Liang Chengmin nodded, then shook her head. Her head was spinning. The chocolate liqueur was long gone, leaving only a faint, cloying trace of alcohol in her mouth.
Luan Mingrui's nose brushed against hers. He wasn't one for sweet talk. He simply said what he meant, straight out: "I'm asking you, Liang Chengmin. Yes or no?"
"If you say yes, I'll have my parents at your door tomorrow. I'm not a teacher, not a doctor, not a factory worker, but I promise you, once you're mine, you'll never go hungry. I'll make sure you get shrimp and crab every day, whatever you like." Luan Mingrui pressed his case, coaxing her.
Liang Chengmin finally came to her senses and reached out to shove him away. He didn't budge. The two of them stayed locked like that in the dark, her back against the wall, him pressed against her, nose to nose, breath mixing with breath.
"Who says I need you to feed me! I..." She started to speak, but Luan Mingrui barely registered the words. This was his first time kissing anyone, and he found the feeling was wonderful. As she talked, her sweet scent made him lose his head, and he simply moved in to stop her mouth with his own. He found his footing and kissed her hard. Liang Chengmin's mind went blank with another rush of noise.
"You're what?" Luan Mingrui asked against her lips.
"I'm a doctor. I can support mys..." He bit her lip, refusing to let her finish a single sentence. Back and forth, three or four times, until they were both a little breathless, and Liang Chengmin finally got her words out. What she meant was that she didn't need him to support her. She was a doctor, after all. Even if she couldn't eat shrimp and crab every day, she could treat herself once she got paid.
"So I understand you clearly now. You're saying no, is that it?" Luan Mingrui glared at her. "If it's no, then what are you doing? Kissing and holding a man in an alley in the middle of the night? Is that what a decent woman does?" He turned the accusation around, deliberately trying to provoke her.
"Am I the one being indecent?" Liang Chengmin was ready to explode. She reached out and pinched his waist, hard, holding nothing back. Luan Mingrui grunted in pain and caught her wrist, but he still wouldn't let up: "Where are your hands wandering, Liang Chengmin? Why stop there?"
Liang Chengmin truly hadn't expected Luan Mingrui to be like this. The young nurses at the hospital always said he was an aloof young master from a good family, never smiling at anyone, that his family had money and their children were all well brought up. Was this the same man they were talking about? How could he be so shameless?
Seeing that she was truly upset, Luan Mingrui knew when to back off. He finally let go of her and stepped back. "Fine, don't marry me. Then how about we just date, no strings attached?"
"No."
"If it's no, why are you blushing?"
"My face is my own business. What's it to you?"
Liang Chengmin shoved him and turned to run. She ran all the way home, into her small room, and cracked the window open just enough to see Luan Mingrui still standing there, looking like a complete fool.
Liang Chengmin had never known that missing someone could feel like this.
Every time she closed her eyes or opened them, all she saw was Luan Mingrui's face, and she could still hear the soft sound of his breathing as he'd held her. The next morning her eyes were red when she woke, like a little rabbit's. After breakfast she went out and found Luan Mingrui standing at her front door.
Her face went red again. "What are you doing here?"
"Walking you to work."
"I don't need you to walk me to work."
"I'm doing it anyway."
Luan Mingrui swung himself onto his bicycle and jerked his chin at the back seat. "Get on."
"I have my own bicycle."
"Your legs are too short. You look ridiculous riding it."
"..."
Liang Chengmin's mother came out at the sound of voices and found the two of them at a standstill. She knew Luan Mingrui, this young man had quite a reputation in their small town.
"What are you two doing?"
"Good morning, Auntie. I came to walk her to work." Luan Mingrui said it without a trace of embarrassment.
"Aren't you supposed to be getting married?" her mother asked.
"That was a rumor. If I marry anyone, it'll be Liang Chengmin. My parents will be coming in a couple of days. Please don't worry, Auntie."
"Who says I'm marrying you!" Liang Chengmin, flustered, slapped him on the arm. To her mother's eyes, it looked like the two of them were just teasing each other affectionately. She said, "You'll be late, hurry up." Liang Chengmin's mother had a good impression of Luan Mingrui, thinking this young man looked so proper, and a fine match for her daughter.
Liang Chengmin climbed onto her own bicycle and rode off, weaving left and right. Luan Mingrui followed behind her, watching the wind billow her clothes, the bicycle bumping unevenly over the flagstone road.
Watching her like this, Luan Mingrui thought this girl really was something.
Aside from her sharp temper, she was good in every way.
He followed her all the way to the hospital. She got off her bicycle, while he stayed seated on his, one foot braced on the ground, one hand on the handlebar, and reached out with the other to catch her wrist. "Liang Chengmin, what I said last night, I meant it."
"What did you say? Last night you were just being indecent!" Liang Chengmin scolded him under her breath. "Try that again and I'll report you!"
"Fine. I'll come by tonight and take you to dinner."
"I'm not going!"
Liang Chengmin said she wasn't going, but she spent the whole day thinking about it anyway. She told herself Luan Mingrui was thoroughly annoying. She had always devoted herself entirely to medicine, and this was the first time a man had ever distracted her.
When it was time to leave work, she wheeled her bicycle out of the hospital, and sure enough, Luan Mingrui was waiting there. He took the handlebars from her hands, and the bicycle slid a little on the ground before settling under him. He tipped his chin at the back seat. "Get on."
"I won't."
"Then are you planning to walk to dinner?"
"That's my bicycle!"
"Do you know how ridiculous you look riding this thing?" Luan Mingrui mimicked her weaving left and right on the seat, and people passing by laughed.
"Luan Mingrui!" Liang Chengmin was flustered. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Yes, I'm out of my mind. Once we're married, you can take your time curing me."
Luan Mingrui had always been the type who moved with precision and never missed his mark. Once he set his sights on something, he made it happen. Once he set his sights on a girl, he was bringing her home as his wife. Even if it meant acting completely out of character, like a shameless scoundrel, he didn't care. He wanted this. Get the word out first, stake his claim, that was the whole underhanded plan.
His words were startling enough that the people passing by on their way home from work all stopped to stare at the two of them. Dr. Liang was getting married? No one had heard she even had a boyfriend, so how was she suddenly getting married?
Liang Chengmin, furious, snapped at him: "Stop talking nonsense! In broad daylight, in front of everyone, you..."
"I what? Are you coming or not? If you don't, should I tell everyone about the chocolate liqueur?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Liang Chengmin jumped onto the back seat and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. "Go, quickly!"
She was terrified of what that mouth of his might say next.
She didn't know how she'd ended up tangled up with such a menace, and the most frightening part was that she'd actually started thinking about this shameless scoundrel.
Luan Mingrui suddenly squeezed the brakes. Liang Chengmin lost her balance and her face hit his back, and without thinking she wrapped her arms around his waist. Then she heard him say, "Hold on tight!"
He wove them through the streets of the small town, and Luan Mingrui smelled clean and pleasant, making Liang Chengmin's head feel light and drifting.
At the front of the state-run restaurant, Luan Mingrui crouched down to lock up the bicycle, and Liang Chengmin, looking at his clean fingers and his neatly combed hair, suddenly thought that marrying him couldn't be so bad. At the very least, she'd spent the entire previous night thinking about him.
When Luan Mingrui stood back up, Liang Chengmin told him, "Luan Mingrui, I can't let you pay for this meal for free."
"You can treat me if you want. Did you get paid?" It didn't matter who paid, as long as they sat down to eat.
"What I mean is, I agree to date you, and I'm not afraid to marry you either." Her whole face was red, shy and resolute all at once, like a seventeen-year-old girl.
Luan Mingrui looked at her and suddenly smiled. At work she was so composed, serious one moment and troubled the next, her mind full of nothing but her patients. But off the clock, she turned into a girl who hadn't quite grown up, so simple and unguarded.
He reached out and pinched her cheek. People passing by looked at them, but neither of them cared. What was there to be afraid of?
Luan Mingrui moved fast. That same day he went home and announced he was getting married. He was stubborn, but he never acted rashly. If he said he was getting married, he meant it, and so when he had his parents prepare gifts to take to the Liang family, they agreed without a single objection.
They knew of this Dr. Liang, the finest girl in the small town, good character, good job, and reliable parents. They never imagined that after that failed matchmaking meeting where both sides had turned each other down, Luan Mingrui would quietly and swiftly go and win the girl over himself.
Luan Mingcheng clicked his tongue off to the side. "So that's why you wouldn't let me mention her temper!"
"She used to think you were a four-eyed nerd. Not anymore?"
"With the two of your tempers, you're going to be fighting every single day once you're married!"
"None of your business." Luan Mingrui shot him a glare.
The day Luan Mingrui and Liang Chengmin married, the whole small town was full of noise and excitement. No one thought this was a marriage of two people simply reaching the right age and settling for each other. Why? Because when the two of them stood together, they seemed to light up the entire town. What a perfect match!
Of course the two of them had to marry.
Who else could either of them possibly end up with?
Luan Mingrui secretly hooked his finger around hers, tracing a line across her palm. Liang Chengmin blushed in front of everyone but didn't dare move an inch. She let Luan Mingrui hold her hand, a secret sweetness between them.
Liang Chengmin had quietly asked herself whether she loved Luan Mingrui. If she didn't, why would she be marrying him? The night before the wedding she went over everything between them from the beginning, and she decided she'd walked straight into a net Luan Mingrui had deliberately set for her. He was a bad man. But she found she didn't mind. This was the first time in her life she'd ever thought so much about a man, and the feeling was a good one.
Weddings in the small town were lively affairs, with the feast tables stretching down the whole street. The two newlyweds each wore a red flower pinned to their chest, and Liang Chengmin's hair was done up in a small braid. When she smiled, it was as if the sky itself had cleared, and she looked lovely.
Luan Mingrui couldn't get enough of looking at her.
In front of relatives, neighbors, and friends, he didn't even bother hiding it, didn't care whether it might hurt some other girl's feelings. He simply liked looking at her, and that was that.
During the toasts, Luan Mingrui deliberately drank as little as he could, and eventually just pulled Luan Mingcheng in to drink in his place. Luan Mingcheng didn't understand: "You're getting married and you won't even let me drink for you?"
"What do you know!"
Luan Mingrui had plans for the night ahead. Getting drunk would ruin everything.
When the hospital colleagues came to drink with Liang Chengmin, Luan Mingrui pushed Luan Mingcheng forward again: "Our family's sending someone to drink with all of you. Liang Chengmin can't hold her liquor, and if she drinks too much it'll affect her work tomorrow."
"She doesn't have work tomorrow," one of the colleagues teased.
Everyone burst out laughing, all of them understanding exactly what the young couple was trying to avoid. Most of them had been through this themselves, so they didn't press the matter further. The wine was swapped for plain water, and the glasses still clinked the same way when they toasted. As long as everyone was happy, nothing else mattered.
That night, when it came time for the traditional wedding-chamber teasing, the guests kept it brief and soon left them alone.
Suddenly the room held only the two of them.
Liang Chengmin sat at the head of the bed, Luan Mingrui at the foot, both of them breathing carefully, as if afraid to make a sound.
Outside, the window rattled, and someone whispered, "Why is it so quiet in there?"
Luan Mingrui, annoyed at being spied on, pushed the window open and saw a few young boys scatter and run.
He shut the window again and sat back down at the head of the bed.
After a moment he asked Liang Chengmin, "You know the human body really well, don't you?"
"I do."
"Then why don't you do some research on me."