The Silent World And Him - Chapter 30

Pu Chen held Qin Yu tightly and didn’t want to let go. During these few months apart, the longing had piled up like a mountain.

She ignored the curious glances from passersby and hugged him a few seconds longer.

It was only a matter of a few seconds.

There were a thousand words she wanted to say to him, but her phone was not with her.

It was only after Qin Yu let go of her that Pu Chen got his phone and had the chance to ask Qin Yu when he came back and how long he had been waiting for her downstairs at the dormitory.

Qin didn’t tell the truth: “I waited for about ten minutes, and when I sent you a message at noon, I had just landed.”

Pu Chen calculated the time; coming out of the airport at noon, going back to his apartment, and then coming to her school would be about right. She didn’t think much beyond that.

Qin told her to go back to the dorm to pack a bit and stay at the apartment that night.

There was no one in the dorm, so Pu Chen quickly packed a few clothes and tactfully wrote in the dorm group chat: My boyfriend is coming to see me, and we’re planning to go out for dinner. If it gets too late, I might not come back.

Zhuo Xuan: [Have fun.]

The other two roommates started teasing.

【Even if it’s very early, you don’t have to come back~~】

【Bring him along tomorrow to meet our family.】

Pu Chen replied with a funny emoji, grabbed his backpack, and hurried to find Qin Yu, worried that he had been waiting too long.

Sitting in the car, Qin leaned over to fasten her seatbelt, the two of them close together, their breaths mingling. With a soft “click,” the seatbelt was secured, but he didn’t sit back down.

Pu Chen nudged him, urging him to drive.

Qin didn’t move; he lowered his head and gently sucked on her soft lips.

One kiss wasn’t enough, so he kissed her again.

That night during the summer vacation when they had just confirmed their relationship, they did nothing else; he held her and kissed her on and off all night. The kisses that day, whether deep or shallow, were awkward and uncertain. The next day, Pu Chen’s lips and tongue were numb and sore.

Qin started the car, and the vehicle drove away from the school.

He glanced at Pu Chen out of the corner of his eye and asked her, “Baby, what do you want to eat?”

Pu Chen wasn’t hungry but wanted to keep him company while he ate. She opened her phone and typed a message, showing it to him when the light turned red: “Let me treat you tonight, okay? Something expensive.”

She looked at him with expectant eyes.

Qin agreed to fulfill her little wish, “Alright, then shall we go eat hotpot?”

Eating hotpot wouldn’t cost much, and since he wasn’t lacking Western food abroad, he probably just wanted hotpot. Pu Chen left it to him: “You choose the place.”

Qin thought for a moment and said, “Then let’s find a hotpot restaurant near our apartment, and after eating, we’ll walk home.”

Pu Chen realized he was talking about our apartment.

The green light turned on, and the car returned to silence.

Every time at this moment, Pu Chen always felt uncomfortable and regretful. If she could talk, she could chat with him while he was driving about the scenery she saw during her hike today and the fun things she encountered along the way.

But now she could only pretend to help him watch the road ahead.

Qin, holding the steering wheel with one hand, handed the phone on the center console to Pu Chen: “I saved a radio drama. According to the synopsis, the male lead is even richer than me. Open it and I’ll listen too.”

Pu Chen: “……”

His focus was always quite peculiar.

Pu Chen wanted to ask him if he usually had time to listen to radio dramas, but he was driving now and couldn’t look at the text she had edited.

She took Qin Yu’s phone and entered the password. His password was the first day he transferred to study in Su City, the most special day for both her and him.

He had been using this password since the first year of high school and had never changed it.

Pu Chen opened his radio drama collection folder, and the radio dramas he collected were actually adaptations of a romance novel she liked.

During military training, when there was nothing to do in the dormitory at night, she couldn’t really join the night talks, so she passed the time by reading novels. She had mentioned to Qin Yu back then that the plot of this one was pretty good.

The novel was recommended to her by Zhao Shu, and it has a happy ending.

Unexpectedly, Qin Yu remembered the name of the novel from something she said casually, and he even specifically searched for the radio drama to listen to with her, to divert her overly sensitive attention at that moment.

After listening to three and a half episodes of the radio drama, the car drove to the busiest part of the city center, where Qin Yu’s apartment was located in this extremely valuable area. He had originally chosen the sixteenth floor.

He said the sixteenth floor was pretty good.

Actually, the city center’s scenic apartments naturally have better views from higher floors.

Pu Chen had been to the apartment once before and remembered what the surrounding buildings looked like. She turned off the radio drama, and with her phone’s battery running low, she took a power bank from her bag to charge it.

Qin and Yu had just parked the car and gotten out when Peng Jingyang called.

He locked the car, held Pu Chen’s hand firmly, and then answered the call.

“I’ve been overwhelmed these past few days, pulling two all-nighters working on the project. I just saw the message you sent.” Peng Jingyang’s voice was filled with fatigue, and he yawned while speaking.

“My mind is sluggish and not working right now. Let me sleep first, and then I’ll talk to you.” Peng Jingyang struggled to keep his eyes open while talking to Qin Yu on the phone, afraid that if he closed them for a moment, he would fall asleep.

Qin Yu lowered his eyes to look at Pu Chen beside him and replied to Peng Jingyang in English, “No rush, maybe in a couple of days.”

Peng Jingyang couldn’t help but yawn a third time. He thought Qin Yu was used to speaking English and hadn’t switched back yet.

He muttered, “Why have you been paying so much attention to Owen lately?”

Owen is a legendary figure in the field of AI language.

Qin said, “I want to find a team to collaborate on developing a Chinese speech synthesis app.”

Peng Jingyang was originally exhausted to death, but his words suddenly woke him up.

“Speech synthesis?” He sat up from the bed, “Speech recognition is still somewhat lacking at the moment.” Especially in terms of prosody processing, it is unsatisfactory; the voice sounds mechanical, without any genuine emotion, let alone speech synthesis.

The only reason he could think of for Qin Yu wanting to develop this app was: “For Pu Chen?”

Qin Yu: “Mm.”

If the typed text could be converted into real human speech, Pu Chen could chat with him normally while he was driving, and she could also participate in her roommate’s late-night talks, so she wouldn’t feel like an outsider.

Peng Jingyang asked, “Since you have already decided, the next step is to find angel investors.”

No need,” Qin Yu said, “I have money, I’ll invest myself.

Peng Jingyang: “……”

Alright then.

Qin Yu explained his plan: “I’ll provide the funding, you find a team to handle the technology, and we can discuss the profit sharing in detail later.”

Peng Jingyang was puzzled: “Aren’t you going to be involved yourself?” Both he and Qin Yu had chosen computer science as their major, and there was no reason for Qin Yu not to join in something he was interested in.

Qin Yu said, “I don’t have time; I have a lot on my plate right now. We’ll talk when we meet later. It’s not convenient now; I’m with Pu Chen.”

“You’re in Beijing? Why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ll come find you for a meal.” After saying this, Peng Jingyang felt he was being presumptuous. Qin Yu had come back to be with Pu Chen and wouldn’t have time to eat with him.

Then call me when you have time. Oh, by the way, a senior from our lab plans to register a tech company. If you’re interested, want to join?

Qin Yu: “Sure, I’ll invest some money.”

The two agreed to meet during the winter break. After a few words, Qin Yu ended the call hastily.

He spoke entirely in English, and Pu Chen didn’t understand some of the technical terms. She held his hand while looking at the night view and then stopped paying attention to what he was specifically saying.

The sound by his ear disappeared, Pu Chen looked back at him: “Finished the call?”

Mm.” Qin Yu put the phone into Pu Chen’s bag and said, “There’s a hotpot restaurant at the turn ahead. I’ve eaten there a few times; the taste is pretty good.

As long as he liked it, Pu Chen thought.

There were quite a few people having late-night snacks, and it took nearly twenty minutes to get a free table.

Pu Chen was about to sit down, but Qin Yu pulled him up. He gestured to her, “You sit inside.” He sat beside her.

Pu Chen took the menu to order dishes, all of which were Qin Yu’s favorite foods. After placing the order, while waiting for the hotpot base to arrive, she opened a bag of sunflower seeds to pass the time.

Qin Yu also took a handful of sunflower seeds over to shell. He didn’t eat them himself but fed all the kernels to her.

Pu Chen pushed his arm.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Yu looked at her and stuffed a peeled melon seed into her mouth.

Pu Chen pointed to the seat opposite. She wanted to sit there so she could keep looking at him while eating; sitting side by side made it hard to see him.

Maybe because they had been together for a long time, Qin Yu could always guess what she was thinking. He said, “Just sit next to me. If you want to look at me, I’ll let you look all night when we get home.”

Pu Chen: “……”

Even if she could talk, she wouldn’t be able to outtalk him.

The waiter brought over two aprons, and before Pu Chen could reach out to take one, Qin Yu took one and tied it on her first.

While tying the apron, Qin Yu stared at her face and said, “Why do you look a bit thinner? Are you not used to the food in the cafeteria?”

Pu Chen shook her head. Her phone was in a sealed bag, and she didn’t take it out. She mouthed to him, “Losing weight.”

Qin Yu didn’t understand the first time, “Say it again, slower.”

Lose–weight.

She said it four times, and Qin Yu patiently watched four times as well.

By the last time, Qin Yu guessed what it meant, “You’re so thin, why would you need to lose weight?” He adjusted his sitting posture and faced her, “Did you have fun playing with your roommate today?”

“No nodding, and no using your phone.” After saying that, he grabbed her hands.

Pu Chen could only say again with his lips: “Happy.” I’m even happier after seeing you.

Qin Yu: “You haven’t called my name today, so I’m making up for it now.” Then he remembered, “We didn’t have a video call yesterday, and you didn’t call my name either, so let’s make up for that together.”

Pu Chen looked into his eyes and said “Qin Yu” twice.

Qin and Min approached, and he kissed her lips twice.

While they chatted quietly, the bottom of the pot started to burn.

Qin took a pair of Bluetooth earphones out of his pocket and paired them with his phone. He put one earphone in her ear and wore the other himself.

Pu Chen turned to look at him, not knowing what he was going to let her listen to.

Before she could ask, the familiar radio drama came through the earphones—it was the episode they hadn’t finished listening to in the car.

During that time, Qin Yu swapped her earphones with his, worried that her ears couldn’t handle it, so she listened with the other ear.

She and Qin Yu ate from the same plate, listened to the same episode of the radio drama, quiet yet lively.

On the way home after eating hotpot, they started talking about the radio drama again.

Qin Yu asked her, “Do you like the voices of the male and female leads? If you do, we can listen to their radio dramas from now on.”

Pu Chen honestly said: “It sounds good, but the male lead’s voice acting isn’t as good as yours.”

Qin Yu: “Then I’ll talk to you more from now on.”

After listening to this episode, he turned off his phone, took off their headphones, rubbed her ears, and said, “Tomorrow morning we’ll sleep in naturally, watch a movie at home, and in the afternoon I’ll accompany you to visit Shuo and the law firm. Do you want to go?” He asked for her opinion.

If you don’t want to go, we can go shopping instead.

Pu Chen was very concerned: “Will your father be at the office tomorrow?”

Yes.” Qin Yu took her hand and walked forward, “It’s not like you haven’t seen him before.

She had met Qin Yu’s father once, after the college entrance exam when she came to Beijing for a visit. Qin Yu’s father arranged everything throughout and even treated them to a meal, showing her special care.

Pu Chen was afraid of meeting the parents, but the master’s degree and the law firm were quite tempting to her.

After a moment of hesitation, she still decided to go over.

Returning to the apartment, Pu Chen smelled a faint floral fragrance as soon as she opened the door. She took off her shoes, walked barefoot to the living room, picked up a glass vase and sniffed near the opening; the scent came from the roses.

“There are your new slippers. Do you want to wear them?” Qin Yu asked her from the entrance.

Pu Chen freed her hands and waved them at him.

Qin Yu poured her a glass of warm water and took it to the bedroom, then went to the bathroom to run a bath for her. He called out to her in the bedroom, “Chen Bao, come take a bath. You’ve been climbing all day, so go to bed early tonight.”

Pu Chen put down the vase and followed the sound to the master bedroom. She had stayed in the apartment once before, but it was in the secondary bedroom.

Tonight, you’ll stay with me.” Qin Yu assured her, “I won’t do anything bad.

Pu Chen’s ears flushed slightly. Between them, there was no such thing as bad or not bad. If anything happened, it would be called deep affection and a natural progression.

Qin Yu took his pajamas and went to the bathroom outside to take a shower. After sitting on a plane for more than ten hours, the jet lag was messing with him, and he was a bit tired now.

After showering, the phone on the coffee table rang; it was a call from his mother.

Qin Mingyi thought his son was abroad, so he calculated the time difference and called him, “Do you need anything? Mom can buy it for you in advance, so you can bring it back to school when you leave, saving you the trouble of buying it later.”

“No, I don’t need anything. I’m not bringing anything; carrying a suitcase is troublesome.” Qin Yu wiped his hair and went to the kitchen to pour himself a drink.

Qin Mingyi originally wanted to chat a bit more with his son, but a call came in. She said to Qin Yu, “I’ll hang up first, your aunt’s call is coming in, it might be something important.”

“You go ahead.” Qin Yu ended the call. The aunt, Qin Minghan, was the mother’s cousin. When he was young, he spent much more time with his aunt than with his mother.

After finishing a glass of water, Qin Yu was about to turn off the kitchen light and go back to the bedroom when footsteps came from the living room. Qin Yu looked over.

Pu Chen was wearing a white bathrobe, with the sleeves rolled up halfway, revealing fair arms. He was still barefoot, and his black, slightly curly long hair was draped over his shoulders, not yet dried.

She came out of the bedroom to the living room to get that bottle of fresh flowers.

“Baby.” Qin Yu turned off the kitchen light and walked over.

Pu Chen suddenly turned around; having just taken a shower, her cheeks were a translucent pinkish white, and her eyes were moist.

Qin Yu walked up to her and bent down to lift her up by the waist.

He had wanted to hold her like this for a long time but never had the chance.

In a panic, Pu Chen hooked one hand around his neck, while the other hand tightly protected the vase in her arms, afraid that the water inside would spill out.

Where should I put the vase?

Held tightly in his arms like this, her heart completely lost its rhythm. Pretending to be calm, she lifted her chin and nodded towards the bedroom.

Qin Yu looked at the person in his arms. She might not have found any skincare products, as there was nothing on her face. Her eyes were clear, like a spring of water held within, reflecting him inside.

He tilted his head, avoiding the fresh flowers in the vase, and kissed her on the eyelid.

Pu Chen’s breath caught, and he couldn’t help but clutch the collar of his pajamas tightly.

Their breaths were restrained yet inevitably intertwined, mixed with a few strands of floral fragrance.

Fresh flowers stood between them, both wild and obstructive.

Back in the bedroom, Qin Yu placed her on the sofa; his collar was crumpled from her grip.

Qin Yu put the vase on the bedside table on her side and went to the bathroom to get a hairdryer to dry her hair.

The gentle breeze carried a hint of coolness as it brushed past her ears. Whether it was because of the hairdryer or because the one drying her hair was him, her ears didn’t feel hot until her hair was completely dry.

Pu Chen drank a few sips of water and went to bed.

When she went to see Qin Yu again, he was already sitting cross-legged on the bed.

The room suddenly fell silent.

He stretched out his long arm and pulled her onto his lap to sit.

Pu Chen avoided his gaze, her fingertips unconsciously picking at his shoulder. She had thought about him day and night when she couldn’t see him, but now that he was right in front of her, she suddenly felt timid. Her heart pounded rapidly, and she didn’t dare to look at him directly.

Qin Yu wrapped his arms around her waist and said, “If you keep picking at it, you’ll ruin the clothes.”

Pu Chen: “……”

She straightened her fingers and changed to stroking.

Qin Yu looked at her and said, “Didn’t you want to sit opposite me at the hotpot restaurant? Now you don’t want to look at me?”

Pu Chen shook his head, not because he didn’t want to look at him.

The phone was on the bedside table, out of her reach, and she didn’t know how to explain it to him.

Qin Yu noticed her awkwardness, the awkwardness of sharing a room and bed with him. He turned off the wall lamp, and the room instantly became pitch black.

In the darkness, Pu Chen got up from his embrace and lay down close to the edge of the bed.

Qin Yu teased her, “If someone could live under the bed, are you planning to sleep under it?”

Pu Chen, afraid of being tickled, laughed and grabbed his hand.

Come here, lean on me and sleep.

Qin Yu held her in his arms.

This time, Pu Chen scratched his itch, and the two of them made a ruckus on the bed, holding and kissing each other, not knowing when the kiss had deepened.

She clearly felt the changes in his body.

Qin turned over, lying on his side in bed, holding Pu Chen in his arms, no longer making any intimate moves; they had almost crossed the line just now.

After they both calmed down, he kissed her forehead and said, “Sleep well, good night.”

Pu Chenzhen was in his arms; at this moment, she could only nod in acknowledgment. If she could speak, she would have coquettishly whispered a few bedtime secrets to him in his embrace.

However, reality did not allow it.

Seeing that she was not sleepy for the time being, Qin Yu asked, “Have you been following any novels lately?”

Pu Chen gently tapped his chest with her chin, indicating that she had.

Qin Yu turned on the light, “Find it on your phone and show it to me.” He turned around and took a new eye mask from the second drawer of the bedside cabinet.

Pu Chen always reads finished novels; there was one she had only reached halfway through, and she was curious: “You want to read it too?”

Qin Yu asked in return, “Which chapter have you reached?”