Chapter 34: I Don’t Need Love (1/2)

Cheng Xi started coughing violently and hung up reflexively.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Fan asked, worried.

Cheng Xi shook her hands, covered her mouth, and coughed for quite a while. It wasn’t until she nearly reached the point of crying that the alarm and shock from Lu Chenzhou’s words finally settled down.

Despite her being a psychiatrist, she wasn’t too familiar with Lu Chenzhou’s way of thinking, and was still occasionally caught off-guard by his actions and words.

“Nothing’s wrong, is there?” Lin Fan asked again.

“No, everything’s fine,” Cheng Xi replied. “Lu Chenzhou said that he needed to see me for something.”

“Then…… should I leave?

“Probably.” Cheng Xi couldn’t keep him here, because she really wasn’t sure what would happen after Lu Chenzhou arrived. From her limited knowledge of him, if he really wanted to kiss her, then he would completely disregard whether or not other people were present.

Pretending not to notice the disappointment in Lin Fan’s eyes, Cheng Xi stood up and walked him outside the restaurant.

“I’ll wait here for him here. You can leave first.”

Lin Fan nodded and got into his own car, sitting there for quite a while before finally starting the engine and leaving.

It was already winter; at night, it was as cold as ice. The car window wasn’t closed, and blustering gusts of wind blew in from the night air, cold and chilling.

Lin Fan didn’t feel much of anything even while half-frozen. He looked at the rearview mirror and saw Cheng Xi hugging her shoulders, standing there without moving.

The wind lightly lifted one corner of her scarf into the air, as if it were a butterfly tied to her back.

That delicate butterfly scintillated with a colorful light. When he was overseas, that hue had been the shore where his dreams would have taken off; however, when he returned, he belatedly found that it had long since merged with the city, becoming a rainbow arc that he might never be able to touch.

Lu Chenzhou arrived quite a while after Lin Fan left. He had driven the car himself, refused Cheng Xi’s offer to find a place to talk, and directly asked her to get into the car.

After she got into the car, he turned around to look at her. His gaze was fixed upon her lips, as if he were considering how best to kiss her.

Cheng Xi found the scene strangely funny. Before he could do anything, she said, “Can I ask, why do you want to kiss me?”

She didn’t feel all too awkward or taken advantage of. After all, he was a patient, and you couldn’t use standard logic to evaluate their actions.

Having drawn a line in the sand, Cheng Xi was very calm even in this situation.

Lu Chenzhou behaved very coolly, as always. “I’ll kiss you if I want to; wasn’t that what you said?” Impatiently, he then commanded her, “Come over here.”

But of course, Cheng Xi wasn’t just going to go over. She treated him as if he were a familiar friend that she had conversations with, and, as if giving advice, said, “Mr. Lu, I truly think that you should go read some romance novels. A kiss doesn’t take place just because you want it to. If a man and woman truly love each other, then they don’t have to kiss to demonstrate it; if they don’t love each other, then even kissing won’t make a difference.” She had always thought that love was a basic act that everyone instinctively understood, but after seeing Lu Chenzhou, she finally understood that some people naturally lacked love. And as a result, naturally could not love.

So, with regards to kissing, the psychiatrist part of her felt that it was her responsibility to correct him. “Any intimate action that doesn’t have love as its foundation is immoral. So, please don’t do this in the future anymore, okay?”

“Love?” His forehead slowly scrunched up, even as his expression remained calm. “Why do we have to make it so complicated? Don’t we already have a contract?”

Cheng Xi had no words to respond to him, and could only trying to persuade him further. “Your thoughts are wrong. Love is one of the most beautiful emotions that mankind has; you should try it out.”

“I don’t need love.” Lu Chenzhou snorted at her words disdainfully, and then looked straight at her. “Don’t expect to receive any love from me. The only reason I want to kiss you is because I want to.”

In this world, there really wasn’t much that Lu Chenzhou desired, and it wasn’t clear whether the fact that Cheng Xi had sparked this desire in him was a blessing or a curse.

But right now, Cheng Xi hadn’t realized that she had ‘gotten lucky’, and she was trying her hardest to find the right words to convince him otherwise. But disregarding her feelings, Lu Chenzhou was growing impatient, and while she was still unprepared, he suddenly leaned over, turned her face towards his, and lightly kissed her.

More accurately, he lightly stuck his lips, onto hers.

After a brief moment of panic, Cheng Xi quickly relaxed. Without making a fuss or unnecessary motions, she just stood there, silently waiting.

Before too long, Lu Chenzhou let go of her.

He sat down two palms-lengths from her, and looked at her, his eyes clear and bright.

Cheng Xi didn’t move at all. She even smiled as she asked, “How does it feel?”

“Like nothing.”