Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Why Don’t You Teach Me First, Shiyuan?

The date was scheduled for after ten in the morning.

But just past nine, Xia Ziran already spotted Xie Zhiqing standing by the entrance of the date location.

She had even intentionally and strategically swapped her stark, rigid suit jacket for a grey high-neck cardigan over her shirt, making her look three shades gentler, even from the back.

Xia Ziran curled her lip, playing young.

She also noticed, with a sharp eye, that Xie Zhiqing was still tightly clutching the now-obsolete prop ball like a treasured engagement ring, holding a bouquet of fresh flowers in the other hand.

Xia Ziran scoffed, putting on an act.

And just as she was about to observe what other tricks the outwardly reserved Xie Zhiqing had up her sleeve, the other woman seemed to sense her presence and lifted her eyes to look in her direction.

However, the figure that came into Xie Zhiqing’s view was brighter than the daylight. As she smiled and walked toward her, Xie Zhiqing suddenly felt the awkwardness of a first date.

She even felt that her own efforts were perhaps not sincere enough.

But surprise flashed in Cheng Shiyuan’s eyes. She accepted the fragrant bouquet of peach blossoms and buried her face in it to take a deep breath.

Looking closely, she saw a few adorable, uniquely shaped peach blossoms made of yarn mixed in.

She stared at the pink knitted texture: “Is this… you knit it?”

With the reality show cameras constantly following them, Xie Zhiqing cleared her throat uncomfortably, looking away: “Mm.”

Since childhood, Cheng Shiyuan had always been the type to follow trends. She didn’t want to miss out on whatever was popular at school.

But she also had a three-minute attention span.

One moment she would swear that she would knit Xie Zhiqing the first scarf of her life, and the next, she would toss aside the needlework and start studying a scrapbooking journal.

Xie Zhiqing couldn’t count how many promises Cheng Shiyuan had made and forgotten. In the end, she finished the scarf, and even gave Cheng Shiyuan an identical one. She also took the half-empty journal and slowly finished it in her study to pass the time.

Her collar was suddenly lightly hooked by a finger.

Xie Zhiqing habitually leaned down.

The next second, warm, moist breath rubbed against her neck, completely disregarding the public setting and the onlookers:

“You even wore the perfume I gave you? It smells really nice.”

Cheng Shiyuan watched the skin beneath the collar of the usually expressionless person flush a pale pink.

—A more tender color than the peach blossoms in her arms.

She smirked triumphantly, knowing Xie Zhiqing was uncomfortable with such intimacy in public, but she loved seeing that flustered look on a reserved person.

She even wanted to push the teasing further.

Until a surprised voice came from behind them: “Cheng… Shiyuan?!”

Before she could turn around, she saw the person who just moments ago didn’t know where to look suddenly regain his usual sharp focus and shield her behind him.

Meeting Xie Zhiqing’s deep black, warningly cold eyes, the newcomer recoiled instinctively.

As if she had accidentally trespassed into the territory of a large, wild beast, she instinctively started to back away.

“I, I, I graduated from this school too, just one year younger than you… I was planning to come back today with my husband to take wedding photos. Are you two doing the same, Senior Xie?”

Cheng Shiyuan listened to her rattle off her entire plan, as if facing a dean of students, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

She nudged Xie Zhiqing’s wrist, signaling her not to scare the person.

Then, Cheng Shiyuan stepped forward with a smile and said to the well-dressed bride: “Congratulations on your wedding~”

The junior was captivated by her smile, forgetting about her photography crew, and bravely started talking to her.

So, Xie Zhiqing watched as the junior completely forgot her schedule, her eyes glued to Cheng Shiyuan.

She wasn’t satisfied with just an autograph and a photo. Even when Cheng Shiyuan offered to help her take a few wedding photos, she momentarily forgot about her husband.

It wasn’t until Xie Zhiqing’s increasingly tangible gaze made her suddenly shiver.

The next second, she heard her say: “Oh! I know what pose to strike!”

She spread out her skirt, a shy smile on her face, and looked back at the person kneeling on the grass, gathering the fabric of her skirt.

“Click—”

After the image was captured, the junior excitedly rushed over to look at the photo on Cheng Shiyuan’s phone: “That’s it! That’s it! Aaaah, my dream has come true! This is what I saw back then!”

“Waaah, Senior Cheng, do you know how sweet you two were? That’s why I decided I wanted a campus romance!”

Cheng Shiyuan looked confused.

Xie Zhiqing, however, seemed to recall something.

The junior passionately explained: “Don’t you remember? The freshman arts festival, you were the host. You were backstage, and that photo of you two is still on the school forum…”

Cheng Shiyuan was struck by a moment of realization. She seemed to see her past self, bright and glamorous, secretly complaining to Xie Zhiqing on her phone.

“I’m starving. Why isn’t my makeup done yet? I definitely won’t have time for the cafeteria later, don’t wait for me.”

“I suddenly really want the barbecue from the back gate. Why don’t you go out and buy some for me?”

“Never mind, I won’t eat it. My gown is too long, I can’t spare my hands, and I’m too lazy to reapply makeup. I’ll just bear it.”

She would never forget the sight of Xie Zhiqing’s cold face suddenly appearing backstage, amidst the hustle and bustle and countless smiling faces talking to her.

Especially that person with the cold face, who was holding a greasy, plastic-bag-wrapped barbecue.

As if completely unbothered by the contradiction to her image, she only slowly took out a wet wipe to clean her hands after the food was accepted.

But in the next second, she decisively crouched down, silently and carefully arranging the delicate netting of her gown, remaining in that position for hours.

Later, someone took a picture of that scene and posted it on the school forum. Cheng Shiyuan even downloaded the photo.

For a long time, that moment was why her heart fluttered repeatedly for Xie Zhiqing.

“So, Senior Cheng, are you two going to come back and take wedding photos too?”

The junior’s enthusiastic urging pulled Cheng Shiyuan back to the present.

Looking at the couple who went from school uniforms to wedding dresses, she smiled with curved eyes, but calmly suppressed the past.

Captured Xie Zhiqing’s emotional fluctuation. Converted to life duration: 10 hours.

The sudden notification in her mind made her instinctively look toward Xie Zhiqing.

She met the calm eyes that said nothing but seemed to hold all the expectation in the world.

Cheng Shiyuan raised an eyebrow, deciding not to completely dismiss her wishes: “We’ll see about the future later. However, we’re here today for a date, revisiting our old stomping grounds~”

Amidst the bride’s quiet squeals, her face completely covered in her hands, showing she was “shipping the real thing”—

Xie Zhiqing naturally walked back to her side, filling the space that had been briefly occupied by the bystander.

The campus was empty of students on the weekend, allowing them to enjoy the deserted track and field. Cheng Shiyuan casually complained that the school had become stingy, replacing the central court with fake grass.

Xie Zhiqing glanced at her: “You broke your leg trying to play soccer with someone else on the freshly watered wet turf, don’t you remember?”

Cheng Shiyuan blinked.

But what she remembered was not the soccer ball, but the person playing soccer, who seemed to be a rather handsome girl.

At the time, she admired the girl’s energetic appearance while playing, so she decided to try it herself.

“It wasn’t as exaggerated as a broken leg, right…?”

Cheng Shiyuan touched her nose.

It was just a fracture, and she had to use crutches for two months. Because she was embarrassed by Xie Zhiqing carrying her up and down the stairs every day, she later developed a psychological trauma for soccer and never went near the area again.

Naturally, she didn’t know about the turf replacement.

At that moment, the system signaled again that Xie Zhiqing had an emotional fluctuation.

Cheng Shiyuan met her long, intense gaze and sighed in her heart, knowing she was about to hear the jealous one bring up old history years later.

It was definitely going to be a scolding about her being lustful.

However, the next second, Xie Zhiqing walked in front of her, turned her back, bent her knees, and crouched down.

“I can carry you now too. Want to get on?”

Cheng Shiyuan saw the nostalgia, more obvious than jealousy, in her eyes when she turned her head.

When Xie Zhiqing stopped being aggressive and was willing to suppress that sharpness, even if it was just a pretense, Cheng Shiyuan was inevitably captivated by her gentle façade.

By the time she realized it, she had already jumped onto her back, her legs clamping tightly around her firm waist beneath the loose fabric of her sweater.

Intending to skip over the topic of those past insignificant people, Cheng Shiyuan deliberately coughed twice, pressing her cheek against the long black hair near her ear:

“Ahem, did you know that besides our photo, there was also fanfiction about us on the forum back then?”

Xie Zhiqing turned her head slightly.

Cheng Shiyuan loosely hooked her neck with one hand, while the other actively pulled out her phone and found the file of fanfics she had downloaded back then.

Xie Zhiqing even saw her finger casually scroll past the more popular title, ‘Qing Feng You Shi’ (Clear Wind Sometimes).

After scrolling for a long time, she stopped at a very pitiful, niche folder containing only four stories—

“‘Shi, Zhi, Ming, Gui’ (Shiyuan and Zhiqing’s Names Return)?”

Her tone, as she read it out word by word, was clearly one of confusion.

Cheng Shiyuan looked at her matter-of-factly: “What’s wrong? Can’t I be amazing as both the Top and the Bottom?”

Xie Zhiqing let out a low chuckle, amused by her confidence in “being the Top.”

Her gaze fixed on the long fingernails that swiftly scrolled across the phone. It must be a fresh manicure from this morning, embedded with a large, pink heart-shaped crystal.

Her eyes reflected the length and exaggerated design of her nails. Xie Zhiqing’s voice was full of implied meaning as she commented:

“Then you are very unethical for a Top.”

With such long nails and such exaggerated texture.

Cheng Shiyuan: “…”

She never expected that before she could even use the explicit plot from the CP fanfic to tease Xie Zhiqing, she would be teased by her in public first.

—Wait, when did Xie Zhiqing secretly study up on this stuff behind her back? It sounds like she’s even researched how to be a Top?

“Who knows if you have special tastes?” the innocent, but not to be outdone, voice countered.

At the same time.

Cheng Shiyuan finally skimmed through the plot she wanted and casually displayed her phone screen in front of the person beneath her.

Xie Zhiqing was still pondering the meaning of her “special tastes,” when she narrowed her eyes and was caught off guard, scanning a paragraph of text.

[Cheng Shiyuan exhaled slowly, her wet tongue tracing the curve of Xie Zhiqing’s earlobe.

Following the contour of her ear, inch by inch, and finding it wasn’t enough, she used her pearly teeth to nip it, her heavy, sticky breath falling inside.

Xie Zhiqing’s dark eyes were bottomless, yet they surged with undisguised arousal.

The skin beneath Cheng Shiyuan’s palm grew hotter, but she deliberately feigned ignorance, lowering her neck, her pink tongue tracing a path along her firm jawbone, licking and savoring the taste of her neck.

She even held her collarbone, like grinding her teeth, and bit it softly.

Just as she was about to move lower, Xie Zhiqing could no longer bear it. She raised a hand and pulled the blatantly teasing figure off her.

Her scorching palm gripped her delicate ankle and pulled it to the side.

Only stopping when she heard her yelp in pain.

Her palm paused but did not move away.

She only coaxed her in a husky voice: “Be good, spread them yourself.”

…

At that moment, Cheng Shiyuan abruptly turned off the phone screen.

She had seen in the entertainment industry that after some celebrities released a hit work, fans shipping the story’s pairing would sometimes, due to some grievance, use their large numbers to flood the Super Topic and fan discussion board of another CP, creating content for their own pairing on someone else’s territory.

But she never expected!

This despicable tactic was already being used on their school forum back then!

Someone had actually secretly slipped ‘Qing Feng You Shi’ content into ‘Shi Zhi Ming Gui’!

However, someone seemed to be even more agitated than she was.

The arm hooked around her neck, which was pressed tightly against her, seemed to be much hotter than before.

Taking advantage of the fact that the camera crew couldn’t film her phone, Cheng Shiyuan licked her lips. After causing mischief, she interviewed the victim with an innocent tone:

“Oh, why are you so hot? Are you getting heatstroke?”

The camera crew initially turned their heads away from the lens, concernedly checking the guest’s expression.

Too many accidents had occurred since the start of the show, and they were somewhat spooked.

But the next second.

The figure that had been standing still, casually strolling while carrying someone, suddenly burst into a sprint and ran into the distance.

The cameraman, caught in the gust of wind, froze for a long while before letting out a wail and starting to chase with his equipment:

“Teachers! Don’t run—”

He rushed toward the academic building, panting heavily, but quickly became disoriented and lost.

Inside the building right next to him, in the dimly lit stairwell, the supposedly heatstroked Xie Zhiqing looked refreshed.

On the contrary, Cheng Shiyuan, who just had the leisure to worry about others.

Now seemed to have lost all strength, clinging to the person, pressed against the cold wall, her face as vividly flushed as a peach blossom.

Her upper thighs felt a stinging soreness, as if they had been forcefully pinched in retaliation.

It was after Xie Zhiqing had shaken off the follow-up camera crew but stubbornly refused to put her down. Instead, she turned her head, her breath slightly heavy, and suddenly retorted:

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Cheng Shiyuan thought she was just being overly teased and was shy. She struggled to jump off her back.

She circled to face her, eagerly wanting to admire her shyness or fluster.

“What? Which line?”

Xie Zhiqing reached out and smoothed out the corner of her shirt that was sticking up.

Then, her palm turned down and suddenly gripped her upper thigh.

She cornered her against the cold wall.

Even through the fabric, the heat of her palm seemed to make the other person flinch.

She could even imagine that if these obstacles weren’t present, and she directly held that porcelain-white skin, Cheng Shiyuan would surely start to kick her legs wildly from the combination of itchiness and pain, just like the last time she was greedy for her massage skills.

Her hot breath, mimicking the way the other person had spoken earlier, deliberately approached her snowy-white ear.

“My strength is too great, and I might not be gentle enough. I’ll hurt you.”

“You, on the other hand, seem to be very experienced.”

Xie Zhiqing’s eyes were much deeper. Based on the text she had just read, she seemed to have visualized the scene of the escalating intimacy.

Her voice had become a little hoarse from a strange thirst.

“The line where I tell you to spread them should be changed to—”

Even when whispered low, the silent stairwell seemed to have an echo: “Climb on. Do it yourself.”

At the same time, the strong fingers that had been exploring near her upper thigh were now casually tracing a path toward a more forbidden area.

They seemed ready to break through the thin barrier of fabric at any moment, allowing the delicate and powerless person in front of her to blossom beneath her fingertips, just as she wished.

She stood there, with a slight smile, in a spot where anyone passing by on the floor above could easily see.

She had already heard the footsteps of the cameraman approaching this building.

Xie Zhiqing, however, continued to smile, completely ignoring her surroundings.

Instead of retreating, her finger, still pressing against the fabric, slowly pushed down into the soft dip.

Satisfied to hear Cheng Shiyuan’s breath hitch.

She then asked in a seemingly good-natured tone for confirmation:

“You should know very well how to make yourself feel good, right?”

While doing such a scandalous thing, she was still acting like a good student praised by the teacher.

Her breath was utterly invasive, but her tone was coaxing: “Why don’t you teach me first, Shiyuan?”