Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Do Not Look Back (II)

Song Qi didn't seem to know what he was busy with, but he had just finished taking a shower, his hair still dripping with water. He wore a pajama loosely, half-covering himself. Due to his good looks, it couldn’t exactly be called inappropriate.

In her mind, Yu Manyi whistled loudly, and her gaze didn't shy away. When Song Qi saw her, he seemed to have intended to finish getting dressed, but when he noticed she was looking at him openly, he paused and didn't bother to cover up.

No wonder, having studied papers and received theoretical education, this anti-feudal education was starting to take effect. Yu Manyi, with her professional artistic eye, critically observed him. In a daze, she realized that although she didn’t have a visual memory of this area, she had a tactile memory—

It was from their ten days in the cellar, when she saw him remove his clothes to clean his body. She vividly remembered the sharp scratching of his chest and back.

"Are you here to deliver food?" Song Qi finally interrupted her critical gaze.

Yu Manyi was snapped back to reality and nodded, "Indeed, I... I’m here to deliver food."

He quickly buttoned up a crucial button on his shirt and let Yu Manyi in.

She was assigned to a guest room, not his. This room was where he had stayed during his childhood summers, so it was clear that it bore traces of use.

Song Qi led her to the sofa, and as she unpacked the food from the container, she said, "Your aunt is tough on the outside but soft on the inside. What snacks do you want? She never intended to let you go hungry."

"I just wanted to eat some snacks, I’m not hungry," he replied.

"You're not eating, not sleeping?" Yu Manyi sighed, "How can you be like this? Your body is going to fall apart."

She realized she hadn’t really cared about Song Qi’s health before. For example, during their time in the cellar, she stole food for him according to her mood. Sometimes, there was nothing decent to take, yet he would still eat without complaint.

Thinking back, the fact that he remembered to take her to eat yellow fish dumplings showed that he truly cared.This thing seemed uncontrollable. Once a person started caring about someone, they began paying attention to the smallest details, even feeling sorry if they missed a meal. Yu Manyi took out the food and then focused her gaze on Song Qi, forcing him to pick up his chopsticks and slowly, disinterestedly fill his mouth with food.

He ate fairly seriously, and only then did Yu Manyi shift her gaze away.

His room was full of books, scattered everywhere. Some were about engineering and ideology, and there were also many foreign language books. She examined the room for a while and suddenly noticed that on the coffee table in front of them, there were three towels knotted together and twisted into a rope-like shape.

She could understand two towels, but what were three towels for? Yu Manyi stared at the twisted towel rope for a while, then shifted her confused gaze toward Song Qi.

He also noticed her gaze. After a quick look, he casually explained, "I’ve been practicing untying knots."

"Untying knots?"

"A few days ago, I met a skilled person who taught me," Song Qi quickly finished his meal, placed his bowl and chopsticks back in the food container, and then took the rope to explain, "If you're tied up and no one’s watching, there’s actually a way to untie it."

Yu Manyi was stunned as she watched him quickly tie a knot, loop it around his wrist, and then with one pull, the knot became tight.

"See? Isn't it tight?"

Yu Manyi reached out and tried it—indeed, it was tight. How could it possibly be undone?

However, the next second, Song Qi suddenly changed the angle of his wrist, using his knee and fingers, and in no time at all, he loosened the knot. Then, with a quick bite of his teeth, the rope fell back onto the coffee table.

...That was fast!

"Did you see it clearly?""...No."

If she didn’t see it clearly, they did it again. When the towel rope fell onto the floor for the second time, Yu Manyi was truly in awe. The two of them spent a good part of an hour teaching her the technique, and she was eventually able to learn it too.

Yu Manyi felt that after finishing that thesis, everything in this world could turn into an academic discussion. But as they say, "Teach your apprentice and starve your master," not only did the master starve, but the apprentice also had the audacity to ask:

"But you’ve been untying the same knot all this time. What if someone ties it more complicatedly? For example, our long-term workers in Shaoxing, I once saw them tie something with a knot that’s really hard to untie. What would you do if a Shaoxing person captured you?"

"Oh?" Song Qi seemed intrigued. "Tie me up with that knot, let me experience it."

That was something the house workers used to do, and Yu Manyi didn’t remember the details that clearly. She picked up the towel rope and tried her best to recall the gestures from back then. She wrapped it around Song Qi’s wrist, tying a very tight knot.

It was indeed difficult to untie!

Yu Manyi sat beside the sofa, watching as Song Qi pulled and tugged at the rope, trying all the methods from earlier, but he completely lost the skill he had before. As she watched, a mischievous thought crossed her mind—

Song Qi was always deceiving her, bullying her, and teasing her. Now, at this moment, he was finally at a disadvantage. Yu Manyi cleared her throat lightly and decided to teach him a little lesson.

"Can’t get it untied?" she asked, pretending to be concerned.

"It seems not, this knot is too complicated," Song Qi said, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "Can you untie it for me?"

But Yu Manyi didn’t move.

Song Qi froze for a moment. He looked up slightly, only to find her wearing a mischievous smile, and she stood up with an air of seriousness, picking up the food container she had already packed.

She said, "If you can’t untie it, then forget it. You can sleep like this for the night. Tomorrow morning, I’ll tell my aunt that you’re not feeling well, and when I bring you breakfast, I’ll untie it for you."Song Qi was caught off guard, his pupils trembled, and his expression was one of shock and disbelief—

He, Song Qi, was a master of deception, having inherited the skills from his late mother, who was imprisoned for financial fraud, and his widowed father. He had been successful for many years and had never failed. Yet today, he stumbled, and was outwitted by Yu Manyi!

"Yu Manyi."

"Yu Manyi??"

"...Sister Manyi?"

"I’ll give you one last chance."

He couldn’t stop her. Yu Manyi, with a smile on her lips, stood up and walked toward the door. It was good—she would teach Song Qi a lesson so that he wouldn’t keep deceiving people and getting proud of himself. He’d eventually fall into a bigger trap in the future—wait, what??

Suddenly, her back grew warm, and her vision was blocked for a moment. When she came to her senses, she felt two arms encircle her from behind. Luckily, the food box she was holding wasn’t far from the ground, so when it hit the floor, it only made a crisp sound and didn’t break or tip over—but Yu Manyi didn’t care about that anymore!

She lowered her head, feeling the two hands tighten around her waist, her sides embraced by his strong arms. She had been caught in Song Qi’s embrace.

She was forcefully pulled backward, her body being dragged into him as they both fell onto the bed. She wasn’t sure about the soundproofing of the room, nor did she dare to scream. Instead, she pushed with her elbow against Song Qi behind her.

"Let me go!"

"Untie it."

"I won’t untie it."

"If you don’t untie it, we’ll just stay here."Yu Manyi tried to break free, but how could she move? He had tied her up and subdued her. He pulled her into his embrace, resting his chin on her shoulder blade. His hands continued to tease her waist, causing the already loose thin shirt to loosen further.

"Alright, alright, I admit defeat, is that okay?" Yu Manyi finally admitted. "I shouldn't have tied you up. I'll untie it, just let me go, okay?"

"You untie it? It's too late." Song Qi suddenly let out a soft laugh by her ear. Yu Manyi lowered her head and realized that, she didn’t know when, but he had already untied her knot.

"It looks complicated, just loop it a few more times," Song Qi said. He flicked the rope off his wrist and gave her waist a little squeeze. "Now what? You don’t have any bargaining chips left. What are you going to use to make a deal with me?"

Yu Manyi really regretted provoking him.

He was truly a top-notch deceiver, with the rigor of an engineer and the uncompromising nature of a businessman. He had tricked Yu Manyi countless times and gotten away with it. But today, after she had deceived him just once, he was relentless, even sweet-talking her, making a few remarks, and when she lowered her head again, she found that the rope was already tied around her wrist!

"Song Qi! Don’t go too far!" Yu Manyi struggled, lowering her voice to argue with him.

"Today, it wasn’t me who went too far first," Song Qi said, leading her toward the headboard of the bed. He then tied the rope to a metal railing on the bedframe. Yu Manyi twisted her body, annoyed, and used some strength to pull herself into a half-sitting position, leaning against the headboard.

Song Qi sat beside her, wearing a smile that mixed the qualities of a liar, an engineer, and a businessman. He took out a pocket watch from under the pillow. Yu Manyi watched as he pressed a button on the watch and immediately told her without giving her any time to react:

"Two minutes. If you can untie it, I'll let you go."

"You!"

"It's the same knot as earlier. I already told you how—just loop it a few more times. Ah... one minute fifty seconds left."

The countdown made her nerves instinctively tense. Her heartbeat quickened, and she had fallen right into his trap. The ticking of the pocket watch filled the air as she no longer had time to argue with him. She lowered her head and began to earnestly untie the knot she had brought upon herself.

Luckily, she had already figured out a simpler method earlier. Just loop it a few more times... where exactly should she loop it? Here... no, that won’t work... then...Click, click. The stopwatch ticked in her ear, making Yu Manyi's heartbeat accelerate and her focus intensify. She forgot that she was tied to the headboard of someone else's bed. Click, click, click...

"I've untied it!"

The part of the towel tied to the bedpost remained, but the part around her wrist had already come loose. Yu Manyi triumphantly raised her hands and turned to look at Song Qi, who was leaning against the headboard, watching her—

One of his legs was stretched out across the bed, the other bent, with his hand resting on his bent knee. His clothes were also slightly disheveled. Yu Manyi’s clothes weren't much better either, and the two of them, in this half-undone state, were focused on untying the knot. He even looked at her intently as she finished.

The two minutes were up, and the ticking of the stopwatch ceased. It seemed that he hadn’t expected her to actually untie it. Song Qi raised his brow slightly, a trace of disappointment in his expression.

He had made a misstep, she had outsmarted him. He had tried to tease her, but his prediction had failed, making his efforts unnecessary. It seemed like, tonight, Yu Manyi would still leave.

"Fine," Song Qi sighed lightly, raising his hand in surrender. "Then go ahead, I won’t stop you."

Ah...

He wouldn’t stop her. She could leave now. The bed was a mess from what they had just been through. Yu Manyi lowered her eyes and saw her thin shirt fall slightly, exposing half of her shoulder, and the waistband of her silk skirt had been wrinkled from his earlier touch.

She adjusted her hair, straightened her posture, and prepared to leave.

Song Qi really didn’t stop her. Despite being a liar, he was a man of his word, living up to the contract spirit of always keeping promises. Yu Manyi slowly pulled her hair from the side of her body to the back, the black silk-like strands falling one by one over her shoulder.

She turned her head to look at Song Qi, who had not fully lowered his hand yet. It was slowly drifting back to his side. When Yu Manyi turned around, he also raised his eyes, and in the next second, she suddenly flicked her hair, shifted her body, and landed directly in his arms.She suddenly landed in his arms, but Song Qi didn’t make a sound. His hands instinctively wrapped around her, and his body shifted to sit up straighter, fully supporting Yu Manyi who had fallen into his embrace.

She bent her knees, and his hands gently stroked her back, his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her head back slightly.

"Are you back?" Song Qi asked, one hand caressing the back of her head, pressing her against his shoulder. He lowered his head and brushed his lips lightly against her temple. "This is your only chance. You’re not leaving?"

"I’m not leaving."

"Aren’t you afraid I’ll tie you up again?"

Yu Manyi buried her face in his shoulder for a moment. After a while, she looked up, her trembling eyelashes brushing against his chin and lips.

Her voice was so soft, and it had been a long time since she had spoken so quietly. But no matter how small her voice was, he could always hear it clearly.

She said, "But I just want to stay with you..."