A Time-Limited Romance with Movie Queen Ex - Chapter 19

Tonight, Rong Qingyao had back-to-back classes. It was past nine when she returned to her dorm, took a shower, changed her clothes, and prepared to go out again.

Her roommate, who was eating a late-night snack, had sharp eyes. Noticing Rong Qingyao hadn’t brought her laptop or notebooks, she suspected she wasn’t heading to the lab.

“Qingyao, where are you going so late? Aren’t you working on the project Professor Chen assigned you?”

“Yeah, I have something to take care of,” Rong Qingyao replied calmly, gently combing her damp, long hair.

Another roommate turned away from her computer screen and teased:

“Rong, the campus belle, skipping an all-nighter in the lab, what’s the occasion? Going on a date?”

At that, Rong Qingyao’s combing hand paused for a split second. Her heartbeat quickened uncontrollably, and she lowered her long lashes, her expression unreadable.

“Not studying after a shower at this hour? Suspicious.”

“I’m leaving,” Rong Qingyao set down the wooden comb and walked out of the dorm with composed ease.

Her roommates were left exchanging skeptical glances.

“Don’t you think Qingyao’s acting strange? Could she really be dating someone?”

The moment the words were spoken, the dorm fell into an eerie silence before everyone burst into laughter a second later.

“Come on, Qingyao’s practically a nun. Remember when that campus heartthrob now an idol confessed to her freshman year? She turned him down despite being moved.”

“True, Qingyao has no worldly desires. No way she’s dating.”

“Still, I feel like if Rong ever does fall in love, she’d go all out.”

Under the bright hallway lights, Rong Qingyao walked briskly, her thoughts lingering on her roommates’ words.

Was this… what dating felt like?

Rong Qingyao didn’t believe in love.

She thought of her frail, beautiful mother, how she had met her so-called father on campus, fallen for him despite their mismatched backgrounds, and how their love had burned passionately before crumbling into pleas for him to stay, met with nothing but indifference.

Love was just a hormonal eruption, leaving behind coldness, waiting, deceit, and endless despair.

So, her mother had taken infant Rong to a remote village, scraping by selling mountain goods, a life fraught with hardship.

And all the while, her mother clung to the delusion that the man would one day return.

Until the day the dream shattered. Rong came home from school to find her beautiful mother lifeless in a pool of vivid blood, like a painting made more tragic.

How could she believe in love after that?

Something she’d never witnessed, no matter how poets and artists romanticized it, could never feel real.

Unless a miracle descended upon her.

In the flickering light, Rong Qingyao let out a cold, involuntary laugh.

When she looked up again, she saw Luo Mijin waiting for her under the streetlamp.

The night was still as water. Luo Mijin’s black ear cuff reflected a dim glow as she stood there quietly, obediently, her rebellious yet beautiful features cast downward, as if she’d wait forever.

The orange blossoms had already shed their petals, blanketing the ground in white. If one listened closely, they could hear moths fluttering and colliding with the light.

The moment Rong Qingyao appeared, Luo Mijin instinctively looked up, watching her approach.

Rong Qingyao wasn’t wearing her faded shirt tonight. Instead, she was dressed in all black, black pants, black T-shirt.

Aloof yet heart-stirringly captivating, like a thin, fragile green leaf.

“Are you hot? I bought soda,” Luo Mijin pulled out a grass-green bottle from the bag and handed it to Rong Qingyao. “Lemon flavor.”

The soda wasn’t particularly cold, just cool enough to soothe the restless emotions churning in Rong Qingyao’s chest.

She followed Luo Mijin silently out of the school, not even asking where they were headed.

At a convenience store outside the campus, Luo Mijin enthusiastically bought six cartons of yogurt, caramel cookies, chocolate toast, several flavors of chips, and four batteries.

“Senior Qingyao, do you have any favorite snacks?”

“Anything is fine, just pick what you like,” Rong Qingyao watched as Luo Mijin wandered between the shelves, inexplicably feeling like they were elementary school kids preparing for a spring outing.

Carrying a bulging bag of snacks, they stepped outside. When a luxury car flashed past on the road, Luo Mijin instinctively ducked behind a nearby utility pole.

“Why are you sneaking around?” Rong Qingyao couldn’t help but laugh.

“Because I snuck back here. They think I’m still living in another city.” Behind the black mask, Luo Mijin’s nose bridge was high and elegant, her eyes soft and bright with excitement.

“You sneaked back?” Rong Qingyao asked softly, her chest inexplicably damp with emotion.

Luo Mijin’s gaze met hers, direct and candid as always, as if she had never been hurt, as if she had grown up carefully cherished in love.

“I was afraid you’d worry if you couldn’t see me again.”

This was an answer Rong Qingyao hadn’t anticipated. Yes, during the months Luo Mijin had been out of contact, she had hardly dared to hope they would meet again.

Let alone imagine that Luo Mijin would sneak back just for her.

For the rest of the journey, Luo Mijin kept herself tightly concealed, moving with practiced stealth.

They transferred buses twice. Even though it was almost 10 p.m., the summer night streets were still bustling with people.

Once on the bus, they were separated by the crowd. Luo Mijin instinctively searched for Rong Qingyao, only to find her also looking around anxiously.

Their eyes met under the neon lights as the bus passed under an overpass. Luo Mijin waved happily, noticing the faint blush on Rong Qingyao’s cheeks and neck.

After getting off, they walked along soft earth, surrounded by rustling trees and the ceaseless chirping of cicadas.

Lugging bags of snacks, Luo Mijin looked utterly delighted, her dark lashes fluttering as she almost reached for Rong Qingyao’s hand only to quietly pull back.

Until they descended deeper underground.

“You’re not taking me tomb raiding, are you?” Rong Qingyao teased lightly.

Luo Mijin led her through an underground tunnel, turning left and right before stopping in front of a rusted metal door.

She retrieved a pair of worn rubber gloves from beneath a large rock nearby, put them on, and began feeling around the corroded surface.

Finally, the door creaked open with a heavy groan.

The sight inside left Rong Qingyao frozen in place. It appeared to be an abandoned bar, yet it was arranged with cozy, inviting warmth.

Blue chiffon curtains fluttered by the windows. Above, a chandelier pieced together from fragmented lights cast a soft, dazzling glow, shimmering like starlight.

And rising in waves around them were… barks and meows.

Four or five kittens and puppies rushed towards Luo Mijin upon hearing the commotion, forming a fluffy cluster around her feet, affectionately rubbing their foreheads against her pants.

“Easy now, easy. I brought cat treats and canned food,” Luo Mijin crouched down, tearing open the packaging to feed the eager little crowd.

“Are these all your pets?”

“They’re strays from around here. Some are quite old, others were just born,” Luo Mijin looked up at Rong Qingyao. “Senior Qingyao, they’ve all been vaccinated and are very clean. You can pet them if you like.”

As if compelled by some unseen force, Rong Qingyao poured a little milk into her palm. A black-and-white tuxedo cat immediately approached, cautiously lapping it up.

The kitten’s tiny tongue was light and warm, trusting her completely perhaps because she had come with Luo Mijin.

In her twenty years of life, she had always been running desperately, never daring to slack off, determined to leave poverty and hardship far behind. She had never experienced anything like this before.

It felt like she had found a warm home.

“Do you visit them often?”

Luo Mijin shook her head. “I don’t come too often afraid of being noticed. I hired someone to feed and bathe them for me, so money’s always tight.”

Now full and content, the little animals watched the two chat without a trace of wariness, taking turns to familiarize themselves with Rong Qingyao’s scent.

“Is that a drum set?” Rong Qingyao caught sight of a silver drum kit positioned in the center, facing the open fields outside the window.

“Yeah. When I was little, I wanted to play drums at my own wedding, so I learned. But all these years, my only audience has been these cats and dogs.”

Something stirred in Rong Qingyao’s heart.

“Senior Qingyao, want to give it a try? I can teach you.” Luo Mijin saw it clearly those usually cold, politely disguised eyes now shimmered with curiosity and longing.

They sat down by the drum set. Rong Qingyao gripped the drumsticks, and Luo Mijin wrapped her hands around hers.

Before she knew it, Rong Qingyao was sitting in Luo Mijin’s lap, lightly tapping the tom-tom twice.

She turned to look at Luo Mijin just in time to meet her direct, childlike gaze.

That moment of eye contact was like a kiss without desire.

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