Why Won't You Hold My Hand

Next, Hong Ran and Liu Wenjing started finger-guessing to pick teammates.

They played the simplest rock-paper-scissors.

In the first round, Liu Wenjing won. She winked and smiled: “I pick Brother Su Yang.”

Hong Ran shrugged indifferently: “Fine, but you can only pick one more person.”

“No problem.”

They played again, and Liu Wenjing won once more. She glanced around at the others and said: “I pick Susu.”

Hong Ran laughed: “Alright then, everyone else is mine.”

“OK, let’s go.” Liu Wenjing picked up the dice cup and looked at Lin Chuxia on the far right: “Chuxia, do you know how to play dice?”

Lin Chuxia nodded: “I do.”

“Then let’s go.”

The two started shaking their dice cups.

Shh-shh-shh. After Liu Wenjing finished shaking, she opened it to look: one two, one four, one five, and two sixes.

Lin Chuxia checked her own dice as well.

Liu Wenjing nodded at her: “You call first.”

“Alright.” Lin Chuxia thought for a moment, then said: “Three threes.”

“Open!” Liu Wenjing didn’t hesitate and immediately lifted her cup cover to show her dice: “I have no threes.”

“What the hell?” Lin Chuxia stood up to confirm. She had no ones, but she had two threes, and she’d figured adding one more would make three threes for sure.

Who knew Liu Wenjing didn’t have a single three.

Clap clap clap! Su Yang and Qin Su sat nearby, applauding with satisfaction: “Nice!”

“Next.” Liu Wenjing turned to He Yuqing with a smile.

“You’ve got skills, Jingjing.”

“Just luck, just luck.”

“Come on.” He Yuqing took the dice cup and started shaking.

She was pretty experienced at dice games — also, when she’d lost to Su Yang earlier, it had been deliberate.

Her skill level was high, and Liu Wenjing was decent too, but the two had never played against each other before.

Liu Wenjing shook and opened her cup: one one, two threes, and two fours.

“Sister Qing, you call.”

“Alright, I’ll also call three threes.”

Liu Wenjing smiled and said: “Then I’ll raise it by one.”

“Four threes, huh? Fine, I’ll raise it by one more.” He Yuqing winked at Liu Wenjing.

Qin Su spoke up just then: “Jingjing, open her!”

“Wait, no rush. Let me think.”

Liu Wenjing thought for two seconds, then called out: “Five fours!”

“Five fours? Then sorry, but I’m opening you!” He Yuqing lifted her cup.

She only had one four and no ones, so the two of them together only had four fours total — He Yuqing won.

“Thanks, thanks.” He Yuqing covered her cup with a smile.

Liu Wenjing shrugged with no hard feelings and pushed the dice cup over to Su Yang: “No problem, let’s keep going.”

Then Su Yang and Qin Su both got taken down by He Yuqing in succession, and she beat all three of them single-handedly in the first round.

Hong Ran laughed: “Not so good, huh? Drink up.”

“Sure, we’re a bit parched anyway.”

The three poured drinks, clinked glasses, and downed them together.

After drinking, Hong Ran smiled: “OK, Truth or Dare — pick one.”

“Wait, does everyone get punished together, or is it separate?” Qin Su asked.

“What? That’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

“Uh-uh, I misspoke. I meant, does everyone get punished, or just one person?”

“If you pick Truth, each of you answers one question. If you pick Dare, all three of you can do it together, or two of you can.”

“Then I pick Dare.” Qin Su said it without hesitation.

Liu Wenjing followed: “I’ll do Dare too.”

Seeing he had no choice, Su Yang said: “Fine then, let’s do it.”

“Alright, all Dare, huh? Hold on, give us a minute.” Hong Ran pulled the other three aside and started discussing.

Su Yang leaned back into the sofa casually, waiting.

A minute later, Hong Ran looked at the three of them and said: “OK, nothing too hard — just do ten push-ups.”

“Push-ups?” Su Yang laughed: “You designed that just for me, didn’t you? Ha, fine, I’ll do it.”

Hong Ran shook her head with a grin: “Wait, of course it’s not that simple. At least two people have to be involved in the punishment. You do the push-ups, then pick someone to sit on your back to add difficulty.”

Hearing that, Su Yang looked at Hong Ran and chuckled: “Ranran, you really know how to have fun.”

“With that muscle of yours, having someone sit on your back should be easy, right?” Hong Ran winked.

“Fine.” Su Yang turned to Qin Su and Liu Wenjing: “Tell you what — both of you come.”

“What?” They both froze.

“I said both of you come. Since we’re adding difficulty, let’s add a lot.”

Under everyone’s shocked expressions, Su Yang got up, walked to an open area, and got down on the floor: “Come on, both of you, hurry.”

“Su Su, are you sure you want two people?” Hong Ran tilted her head.

“Positive. Piece of cake.”

“Between the two of them, that’s over two hundred pounds. Can you really do push-ups with that?” Chen Yuxi joined in.

“No problem at all. Susu, Jingjing — get on.”

“Really both of us?” Liu Wenjing stood up.

“Really, really. Don’t dawdle, hurry up.”

“Well… fine then.”

Qin Su and Liu Wenjing exchanged a glance, walked over to Su Yang, turned around, and sat down.

Hong Ran called out then: “Wait, wait — if you sit like that, he can’t push properly. Sit sideways, straddling him.”

“Straddle… my skirt’s not really convenient for that.” Qin Su looked a bit awkward.

“Er… fine, then one on each side. Don’t sit in a row.”

“Okay.” Qin Su got up and moved around to the other side, then sat down.

Su Yang asked: “Ready?”

“Ready.” The two answered at the same time.

“Alright, hold tight. Lift your feet, grab my shoulders.” Su Yang pressed his hands into the floor and pushed up easily.

Then he lowered himself slowly, his form perfect — shoulders and arms level, then pushed back up. He repeated this over and over.

The sight stunned Hong Ran, Chen Yuxi, He Yuqing, and Lin Chuxia.

The two women on his back also covered their mouths in surprise — mostly because his movements were so slow and steady.

Anyone who’s done push-ups knows that slow push-ups are way harder than fast ones.

The two of them felt like they were sitting on a solid, sturdy chair — not a bit of wobble.

The ten push-ups were finished quickly. Su Yang smiled: “OK, get off.”

They hopped off quickly, and Su Yang stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked at Hong Ran and the others: “Was that punishment acceptable?”

“Very acceptable — I almost want to sit on you myself to feel it. Your body is so… strong…”

Su Yang just smiled, walked back, and sat onto the sofa: “Keep going.”

“Let’s do it!”

Everyone kept picking Dare instead of Truth from then on.

For some reason, besides winning the second round, Su Yang’s side basically kept losing.

When round three ended, Su Yang’s side lost again.

He Yuqing looked at Su Yang, tilted her head with a smile: “This time the punishment will be simpler. Su Yang, you and Jingjing each free up one hand and interlock your fingers tightly, then keep holding like that for the whole round.”

Hearing this, Qin Su froze and asked: “But if they’re holding hands, how will they play their hand games?”

“Rock-paper-scissors, of course. It’s not like you need both hands for that. Or they can just roll the dice again.”

“Fine…” Qin Su puffed out her lips, thinking: “Why won’t it be my hand being held!”

For Su Yang, it didn’t matter much who he held hands with — both were pretty, after all.

He turned his head to Liu Wenjing, who was trying to play it cool, and smiled: “Come on, I’ll use my left hand, you use your right.”

"Fine." Liu Wenjing agreed and reached out her hand. Her hand was small, fair and delicate, with long fingers, and her nails were coated with shiny nail polish.

Su Yang looked at it, opened his own palm, took Liu Wenjing's hand, interlaced their fingers, and held on tightly.

Watching this scene, Qin Su beside them was burning with jealousy.

After Liu Wenjing was grabbed by Su Yang, her heart rate instantly shot up. Although she loved to have fun and flirt with handsome guys, she wasn't very experienced emotionally—she'd only truly been in love once.

Compared to Hong Ran and He Yuqing, she was far behind; those two were the real pros.

Although she felt sweet inside and a bit nervous, she didn't show much of a reaction on the surface.

"All holding hands properly?" He Yuqing asked.

"Yep." Su Yang held up Liu Wenjing's hand to show everyone.

"Okay, okay, come on, let's continue."

......