Chapter 142: Chapter 123 It’s Heartfluttering

“Before you say that, can you please not lean on me?” — Cheng Zhu.

…

At this moment, Cheng Zhu’s small electric moped was parked next to Shen Qingning’s white Land Rover.

He truly hadn’t expected Shen Qingning to suddenly say such a thing.

For a moment, even the experienced Cheng Zhu felt a slight flutter in his heart.

Through the rearview mirror of the electric bike, he couldn’t see Shen Qingning’s face this time because she had shrunk a little, though half of her face was still leaning on Cheng Zhu’s back, completely obscured.

“Is she responding to something I said earlier?” Cheng Zhu wondered.

When the two had just left Youu Come to Play, Shen Qingning, seeing him looking around uneasily as if expecting trouble at every turn, asked him, “You seem really afraid of being rumored to be dating me?”

Cheng Zhu replied, “You’re too famous at school, intimidating to approach, and if everyone thinks you like me, some might be too scared to date me.”

He was just making half-serious, half-joking comments.

And that was a conversation from nearly ten minutes ago!

Or, was she just being proudly stubborn?

No matter what the reason, leaning halfway on a man’s body and speaking those words with such a faint tone, do you really think… that’s convincing at all!

Cheng Zhu was about to say something when Shen Qingning suddenly let go of his clothes, which she had been forcefully pulling, and stopped leaning on him to disembark on her own.

Just before letting go, she buried her face in his back and took a deep breath.

“Hey, take it easy, don’t hurt yourself,” Cheng Zhu said, feeling that she really must be drunk as she was staggering.

He was going to help, but Shen Qingning stepped back by half a step.

She looked up at Cheng and stubbornly held his gaze, “I drank a bit too much today, a bit too much.”

She was either retracting her sudden earlier statement or referencing her unusual behavior throughout the evening.

Cheng Zhu, the rascal he was, instinctively wanted to tease her a bit more at such a time.

But looking at her defiant eyes, which seemed to carry a touch of retreat and plea for mercy, his heart softened just a little.

So, in the end, he simply nodded slightly.

“I’m going upstairs,” Shen Qingning turned quickly, her right hand lightly touching her forehead.

Cheng Zhu watched her back, not following to escort her, but he didn’t leave either.

After she disappeared inside, he sat astride the electric moped and lit a cigarette in the darkness of the night.

Shen Qingning, after going upstairs, leaned on the walls with one hand and took off her shoes.

After tossing her bag on the living room sofa for some reason, she found herself by the window, looking down, searching for something with her eyes.

The area below the apartment wasn’t too dark, and the bright pink color of the electric moped was hard to miss.

Especially since the man was still smoking all by himself, the light of his cigarette shining in the dark.

Shen Qingning quickly noticed Cheng Zhu looking up in her direction.

For a moment, she felt a bit at a loss standing by the window.

Fortunately, the man merely waved at her, a sign of farewell.

As if he was down there just to make sure she got home safely after being drunk.

Then the moped rode into the night, leaving only the silhouette of a waving arm behind.

Shen Qingning leaned with one hand on the windowsill, watching the direction Cheng Zhu had gone.

A night breeze blew through the window, lifting strands of her hair.

The events of the night seemed to have started with the night breeze and ended with it as well.

The cool girl stood in the wind, feeling the breeze and realizing she’d been somewhat off-kilter tonight.

She blamed the bar’s alcohol for being too strong, the night wind for being seductive, the pink moped for being too crowded, her emotions for being uncontrollable… There were too many things to blame.

She felt that tonight she might have said too much.

Yet, she also felt that she might have said too little.

Standing in the wind, the girl closed the window and drew the curtains.

She had said before that she was always very clear-headed. Alcohol is a funny thing, it numbs your thoughts on some matters, but it can make you even more sensitive emotionally.

She was very aware of something.

Admit it, Shen Qingning…

It wasn’t the wind that moved, it was your heart.

…

Inside the living room, Shen Qingning did not put on slippers but walked barefoot on the floor.

The cool sensation helped clear her head a bit more.

She first poured herself a cup of hot water, took a few sips, then headed to her room.

Speaking of which, it did feel a bit colder without Lin Lu around.

Especially since she had just been through a loud and unrestrained period.

Shen Qingning went into the bathroom, washed her face, brushed her teeth, then put on a shower cap and took a hot shower.

She turned the water temperature a bit higher than usual, hot enough to have a slightly scalding effect.

Steam filled the bathroom, obscuring her expression.

After drying off and changing into her pajamas, Shen Qingning lay down in bed, curling up slightly.

She was wearing a black silk nightgown, and as she curled her body, the hem lifted slightly, revealing her knees tucked within the skirt, giving the hemline a slight uplift.

Below the hemline peeked a pair of smooth and well-proportioned calves, and half of her thigh skin.

She picked up her phone and found many unread WeChat messages.

She immediately opened them, and when she saw that all 13 messages were from Lin Lu, her eyelids dropped slightly, becoming half-closed.

After a few seconds, Shen Qingning extended her slender fingers and opened the chat.

Sure enough, at first, there were typed messages, but later it was just a barrage of voice messages, all from five or six minutes ago.

She played a voice message and then lay half-propped on the bed, letting the phone screen face down on the bed as Lin Lu’s voice came through.

“Ningning, you’re not still drinking, are you?”

“Hey! Hello! Pay attention to me! Hello, hello!”

“Dead woman, what are you doing? You’re not replying to me! You didn’t really drink too much, did you?”

“…”

After listening to a series of voice messages, Shen Qingning picked up the phone with difficulty, thinking she should reply to a WeChat message, otherwise, there might be a bombardment of phone calls later.

“I’m already home. I just took a shower and feel a bit dizzy, heading to sleep now,” she typed in response.

“Alrighty! I’m also going to bed. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, goodnight, muah!” Lin Lu still chose to send a voice message.

Shen Qingning placed her phone by the pillow, turned off the lights in the room, and wrapped herself in the duvet, continuing to lie on her side.

In the darkness, she didn’t close her eyes right away.

“Would he overthink it?” a thought suddenly sprang to her mind.

“Or would he think that after comforting me all night, busying around, I was just spouting nonsense?”

“I was actually quite happy and relaxed tonight. I wonder if he didn’t feel that, thinking his efforts for the night were for nothing?”

Such wild thoughts and insecurity were incredibly abnormal for her.

In the end, she figured out a way to let Cheng Zhu know that she appreciated his efforts and would remember this night.

She shared a song on her Moments.

Yes, it was that “Happy Worship” from the dance machine.

Right after sharing, she immediately regreted it, wanted to delete the song, fearing he would misunderstand her intentions.

But in the end, she didn’t have the heart to delete it.

“It’s okay, I drank a lot tonight,” she said to herself, looking at the Pikachu keychain on the nightstand, “Right, Pikachu?”

…

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhu had returned to Youu Come to Play on his small electric moped ten minutes earlier.

He had intended to go back to school, then suddenly realized, “Damn it, it’s this late, I can’t get back into the dormitory!”

Sitting on the electric bike on the empty street at midnight, he fell into silent frustration.

“Dammit, feeling like such a loser. Even though I’m rich now, here I am, being disheveled in the wind on an electric moped,” Cheng Zhu complained to himself.

He pulled out his phone and saw that Lin Lu had sent a message: “I’m off to bed.”

The message was from four minutes ago.

“Alright, get some rest, goodnight,” he replied immediately.

Sure enough, she responded in a second: “Goodnight!”

Clearly, the vigorous girl was waiting for him to say goodnight.

After replying to Baby Lu, he saw the chaos in the dormitory group chat.

Dong Dong and others were chattering about how Brother Zhu didn’t return all night!

He even joked that he would go to the hotels near the school and knock on doors one by one!

Of course, they were more curious about why Cheng Zhu didn’t return or if he might have spent the night with someone!

Cheng Zhu couldn’t be bothered with them.

“The son telling his daddy what to do, huh?” he grumbled.

After checking WeChat, Cheng Zhu put the phone back in his pocket, not bothering to check Moments.

He booked a larger bed in a nearby hotel since the soundproofing was not great. At 1:30 am, he heard noise from the next room.

“Wow, quite loud,” Cheng Zhu commented.

After two minutes and twenty-one seconds, it was quiet again.

“Truly a case of much ado about nothing,” he muttered and drifted off to sleep.

After a busy night, Cheng Zhu was also tired.

But at 2:30 am, he was awakened again by noise from next door.

“Damn, trying to win by frequency, huh?” he resigned himself.

He slept fitfully.

However, at ten thirty in the morning, he was woken up by Counselor Chen Jieyu’s phone call.

“Hello, Cheng Zhu.” A serious yet pleasant female voice came through.

“Um, what is it, Mr. Chen?” Cheng Zhu’s voice sounded like he was not fully awake.

“You don’t have class this morning, right?” Chen Jieyu said.

“Um,” Cheng Zhu replied sleepily, eyes still closed.

“Are you going to your claw machine shop this morning?” Chen Jieyu asked.

“Probably not,” Cheng Zhu planned to rest for the day.

“I suggest you still drop by.”

“Why?” Cheng Zhu became a bit more alert, sensing that Mr. Chen was about to bring up something important.

“Dean Zhang and Director Li will take a visit to your shop.”

“Our Info Department’s Dean Zhang?” Cheng Zhu sat up in bed, frowning.

“Right.”

“And who is this Director Li?”

“Director Li is just Director Li, but he’s also currently acting as the head of the Entrepreneurship Center.”

Hearing this, Cheng Zhu thanked the counselor.

“Not bad at all, Mr. Chen, you’ve done a good job!” He jumped out of bed and began to wash up.

Aha! The big fish has finally taken the bait!

Elsewhere, the Vice President of the External Relations Department, Wang Yuan, had regrouped these past few days.

He felt pissed off by Cheng Zhu’s attitude during the last sponsorship request, thinking this damn guy, having a bit of dirty money, really put on airs.

Even though he was actually there for the money, seeing another person flaunting wealth would still irritate him.

Of course, that was secondary. What annoyed him most was that some bastard leaked on the forum that he went to Youu Come to Play for sponsorship, which the owner didn’t agree to, but gave him ten tokens to go play instead.

Tokens my ass! It was a gift!

Wang Yuan knew that many in the student union were already using that incident as gossip.

Even the Vice President Pei Yan mentioned it in their chat, indicating that he had also heard about it.

This time, Wang Yuan brought five people with him, arriving with a vengeance.

He was determined to secure his sponsorship fee, no matter what.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com