Extra 1 — Dou Yiqing × Qin Yun
Dou Yiqing decided to end her friends-with-benefits arrangement with Qin Yun on a Wednesday morning.
Dou Yiqing had the bad habit of lying in bed after waking, so she set her alarm for five thirty every day just so she could stay in bed a little longer.
She stared at the dim ceiling and remembered the dream she had just had.
It was terrifying.
She had dreamed about Qin Yun again.
In the dream, she had returned to that island. Qin Yun held her while taking her wakesurfing, and then they kissed.
The most frightening part was that when she woke, she instinctively reached out to find Qin Yun.
Only when she discovered the space beside her was empty did she remember that Qin Yun had gone racing for the past two days and had not come over.
At first, Dou Yiqing had agreed to become friends with benefits with Qin Yun because she needed a way to vent and relieve stress.
Neither of them had actually been drunk on the night of Blue Note’s anniversary celebration. If they had genuinely been drunk, they would not have been capable of having s*x.
They had been dancing when they suddenly started kissing.
The venue was especially crowded that night. While they were kissing, someone bumped hard into Dou Yiqing’s back.
Before she could react, Qin Yun had already charged forwards and shoved the person away, instinctively shielding her with one arm.
After cursing at the man, Qin Yun lowered his head and asked,
“Dou Yiqing, did that hurt?”
Qin Yun had the standard face of a bad man.
Upturned eyes, a high nose bridge and an irreverent expression.
Perhaps Dou Yiqing had drunk slightly too much, or perhaps the lighting was simply too dim, but she unexpectedly thought that he looked almost human.
Dou Yiqing leaned against his shoulder and looked up at him for a while before replying,
“Qin Yun, shall we get a room?”
Qin Yun froze.
“Huh?”
“Are you deaf?”
Dou Yiqing leaned towards his ear and shouted,
“Do you want to sleep with me?!”
Everyone nearby turned to look.
Qin Yun was still stunned. Only after a delay did he cover her mouth and say,
“Yes!”
Although Dou Yiqing did not particularly want to admit it, Qin Yun’s body and technique were genuinely excellent.
His hands, his tongue and everything else could casually bring her into another world.
By the time they finished, Dou Yiqing felt as though she were about to melt.
Still unsatisfied, Qin Yun remained in position and buried his face against her chest.
“Let’s do it again, Dou Yiqing.”
Dou Yiqing did not answer.
She simply reached towards the bedside table, took a fresh c*ndom and threw it at him.
Qin Yun tore open the packaging while keeping his eyes fixed on her.
He asked as though it were casual,
“Dou Yiqing, does it feel better doing it with me or with those ex-boyfriends of yours?”
Dou Yiqing immediately kicked him.
“Get away from me. We’re not doing it anymore.”
“?”
Qin Yun was not angry after being kicked.
He naturally caught the ankle pressing against him.
“Why?”
“You ruined the mood. You’re genuinely sick.”
Dou Yiqing cursed him.
Unexpectedly, Qin Yun did not argue.
As though being insulted had pleased him, he raised her foot and kissed the sole, restoring the mood he had just destroyed.
He smiled in an especially irritating way.
“Don’t be like that. I won’t say anything else.”
After that night, they continued maintaining this arrangement.
The pressure from work was overwhelming.
Before resigning, Dou Yiqing desperately needed an outlet, and Qin Yun was more effective than alcohol.
So Dou Yiqing proposed three rules:
While their arrangement continued, neither of them could sleep around with anyone else.
They had to use c*ndoms.
And they were forbidden from taking photographs or videos.
When Qin Yun heard the third rule, he nearly jumped in fury.
“Dou Yiqing, what the f*ck kind of person do you think I am?”
“An ignorant, good-for-nothing rich playboy.”
Dou Yiqing folded her arms and answered naturally.
“What else?”
…
Leaving aside the argument that followed, those were the rules they eventually settled upon.
Dou Yiqing had originally thought the arrangement worked well.
They each got what they needed and used one another to release their frustration.
Ignoring that infuriating mouth of his, Qin Yun was practically the perfect bed partner.
But now something was wrong.
She had already dreamed about Qin Yun many times this month.
Sometimes they were on the island.
Sometimes they were in bed.
Sometimes they were back inside their high-school classroom.
The locations were always different.
The only thing the dreams had in common was that they were all pleasant.
Dou Yiqing was an extremely rational adult woman.
She understood what this meant.
Something had gone terribly wrong with her taste.
She did not know whether every encounter between them had simply felt too good, or whether something in her mind had malfunctioned.
Either way, she had developed feelings for Qin Yun that went beyond being friends with benefits.
That was dangerous.
Qin Yun was different from Zhou Wu.
Qin Yun was the standard pleasure-seeking rich heir. One look at him and anyone could tell he was a playboy.
Dou Yiqing suspected she could walk into any random bar and encounter eight of his ex-girlfriends.
She knew Qin Yun sought her out partly because she was new and partly because he wanted to conquer her.
She had, after all, insulted him many times.
In any case, it could not possibly be because he liked her.
There was not even the slightest possibility between them.
Dou Yiqing switched off her second alarm and decided to cut her losses immediately.
Qin Yun needed to get lost.
…
After teaching all day and remaining at school until evening self-study ended, Dou Yiqing dragged her exhausted body out through the school gates.
Only a few people remained outside, and everyone’s attention was focused on the same place.
Dou Yiqing glanced at the ostentatious black motorcycle parked outside the gates.
Its owner sat astride it, his long legs casually stretched towards the ground.
She turned and was about to walk away when the owner removed his black helmet and placed it carelessly in front of himself.
“Dou Yiqing!”
“Dou Yiqing!”
How humiliating.
Dou Yiqing turned around and walked towards him.
Before she could speak, Qin Yun lifted another helmet he had hidden on the opposite side and placed it over her head.
Then he opened the front-facing camera on his phone and held it before her.
A prominent canine tooth appeared whenever Qin Yun smiled.
He raised one eyebrow.
“What do you think, Dou Yiqing? It looks good, doesn’t it? I just bought it for you.”
Through the phone screen, Dou Yiqing looked at the pink-and-white helmet printed with bows on her head and sighed.
“Qin Yun, you genuinely have terrible taste.”
Qin Yun snorted.
“You’re only pretending. Your face says you’re obsessed with it.”
Dou Yiqing rolled her eyes.
What the hell could he see through the helmet?
“Didn’t you see the WeChat message I sent?”
“What message? Let me look.”
Qin Yun picked up his phone and scrolled twice before laughing and cursing.
“Dou Yiqing, are you ill? Why were you messaging me before six in the morning?”
“You told me to get lost first thing in the morning?”
“I didn’t even sleep at your house last night. Whoever made you angry, take it out on them. Don’t direct it at me.”
“…”
“Come on.”
Qin Yun lifted his chin.
“I’ll take you for a ride before we go home.”
The motorcycle raced along the road.
Dou Yiqing held Qin Yun’s waist tightly, feeling wave after wave of powerful wind passing through her body.
Without turning around, Qin Yun shouted,
“Dou Yiqing, I didn’t win yesterday’s race! I nearly did!”
Dou Yiqing shouted back,
“You’re rubbish!”
“That guy was no fun. He brought his girlfriend to watch, then drove as though he’d been injected with stimulants.”
Qin Yun shouted, “You should come next time!”
Was he insane?
Why would a friend with benefits attend?
“I’m not going!”
“You are!”
“I’m not!”
“You are!”
“…”
He was unbearably childish.
Dou Yiqing cursed inwardly.
Pressed against Qin Yun’s back, she thought helplessly that she would tell him to get lost in a few days instead.
The second time she made up her mind, Dou Yiqing planned to discuss it face-to-face and retrieve the key to her home.
It was a Friday.
After returning home and showering, she emerged to discover Qin Yun had pulled the curtains tightly closed, leaving the room dim.
Dou Yiqing stepped out of the bathroom.
She was about to say that she no longer intended to continue sleeping with him when she saw Qin Yun leaning against the bedroom doorway.
He was naked, completely unbothered as he displayed his firm, toned body.
A black leather collar circled his neck.
Qin Yun tossed the chain attached to the collar into her hand.
His expression was dissatisfied, while his tone remained lazy.
“You took far too long in the shower, Dou Yiqing.”
Dou Yiqing tugged the chain.
Qin Yun was pulled forwards slightly.
“Stop barking like a dog,” she said.
“I’m going to keep barking. What about it?”
“Do you like it?”
Qin Yun’s skin was naturally pale and hardly darkened no matter how much he exercised.
His voice sounded infuriating, but his face was red.
“Weren’t you watching videos of other people wearing this a few days ago?”
“…Copycat.”
Dou Yiqing gripped the chain and pulled it downwards.
Qin Yun laughed from irritation and muttered a low curse.
Then he lowered his head, kissed her lips and knelt, burying his face beneath her skirt.
The third time Dou Yiqing made up her mind, she blocked Qin Yun and had someone change her locks.
That day happened to be the parents’ meeting in the high-school section.
She had been impossibly busy all day and was surrounded by parents until the bell for evening self-study rang, finally allowing her to escape.
Late that night, Dou Yiqing stepped onto the balcony outside her classroom to rest and breathe.
Only then did she remember that she had eaten neither lunch nor dinner.
Hunger rolled through her in waves, making her nauseous and close to vomiting.
So when she heard Qin Yun’s voice, she initially assumed she was hallucinating.
She turned around.
Qin Yun genuinely stood at the corner of the corridor, waving at her.
“Why are you here?”
Dou Yiqing walked into the corner and asked in disbelief.
“I climbed over the wall, obviously.”
“So many years have passed, but the wall behind Jiangcheng Middle School is still just as easy to climb.”
Qin Yun removed the backpack from his shoulders and took out a packed meal, inspecting it.
“Hey, it didn’t spill. Hurry and eat.”
“…How did you know I hadn’t eaten?”
“I wanted to have dinner with you tonight and discovered you’d blocked me, so I asked Teacher Chen.”
“She said you hadn’t eaten all day.”
Qin Yun looked speechless.
“Dou Yiqing, why are you working this hard for a salary of only a few thousand yuan a month?”
“…Why do you even have Teacher Chen’s WeChat?”
Qin Yun sneered.
“I have plenty of spies planted around you.”
Dou Yiqing took a bite.
The food was still hot.
“You’re sick,” she said.
“You’re the sick one.”
Qin Yun continued, “By the way, the key you gave me doesn’t open your door. Is it rusty? Get me another one.”
Dou Yiqing had never met anyone with so little common sense.
How could a newly cut key have rusted?
She raised her eyes, intending to ridicule him, and met Qin Yun’s innocent, foolish gaze.
“…I understand.”
And so things dragged on until the new year arrived.
Wen Ci went to Xingxiang, while Dou Yiqing went to Blue Note alone with Qin Yun to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Several minutes before the countdown, Dou Yiqing emerged from the bathroom.
On the way back to their booth, she received messages from two people.
One was the final boyfriend she had dated at university.
He was probably drunk and behaving irrationally. He had sent her countless voice messages.
Dou Yiqing could not even be bothered converting them to text and immediately switched to Qin Yun’s message instead.
**Idiot: Where are you, Dou Yiqing? Hurry back. I want to count down with you.**
Dou Yiqing did not reply.
She simply walked slightly faster.
When she reached the area near their booth, she discovered someone sitting in her place.
A woman sat beside Qin Yun, leaning close as they spoke quietly.
From Dou Yiqing’s angle, they appeared to be kissing, though she could not be certain.
Dou Yiqing walked closer to see more clearly.
At that moment, the woman raised her face and smiled.
“Really? I only carry bags made from rare leather.”
“Understood. It’ll be in your hands in a few days.”
Qin Yun smiled.
“As long as you agree.”
The woman had only just agreed when her friends from the neighbouring booth called her away.
After she left, a friend beside Qin Yun nudged his arm and laughed.
“As expected of you. You really f*cking know how to pick up women.”
Qin Yun scoffed.
“Obviously. Who do you think I am?”
A one-minute countdown appeared on the bar’s screens.
Qin Yun looked at his phone in confusion.
Then, suddenly remembering something, he turned towards the friend beside him.
“By the way, when Dou Yiqing comes back, don’t say anything.”
She had delayed this for far too long.
Dou Yiqing had originally intended to turn around and leave.
Before she could move, Qin Yun spotted her from the corner of his eye.
He stood and walked towards her, about to speak.
Then the countdown reached zero.
The bar erupted with noise.
Several loud bangs sounded, and countless ribbons fell from above.
Before Dou Yiqing could say anything, Qin Yun lowered his head and kissed her.
He kissed her affectionately several times before lifting his head and smiling.
“Happy New Year, Dou Yiqing.”
Dou Yiqing said something.
Qin Yun did not hear and leaned closer.
“What?”
“I said…”
Dou Yiqing pressed her lips to his ear and enunciated each word.
“Let’s go back and have s*x.”
They went to Qin Yun’s home.
Both of them were slightly wild that night.
Their bodies remained pressed together almost constantly—sometimes their lips, sometimes elsewhere.
They continued intermittently, one time after another.
They went on so late that by the time Dou Yiqing opened her eyes the following day, the sun was already high.
She got up and dragged her body, covered in red marks, towards the bathroom.
When she returned, Qin Yun had awakened too.
Half his body was exposed above the blanket as he rested lazily on one elbow and watched her.
“Dou Yiqing, you’re genuinely insane.”
“You couldn’t even turn off that damned alarm of yours on New Year’s Day. It woke me once at five in the morning.”
He threw back the blanket and stepped onto the floor.
“So? Shall we go for breakfast?”
“No.”
Dou Yiqing fastened her bra.
“I already have plans.”
“Who did you make plans with on New Year’s Day?”
Qin Yun sounded dissatisfied.
“My ex-boyfriend.”
“…”
They were silent for a moment.
Qin Yun raised an eyebrow.
“What do you mean, Dou Yiqing? Is your brain damaged?”
“You’re meeting an ex-boyfriend on New Year’s Day?”
“Didn’t you say all your ex-boyfriends were dead?”
“One came back to life.”
“Then make him die again.”
Qin Yun scoffed in disbelief.
“What is there to discuss with an ex? Does he need something from you?”
“He wants to reconcile.”
“Moron,” Qin Yun said.
“What about you?”
“I…”
Dou Yiqing paused.
“I’m slightly considering it.”
Why was Qin Yun the only one allowed to violate their previous agreement by maintaining his arrangement with her while pursuing other women?
Even if Dou Yiqing left, she intended to maintain the upper hand.
She would never allow herself to appear even slightly pathetic.
“You’re a moron too,” Qin Yun concluded.
For the first time, Dou Yiqing did not continue arguing with him.
She was too tired.
Seeing her remain unmoved, Qin Yun pressed his fist against the bed and clenched it tightly.
“I advise you not to go looking like that.”
“Anyone can tell you’ve been f*cked all night.”
Dou Yiqing silently put on her socks.
“Dou Yiqing, if you genuinely reconcile with your ex, I’ll look down on you for the rest of my life.”
“How is that any different from turning around and picking rubbish out of the bin?”
Dou Yiqing picked up her backpack and phone, then turned towards the door.
She had only reached the entrance when Qin Yun emerged from the bedroom and caught her.
“Don’t go too far.”
Qin Yun lowered his head and looked at her.
“You’ve only just finished sleeping with me, and now you’re going to reconcile with your ex?”
“That’s why I won’t sleep with you again.”
Dou Yiqing said, “Return the key to my home.”
Qin Yun’s jaw tightened.
“I won’t.”
“Then I’ll change the locks.”
“…”
Qin Yun silently stared at her for a long time.
Then he finally understood.
“…The reason I couldn’t open your door last time was because you changed the locks?”
“Why?”
“Were you already talking to your ex back then?”
Dou Yiqing felt him gripping her wrist so tightly that it hurt.
She did not know what to say.
She swallowed dryly and was about to speak when he suddenly released her.
For a brief instant, she saw that Qin Yun’s eyes had turned red.
Dou Yiqing froze.
Before she could react, Qin Yun turned away.
He searched through the pile of car keys on the table, found the plain key to her home and threw it into her hand.
“You’re genuinely no fun, Dou Yiqing.”
Qin Yun turned and walked towards the bedroom without looking at her again.
His voice was hoarse, though his tone and words remained as infuriating as ever.
“Go and die with your ex-boyfriend.”
“Get lost.”
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