Criticizing Love - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

When Lin Xi said those words, it was entirely to egg Gu Nianyin on.

Although she had seen through Gu Nianyin’s trick, she had never imagined that the reason the other girl wanted to accompany her to the employee lounge was truly because she couldn’t bear to be parted from her.

Among all the words expressing a desire not to leave, “cannot bear to be parted” was the most ambiguous one.

The sunlight fell directly between the two of them, unable to carve out any distance between them, and even causing their shadows to overlap.

The surroundings fell completely quiet again, and Lin Xi’s heart revolted inside her chest.

She didn’t dare to ponder it deeply. As her thoughts began to spread, she took up a pair of scissors made of denial and snipped them away ruthlessly.

How could she not bear to part?

The two of them had only known each other for a single month!

Why did this person readily admit that she couldn’t bear to part?

Didn’t Tingxiu say she was a Tsinghua-Peking University reserve, a future top scorer?

Did she even understand the meaning of what she had just admitted to?

“Can we go now?”

Just as Lin Xi was losing her mind, Gu Nianyin’s voice rang out once more.

That person’s voice was light, her appearance calm and detached, as if the one who had just spoken such ambiguous words wasn’t her at all.

She did it on purpose.

Such a sentence instantly leaped into Lin Xi’s mind.

It was clearly she who had deliberately provoked the other, yet in the end, she had been outmaneuvered.

Accepting her defeat, Lin Xi raised her paw and clamped it back over Gu Nianyin’s hand: “Let’s go!”

Strictly speaking, Lin Xi was already supposed to be off work when she went to provoke Gu Nianyin.

By the time she brought Gu Nianyin to the employee lounge, the colleague responsible for the afternoon shift had already left.

The massive room was empty of people, with iron lockers standing separately on both sides of the walls in an orderly fashion.

The moment Lin Xi entered the door, she couldn’t wait to take off the big head she was sporting. Sweat, as always, sweltered at the top of her head, raising a burst of hot vapor under the sunlight.

“Take a seat,” Lin Xi said casually, inviting Gu Nianyin to sit down.

Regarding the matter of being caught working, she faced it candidly, without any awkwardness.

Hearing this, Gu Nianyin sat down on the long bench in the middle, silently raising her eyelashes to quietly observe the environment here.

Although the lounge didn’t look small, with Lin Xi stretching out inside it while wearing the mascot suit, it became somewhat cramped and crowded.

And atop this massive body was the young girl’s compact and mismatched head.

This job couldn’t be considered very comfortable. The stifling headgear had thoroughly soaked the hair across her forehead.

The sunlight slanted slightly, streaming in through the window fitted with anti-theft bars, cloaking her face in a layer of golden radiance. It was just like the situation on the sports field that day, sweat hanging on her cheeks, steaming and radiating a kind of yearning vitality.

Gu Nianyin’s gaze quietly paused for a moment. The sweat in her line of sight was condensing into a droplet of water, sliding down along Lin Xi’s cheek.

First it passed her jaw, and then it swept across her neck.

The young girl’s upturned head brought out the veins on her neck, a line illuminated by sweat, extending and vanishing into her collar.

Wanted to tear it open.

A simple and brutal thought surfaced in Gu Nianyin’s mind, yet sitting on the bench, she remained expressionless as always.

Even the sun couldn’t guess what she was thinking, and the light falling on Lin Xi’s profile became even brighter.

“Gu Nianyin, help me pull down the zipper.”

Right at this moment, Lin Xi’s voice traveled into Gu Nianyin’s ears.

She kept her eyelashes lowered, her expression looking as though she were speaking of a very ordinary matter.

In order to maintain a sense of realism for the mascot, the zippers of the mascot suits were all hidden, minutely concealed inside the thick, dense fur.

In the past, every time Lin Xi put it on or took it off, she had to battle with the zipper for a while. Now that Gu Nianyin was here, she wanted to use this to turn the tables.

—To make Gu Nianyin help her pull this incredibly hard-to-pull zipper.

Hearing this sentence from Lin Xi, Gu Nianyin clearly froze for a moment.

Lin Xi assumed she simply didn’t want to do this kind of service work. Smiling inwardly, she asked aggressively: “Is that a no?”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Gu Nianyin replied.

She reined in the expression she had failed to control just now, walking over calmly and placidly as she spoke.

The sun quietly hid behind the window, preparing to watch how Gu Nianyin would find the zipper of the mascot suit.

Yet with a sudden oversight, in the blink of an eye, it saw Gu Nianyin’s hand press onto the zipper within the gap of the fur.

Those scallion-white fingers sank into the thick, dense fluff, moving smoothly like flowing water, pulling the zipper open in a single motion.

The vibrant colors were peeled apart, and what was revealed was the young girl’s thin back. The white short-sleeved T-shirt was thoroughly soaked in sweat, the lightweight fabric clinging to her skin and revealing its original color.

Lin Xi possessed a typically slender frame. Her lean skeletal structure suited her disposition, being neither docile nor delicate.

The midday sun was piercing, and she followed suit by becoming even more piercing, her distinct contours unable to be assimilated by the light, standing unique and fiercely untamed.

Particularly those shoulder blades protruding from her back, their strictly symmetrical shape possessed a rare exquisite quality.

Gu Nianyin’s gaze remained restrained, flatly sweeping across the shape of this person’s bone structure, clinging with a greed that wasn’t seen by others.

Those fingers still enveloped by the fur twitched slightly a few times, like a nerve unable to suppress a sudden leap.

The scorching heat landed behind Lin Xi. Gu Nianyin held herself back, speaking deeply to Lin Xi: “A-Xi, has anyone ever told you that your shoulder blades look a lot like a butterfly’s wings?”

As this sentence echoed in the room, it felt somewhat abrupt for no reason.

The hot breath exhaled by Gu Nianyin when she spoke landed on Lin Xi’s back, instantly seeming to swap the temperatures of the two of them.

The sweat caused the young girl’s back to feel cold, yet this person speaking behind her was exhaling hot air.

The temperature landed gently with an attached tenderness, and Lin Xi abruptly perceived a current of electricity.

And water was the best conductor.

The room facing west welcomed the hottest sun in the late afternoon, and Lin Xi’s line of sight was like a vast, golden-orange ocean.

Her heart was stifled in water, giving a fierce thud and bubbling forth vapors, causing one to lose their balance.

This wasn’t the first time today she had experienced this kind of feeling. It was baffling, bringing about an unwarranted irritation.

Recalling further that these feelings were all brought to her by the person behind her, Lin Xi bit her teeth even harder, ripping out a complaint to conceal herself: “I say, Miss Gu, have you driven yourself into a demonic possession over your love for butterflies?”

Gu Nianyin curled her lips slightly: “Perhaps.”

From beginning to end, her gaze remained hung upon Lin Xi’s back, her words light and slow: “I really like my butterfly.”

Who cares whether you like it or not?

Hearing these words from Gu Nianyin, a retort immediately popped up in Lin Xi’s mind.

It was just that, for some reason, she didn’t really want to use this sentence to attack Gu Nianyin’s preferences. Extricating herself deftly from the mascot suit, she tossed a sentence over to the person behind her: “Then I wish you can keep on liking it forever!”

As she spoke, Lin Xi pulled her own clothes out from her locker, and with a few deft movements, she slipped them onto her body.

Gu Nianyin still remembered Lin Xi’s almost soaked T-shirt, asking as a reminder: “Aren’t you going to change the shirt inside?”

Lin Xi, however, misinterpreted her meaning. Raising an eyebrow instantly, she asked deliberately: “What, want to watch?”

The young girl’s open collar revealed a patch of pale skin, her collarbones looming indistinctly beneath the covering collar.

Gu Nianyin stood straight before the window just like that. Upon detecting the meaning within Lin Xi’s words, she chose to follow along and answer her: “What if I do?”

This answer could barely be counted as within Lin Xi’s prior assumption.

The moment the voice over there fell, she marched over toward Gu Nianyin.

The ambiguity that had just swept across her back was amplified by Lin Xi in a crude imitation.

She stood facing Gu Nianyin just like that, lowering her eyebrows slightly to lock eyes with this person, her words carrying an ulterior motive: “Gu Nianyin, do you know that you’re an adult now?”

“I know.”

Gu Nianyin answered with a calm gaze, yet her entire person had already been enveloped beneath Lin Xi’s shadow.

The sunlight cloaked the two slender figures, and within the sluggish airflow, ambiguity was pushed to the brink of exploding.

“But I’m not.”

Then suddenly, it came to a grinding halt along with Lin Xi’s voice.

The corners of those eyes looking intently at Gu Nianyin carried a trace of slyness, looking like a fox, looking like a cat.

The person who historically never abided by the law suddenly observed the rules, taking a step backward and announcing: “You doing this counts as harassing a minor, believe it or not I’ll have you thrown into the precinct!”

As she spoke, Lin Xi ruthlessly pulled the zipper of her jacket to the very top, the cold metal resting against her chin.

The young girl’s sharp features looked straight at this certain adult female surnamed Gu who had just held evil designs and malicious intentions toward her, her highly elevated chin proudly announcing the victory she had achieved.

The orange ocean condensed from the sun flowed between the two of them, and Gu Nianyin’s expression remained unchanged throughout.

Yet it also seemed to have changed.

The sound of her chest thumping and knocking was clearly articulating her current emotion.

Accepting her defeat.

It was rare for Lin Xi to ultimately gain the upper hand in this verbal battle. Armed heavily and in an excellent mood, she led Gu Nianyin out of the lounge.

The dining area of the amusement park at midday was exceptionally bustling. The lines for projects shifted from the amusement rides to the restaurants and eateries of the park, with clamor rising everywhere.

Lin Xi belonged to the type who knew when to stop while ahead. Winning against Gu Nianyin once was enough. She then hung the purpose of her inviting Gu Nianyin out back up, proactively asking: “Have you eaten?”

“I have,” Gu Nianyin nodded, turning around to ask Lin Xi instead, “You haven’t yet, have you?”

“Yeah,” Lin Xi nodded her head.

“Go grab something to eat?” Gu Nianyin proposed.

“Too many people,” Lin Xi shot a glance at the dining area not far away, expressing her refusal.

She didn’t like people crowding together; she would rather go hungry.

Thinking that this place had a lot of people, then correspondingly, the amusement rides ought to have fewer people.

Upholding her sensitivity toward numbers, Lin Xi then opened the park app, proposing: “Right now the roller coaster only takes twenty minutes, do you want to go play that first?”

“Sure,” Gu Nianyin agreed, moving to walk toward the roller coaster as she spoke.

Yet she hadn’t expected to be halted in her steps immediately by a light tug.

Lin Xi didn’t walk toward the direction of the roller coaster. Instead, she tilted her chin up at Gu Nianyin: “Come with me to buy a hot dog on a stick, we can eat it while waiting in line.”

Gu Nianyin glanced at the time, stating: “I can go line up first.”

The moment these words came out, Lin Xi first let out a laugh, raising her lips to turn Gu Nianyin’s own shield against Gu Nianyin’s spear: “I say, who was the one who said that the pancake-flipping problem isn’t advisable?”

Gu Nianyin, however, looked at Lin Xi, correcting her in a flat tone: “What I said was that the pancake-flipping problem isn’t advisable when it comes to feelings.”

The moment these words came out, Lin Xi, who had just achieved victory, was choked by Gu Nianyin once again.

She had originally only wanted to avoid repeating the mistake of the night market last time, but she hadn’t expected to expose herself directly.

The calmer Gu Nianyin’s gaze was, the more chaotic Lin Xi became.

Her ulterior motives were contemptible and low. They couldn’t stand the light of day at all.

And whether she had failed to detect it or was simply willing to enter the net, Gu Nianyin then pulled Lin Xi’s hand—which had originally been looped around her wrist—and said to her: “Let’s go, if we’re late they’ll be sold out.”

The turn came too quickly, catching Lin Xi unprepared.

Regarding Gu Nianyin’s reaction, it far exceeded her predictions; it couldn’t be counted as joy, let alone a fluke.

She looked at Gu Nianyin who was pulling her at the front of her field of vision.

And for a single instant, she wished this person could pull her out of the darkness just like this.

The hot dogs on a stick were not sold out because they went late, contrary to what Gu Nianyin had said.

Lin Xi had calculated the time very precisely. After finishing the hot dogs, the queuing process for the roller coaster still reserved a bit of digestion time for her.

“The timing is perfect,” Lin Xi proudly showed off her calculations to Gu Nianyin, stepping forward to sit onto the roller coaster.

She went ahead and buckled her seatbelt, her peripheral vision sweeping over Gu Nianyin’s hand.

This person was still sitting expressionlessly. She didn’t know if this was her routine state, or if she was concealing her tension and fear.

According to experience, when experiencing the tension and thrill of such projects, most people would generate an emotion of fear.

The reason Lin Xi chose the roller coaster was because she had her own plans.

She unfolded her plan in her mind, and when the sharp countdown rang out, she turned her head to look at Gu Nianyin: “Gu Nianyin, do you know about the suspension bridge effect?”

“The suspension bridge effect is a psychological experiment conducted in the United States.” Unsurprisingly, Gu Nianyin’s words indicated she knew about this thing.

“When an experimenter walks across an unsafe suspension bridge, their heartbeat will accelerate involuntarily. If they encounter a person at this time, regardless of gender, they will mistakenly interpret this accelerated heartbeat caused by danger as attraction, thereby generating romantic feelings.”

The young girl’s calm voice sounded neither fast nor slow amidst the environment where alarms were blaring everywhere, acting just like an anchor.

There were no rhetorical techniques; Gu Nianyin’s words were plain and direct. At the same time she finished speaking, the countdown also arrived at the very end.

It was also at this exact moment that Lin Xi felt her hand being gripped by someone.

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