The Premeditated Seductress Childhood Friend - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Self-Rescue

Suppressing her impulses, Song Yixi circled to the driver’s seat and expertly started the engine. Having driven Xu Qingyu’s car a few times now, she was quite familiar with it.

“Any music in here?”

As she spoke, Song Yixi deliberately avoided looking at Xu Qingyu. Xu Qingyu noticed, but didn’t call her out.

“Mhm.”

Xu Qingyu operated the screen, clicking into her own playlist. She usually preferred soothing, gentle music. Song Yixi was the opposite—she liked things wild. However, Xu Qingyu couldn’t handle that kind of music; it often made her physically uncomfortable.

The road home was quite congested. Listening to the slow, flowing melodies, Song Yixi couldn’t help but yawn. Detecting this, Xu Qingyu reached out and turned the music off.

“Let’s not listen to that. Let’s talk instead.”

Song Yixi raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued. “Sure, let’s talk. About what?”

Xu Qingyu turned her head to look at her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Let’s talk about…” Song Yixi uncomfortably tightened her grip on the steering wheel, hesitating for a moment. “Let’s talk about that frantic suitor of yours.”

Xu Qingyu seemed to have no recollection. “Who?”

Song Yixi twitched her lip. “The one the TCM seniors mentioned at the gym last time. They said you had a frantic suitor—probably that #08 guy. Said he’d been chasing you for a long time, and you said you didn’t know him.”

“Oh, him.” Xu Qingyu remembered now, looking lazy and indifferent. “There’s nothing much to talk about there.”

For some reason, hearing Xu Qingyu say that made Song Yixi feel a bit let down. “Mhm.”

Fine, if she didn’t want to talk about it, Song Yixi didn’t really want to hear it anyway.

“What I meant was…” Xu Qingyu’s left hand rested on Song Yixi’s thigh, her fingertips tracing a slow, deliberate line. “Talking about him is boring; I can’t even remember the guy. Why don’t we talk about something else? Like… you and me.”

Song Yixi suddenly got flustered. “What’s there to talk about with us?”

She felt Xu Qingyu was doing this on purpose. They hadn’t even finished the topic of “suitors,” and now she was bringing up “us”? What did that mean? Was she calling her a suitor?

Xu Qingyu looked at her with feigned confusion. “Is there nothing between us? We know each other inside and out, and we’ve kissed. Nothing?”

Song Yixi felt like she was being cornered. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m talking about this seven-day holiday, of course.” Xu Qingyu’s hand on Song Yixi’s thigh slowly tightened. “I’m staying at your house, sleeping in your bed, spending every moment with you. What if you want to kiss me again?”

Song Yixi was stumped. She wanted to claim she wouldn’t, but the truth was she had an impulse to kiss Xu Qingyu right now. Spending day and night together… she probably wouldn’t be able to hold back.

At my house, wanting to kiss Xu Qingyu, what do I do?

Was Xu Qingyu telling her she had to control herself? Why did that feel a bit cruel?

Just as she was feeling dejected, Xu Qingyu withdrew her hand and said in a low, breathy voice, “At your house, you have to be careful.”

Song Yixi felt as if the words had been whispered directly into her ear. At a red light, she glanced at Xu Qingyu, her eyes dazed, not fully understanding.

Be careful? Does that mean kiss or don’t kiss?

Xu Qingyu gave a faint smile. “You have to hide… if you want to kiss.”

In an instant, Song Yixi’s heart rate accelerated wildly. She started the car, gripping the wheel tight, pretending to be nonchalant. In reality, her heart was nearly leaping out of her chest.

Xu Qingyu fell silent after that sentence, acting as if nothing had happened, tilting her head to look out the window. It was as if the person who had just teased Song Yixi wasn’t her at all.

Song Yixi felt an unbearable itch in her heart, like it was being lightly scratched. Just enough to tease, not enough to satisfy. She stepped on the gas, wanting to get home as fast as possible.

But after only a few intersections, the traffic stalled again. Song Yixi was frantic, her fingers drumming on the wheel. Out of the corner of her eye, Xu Qingyu saw her, and the corners of her mouth curled upward.

It took nearly an hour of traffic to finally reach home. The car pulled into the underground garage of the Song family villa. Song Yixi hopped out, grabbed a suitcase in each hand, and told Xu Qingyu to enter the code.

Xu Qingyu knew the code to the Song house. As the lock clicked open, Song Yixi lugged the luggage inside while glancing at Xu Qingyu’s villa next door. The layouts were identical, but Song Yixi’s house was decorated with red lanterns and the walls had been repainted. Her mother had specifically commissioned it, wanting a “warmth” that stood out from the rest of the neighborhood.

In comparison, Xu Qingyu’s house looked very cold. Cold from the inside out.

Song Yixi didn’t want her going home. She’d be alone; the housekeeper couldn’t be everywhere at once. Xu Qingyu was stubborn—if she felt unwell, no one might know.

Since her parents weren’t back yet, Song Yixi moved Xu Qingyu’s luggage directly to her own room. In the three-and-a-half-story villa, Song Yixi lived alone on the third floor in a large, open-plan suite.

Song Yixi dropped the luggage and went to turn on the AC. She instinctively reached for 16°C, but suddenly remembering Xu Qingyu was there, she quickly dialed it back up to 27°C.

Xu Qingyu saw this and reached out to rub her head. “You can set it lower. This room is big; it’ll be uncomfortable if it’s too warm.”

“It’s fine, it’s not high.” Song Yixi pulled out a chair for her. “Sit for a bit. I’ll unpack.”

Xu Qingyu sat down contentedly, watching her crouch down to organize. Song Yixi first put her own clothes in the closet, then cleared out half for Xu Qingyu’s things. Then came the miscellaneous items; Song Yixi wiped her desk clean and arranged all of Xu Qingyu’s belongings on it. Her own stuff was less important, so she just shoved it all into a drawer.

The two suitcases were settled just like that.

“Have a look. Is this okay? If not, I’ll rearrange it for you.”

Xu Qingyu only looked at her. “It’s fine.”

Song Yixi beamed and tucked the suitcases against the wall. Normally, when she got home, she’d flop onto the bed and play on her phone until she’d had enough. But with Xu Qingyu here, she didn’t want to look sloppy. Checking the room one more time, she realized she hadn’t changed the sheets, so she grabbed fresh ones from the cupboard.

Xu Qingyu asked if she needed help.

“No need, you sit.” Song Yixi changed them with practiced movements. “I’ve been doing these things myself since I was a kid. I once asked my mom why we didn’t hire a housekeeper. She said if we had one, I’d never do anything myself and would never learn anything.”

Xu Qingyu looked up at her. “Are you throwing shade at me?”

“No way,” Song Yixi said without thinking. “You don’t need to do anything. You just need to sit there peacefully and see patients, like your parents. Healing people, saving lives.”

Xu Qingyu was silent for a moment, then asked, “What if I don’t want to heal people and save lives?”

Song Yixi hadn’t considered that. She paused, tilting her head back to think carefully. “You don’t? I remember you loved it. When we were little at the TCM clinic, you’d sit in your wheelchair and stare at your parents, asking them to teach you how to read pulses and diagnose. You spent every spare moment reading medical texts and identifying herbs.”

In Song Yixi’s memory, Xu Qingyu had never been forced into medicine by her parents; it had always been her own goal.

Xu Qingyu smiled, the curve of her lips holding a hint of irony.

“Maybe it wasn’t because I liked it. Maybe… I just wanted to save myself?”