Chapter 29
Xi Qin took the hairdryer off the wall, turned it on, and blew hot air onto Jiang Zhong’s hair for a few moments. Then, he moved the nozzle farther away, looking at Jiang Zhong in the mirror and asking, “Is it too hot?”
Jiang Zhong made eye contact with him through the mirror and shook his head.
Xi Qin then lowered his head and began to seriously dry Jiang Zhong’s hair.
Jiang Zhong could feel Xi Qin’s long fingers combing through his hair, occasionally gently scratching his scalp with his fingertips, which felt a bit itchy.
In the mirror, Xi Qin’s expression was very serious, as though he was doing something important.
Jiang Zhong hadn’t seen this side of Xi Qin in a long time. Since they had been together, Xi Qin always smiled when facing him—either a gentle smile or a mischievous one when teasing him.
He would sometimes purposely make a displeased face, just to make him laugh.
This serious, solemn expression made Jiang Zhong think back to the cold and aloof Xi Qin from before.
It also made him think of what he had seen earlier on Xi Qin’s phone, the “only visible to him” messages.
Jiang Zhong remembered that several of them were from his first year of college. He couldn’t imagine what kind of feelings Xi Qin had when he sent those messages.
So much time had passed, and it all seemed blurry. Jiang Zhong couldn’t remember what had happened between them back then. In fact, he even thought that during their first year, he and Xi Qin didn’t really have much of a bond.
Before, Xi Qin rarely stayed in their dorm, and when he did go to class, he didn’t sit with them. He didn’t like talking or laughing, so even if Jiang Zhong wanted to know what he was thinking, he had no way of knowing.
So Jiang Zhong had always thought that during their first year of college, they only had a roommate relationship, not even a friendship.
But, was everything from the past really like that in Xi Qin’s eyes?
The last time Xi Qin said that he had liked him for a long time, Jiang Zhong felt only happiness and pride.
However, when he discovered the details that proved what Xi Qin had said, what overwhelmed Jiang Zhong was more a sense of heartache and anger.
Heartache because Xi Qin didn’t say anything, and anger because he hadn’t noticed anything himself.
“Baby,” Xi Qin turned off the hairdryer, “Why are you staring at me?”
“Are you a pig?” Jiang Zhong asked indignantly.
“…What’s wrong with me?” Xi Qin’s expression instantly became very innocent, “Did I burn you?”
Jiang Zhong stopped looking at the mirror, turned, and looked directly into Xi Qin’s eyes. He said, word by word, “You’re the pig, so dumb.”
“No,” Xi Qin laughed in frustration, “Baby, you’re not supposed to be like this. Just now you were in my arms praising me as ‘so amazing,’ but now that we’ve put on pants, you say I’m dumb…”
“I saw everything,” Jiang Zhong interrupted Xi Qin’s lewd remarks.
“…What did you see?” Xi Qin asked, bewildered.
“You little secret,” Xi Qin lifted his chin, “I saw it on your phone.”
“How is that possible?” Xi Qin blurted out, “The privacy password I set isn’t your birthday.”
Jiang Zhong: “……”
Xi Qin: “……”
“Do you have any other secrets?!” Jiang Zhong stared at him.
“Uh,” Xi Qin laughed awkwardly, “What did you see?”
Jiang Zhong “hmphed” and said, “Your Moments.”
Xi Qin was even more awkward: “…Those are from my dark history, I was immature back then, you should forget about them.”
“I don’t want to,” Jiang Zhong couldn’t help but laugh, “You’re not allowed to delete them, leave them as a keepsake.”
In the following days, whenever Jiang Zhong had free time, he would take Xi Qin’s phone and try to crack the password that protected the other secrets. However, after trying every number combination he could think of that had some special meaning, he still couldn’t get it open.
He was as serious as studying for a final exam, he could even memorize Xi Qin’s ID number.
Speaking of which, this was the first time Jiang Zhong had seriously looked at Xi Qin’s ID.
He didn’t expect that Xi Qin was almost two years older than him—his birthday was in mid-November, while Xi Qin’s was at the beginning of February the year before.
Did Xi Qin start school that late?
That’s just how Jiang Zhong was—if Xi Qin didn’t want him to see something, Jiang Zhong was even more determined to look.
After realizing he couldn’t crack the code on his own, Jiang Zhong used both soft and hard tactics on Xi Qin, really “coercing and enticing” him, with the “enticing” part being especially frequent.
In the end, Xi Qin enjoyed Jiang Zhong’s “cuddling” during the trip, but kept his mouth shut, refusing to tell Jiang Zhong.
And whenever Jiang Zhong had a fleeting thought of “Forget it, I won’t look,” Xi Qin would drop hints that “the things inside are really worth seeing.”
It drove Jiang Zhong crazy.
On the return flight, Jiang Zhong was bored, fiddling with his phone in airplane mode. After a while, he took Xi Qin’s phone and opened the notes, looking at the titles “What he likes” and “What he dislikes.”
Jiang Zhong noticed that the positions and times of these titles had changed, clearly indicating that Xi Qin had edited new content over the past couple of days.
“You really aren’t going to tell me the password?” Jiang Zhong turned to look at Xi Qin, “I’m going home soon, then you won’t see me again.”
“It’s fine,” Xi Qin smiled casually, “I’ll go to your house tomorrow and find you.”
Jiang Zhong, angered, threw the phone into his lap, turned his head, and stared out the window at the soft white clouds. “Forget it, I don’t even want to see it that much. It’s your secret anyway, I’ll respect your privacy.”
“This isn’t my secret,” Xi Qin stuffed the phone into his pocket, speaking meaningfully, “This is my collection, a priceless collection.”
Jiang Zhong angrily thought to himself, Here we go again!
“Tch,” Jiang Zhong pretended to be dismissive, “What’s so impressive about it? I can guess the contents just by looking at the title.”
“You can only guess part of it,” Xi Qin deliberately teased Jiang Zhong’s curiosity, “There’s a lot more that you can’t guess.”
“It’s just the things I like and the things I don’t like,” Jiang Zhong said, “I can guess that, unless you think you know me better than I know myself?”
“Well, you never know,” Xi Qin laughed.
“Xi Qin, do you have some kind of problem?” Jiang Zhong squinted, “You always say this, but never tell me the password.”
“You guess the password yourself,” Xi Qin said, “It’ll be more interesting if you figure it out on your own.”
After saying this, he leaned close to Jiang Zhong’s ear and whispered, “If you can’t figure it out, just keep using ‘coercion and temptation’ on me. Maybe one day, I’ll be so enchanted by you that I won’t be able to resist telling you.”
The word “temptation” was especially emphasized.
“Go away,” Jiang Zhong pushed Xi Qin’s head away with a slap, “I’ve figured it out, you’re doing this on purpose, trying to take advantage of me.”
Xi Qin smiled and ruffled Jiang Zhong’s hair.
Now he realized—how adorably foolish.
After leaving the H City airport, Xi Qin first took a taxi to send Jiang Zhong home, then turned around to head back to his apartment near the university.
Originally, Jiang Zhong had planned to stay with Xi Qin for a couple more days after returning, but a few days earlier, Zheng Yinqiu had called him and asked when he would return to H City. He accidentally mentioned the actual return date.
It just so happened that Zheng Yinqiu wasn’t working that day, so she told him to go straight home once he returned.
Jiang Zhong had to talk her out of asking the driver to pick him up so he could stay in the car with Xi Qin for the extra hour or so from the airport to his home.
Jiang Zhong pushed open the front door with his suitcase and noticed a familiar yet unfamiliar small car parked in the garage. It didn’t belong to their family.
Once he entered the living room, he realized his aunt had arrived. She was sitting on the couch talking to Zheng Yinqiu, and beside her sat a high school-aged girl, his cousin.
Hearing the sound of Jiang Zhong entering, the three women on the sofa turned to look at him.
“Aunt, Yueyue, you’re here,” Jiang Zhong smiled and greeted them. “Mom, I’m back.”