Chapter 32: In the Darkness
Chapter 32: Chapter 32: In the Darkness
In the darkness, Zhang Yan felt the slender fingers on the tip of his tongue rapidly pull away.
By the flickering, dim light of the theater, he turned to look at her. The junior’s small face was taut, her gaze fixed straight ahead as she focused entirely on the movie.
Since it was impolite to talk loudly in a movie theater, Zhang Yan leaned in, pressing his lips right up to the junior’s ear. "I still want more."
His hot breath brushed against the shell of her ear, making her shrink her neck back. Fortunately, Zhang Yan pulled away after delivering that single sentence, allowing her to relax once more.
The junior hesitated for a moment. She wondered, "What if he really just means he wants more popcorn?" Ultimately, she tentatively grabbed another handful of popcorn and offered it to him.
He sucked on her fingertips.
The junior hurriedly retracted her fingers again. She thought in a panic, "He really isn’t just after the popcorn!"
THUMP THUMP. Her heart pounded wildly.
The darkness provided a private atmosphere. Shrouded in shadows, people often felt their actions would go unnoticed, making them bolder.
As if driven by some unseen force, the junior grabbed another handful of popcorn and fed it to him. The same thing happened again, but this time, she didn’t withdraw her hand immediately.
When visual senses were diminished, a person’s attention naturally shifted more toward hearing, touch, and emotion. In the dark, the junior silently savored the sensation, which felt as if she had just touched a live wire. Pulse after pulse, a tingling, numbing feeling washed over her.
She felt her heartbeat accelerating, and the tingling sensation grew increasingly intense. Just as she felt her body undergoing some inexplicable change, she pulled her hand back in a panic once more.
Yet, mere moments later, she reached into the popcorn bucket again, wanting to continue experiencing that feeling. This time, however, she grasped nothing but air. The large bucket of popcorn had already been reduced to a few scattered crumbs.
"It’s all gone."
Feeling a sense of loss, the junior pulled her hand back. Subconsciously, she brought her fingertips to her mouth, licking them clean of the popcorn crumbs. As she licked them, she suddenly froze. It dawned on her that popcorn crumbs weren’t the only thing lingering on her fingers right now...
Right at that moment, Zhang Yan leaned close to her ear again. His scorching breath blew deep into her ear canal, sending a ticklish shiver straight to the bottom of her heart.
"Is it good?" he asked.
The junior instinctively shrank away toward the other side of her seat. "W-what are you talking about? I don’t understand."
"The popcorn, of course. What else did you think I was talking about?"
"I-I naturally knew you were asking about the popcorn! Um, the popcorn is delicious. It’s better than any I’ve bought before."
The junior had already retreated to the very edge of her seat. Fortunately, she was sitting in the aisle seat, so she wouldn’t disturb any other moviegoers. But at the same time, she was like a cat backed into a corner—isolated, with nowhere left to run.
Zhang Yan placed the empty popcorn bucket under his chair and pushed up the pesky armrest separating them. He nipped at her ear once more. "The popcorn is gone, but I’m still hungry. What should we do?"
"Then I’ll go out and buy another bucket..."
"There’s no need. I just noticed there’s still a little bit left right here."
"Where? MMPH..."
In the darkness, the junior’s entire body went rigid. She even forgot to breathe. Her eyes widened as she stared into the pair of eyes mere inches from hers, but she quickly squeezed them shut in embarrassment.
She instinctively tried to scramble further back. But having already retreated to the edge of her seat, where else could she go? What was more, she felt a large, scalding hand wrap around her waist and pull her in. Weak in the knees, how could the junior resist? Or rather, she didn’t put up any resistance at all, allowing herself to be pulled directly into his embrace.
At the last second, she instinctively brought her hands to her chest in a faint pushing motion, but it was purely symbolic. Her hands exerted no force whatsoever.
The junior’s mind was completely blank. She hadn’t expected things to escalate so quickly between them. Though she had wanted to speed up their relationship—because her own situation was growing increasingly urgent—she was still far from being emotionally ready.
This was her first true relationship. While there were other underlying motives involved, her feelings were genuine. Her youthful innocence and bewilderment were completely real.
On the flip side, Zhang Yan hadn’t anticipated things progressing this fast and smoothly either. But everything had just happened naturally. The atmosphere was right, so he went with the flow and made his choice. Judging by the junior’s reaction, it seemed he hadn’t chosen wrong.
He chewed and swallowed the few remaining popcorn crumbs in his mouth, plotting to claim something else. There had indeed been a few popcorn crumbs lingering at the corner of the junior’s lips, but they were few in number and he had already "eaten" them all. However, there might be more hidden elsewhere, though that place was currently locked tight behind top and bottom "doors."
Noticing that the junior had stopped breathing for a long time, Zhang Yan found it amusing but also feared she might actually pass out. Thus, he pulled back slightly for the time being.
"HAA... HAA... HAA..."
The junior’s chest heaved violently. Her small mouth parted as she gasped for air in large gulps, blowing her sweet, orchid-like breath onto Zhang Yan’s face. Even now, her eyes remained squeezed shut.
Seeing that the "doors" had opened, Zhang Yan, who had been lying in wait for quite some time, seized the opportunity and swiftly slipped inside.
"MMPH..."
If Chi Xinyue’s mind had been a blank slate just moments ago, it now completely exploded. The instant their lips met, she lost all capacity for rational thought.
When she finally came back to her senses, the junior realized she was leaning against a warm embrace, breathing heavily. The masculine scent filling her nose went straight to her head, leaving her body utterly drained of strength. It seemed she had suffered from a bit of oxygen deprivation just now. Her head was still spinning, and her thoughts processed at a sluggish pace.
"The movie is far from over."
Those words, spoken in that familiar voice, helped the junior regain a bit of her lucidity. She finally noticed what was happening. "You can’t go any higher," she murmured.
Her voice was barely a whisper. Even though she was pressed right against Zhang Yan’s chest, he couldn’t hear her clearly. No, he couldn’t hear her at all.
"Feels like pure cotton," Zhang Yan deduced, assessing the texture against his fingertips.
One of the junior’s hands rested weakly over his wandering one. It looked as if she were trying to stop him, but she wasn’t putting any real effort into it. It seemed she merely wanted to maintain the appearance of resistance.
Wasn’t that just another form of invitation? So, Zhang Yan accepted the invitation and ventured further up.
"Not there!"
The junior suddenly summoned a burst of strength, barely managing to prop herself up. Zhang Yan didn’t press the attack.
"It’s... it’s too fast. I need a moment to adjust."
Looking at the junior, who had turned her head away and didn’t dare meet his gaze, Zhang Yan chuckled. "Alright. Is five minutes long enough?"