"Hey, beauty, your shoelace is loose." As Cen Jin looked on with confusion, the boy’s face broke into a sunny smile, his voice pleasant, and he pointed to her shoe with his long fingers.
Cen Jin was slightly startled, glanced down at her shoes, and indeed they were loose. She smiled and said thank you, preparing to bend down to tie them, but the boy suddenly crouched down as well, his fair face still smiling, "Let me help you!"
Before Cen Jin could refuse, the boy reached out to touch her shoelace, scaring Cen Jin into quickly shifting her foot to the side, waving her hand in surprise, "No need, no need, thank you, I’ll do it myself."
"It’s no trouble, just a small favor." The boy was persistent, reaching out again to help her tie the shoelace. Cen Jin instinctively avoided again, and seeing this, the boy raised his eyes and smiled, "I mean no harm, don’t misunderstand, and it’s my honor to tie the shoelaces of such a beautiful girl."
"No, really, thank you." Cen Jin stood up directly, smiling lightly and stepping back a bit, "I can handle such a small thing myself, no need to trouble you."
Seeing her insist, the boy also stood up and smiled, "Alright! Just don’t forget, it’s easy to trip."
"Are you here to watch a movie?"
"What movie are you watching?"
"Uh... ’The Rest of My Life’"
"Oh that one! I’ve seen online ratings are high; it should be pretty good to watch!"
"Hmm, not sure yet, I’ll have to see it first, but it shouldn’t be bad." Cen Jin responded awkwardly, several times wanting to squat down to tie her shoelaces but felt embarrassed since he kept the conversation going, so she responded politely while thinking why Jiang Baizhou was taking so long to buy water and popcorn, the movie was about to start.
"No, she’s with her boyfriend." Before Cen Jin could finish speaking, a cold voice laced with a chilling tone sounded from behind, making one’s skin crawl.
Upon hearing this, the boy turned around and saw Jiang Baizhou with a bucket of popcorn in one hand and a cup of fruit tea in the other, with frosty, piercing dark eyes, glaring at the boy with a displeased expression.
"Got everything?" Cen Jin’s smile immediately became genuine and she lost her previous awkwardness.
"Yeah." Jiang Baizhou responded lightly, glanced at her loose shoelaces, and handed her the popcorn and fruit tea, crouched down with his long legs, and helped her tie her shoelaces.
Cen Jin was shocked, slightly taken aback, but accepted it happily.
After tying the shoelaces, Jiang Baizhou slowly straightened up, tilted his body to stare askance at the boy, and asked coldly and unkindly, "What brings you to talk to my girlfriend?"
The boy paused, perhaps intimidated by his cold demeanor, and instinctively stepped back, "Uh, sorry, I’ll be leaving now." He quickly left.
"Jiang Baizhou, the movie’s about to start, let’s go in first!" After the boy left, Cen Jin glanced at the time on Jiang Baizhou’s wrist, pulling him toward the theater room.
Jiang Baizhou let her lead him, and as they took their seats in Theater 2, the movie began. Cen Jin placed the fruit tea aside, picked up a piece of popcorn and ate it, only to find Jiang Baizhou staring at her in the dark, startling her, making her tense, feeling his gaze was rather subtle, "Why... why are you looking at me like that?"