Chapter 160: Can we get the marriage license?

Xu Yanfeng drove smoothly, even over speed bumps there was little jolt: "Eat quickly."

Xia Xi knew she had guessed right again; he indeed had flipped through her social media. She pulled apart disposable chopsticks, and before eating she specifically asked: "Can I eat in the car? The smell is quite strong."

Xu Yanfeng felt she was sometimes carefree, sometimes overly particular: "Otherwise? Should I kick you out of the car and let you eat by the roadside?"

Xia Xi: "……"

"It's too far, we can only get the dry-mixed version." Xu Yanfeng said, "If you want to eat again, next time I'll drive you to dine in, have the soup noodles."

Xia Xi ate the long-missed noodles silently, her heart feeling soft. Although he wasn't fond of speaking, from the moment he agreed to be her boyfriend, everything he did showed he indeed liked her.

She truly felt it.

"Xu Yanfeng, I'm afraid the sauce will get on my white shirt." Xia Xi took a few bites, occasionally glancing at her chest, feeling anxious.

Xu Yanfeng looked ahead, reached over, opened the storage compartment, fished out a square cloth and tossed it to her: "Tuck it into your collar to use as a napkin."

"Oh." Xia Xi unfolded the square cloth and placed it on her chest, no longer worried, she focused on enjoying the food.

A small bowl of noodles, she finished it all, picked up the paper cup from the bag, thinking it was coffee, but when it hit her mouth she realized it was oat milk, hot.

Having eaten and drunk her fill, people tend to get sleepy, but Xia Xi didn't want to sleep at all; being with him, sleeping felt like a waste. She propped her chin on her hand and watched him, the speed of her blinking slowing down.

Xu Yanfeng noticed it out of the corner of his eye and said, "If you're tired, sleep a bit; I'll wake you when we arrive. Should I recline your seat?"

"I won't sleep." Xia Xi had just said that when she yawned, she covered her mouth, gave an embarrassed laugh, and decided to chat with him to fend off sleepiness: "Xu Yanfeng, you're one year older than me, you're 22 this year—can we get married?"

Xu Yanfeng remained silent for a full three minutes; during those three minutes his heart rate kept climbing.

He struggled to compose himself, telling himself that her mouth always blurted out whatever came to mind, which didn't mean she actually meant it.

"Not… yet." His voice was hoarse.

Xia Xi, feeling drowsy and a bit scattered, slowly turned her thoughts over and nodded to herself: "Oh right, your birthday is later, in November, so indeed it hasn't arrived yet."

Xu Yanfeng's fingers resting on the steering wheel clenched tightly; although he knew she might not mean it, he still asked hopefully, "Do you want to get married with me?"

Xia Xi's drooping eyelids snapped open: "Otherwise, do I look like someone who fools around?"

Hadn't he heard the saying that any romance not aimed at marriage is just fooling around? If she wanted a moment of pleasure, she would have long since tried every way to get him into bed, rather than earnestly pursuing him.

Xu Yanfeng curled the corner of his mouth on the side she couldn't see. Even so, he didn't want her to catch even a hint, so he clenched his left hand into a fist, pressed it to the corner of his mouth, and stubbornly said, "You do."

Xia Xi: "……"

What image does she have in his heart?

A fool?

Damn it!

He'd better not push her; if he pushes too hard, he should watch out—she might really start fooling around with him!

The phone rang several times; Xu Yanfeng was driving, so it wasn't convenient to check messages. He picked up the phone and handed it to Xia Xi: "Please take a look."

Xia Xi pressed the side lock button; the screen showed a password entry interface. She looked at him, smiled for no reason, suddenly imagining herself as the wife inspecting his post: "Password."

Xu Yanfeng told her frankly: "."

Xia Xi entered the digits one by one, the screen unlocked. She tilted her head, secretly pondering the string of numbers, couldn't find a corresponding date, and curiously asked: "Do these numbers have any special meaning?"

"Just pressed randomly."

"……"

This was something Xia Xi hadn't expected. As she opened his WeChat, she complained: "It's impossible to remember; I forget it in a blink."

Xu Yanfeng glanced at her, gave a light chuckle, thinking given her intelligence it shouldn't be a problem. But since she said it, changing it wouldn't hurt: "Change it to something easy to remember."

Xia Xi was a bit surprised: "You're this easygoing?"

Xu Yanfeng mimicked her tone: "I'm not easy to talk to?"

Xia Xi laughed speechlessly: "Baby, did you lose your memory? How did you treat me before? I need to reenact it live for you." After a pause, regardless of whether he agreed, she began reciting his former merciless lines: "I have no interest in you. Xia Xi, hasn't anyone told you your skin is thick?"

She had only said two lines when Xu Yanfeng couldn't bear to listen anymore: "Stop."

Xia Xi let out a "hehe" and brought up old scores: "Not only that, when I confessed to Youyou kept hiding and never showed up, making me stand in the cold wind for so long that I got a severe cold, was even reported, ran a fever and was called to the professor's office for a scolding—I felt miserable."

"I didn't..."

Xu Yanfeng instinctively opened his mouth to retort, but before he could finish he abruptly stopped.

That night, he agonized for a long time, hesitated for a long time, and still went to Nan Guangchang, only the timing was wrong—he happened to bump into the boy named Su Yuanjia confessing to her.

Xia Xi didn't know the actual situation then, so she was puzzled by his hesitant words: "You don't have anything?"

Xu Yanfeng didn't defend himself, admitting: "It's my fault."

After his apology, Xia Xi couldn't hold a grudge; her heart softened, and she didn't know how to settle the score. She pouted: "I'm not asking you to make amends; you were the one who brought up the topic, and as we talked it led to this. Besides, I liked you first, I pursued you, and when you hadn't yet liked me, I had the right to reject you, to push you away."

She was very open-minded, saw things clearly, and wouldn't hold a grudge over such a small matter.

Xia Xi also feared he might misunderstand her as just talking, while actually caring deeply, so she added: "It's good that you're hard to win over; otherwise, if I hadn't appeared in your world, some other girl would have snatched you up, and what would that have to do with me? Now I feel really fortunate." She raised both hands high, touching the car roof, and cheered: "I'm the luckiest person in the world!"

Xu Yanfeng was momentarily speechless, a surge of extraordinary emotion welling up inside him; he greatly admired her expressive ability—for instance, what he was thinking right now was that there would be no other girl; even if she hadn't yet entered his world, he should remain single until he waited for her.

But he seemed unable to put such words into speech.

Xia Xi glanced at his phone and read the message aloud: "Tang Yizhou asks when you'll arrive; they're all waiting for you."

Xu Yanfeng's thoughts still lingered on her words; he replied half a beat later: "About ten more minutes."

Xia Xi typed, sending his original words back to Tang Yizhou.

Tang Yizhou flung over a "Hurry up" panda-head emoji; Xia Xi didn't reply, and when she exited the chat window she noticed her own avatar, puffed her cheeks, and said: "You haven't even changed my note?"

Xu Yanfeng was dumbfounded, still using a nickname edit? That nickname obviously refers to her; no one else would use it.

"Did you change my note?" Xu Yanfeng decided to divert her attention: "What is it?"

Xia Xi took out her phone, tapped a few times, and waved it in front of his eyes.

Xu Yanfeng saw it; her note for him read "The person I love."

He lost, and lost completely.

Xia Xi felt embarrassed to tell him, but previously his note had read "Someone who says one thing but means another." Past events are like smoke; no need to bring them up again.

Xu Yanfeng couldn't think of how to change it, so he was lazy and handed the decision to her: "You change it yourself."

Xia Xi moved her fingers, typed "beautiful, kind-hearted, graceful, gentle, considerate, understanding girlfriend", glanced at it, couldn't help shivering, her skin still not thick enough, really embarrassing.

She deleted it all, re-entered the two characters "Xia Xi" in a proper manner, paused, felt it wasn't quite right, so she added a parenthesis and wrote three characters inside.

Xia Xi pursed her lips and smirked, returning his phone.

Ten minutes later, the Mercedes drove into Maple Leaf Lake International Golf Course and parked steadily in the parking lot.

Xu Yanfeng unfastened his seatbelt, picked up his own phone, out of curiosity wanting to see what note Xia Xi had changed for herself, after all he had noticed that her expression after changing the note was quite intriguing.

Three seconds later, Xu Yanfeng saw a few earth-shattering words—Xia Xi (Mom).

Xu Yanfeng: "……?"

He had to admit, he still underestimated Xia Xi's thickness of skin.

It must be added that here "thick-skinned" carries no derogatory connotation; it is a fair and honest assessment of her.