Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 26 - Gift!

The sound of door knocking.

And still, the sound of door knocking.

Gun continued to utter softly, “I’ll bring you to see your gift?”

“Hmm…” Her entire body felt as if it was ablaze. She was uncertain whether or not it was because she was feeling too shy, but her hands gripped his track jacket tightly and she dared not move in the slightest.

Besides hugging him… was there… something else she wanted to do? …

Her head started to spin again.

Gun had already picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. He pulled two key cards directly out of the pocket of his jeans. After quickly identifying each of them, he strode up to a side door that was locked, swiped a card, stepped in, and pushed the door closed behind him.

In an instant, they had walked into darkness.

There was no light whatsoever. It was his bedroom.

The kid on his shoulder slid back down to the ground. Swiftly, like an octopus, she slipped her arms around his waist.

Gun blew out a light breath. He felt her hairs slide into his clothing… His throat felt somewhat dry. Luckily, this little octopus, for the moment, was not rubbing and shifting herself around and bumping into places that she should not bump.

Next door, someone had already stepped inside.

The guest room had an audio monitoring system installed. When he was sleeping earlier on, he had purposely turned it on in case the little girl needed something or there was something wrong while she was alone in the other room and could not find him… Now…

As it turned out, it had not been switched off yet, so anything that was said in the room next door could clearly be heard in here.

“Where’s Leader? Didn’t he call and tell us to come here to give a report on our thoughts?” 97 asked in a puzzled tone.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s having a three hundred-round ‘tussle’ somewhere?” grunt replied with suggestive undertones.

With a “pffft,” 97 sprayed, “ True. It has been a whole month where they haven’t seen each other.”

“It’s that age where men are like wolves and tigers, you know. An old dude whose nearly thirty.”

……

The back and forth jokes and mocking of those two grown boys echoed in that empty room. He could not stand listening to them any longer. Extending an arm, he found the power switch for the monitor and—

Right when his fingers contacted the switch, he felt something warm brush over his collarbone…

“Gift, gift.” Her voice was pouty and came from a spot by his collarbone.

Then that meant…

The thing that was right there against his skin was…

“I’ll go get your gift for you.” His voice was somewhat edgy. “Let go first.”

The kid did not stir, only rubbing her face against his skin to express her refusal.

“Let go.” To his surprise, he very sensitively detected the scent from her body, one that smelled the same as fruit candies. Intensely sweet.

Sheet!

He shut his eyes.

He was so vexed he wanted to take this clinging kid who was pressed to his body and toss her outside, yet he could not make himself actually do it.

“Tong Nian.” He lowered his head, and there was an obvious sense that he was beginning to waver… “Be good. Let go.”

In the darkness, he wanted to pull away those arms that encircled his waist. But then, he sensed that warmth that had been on his collarbone slide down to his chest…

His arms stiffened slightly.

“Gift, gift.” Hazily, she continued her mumbling.

His heart was beating stiflingly, getting slower and slower.

Finally, after a long period of silence, he brought his head down close to her face.

“Are you enjoying ‘eating your tofu[1]’ [taking advantage of someone, in a physical, intimate manner]?” His voice was muted and deep…

She buried her face against his chest, her heart feeling as if it was burning with restlessness.

She only held him tighter, and tighter some more.

“What gift…”—his voice became even lower, almost a near-whisper—“do you want?”

“I want…” Fuzzily, she thought, “Weren’t you the one who said you had a gift for me?”

“Hmm? What do you want?”

“I want…”

Want…

… And just like that, that little face moved and pressed itself up to his.

Burning hot was her face as well as those soft lips, which slid shyly, tenderly from his ear. With no experience in this and, in addition, in this state of drunkenness, she muddledly could not really find the place she was searching for.

He detected her anxious frustration and turned his face to accommodate and oblige this impatient little girl’s actions.

……

Sheet!

He abruptly started back to his senses. Twisting his head away, he rammed it hard against the wall.

After the dull thud sounded out, his head at last seemed a little clearer. The next second, he picked the little lady up and threw her directly onto the bed. Swiftly yanking up the zipper of his track jacket, he turned his back to her and did up his belt.

Then, he strode with large steps over to his luggage, pulled out a black, wooden box from inside, turned around, and tossed the box onto the bed as well.

Tong Nian was seeing stars from being thrown, and while she was still wobbly and befuddled, a wooden box thumped into her stomach.

Sitting up on the bed, Tong Nian picked up the box and inspected it for three seconds. Her lips pouted out in disappointment, and falling back down onto his bed with a plop, she completely passed out…

As a result, when she awoke the next day and sat up in her own bed, dressed in her Winnie the Pooh pajamas that she normally wore at home, she even had a mistaken moment that it was all a figment of her imagination. A dream? Why did I have such a… sensual dream?

Cover my face, cover my face…

Soooooo embarrassing…

How come I was the one forcing myself onto him? …

She threw her hands over her face, which, along with her ears, was scarlet for a full ten minutes. When she rolled out of bed to put on her slippers, she at last noticed that, on the table, there was a black, wooden box…

Oh God!!!!

Yesterday couldn’t have been real, right?!

Seized with utter panic, she circled about.

To her left, the clothing and bag that she had worn to the airport were tossed on the sofa. To her right, her mobile phone held down a note:

Hey dearie, you must give me a call when you wake up!!

—Blueberry

She yanked out that note and picked up her mobile phone. Her fingers were trembling, and she had to try several times before she correctly pressed the button to pull up the call history. In it, she discovered that the last phone call made the previous night had been one from herself to Blueberry. Dial.

Three seconds later, the call was picked up. Before she even emitted a sound, the other party was already about to faint from exhilaration. “Holy crap! I knew you’d sleep all the way to the afternoon! Let me tell you, let me tell you, my hubby’s gone crazy already. Last night, he saw his male god and even shook his hand and took a picture with him, AAAAAAH!!!! And it’s all thanks to you! He told me to tell you that you MUST be good to his idol and absolutely mustn’t be a player or cheat on him!!”

……

“Let me tell you, let me tell you. Absolutely make sure the account you give jibes with mine. Just say that you accidentally drank too much while you were with us!! My hubby and I brought you home, got it?! Oh, and while I’m at it, Your Highness, you’re a disgrace. Just 330 mL and then you were so drunk you passed out?! And, while I’m at it again… before you passed out, did you do anything?” Blueberry’s voice suddenly dropped, and hints of mirth were heard in it. “Give me an honest account.”

……

She did not utter a single word.

Dazedly, she hung up the phone.

Oh no.

Did I really…

… paw him? …

Not only did I force my hugs on him… I even kissed him on his face…

She threw herself onto the bed, feeling as if all of her was tumbling into a deep, deep, deep ravine. She remembered everything too clearly. Didn’t people say that when you were drunk, your consciousness became fuzzy? But she even remembered that, at the very end, he had chucked her onto the bed in disgust… And the gift box he had tossed over. And how he had slammed the door and stormed away. Oh God… How could I have been like that, aaaaah? …

Tong Nian clutched her blanket tightly, so upset that tears were rolling down ceaselessly.

It’s all your fault. You just had to try to prove yourself. You just had to go drink alcohol.

You’ve completely disgraced yourself…

There’s no chance with him now…

He must hate you!

The more she thought, the more distraught she became. Lying on her stomach on the bed, she cried for a full twenty minutes before finally, still choked with sobs, she felt for her mobile phone. With swollen eyes, she found his phone number… After hesitating for a long time, she was still unable to muster her courage to press “dial,” so she had no choice but to find her way over to WeChat, where she opened up a window labeled with the name, “Gn.” Slowly, she typed in a single line of words:

I’m sorry about yesterday. Truly, I’m so sorry. I won’t be pestering you anymore…

Send.

A dozen or so seconds later, it was still quiet.

Biting down on her lip, she added another line:

Let’s break up. I’m sorry. So sorry.

Still, it was quiet.

There was no response whatsoever.

Flinging her phone away, she ran into the bathroom and, turning on the hot water, splashed her face.

The more she thought about it, the more she sobbed, and the more she sobbed, the more mortified she felt at herself. By the time she emerged from the bathroom again, there was finally a reply in the WeChat on her phone.

Gn: You’ve thought it through?

Or what? Still keep hounding him?

Last night, she had already… And she had been thrown in disgust onto the bed.

With reddened eyes, she forced herself to let go of any hopes that she might have.

To Gn: Mm.

Gn: OK.