Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

"Never mind them, kiss me—mmm..."

Xie Lingmo's second half of her sentence was cut off.

Bai Li cupped the back of her head with one hand, his fingertips sinking into her fluffy pink short hair, and lowered his head to kiss her.

Because of the baijiu (Chinese liquor), Bai Li's body became slightly warm, and the alluring fragrance of the succubus permeated the space between the two of them.

Xie Lingmo's eyelashes fluttered wildly a few times, her whole body stiffened for a moment, and then went limp.

She can't breathe properly.

His nasal cavity was filled with Bai Li's dizzying smell, his brain felt like it was filled with mush, and every nerve was screaming for oxygen.

My dear friend... I can't breathe...

Bai Li noticed the kitten in her arms starting to pat her arm. She tilted her head slightly, pressed her lips to hers, and mumbled a coaxing sound: "Use your nose."

Xie Lingmo could no longer distinguish which was her nose and which was her mouth.

Bai Li simply loosened his grip a little, giving her a half-second breathing gap, and then forced her to breathe again after she took a breath.

This time, Xie Lingmo was smarter. With her nose pressed against Bai Li's cheek, she stumbled and found the rhythm to breathe.

The pink short hair brushed against Bai Li's forehead, making it itchy.

The pink-haired girl's kissing experience is different from the other energetic girls.

She lacked Chen Tingting's domineering nature, Li Jiaxin's initiative, and Zhang Qian's experience.

She was clumsy and awkward, and her teeth even bumped against Bai Li's lower lip.

But it was precisely this clumsy and awkwardness that Bai Li found quite interesting.

opposite.

Wang Yiqing held his face in his hands, his eyes wide open, his mouth opening and closing silently, as if he were watching a long-awaited TV series that had finally reached its famous scene.

Wen Yiming turned his head away, picked up his wine glass and took a big gulp, then secretly turned back to peek at it again.

Tao Hua stared intently the whole time, but when Wang Yiqing noticed, she quickly straightened her posture and pretended to be studying the deer antler fungus on the table.

A good ten seconds or so passed.

Xie Lingmo finally couldn't hold on any longer.

She patted Bai Li's back with both hands, not with much force, but with increasing frequency.

Bai Li let go of her.

Xie Lingmo was panting heavily, her cheeks flushed red as if they were about to bleed.

The combined effects of alcohol and the succubus's scent caused her pupils to become somewhat dilated.

A strange feeling was spreading throughout my body.

She panicked.

She was all too familiar with this feeling—it was the same feeling she had the night before last in bed, and the last time she rode her bike with Bai Li.

Xie Lingmo quickly moved to the side, pressing herself tightly against Wang Yiqing, her head almost buried under the table, not daring to look at Bai Li at all.

Tao Hua picked up a piece of matsutake mushroom, put it in her mouth, chewed it twice, and pointed at Xie Lingmo, asking:

"Lingmo, didn't we just kiss?"

He swallowed the matsutake mushroom, then pointed his chopsticks towards Bai Li's direction: "Why are you so far away from him?"

"You two act like you don't know each other at all."

Xie Lingmo buried her face in her arms and mumbled, "Leave me alone."

Wang Yiqing wouldn't tolerate her.

"Go, go, go sit over to your boyfriend." Wang Yiqing thrust her hips forward, pushing Xie Lingmo away from her.

Why are you crowding me? I'm not Bai Li.

Xie Lingmo was already weak from the alcohol, and with this push, she swayed directly towards Bai Li.

Her center of gravity shifted, and she instinctively reached out to grab something that could steady her.

In just this one moment, they seized the future.

Xie Lingmo's fingers tightened slightly, her mind going completely blank.

[This...this is the legendary...factory-installed joystick?]

"hiss--"

Bai Li gasped, his face contorting in shock.

On the other side, Wen Yiming and Tao Hua reacted even more strongly than Bai Li.

The two men's faces contorted in pain, their teeth bared, as if they were sharing a pain-sensing device.

"Xiao Xie!" Wen Yiming's hand was trembling as he pushed up his glasses, and his voice rose eight octaves.

Tao Hua dropped her chopsticks, slammed her hand on the table, and shouted urgently, "Quick—let go!"

The two shouted the final words in unison: "That's something we can only catch tonight!!"

Xie Lingmo's hand jerked away as if she had been electrocuted.

She shrank to the very corner of the seat, her two legs, clad in white stockings, pressed tightly together, her eyes fixed on her calves.

That subtle expression of shame and panic, yet an inability to help but make comparisons in her mind, was clearly written on her face.

Tao Hua, having been through similar experiences, immediately understood the meaning behind Xie Lingmo's gaze.

He turned to look at Bai Li, then looked down at himself, and then looked up to meet Wen Yiming's gaze.

Wen Yiming pushed up his glasses, his tone complex: "It seems Brother Bai Li..."

Tao Hua chimed in, "That's incredibly awesome."

Wen Yiming raised his glass and toasted Bai Li, his attitude carrying an unspoken respect between men.

Bai Li was sobered up by Xie Lingmo's grab that he was completely sober.

He quietly adjusted his posture, cleared his throat, and pretended that nothing had happened.

The dishes on the table were still steaming.

Wen Yiming and Tao Hua tactfully changed the subject, talking about a newly opened racetrack in Yunshi.

Xie Lingmo sat in the corner for a while before the blush on her face slowly faded.

But she never dared to look at Bai Li, her fingers twisting the zipper of her windbreaker, pulling it back and forth no less than twenty times.

Wang Yiqing leaned closer and whispered in her ear, "How is it?"

Xie Lingmo bit her lower lip, her voice barely audible, "Don't ask anymore."

"So what's the result?" Wang Yiqing persisted.

Xie Lingmo glanced quickly at Bai Li, then quickly looked away, squeezing out a few words.

"It feels like I could wrap it around my waist..."

Wang Yiqing burst out laughing, covered her mouth with a napkin, and her shoulders trembled.

The atmosphere had only eased for less than two minutes.

There was another noise coming from the wall of the next private room.

This time it wasn't just shouting.

It's singing.

Two female voices, one high and one low, carrying the off-key yet energetic tone characteristic of spirited young women, came through the wall—

"Until time and space shatter—mountains and rivers turn to ash—and faces wither—"

The last note rose an octave, making the glass buzz.

Wang Yiqing put down his chopsticks, his face filled with incomprehension.

"Holy crap." She turned to look at the wall, her expression gradually contorting. "Are they playing the Cowboy March next door?"

Tao Hua was already a little tipsy; her tongue was slurring, and she was slapping the table in a daze.

"Why are these neighbors always causing trouble... First they doubled their grocery bills, then they got their cats and dogs neutered, and now they're singing this..."

Wen Yiming downed the wine in his glass in one gulp, stood up, and rolled up his sleeves.

"Let's go, Tao Hua." Wen Yiming took off his gold-rimmed glasses and placed them on the table, revealing a pair of eyes that were slightly drunk:

"Go bury the neighbors in the ground, so they can thank me for nurturing them!"