Things had changed between Mo Qingchen and her. To be completely honest, despite the trip being for business, she was just excited to have him accompany him. Mo Qingchen put out his heart on the table and demanded she do the same. Qian Meng could see that he wanted her to be secure in their relationship, to experience something special. And she was.
"We should travel more often," Mo Qingchen said decisively.
"We should," she agreed. "We should make time from our busy schedules and just travel like this."
He smiled. "We can go anywhere you want. All you have to do is tell me where you want to go and I will take care of the rest."
She laughed. "You really like planning trips and food tours, don't you?" she teased. "You know… I would have figured that we would have gone out and had more food by now. But the time since our wedding has gone by so fast…"
"It has," he agreed. "It has gone by very fast and we missed out on a long time because we solely focused on work."
"The underside of being the boss, I suppose."
"The coming year will be better."
"Our time together wasn't bad, Qingchen. Well, I mean, aside from all the people out to get me and us fighting." Saying it out loud put a lump in her throat.
"A lot has happened. Maybe 'better' isn't the right word. I hope the year will be calmer," he amended when he saw her expression.
She nodded vehemently. "Things will settle once the launch of The Shift is taken care of."
Mo Qingchen watched her intently. "After this, you will have to work on the launch of the next line. Then the external audit for the Bais' company will come out. God knows what will happen after that," he said softly.
"Ugh, don't talk about those things," she groaned. "I just want to live in this moment until I absolutely have to worry about those things. I can't constantly be stressing out over what is going to happen next."
"Why? You have all the plans in place. You should be excited to make progress, right?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I look forward to the stress."
"I seem to enjoy the stress," he said with a shrug.
"Yes, because you are boring," she teased. He was quiet for a moment.
"Do you really think that?" he asked.
Qian Meng laughed and took a sip of her drink. "I was joking, Mo Qingchen."
"But do you think I am boring?"
"What?" she was affronted. "No!"
"Are you sure?" he pressed.
"Why do you care so much?" she asked, surprised.
"It's something I have thought of before. It seems like you have more fun with other people than you do with me." It was an honest confession. Qian Meng sat up straight, trying to understand what he was actually saying.
"What? Where is this even coming from?"
He was quiet for a second. "You have fun when you partied with Marcus. You also had so much fun with Mo Yize when you guys hung out all the time. It just seemed like you enjoyed being around them than you had fun with me."
"Wait," she laughed. "Is this really something you have thought about before?" she asked.
"Yes. It hasn't gone unnoticed."
"That I have fun with friends?"
"Yes."
"Qingchen…" she shook her head, trying not to laugh when he was telling his feelings. "How can I not have fun with them? They are absolutely wild. Just being with them makes me wonder what they are high on."
"I guess," Mo Qingchen responded.
"Are you jealous of my friendship with your sister? How did you even know about what we did?" she asked.
"I didn't say I was jealous." He paused. "Mo Yize couldn't stop talking about her friend. She would give all the details. She was a lot better with interacting and not fighting with mom back in those days," he informed her softly. "I got a lot of insider information on you, as well." He smirked.
Qian Meng remembered the things she used to talk to Mo Yize about and felt embarrassment set in.
She quickly changed the topic. "You didn't say you were jealous, but it is written all over your face!"
He squinted. "Maybe."
"Of course I used to have fun with Mo Yize in university. And I like being wild once in a while. But that doesn't mean that I don't have fun with you or I think that you are boring. It's different with you."
"Different?" he perked up.
She nodded. "Different," she confirmed. "I don't do the same things with you that I would do with friends. I have fun with you. It's just a different kind of fun."
"I see."
She snickered at his expression.
"I am not trying to console you. It's true that you can be a little uptight sometimes, but I feel good being around you."
"Uptight?"
"Yeah. You're a lot better now. I want to see you let loose, relax a little more, too." She watched his expression change.
"I relax," he countered.
"You do? Because I can have fun with you, but sometimes I feel like you're the one who has never had any fun."
He tilted his head towards her. "I have fun. Maybe my idea of fun is different from yours."
"I guess," she allowed.
"I'm having a lot of fun now. I just have a good poker face," he deadpanned.
She laughed and shook her head at him.
"I bet that a few months ago, you wouldn't have even thought about this. You wouldn't consider whether I was having fun with you or not. You wouldn't have cared…"
He looked at her, thoughtfully. "Qian Meng, there are a lot of things I think about now that I wouldn't have guessed I would be concerned with a few months ago."
She studied his face carefully. She didn't want to miss the change in his expression as he told her more.