"Ah!" Qiaoqiao finally realized. The way she was riding on my back just now meant she had "opened her arms" and her entire front was pressed tightly against my back...
No matter how fierce Miss Qiao was, she would still blush and hurriedly jump off my back when we made such an intimate gesture, glaring at me angrily.
Hammer had already run into the room as soon as we entered. We were staying in a VIP suite, which had a huge, magnificent living room of about forty square meters outside, and two on each side, for a total of four luxurious master bedrooms, as well as a luxurious bathroom, a dressing room, and a small conference room.
After Qiaoqiao finally let go of me, we were both a little embarrassed and didn't say anything. We went back to our rooms to rest for a while, and when we came out of our rooms again, we were both a little awkward.
She then pressed me for details about my relationship with Yang Wei. Of course, Qiao Qiao claimed that she was interrogating me for Yan Di's sake, and kept saying that she wanted to protect my chastity for Yan Di's sake... Damn it!
I sighed and recounted how Yang Wei and I met and our subsequent interactions. Qiao Qiao kept her eyes narrowed and asked very detailed questions. She listened as I recounted how Yang Wei helped me during my adventures in Vancouver. After I finished, Qiao Qiao sighed and frowned, saying, "It seems this woman is quite a formidable character."
Then her eyes lit up: "Oh right, when she left, she seemed to whisper something to you at the door... Did she ask you to meet her in secret this afternoon?"
I sighed, first denying it, then said with a wry smile, "Qiaoqiao, do you know how you're behaving right now? You're just like a jealous and suspicious wife interrogating her cheating husband!"
"Pah!" Miss Qiao hesitated for a moment, but quickly spat out without any regard for her image, "Husband? You want to be my husband? Keep dreaming!" But no matter how wide her eyes were, she couldn't hide the panic in them.
Then she pressed, "So, are you going out to see her later?"
I shook my head in denial, but just then, the phone in the room rang.
The sudden ringing of the phone interrupted our conversation. Qiaoqiao's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed, "Oh! Still denying it! Look, they're calling to urge you!" Before I could say anything, she jumped over and said, "I'll answer it!"
She seemed to be deliberately testing my reaction, so she pressed the hands-free answer button...
"Hello," a sweet, cloying woman's voice, as if she'd just shouted out a kilogram of cream, spoke in fluent American English: "Sir, would you like some special services? Five hundred dollars a time... I'm the high-class kind, you know."
Qiaoqiao and I quickly exchanged glances, both looking at each other blankly. Finally, after a few seconds, I realized what was happening, suppressed a laugh, and said into the phone, "No need." Then I quickly hung up.
Qiaoqiao blushed, seemingly too embarrassed to look at me. I chuckled and said, "Hehe, this is a harassing call, it's normal. We're in Las Vegas, the gambling capital, a famous tourist city. In places like this, almost every hotel has prostitutes who call to solicit business."
Seeing Qiaoqiao's embarrassed expression, I went over and pulled her to sit down. Then I got up and poured her a glass of water. Sitting across from her, I hesitated for a moment and said softly, "Qiaoqiao, what's wrong with you today? I think you seem a little too agitated..."
Qiao Qiao hesitated for a moment, then drank a glass of water in one gulp. The arrogance and anger on her face gradually disappeared, and suddenly she became quiet. Holding the glass in her hands, she remained silent for a while before looking up at me: "Chen Yang, I have a question for you."
"Hmm, what?"
"Sigh..." Before speaking, Qiao Qiao sighed and slowly said, "What exactly do you want? Have you thought about it?"
"What have you thought about?"
"Thinking about me... um, our relationship." Qiao Qiao seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally making up her mind: "I know that the girl you love most in your heart is Yan Di, and it seems that the girl who should be with you the most is also her, right?"
I looked at Qiaoqiao, but didn't deny it, and nodded slightly: "Yes, she is my girlfriend."
"Yes, she's your girlfriend, and your woman," Qiao Qiao murmured, then looked at me wistfully and whispered, "And what about me?"
I suddenly froze.
Yes, where is Qiaoqiao?
I've always told myself that Qiaoqiao is my good friend, my best buddy, just like Aze and Mutou...
However, it cannot be denied that recently, step by step, the relationship between Qiaoqiao and me seems to be getting more and more complicated... From our reunion in Vancouver to our experience in Vietnam... it seems that step by step, our relationship has undergone a qualitative change without us even realizing it!
Yeah, what is Qiao Qiao anyway?
I'm not the kind of hypocritical or pretentious person. If I were to say "we're friends" like a hypocrite right now, I'm sure Qiaoqiao would be so angry that she'd slap me across the face!
friend?
Do you have friends who have hugged, kissed, and even slept in the same bed?
I know very well that I'm not a fool! I know that the relationship between Qiaoqiao and me has changed. That change seems to have been silently eroding our friendship, turning it into something else entirely...
"I...I don't know how to say it." I gave a wry smile, looked at Qiaoqiao, and scratched my hair hard.
Qiaoqiao gave a soft "hmm," then asked in return, "So... if I were to leave you from now on, and we never see each other again, never speak to each other again, would you accept that?"
"No!" I answered quickly this time!
Just kidding! Let Qiaoqiao disappear from my life. From now on, there will be no more girls baring their teeth at me, no more girls stealing my women, no more girls drinking with me, no more girls secretly flirting with me when no one's around, no more girls blaring that "Ikkyu-san" song in my ear...
For me, this is simply unimaginable!
"Just as I expected." Qiao Qiao sighed, a look of utter certainty on her face, and gave me a half-smile. "Men, they're all insatiable!"
“Okay, you have a girlfriend, Yan Di is your woman… So now, facing me, what kind of relationship do you think we have?” Qiao Qiao asked in one breath.
These are questions that are really hard for me to answer.
To be honest, I've always consciously avoided thinking about these questions. For me, this issue is like a dead end! An unsolvable dead end!
Whenever I think about these issues, I comfort myself, telling myself not to think about these difficult things for now, that things haven't reached that point yet. At least for now, the matter between Qiaoqiao and me hasn't been clarified... As long as it's not clarified, I can keep running away from it.
But now, Qiaoqiao is sitting right in front of me, and she asks me so directly: What kind of relationship do we have?
Yan Di is my woman, I love her, and she loves me with all her heart and soul! Of course, I can't and won't leave a girl like her! So, what about this ambiguous relationship between me and Qiao Qiao?
"Say nothing, ask nothing, because I know nothing now."
I remembered what Qiaoqiao had said to me twice, and my heart skipped a beat.
That's the sentence that sometimes allows me to numb myself: "Well, Qiaoqiao was just having a bit of fun, she was just teasing me... Even if she really has something going on, it hasn't happened yet."
For now, we can ignore things that haven't happened.
But did Qiaoqiao really "not know"?
Does she really "not know"?
If Qiaoqiao "didn't know," would she have been willing to turn against Li Wenjing's family to run back to Vancouver to find me?
If Qiaoqiao "didn't know," would she have led troops to Vietnam to rescue me in the first place?
If Qiaoqiao "didn't know," she would have taken care of me day and night when I was injured, even sharing a room and a bed with me.
I want to go a step further...
If Qiaoqiao "didn't know" that after she fell out with her family this time, she would come to Vancouver with Yandi to find me?
Qiaoqiao is not a stupid woman; on the contrary, she is very smart! If she "didn't know," then knowing that my relationship with Yan Di was stable after we met, why would she continue to stay by my side and even intentionally or unintentionally make some ambiguous gestures towards me?
Thinking about it carefully, it gave me a cold sweat!
Yan Di is my girlfriend! And Qiao Qiao certainly knows that! Even under these circumstances, she still came to my side with Yan Di… Doesn't that say something?
Even if Qiaoqiao is "fierce" and wild, she is still a girl! What am I waiting for? Do I have to wait for Qiaoqiao to come to me on her own initiative, loudly tell me that she likes me, and beg me to be with her... before I face this problem?
As a man, you've clearly developed a flirtatious relationship with a girl, yet you hesitate to make a move. You expect her to practically beg you... Seriously, is that even manly?
seem?
Did I do something wrong?
Having figured this out, a sudden sense of clarity washed over me! I looked up at Qiaoqiao and couldn't help but call out, "Qiaoqiao..."
Qiao Qiao's eyes were filled with complicated emotions. She sighed softly and gritted her teeth. There seemed to be a hint of resentment in her eyes: "Xiao Wu... I've already come to your side with Yan Di... what more do you want me to do? Besides flirting with girls, is all you can do to play dumb?"
I took a deep breath, my expression now visibly moved, and gazed at Qiaoqiao. "I...I didn't know...I didn't know before...You know, I'm always slow to react...and we...we...sigh, I don't know how to say it, anyway, but right now I'm very...Qiaoqiao, I'm not pretending. I really am." I whispered, troubled, "But, I already have Yan Di..."
"I won't compete with Yan Di to be your wife!" Qiao Qiao raised an eyebrow: "You think I'd fight with Yan Di? And then become your wife myself? Pfft!"
She sighed, looked at me, her eyes shining: "I, Qiaoqiao, will never love another man in my life. But I won't marry you either. I'll just stay by your side, and I won't compete with Yandi for you. I'll just stay by your side. If you're willing, I can be your lover. If you don't want Yandi to know, I can help you keep it a secret... Hey, what am I, Qiaoqiao? Just a free spirit. I never expected to marry any man and spend my life with him... Xiaowu, I like you now, and I can be with you, but I won't beg you to marry me. I don't want to make our relationship public one day... I just want to quietly possess a part of you. I know myself... well, my personality is really not suited to be someone else's wife."
I was truly shocked!
This! Is this a confession?!
I stared at Qiaoqiao in astonishment, mouth agape… I had thought about these things, these words, and these events… I had considered these ideas.
But I never expected that Qiaoqiao would dare to say these words so openly and directly to my face!
"Hmph." Qiao Qiao sniffed and glared at me. "I wouldn't have said these things to you originally. Since you like to play dumb, I'll play dumb with you! Anyway, I'll only ever love you in this life, and I have plenty of time to waste on you. I'm not afraid of you continuing to play dumb with me! But today... you actually cheated on me and Yan Di with this woman named Yang Wei... you!"
Sparks flew in her eyes again.
I quickly smiled wryly and said, "What do you mean by 'getting something done'... There really is nothing between Yang Wei and me."
"No?" Qiao Qiao's eyes were filled with suspicion: "Did you hold her?"
"Um...no," I replied, but secretly I thought to myself; when we fell down the mountain, our clinging to each other didn't really count as a hug...
"Have you kissed her?"
"No!"
"You've slept together?"
"Then there's no way!" I quickly shook my head.
Qiaoqiao's expression softened slightly. But then she gave me a deep look: "That doesn't prove anything! Hmph... Don't think you can hide it from me, Qiaoqiao! The moment I saw this woman, the way she looked at you, I knew there was definitely more to your relationship than meets the eye!"
I wanted to argue. But Qiao Qiao sighed, her face suddenly turning red, yet she still looked at me with a defiant expression: "You...you don't get cocky! You forced me to say these things today, so you're not allowed to be cocky anymore! Humph, if I hadn't seen that you've actually met another woman like this, I wouldn't have said any of this to you!"
I know that it was probably Yang Wei's appearance that made Qiao Qiao feel a serious sense of crisis. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so confrontational with Yang Wei along the way.
I quickly denied it, indicating that I absolutely dared not be proud.
Qiao Qiao's eyes darted around, a sly smile flashing across them. She whispered, "Hmph, men, huh? I don't expect you to control yourself... Expecting a man not to cheat is impossible! But let me tell you, with Yan Di and me, Qiao Qiao, you'd better stop being so greedy! As for Yang Wei... Hmph... You don't need to swear any oaths, I'll handle it myself..."
Seeing my helpless and stiff expression, Qiaoqiao suddenly got angry. She punched me hard and yelled, "Hey! That girl confessed her feelings to you right in front of you! As a man, can't you even react?!"
Then it suddenly dawned on me: "Ah... ah?"
"You idiot!" Qiao Qiao suddenly blushed, her eyes softening, and she whispered through gritted teeth, "Kiss me..."
The fierce Qiao Qiao regained her charming demeanor, and a rare hint of shyness flickered across her usually haughty brows. This expression on her face made one's heart flutter... My heart pounded wildly. Despite a pang of guilt, I couldn't help but reach out and gently put my arm around her shoulder. Then, silently, the two drew closer... closer...
Just as our lips were about to touch, I could even feel Qiaoqiao's soft yet rapid breaths on my face...
The phone rang again at this very inopportune moment...
We were both startled, and I pressed the answer button with a hint of annoyance...
"Sir, would you like special services...?" It was another extremely seductive voice, but it was an unfamiliar one. It must have been a different prostitute calling.
Before the other person could finish speaking, I quickly and angrily said, "No!"
I slammed down the phone in a huff and glanced up at Qiao Qiao. Her face was flushed; the usually composed Miss Qiao now wore the delicate, shy blush typical of a young, vulnerable woman, her eyes gentle…
I was slightly stunned for a moment, but couldn't help asking stupidly, "Um... Shall we... continue?"
Qiao Qiao chuckled, but there was an encouraging look in her eyes. I understood that look, and finally mustered up my courage to move closer again...
However, at that very moment, the damn phone rang again!
This time, Miss Qiao finally erupted in fury! She gripped the phone tightly, and heard yet another unfamiliar woman's voice on the other end: "Sir, do you require special services...?"