Honey Stewed Squid

Almost one in the morning.

She finally left his room and returned to her own.

Actually, it was on the same floor as his and was also an executive suite with separate living area and bedroom. All alone, she washed up and, in her pajamas, slipped under the covers, feeling that the room was extremely cold and cheerless. Tossing and turning until past three o’clock but still unable to fall asleep, she piteously pulled out her mobile phone and sent him a WeChat message.

Her: Meow.

Gun: ……

Her: I miss you.

Gun: Come over if you want.

Really?!

So awesome!

Hopping out of bed, she picked up her room key card and raced out, not even bringing her phone along. By the time she dashed up to his doorway, she discovered that the door was already open. The room inside, however, was dark, without any lights turned on. Somewhat uncertain, she moved in closer and peeked inside. Only the dim moonlight glowed in the living room. A tall figure stepped out, tossed his mobile phone onto the sofa, and happened to see her.

Within the darkness, he gestured to her to come.

Happily, she ran in, and when she saw him stretch out his open arms as if indicating she should do something, she immediately understood. With a whoosh, she leapt up onto him.

A pair of strong arms held her up, supported her.

In the lobby during the daytime, the position had left people feeling awkward and embarra.s.sed, but now in this moment, this same sort of embrace… Self-consciously, she hugged his neck and breathed lightly, feeling her earlobe being nibbled on.

“Be good. You take the lead.”

His voice was intentionally lowered, guiding her subtly.

……

Wordlessly, she closed her eyes.

Amid the deafening sound of her beating heart, she slowly began to search, trailing across his face, then chin, before moving back up slightly higher.

Finally, she brushed against it.

With her enfolded in his arms, Gun intermittently responded to these kisses of hers, which could not be considered very skillful, while, in pa.s.sing, walking to the door and shutting it with his foot. Then, in the black of the night, he pressed her up tightly against the wall…

Before the sky lightened, he set her down on the bed. Stretching his somewhat sore arms, he lay down as well and leaned against the headboard.

Wanting to be close and cuddly with him, the kid crawled up and snuggled herself tight against him. “You’re not sleepy?”

Unconcernedly, he answered, “Once it’s past three, I won’t be able to fall sleep and need to make up my sleep during the day.”

Such a strange habit.

He offhandedly opened up his Texam Hold’Em and started a game. “Your birthday was on the twentieth?”

Not understanding the intention behind his question, she merely looked at him.

“Still haven’t eaten enough tofu? Why do you keep looking at me?” he asked indolently.

It was obvious you were the one who was doing all the eating…

She mumbled in a small voice, “That was the day we broke up… so I wasn’t really in the mood and didn’t celebrate it.”

“Oh, broke up.” The computer dealt out the cards. He glanced at his hand. Not bad. He probably was going to win. “Do you have any birthday wishes?”

“Huh?” She was surprised. “It pa.s.sed already, but I can still ask for something?”

“Yes. Anything you want.” In the darkness, he let out a rather wickedly evocative laugh. “Even for the person and his body.”

Why was he always being naughty and suggestive? …

Blushing, she contemplated for a lengthy while. On hands and knees, she crawled over onto his lap, sprawling herself on him to speak softly into his ear. “I want… to never break up. Is that okay?” In just the short period where he had come here to Guangzhou, she had missed him to the point that her heart ached. The thought of the two words, “break up,” would cause her to feel as if piece after her piece of her heart was sinking downwards. Simply thinking about it brought her pain.

Gun had thought she would ask him to take some time off to spend with her. He completely did not expect that it would be such an answer.

The balcony door was wide open to air out the smells of cigarette smoke, food, and other various odours. Noticing that her hands felt chilled, he pulled the track jacket he had tossed on the bedside table over and with it, covered up her pajamas, which had come undone. He did not provide any answer.

These feelings of not wanting to part from someone, he had also experienced before. It was as if you wanted to freeze all time and halt everything in this second. There was no past, and the future was unseen. To forever remain here, in the present, when the relationship and all feelings were the most firm and stable, in this period where they were most healthily dependent on one another.

In the deep hours of such a night, only two people were in this room that had a breeze wafting through it.

And unexplainably, there was a sense of closeness from being dependent upon one another.

Tong Nian waited and waited until gradually, she became a little fearful.

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

After a long silence, he hesitated. “It’s a little too fast.”

Huh?

0.0?

What was too fast?

“You’re very anxious?” He began to raise the bets in his game, and several players around the table chose to fold.

Huh?

Anxious about what?

“It’s only the”—he glanced at the date on his mobile phone—“third day since our relationship was made official?”

Huh? From Sat.u.r.day to Monday? That seemed right…

“Mm-hmm…”

“We’ll discuss that later.” He pondered. It seemed nineteen years old was not within China’s legal age of marriage[1]. Just three day and then he was paying a visit to her home to request that the little girl change her nationality and marry him? There was a one hundred percent chance her parents would hack him to death. “Think of another wish.”

At minimum… how long should he wait?

The concept of this particular duration gave Gun a slight headache. Deciding to just call an “all-in,” he tossed all the chips he had into the pot.

He lost…

Tong Nian clung to his arm in a daze, her brain all the while unable to process, and that teeny bit of mood she had worked herself up to was also cancelled out by bewilderment. She did not know at all that her first ever “marriage proposal (?)” had, just like that, been postponed for later discussion…

The following morning.

The K&K team members were having breakfast buffet on the tenth floor. Dt returned with only a gla.s.s of orange juice and a plate of vegetable salad. The group occupied an entire table, and right then, 97 was spreading jam on his slice of bread while sighing, “Given how fit Leader is physically, I’m guessing he was like a machine gun.” His last two words, “machine gun” were said in English.

Some instantly understood, others still stared blankly.

What’d that mean?

grunt wore a wicked smirk. “Do you know what game Leader used to play? For the rest, go ask Captain.”

“CS…” The few young boys who had not comprehended turned and looked together at Dt. “What is ‘machine gun’?” they asked, repeating those English words. “Captain?”

Void of any expression on his face, Dt cast a glance at them and stated the Chinese term for machine gun. “The type of gun that can fire a hundred bullets in succession without needing to reload.”

97 grinningly added, “In CS, this weapon has the longest continuous attack. It’s not like other guns that will be out of ammo after ten or twenty rounds and then you have to stop and reload before you can continue again.”

Oh… a little popular science lesson.

Those several young boys carried on, burying their heads and eating their breakfast.

They ate and ate and ate and ate… Suddenly, one by one, their heads snapped back up. I get it!