Cree was amused when Qiao Ruo started kissing him angrily. It appeared that he had met his match in jealousy. For every spark of envy he had for Lu Hanyang, she had double or triple the amount of envy in her. As the saying goes, a jealous woman is a faithful woman. As long he kept her jealous, did it mean he had all the more a better chance to have her to himself?
But then, at the same time, there existed the risk that she might give up entirely on him! Cree didn't feel comfortable about that.
He broke the kiss gently before it escalated to something more than kisses, and covered her with his blanket. She was bewildered by his sudden impedance and stared at Cree for a long time as if the answer was inscribed on Cree's face.
Tenderly, he lay her head on his shoulder instead and whispered, "Not now, Xiaoruo. There will be plenty of time for this when you become my real girlfriend." She couldn't fathom what was going on, and Cree didn't meet the description of the average man. Before she and Cree were entangled together, she had expected men generally to be unable to withstand the desires of women. Remembering the question she had poised to Cree at the hospital about the nurse, she scratched her head as she contemplated if he had been telling the truth.
"You still owe me a date." She pouted, and he imitated her actions. She pinched him on his side, gingerly.
He glanced at the clock by his bedside, and inquired, "Do you mean that you still want to go to the cinema?"
"Definitely!" she exclaimed profusely. "It was you all along who wanted to go for a movie."
It was already past midnight, and the last possible movie showing in the cinemas would have started broadcasting already, but Cree had an idea. As Qiao Ruo hastily got dressed, he was on the call with an unknown male, and in ten minutes, they were already on their way. He stopped the Mini after some twenty minutes of driving.
"The back door?" she asked, puzzled, as she saw that the exit leading to the cinema lying ahead of them. Indeed Cree did not intend to enter the cinema this way unless he had a friend who worked there?
"I have my ways," he said confidently, sensing the question on her mind, and she followed him quizzically. A smiling older man opened the door and allowed them entry, and Cree thanked him, greeting him as 'uncle'. They had a short conversation, and judging by their closeness, Qiao Ruo knew the man had to be someone Cree knew personally. But even then, the man did not appear to be someone important enough to have the cinema's back door opened to Cree at will. What other tricks did Cree have up his sleeve? She wondered.
It was her first time being in the cinema, and Qiao Ruo nervously scampered around, unsure of which seat to select. Cree held her hand securely, and she took him to one of the couple seats located at the back of the cinema.
"Xiaoruo, is it your first time going to the cinema?" he asked.
She answered with the affirmative. The countryside was too secluded from the city to have any cinemas, and when she was in university, she hadn't had enough for three meals a day, much less watch a movie. She would stream movies online if she could, but she hadn't watched most of the latest films broadcast in cinemas. She had lived so frugally that just living in Cree's guest room and not in a flat was pure luxury to her. Even a simple date with Cree was enough to make her happy. But was that the life she wanted to lead? She queried herself. If it was, then, if she was in a relationship with Cree, what if he thought she was after a life of luxury instead? She cast aside her worries and then asked Cree the same question he had asked her.
"What about you? Have you been to the cinemas with...anyone?" She had wanted to say with a girl, but after the whole jealous episode earlier, she didn't want to make herself look sillier. 'Anyone' was broad enough. In the cities, it wasn't weird for anyone to watch movies in a single-sex group. Her female classmates in university often did that together, but due to how poor she was, she was always omitted from social gatherings.
