Xiao Chen hadn’t expected her to hug him at the school gate, and was slightly taken aback.
“Aren’t you afraid the students will see?”
Yu Na clung onto him like a needy kitten, rubbing against him in his embrace. “I missed you...”
Xiao Chen’s heart instantly softened. He smiled indulgently and lowered his head to give her a peck on the cheek, followed by a gentle “I bought you a warm drink.”
Back in the car, Xiao Chen handed her the hot cocoa, then turned on the air conditioning.
As they drove past the main entrance, Xiao Chen showed no intention of stopping the car.
She asked, “Aren’t you going to pick up Qiao Rui? He probably hasn’t left yet.”
Xiao Chen breezily remarked, “He’s old enough now. It’s just a short walk.”
“...”
In the days that followed, Xiao Chen dutifully became Yu Na’s personal chauffeur.
Generally, after his morning workout and shower, he would pick her up at 6:50am sharp with breakfast in tow, to drive her to work at Huating One.
After dropping her off at school, Xiao Chen would return home to change and go to his own office.
Yu Na didn’t originally have to supervise the evening self-study every day, but she wanted to keep a close eye on the students’ grades. So every evening self-study session, she would be at school.
On days she wasn’t on duty, she would be in the office, readily available to answer any student questions.
Therefore, on weeknights she finished work very late, at 9:40pm the earliest.
Xiao Chen would arrive punctually at the north school gate to pick her up at 9:30pm, never missing a day. After dropping her off downstairs at Huating One, he would watch her go upstairs and turn on the light before leaving reassured.
It was like this every day.
Although Yu Na and Xiao Chen had become lovers, Yu Na still set aside time on weekends to tutor Qiao Rui.
After all, final exams were approaching, and she was keeping a tight rein on the students’ grades. Occasionally, she would also, like other teachers, sneak outside the classroom during lessons and secretly observe the learning situation through the windows.
On a Sunday afternoon close to Christmas, Yu Na pestered Xiao Chen to go see a movie.
A wildly popular new movie had just been released, and Xiao Chen assumed she also wanted to see it. When picking the movie, he directly selected this one.
But Yu Na stopped him. “Not watching that one!”
“Hm?” Xiao Chen halted his hand. “Then what do you want to watch?”
Yu Na picked a horror movie.
“Let’s watch this one.”
Xiao Chen’s hair stood on end. “Are you sure?”
Yu Na happily made her selection, “I heard this one is super scary, I like it!”
Xiao Chen: “...”
Yu Na didn’t like wildly popular movies. Too many people in the cinema made her very uncomfortable.
So she picked an unpopular one.
Sure enough, there were quite a few empty seats in the cinema. Most of the people sitting here were couples.
Clutching a large bucket of popcorn and a Coke, Yu Na sat down in their seats with Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen looked uneasy. “Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“Are you sure you want to watch a horror movie?”
“Yup!” Yu Na said, “That other movie has so many people, I don’t want to squeeze with them.”
Xiao Chen made one last desperate attempt, “There are other unpopular movies, do you want to go take a look?”
“No!” Yu Na eagerly awaited the opening credits. Only after speaking did she notice something amiss. She turned her head and looked at him with interest, “You’re afraid, aren’t you?”
“Who’s afraid? Me, afraid of this?”
Xiao Chen seemed to have been poked in a sore spot. His voice even rose a few notes higher.
The movie officially began. The scenes weren’t as terrifying as Xiao Chen had imagined, but the sound effects in this movie were very well done.
He was badly startled several times.
Finally unable to endure it, he leaned in close to Yu Na and whispered, “If you get scared you can hide in my arms.”
Yu Na was deeply engrossed in the plot, showing no signs of fear at all. She stuffed a popcorn kernel into her mouth, “I’m not scared!”
Xiao Chen: “...”
Fine, you win.
Suddenly, another shrill scream pierced the air.
Xiao Chen jumped in fright from the unexpected shriek. “Ah——!”
His heroic image, ruined by one horror movie.
The screams in the movie didn’t startle the people around them, but Xiao Chen’s yelp attracted quite a bit of attention.
All eyes turned to look at him.
Yu Na: ?
Xiao Chen’s face was pale. He had really been frightened.
Yu Na blinked twice, tentatively asking, “Want to go home?”
She had assumed he would stubbornly refuse.
But Xiao Chen didn't follow the script. He slapped his thigh and stood up, “Let’s go, home!”
His tone was unusually bold.
Yu Na: “...”
...
Leaving the cinema, Yu Na noticed Xiao Chen’s complexion didn’t look too good. She fished some tissues out of her bag, tiptoed and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, smiling as she asked, “Why didn’t you just say you were scared? I didn’t insist on watching it.”
“Who was scared?” To salvage his dignity, Xiao Chen hurriedly found an excuse, “No, how could you stand to watch that idiotic plot?”
“It was alright. The plot was just a bit over the top.”
Xiao Chen refused to linger here any longer. He put his arm around her shoulders and walked with her to the escalators.
Yu Na secretly observed him, realizing he still hadn’t recovered from the movie’s scenes.
When the elevator reached the 2nd floor, Yu Na suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him to the empty stairwell.
He asked, “What are we doing here?”
Yu Na asked back, “What do you think?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she tiptoed and hugged his neck, kissing his lips.
More proactive and passionate than before.
Xiao Chen was soothed by her kiss, his turbulent emotions gradually calming down as his racing heartbeat also slowly returned to normal.
Yu Na held his lips and softly asked, “Still scared now?”
Xiao Chen’s heart trembled. He put his arms around her waist, taking two steps forward to press her against the wall, passionately responding.
The passive had become the aggressor.
“Now I want to go home—” Xiao Chen sucked hard on her soft lips once, roguishly saying, “To get some payback for myself, what do you think?”
Their original plan had been to watch the movie, then go eat Japanese food.
But one horror film had disrupted all their plans.
Xiao Chen drove with Yu Na back to Huating One.
This was the first time he had gone upstairs since they had gotten together.
Luckily the fridge was well stocked, so they could make dinner at home.
Plus Yu Na cleaned every day, so the house was spotless.
The two of them had just gotten home and closed the door when Xiao Chen impatiently pulled her into his arms again.
Before Yu Na could react, his kiss came crashing down, not giving her a chance to catch her breath at all.
Yu Na pounded his chest twice and made a protesting whine. Submitting, she said, “I was wrong...”
Xiao Chen was unmoved, neither accepting her apology nor granting her mercy. He squeezed out two authoritative words from the kiss: “Eyes closed.”
The living room light still hadn’t been turned on. Yu Na was firmly locked in his embrace, weathering his passion.
Just then, Xiao Chen’s phone rang.
His arousal was interrupted by the ringtone as he fished out his phone from his pocket in irritation.
Seeing the caller ID, Xiao Chen finally released her and cleared his throat, “It’s my mom...”
After being let go, Yu Na was gasping for air. She hadn’t paid attention to what he said at all.
She turned on the living room light while Xiao Chen also pressed the answer button.
He didn’t put it on speakerphone, so Yu Na could only hear snippets, not the full content.
She just saw Xiao Chen’s expression shift as he frowned briefly before his gaze collided with hers.
In that moment, his knitted brows relaxed again.
She clearly heard his tone was light and natural as he said to the phone, “Forget it, you already have a daughter-in-law.”
Yu Na: ?
