Nan Yu was absent - minded.
She hardly said a word. Halfway through the meal, her chopsticks accidentally fell to the ground.
She bent down to pick them up and accidentally saw Qu Jiaran's right hand under the table tightly holding Tan Linyuan's left hand.
Their fingers were intertwined, and they didn't want to let go for a moment.
Nan Yu slowly withdrew her gaze and sat up straight again. The waiter quickly came over and replaced her with a new pair of chopsticks.
In order to get closer to Tan Linyuan and Qu Jiaran, Shen Yanche was also trying hard to find topics.
He noticed that Qu Jiaran was using her left hand to hold the chopsticks and couldn't help asking curiously, "Miss Qu, are you left - handed?"
Qu Jiaran said proudly, "I can use both my left and right hands to eat. Isn't that amazing?"
After saying that, Qu Jiaran raised the hand that was clasped with Tan Linyuan's, as if showing off, and waved it in front of Nan Yu.
"However, now I need to hold hands with Linyuan, so I use my left hand. It doesn't matter anyway!"
When she said this, her eyes curved into crescent moons, and her happy expression was self - evident.
Nan Yu slightly raised her eyes. She saw their tightly clasped hands, and her gaze only fell on the tail ring that Tan Linyuan was wearing.
From beginning to end, Tan Linyuan didn't struggle at all. He just let her do as she pleased.
Nan Yu felt as if a string in her heart had snapped.
The two ends of the broken string curled up messily, winding and tightening around her heart.
She was the one who couldn't catch her breath.
...
This meal tasted like wax. Nan Yu just wanted to end it quickly and go back to sleep.
Shen Yanche told her that this skiing trip was only for three days and two nights, and one day and one night had already passed.
If she had to sum it up, it was just two words: torture.
Qu Jiaran said that there would be people setting off fireworks outside the hotel later and asked Nan Yu if she wanted to watch. Nan Yu resolutely refused.
Qu Jiaran was a bit unhappy but still insisted on persuading her, "But I want to watch the fireworks with Yu Yu."
Nan Yu still firmly refused her, "You can also watch it with Tan Linyuan."
Helplessly, Qu Jiaran had to accept this suggestion. "Okay, then Yu Yu should rest early. We'll go skiing together tomorrow."
Before Qu Jiaran and Tan Linyuan walked out of the hotel, she lowered her voice so that only Nan Yu could hear, "Yu Yu, you must wish me luck tonight!"
What she meant by "luck tonight" was nothing more than successfully sleeping with Tan Linyuan tonight.
Nan Yu felt a headache coming on.
She was really annoyed by Qu Jiaran's persistent personality, but she had to compromise.
Qu Jiaran always had this ability to make people unable to find a reason to refuse without realizing it.
Even if you refused, she had a hundred ways to achieve her goal.
Nan Yu remembered what Tan Linyuan had said before and thought his summary was simply too accurate.
It seemed that Wen Yingying was very sensitive during pregnancy and would call from time to time to check on Shen Yanche.
Originally, Shen Yanche said he wanted to have a chat with Nan Yu, but now he had to excuse himself.
Nan Yu couldn't have been more pleased. She had socialized all day today, and her face was almost stiff from smiling. She couldn't wait to be alone for a while.
But when she got back to her room, she couldn't fall asleep at all.
Nan Yu's mind was full of Qu Jiaran's bright smile and her confident look of certainty.
She lay in bed, holding her phone, flipping through several apps back and forth. There were no interesting push notifications.
She opened Tan Linyuan's chat box repeatedly.
According to his previous promise, if he had further development with Qu Jiaran or had a physical relationship with her, he should explain it to her clearly.
But from the time they separated until now, two whole hours had passed, and he hadn't sent a single text message.
Was it because he was with Qu Jiaran that he didn't have time to send her a message?
But he didn't seem to have an obligation to report to her either.
Or maybe he would inform her after it happened.
She lay on her side, looking out of the dark window. There were voices of cheering and noise outside.
After a while, fireworks bloomed outside.
The colorful lights exploded in the night sky and quickly disappeared into nothingness.
New fireworks would replace the extinguished ones, each one exploding more vigorously than the last.
Nan Yu thought unenthusiastically that now Qu Jiaran should be leaning on Tan Linyuan's shoulder, chattering that the fireworks were so beautiful.
Maybe they would even kiss passionately under the romantic fireworks.
Based on her understanding of Tan Linyuan, he wasn't the kind of person who would reject someone throwing themselves at him. The possibility was very high.
She herself was a typical example of throwing herself at him.
After the last firework faded, she noticed a new message coming in on her phone. The screen hadn't gone off yet.
Her breath caught. Almost instantly, she picked up the phone and habitually clicked on Tan Linyuan's chat box, but it was empty.
The heart that had just been nervously lifted was now dropped heavily.
It wasn't him.
After the feeling of disappointment faded, she finally realized that the person who had sent her the message was Zhou Yu.
[Zhou Yu: How's the hot - spring trip? Are you having a good time?]
Nan Yu slowly let out a breath.
[Nan Yu: It's been awful.]
After replying, she completely gave up expecting new messages and directly turned off the phone, choosing to isolate herself from the world.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Drowsiness gradually came over her, and Nan Yu gradually fell asleep against the pillow.
Her dreams were filled with Qu Jiaran's noisy voice, constantly shouting "Nan Yu" and "Linyuan", making her head feel like it was going to explode.
As a result, she didn't sleep soundly and could vaguely hear the sounds outside the dream.
Someone came back next door. The sound of the door slamming was very loud and urgent.
Nan Yu was half - awakened. She mumbled and turned over, ready to bury her head in the quilt and continue sleeping.
At this moment, she heard an inappropriate groan, a sound that made people blush.
It was coming from next door.
This commotion made Nan Yu almost wake up instantly. All the nerves in her body tightened at once.
When she got the room card, she deliberately glanced at the room number.
Shen Yanche's room was on the floor above hers, and Qu Jiaran and Tan Linyuan's room was next to hers.
The woman's voice next door grew louder. She could even hear the sound of the bed board hitting and the man's suppressed gasps.
Nan Yu swallowed hard and found that her hands and feet were ice - cold. Her mind was blank, and her thoughts were extremely chaotic.
She thought she didn't care.
After all, she and Tan Linyuan were just fuck - buddies. The connection born from their physical entanglement was neither close nor necessary.
But now, listening to the noises next door, she felt an indescribable pain spreading throughout her body from her blood.
It was like a small knife was slowly cutting her heart.
She took deep breaths repeatedly, trying to confirm from those embarrassing sounds again and again.
Finally, she let out a long breath and despairingly confirmed a fact.
She didn't want to admit it, and she was unwilling to admit it -
There was no doubt that the owner of this sound was Tan Linyuan.