Extra 2 – Hongmen Banquet 2
Just now, he was the one telling her not to worry about him. Now he was also the one asking her to take care of him.
Why was this person always going back on his word?
Xiang You did not want to take care of him.
But she seemed unable to bring herself to ruthlessly push away the hand clutching her sleeve.
Nor could she bring herself to look directly at those reddened eyes from the alcohol...
Veiled by a layer of watery mist, they looked rather pitiful.
“Then tell me properly. Where exactly do you live?” Xiang You sat back down in her original seat and took out her phone again.
“Who bought the flowers?” Meng Ou gave her an answer that had nothing to do with the question.
Xiang You placed her phone face down on the table and gave him a sidelong look. “Didn’t I already tell you when I first arrived? I bought them myself.”
Meng Ou blinked. “Really?”
It was not a strongly incredulous question. Instead, he sounded like an insecure child, cautiously trying to confirm something.
“Really,” Xiang You said.
Meng Ou lowered his eyes, presumably thinking. In the end, he laboriously looked at her again. “Really?”
“...” Xiang You took a deep breath. “Really.”
“Really you bought them yourself...”
“Fake.” Xiang You interrupted him, half out of spite. “Someone else bought them, okay?”
Meng Ou suddenly fell silent.
After asking again and again whether it was true or not, once he got this answer, he did not ask who had bought the flowers anymore.
He merely narrowed his eyes and fumbled around on the table, eventually grabbing Xiang You’s phone.
“That’s mine.” Xiang You slapped his hand and snatched her phone back.
Meng Ou turned his palm over and stared at his empty palm for two seconds.
He fumbled around on the table again and finally managed to get hold of his own phone.
Xiang You watched him curiously.
He was still typing with great difficulty, staring at the screen as he said, without even knowing whom he was talking to, “You go. You don’t need to take care of me anymore.”
Xiang You could not help laughing helplessly. “Then why did you grab me just now?”
Meng Ou’s fingers paused on the keyboard. He said nothing, then continued typing.
Who knew how long it would take him to enter a single address.
At this moment, he looked like an elderly person who had only just started using a smartphone, his fingers trembling as he typed, stiff and clumsy.
Xiang You thought back for a moment and only then realized that this was the first time she had ever seen Meng Ou drunk.
Naturally, they had not drunk alcohol in high school. When they dated in college, the two of them never went to any restaurants that served alcohol with the meal.
There had been one time, though, when the two of them had returned to their hometown for a high school class reunion, and one of their classmates had ordered alcohol.
But that time, Meng Ou had driven his father’s car, so in the end, he did not touch a drop of alcohol.
It was also the first time Xiang You had ridden in a car driven by Meng Ou. At the time, he had only gotten his driver’s license not long before.
Xiang You was terribly afraid. Before getting into the car, she tugged on his sleeve. “What if we get into a car accident?”
Meng Ou laughed at her. “Can you say something nice for once?”
“I’m scared...” Xiang You muttered softly.
“What are you afraid of?” Meng Ou said, idly playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie. “Do I really look that unreliable?”
Xiang You thought about it and gave a very quiet “Mm.”
There was nothing about Meng Ou, from his appearance and personality to his behavior, that had anything to do with being reliable.
Sure enough, the moment she finished speaking, Meng Ou pulled the hood over her head and then tugged the drawstrings.
The opening of the hood instantly shrank into a tiny little gap, and Xiang You struggled to open her eyes wide enough to see outside.
Was this something a reliable person would do?!
“You can’t be afraid if you can’t see.” Meng Ou reached through the hood and patted her head, speaking as he laughed.
“Fuck you!” Xiang You lowered her head and headbutted him.
Meng Ou staggered back two steps as he watched her hurriedly pull down her hood, her hair now a complete mess.
After fixing her hood, she started fixing her hair too, tucking the strands behind her ear one by one. Unfortunately, the wind was too mischievous and kept coming over to make trouble.
The longer Meng Ou watched, the more he could not help himself, and he burst out laughing.
Which earned him a glare from Xiang You, partially hidden beneath her loose strands of hair.
“I’ll drive properly.” Meng Ou’s expression grew more serious. “There’s no way I’ll let you get hurt.”
Xiang You tucked away the last strand of hair and thought for a moment, then said nothing more.
Although she always called him unreliable, deep down she had always trusted him.
Still, it was probably better not to let him know how much she trusted him.
It was a seven-seat Volvo SUV, and it looked rather large.
The moment Xiang You got into the car, she fastened her seat belt tightly and curled up in the passenger seat.
Meng Ou, on the other hand, was completely at ease. As he chose some music, he still teased her. “Are you really that scared?”
Xiang You gave him a sidelong glance, not wanting to answer.
“What do you want to listen to?” Meng Ou asked.
Xiang You still said nothing.
When he did not get an answer, Meng Ou chose something himself.
And then the opening notes played...
Meng Ou had chosen “Highway to Hell”!
The rock music poured through the excellent speakers, and Xiang You felt as though her entire body were vibrating.
She clung to her seat belt, dazedly feeling as though she were a pitiful lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
No one had told her that dating meant gambling with her life too!
She had done an enormous amount of mental preparation, yet once they were actually on the road, Xiang You surprisingly found that it was not bad at all.
When driving, Meng Ou was completely different from his usual flippant self. He was so serious that his lips were pressed into a straight line. He did not even speak anymore, completely focused on paying attention to the road conditions.
His starts and brakes were both very smooth, and Xiang You gradually relaxed her grip on the seat belt.
It was rare to spend so much time alone with him without hearing him spout nonsense.
Xiang You actually found herself a little unaccustomed to it.
She leaned sideways against the seat and watched him, watching his serious profile, as well as the fluid movements of his hands on the steering wheel.
Only the veins protruding on the back of his hands from the force he was exerting revealed that he was still a novice.
There was a red light ahead, and Meng Ou slowly stopped before the stop line.
He released the steering wheel, leaned his whole body against the seatback, and turned to meet her eyes. “Are you still scared now?”
Xiang You did not want to praise him, but she did not want to lie either. After looking into his eyes for a while, she could not help smiling sweetly.
Meng Ou reached over and rubbed her head, giving a light laugh. “Scaredy-cat.”
The hair she had only just fixed before getting in the car!
Xiang You slapped his hand away hard, pulled down the mirror, and began fixing her hair.
She had finally gotten it more or less in order when, just as she put the mirror away, another hand pressed down on the top of her head.
And this time, he was definitely doing it on purpose, ruffling her hair with particular force.
Xiang You sat there with her hair in disarray, so angry she wanted to hit him, only to see him step on the gas and cross the road. Putting on a deliberately serious expression, he said, “I’m driving. For safety’s sake, please treat the driver kindly.”
How infuriating!
Xiang You viciously made a note of it in her heart.
She would get him back properly once they got out!
In the end, they did arrive at their destination without incident, more or less escaping a scare...
The “scare” had all been in Xiang You’s heart.
Meng Ou even smugly demonstrated a successful reverse park in one go, then lazily leaned against the car and asked her what she thought.
Xiang You pursed her lips. “It’s okay.” Actually, it was a little cool.
“How come you...” Meng Ou reached out and pinched her cheek. “How come you can never say something nice about me?”
Xiang You was still holding a grudge over what had happened in the car. “I just won’t!”
He was already this narcissistic without her praising him. If she actually complimented him a couple of times, who knew what he would become!
Xiang You’s soft cheeks seemed to be particularly entertaining to Meng Ou. Completely ignoring her furious glare, he became engrossed in playing with them himself, rubbing and pinching them this way and that.
Xiang You could not stand it any longer and went to slap his hand away, only for Meng Ou to react quickly and pin her hand down.
Then he lowered his head and gave Xiang You a loud kiss.
Caught completely off guard, Xiang You was kissed before she even remembered that she had yet to get her revenge.
Meng Ou, having gotten his way, gazed at her with a beaming smile and said before she could recover, “How could I possibly bear to put you in danger? When I found out I’d be driving you today, I started practicing with an instructor every day a whole week in advance.”
Xiang You pressed her lips together, feeling a little touched.
Meng Ou continued, “I didn’t even get anyone to practice with when I drove my dad.”
Xiang You could not help laughing. “Well, aren’t you filial.”
“Of course.” Meng Ou gave a very lazy nod. “Maybe because my dad was the instructor.”
Xiang You: “...”
How did this person always have one thing after another to say!
Later, Xiang You rode in Meng Ou’s car many more times.
His driving became more and more practiced, and his posture more and more relaxed. He could even trade a few jokes with her while driving.
Unfortunately, Xiang You was timid. She did not dare argue with him at times like this, much less hit or fuss with him.
So every time she got out of Meng Ou’s car, she would be full of pent-up anger.
Only, before long, Meng Ou would “gulu-lu” drain it all away.
In any case, Xiang You had witnessed many moments of his growing up.
But there were still plenty of special moments she had never seen.
Like seeing him drunk for the first time today.
Meng Ou seemed to have finished calling a car, or perhaps he had simply given up. He casually tossed his phone back onto the table.
Xiang You asked, “Did you get a car?”
Meng Ou lowered his head, looking thoroughly irritated. “Don’t talk to me.”
Who wanted to talk to him anyway!
Annoyed, Xiang You was thinking about how to talk back when another sentence reached her ears.
“Otherwise, I don’t know how to control myself.”
His elbows rested on his knees, his back hunched over, looking haggard and exhausted.
He said those words while staring at the floor. His voice was so hoarse, as though it had rolled around once inside an old bellows. Rather than saying them to her, it sounded more like he was talking to himself.
Xiang You’s anger lodged in her throat, unable to rise any further, while the new ripples stirring in her heart pressed against it, leaving it nowhere to retreat.
The blockage was deeply uncomfortable.
Under this collision, a strange chemical reaction occurred.
Xiang You suddenly became curious. “Control what?”
After a brief silence, Meng Ou slowly turned his head, looking up at her from below.
There was an ambiguous flame flickering in his eyes.
It burned until Xiang You began to panic.
“Did you really buy the flowers yourself?” Meng Ou asked.
Heaven knew how many times he was going to ask that question.
But Xiang You decided to answer him patiently anyway. “Really.”
A hand suddenly reached around the back of her neck.
Meng Ou pressed her down with force, making her bend over until the tips of their noses touched.
Xiang You clenched her teeth, but still could not stop her heart from pounding wildly.
Amid the spreading scent of alcohol, breathing in that rich red-wine smell, Xiang You vaguely felt as though she had become drunk too.
His eyes were even more frightening up close, shot through with blood vessels, carrying a gaze like that of a beast hunting its prey.
“Xiang You.” As he spoke, his thumb gently rubbed the back of her neck. “Can I kiss you?”
An opening like a violent storm, only to arrive at a polite request as soft as a drizzle.
But her heart had already begun to exceed its limits.
She did not know how to answer, nor did she know whether refusing would work.
The Meng Ou before her looked frightening.
At least her tear glands had begun doing their job, helping her release some of her fear.
Xiang You said nothing. Her lips trembled, and tears rolled down one drop at a time.
Meng Ou gazed at her tears, seemingly fascinated, and gradually stopped moving his hand.
Then he slowly leaned toward her.
Only the final destination was not her lips.
Meng Ou lowered his head and collapsed onto her shoulder.
The impact made her body sway, forcing her to raise her hands and hold onto his back.
There could not have been a more uncomfortable position for an embrace.
Or perhaps this was not an embrace at all, but simply two unsteady people supporting each other.
She heard Meng Ou speaking against her shoulder.
Rather than her ears, it seemed that her heart received the resonance first, setting off an unsteady tremor.
“Xiang You, can I come back with you? I won’t go anywhere else. I’ll just stay with you.”
Xiang You’s five fingers, which had been lying open, slowly curled inward, clutching his sweater.
He continued murmuring, “Wherever you go, I’ll go. Don’t you want to take the civil service exam? Wherever you get assigned, I’ll go there too. If you get assigned to the suburbs, I’ll go to the suburbs. If you get assigned to the countryside, then we’ll go to the countryside.”
“Xiang You.” He continued, “Please, have a little mercy. Don’t abandon me, okay?”
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