ATLAS TRANSLATES

When they were young, their biggest wish was simply “I hope the person I like also likes me back.”

As they grew older, that wish often changed, perhaps resignedly becoming “I hope the person I like finds someone they like.”

Tao Zhi once thought her wish had transformed from the former to the latter, and she kept consoling herself that it was fine.

Life was like a train – at certain stops, some people would always get off.

She never expected him to come back.

In fact, all these years, she didn’t even dare to hope for it.

Because once such thoughts started, they would spiral out of control like an unstoppable flood.

In the dim bedroom, only a small star night light on the bedside table was on, casting tiny spots of white light on the ceiling and walls. Tao Zhi propped her head on the pillow, watching the person beside the bed, and suddenly leaned forward.

She stretched out her arms, cupped his face with both hands to lift it slightly, then closed her eyes and kissed his lips.

Jiang Qi Huai froze for a few seconds before reacting. He casually put the honey water in his hand on the floor beside him, then cupped the back of her head, taking control as he stood up, bending down with his head lowered.

His touch was firm but his movements were slow and gentle.

Somehow, Tao Zhi went from leaning over the edge of the bed to half-sitting against the headboard, head tilted back, passively accepting his kiss.

Her waist felt weak, her body burning hot.

When his tongue pulled back slightly, Tao Zhi took deep breaths of air, looking up at him with a dazed expression.

His voice was also breathless, low and hoarse: “Want to take a shower?”

Tao Zhi’s heart skipped a beat heavily, and she nodded obediently: “Yes.”

Jiang Qi Huai lowered his head and softly pecked her lips: “Go ahead then.”

Tao Zhi regained a bit of her senses. She licked her lips, then stuttered: “Then… what are we doing after the shower…”

Her suggestion was direct and obvious. Jiang Qi Huai’s movement against her lips paused, then he laughed.

His laugh was low and deep, with a hint of amusement in his eyes as he looked at her and said: “After the shower, we’ll sleep.”

Tao Zhi pressed her lips together and slowly slid off the bed, walking into the master bathroom.

Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would jump out of her chest. Her ears were roaring like a plane taking off. Whether from the alcohol or from being too nervous, her head was still spinning, her whole body feeling light and floaty, to the point where she wasn’t even sure what she should do.

She quickly tied up her hair and took a shower, then lightly knocked on the bathroom door when she came out barefoot.

“Get me some pajamas,” Tao Zhi said softly through the door, wondering why at a time like this she still cared about wearing pajamas out.

But going out without them was still too difficult.

“Where are they?” Jiang Qi Huai asked.

Tao Zhi told him. After a while, there were two knocks on the bathroom door from outside, then the doorknob turned. Jiang Qi Huai didn’t come in, just reached a hand through the gap holding a pink nightgown.

She wasn’t wearing anything, with just a half-closed door between them – her on the inside, him on the outside.

Tao Zhi’s mind boiled along with her cheeks and ears. She didn’t even bother or have the presence of mind to look at what nightgown Jiang Qi Huai had brought her, quickly grabbed it and slammed the door shut with a “bang.”

She leaned against the door letting out a long breath, then took two deep breaths before shaking out the clothes and pulling them over her head.

The pink and white nightgown covered her from head to toe, long-sleeved with just a bit of neck showing, everything else completely covered.

Tao Zhi: “…?”

The nervous excitement and drunken impulses in Tao Zhi were slightly dampened by confusion.

She tilted her head as she left the bathroom. Jiang Qi Huai was sitting on the edge of the bed and looked up when he heard her come out.

He beckoned to her.

The impulses that had just been dampened a bit in Tao Zhi flared up again.

She crawled onto the bed and lay down slowly, her bright black eyes staring at him unblinkingly as she swallowed.

Jiang Qi Huai pulled up the blanket and tucked her in completely up to her neck, then patted her through the soft blanket: “Sleep.”

Tao Zhi was wrapped up with just her head showing: “Huh?”

Jiang Qi Huai: “Go to sleep.”

Tao Zhi: “…”

Tao Zhi couldn’t even remember how she fell asleep.

At first she was in disbelief, then her feelings became complicated, and later she was probably just tired. As she felt his presence surrounding her, she suddenly felt an indescribable sense of peace, and her eyelids became too heavy to keep open.

She slept until well into the morning.

Before her eyes opened, a throbbing pain in her temples came first in the darkness. Tao Zhi lay face down on the bed with her head buried in the pillow, yawning with the corner of the blanket covering her mouth.

She opened her eyes blearily. The curtains were half open, and Tao Zhi squinted, covering her eyes with the back of her hand for a while to adjust to the bright light as yesterday’s events slowly rewound in her mind.

From the barbecue restaurant to the car, from the car to home, from the doorway to the bedroom.

Tao Zhi wiped her eyes and turned to look at the side of the bed.

No one was there. Jiang Qi Huai had probably left long ago, since he still had to go to work today.

She hadn’t expected that when he said “sleep,” he really just meant literally sleeping.

Tao Zhi suddenly felt that compared to the upright Mr. Jiang, she was really quite indecent.

She looked up at the bedside table again. The honey water was gone, replaced by her small milliliter thermos next to the glowing night light.

Tao Zhi reached over to turn off the night light and picked up the thermos.

Opening the clasp and pressing the lid open, a wisp of steam rose from the opening. Tao Zhi tilted the cup and carefully touched the water inside with her lips.

It was warm but not hot.

She sat up against the headboard, holding the cup and taking small sips.

As the dryness in her throat eased, Tao Zhi held the thermos and pushed back the covers, getting out of bed barefoot. She paused slightly when she saw the nightgown she was wearing.

Not only had she been coaxed and tricked into taking a shower, she had even thought those unnecessary thoughts.

Tao Zhi covered her eyes and made two frustrated and embarrassed whimpers before putting the sealed thermos on the table and going into the bathroom to get ready.

She had been lazy and hadn’t washed her hair last night, so she went straight into the shower, continuing to reminisce about what happened last night.

Although some details made her feel as embarrassed as a pervert, overall, her progress with Jiang Qi Huai made her feel happy. It felt like there was a little deer living inside her, running wild and joyfully across a meadow.

When she came out dripping wet, Tao Zhi lowered her head and looked at the nightgown Jiang Qi Huai had picked out, sitting on the rack nearby.

She hadn’t worn this cotton nightgown for many years, probably bought it in high school. Because the fabric was very comfortable, Tao Zhi had never thrown it away.

The long dress fell to her ankles, with puffy sleeves and a doll collar, soft lace trim on the neckline, sleeves and hem, like a medieval doll dress.

Looking pure and childish.

She had told him to get her pajamas from that drawer in her wardrobe, and this was what he picked out.

Did Jiang Qi Huai actually like this type?

Tao Zhi pinched the nightgown with her fingertips and looked at it for a few seconds, quite disdainful of Mr. Jiang’s aesthetics, then let go and threw it back on the rack.

She came out wrapped in a bathrobe, humming as she opened the wardrobe door to pull out some loungewear. Just as she took out the clothes, her gaze swept over and caught on a black nightgown nearby.

Tao Zhi’s gaze paused for a couple seconds on that black item, then pulled it out.

A pure black lace lingerie nightgown, with just a few pieces of fabric covering the key areas, the rest all semi-transparent black mesh doing a perfunctory job of covering – barely any different from wearing nothing at all.

Like the latest sexy lingerie Victoria’s Secret models wear on the runway.

An Se Se had given her this nightgown for her twentieth birthday. When Tao Zhi first received it, she took one look and found it quite jarring. Since it had basically zero practicality, she had just left it in the wardrobe unworn.

In An Se Se’s words, at twenty years old, it was time to get acquainted with the dirty adult world.

Unfortunately, Tao Zhi never had the chance to get dirty.

She couldn’t even get dirty in last night’s atmosphere!

Was something wrong with Jiang Qi Huai?!

She tilted her head and held up this thing that could barely be called sleepwear against herself, thinking of the childish-style nightgown Jiang Qi Huai had picked out for her, instinctively feeling he probably wouldn’t like this extremely adult-world style.

But perhaps last night’s events had sparked a small interest in certain areas, and Tao Zhi found it quite novel herself.

The house was completely quiet. At 10 AM, Fu Xi Ling should have gone to work too, leaving her alone at home.

Tao Zhi suddenly couldn’t sit still.

She was eager to try.

And getting quite excited about it.

She took off the bathrobe and spent quite a while figuring out how to put on all the black lace straps before finally managing to get it on.

After putting it on, she ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

The person in the mirror had a slim waist and long legs, her skin looking dazzlingly white against the pure black fabric, sexy but not vulgar, with a clean pretty face.

The only flaw was the pink absorbent towel wrapped around her freshly washed hair on her head, making her look like the landlady from “Kung Fu Hustle,” deducting quite a few points from the overall image.

Tao Zhi reached up and pulled off the thick towel from her head, tossing it aside. Her half-wet long hair fell down as she twirled several times in front of the mirror, admiring her gorgeous figure before happily tiptoeing back out of the bathroom.

She picked up her phone and opened a Victoria’s Secret runway music playlist, turning the volume up to maximum, then chose “Sexyback.”

As she hit play, the deafening music echoed throughout the bedroom – a hoarse, magnetic male voice accompanied by beatboxing and lots of rhythmic retro-style synthetic electronic music, sexily and intensely teasing the air and eardrums.

Tao Zhi instantly felt like she was possessed by a top Victoria’s Secret model. Right now she was on a runway with flashing lights and rolling crowds, and she was the most dazzling star in the whole place.

She tossed her wet hair and started walking the runway in her bedroom to the rhythm of the music, tiptoeing from the window to the bedside, then with a graceful turn of her head, walked to the bathroom door.

She used the bathroom doorway as the end of the runway, struck several poses with one hand on the doorframe, wildly tossing her long hair, then blinked at the empty space in front of her, throwing a series of flirtatious winks at the air, about a dozen seductive glances.

After completing one round, the song on her phone had automatically switched to the next one in the playlist, but Tao Zhi still wasn’t quite satisfied. Not wearing high heels made her feel like something was missing.

She decided to go to the shoe cabinet to pick out a pair of high heels to bring back.

She came around from the bedroom, walking towards the door while bobbing her head to the music’s rhythm, then raised her eyes.

And in that instant when her gaze fell on the doorway, she completely froze.

Her bedroom door had been opened a crack at some point, and Jiang Qi Huai was leaning against the doorframe watching her, holding a wooden tray that Tao Zhi usually used for photo shoots, with a glass of milk and sandwiches on it.

He hadn’t left.

He actually hadn’t left.

Why hadn’t he left?

Tao Zhi hadn’t heard a single sound. She didn’t know when he had started standing there or how long he had been watching.

She just suddenly realized that Jiang Qi Huai’s typically cold, emotionless face could actually have a day where it couldn’t hide its expressions.

For example, right now as he looked at her with that strange look in his eyes, like someone watching a gorilla at the zoo.

Perhaps because the mixed emotions of bewilderment, embarrassment and despair on Tao Zhi’s face were too intense, Jiang Qi Huai moved first, very considerately breaking the frozen atmosphere.

He pushed open the door and walked into the bedroom, putting the tray down on the bedside table, then glanced at her bathrobe thrown on the floor, the loungewear on the bed, and her phone still blasting music on the pillow.

Finally, his gaze landed on her, sweeping over her wet long hair, soft white chest, slim flexible waist, straight long legs, and finally back to her ashen, despairing face.

“Look on the bright side,” Jiang Qi Huai pondered for a moment before saying casually, “At least compared to those thermal underwear from high school, this isn’t quite as embarrassing anymore.”