How could Tan Mo not understand what Xie Qichen meant by “taking care of her”? His nearly explicit words, accompanied by his warm breath grazing her thin earlobe, felt like molten lava, instantly heating up her ears and making them flush red. During these days at Anhui Mountain, the two had become intimate enough to share everything, except that both had restrained themselves due to Tan Mo’s work and her period. She had also guessed that after returning to Licheng, this scheming man would definitely make his way into her life completely. Hearing him say this now, Tan Mo couldn’t help but imagine what would happen tonight, her heart racing. Xie Qichen tightened his grip on her waist, his calloused palm rubbing against her, and leaned in to whisper seductively in her ear:
“Will you let me take care of you?”
“Uh…”
Tan Mo blushed and lowered her gaze, unable to speak. The man then reached under her skirt, silently smirking as his breath drew closer to her ear:
“Hmm, I already know the answer.”
Tan Mo turned completely red, twisting her body to escape, but was only pulled even closer. Softening in his arms, she clung to his shoulders, her voice slightly tearful yet still sweet as she scolded him:
“Xie Qichen, how can you be so bad…”
“Bad?”
Foreheads touching, his voice was hoarse: “You don’t remember how you tempted me the other day? Did you think I’d forget everything?”
Xie Qichen had always believed she was innocent and pure—so much so that she seemed almost naive, easy to take advantage of. But now, he realized that beneath her sweet exterior, this little kitten had another side, one that made him utterly unable to resist her.
Tan Mo admitted she had deliberately tempted him a little that day, mainly because Xie Qichen in love was just too irresistible. Who would have thought that this seemingly refined and reserved man could be so passionate—and that he would reveal that side only to her?
Tan Mo hooked her finger around his collar, pouting playfully: “Who asked you to be so easily tempted? No self-control at all.”
“Did you expect me to have self-control after loving you for so many years before finally having you?”
Tan Mo looked up at him, her heart softening, and offered her lips willingly. Two seconds later, the man quickly took control, prying open her teeth and gripping the back of her neck, leaving her helpless to move. After all, they were in the car, with the driver in front. The girl was even more delicate and shy than when they were alone, provoking the man even more. He kissed her like he was teasing a cat.
Occasionally, a soft sound escaped Tan Mo’s lips, her entire face flushed red. Her watery eyes blinked helplessly, as if afraid of being teased by him, yet longing for his attention.
The man’s temple throbbed, his eyes darkening with desire.
He really wanted to take her right there in the car…
Tan Mo was dizzy from the kiss, not knowing whether the driver in the front seat was aware of their actions. Her heart pounded with nervousness, yet she noticed the car was still driving steadily, but somehow speeding up.
As if wanting to get them home faster…
Wuwuwu, she felt too embarrassed to face anyone anymore qwq.
Ten minutes later, the Rolls-Royce smoothly arrived at the villa’s entrance. Tan Mo got out of the car, and then Xie Qichen got out and held her hand:
“We’re home.”
Before attending the evening banquet, Xie Qichen had first brought her back to change clothes and get ready.
Now, Tan Mo looked earnestly at the familiar villa in front of her, recalling the day she left with all her belongings, a slight ache in her expression: “Xie Qichen, I originally thought I would never come back here again…”
Hearing this, the man felt a pang of heartache and hugged her even tighter.
“No, from now on, this will be our home. Mo Mo will always be the mistress of this house.”
Meeting his gaze, Tan Mo smiled with her eyes, and then her body was suddenly swept off her feet.
Xie Qichen held her steadily in his arms and started walking inside.
Tan Mo clutched his collar with her fingers, burying her face in his chest, her heart pounding with each of his steps.
Tonight, the villa was empty, giving the two of them free rein, no longer needing to be as cautious as they had been in the guesthouse for the past few days.
As they entered the villa, the warm lights automatically turned on.
Without any extra movements, Xie Qichen carried her directly upstairs.
Finally, entering the spacious bedroom, the next moment Tan Mo was gently placed onto the soft, dark-colored bedspread.
Sitting on the bed, Tan Mo’s mind went blank, her heart beating like a drum. Xie Qichen stood in front of her, his arms braced on either side of her body. He leaned down, and their lips naturally met once again.
Like vines, slowly growing and spreading.
Tan Mo tilted her head to receive the passionate kiss, feeling her breath becoming increasingly shallow. After a while, Xie Qichen stopped, and Tan Mo’s face flushed with shyness. She lightly tugged at her light purple skirt and softly said:
“I want to take off my makeup and take a shower first…”
Then her eyes were kissed, and the man smiled, his calm voice falling:
“Okay, go ahead.”
Both of them understood that there was plenty of time tonight, so there was no rush.
Tan Mo got up to change clothes, remembering her luggage was still downstairs. Xie Qichen said, “Stay here, I’ll go get it for you.”
“Okay.”
Considering they would return late tonight, a couple of days ago, she had asked her roommate to pack a bag of her belongings from the dormitory and have it delivered to the villa via same-city express. It contained her clothes and some simple items.
Xie Qichen left, and Tan Mo got up to walk around, seeing the box on the bedside table, her face turned red.
Could this person have specially instructed someone to buy it in the past few days… He really had made thorough preparations…
She looked away and no longer stared at it, instead turning her attention to the familiar furnishings around the room. After a while, Xie Qichen’s gentle voice came from the doorway:
“If there’s any decoration you don’t like, you can change it.”
She turned her face and saw Xie Qichen holding her luggage back. She pouted playfully, suppressing the corners of her lips:
“Can I really change it? This isn’t even my bedroom. I might not even stay here after moving back.”
Xie Qichen placed the luggage properly, lifted his eyes, and looked at her with a half-smile:
“You can keep talking like that if you’re not scared tonight.”
“…”
This person was threatening her!
“Okay, I won’t say anything…”
Tan Mo was both angry and shy. She walked over, opened the suitcase, took out her things, and removed her makeup.
After finishing, she wanted to change out of her evening dress. She reached for the zipper at her back when suddenly she felt the man walk up behind her:
“Let me.”
Tan Mo’s cheeks flushed slightly, but since he had already seen every part of her, he was only helping her. Finally, he handed her a clean towel:
“Go take a shower. Make the water hot, don’t catch a cold.”
He was afraid the girl might catch a chill if they played in the bathroom, so he let her go shower alone.
“Okay…”
Tan Mo took her clean clothes and went to the bathroom. Xie Qichen first dealt briefly with some work and then went to the guest room’s bathroom to take a shower.
After a while, Tan Mo finished her shower and came out.
Walking on the soft carpet, droplets of water dripped from her wet hair.
Because the villa was heated sufficiently, she wasn’t cold. Tonight, she wore only a white camisole with a bow tie, her fair skin glowing in the night, her smooth, glossy black hair cascading down, exuding a mix of innocence and allure.
Hmph, she wasn’t intentionally trying to tempt Xie Qichen.
Seeing that the man hadn’t finished his shower yet, Tan Mo took her luggage to the neighboring room, her former bedroom, wanting to put some less important items inside. She planned to convert this room into her studio in the future.
She was organizing her belongings when she finally saw a pink tin box.
This was a box she had specially asked her roommate to send over.
The tin box’s design was slightly childish, with a cartoon rabbit pattern on it. She had bought it back in high school. Even though many years had passed, it still looked as beautiful as ever, clearly well-preserved.
Memories surfaced as Tan Mo opened the tin box.
Meanwhile, when Xie Qichen finished his shower and returned to the master bedroom, he didn’t see the girl. He went to the neighboring room and saw her sitting on the edge of the bed, hugging the tin box and looking intently at its contents.
Hearing him, Tan Mo lifted her eyes and saw him, her gaze filled with more love than usual:
“Finished showering?”
“Yeah, why are you sitting here?”
He sat beside her, wrapping his arm around her. Tan Mo smiled: “Nothing, just looking at some stuff from high school. It’s pretty nostalgic.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Like the graduation memory book, everyone wrote so much for me inside, and there are even love confessions from boys.”
Xie Qichen’s face darkened: “Confessions?”
She lifted her chin unhappily: “What’s your problem? When I first met you, you had so many girls chasing you in college. How dare you talk to me like this?”
This was true. Back then, Tan Mo had lost count of how many times she had seen Xie Qichen being confessed to by girls, not to mention the countless small gifts. If it came to jealousy, she had eaten enough to brew a whole vat of vinegar.
The man slightly frowned his brows and coaxed her in a husky voice: “But I didn’t accept any of them.”
“Oh, you have such high standards? The girl you finally chose must be especially excellent and good. I’m really envious.”
He chuckled at her, “Are you complimenting yourself?”
“Did I say anything wrong?”
He gazed at her affectionately: “No, she’s definitely very special.”
Tan Mo beamed with joy, then Xie Qichen softly asked her:
“Finished looking? Let’s go back to our room, okay?”
Tan Mo knew he was in a hurry, but suddenly felt playful and wanted to tease him, “Not in a rush. First, listen to a story I want to tell you.”
“What story?”
“How about… I tell you a story about a boy I had a crush on in high school?”
Hearing this, Xie Qichen’s face immediately darkened, “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Come on, just listen casually.”
He furrowed his brows and turned his head away, “Not interested.”
“But I really liked him back then…”
A surge of jealousy welled up inside Xie Qichen. He stood up and abruptly pulled her into his arms, his voice low and hoarse:
“Tan Mo, are you trying to make me die of jealousy?”
In the middle of the night, she actually wanted to reminisce about a boy she used to like with him?
Tan Mo couldn’t help but laugh, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him:
“Do you know? That boy was really great. He was tall, handsome, excelled in studies, and was good at sports. His smile was especially gentle and handsome.
He was especially good to me, buying me snacks, helping me with my homework, and staying by my side when I was sad and upset. It was him who told me I wasn’t just a foster daughter looked down upon by others, that there were people who truly cared about me.
He was like the moon in the sky, hard to reach, yet still made me want to try to pluck it.
Once, I imagined marrying him someday, and now—”
Tan Mo looked at Xie Qichen, her eyes slightly wet, her lips curving into a smile: “My wish has come true.”
The man in front of her, whose heart had already turned sour with jealousy, was suddenly stunned when he heard her last sentence.
Tan Mo smiled and picked up a notebook from the tin box beside her, handing it to him:
“Idiot, you should read it first.”
Xie Qichen took it, opened the first page, and saw a drawing of a boy standing under a camphor tree. As he flipped through, there was a table with childish handwriting:
Name: Xie Qichen
Height: 189cm
Birthday: 1990.2.5
…
The notebook recorded details about Xie Qichen’s preferences and habits, such as liking durian but disliking coriander, being able to eat only a little spicy food but not sour, his favorite basketball player being Jordan, keeping his phone on silent mode, disliking being disturbed while writing code, not talking much not because he was unfriendly but possibly because he was thinking, and being very punctual, so it was best not to be late when meeting him, etc…
It included even the smallest details, things even Xie Qichen himself hadn’t noticed.
Seeing his surprised expression, Tan Mo blushed and said shyly: “I wanted to know as much about you as possible, so a lot of the information in here I secretly observed or asked your friends.
And do you know why I chose to study computer science at F University? It was because you graduated from there. I wanted to be closer to you.”
Xie Qichen was stunned as he flipped further and saw a new page.
The first line read the date they first met, followed by a sentence:
“On my sixteenth birthday, I suddenly discovered a treasure.
His name is Xie Qichen.”
From the day she met him, the girl had written many diaries about him. Every encounter and every word he said to her were recorded in pictures or text.
From the initial flutter of a young heart, nervous and shy, confused and at a loss, to later careful exploration, secretly happy, longing and missing, bitter jealousy, every bit and piece was like a thread weaving out the girl’s three-year-long secret love.
As Xie Qichen read on, it felt as if he was experiencing every emotion she had gone through.
Finally, he flipped to the last page and saw only two simple lines:
“He flew overseas.
The treasure, no matter how precious, never belonged to me.”
The pages were wrinkled, as if they had been soaked in many tears.
Xie Qichen’s eyes stung, “Tan Mo…”
Tan Mo took out other items from the tin box: “Look, these are all the little gifts you gave me, like this necklace, the little rabbit figurine, the ticket from the amusement park you took me to, the movie stubs from the times we went to the cinema, and so much more. I kept them all, even after you went overseas, I couldn’t bear to throw them away.”
“Do you remember when you took me to visit an ancient town before my college entrance exam? We climbed to the top of a mountain where there was an ancient wall for making wishes. I said I wanted to make a wish because everyone said it was very effective. If you wrote your wish on red paper and placed it in the gap of the ancient wall, it would come true.”
She handed a piece of red paper to the man in front of her:
“This is my only wish.”
She unfolded it, revealing only three words—
Xie Qichen.
Tan Mo looked up at him, her eyes filled with countless fantasies and writings she had imagined and written about him millions of times. Even if it meant exchanging for all the good things in the world, this was the treasure she wanted to obtain.
Xie Qichen looked at the red paper, his throat dry, then pulled Tan Mo tightly into his arms.
Tan Mo hugged him back, her nose slightly tingling as a tear slid from the corner of her eye:
“Xie Qichen, look how well I’ve hidden it. You never knew that from a long time ago, I’ve already fallen for you.”
Long before he even realized it, a girl had quietly kept him in her heart for a very long time. Even when he left her world, he never left her heart.
Xie Qichen tightly gripped the back of her head, his eyes turning red:
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Tan Mo smiled: “Actually, on the day we graduated from senior year and the results came out, I wanted to go find you and confess. But that day, you left for overseas, and I no longer had the courage to tell you. Just like the wish I made in front of the wishing wall, I still didn’t have the courage to pin the red paper on the wall in the end because I knew it would never come true.”
Hearing this, the man felt his heart twist in pain, his voice hoarse:
“I’m sorry…”
“After you came back, the reason I didn’t tell you my feelings was because I was always unsure whether your kindness toward me after marriage was out of responsibility or love…”
Tan Mo’s eyes were red:
“Xie Qichen, you’re so excellent, so many people like you. What chance do I have to stand out?”
She really wanted to be confident, but in front of Xie Qichen, whom she liked so much, she couldn’t help but feel insecure and scared.
The man looked down at her, his eyes burning:
“Stupid girl, who said you had no chance?”
“There’s no one better than you.”
Tan Mo’s eyes glistened, and just then, the man’s deep, husky voice fell on her head:
“I’m sorry. If I had realized your feelings sooner, or told you earlier that I liked you, maybe we wouldn’t have missed out on so many years.”
Tan Mo shook her head and looked up at him:
“Actually, when you told me last night that you’ve liked me for a long time, I just wanted to say that I once had a secret crush on you too. I don’t want you to feel guilty or sad. I just want to tell you that every moment you liked me from afar overseas wasn’t in vain. I never missed out either—because we’ve always loved each other.”
Tan Mo smiled at him:
“So even if we missed each other back then, it’s not too late now, right?”
Xie Qichen’s eyes reflected only her, his expression softening into deep tenderness, his voice full of gentleness:
“Yeah, it’s not too late.”
“As long as we still have a lifetime ahead of us, it’s never too late.”
Tan Mo’s eyes curved into a moist smile, and Xie Qichen took the red paper from her hand, smirking slightly:
“Do you know, making a wish doesn’t depend on this piece of paper.”
“It depends on me.”
Tan Mo’s eyes stung, and the next moment, the man leaned down toward her. She closed her eyes, and a warm touch landed on her lips.
Xie Qichen’s kiss was especially gentle, filled with deep affection and cherishing, as if he wanted to pour out all the unsaid feelings from all these years into her.
Tan Mo couldn’t help but rise on her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck, completely giving herself to him.
As if receiving a signal, the man’s kiss turned stormy and intense, burning and forceful. Tan Mo felt her waist held even tighter, his scorching breaths growing deeper and deeper, crashing over her like waves, making her unable to cope for a moment.
Tan Mo tilted her head to respond to his kiss, feeling her body sinking deeper and more intensely:
“Xie Qichen…”
A few seconds later, Tan Mo felt herself being lifted, the man’s deep voice falling by her ear:
“Hold on to me tightly.”
Tan Mo wrapped her arms around him, and the man carried her toward his bedroom.
They had missed each other for far too long. Now, fully aware of each other’s feelings in love, Tan Mo’s heart raced faster than ever.
Soon, she fell into the softness like clouds.
The man’s dark eyes met hers, and in an instant, he leaned down and kissed her deeply once again.
Outside, the bright moon rose, casting moonlight through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Not a single lamp was turned on in the room, and the dim lighting wrapped the two of them in deep affection.
Tan Mo’s body flushed pink from the kisses, her fingers clutching the sheets. After a while, he paused, looking at her blushed face, a faint teasing glint in his eyes:
“Nervous?”
“A little…”
He chuckled, “Don’t be afraid. You’ll feel amazing soon.”
Tan Mo blushed even more, then was kissed again.
Like simmering sweet syrup, the air grew warmer and sweeter, the sweetness spreading in every direction. Xie Qichen was as gentle as water, treating her like a rare treasure, completely capturing Tan Mo’s heart.
Not knowing how much time had passed, the sound of rustling packaging reached her ears.
Tan Mo felt herself being embraced again, and as a gentle kiss landed on her forehead, her entire world was filled only with him.
Outside the window, the light and shadows passed over the two entwined figures.
Everything grew quiet.
Tan Mo bit her lip, held tightly in his arms. Xie Qichen’s gaze lingered above her. A bead of sweat slid down his jawline. Looking at her, his voice was hoarse:
“Momao, I love you.”
Tan Mo looked at him, her eyes glistening, “I love you too…”
From the first time they met at sixteen until now, all the memories flashed through her mind like a movie. Overwhelmed with love, Tan Mo’s nose tingled:
“Xie Qichen, these past few days I still often feel dazed. I’m really scared this is all just a dream, scared that everything is just my imagination…”
“It’s not a dream.”
He held her hand, pressing it against his chest, letting her feel the strong beating of his heart: “All of this is real.”
He leaned closer to her lips, whispering each word in a hoarse voice:
“In this lifetime, Xie Qichen belongs only to Tan Mo.”
And from this moment on, she would forever and always be his.
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