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- Chapter 36 - This way, you won’t mistakenly hold someone again (2)
Chapter 20.2
This way, you won’t mistakenly hold someone again
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After Bo Ziren left school, she received a call from Cheng Jingbo asking her where she was. She gave him her location, and he asked her if she had eaten. If she was being honest, she did feel a little hungry.
Coincidentally, Cheng Jingbo had called her just as he was leaving the cafe. Knowing now that she was nearby, he suggested to her, “Why don’t we eat together? I haven’t eaten yet either.”
Bo Ziren agreed and after waiting for a bit, Cheng Jingbo arrived in his car.
As she climbed in, he asked her what she wanted to eat. She told him she hadn’t given the matter much thought yet.
“I’ll drive slowly, and you think about it. When you’ve decided, let me know and I’ll take you.”
As he spoke he reached into the glove compartment and brought out a small packet of flower-shaped snacks.
“Let’s have some of this first.”
Matcha fried dough twists? How could he have such a thing? She wondered, her eyes filled with curiosity.
“The school’s convenience store sells it. Many girls were rushing to buy it, and when I went, there was only one bag left.”
She opened up the packet and tasted one. It was very sweet, and she couldn’t help feeling a little puzzled.
“You don’t like eating sweets.”
“I bought it for you.”
His words were like an added layer of syrup to her already honeyed snack, making it now too sweet to bite into…
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As they drove further into the center of the city, they passed a fast-food restaurant, and upon seeing it Bo Ziren decided she wanted to eat a burger. Cheng Jingbo parked the car, and they crossed the street. As they stood in line, Bo Ziren insisted on treating him. Cheng Jingbo did not reject the idea and went to find a seat for them in the crowded restaurant.
After Bo Ziren bought their food, she turned around and saw a red-haired woman with a suitcase, talking to Cheng Jingbo. He seemed to answer her with a simple sentence, causing her to smile awkwardly and quickly leave.
Bo Ziren walked to their table and sat in front of Cheng Jingbo. Finally, she could contain her curiosity no longer and asked him what the woman wanted.
“She’s a tourist. She wants to find strangers who are willing to kiss her for a picture to keep as a souvenir.”
Bo Ziren had heard of this travel game. It seemed that it had started with a girl who had been travelling the world, collecting kisses from people to try and break the Guinness World Record. She hadn’t expected the game to reach her city as well.
“Do you think such a travel game is fun?” she asked.
“I appreciate these people’s courage, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. If you’re on a trip, why not stop and write a postcard to a friend instead of spending time looking for strangers to kiss?”
She agreed and looked at him again, thinking that with such a perfect face, it was no wonder he was the one she ended up falling for.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing her persistent gaze.
“Do many girls often come up and talk to you?”
“No.” He opened up his ketchup packet and pointed at her with a fry.
“However, the most recent encounter was around two months ago when I was walking and a phone number was snuck into my pocket,” he said calmly.
For a second, Bo Ziren thought this incident sounded familiar until she suddenly realized who he was talking about. She felt embarrassed.
“Your movements are very skilled,” he added. “Where did you learn them from?”
“…someone did that once to me, and I remembered it.”
“So that’s it. You learn very quickly. You are indeed quite smart.”
Bo Ziren helplessly clarified, “I’ve never done anything like that before, so I didn’t know what was the appropriate way of doing it.”
“Why didn’t you ask me for advice?”
“….”
What does he mean? Asked him for advice on how to strike up a conversation with him? Bo Ziren felt confused.
They finished up their meal, and when she looked outside she saw that it had become completely dark. Winter was fast approaching, and the days were getting shorter. The last, purple, glow in the sky was already becoming diluted into a cold, gray-blue hue.
As they walked shoulder to shoulder outside, she noticed that his body was taking the full brunt of the cold after he positioned himself to the side of the road.
“Do you want to visit that?” he asked, pointing to a small house with a black sign hanging in front of it.
Bo Ziren knew about this place. It was called Hidden Black Mystery, and almost all her classmates had talked about it when it had first opened. They claimed the special ghost effects were not scary at all, but very funny. They stated they had laughed so much that their stomachs had ached. Some of her more daring classmates said they had even scared some of the staff when they went dressed as ghosts.
“Yes,” she answered, expressing interest. “Let’s go take a look.”
When they walked up to the house, she noticed a sign clearly stating that people with heart disease, high blood pressure, or mental illness were not allowed to enter. Bo Ziren wondered if the experience was as terrifying as the notice made it out to be.
They entered and found that it was lit up on the inside. However, the lights slowly began to dim, and then ghosts began to float around, followed by a dense fog. Bo Ziren carefully watched it all unfold as they walked forward. They approached a narrow tunnel, and suddenly they were plunged into darkness. She could not see Cheng Jingbo, but she could hear his breathing and deduced that he was in front of her.
“I was killed and my body was left in the cabin in the woods. I’m not happy with my death. Hurry up and find me…,” a disembodied voice sounded from above.
The other girls in the group began to scream.
Bo Ziren felt startled and began to feel nervous as she quickened her pace. Suddenly her feet slid on something slippery, and when she looked down, she found she’d stepped into what looked like a shiny bloodstain. She turned around, and found herself face to face with a drifting, waxy face, with skin as pale as plaster. Blood dripped down from its black eyes.
Bo Ziren felt well and truly shocked. She ducked and ran two steps to the right, bumping into the warmth of a person’s back. She wordlessly grabbed onto the person’s arm.
A blue flame suddenly shot through the room, allowing for it to briefly light up. Bo Ziren looked up into the person’s face, finding a stranger looking back down at her with a confused expression. His eyes seemed to say, I don’t know you? Why are you holding onto me?
“Hubby, I’m here!”
The man’s wife called to him from a corner of the room.
Bo Ziren had grabbed onto the wrong person. She immediately let go, feeling extremely embarrassed, and took a step backward, bumping into another person behind her.
“I’m here,” said Cheng Jingbo, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Bo Ziren almost screamed.
“Am I scarier than all those people pretending to be ghosts?” he asked, his voice calm.
“No…I just didn’t see you, and I feel very nervous.”
“Nervous?”
He let go of her shoulder and reached for her hand. Touching it lightly he found it quite cold.
Her hand trembled slightly as he grasped it, his slender, strong fingers twining around hers. His palm sent a warm and calming energy through her.
“This way, you won’t mistakenly hold someone else’s hand again.”
“…..”
They walked through the rest of the house, facing several more obstacles on the way. There were broken clothes racks, cobweb wrapped boxes, dolls with their eyeballs popping out, and a couple of bloody heads rolled together in a corner. The girls in the other party continuously screamed, but Bo Ziren felt calm now with this man walking steadily in front of her. He informed her about where the next thing would pop out, let her know where to place her footing, what corner to avoid, and when she should not look above her head.
There was also the main cause of her now calm attitude, and that was his hand that was still holding hers. His fingers had stayed tightly wrapped around hers, making her hand now comfortably warm. She actually wished that the tunnel was longer now.
Right before they reached the exit, a long-nosed puppet appeared in front of them. Bo Ziren secretly sucked in a breath, but Cheng Jingbo stood examining it for a bit. He touched its nose.
“The left screw is about to loosen. It should be tightened a little,” he said intently.
“Thank you, I will go back and repair it,” said a voice from inside the puppet, and it retreated, embarrassedly hiding its face.
Bo Ziren felt dumbfounded. In an instant, the terrifying atmosphere had been extinguished.
As they walked out the door, Bo Ziren looked down at their hands, still clasped together. She suspected he may have forgotten he was still holding her hand, and while it was a blessing and she wished they could keep on walking together in this way, she felt if she didn’t speak up about it he would think she was taking advantage of the situation. So as not to be viewed as being shameless, she quietly reminded him, “I’m not nervous anymore.”
He hesitated for a moment, understanding her meaning.
Smiling faintly and not letting go, he said, “Just wait until we cross the road.”