Chapter72

Cen Zhen was stunned by Meng Fanchuan's words, staring blankly at him. The words "girlfriend" kept echoing in her mind. She didn’t know that back then, Meng Fanchuan had already unilaterally defined their relationship.

So, when he held her hand that day and said those words about always having her back, was it because he had already mentally recognized her as his girlfriend?

The threatening words she had imagined didn’t come. What he needed Cen Zhen to take responsibility for was the identity of being his "girlfriend."

Meng Fanchuan was too close. His body slightly leaned toward her, and his presence overwhelmed her, making it difficult for Cen Zhen to avoid him. Her eyes were filled with confusion and anxiety.

How should she answer?

If she nodded right away, would that be too forward?

What if he was just joking?

Cen Zhen could hear her heart pounding. Their gazes locked, and she felt like she was almost drowning in Meng Fanchuan’s burning gaze. Lowering her eyes, not knowing how to respond, someone knocked at the door.

The intense, tangled tension between them was quietly severed.

Seeing that his words had made Cen Zhen uncomfortable, Meng Fanchuan stood up and left, giving her some space to relax.

The person who entered was a hotel staff member. Meng Fanchuan had called ahead to arrange for ice cubes.

Now that the ice cubes had arrived, Meng Fanchuan went to the bathroom to grab a clean towel, wrapped the ice cubes in it, and applied it to the strained muscles in Cen Zhen's calf.

The muscle strain was indeed painful, but as Cen Zhen looked at the man crouched in front of her, tending to the cold compress, she seemed to feel no pain at all.

Could it be that love numbs pain?

Meng Fanchuan’s movements were gentle. When his fingertips accidentally brushed against Cen Zhen’s calf, an indescribable tingling sensation surged through her nerves, spreading throughout her body.

The ice cubes were cold, but his hands were warm.

It was as if two vines were winding around Cen Zhen from the bottom up, tightening and making her heart race and her breathing irregular.

After bandaging her leg, Meng Fanchuan asked, "What do you want for dinner? I'll order it for you."

Cen Zhen didn’t dare to look up, afraid he would notice her racing thoughts. "Anything is fine."

Meng Fanchuan nodded, "Then sit still."

He stood up to call the hotel restaurant. Only after he walked a few steps did Cen Zhen raise her eyes to look at him. She realized that just by staring at his back, the fluttering in her heart didn’t diminish at all. In fact, it grew stronger and more intense, especially since she could freely steal glances at him.

Cen Zhen couldn’t help but think—

Was he serious about what he said earlier?

Why didn’t he continue asking?

Was it because she didn’t answer, and he misunderstood that she wasn’t willing?

Could he have been teasing her?

For the few minutes that Meng Fanchuan was on the phone, Cen Zhen, who was behind him, was also lost in thought, worrying about her own distractions.

A quarter of an hour later, the restaurant delivered the dinner that Meng Fanchuan had ordered.

Cen Zhen stood up, intending to walk to the dining table, but Meng Fanchuan came over in two or three steps and picked her up. "The doctor said not to exercise too much during the acute phase, especially the first day."

Cen Zhen: "..."

Was walking a few steps considered exercise?

So, Cen Zhen was carried to the dining table by Meng Fanchuan. The table was filled with four dishes, a soup, and two small desserts.

Cen Zhen was drawn to the exquisite desserts. "What is this?"

"Shredded coconut cream pie."

"Can I eat this first?"

Meng Fanchuan laughed softly. "If you want to eat it, just eat it. What's there to ask?"

After saying that, he took a spoonful and brought it to Cen Zhen's mouth.

Cen Zhen was slightly stunned, feeling a little embarrassed. "…But my hands aren’t injured."

"I know." Meng Fanchuan didn’t try to hide his intention.He just wanted to do this.

He just wanted to feed Cen Zhen.

The spoon lingered affectionately by Cen Zhen’s mouth. She paused for a moment, feeling a bit shy as she lowered her head and ate the dessert that Meng Fanchuan had fed her.

It was so ambiguous. For a few seconds, Cen Zhen couldn’t tell whether the coconut cream pie was too sweet or if it was the intensity of this man’s affection that was overwhelming.

Those feelings melted on her tongue and then sank into her heart, making her feel like she was about to dissolve.

Suddenly, Cen Zhen thought back to a long time ago, when Tingting had invited everyone to her birthday dinner. That time, Song Wang had also been there, and the restaurant had served both the main course and desserts, just like tonight.

At that time, Cen Zhen had wanted to eat the pudding, but Song Wang said, "Eat some rice first, save the dessert for last."

Someone next to her had agreed, "Yes, Zhen Zhen, if you eat dessert now, you won’t be able to finish your meal."

But when she was with Meng Fanchuan, he would say, "If you want to eat, just eat."

He didn’t have so many rules. He would just nod and say "Okay," and he would respect her choices.

Afraid that Meng Fanchuan would keep feeding her desserts, Cen Zhen took a couple of bites and then began to eat her meal. Meng Fanchuan would occasionally put some vegetables on her plate. Although neither of them said much, the atmosphere made Cen Zhen feel a quiet sense of satisfaction.

It felt a little like... the peaceful happiness after marriage.

Cen Zhen was startled by her own thoughts.

Am I crazy? We haven't even taken the first step, and I’m already thinking about marriage?

"Are you spacing out while eating?" Meng Fanchuan noticed her dazed expression as she held her chopsticks and lightly mocked, "Who are you thinking about?"

"…"

How could Cen Zhen tell him that her thoughts had already wandered to whether they would get married someday? She quickly made up an excuse, "I was thinking about how long it will take for my leg to heal."

Meng Fanchuan genuinely thought she was concerned about her leg. "Tomorrow’s Friday. You can take the day off, rest for the weekend, and you should be fine."

Cen Zhen responded vaguely, "Mm."

After they finished eating, the hotel staff came to clean up. A middle-aged woman came into the room and brought Cen Zhen some clothes to change into.

Meng Fanchuan told Cen Zhen to call her "Aunt Hui," and Cen Zhen followed suit. After the woman left, she asked, "Is she your relative?"

"Sort of," Meng Fanchuan hadn’t yet figured out how to introduce his family to Cen Zhen.

At first, he didn’t want to mention it, not wanting to give the impression of a prominent family background and unknowingly put pressure on her.

Later, he wasn’t sure how to begin.

Because of Shen Zesheng, Cen Zhen had often said in their conversations that she disliked wealthy people who looked down on others.

But he, ironically, was the very type of "wealthy person" she had spoken about—an especially wealthy one, at that.

Before meeting Cen Zhen, Meng Fanchuan had never considered that his prestigious background might one day become a burden.

After sending Wen Hui off, Meng Fanchuan went to the bathroom. Cen Zhen vaguely heard the sound of water. After a while, he came out and said, "The bath water’s ready. I’ll carry you in."

Cen Zhen froze, her face immediately flushing with disbelief. "…Is that really necessary?"

Meng Fanchuan saw her look of shock and smiled, speechless. "What are you thinking?"

"?"

It wasn’t until Meng Fanchuan picked her up and placed her by the bathtub that Cen Zhen realized she might have misunderstood his words.

Her face turned even redder.

What had she been imagining...

"However, if you need help, I can assist," he said seriously beside her.

"…No need!" Cen Zhen quickly turned her back, too embarrassed to face him. "I can do it myself."

Meng Fanchuan wanted to laugh, but not wanting to embarrass her, he suppressed the smile tugging at his lips, turned, and walked out. "Then you’re on your own. Call me when you're done."

"…"

When she finally soaked in the warm bathwater, Cen Zhen still couldn’t stop feeling frustrated with her thoughts, as her mind had been filled with impure things.

She even buried her face in the water, trying to clear her head and promising herself that after the bath, she would definitely not call Meng Fanchuan.

She would walk back by herself.

But Cen Zhen had miscalculated.

After finishing the bath and changing into clean pajamas, she limped toward the bathroom door, only to find Meng Fanchuan standing outside.

"All done?"

"You’ve been waiting here the whole time?""Move away, or else I might not hear you call my name."

"……"

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Cen Zhen had just finished her bath, the steam still lingering on her skin. Hearing the words from the man in front of her, she inexplicably felt even hotter.

And Meng Fanchuan, who had been listening to the ambiguous sounds of water for minutes, wasn’t feeling any less innocent either. His throat felt a little dry.

Finally, it was he who broke the silence. "Shall we go to sleep now?"

Having learned from her previous experience, Cen Zhen didn’t overthink this time. "It’s still early."

She thought for a moment. "How about we watch a movie?"

Meng Fanchuan nodded. "Okay."

He carried her to the couch in the living room and was about to turn on the TV, but then suddenly remembered something. He turned off the lights in the room and pressed the remote control, causing a large projection screen to slowly descend from the ceiling.

"What do you want to watch? You choose," Meng Fanchuan handed the remote to Cen Zhen.

Cen Zhen didn’t really have much interest in the movie. She just wanted some background noise for the two of them alone, so the room wouldn’t feel too silent.

But now it was even quieter.

With the lights off, only the dim and ambiguous light from the projection illuminated their figures, leaning together.

Cen Zhen’s heart raced, and she lost interest in choosing a movie. She randomly selected one from the rankings that she hadn’t watched before. "This one, I guess."

"Okay."

"What would you like to drink?"

"No need."

The film started, and neither of them spoke again.

It was a recently released urban romance movie that had been doing well at the box office.

Cen Zhen and Meng Fanchuan sat very close together. In the dim room, it felt as though they could hear each other’s breathing.

Light, restrained.

Cen Zhen wasn’t really paying attention to the plot. She had no idea what the characters were doing; her mind was completely preoccupied with—

Is he watching?

Does he think it’s boring?

To verify her thoughts, Cen Zhen couldn’t help but steal glances at him several times. In the dim light, she tried to use her peripheral vision to observe him, seeing that his gaze was fixed on the screen, looking quite serious.

She took a deep breath in the dark, trying to adjust her stiff posture. She placed her hand on the armrest of the couch for support, but accidentally brushed against the hand that was resting beside her.

Cen Zhen: "…"

Before she had a chance to feel embarrassed, the next second, Meng Fanchuan naturally took her hand in his.

He didn’t even glance at her, silently dissolving Cen Zhen’s awkwardness.

It was as though he was the one lurking in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to seize.

But Cen Zhen wouldn’t know that the situation was exactly as she had imagined.

The restraint of the person beside her had reached its limit.

After all, she was watching a movie. This was the first time he was accompanying her to watch one. Shouldn’t he be a little patient?

But no.

In the past few minutes, he hadn’t even turned his head because he knew that once they made eye contact in such an environment, he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

The calmness he was desperately maintaining broke when the film's lead characters confessed their feelings to each other and then kissed—

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became a bit unbalanced.

The kiss lasted too long, probably because the director wanted to convey the difficulties the characters had faced on their journey. They used flashbacks to show the beautiful moments they had shared, and their kiss shifted from a gentle peck to something much more passionate.

The camera zoomed in on their faces, and it felt as though the camera was also zooming in on Cen Zhen and Meng Fanchuan.

The entire room was filled with the lingering sounds of their kiss, as if it had broken through the screen and was swirling around their ears, full of ambiguity.

Cen Zhen felt incredibly awkward, not knowing what to do. Her face was burning with heat. She lowered her head but suddenly heard Meng Fanchuan’s voice.

"Don’t their boyfriends and girlfriends get jealous when they see scenes like this?"

Cen Zhen froze, not expecting him to be thinking about this. She shook her head. "I don’t know."

"What about you?" Meng Fanchuan asked calmly. "Will you also shoot kissing scenes with someone else in the future?"Cen Zhen opened her mouth but honestly didn’t know how to answer his question.

After a moment of silence, she could only truthfully say, "… It depends on the script."

Noticing the familiar low pressure in the air, she quickly comforted him, "But actually, a lot of it is done using camera angles."

Meng Fanchuan finally turned to her for the first time that night. "Camera angles?"

"A common technique used in filming," Cen Zhen explained. "It makes it look like you're kissing, but the actors don't actually touch each other."

Meng Fanchuan leaned in closer to her, his posture eager to know more. "How do they do it?"

They were already sitting close together, and now Meng Fanchuan leaned in a little more. Cen Zhen’s heart skipped a beat.

But for some reason, she didn’t pull away.

The darkness made everything feel perfectly timed, even giving the smallest distance the courage to close.

Cen Zhen met his gaze, tilting her head slightly to the side of his face. "One way is this, using the camera to create a visual misdirection."

She could now smell his breath more clearly.

His Adam's apple subtly moved.

"And another way..." Cen Zhen’s voice dropped as she looked at Meng Fanchuan, "is when the male actor places his thumb on the female actor's lips, and when kissing, his head slightly lowers, making it look like he’s kissing the female actor, but he's actually kissing his own hand."

Cen Zhen had originally intended to demonstrate, but halfway through raising her hand, she couldn’t bring herself to press her thumb against Meng Fanchuan’s lips.

However, just as she was lowering her hand, Meng Fanchuan suddenly cupped her face with one hand, pressing his thumb to the corner of her lips. "Like this?"

His warm voice drifted into her ears, causing a sudden shiver that ran through her eardrums.

Her eyelashes trembled in the darkness, but she forced herself to stay calm and nodded.

Their breaths were now intertwined, so close they seemed to blur together.

Meng Fanchuan slowly placed his other hand on her neck, lowering his head. Just as he was about to kiss his own fingers, he suddenly asked softly, "What if I don’t want to use camera angles?"

With no sounds to be heard except their own breaths, time seemed to stand still for a moment. Cen Zhen’s world was filled only with the person in front of her, the sound of his words, his rapid heartbeat, and his controlled breathing.

It made her soberly lost.

Cen Zhen didn’t answer him.

But after a few seconds, she gently pushed his thumb away from her lips.

In the thick night, they tested each other, but there was an unspoken understanding between them.

Once given permission, Meng Fanchuan didn’t hesitate. He tilted his head and kissed her. At first, it was just a light kiss, his lips brushing gently against hers, before he pulled back slightly and looked at her.

They were so close now, their noses almost touching.

Their breaths mingled together, hot and entangled. In the dim light of the sofa, Cen Zhen’s eyes remained bright and captivating. After only two seconds of staring into each other’s eyes, Meng Fanchuan couldn’t hold back. He kissed her again.

This time, his kiss deepened. He gently parted her lips with his, sucking and kissing her. When their tongues touched, Cen Zhen shuddered slightly and instinctively grabbed onto his collar.

A deeper kiss followed. Cen Zhen hesitated at first, but she responded, her heart racing nervously. Yet, she couldn’t help but surrender to the soft, tingling sensation, letting him deepen the kiss.

The movie was still playing, but no one was watching it anymore. The light and shadows fell into a tangled dance of lips and teeth, swaying ambiguously.

After several minutes, Meng Fanchuan finally broke the kiss.

But he didn’t let go completely. Breathing heavily, he asked, very close to her ear, "Can you give me the right to be jealous?"

Cen Zhen was a little dazed from the kiss. "… What?"

Meng Fanchuan admitted that after imagining Cen Zhen kissing other male actors in the future, he had finally lost control.

He paused for a moment, then sighed helplessly. "If you ever shoot such scenes with someone else, I don’t want to have no right to be jealous."

"…"

Cen Zhen’s heart was pounding fast, and it took her a moment to realize that Meng Fanchuan was asking her for a position in her life. She froze for a second but couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

She lowered her head, pressing her lips together. After a long while, she reached up to place her hand on Meng Fanchuan’s neck, looking at him seriously. "I keep my word."

Meng Fanchuan didn’t understand her hint immediately, but when the girl in front of him slowly gave him a clear answer, word by word, he finally understood—

"I said I’ll be responsible, and I will be."