Moonlight Left Behind chapter 11

Perhaps because he was thinking of Boss Qin before sleep, Lin Qinzhou had a dream that night. In the dream, he and Qin Yue were hiding behind a lotus pond, surrounded by the sounds of cicadas and birds, with the distant cheers and splashes of tourists. Under the overlapping lotus leaves, they embraced and kissed.

Their lips touched, Qin Yue kissed him, and he kissed Qin Yue back. He even playfully bit Qin Yue, a bit too hard, causing Qin Yue’s lips to split. Like a puppy, he licked Qin Yue’s lips until they both couldn’t take it anymore, their foreheads touching as they giggled.

He called Qin Yue’s name like a fool, kissing him with every utterance.

“Qin Yue.” “Qin Yue.” “Qin Yue.” …

Qin Yue’s eyes curved with a helpless tone: “Why are you calling my name?”

Lin Qinzhou leaned in, nibbling at his neck to catch his scent: “I just want to call your name, Qin Yue, mine.”

The dream cut off there. When Lin Qinzhou woke up, he didn’t have time to think more. He rushed into the bathroom to shower. During that fifteen minutes, he pressed his forehead against the tiles, banging it lightly, feeling as if he was going crazy.

—Just a little kiss, and you’re this excited. Lin Qinzhou, can’t you be a bit more mature!

Because of this embarrassing incident that morning, Lin Qinzhou unusually sought out Boss Qin for a chat during breakfast. After going downstairs, he went to the kitchen to get food, then picked the table farthest from the front desk. He sat down and buried himself in his meal, not raising his head once.

“Lin, what’s wrong? Did you sleep in an awkward position last night?”

“What?” Lin Qinzhou mumbled, with a soup dumpling in his mouth, confused. When he inadvertently looked up, he caught sight of someone quietly reading while resting his chin on his hand. His face immediately turned beet red, and he quickly lowered his head as if trying to hide.

Tang Jingyu looked at him curiously: “Did you really sleep awkwardly? Can’t you lift your head?”

Lin Qinzhou: “…” Only then did he realize what the other person meant. He mumbled in response, “Mmm.”

Tang Jingyu shared a few remedies for a stiff neck and then suddenly said: “By the way, aren’t we about ready to prepare for the next stop?”

Before arriving on the island, they had roughly planned their schedule, intending to stay on Coral Island for about a week. Once the music festival was over, they would head to Licheng. It was an ancient and beautiful city, famous for its folk songs and stories, known as the “City of Romance” in Quanzhou.

It was a struggle to swallow the dumpling skin stuck in his throat, and Lin Qinzhou tightly gripped his chopsticks, saying softly: “Is it really already been a week?”

“Isn’t it? Time flies when you’re having fun.” Tang Jingyu didn’t pick up on his friend’s disappointed tone and excitedly asked, “So when should we book our tickets? How about tomorrow or the day after?”

Just half a minute ago, he was still blushing and excited from that silly dream, nearly rushing upstairs to take a second shower. But now, it felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown over him.

Yes, even if he was attracted to Qin Yue, Qin Yue wouldn’t leave Coral Island, and he couldn’t stay there.

This infatuation was just an unexpected incident during his travels, much like the fleeting romances many tourists encounter in Licheng—meeting when it’s dark and parting when the sun rises.

They were all luckier than Lin Qinzhou; at least they had experienced a fleeting moment of joy, while he had never had anything from start to finish.

“Then… let’s do it tomorrow.”

“Alright, tomorrow it is. I’ll book the tickets.”

That day, the two casually strolled around the island. As evening approached, it started to rain, and neither of them had brought rain gear, so they got drenched. By the time they returned to the guesthouse, they were soaked through, looking like two drowned cats.

Xiao Yao stood at the door, handing them towels and laughing, “How could you stay on the island for a week and not understand our weather? At this time of year, one minute it can be sunny, and the next minute you can get a downpour. You have to be prepared with rain gear every time you go out. Didn’t you see the friendly reminder on the little card in your room?”

The girl had already become quite familiar with them, speaking frankly and directly.

“Ugh, I really don’t like the weather here,” Tang Jingyu complained.

“Actually, it’s not too bad; we’re used to it.”

They hadn’t eaten dinner yet. After taking a shower upstairs, Lin Qinzhou came down to wait for the takeout, and he happened to run into Xiao Yao coming out of the kitchen. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. “Mr. Lin, I was just about to look for you!”

“Mm?”

“It’s nothing much, I just made some ginger sugar water and wanted to invite you to drink it,” Xiao Yao said.

Lin Qinzhou thanked her and said, “Actually, you don’t need to go to so much trouble.”

“How can that be? You got caught in the rain; you should drink some ginger sugar water to ward off the cold. Otherwise, you’ll easily catch a cold. Sit for a bit; I’ll bring it to you.”

The takeout they ordered was congee, and it was peak dining time. The delivery drivers on the map were circling around a few hundred meters away but hadn’t arrived yet. The lobby was crowded with tourists trapped by the rain.

The ginger sugar water Xiao Yao made was sweet but not overly so. Lin Qinzhou drank it in small sips, and when he returned the bowl, he noticed her sitting there reading a book. She was holding a bookmark, and in the book, before the page she was on, there was another bookmark, clearly left by someone else.

The thought of two people sharing a book, knowing which part each had read, gave Lin Qinzhou an inexplicable sense of discomfort.

He knew he shouldn’t feel this way, and it was quite baffling, but he couldn’t control his emotions. His mood felt damp, like the heavy rain outside.

“Where’s your boss?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“Ah, Mr. Lin, you walked so quietly that you startled me,” Xiao Yao exaggeratedly patted her chest and then said, “The boss went back to his room early today; his leg always hurts on rainy days.”

Lin Qinzhou couldn’t quite pinpoint how he felt, but he felt particularly uncomfortable. There were grievances, resentments, and a sense of unwillingness, but at this moment, it seemed all turned into heartache. He unconsciously rubbed the edge of the bowl. “About your boss’s leg—”

“Mm?” Xiao Yao waited for a long time but didn’t hear the rest, so she asked, “Are you wondering how our boss got hurt?”

Lin Qinzhou opened his mouth, letting out a sound of acknowledgment.

“Actually, I don’t know either. I was picked up by the boss nine years ago, and he was already like this back then. I was young and bold, so I asked him a few times, but he always found a way to avoid talking about things he didn’t want to say, so I just stopped asking.”

That experience must have been quite painful for the boss. Each time she asked, it would only remind him of his past.

“Picked up?”

“Yes, I was only 15 years old that year…”

At 15, Xiao Yao graduated from middle school, but her family didn’t allow her to continue studying and forced her to go out to work to help with household expenses. She cried and protested, promising to study and earn money at the same time, but her parents still wouldn’t agree.

Her father even beat her with a stick, saying she was ungrateful and didn’t understand gratitude, insisting that girls would marry and have children eventually, so there was no point in studying so much; it was better to go out and earn money sooner.

That day, it was pouring rain. She ran out of her house, sprinting halfway across Coral Island, finally finding shelter right at the door of “Fubai.”

The rain kept getting heavier; she was completely soaked and freezing to death, almost thinking she might freeze to death. It was then that Boss Qin came out, a young and handsome man in a wheelchair, with long straight hair cascading down his back, his brow and eyes cold but more handsome than any celebrity on TV. Like a deity.

The man frowned and looked her over for a moment before slowly speaking, “Do you have nowhere to go?”

Xiao Yao cautiously nodded.

“Then come in.” The man said.

Xiao Yao looked at the impeccably clean guesthouse lobby, then at her own drenched self, hesitating to step inside. But the man turned his head back to her and said, “It’s alright, come in.”

His expression remained cold, with a lingering hint of gloom, but his tone was gentle.

Afterward, the man pointed her to a room to take a shower, and when she came out, there was a steaming bowl of ginger sugar water on the table. The man was sitting at the front desk, reading a book, without looking up at her.

At that time, there weren’t as many tourists visiting Coral Island as there were now; guesthouses and inns were everywhere, but “Fubai” didn’t have any advantage among them, so no guests checked in that night. The man remained quietly reading, turning a page after a long time.

Xiao Yao sat for a while and timidly asked, “Can I… read a book too?”

The man raised his head and said, “Yes.”

There was a large floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in the lobby. Xiao Yao usually didn’t even have enough money for meals, let alone buying extracurricular books. Now, seeing so many books all at once, she felt lost, like a beggar who suddenly became rich overnight.

Finally, she chose a youth novel that had been adapted into a TV drama.

She got so engrossed that she didn’t realize how late it was until she finished the entire book; it was nearly ten o’clock at night. She loved it here but had to leave. So she carefully returned the book and thanked the boss before saying goodbye.

The boss didn’t say any unnecessary words, just told her to be careful on her way back.

That night, because she returned too late, her father gave her another beating. She was terrified of being hit again, didn’t dare to resist, and cried in her room for a long time.