Chapter 53
[Xie x Shen shippers making their dazzling entrance!! I’ve been waiting all night for you two to finally get paired up, I’m crying!!]
[Xing x Cheng fans are heartbroken, Qiu Chengye has been paired with literally everyone except my Sister Liu, wuwuwu]
[Old Xie, Old Shen, you two better give me a proper romance show! No more acting crazy!!!]
This time’s grouping finally sent CP fans into a frenzy. The popularity of Xie Mi and Shen Yanqing skyrocketed, and the viewers in their livestream room spiked fast.
The night deepened, the black curtain of the sky studded with countless stars. The music festival shimmered with layered halos of light, dazzling.
After carefully forwarding that “lucky” post to ten people as Shen Yanqing had said, Xie Mi looked up at him.
“Did you finish your task?”
Shen Yanqing looked at her lazily, smiling without a hint of pressure. “Nope. You?”
“What a coincidence, neither did I.”
Xie Mi instantly let out a sigh of relief.
Since neither she nor Shen Yanqing had completed it, that made things easier.
“This date is the last chance tonight. If we want breakfast tomorrow, we’ve got to work together. Let’s make each other’s alarms ring, how about it?”
“How do you want to do that?” There was actually a trace of anticipation in Shen Yanqing’s tone.
Xie Mi grinned wickedly and started stretching.
“We start running laps around the festival grounds right now. Ten, maybe eight laps. How can our heart rates not rise after that?”
[Old Xie, you…]
[That’s such a brutally straightforward answer]
[Good good good good good good good good]
[No sugar? Fine, I’ll force-feed myself! Spread the word: Old Xie just invited Old Shen to do double exercise, ten times, eight times!!]
Shen Yanqing was so taken aback by her train of thought that he laughed out loud. “You’re something else.”
“Pretty genius, right? Exploiting the loopholes in the show’s rules! I’m ready—are you?”
Xie Mi crouched down into a runner’s stance.
But Shen Yanqing suddenly leaned forward, took her hand, and slipped a bracelet onto her wrist.
“Bought it just now at a stall over there. A gift for Teacher Xie.”
Xie Mi frowned slightly, puzzled as she looked at the bracelet—white like moonlight.
Then Shen Yanqing pulled out a plaster doll that looked suspiciously like her, a handwoven little satchel, a goofy cream hairclip, and—
“Stop, stop!”
Seeing him pulling things endlessly from the bag like Doraemon, Xie Mi couldn’t hold back her question anymore. “What is all this?”
Shen Yanqing lifted his gaze, moonlight spilling into his eyes, his smile infinitely gentle. “Just bought them. I wanted to give them to Teacher Xie.”
[Holy shit!!!!]
From their god’s-eye-view, the audience suddenly felt their energy channels unblocked, their blood boiling.
[Wait, weren’t these the trinkets he bought earlier when he was on that night-market date with Xu Shuangrong? I thought he was buying them for her! But afterward he put them all away, and I figured maybe he liked them himself. Turns out it was foreshadowing for THIS!!!]
[No wonder he couldn’t walk past those stalls, Old Shen you really…]
[This guy’s out here with a wickedly handsome face, playing the pure romance card??]
Xie Mi was still dazed, holding those strange little knick-knacks that oddly fit her taste, when her shoulders grew heavier.
It was Shen Yanqing draping his jacket over her.
Summer night, cicadas buzzing endlessly, a cool breeze lifting her hair.
He reached out, tucked a strand behind her ear, eyes bending like blooming peach blossoms.
“I reject your earlier proposal.”
“Teacher Xie, let’s compete. If you want to win—make my heart race.”
[AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!]
[Mom, Dad, I’m born anew!!!]
[The two craziest people are having the purest romance, I’m losing my mind!!!]
[Date! Date already!! I’m begging you two to DATE!!]
Xie Mi stood beneath an artificial peach tree full of red fortune tags, watching Shen Yanqing carefully tying one up, mulling over his words.
Make his heart race?
So he’s playing for real.
But maybe… she could use this chance to test what happened last night.
“All done.”
Shen Yanqing walked toward her, smiling. “Teacher Xie, aren’t you going to make a wish? They say the love charms here are very accurate.”
Xie Mi shook her finger. “I never believe in that stuff. No feudal superstition.”
From under the money tree nearby, a staff member shouted: “Come pray for wealth! The wealth charms here are super accurate!”
Xie Mi immediately slid over on her knees and bowed three times.
[…Girl what]
[Pffft HAHAHAHAHA]
“You scoff at superstition, yet you kneel devoutly before the God of Wealth. Teacher Xie, you really know how to double-standard.”
“Why thank you.”
After finishing her bows, Xie Mi turned back and smiled at him. “The fireworks are about to start. Want to go watch?”
His smile deepened, tender. “Sure.”
…
The fireworks show was the grand finale of the music festival. Everyone gathered in the wide open-air field, waiting for it to begin.
Xie Mi and Shen Yanqing stood together in the crowd, waiting too.
As the countdown roared, brilliant fireworks exploded in the sky, drowning out every sound.
And in that instant—
Xie Mi was shoved by the crowd, losing her balance. Panicked, she reached out toward him. “Old Shen! Save me—”
Her figure nearly swallowed by the crowd, her outstretched hand, her cry for help almost swallowed by the fireworks.
Shen Yanqing grabbed her hand instantly, fingers interlocked, joints whitening from the force.
This time, Xie Mi clearly saw the panic in his eyes.
As he yanked her back, Xie Mi rose on tiptoe, hurriedly whispered in his ear, in a voice only they could hear, “Do you still remember Liu Liu?”
For two seconds, the air seemed frozen.
From her angle, she couldn’t see Shen Yanqing’s expression, but she clearly saw his ear tips turn red in a flash.
She was just about to wonder when—
DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!
“Holy shit, my ears!!”
Xie Mi broke character instantly, clutching her ear in pain. “Was the ringtone always this loud?!!”
…
After the fireworks, they sat side by side on a bench by the road.
“Five minutes till ten. Looks like I still lost to Teacher Xie,” Shen Yanqing said with a faint smile, turning his head toward her.
Xie Mi’s thoughts were tangled.
They say people reveal their truest selves in moments of panic. Just now she had deliberately tested him, suddenly asking about Liuliu in that moment. But aside from his ringtone going off, his reaction was perfectly normal.
That ringtone—was it really because of “heart flutter”?
Or… was it the sound of panic, the instant his secret was exposed?
