Kiss

At that moment, Zhu Qing had her head down, trying to stifle her laughter. The photographer was filming them from three steps away, the rest of the crew were sheltering from mosquitoes on the little pickup truck, and only Li Lan had her head up, glaring at Zhu Qing. From her better angle, she saw the web come down.

So she had plenty of time to react. In a flash, she sprang up and shielded Zhu Qing beneath her.

“Ah—!”

The black spider with fluorescent yellow markings and long hairs fell onto Li Lan’s back, bounced once, then landed on the ground right in front of Zhu Qing’s eyes.

Zhu Qing shrieked and jumped so hard her feet left the ground.

“Li Lan, Li Lan, Li Li Li Lan lan lan…”

She was shaking all over. Li Lan didn’t have time to care about the huge patch of spiderweb clinging to her back; she hurriedly stretched out a foot and kicked the spider away.

Zhu Qing’s eyes nearly burst with terror. She stared at the spider Li Lan had kicked off until she was sure it was gone, then trembled as she clung to Li Lan and tried to speak. “I-I-I need to go—ahhh!”

The fallen web was extremely sticky and hadn’t fully settled; half of it was still hanging in the air. The moment Zhu Qing stood up, she saw a smaller hairy spider suddenly dangling down.

It swayed in midair, its fuzzy legs even curling and stretching coquettishly, as if it were about to poke her in the face.

In an instant, Li Lan raised a hand and covered Zhu Qing’s face.

The spider dropped straight onto Li Lan’s arm.

Li Lan’s brow twitched violently. She glared at the spider on her arm, every hair on her body standing on end; she nearly shot straight up.

But Zhu Qing in her arms was trembling too hard. Li Lan forced herself to hold still, biting down so hard she nearly broke the tip of her tongue just to keep from overreacting—no, just from reacting normally.

Fortunately, the spider didn’t linger. Just before Li Lan hit her limit, it jumped away.

The guide finally arrived at an unhurried pace and happened to see the spider leaving. “Oh, a golden silk spider. It’s not venomous, don’t be afraid.”

Li Lan grit out, “Help me get the web off my back.”

The guide said slowly, “You could just walk out directly, and that little girl can come out too. No need to be afraid; golden silk spiders look scary, but they’re not scary at all.”

Li Lan was too annoyed to correct his grammar and insisted, “If I move, another spider might fall. She’s scared of this, so please help me remove it. Thank you.”

Only then did the guide amble over, quickly dismantle the web in a few motions, and flick away the little spider that had fallen.

Li Lan finally relaxed. She lowered the hand covering Zhu Qing’s eyes and let her go.

But Zhu Qing still didn’t react. She’d turned into a little quail, covering her head and shrinking her neck, her whole body pressed into Li Lan’s arms, her mind still full of that palm-sized spider.

“It wasn’t palm-sized, just half a palm,” she muttered before she realized it.

Li Lan rubbed her back, both helpless and a little heartbroken. “Weren’t you laughing at me just fine a minute ago? You weren’t even afraid of the lizard; this is only a spider.”

“How can that be the same…” Zhu Qing’s voice was faint as a thread, but her mouth kept moving nonstop. “A lizard doesn’t attack people. It was so big, and then it just went away. Spiders are so small; if one falls on you, it could crawl into your clothes by accident, and it could bite me…”

“All living things have spirit; mosquitoes and spiders excepted. No, wait, everything with more than four legs or no legs at all is scary. No, this is bad, I feel a little sick.”

Li Lan soothed her, patted her head, and nearly started chanting her soul back.

“These spiders aren’t venomous. If they were, the guide would’ve come over with them,” Li Lan said. “Can you walk? Let’s get out of here and find somewhere to look at how many animal tracks you got on your camera.”

Zhu Qing clutched Li Lan’s clothes and hid in her arms. “No. My legs have gone weak; I can’t walk!”

Li Lan gave her more than ten minutes to calm down, but Zhu Qing didn’t calm down at all. No matter what, she refused to leave.

The production crew came over, trying hard not to laugh, and asked about their progress. “We’re not in a rush. We’ve still got a whole day of filming. We’ll cut this into the highlight reel, so don’t worry.”

Li Lan shot the crew a cool look.

When they needed help, these people couldn’t solve a damn thing; now that they’d seen usable footage, they were rushing over to fan the flames and make things worse.

Zhu Qing sprawled even more shamelessly, both arms wrapped around Li Lan’s waist, determined not to move.

Li Lan raised an eyebrow. “You really won’t go?”

Zhu Qing rubbed against her in her arms, giving a slight shake of her head.

Li Lan looked around and lowered her voice very cautiously. “Then… are you afraid of snakes?”

Zhu Qing shot her head up at once.

“I feel like it’s not safe under this tree,” Li Lan said slowly, as if offhand. “Spiders are falling from above just now; maybe snakes will start falling in a bit. If we’re standing here and a snake falls, won’t it land right on your head?”

Zhu Qing abruptly let go and said sharply, “Hurry, hurry up and go. Let’s get out of here. I’ve discovered the creature I hate most is still snakes.”

Li Lan was laughing so hard her stomach hurt.

They rode back in the vehicle after that. The moment they returned, Zhu Qing ducked into their tent, zipped it shut, and refused to come out.

Hu Xu strolled over with her hands behind her back and asked with amusement, “What happened? Did you two fight?”

Li Lan wore a sun hat and glanced helplessly at the tent. “She got scared by a spider.”

“What’s there to be afraid of about spiders?” Hu Xu said. “Spiders are beneficial insects. Good things.”

Li Lan thought to herself that people from their generation would probably even be happy to catch centipedes and soak them in liquor; edible bugs were all delicious, high-protein good things.

“Don’t just stand there. The sun’s at its strongest, and the staff are all resting. Go in and take a break too; coax your little one.”

Over by Liu Yini, someone seemed to have found some kind of insect, and she called out to Hu Xu, “Come here and see if this is a house centipede!”

Hu Xu raised her voice to answer, “How could there be a house centipede here?”

“Come look!”

Li Lan smiled. “Teacher Hu, go on then. I’ll go in and rest for a while too… and coax the little one.”

She called for the tent flap to be opened, and after a long while Zhu Qing finally pulled it open a crack and whispered, “Come in quickly.”

Li Lan looked at the half-person-wide gap and sighed, then bent down and tried hard to squeeze herself inside.

“You feeling better?”

Once inside, Li Lan took off her shoes, crawled over beside Zhu Qing, and touched her forehead.

Even though she’d made it sound easy when she was talking to Hu Xu, Li Lan was still very worried about Zhu Qing’s condition and afraid she’d really be frightened into overdoing it.

Zhu Qing rolled over and hugged Li Lan’s waist.

“Not better at all,” Zhu Qing said. “My brain isn’t under my control. I keep thinking about that spider. I’m pretty sure if you gave me a pen right now, I could draw every single hair on its legs.”

Li Lan laughed exaggeratedly. “Wow, then you’re amazing. If the spider knew you were drawing the hair on its legs, it’d probably be scared enough to run off overnight.”

“What, spiders are afraid of ugly photos too? I haven’t even said it was ugly.” Zhu Qing huffed. “I’m not a coward. I just really hate spiders.”

“Got it,” Li Lan said, massaging her temples in little circles and combing through her hair with her fingers. Her tone was gentle, carrying a kind of indulgence she herself could barely detect. “You’re not a coward. You’re amazing; you weren’t even afraid of that half-meter plains monitor lizard, and you protected me. You just hate spiders.”

Zhu Qing kept nodding along as she listened. “No one understands me better than Li Lan.”

“Feeling any better now?”

Zhu Qing shook her head. “Just a little.”

Li Lan was helpless. After thinking for a moment, she decided to sacrifice herself. “Don’t keep thinking about spiders. You can think about… hmm, think about how I looked when I was scared by the lizard. Whenever you think of spiders, just tell yourself, ‘Li Lan was terrified and clinging to me then.’ Would that help?”

Zhu Qing almost forgot Li Lan’s reaction.

Li Lan had been relatively steady; even startled, it had only lasted a few seconds. Any fear that flashed across her face was restrained, an inward kind of panic, a contained fear. Not like herself, who had been like a cat with its belly stepped on, the whole body exploding at once.

But… Li Lan had also fallen onto her, hadn’t she?

She had also been so frightened that she nearly fell, and she’d grabbed Zhu Qing’s clothes and frozen for a long time.

Zhu Qing remembered how she’d protected Li Lan and instantly felt heroic and mighty.

Then she thought of the way Li Lan had protected her in her arms… Mm. Li Lan’s embrace was incredibly reassuring.

Li Lan’s body temperature, Li Lan’s palm, Li Lan’s voice, Li Lan’s arms.

That had been an instinctive reaction; before her brain had even figured out what it was, she had already stood up to shield her. If that hadn’t been spiderweb but some acidic corrosive liquid, or some other poisonous insect, then Li Lan would have used her own body to block it for her.

And then she’d covered Zhu Qing’s eyes with her hand.

A warm current surged up in Zhu Qing’s chest, gushing outward, and in an instant it boiled over.

“Better?” Li Lan had been quietly watching Zhu Qing’s expression. Seeing her face go from pale to red, she assumed the fear had passed and was just about to speak when Zhu Qing suddenly reached out, wrapped her arms around Li Lan’s neck, and yanked her down hard.

Li Lan instinctively raised her hand to brace herself, but Zhu Qing’s strength was too great, and the move came too unexpectedly. For a moment she couldn’t stop herself, and she lurched down, crashing onto the cushion with Zhu Qing.

The force didn’t let up. Their faces pressed together, their noses touching and parting, with less than half a palm’s distance between them.

“Xiao Qing…”

Zhu Qing’s gaze traced Li Lan’s face; her fingers rested against Li Lan’s cheek, tapping lightly again and again.

“This face… no matter when I look at it, I still think it’s too beautiful,” Zhu Qing said hoarsely. “I’m a little excited, Li Lan.”

Li Lan’s throat bobbed; her voice turned hoarse too. After a long while, she said, “…Why.”

Zhu Qing clicked her tongue. “Where’d your IQ go?”

Li Lan also felt like her brain had gone offline. She could tell at a glance what state Zhu Qing was in right now.

Her breathing was hot, and she couldn’t quite speak. “I… I’ll get up first.”

“Wait, don’t move,” Zhu Qing said, wrapping her arms around Li Lan’s neck. With her hands crossed, she once again yanked her down in a domineering posture. “If you move, I might not be able to guarantee I won’t do something.”

Li Lan opened her mouth. Her throat was dry; she shifted her knees against the cushion, trying to prop herself up, but she was afraid Zhu Qing would yank her down again.

She had no leverage in this position. If she toppled again, who knew where she’d land…

Zhu Qing said, “Teacher Li is really good to me. You bought me a house, bought me a car, gave me all the marital property, picked me up and took me home when I was drunk, and on the show you took care of me in every way.”

“Xiao Qing,” Li Lan said, forcing her breathing steady and holding back as she spoke, “those are all things a partner should do.”

Zhu Qing brushed the tip of her nose against Li Lan’s. “Should do? I don’t think so. Even if the things before this could be done on purpose, your first reaction when danger came can’t lie, right? Teacher Li didn’t even know what that thing was and still dared to save me. What if it had been a snake? What if it had been a venomous spider? You were just so… fond of me?”

Li Lan’s pupils trembled violently.

She very much wanted to say she had seen it; it was a spider.

But she really hadn’t known whether it had been venomous.

And she really did… like her.

The very, very fond kind.

Zhu Qing spoke again, repeating it as if to make the point: “You like me that much.”

Li Lan: “I…”

Zhu Qing was extremely emotional right now, and extremely alluring too, carrying a dazed, tipsy quality that had gone straight to her head.

She was even drunker than when she’d actually been drinking.

Li Lan felt this state could not be allowed to continue. “No matter what, you still need to break up with me. You’re not in the right state to talk about this now. Wait until your memory comes back…”

Zhu Qing curved her lips. “I’m not breaking up. Over my dead body.”

Before Li Lan could say anything, Zhu Qing lifted a hand to cover the back of her head, tipped her own face up, and kissed her, blocking every refusal in her mouth.

The kiss came too suddenly, yet the buildup had been enough that Li Lan could neither escape nor concentrate on enjoying it.

Zhu Qing’s tongue quickly pressed past her lips, sliding along the seam as if tasting her, lightly brushing over her mouth.

Li Lan’s heart tingled at that kittenlike tasting kiss, and before she knew it she had slightly parted her lips.

Zhu Qing took the opportunity to push in, tangling with her. At last Li Lan couldn’t hold back any longer; she closed her eyes and turned the tables, her tongue driving straight in and seizing all of Zhu Qing’s breath.

Her kiss was hot and fierce, full of aggression, not even leaving Zhu Qing much room to breathe, as if she wanted to swallow every bit of her breath, lips, and tongue and savor them to the end.

The air heated up at once.

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I’ve discovered I’m a pure, upright school of writing. Reflecting.