"What are you thinking?"
Shao Yan heard him asked her softly. He was cradling her, while also caressing her back every now and then.
Shao Yan didn't say anything for a while. She just laid there on his embrace, clutching on his shirt. Sometimes tracing her fingers on his chest.
And then Li Xiqing heard her soft voice.
"When I was young", she started to say, "My mother repeatedly told me not to trust man with good looking face".
"She would told me 'You'll get hurt from trusting a face!' and told me repeatedly to find a guy with brain instead. So he could took care of me. But I would just laughed at her". She chuckled softly, and then she suddenly went quiet.
And then after a while, she rubbed her face into his chest. Her clutch on his shirt was tighter.
Li Xiqing was thinking while unconsciously he tightened his hold on her.
They went silent and just embraced each other.
.....
After a while, Li Xiqing asked her, "Let's go eat ice cream?"
Shao Yan looked up at him, "Now?" she was confused, "It's already so late."
He straightened up, and then carried her down to stand on her feet, "Yeah, let's go!" he grabbed her hand and then he dragged her out of the apartment.
They walked to the convenience store nearby hand in hand like teenagers. Sometimes, they would teased each other. Sometimes they would just kissed.
"Which one do you want?" He asked Shao Yan who was concentrating on the ice cream chiller, examining carefully.
Shao Yan thought for a while and picked Haagen Dasz Rum and Raisin. Li Xiqing picked Belgian Chocolate.
They continued their simple date at the convenience store just like a couple of young students.
Feeding each other ice creams, and telling stories of their school years. They sat for a while on the plastic chairs outside the store and joked around with one another.
Shao Yan was baffled. Why did Li Xiqing suddenly in the mood of reminiscing school years?
Sometimes, she didn't understand this man!
.....
Li Xiqing sighed again.
Shao Yan glared at him, "Stop sighing anymore, this is already the hundredth time!"
Li Xiqing continued driving, "It's Saturday tomorrow, why do you have to leave so early" he sulked.
Shao Yan rolled her eyes, they have talked about this.
Along the way home, Li Xiqing was holding her hand the whole time he drove. He felt so reluctant to drive Shao Yan home, he really wanted to keep her in his embrace.
But Li Xiqing knew she had not felt comfortable yet. He would plan for her to visit his place more frequently.
After all, that would be her home one day. She had to adapt soon.
When they arrived at her apartment, Shao Yan keyed in his fingerprint into the door keypad memory so Li Xiqing could enter her apartment easily.
Li Xiqing felt like he was in cloud nine, now that Shao Yan started to trust him more. She also told him the pin code for the door.
Li Xiqing stayed for a while, accompanied her while waiting for Qi Ling to come home.
They were snuggling on the couch in the living room, and watched TV. Li Xiqing was sitting next to her. Shao Yan had her head leaned on his shoulder, his cheek was leaned on top of her head.
Li Xiqing was holding her hand and playing with her fingers. Both of their feet were propped on top of the coffee table and sometimes they would purposely bumped into each other's.
When Qi Ling keyed in the keypad, Shao Yan quickly pushed Li Xiqing away from her.
Qi Ling came in and saw her guilty face, Qi Ling could only snickered in her heart.
Sigh, this best friend of hers sometimes was too naive!
.....
Shao Yan decided to cleaned the house today. Now that she had a boyfriend, and Li Xiqing frequently visited her as well, Shao Yan wanted him to feel comfortable whenever he was here.
Everytime Li Xiqing brought her breakfast, he would also brought some for Qi Ling, and then the three of them would eat together.
Since Li Xiqing came frequently now, Qi Ling and Shao Yan agreed to put on a 'more modest' sleeping wear since they never know when Li Xiqing would stop by.
Today, Li Xiqing bought chicken porridge with century egg, Chinese dough fritters, soymilk and grass jelly pudding for dessert.
They were eating breakfast together. When all of a sudden, Li Xiqing had an incoming phone call.
He looked at the caller ID, and then picked it up in front of them.
Shao Yan didn't mean to listen in, but the voice was so loud that both Qi Ling and Shao Yan could hear clearly.
Martin was ranting in English and Japanese and both of them could more or less understood that Martin was in deep trouble.
Li Xiqing just listened for a while, and then all of a sudden, he stopped eating and looked at Qi Ling.
"How tall are you?", he suddenly asked Qi Ling.
Qi Ling was eating her fritters and looked at him puzzled, "... 175. Why?"
Li Xiqing said something to Martin, and didn't answer her Qi Ling looked at Shao Yan, and Shao Yan just shrugged back.
After a while, Li Xiqing hung up the phone and then he said, "I need a favor. Your day off is tomorrow, right? Our client is panicking now that their presentation to potential buyer may have to be cancelled because their model fell sick. It's a jewelry company."
Li Xiqing paused and drink his soymilk, "The male model is over 190cm, and the modelling company couldn't find anyone at a last minute that is tall enough to match him. So I need your help."
Qi Ling just stared at him, "I refused."
And then she went back to eating her porridge.
Li Xiqing felt headache was coming, "May I know why? If it's about the pay, you won't be disappointed. This is K jewelry. They wanted to sell their wedding business to a Taiwan company. You must have heard about that."
Qi Ling just kept eating, "No reason. Tomorrow, is my date with Yan Yan." and then she looked up at him, "Not. Free."
(─.─||）
Li Xiqing felt three blacklines on his head. Shao Yan was also speechless.
Shao Yan looked at Li Xiqing's darkened face.
She poked Qi Ling. "Ling, go help lah~ We can still have the date. I will accompany you tomorrow. Okay?"