NOVPUBChapter 54: 54, He started to like you_1
Chapter 54: 54, He started to like you_1
Under the cover of night, the street lamps in Shijin Haoting gradually lit up, one by one. A gentle evening breeze rustled, causing the fragmented reflections of the lamps on the water to shimmer, emitting a twinkling ripple of light.
The black Rolls-Royce, under the refraction of the moonlight, seemed to be draped with a layer of silver frost. Standing by the entrance, a man’s tall figure was straight and upright. Even a side view of him was dazzling enough to make one’s heart flutter, as if he were a divine figure straight out of an ancient painting, unrivaled in the world.
Suddenly, the tightly closed door creaked open. As Jian Qing looked at the man standing at the entrance, her expression froze for a moment. Their eyes locked, and the atmosphere became silent.
Quan Jingwu’s purple eyes darkened slightly. The woman in front of him, her hair wet and draping over her shoulders, was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt emblazoned with a cartoon bear’s image. The sight was quite endearing. Looking further down, he noticed her bare feet, glowing white and rosy – a clear sign that she must have just come out of the shower. She must have been in a hurry, even forgetting to put on her shoes.
Upon noticing his gaze, Jian Qing became aware of her own state and immediately felt flustered, remembering that she hadn’t even put on her undergarments yet.
“You… why are you here?” Jian Qing was the first to break the silence.
Quan Jingwu lifted his gaze from her bare feet and calmly asked, “Have you eaten dinner?”
His voice, as always, was low and magnetic. As Jian Qing composed herself and noticed the object in his hand, she couldn’t help but pause.
It was packaging from Qianshi Restaurant…
Upon seeing her unusually dazed expression, a faint smile appeared in Quan Jingwu’s eyes. Freeing up one hand, he curved his index finger and lightly tapped the top of her head.
His lips curled into a grin, his tone softening slightly, “Do you plan on standing with me at this door all night?”
Jian Qing realized that ever since she met him, she had been losing her focus more frequently. A blush discreetly climbed up to her ears as she sidled off to the side to allow him to enter.
“Please come in.”
As Quan Jingwu walked in, Jian Qing closed the door behind him. She followed, feeling a little bit uneasy as, apart from Black Jack and a few others, her personal space had never been intruded upon by anyone else.
And he was the first…
Watching his receding figure, she noted how his black shirt accentuated his explosive physique, and the rolled-up sleeves revealed distinct muscular lines. A phrase involuntarily came to her mind: ‘slim in clothes, loads of substance without.’
At the dining table, Quan Jingwu unpacked all the dishes he had brought from Qianshi Restaurant, placing them one by one on the table, letting the tasty aroma waft through the air.
Jian Qing’s appetite was immediately aroused. Seeing four colorful dishes and a soup on the table, her eyes landed on a plate of jumbo shrimp. Her clear eyes were glued to the sight, and her stomach rumbled unceremoniously.
“Gurgle, gurgle…”
Jian Qing instinctively covered her stomach, feeling embarrassed. She averted her eyes, for the first time in her life, feeling awkward.
Quan Jingwu watched her, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement. “Put on your shoes before coming to eat.”
Jian Qing looked down at her bare, delicate feet, obediently nodded her head in agreement and scampered upstairs.
Her short black shirt and shorts made her slim and delicate frame even more apparent. Watching her smooth, tender legs bounding up the stairs, Quan Jingwu’s gaze deepened significantly.
Only when the sound of a closing door echoed from upstairs did Quan Jingwu withdraw his gaze and leisurely began sizing up the interior decoration and set up of the house.
The white carpet nearly covered the entire area beneath the sofa and coffee table. A black and white piano, a sketching pad placed near the floor-to-ceiling windows, messy paper scattered all over, held down by a couple of sketching pencils, immediately caught Quan Jingwu’s attention.
He took long strides towards the sketch pad, his gaze analyzing the beautiful strokes on the paper, each stroke revealing the depth of the owner’s technical skill in drawing.
The majority of the sketches featured the Lotus Pond in Shijin Haoting. Beautiful blossoms captured at various stages from budding to full bloom lively danced on the paper, as if coming to life.
Using the pen as ink and the paper as its skin, the spirit of the lotus flowers was brought to life.
Quan Jingwu picked up one of the papers, his fingers caressing the sketches on the paper, as if he could envision the woman behind the drawing.
His eyes swept over the other papers, and his gaze hardened. His prominent, defined fingers reached towards the drawing paper hidden under the pile, and without any hesitation, he pulled it out.
The picture portrayed a woman driving a sports car. Although her sharp short hair could easily fool one into believing that the person in the sketch was a man, a closer look at the details of her facial features would reveal otherwise. Indecipherable French script was jotted down at the bottom right corner of the paper.
Xiya, Happy Birthday!
Holding the edge of the sketchpaper, Quan Jingwu felt a pang of jealousy towards Xiya. He was jealous of her close relationship with Jian Qing, of her being the subject of Jian Qing’s drawings, and more so of her having witnessed Jian Qing’s past.
Back in her bedroom, Jian Qing tidied herself up in a hurry. She had also dried her hair partially. She knew that Quan Jingwu was still in the living room and her heart that wished to stay calm, just couldn’t.
Hastily combing her long hair, Jian Qing put on her slippers, intending to go downstairs. Just as she was about to step out, her phone rang.
Jian Qing reluctantly turned around to fetch her phone and saw it was Quan Yifei.
On the other end of the call, Quan Yifei sounded excessively excited, as if on a stimulant. Jian Qing was puzzled, “Jian Qing, isn’t my third brother at your place?”
“How did you know that?” She thought she might have figured out the reason for her excitement.
“I heard from my second brother that my third brother went to Qianshi Restaurant and specifically requested Chef Ji to cook a few dishes. He ordered takeout, so I guessed he might be at your place. I can’t believe I got it right!” Quan Yifei was laughing so hard, her teeth were practically invisible.
Jian Qing paused for a moment, then decided to ask the question in her heart, “Did your third brother get some shock today?”
After all, she couldn’t think of any reason that could justify his sudden visit to her house that night.
“You’re kidding, Jian Qing! You still don’t know why?” Quan Yifei was overly ecstatic, and because she wasn’t careful, she fell off the couch with a thud.
“Yifei, are you okay?” Jian Qing asked softly.
Quan Yifei rubbed her forehead as she got up and sat back on the sofa. With one hand massaging her forehead, she gasped for air.
“Oh…it hurts like hell.”
Realizing she was still on the call with Jian Qing, Quan Yifei didn’t care about the pain in her forehead anymore, and hurriedly continued, “Jian Qing, are you genuinely clueless or pretending to be? My third brother had love at first sight, he’s into you, he likes you.”
Her last words were practically yelled into the phone.
With a loud bang, Jian Qing felt a blast in her head. A wave of emptiness rushed into it. Suddenly, she felt as if all the blood in her body had turned into soda water being shaken vigorously, countless bubbles exploding deep within her body, spreading, and churning.
