Chapter 40: Late

The meeting ended at 5:30; the sky had not yet darkened.

Yang Yi took the brown sugar that Feng Liancheng had bought and returned alone to her hotel room. There was still some time before nightfall; if she flew over now, she would be discovered. She lay on the bed, wanting to rest a while and recover her spirit and strength.

But, overcome by fatigue, she fell asleep without realizing it. She dreamed she was standing barefoot in a small stream. The water was cool, the bottom smooth with pebbles. Occasionally, small fish swam close and gently kissed her feet. The sunlight was just right, warm on her body. Around her were birdsong and insect chirps, both lively and tranquil.

Until the ringtone sounded, startling her awake.

She picked up her phone and saw it was nearly 9 o'clock. The caller was Chris.

I'm done for!

Outside the window, it was already night. Yang Yi did not answer the call; she let it ring. She opened the navigation app, located the Elro International Hotel, and flew from the balcony into the night sky.

Just as the ringtone ceased, Yang Yi was standing on the hotel's top-floor terrace.

The interior was brightly lit. She walked into the living room connected to the terrace. The decor was the work of a master: understated, luxurious, and full of charm. But Yang Yi paid no attention to these things; her eyes immediately fell on the man on the brown leather sofa.

The sofa was angled toward her. Chris sat sideways on it, seemingly lost in thought while looking at his phone. His attire showed how seriously he took this date: he wore an English three-piece suit, complete with a tie clip. His brown-black hair was combed back, but during the long wait, a few strands had fallen across his forehead, giving him a slightly melancholy look.

Yang Yi could only see his profile: the breathtaking contours of his face, the deep blue pool hidden behind the dense forest of his hair, the prominent Adam's apple on his tightly buttoned collar—all made her heart beat wildly and uncontrollably.

Wrapped tightly in the three-piece suit, the outline of his firm, bulging muscles showed slightly beneath the tailored jacket. His tall figure formed a silhouette, creating a beautiful image.

He was like the most expensive non-sale item in the most luxurious jewelry exhibition. She had once not even had the qualification to enter that exhibition, able only to gaze at the sapphire on the brochure day and night, lost in thought.

Before coming, she had been certain that this sapphire had been carefully packaged and delivered to her, waiting only for her to take it.

Yet now, as his figure came into view, the sapphire suddenly vanished. There was only him, only Chris Norton, a living, breathing person who could smile, feel aggrieved, and enthusiastically show off his collection to her. Now, what was he thinking?

Her wildly beating heart grew even more frantic. The strength she had barely gathered suddenly drained away. She felt weak all over, with a ringing in her ears. Only her heart beat faster and faster, like a war drum.

She felt she must find a place to sit and rest for a while to alleviate this inexplicable symptom.

The hesitation in her heart made her want to leave immediately. Her intuition told her she did not want him to see her in this state.

How should she explain her lateness to him? Say she accidentally fell asleep? What would he think? Would he believe she was just playing hard to get, using a little game of feigned indifference?

Yang Yi felt somewhat confused. She slowly backed out of the room and sat by the terrace pool, gazing at the moon in the sky, lost in thought.

Suddenly, Yang Yi snapped out of it, sensing someone approaching slowly from behind. She realized it was Chris.

"Why are you sitting here alone?" Chris asked in a low voice. He sat down beside her, turning to look at her.

Yang Yi looked at his face. This was the second time she had seen him this close. His charm and allure were as sharp as a legendary sword, capable of severing hair with a breath, instantly piercing her defenses until they were riddled with holes and utterly defeated.

"I was thinking about how to explain my lateness to you," Yang Yi said.

Chris looked at her intently for a moment, then suddenly smiled. "No need to explain, because you are already before me."

For the first time, Yang Yi realized that if the heart beats too fast, it causes difficulty breathing, much like the feeling of nearly drowning. Like being pushed into a river unexpectedly as a child, the air in the lungs dwindling, trying desperately to hold one's breath, gasping for air just before exploding, only to have water choke into the lungs, unable to struggle, slowly sinking to the bottom, consciousness gradually fading...

She covered Chris's eyes. "Don't smile at me. You might already know, I've been infatuated with you for many years. Your charm is amplified thousands of times for me; I simply cannot resist." She said it as if joking.

But she knew herself that she was not joking.

Chris laughed even harder. He blinked, his thick eyelashes brushing against her palm, ticklish, the itch reaching all the way to her heart. His breath hit her hand, hot, so hot that her face burned too.

She thought, I'm done for. Her experience in this area was too little. A complete novice facing a seasoned expert was purely asking for trouble.

Before coming, she thought she was here to take this sapphire, to taste whether this cake was as delicious as imagined. She was full of confidence, believing she could easily snatch it. But upon seeing the sapphire, without even touching it, its brilliant light blinded her. Her confidence was like a popped balloon, all the air escaping, deflating into a useless lump of mud.

Chris took advantage of the momentum to grasp the hand covering his eyes. Her hand was slender, not soft, with some thin calluses on the palm. He gently brought her hand to his lips and kissed it lightly. Seeing Yang Yi's face instantly flush with embarrassment, even somewhat at a loss.

This blush suddenly gave meaning to the several hours of waiting before. His restless, anxious mood dissolved like a sugar cube in hot water.

He had been preparing for this moment since the sun had not yet set. He was full of confidence, ready to fight this battle. He had made sufficient pre-war preparations and plans. Like an adventurer exploring a new world for the first time, he was prepared to face hardships and obstacles, then naturally receive the reward.

But time gradually passed in the long wait. The sun slowly sank below the horizon. The sunset burned like his heart, burning, burning, until darkness fell, leaving only a pile of ash.

Until the night curtain drew, the bright moon hung high, and she still had not come.

He made excuses for her: Was she delayed by something? Was she working overtime? Was she dragged away to deal with some alien creature invasion again? — Did she know I was still waiting for her? Had she already forgotten me?

Was I not that important in her heart after all? Otherwise, why had she been late for so long without even a phone call?

Had she awakened from her illusory infatuation and discovered I was nothing special? Had she seen enough excellent people recently, making me seem not worth looking at as I once was?

A pile of questions floated up and down in his mind. He sat alone, waiting from afternoon until evening, from sunset until moonrise. The candles in the living room were nearly burned out. Only the roses still emitted a sweet fragrance, lingering in the lonely air.

This was a special experience, a feeling unlike any other filling his heart. He was almost not himself.

This self-pity filled with sorrow made him look like a Bai Chi.

He finally made that call, but no one answered. The busy tone sounded like mockery.

Yet she had finally come. She was at a loss, even too afraid to come in directly to face him, not knowing how to explain her lateness to him. This retreat completely pleased him, pulling him out of self-doubt in one stroke, lifting him from a low point to a peak instantly. This roller-coaster-like experience almost made him dizzy.

He no longer cared about her lateness at all. He was even glad for her lateness, grateful for the reason that made her late, letting him understand she was still full of excitement and infatuation for him. To some extent, he was completely in a dominant position.

Just this realization was enough to satisfy him, worth all the waiting.

He held her hand and walked into the living room. The candles inside had long burned to the end, and the meal had passed its most delicious moment. To avoid anyone discovering their relationship, he had asked the butler to prepare everything in advance.

"Shall I have them change it?" he asked, looking down at Yang Yi.

She looked at everything prepared, her gaze moving to the meal on the table. There was no special expression on her face; neither happiness nor disgust. Only in her pitch-black pupils did a strange emotion seem to surge. Chris had always been proud of his ability to perceive emotions, but at this moment, he could feel nothing.

She walked over, picked up a rose from the table, and held it under her nose to smell. "No, this is enough."

Yang Yi walked toward him with the red rose, smiling. Chris's pulse suddenly quickened; his heart beat wildly, as if a gun were pointed at him. In a flash, he felt this scene was familiar. Although it was their first meeting, it felt as if he had experienced it countless times in his mind.

She suddenly wrapped her arm around his waist. Chris raised an eyebrow, looking at her in surprise.

Yang Yi said with a smile: "I always remember, you said you wanted to grow a pair of wings to fly freely in the sky..."

An invisible force lifted him up. The scenery around them moved rapidly. In an instant, they had arrived in the sky.

Below them were the countless lights of the city, spreading along the mountains and plains like the Milky Way, twinkling here and there, as if flowing slowly.

Chris had seen this scene before. Many times he had taken a private plane, looking down at the entire earth and the whole city from the window. But he had never been like this, standing in mid-air, gazing down at the human world like a god.

Is this her perspective?

Yang Yi held his waist loosely. He understood this was merely to give him psychological comfort; the force did not come from her arms, but from the invisible telekinesis surrounding them—her awakened superpower.

"I'm going to let go of you now. Don't worry, nothing will happen." He heard Yang Yi say.

She slowly released his waist, and he was completely standing in mid-air. He moved his arms and legs; it was very free, completely without any restraint, as if Earth's gravity had lost its effect on him.

Chris's actions encouraged Yang Yi; she was like a child eager to show off to a playmate, wishing to display all her skills for him to marvel at, to see her in a new light, to ensure he never took her lightly again—best of all, to remember her forever, to remember this moment, to carve her deeply into his heart...

A thought suddenly struck her heart, quickly turning into an impulse she could not wait to fulfill.

"Let's go play; we have the whole night," Yang Yi said, struggling to suppress her excitement.

Before Chris could respond, they sped toward the wilderness, flying to the desolate highlands of Gaoshan. Yang Yi smiled at him, and the two of them fell from ten thousand feet as if weightless.

Chris's face turned pale, but his eyes shot forth an excited light. As they reached the forest canopy, they glided through the air, skimming the treetops like a hurricane forcing the jungle to bow.

Afterwards, the two flew just above the treetops, like two birds skimming the water's surface.

They sometimes soared over Gaoshan, sometimes threaded through canyons, flying low over the water and dragging a long wake behind them, passing through a vast expanse of dense dark clouds, darting between flashes of lightning.

Chris thought that even real birds were no better than this; he felt freedom, a freedom no thing could bind. In this moment, all worldly fame and profit became as insignificant as light smoke. For free birds, what meaning did human delicacies and fine clothes hold? Beautifully decorated concrete boxes could only trap freedom, and steel four-wheeled carts could only restrict steps meant for greater distances.

During this journey, the initial tension vanished quickly, and he became immersed in this feeling of boundless freedom.

He looked at Yang Yi; the corners of her mouth curled up, adding some liveliness to her usually cold expression. Her eyes remained calm, her ink-black pupils gazing steadily at the distance, even at her most shy and moving moments, she was deep in thought.

Everything that felt novel and shocking to him now was merely her daily routine.

"We've reached the sea," Yang Yi said.

The sea in the darkness was both mysterious and dangerous; beneath the undulating surface, countless terrifying beasts seemed to lurk. A bright moon hung silently above the sea, its waves reflecting shimmering clear light.

They flew just above the surface; occasionally, a few fish leaped out, accidentally colliding with their telekinetic barrier and becoming dizzy from the impact.

Suddenly, the waves below roared, and a giant mouth full of sharp teeth snapped toward them; the two tiny figures on that giant maw were like two little mice facing a lion of the plains.

Chris was startled, but Yang Yi let out a soft laugh. The two of them immediately pulled up; the giant mouth snapped at empty air and slowly submerged beneath the surface.

Viewed from above, the giant beast's silhouette in the seawater resembled a small island being washed over by the tide. It elegantly swayed its body, as if the previous moment had been nothing more than a small game.

Yang Yi thought, if one wanted to utilize the bridge effect, what opportunity could be better than this?

She had heard that when a person crosses a suspension bridge with a trembling heart, their heartbeat involuntarily accelerates. If, at that moment, another person happens to be nearby, they will mistakenly interpret this situation-induced acceleration as being moved by the other person, thus producing a physiological reaction and, consequently, feelings of love for that person.

Therefore, the best way for two young men and women who are not yet familiar with each other to date is to go on thrilling adventures; as their heartbeats accelerate together in excitement and thrill, they will mistake this for love.

I must do something to force his heart to race. Take him flying, take him leaping over mountains and canyons, take him to conquer strange beasts, take him to chase the bright moon, take him to do everything dangerous and thrilling; when his heart beats violently, I will be beside him, and he will mistake it for being moved by me.

Even if it is a fake "heartbeat"—no matter what, he must fall in love with me, to compensate for my years of infatuation.

I want to dominate his fate; I want him to laugh for me, cry for me, suffer for me, even prostrate himself before me, begging me to love him. Let this star, so high above and unreachable, submit to me and become a badge on my chest.

She looked at Chris; he was gazing at the sea monster below, his expression of shock and curiosity resembling that of a little boy seeing a giant for the first time.

Yang Yi looked at him like a fierce beast staring at its prey.