Chapter 119: The hungover literary girl Xian Enjing (Seeking subscriptions and monthly tickets)

Apartment entrance.

Following that unexpected electric sensation, Xian Enjing subconsciously let go, while Lin Xiuyuan was quick-eyed and fast-handed, taking the bag from her hand first.

Then he cleared his throat, covering up the strangeness of that instant. "Just static electricity, the weather has been quite dry lately."

Xian Enjing said a soft "Mm," but didn't continue, just lowered her head slightly, her peripheral vision quietly sizing him up.

The clenched fingertips seemed to still retain that touch, like some kind of lingering warmth, wandering slowly on the skin.

The air fell into a brief silence.

Lin Xiuyuan seemed to have noticed this subtle atmosphere in the silence, so he took the initiative to speak. "How did you come over alone? Why didn't you let Zhiyan accompany you?"

Xian Enjing, hearing this, paused, looked up, her gaze lingering on his face.

Seeing that he took the initiative to mention her little dragon cub, she asked curiously. "Boss Lin, how did you and Zhiyan meet? This is the first time I've seen Zhiyan be so intimate and close to a boy."

Lin Xiuyuan, who was a bit surprised that she would ask this, blinked his eyes, his mouth curling. "How we met, weren't you there at the time?"

Then, Xian Enjing's voice rose a few degrees. "That's why it's hard to believe, you guys seem to have only met once or twice more than me, how could you be so familiar."

"We met many times later, and after drinking and chatting together a lot, we got a bit more familiar."

"Just drinking and chatting?" Xian Enjing asked in pursuit, her expression calm, her eyes clear yet revealing a hint of inquiry.

Lin Xiuyuan was a bit panicked by the staring, turned his head to avoid her gaze, and laughed, playing Tai Chi. "Otherwise what else could we do? You wouldn't think we have something going on, would you? Then you're really thinking too much."

"Is that so~ Right, there's also Xiuyan and Yun'er, your relationship network is even harder to imagine."

After responding softly, Xian Enjing's tone couldn't tell if she was happy or angry, but her eyes seemed to have secretly remembered this.

And Lin Xiuyuan, carrying the bag, walked toward the elevator again, pressing the down button.

As the elevator 'dinged' and arrived, Lin Xiuyuan walked in first, pressed the first floor, and looked back at Xian Enjing who followed. "Enjing, do you have work tomorrow too?"

"No, taking a day off."

Xian Enjing, who entered the elevator, stood beside him.

This time her voice was warm, not as sharp as before. "Just happen to deal with these miscellaneous things."

"Then..."

During the elevator's descent, Lin Xiuyuan seemed to suddenly remember something, turning his head to look at her. "Why don't you not rush to leave after getting down in a while? My tavern is just ahead, want to go sit for a bit? I'll pour you a special blend."

Xian Enjing opened her eyes slightly, a bit surprised that Lin Xiuyuan would invite her like this. "Drinking so late?"

"Why, afraid I'll get you drunk?" Lin Xiuyuan deliberately showed a bad smile.

Xian Enjing, who didn't expect the other party to say this, immediately laughed, looking at him with curved eyes. "That wouldn't go that far, just very curious what we two can talk about."

Lin Xiuyuan paused, his eyes sweeping toward her, his tone half-teasing. "Let's talk about how you would get dead drunk."

This sentence made Xian Enjing's eyes slightly shocked; she didn't expect this boy to still remember their chat from back then.

So she didn't reply, just tilted her head slightly, looking at him with a smile, the bottom of her eyes reflecting a trace of the elevator LED screen light, turning into a silent response in the night.

The elevator door opened slowly, and the two walked out side by side, a slight ambiguity quietly rippling in the quiet night corridor.

"Go?"

Xian Enjing nodded lightly, not refusing.

The two's footsteps were one after another, preparing to go to the small tavern on the edge of the community.

Just when passing the parking space, Xian Enjing suddenly said. "You just went out, was it to send Xiuyan back?"

Lin Xiuyuan was stunned. "How did you know?"

"Came a few times, and recognized Xiuyan's license plate, just saw it downstairs, thought you guys were at the tavern side."

Saying this, she took out the key familiarly and unlocked the car. "Put the things in the car first, save the trouble of carrying them around later."

Lin Xiuyuan nodded, and after putting the bag away, the two soon arrived at the door of the small tavern.

Looking at the boy who opened the door, Xian Enjing asked curiously behind him. "Boss Lin, how did you think of asking me to drink."

"Didn't I just say it."

Lin Xiuyuan turned back with a smile, pushed the door and entered with the beep of the door lock, and turned on the lights and some equipment next to the bar counter.

Xian Enjing, who followed in, laughed. "That reason is a bit fake."

This made Lin Xiuyuan, who had already walked to the bar side, look back at her. "Then if I say there's no reason, just suddenly wanted to drink, so I invited you."

As a result, Xian Enjing seemed to be waiting for a similar answer, and as soon as she finished listening, her smile became even brighter, and she even laughed out loud. "Hahaha, Boss Lin, does this reason of yours count as being moved by beauty?"

Moved by beauty?

Xian Enjing's response made Lin Xiuyuan look at her properly.

She was actually dressed very simply today, a pure white slim T-shirt paired with a pair of high-waisted dark blue jeans, the trouser legs rolled up casually, revealing a section of slender calves, stepping on a pair of canvas shoes.

No excessive decoration, and no deliberate dressing up.

Her hair was a casually tied ponytail, her earlobes were clean without accessories, and the whole person looked like a female college student who could be on the cover of a lifestyle magazine with a casual shot.

However, it was such a casual outfit that outlined her body contours clearly.

The thin and tight waistline, the T-shirt fitting the body, made people feel that extreme curve at a glance.

The slightly raised arc on her chest existed clearly, but it didn't look abrupt at all, but rather like some kind of natural temptation with tension.

Especially those high-waisted jeans, which revealed her already superior waist-to-hip ratio to the fullest, round and firm, with clear curves, seemingly more attractive than the one in 2025.

Lin Xiuyuan, who originally wanted to make a small joke back, couldn't escape the teasing of "moved by beauty" after looking at it for two glances.

Finally, he coughed lightly and turned to operate on the bar counter. "If you say so, then I can't answer no, otherwise it would seem I'm too uninteresting."

"That's not the answer I want to hear."

Xian Enjing sat on the high stool in front of the bar, her tone light. "I thought, you could make Zhiyan so happy, there must be some real skills behind it."

And the answer above was the real reason why Xian Enjing agreed to the appointment so late.

She really wanted to explore why this boy made little Zhiyan pounce on him as if she had lost her reason, what exactly was there?

Was it knowing how to say nice things to coax women, or what.

So when Xian Enjing sat on the high stool and said this thought, Lin Xiuyuan, who was standing inside, paused his mixing action, looked up and smiled at her.

"Then I can only borrow a sentence to describe it."

"What sentence?" Xian Enjing put her hands on the bar, supporting her chin slightly, looking at him.

"It's just that the flowers are blooming brightly, if I don't go to appreciate them, it would seem I don't understand the style."

Xian Enjing, who finished listening to this sentence, was a bit stunned, a trace of distraction flashing in her eyes.

Understated, yet carrying a certain romanticism with penetrating power, like a classic dialogue picked from some old poetry collection or an old black-and-white movie, hitting her instantly.

So she lowered her eyelashes lightly, her fingertips rubbing the surface of the solid wood bar, her expression no longer as thorny as before, but instead had a bit more softness and calmness.

In fact, even though she was always full of charm on stage, dancing the most passionate dances and singing the most alluring songs.

But in her bones, she was always that literary girl who could calm down and be alone, liking to use her pen and eyes to feel the world.

Under such a life, even if she didn't speak for a few days, she could live freely and peacefully.

Behind the bar, Lin Xiuyuan continued to mix drinks, the sound of glass and metal colliding waking her from her thoughts.

She raised her eyes, looking at this skilled boy in front of her.

Delicate facial features, phoenix eyes with a bit of youthful spirit, under the dim light, had an indescribable literary temperament.

So she opened her mouth softly, her tone having a bit more softness than before. "This sentence of yours is quite suitable to be put in the novel I'm reading recently."

Lin Xiuyuan, who was busy, raised his eyebrows unexpectedly. "You usually read novels?"

Xian Enjing smiled slightly, lowered her head and suddenly lay on the bar, saying softly. "Novels, essays, picture books, occasionally practicing painting, in the words of Zhiyan and the others, I actually don't look like the 'female idol' in the hearts of fans."

She didn't continue to explain, but her eyes gradually became clear.

It seemed that from this moment on, her relationship with Lin Xiuyuan was no longer just a simple "friend of a friend."

"Enjing Enjing, the person is like the name." Lin Xiuyuan laughed after hearing this.

"Then what about you, Lin Xiuyuan, what is the meaning of this name?"

Lin Xiuyuan, hearing this question, paused his mixing action, seeming to be stunned for a moment.

But soon returned to normal, responding with a smile: "This name of mine is taken from a poem by an ancient person on our side."

"Ancient poem?" Xian Enjing became interested. "Which sentence?"

"The road ahead is long and arduous, I will seek it up and down."

When saying this sentence, because he used Chinese.

So Xian Enjing didn't quite understand, so he translated it again, and also told the other party the meaning of the poem.

And when Xian Enjing heard the sentence "indomitably seeking the ideal way of life," her eyes, which were already clear, seemed even brighter.

Then she straightened her waist, looked at Lin Xiuyuan and praised sincerely. "Then this name of yours, Boss Lin, is even better."

"Don't be so distant, call me by my name or Xiuyuan, anyway you are older than me." Lin Xiuyuan, who had mixed the wine, gently placed the glass in front of her.

"Call you Xiuyuan, if Zhiyan hears this, will she want to go to the ring with me?" Xian Enjing, who lowered her head and sipped the wine, laughed.

Lin Xiuyuan laughed lightly and followed her tone. "Then who will win between you two."

"Not clear, Zhiyan's Taekwondo is very powerful, but I'm not bad either, don't know without comparing."

Didn't expect Xian Enjing to have such another side, Lin Xiuyuan looked at her a few more times, with a smile on the corners of his mouth. "Hearing you say this, I'm a bit curious about what kind of novels you read, they wouldn't be those killing, or bloody and terrifying ones, right."

"Then you really guessed wrong."

Xian Enjing seemed to be poked in the heart, a shallow pride appearing on her face. "I'm reading Kawabata Yasunari's *Snow Country* recently, but it's not the first time I've read it, it's just some fragments, always feeling that every time I read it, I can read a different taste."

"'Passing through the long tunnel of the county boundary is Snow Country,' right?" Lin Xiuyuan raised the corners of his mouth. "I remember this beginning."

Opposite, Xian Enjing's eyes lit up. "You've read it too."

"A little bit."

It was indeed a little bit, because his understanding of this novel came from the explanations he saw on short video platforms in the future, and then he stopped and watched a few episodes casually, so his understanding of *Snow Country* was mostly from explanations, as for the real novel, he just flipped through a few pages on an e-book and didn't finish it at all.

Maybe because she hadn't met someone she could talk to for a long time, so when she found that Lin Xiuyuan was unexpectedly compatible with her in some aspects, Xian Enjing became a bit more active.

"Actually, compared to *Snow Country*, I prefer to watch those slow and lingering stories. Then according to the mood when reading, draw a picture casually, not necessarily being able to draw it, anyway, it's just scraping on it stroke by stroke."

"So painting is not the main thing, you just want to find a spiritual sustenance." Lin Xiuyuan laughed lightly, solving the puzzle for her.

"Right!" Xian Enjing's eyes lit up, as if her heart had been hit. "That's what it means. You are really smart."

Lin Xiuyuan looked at her gradually bright expression and teased with a smile. "You are smarter, that territory of painting has always been the private land of geniuses."

This made Xian Enjing a bit embarrassed. "No, I'm just painting casually, not as powerful as you imagine."

"Didn't learn professionally?"

"No, just took a little elective in college, later just bought some materials and painted blindly."

Xian Enjing said while using her fingers to frame it. "And I'm painting small ones, landscapes are more, there are also some abstract ones, but I don't dare to show them to others."

"I really want to see what you painted."

Lin Xiuyuan's tone was sincere, not polite. "Because hearing you say this, I feel you are completely different from the Enjing I imagined."

Saying this, he thought of something, looking around. "Or you see if you can give me a few paintings, let me decorate the walls around the tavern, saving the money to go out and buy paintings, killing two birds with one stone."

"So what did you think I was like before?" Xian Enjing tilted her head and looked at him, a trace of playfulness in her eyes.

At this time, she had no vigilance at all like at the apartment door.

Facing this boy she could talk to, she seemed to have finally found a channel to be understood, and many emotions and preferences buried in the bottom of her heart poured out to him involuntarily.

"Thought you were the type who was radiant on stage and cold and silent off stage."

Lin Xiuyuan laughed. "Because it was like this when the tavern opened, you were staring at me at that time, I was afraid you would come over to beat and scold me. But now I find, you are quite warm, quite full of life."

Xian Enjing didn't speak after hearing this, just picked up the wine glass, touched him lightly, and then took a sip, her tone unhurried. "Then you have to cherish today's 'temperature limited edition,' it's gone if you miss it."

"Fine, then I'll have to drink a few more cups tonight." Lin Xiuyuan, who was amused by her, nodded.

The two talked and drank like this, occasionally exchanging books they had read, painters they liked, chatting from Monet's color tone to Murakami's loneliness, and then from Eileen Chang's tone to Kawabata's blank space.

But they didn't talk very deeply, because both were half-buckets of water.

Xian Enjing didn't have time to read carefully because work was too busy, and Lin Xiuyuan was mainly from the pan-introductions on short video platforms in 2025, one section left and one section right, east a hammer and west a stick.

So it was all a degree of knowing a little bit.

But this point was enough to make Xian Enjing produce a long-lost resonance. After so many years, no one had been able to chat with her about so many miscellaneous things.

Even the members couldn't chat about so much, they just chatted deeply.

The night was quiet, the tavern lights wrapped them gently, and the distance between each other was also quietly pulled closer in the clear wine and words cup by cup.

The next day.

Inside the dormitory.

The morning light fell on the corner of Xian Enjing's eyes through the gap in the curtains, she frowned, but felt as if her whole person had been drained of strength when she turned over.

Her head was slightly swollen, her mouth was dry,

Staring blankly at the ceiling, a few seconds later she realized this was her room, but she had forgotten how she returned here.

Her head was still aching, the chaotic feeling brought by alcohol last night had not completely dissipated, she was still wearing yesterday's clothes, but her shoes had long been taken off and placed neatly by the bed.

But soon, with the clarity of her brain, some memory fragments drifted into Xian Enjing's mind.

The music of the small tavern, the taste of cocktails, and the laughter of the two chatting happily.

"I remember I wasn't drunk at the time."

Xian Enjing, who sat up holding her forehead, recalled slowly and clearly.

She remembered she didn't drink too much later, just chatted too deeply, and time passed late.

Then after Lin Xiuyuan said a "send you back," she seemed to have been blown to the present by a night wind, and everything after that was broken.

After sitting blankly for a while, after her head was a bit better, Xian Enjing got up and walked out of the room, and as soon as she went out, she bumped into two acquaintances.

"Yo, awake, our Enjing."

Park Hyomin leaned against the living room door frame, holding a cup of hot coffee, looking at her with half-closed eyes.

Standing next to her was Park Jiyeon with a face of resentment, pouting.

"Unnie, why didn't you call us when you drank with oppa last night. And said you never got drunk, as a result, you broke off the first time you drank alone with a boy, fortunately you met oppa, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Who said I broke off..." Xian Enjing rolled her eyes, replying stiffly. "Just a bit dizzy."

People who are drunk have mouths as hard as titanium alloy, refusing to admit they are drunk, and Xian Enjing is naturally no exception.

And just when Xian Enjing was dealing with Park Jiyeon and Park Hyomin on the 2013 side, Lin Xiuyuan on the 2025 side received a call from Kim Taeyeon very unexpectedly.

"Hello, Xiuyuan, come out to eat."

"Hmm?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 120 =====

"Hmm?"

(End of chapter)