Jiang Ran didn’t have as much strength as Beijiao did. He was like a bull with excessive power, pinning her against the wall, rendering her completely immobile.
After being exposed, her expression, which had initially been restrained, turned even more menacing. She narrowed her eyes slightly, gazing at him threateningly.
Beijiao smiled at her.
“Let’s make a deal,” he leaned in closely, his breath forming white vapor that seemed ready to condense into frost on her lashes. His tone was light and airy, “Take me off your blacklist?”
If Jiang Ran had to pinpoint two things she did wrong tonight, they’d be:
1: She couldn’t withstand the pressure and accepted his friend request.
2: She only subtly blocked him instead of outright deleting him.
She let out a low “hmm” from her nose, briefly expressing her disinterest in Beijiao’s proposal. However, the latter seemed to understand her meaning immediately and surprisingly didn’t get anxious or angry.
He nodded and said it was fine.
“I’ll just do it myself later.”
When he said this, he released Jiang Ran’s nose and mouth. She took a deep breath and immediately caught the strong scent of alcohol floating in the air—some people had this miraculous constitution where even a sip of alcohol made them emit a stench stronger than someone who had downed three jin of liquor.
She was cornered in an alley by a drunk, blurry-eyed wild dog.
After taking a couple of deep breaths of fresh air, she pushed against the chest of the person pressing down on her. “Move!”
“Not moving.”
She was about to get angry, but before she could even open her mouth, he grabbed her wrist again. With just one hand, he managed to restrain both of her hands high above her head, pushing her back against the wall from where she had just slightly straightened up.
Her back hit the wall.
Even the thick winter coat couldn’t prevent the icy wall from causing her pain.
A hasty kiss landed on her lips.
Like a wolf that had been starving for years, the moment he touched her lips, a deep, satisfied “murmur” sound emerged from his throat, the kind of sound a canine makes when it has subdued its prey, both physically and mentally fulfilled.
His Adam’s apple moved as he reflexively bit her lip.
Hearing her sharp pained gasp and seeing her furrow her brow and turn her head away, he tasted a mixture of lipstick and iron rust with his tongue and lips, only then realizing when his canines had finally released her lower lip…
The hand that had been pressing on her shoulder let go, and he gently pinched her earlobe: “Oh, right, you have a wound on your mouth… I won’t bite you.”
He said this tenderly and sweetly.
As if he were whispering sweet nothings.
In the cold winter night, it exuded an indescribable obsession and madness.
After speaking, without giving Jiang Ran a chance to reply, his lips and tongue descended again. This time, however, it was indeed much gentler. He even used his lips to lovingly brush against the wound on her lips.
It didn’t hurt.
But it was very ticklish.
Her breathing became slightly uneven, but she focused entirely on trying to avoid his entanglement, clearly not cooperating. He became a bit anxious because of it.
“Open your mouth.” He gripped her jaw. “Hurry up, or I’ll do it myself and hurt you, and then you’ll get angry at me again.”
His tone sounded as if the whole matter was entirely her fault. Jiang Ran found it utterly absurd—what was wrong with this guy?
She gave a cold chuckle, slightly raising her chin with a rather annoying arrogance, frowning at him in disdain: “Do I look like I’m being nice to you right now?”
“You’re always like this with me,” he affectionately nuzzled her nose, “I’m used to it.”
The people inside the bar would never imagine that the two strangers, who in their minds were poles apart and whose only interaction and relationship were limited to “contestant” and “competition judge”…
At this moment, in the dead of night.
Were leaning in the dark alley beside the bar in the most intimate posture.
It should have been the kind of intimacy reserved for couples.
Yet the atmosphere between them was like that of enemies, tense and ready to clash.
“Stop messing around and let go; my teammate just went to the restroom.”
“I haven’t finished messing around,” Beijiao said indifferently. “I saw your teammate; she went into the restroom with a kid, won’t be out for a while…”
“?”
“Do you know how many things can be done in a restroom?”
He asked, and received a blank pause from her.
So he lifted the corner of his mouth, lowered his head, and pecked at her lips, “Want me to tell you?”
His tone carried a falsely innocent yet dangerous vibe that made her scalp tingle. She struggled slightly, using a cold expression to mask the panic from her heart racing in the previous moment, “Do you find this amusing? You’ll never be taken off my blacklist like this—”
“No problem,” Beijiao blinked, “I said, I’ll just do it myself later.”
Jiang Ran didn’t know where he got the confidence to get her phone.
She didn’t have time to ask before he lowered his head again and steadied himself. This time, his kiss was long and gentle. If it weren’t for the cold air blowing by constantly making her shiver, she might have easily fallen for his advances.
This time, he only managed to stay on her lips for about three seconds before being driven away again.
Under the dim light in the dark alley outside, she clearly saw the white vapor from their breaths mingling in the air, blurring their vision.
Just like her reason.
The fierce expression on her face was slightly slipping.
He lazily rubbed his thumb over her wrist, the face that looked even more delicate under the winter chill now tinged with a hint of red.
Her heartbeat quickened. She pursed her lips, looking down at Beijiao’s face so close to hers. He began playfully kissing her forehead, the corners of her eyes, and finally gently kissed her nose and the corners of her lips…
The two seemed to have truly become the closest lovers.
She couldn’t stand this atmosphere any longer. She pushed his shoulder, her voice becoming softer: “Let me go, okay? It’s really cold outside. Let’s talk about whatever you want to say—”
Tomorrow.
Before she could finish.
He looked up at her, his face clearly saying, “There’s no way I’m letting go of the meat that’s already in my mouth,” but out of respect, he still wasted a little time and blinked his eyes: “Do you have something to say to me?”
Jiang Ran closed her mouth.
“You just want to scold me,” he answered for her. After a pause, he added, “It’s okay, it won’t be cold soon.”
…
The sky had unknowingly begun to snow heavily.
The streetlights flickered once, dramatically emitting a “pop” sound, and the last ray of light on the roadside disappeared.
The bar door was pushed open from the inside. A drunk person stumbled out, cursing from the cold, pulling his hood over his head. He muttered, “Why are the streetlights out? What bad luck,” and suddenly felt the urge to urinate.
He looked at the pitch-black alley beside the bar, tempted, and took a step forward—
At that moment, he heard a short, low “mew” coming from deep within the alley.
A cold wind blew, and his eyes widened instantly. But then there was no further sound. A thousand urban legends about winter nights flashed through his mind, and he immediately took three steps back, fleeing in panic.
A dozen seconds later.
“He’s gone.”
A young man’s hoarse voice sounded.
Looking from the alley outwards, one could only see the pitch-black darkness swallowing everything. However, looking from the alley outwards, one could clearly see under the fluorescent lights of the bar whether anyone was passing by the alley entrance.
Jiang Ran lowered the hand she had been biting between her teeth, leaving deep tooth marks on the back of her hand.
Her eyes were red, her back tightly pressed against the wall. At this moment, she still couldn’t react to how things had escalated like this…
All her clothes were still properly worn, and he hadn’t even touched her collar.
Only the coat was a bit disheveled. His face was buried in her neck, the warmth of his breath transferring to her skin. In such a close posture that had been absent for so long, she almost couldn’t help trembling.
He was probably giving her little kisses.
His shoulders, like a lurking beast in the dark, slightly lowered.
The broad shoulders that had been praised seventy thousand times (now ninety thousand) on short video apps, with comments like “Ah ah ah ah, I can take the Pacific shoulder.”
She had once sat on just one side of his shoulder, reaching out to stick a horizontal Spring Festival couplet on the door frame—
Thinking back now, he could indeed support her on just one shoulder. She didn’t know where he got his immense strength from.
And at this moment.
One hand was hooked over his broad shoulder, while the other hand pushed his forehead, desperately trying to push him away, not holding back, almost pulling his hair, making him cold.
Her voice was almost angry: “Stop fooling around and let me go.”
Snowflakes landed on the window a meter away, making a light “plop” sound. Perhaps the temperature inside the bar was gradually rising, and the thick layer of ice that should have formed on the window began to melt—
Half her face was hiding-like beneath her scarf.
Minutes later, the scarf fell to the feet of the two as she fidgeted restlessly.
No matter how many times it happened, it was always the young man’s strong shoulders supporting her so she wouldn’t clumsily fall to the ground—
Her heartbeat quickened.
She frantically inhaled, but the cold air didn’t cool down her already muddled brain, almost drowning in this snowy night.
Until a shrill ringtone suddenly sounded. Jiang Ran jolted, panicking and starting to struggle—
He released her neck, slightly lifting her so her back leaned against the wall. He leaned close to her face, a half-smiling expression on his face: “One more kiss?”
That pretty dog face had the faint scent of her perfume from rubbing against her clothes.
He tilted his face to give her space. Except for the pair of pitch-black eyes shining in the dark, his originally pale lips were now pink and glistening…
Jiang Ran only needed to glance once before she couldn’t bear to look directly and shifted her gaze away.
“It’s my teammate’s call,” she whispered. “Let me down, she should be looking for me.”
Beijiao smiled at her, even having the strength to shake his waist slightly.
She let out a “mmp” sound as he jostled her, causing her back to hit the wall again. She heard his voice from above: “Just answer it like that, I won’t snatch your phone.”
But what was this?
An indecent posture?
Jiang Ran skeptically glanced at him, but at this moment, the phone in her pocket was frantically ringing, not allowing her to think too much. Her hand slightly trembling, she took out the phone from her pocket and slid to answer.
“Hey! Ranran! My dear Pea Sister, you finally answered the phone! I thought you’d gone missing!!!”
The alley was too quiet, the sound of snow falling could be heard clearly. The timid voice came clearly from the phone to the ears of everyone present. Jiang Ran heard Beijiao lightly laugh.
She lowered her head warily to look at him. He was looking up, almost whispering like talking to himself: “You won’t get lost. It’s not even that far yet.”
Without even thinking about whether the key verb he picked out was the same as what the timid voice meant, Jiang Ran raised her hand to slap him—
He now had both hands sufficiently flexible, lightly capturing her wrist and pressing it against the wall. In a voice only the two could hear, he said, “Don’t mess around, your teammate will find out.”
Jiang Ran hadn’t expected to be threatened by Beijiao one day.
“I…” Jiang Ran opened her mouth, only to find her voice hoarse and terrifying, laced with a coquettishness and exhaustion that bordered on sensual. Instantly, she was so mortified she nearly had a stroke. Clearing her throat, she said, “I have a headache. I went to find a convenience store to grab something to eat—”
“Ah? Are you okay? I told you not to drink too much. Where are you? Send me your location, I’ll come find you?”
“No!”
Jiang Ran raised her voice, the sudden increase startling the timid voice on the other end. There was silence for a few seconds on the phone side, and the timid voice asked hesitantly, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ran tightly pressed her lips, completely unable to explain that the word she had shouted wasn’t directed at her—
He had already leaned in, first nibbling on her neck, a wet kiss climbing upward, biting her tongue.
Jiang Ran sharply inhaled, feeling her hair standing on end one by one.
“I, mmm, I don’t even know where I am…”
She tried to hold the phone away from herself.
So the strange, hurried breathing wouldn’t be heard by the person on the other end.
“You go back first… I’m with some friends from the carving circle, mmm— it’s fine, he’ll send me back later.”
Her voice was broken, and by the end, it was almost on the verge of an imperceptible breakdown.
“What’s wrong with you?” the timid voice asked in confusion. “Why do you sound so strange? Are you crying?”
She wanted to cry.
Physiological tears were about to fall from her eyes.
Her originally dazed eyes from the alcohol were now flickering between clarity and confusion. She had no choice but to push him away with her hand again, covering her lips that were desperately trying to take in fresh air, so she wouldn’t make strange sounds.
After a long silence, the timid voice assumed she was just feeling bad from seeing Beijiao again tonight and having a conversation, and was now hiding somewhere drunk and crying, naturally not wanting to expose her.
“Then you really have a friend from the carving circle to send you back, right?” she asked. “If he’s busy, tell me, I’ll come pick you up. It’s already late. Although this is a commercial area of the ski resort, there are still many small streets and alleys. It’s not very safe for you to go back to the hotel alone by yourself.”
After a long pause.
She only got a single nasal-sounding syllable from Jiang Ran.
“Hmm.”
The timid voice would never imagine that the unsafe thing she had mentioned might have already happened.
The timid voice would also never guess that their “Pea Princess,” who in their minds knew nothing about anything other than skiing and had no interest in other things, was currently doing something good with the “friend from the carving circle.”
The snow kept falling.
Jiang Ran even heard the bar door open and the timid voice coming out. She first exclaimed, “Wow, it’s snowing again,” and then said, “Alright, I’ll go back now. Ranran said she’s buying food at the convenience store, and her friend will send her. I’ll just go back directly.”
After a brief silence in the air.
The youthful voice of Guangling sounded, “I’ll send you back.”
Slightly deep, the timid voice lightly laughed and didn’t refuse.
The two walked side by side on the snowy ground, the “crunch, crunch” sound of their footsteps getting further and further away, eventually fading into the distance.
…
A falling petal landed on her nose, then quickly melted due to the body temperature that was slightly higher than normal.
Jiang Ran shivered violently from that icy touch.
When she was finally let down, she was so weak she had no strength left.
She almost stumbled forward the moment her feet touched the ground. If Beijiao hadn’t timely reached out to support her, she might have embarrassingly knelt on the ground.
But she was like someone who had lost her usual manners. The moment she stood up, she immediately pushed him away, backing off two steps like avoiding a snake or scorpion until her back hit the wall behind her again.
“Why are you hiding?”
He approached her.
“Isn’t this kind of sneaky behavior exciting?”
He reached out, trapping her between himself and the wall, and smiled as he leaned down to kiss her again—his peripheral vision caught the sight of a bit of blood on his lips. He seemed to be showing off an impressive feat, parading around with that bloodstain.
Slowly extending his tongue to lick the blood away.
She closed her eyes in disbelief, turning her head away, thinking about how in the end she might have been seduced by his sweet talk to join in, now filled with a thousand ways to commit suicide after her dignity was completely destroyed.
He reached out, pinching her chin and turning her face back: “What are you complaining about? Didn’t you bite me back? You made me bleed, so ruthless.”
He kissed her lips, forcibly wanting to share the metallic taste with her that she didn’t want to share. As she hummed and desperately tried to avoid his kiss, the corner of his lips carried a smile he hadn’t even noticed.
After the kiss, her already reddened eyes were now completely filled with tears. She let out a sob, this was truly a humiliation: “You pervert!”
What if they were discovered!
He let her scold him, kissing away the trembling tears on her cheeks—
Then, as expected, he got slapped.
His face was turned sideways by the slap. This time the force wasn’t lighter than the one in Guangzhou, yet he didn’t say anything. Instead, he even bent down along with her force, picking up the scarf that had fallen to the ground for her.
With the red slap mark quickly appearing on his face, he lowered his eyes and patiently wrapped the scarf around her—
What did he, a big straight guy, know about tying scarves? He clumsily wrapped it around twice. Jiang Ran irritably slapped his hand away.
He obediently moved back, and as she bent her head to carefully adjust her scarf, and at the same time organize her chaotic thoughts, her heart was still racing, her mind filled with “I’m crazy, I’m crazy, I’m crazy,” and her hands still trembling…
When she looked up, she saw him playing with his phone.
He still had the leisure to play with his phone!
She moved her lips, wanting to scold him again, but just as she was about to speak, she saw the young man leaning against the opposite wall, his black hair, and the small rabbit pendant with a magician’s hat on the lower right corner of his phone case swaying in the wind.
Jiang Ran: “…”
Beijiao tried the password. First, he tried Jiang Ran’s birthday, didn’t open it. Then he tried her father’s birthday, halfway through entering he felt it was impossible—
Finally, as she lunged towards him, he impulsively entered “981113.” The phone’s lock screen flashed, and it went in.
He sneered, it was hard to describe his strange mood at this moment.
Like he had won the lottery.
A great mood to savor even in the coffin before death.
As she reached out to grab the phone, he shamelessly took advantage of his height, raised his arm high, and entered her WeChat, taking himself off the blacklist—
He even had time to reply to a message for her. A little brother whose profile picture was clearly that of a male team member from a certain province had invited the older sister for a drink next time.
So he replied on her behalf: No time.
The phone fell into Jiang Ran’s pocket a minute later. He raised his hand, ruffling her soft, long curly hair, which was full of bewilderment, “I told you.”
He said indifferently, “I can take myself off the blacklist by myself.”
Author’s Note:
I revised it. It’s purely kissing. Originally, nothing was done, nothing was done, nothing was done, nothing was done!!!
Let me clarify, the male and female protagonists are moving towards reconciliation. They’re just not fully back together yet. It’s shyness, not being forced. There’s no need for over-interpretation or calling the police, thank you. In real life, when encountering a man you don’t like, you won’t add him on WeChat or blush at him. Just walk away.
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