"It's been so long. How's your little girlfriend doing? Have you made any progress?"
Neither Chen Lili nor Qi Lin knew that Shang Jia and his friends had also come to watch a movie.
The two were standing in line, just ahead of them.
Shang Jia didn't want to lose face, so he said confidently, "Don't compare her to those money-obsessed girls from the past. I'm serious this time. I plan to marry Lili, so I'm taking things slow."
His friend curled his lips and said, "Okay, okay, she's the only woman who could make you, Mr. Shang, fall in love."
Chen Lili had just finished buying milk tea and snacks.
"Thank you~" she smiled and thanked the salesperson before turning to look for Qi Lin.
The place where Shang Jia was standing in line wasn't far from where Chen Lili was.
As she was returning, she vaguely heard a familiar voice among the people in line.
Out of curiosity, she glanced in Shang Jia's direction.
The next second.
Chen Lili: "..."
It's over... it's over!
Why is he here?
Chen Lili instantly panicked, her back turned cold, and her legs nearly gave out.
Although she and Qi Lin were just out watching a movie as a way to express her gratitude for his life-saving help, the problem was, she had a boyfriend. Going out with another man without her boyfriend knowing was definitely wrong.
But luckily, Shang Jia was busy chatting with his friends and hadn't noticed Chen Lili.
This gave her some temporary relief.
However, she didn't feel truly safe. Instead, it felt like she was dancing on the edge of a knife.
After swallowing nervously, Chen Lili's heart raced.
This was her last chance.
Shang Jia quickened his pace, walking toward Qi Lin, his leather shoes clicking on the floor.
Beautiful women stand out no matter where they go.
Shang Jia immediately sensed something.
He started shifting his gaze in Chen Lili's direction.
Seeing this, Chen Lili's heart jumped into her throat.
"What should I do? What should I do? If Shang Jia sees me here with Qi Lin, there's going to be a big scene!"
Chen Lili was almost in tears.
In critical moments like these, adrenaline can make people act quickly and decisively.
Chen Lili had a flash of inspiration and realized something.
As Shang Jia turned toward her, she suddenly threw herself into Qi Lin's arms, placing her soft, white hands directly on his face.
"Brother Lin, look at me!"
Chen Lili's face flushed as she pulled Qi Lin, who was looking around, closer.
Shang Jia knew who Qi Lin was, so in order to hide Qi Lin's identity, Chen Lili had no other choice.
Qi Lin was momentarily stunned by Chen Lili's sudden move, wondering what had come over her.
However, when he spotted Shang Jia from the corner of his eye, he immediately understood.
"Haha, God is on my side. I run into Shang Jia while watching a movie."
"This guy probably doesn't know his girlfriend is with someone she supposedly hates."
"No wonder Chen Lili jumped into my arms. She must've realized her boyfriend is here and is afraid of being caught."
Although Qi Lin had figured out what was going on, he pretended to be oblivious.
"Lili, I know you're interested in me, but a man should take the initiative in these matters so you don't lose your ladylike charm."
Qi Lin held back a smile as he looked at Chen Lili.
They locked eyes, and Chen Lili felt incredibly awkward. Not to mention, they were face to face, their bodies close enough to feel each other's breath.
"Brother Lin, can you stop talking now?"
Chen Lili's tone was pleading.
She wasn't sure if Shang Jia was still looking her way.
If he spotted her acting intimately with Qi Lin, it would be impossible to explain, even if she jumped into the Yellow River.
(The explain will be in the end 👍)
Qi Lin smiled and said, "Yes, yes, I know what you're trying to say. You just want to admire my handsome face, right?"
Chen Lili didn't care what Qi Lin was saying at this point and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, just please stop talking now."
By the time Shang Jia looked over, the figures of Chen Lili and Qi Lin had already blended together in his line of sight.
They were in Shang Jia's blind spot. Unless he came closer, there was no way he'd notice them.
"Strange. I thought I saw someone familiar, but now they're gone?"
Shang Jia scratched the back of his head.
A friend nearby teased, "Why are you so paranoid? Are you afraid your beloved girlfriend will cheat on you?"
"Shut up! Can't you talk normally? Even if your mom cheated, Lili wouldn't."
Shang Jia kicked his friend lightly in the butt.
The friend patted his backside, laughing. "Too bad for you. My mom actually did cheat and divorced my dad ages ago."
"..."
Talking to this shameless friend was really speechless.
After checking their tickets, Shang Jia and his group entered the movie theater.
Seeing them leave out of the corner of her eye, Chen Lili finally exhaled in relief.
Then she quickly removed her hands from Qi Lin's face in embarrassment, putting some distance between them.
Qi Lin smiled. "Can I talk now?"
Chen Lili softly replied, "Yes, you can talk now."
"You had something in your eye."
Qi Lin suddenly said.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Chen Lili was startled.
Had Qi Lin noticed Shang Jia's presence too?
Qi Lin pointed to the corner of her eye. "You had an eye booger right here."
Chen Lili: "..."
Girls care about their image the most. Realizing Qi Lin was serious, Chen Lili quickly pulled out a small mirror to check.
After examining herself carefully for a moment, she stomped her foot and glared at Qi Lin with her beautiful eyes. "Brother Lin, you're so bad for lying to me."
Laughing and joking around, the two of them also entered the theater.
"Welcome to Dadi Cinema. Your seats are in row 18, seat No. 617, Cinema 8."
"After entering, walk to the end and turn left. It's the second entrance on your left."
Following the instructions from the staff's fingerprints, Qi Lin and Chen Lili arrived at the entrance of the theater.
The entrance to this cinema is through the back door, and you go down a flight of stairs.
When the two of them entered, the movie had just started, and the lights were already off. From a distance, they couldn't clearly make out the other people's faces.
As soon as he sat down, before Qi Lin could tease Chen Lili, he was stunned again.
Not far away, a conspicuous golden exclamation mark was spinning.
Recognizing the familiar figure, Qi Lin couldn't help but smile: "This isn't just a coincidence anymore. Even when buying tickets for a specific time, we end up in the same cinema. Shang Jia, between the two of us, who is really winning? Or is the ghost still here?"
Qi Lin didn't rush to click the exclamation mark on Shang Jia's head but instead looked at Chen Lili.
Noticing his gaze, Chen Lili thought he was hungry.
"Brother Lin, I have some snacks and milk tea for you."
Taking the milk tea from her hand, Qi Lin smiled and said, "Lili, I haven't finished what I was saying earlier. You're not the only one interested in me—I'm also interested in you.
"You touch my face and buy me snacks and milk tea. If that doesn't show your affection, what does? So let's stop pretending. Are we a couple now?"
Chen Lili's hand, which had just been withdrawing, froze.
Although she'd known for a while that her actions earlier could temporarily ease the tension, she hadn't expected the misunderstanding to arrive so swiftly and directly.
"Well, Brother Lin, didn't you ask me to buy the snacks and milk tea? Does that mean anything?"
"As for the person you're talking about, haven't we known each other for less than two days? We don't know each other well enough. I think we should talk about this after we get to know each other better."
Chen Lili stammered.
At first, she had avoided telling Qi Lin that she had a boyfriend, but now Chen Lili was stuck in an awkward situation.
Qi Lin was just teasing her.
As Chen Lili had said, they'd only known each other for less than two days. Why rush things?
He was a protagonist hunter, while Shang Jia, the main character, was in the light, and Qi Lin operated from the shadows. This would also determine the final fate of Chen Lili and Shang Jia.
"What you're saying makes sense... Lili, this milk tea you got is really delicious. Try it."
Qi Lin brought the milk tea straw to her mouth.
Chen Lili finally relaxed when she saw that Qi Lin had let go of the relationship talk.
Letting her guard down, she absentmindedly took a sip.
"It is pretty good," she thought to herself.
"Wait!"
In the next second, Chen Lili froze.
If she remembered correctly, Qi Lin had just drunk from this cup of milk tea.
Now she had sipped from the same straw. Didn't that mean she and Qi Lin had just shared an indirect kiss?
"Pfft!"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
In her shock, Chen Lili nearly choked.
"Hey! Brother Lin, why did you give me a straw you already drank from?"
Her face flushed red as she glared at Qi Lin for the first time.
Qi Lin's expression was innocent: "I didn't think much of it. You could have refused."
Chen Lili: "..."
His words left her speechless.
Yes, she could have refused, but the problem was, Qi Lin offered the drink when she was least prepared.
What was this? The longest path she'd walked was the one he'd set.
Seeing Chen Lili dazed, Qi Lin chuckled inwardly.
"Did I go too far? This girl almost fell for it."
But it didn't matter if she was naive. It wouldn't stop Qi Lin's desire to bask in her affection.
At some point, his hand had quietly made its way to Chen Lili's soft, white jade-like hand.
Before she could react, her cold, delicate little hand was already enveloped in his.
"Ah!"
In the darkness, a startled Chen Lili let out a soft gasp.
The sound wasn't loud, but in the silent cinema, it felt jarring.
Most of the audience, focused on the movie, didn't notice.
But one person recognized that voice all too well.
"Huh? That sounds like Lili!"
Shang Jia frowned and turned to look behind him.
But the lights were dim, and the movie scene was dark, so he couldn't see anything.
"You're always muttering. I think you're obsessed."
"She's not her. Why are you so paranoid about someone stealing your girlfriend?"
Shang Jia's friends were left speechless by his behavior.
Shang Jia scratched his head in embarrassment: "Am I being too suspicious?"
Meanwhile...
Chen Lili's face flushed red as she tried to pull her hand away, but Qi Lin wouldn't let go.
"Brother Lin, what are you doing?" she asked nervously.
Qi Lin smiled. "The air conditioning in the cinema is too cold. I'm worried you'll catch a chill."
Chen Lili: "..."
"Thanks, but I'm not cold," she whispered.
"Oh, I get it. It's not your hands, it's your feet that are cold, right? If you want, you can take off your shoes, and I'll keep them warm for you."
Qi Lin glanced at her delicate feet.
Chen Lili's feet could indeed be considered exquisite.
Even without seeing her entire foot, just the curve of her instep and the smoothness of her skin were mesmerizing.
Chen Lili: "..."
Qi Lin's thoughts were so loud, even the Eskimos in the Arctic might have heard them.
Compared to her hands, she suddenly felt it was better to just let him hold her hand.
Blushing, she said shyly, "Brother Lin, my skin is just thin and sensitive, which is why you can see the veins. But I'm not cold."
She tried to explain herself.
At the same time, she stopped resisting and let Qi Lin hold her delicate hand.
"Alright, then I'll just warm your hands."
Qi Lin smiled, reluctantly abandoning his plan to warm her feet.
However, what he did next made Chen Lili's face flush even more, her heart beating wildly.
Qi Lin wasn't satisfied with just holding hands.
He began gently caressing her soft hand, drawing circles on her palm or lightly pinching her slender fingers. One moment, he relaxed her fingers, and the next, he interlocked their fingers, palm against palm.
If her hands had personalities, this delicate beauty would have been spoiled by him.
Chen Lili was now afraid of Qi Lin.
She worried that if she pulled her hand away, he would escalate his advances.
Even though she blushed furiously, she pretended to focus on the movie, as if none of this had anything to do with her, as if the hand Qi Lin was playing with wasn't her own.
"Why is my heart beating so fast?"
"Don't they say your heart races when you're with someone you like?"
"But my boyfriend is Shang Jia!"
"No, it's because I'm afraid Shang Jia will notice. Brother Lin is just my savior. He's like a real brother to me. It's okay to hold hands, right?"
Chen Lili kept reassuring herself.
Seeing that she allowed him to continue without resisting, Qi Lin felt more at ease.
At this moment, he slowly clicked the golden exclamation mark above Shang Jia's head.
"Let's see what Shang Jia's up to."
Immediately, the exclamation mark above Shang Jia's head slowly expanded and turned into a text box.
["In the emergency department of Jiangcheng Central Hospital, a patient who had fallen unconscious for unknown reasons was brought in. The hospital summoned many experts, including Shang Jia, but none of them could determine the patient's condition. However, the family members began to cause trouble because the doctors had not yet treated the patient. As the scene became increasingly chaotic, Shang Jia realized this was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If he could cure this patient, he would be promoted from deputy chief physician to chief physician, taking a major step forward in his career."]
["Shang Jia secretly stepped aside and called his teacher, the top cardiovascular expert in Xia State. After repeated sincere requests, his teacher rushed over. At the scene, after some diagnosis, Shang Jia's teacher discovered the cause of the illness. He then named Shang Jia and asked him to perform the operation alongside him. Working together, they successfully completed the surgery, saving the patient and overcoming the crisis. As a result of this achievement, Shang Jia gained the recognition of the hospital leadership and was successfully promoted, becoming the youngest chief physician in Jianghan City."]
"Using his new authority as chief physician, Shang Jia promoted Chen Lili to a full-time position and made her his assistant. Chen Lili, moved by his actions, gave Shang Jia her first kiss, albeit somewhat reluctantly."
After reading this paragraph, Qi Lin touched his chin thoughtfully.
"Every protagonist is extraordinary. Shang Jia is both capable and charismatic. He truly deserves his B+ rating."
"If I remember correctly, most doctors can't be promoted to deputy chief physician until they are in their forties. To become a chief physician, you usually need to be at least 50 years old to even be considered. A 30-year-old chief physician? Most doctors wouldn't even dare to dream of that."
"This time, Shang Jia has really hit the jackpot. And the most important thing is that he also got Chen Lili's first kiss. Even I haven't experienced the pleasure of kissing little Lili. I must find a way to ruin it for him."
---
'even if she jumped into the Yellow River'= "no matter how much you explain, they won't believe you" or "you can't clear your name, no matter what you do."
You didn't need read this, it's just a curious about the Yellow River:
The phrase "even if she jumped into the Yellow River" expresses the difficulty of clearing oneself of suspicion or blame, no matter what one does. In chinese is "跳进黄河也洗不清" (tiào jìn huáng hé yě xǐ bù qīng), which literally translates to "Even if you jump into the Yellow River, you still can't wash yourself clean."
But what is the Yellow River?
The Yellow River is known for its muddy waters, so the idea is that even if someone tried to wash themselves in the river, they wouldn't be able to get rid of the dirt (metaphorically, suspicion or false accusations).