"Dare not smoke." Those three words vividly expressed several meanings.
He *could*, he might even be in love, but he didn't dare.
An Guoming understood and chuckled. He stopped beating around the bush and asked, "So, kid, when exactly are you planning to confess?"
"Huh?"
Startled by An Guoming's sudden question, Jiang Xia, with the guilty air of a thief, pulled An Guoming back into his house.
Once they were seated in the somewhat chilly room, Jiang Xia asked, "Second Brother An, what do you mean?"
An Guoming snuffed out the cigarette in his hand and blew out a smoke ring, his gaze on Jiang Xia hazy through the smoke.
"If you don't get what I mean, kid, then there's nothing more to say. I'm going home to sleep."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa—don't go, Second Brother An! Sit down, sit down."
An Guoming gave Jiang Xia a wry smile. "So now I'm 'Second Brother An' again, eh, you kid," he teased.
Jiang Xia dropped the act and decided to just come clean.
