to notice.

Whenever he looked up at her, she would swiftly look away.

Their relationship was rather awkward too. He couldn't exactly call them close.

But it had been almost two months since the semester began, so he couldn't say they weren't familiar with each other either.

Wen Ce was a man of few words to begin with. Fortunately, Luo Lianqing had high emotional intelligence, so things were rarely awkward.

It was just that those occasional prying looks were truly hard for Wen Ce to ignore.

So he simply put down his chopsticks and sighed. "Is there something you want to ask, senior?"

Luo Lianqing went quiet for a moment, then said cautiously, "Actually, I feel like this question is a little rude. It probably wouldn't be good to ask."

Wen Ce sighed. "But it's pretty uncomfortable having you look at me like that too. And given this bond of social death between us, there's not much room for rudeness, is there? I've even eaten Egg Yolk's snacks, after all."

He said that last part jokingly.

Luo Lianqing relaxed and cautiously checked once more. "Then I'll ask?"

Wen Ce nodded, watching a gleam of gossip flash through her big, liquid eyes.

For a moment, he felt she really resembled Egg Yolk. Their eyes were equally big and beautiful.

"You know why I was there that night now, so why did you walk in at that hour? It was just so sudden."

After saying that, Luo Lianqing stared straight at him, her eyes brimming with curiosity.

Wen Ce: ...

How the hell was he supposed to tell her that!

He couldn't exactly tell her he'd gone there to catch a spy, could he?

Wen Ce fell silent for a while, his mind racing.

Seeing his expressionless silence, Luo Lianqing assumed it wasn't something he could talk about and hurriedly said, "It's your private business. It's fine if you don't tell me. I understand."

After saying that, she even nodded to affirm her own words.

Wen Ce kept feeling that if he didn't say something, she would definitely get the wrong idea.

So he suddenly lowered his voice. "Senior, I'm a young man in the bloom of youth. There are always some late-night urges, you know?"

A bewildered expression appeared on Luo Lianqing's face. "Urges?"