Before officially going out.
Yan Cheng still couldn’t stand to see Chen Jinyao’s pale face writhing in pain from cramps, rolling back and forth. But he was also clueless about it and could only be at a loss.
He frowned in thought for a moment, then still chose the same crude but most effective method as last night – boiled hot water and made Chen Jinyao another cup of brown sugar ginger tea.
“Drink it while it’s hot,” he glanced at her as he placed the glass on the nightstand.
Chen Jinyao’s gaze shifted back and forth between Yan Cheng and the glass. A few seconds later, she struggled up, bending her knees without letting go of the warmth in the quilt. She lazily leaned against the headboard, narrowed her eyes, “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”
As soon as she said this, the air suddenly froze for a moment.
Chen Jinyao seemed to feel Yan Cheng had a slight emotional fluctuation, similar to him inhaling sharply in shock at her words. In fact, she hadn’t said anything earth-shattering. She was just stating an objective fact seriously.
The man lowered his eyes, his pitch-black lashes trembling lightly. After a while, he chuckled lazily as if laughing softly. He asked in his slightly hoarse voice, “So do you want me to hug you and take you to wash up?”
“………………………………”
The cramps were still cramping, but it hadn’t reached the point of losing limbs.
With the door slammed shut, only Chen Jinyao was left in the house. She leaned on the sink, lightly biting her lower lip and looking at herself in the mirror. Although her face was bloodless from menstrual cramps, somehow at this moment there were a few faint blushes on it again. Just because Yan Cheng casually teased her with sweet words, she could feel her cheeks heating up constantly.
…She was probably really old now, to the point of getting riled up so easily.
She closed her eyes and took two deep breaths until the slight inexplicable thumping in her chest had calmed down a bit before she started expressionlessly squeezing toothpaste onto her toothbrush and filling the cup with water to brush her teeth.
After washing her face with cold water in the bathroom, she finally calmed down completely.
Sitting on the edge of the bed sipping the brown sugar ginger tea in small gulps, Chen Jinyao stared blankly out the window at the falling snow, her thoughts didn’t wander too far. She just felt that on such a rainy snowy day it was so suitable to seal herself in bed.
Hesitating symbolically for two seconds, Chen Jinyao still turned around and climbed onto the bed, darting into the still warm quilt and sighing comfortably. She didn’t know when Duni came into the bedroom. As soon as she lay down, it ran out from a corner and came up to her, extremely affectionately rubbing itself against her face while meowing.
Chen Jinyao stretched out her hand to smooth its fur, rubbing it back too. Only when she pet it enough to satisfy it then it was willing to settle down and continue sleeping. Its tail swayed as it solved the lovesickness from a night apart between mother and cat.
“……” From a certain perspective, Duni was really easy to coax!
Waiting was an especially long process.
Chen Jinyao yawned with narrowed eyes. Afraid of falling asleep as effortlessly as Duni, she searched the right side of the bed like combing through carpet and found her phone, lighting up unlocking it.
Her classmate Jixiao had already sent her a friend request ten minutes ago.
The new conspicuous friend appeared on the WeChat interface, hard to ignore. The additional message was also blunt: Sister Chen, I’m your classmate Ji Xiao.
Women never liked mentioning their age. What was related to age, especially words that would clearly show your relatively older age, were their taboo. Of course Chen Jinyao couldn’t escape the norm either. Perhaps she was being pretentious, but compared to this almost intimate “Sister” form of address, she would rather people call her Doctor Chen.
She tapped Accept, and simply filled in “Classmate Ji Xiao” for the notes.
Chen Jinyao sent her a cute emoticon.
About two minutes later.
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?Sister Chen, may I ask how much orthodontics costs on average? ?
The same as the question Ji Xiao asked her.
Chen Jinyao: ?It depends on the specific situation. You can send me a photo of your current dental condition. It usually costs around 15,000 yuan.?
The photo did not come through.
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?That expensive??
“……” Chen Jinyao really didn’t know how to respond to this. Out of consideration for Ji Xiao, she could of course understand the financial constraints students faced. She also told Ji Xiao she would appropriately offer a discount, but she certainly couldn’t cut the cost in half, right?
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?Don’t small dental clinics charge much cheaper??
Oh.
From the questions asked, she knew the specific charges for orthodontics.
Chen Jinyao narrowed her eyes, ?Professional dental clinics have the same fee standards. You can check with other dental clinics too.?
She really had rare patience now and could continue to circle around.
Chen Jinyao: ?I can offer a 500 yuan discount for you, 500 yuan at most.?
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?Can’t you offer a bit more of a discount??
The pain in her lower abdomen intensified. Menstruating women were originally prone to irritation.
Especially on an empty stomach, all her composure and magnanimity was gradually dissipating. This was an unpleasant negotiation.
Chen Jinyao reminded herself that she was running a clinic, not a charity.
Then, with her final gentleness, she typed out the five words “Really can’t anymore”.
From then on, the chat box fell into endless silence.
Chen Jinyao waited for a reply but nothing came through.
She figured this business was probably not settled.
Seven or eight minutes later.
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?I’ll come find you again after I return to school next semester. ?
Usually such rhetoric already indicated the other party’s refusal.
She even addressed her formally. Chen Jinyao was still considering whether to praise her for being polite, but being formally addressed made her expressionless, ?Alright.?
……
With the piercing whirring sound of the cold wind outside, the snow fell harder and harder.
Downstairs, right outside the residential area, there was a breakfast place that was usually crammed with people and did thriving business. Probably would have to line up to buy breakfast.
When Yan Cheng came back, there was still snow on his shoulders. After brushing it off, only water stains remained. Chen Jinyao sprang up from the bed. Hunger made her temporarily forget the stabbing pain. When she walked to the living room in slippers and glanced up, she was stunned, “Did you move the entire breakfast place back?”
“Your millet porridge,” Yan Cheng arched his brows without answering her question. “I’ve never bought breakfast for myself before, you should feel honored.”
So he bought a bit of everything he saw that he wanted to eat, without considering whether he could actually finish eating it.
Chen Jinyao went over and pulled out a chair, then lowered her eyes again, flipping through the wide variety of breakfasts to look for the white porridge she had been thinking about, “Do I need to reward you?”
“Hmm?” The man standing beside her didn’t understand.
Then Chen Jinyao suddenly turned sideways, tiptoed with both arms stretched out to circle his neck and pulled him down a bit. Yan Cheng bent down. Black and white eyes flashed with surprise, then under his surprise, Chen Jinyao raised her face and lightly pecked the corner of his mouth like a dragonfly skimming the water surface.
“……………………”
It really was just a skim, touching then parting.
Yan Cheng was silent for quite a while. Then he asked, “Did you brush your teeth?”
After asking, he quickly reacted that he had almost delivered himself to doom on his own initiative. Fingers curled, caressing the corner of his lips that was touched, he gave a little cough. “There should be more such good morning kisses in the future to cultivate feelings.”
Chen Jinyao rolled her eyes and simply started eating breakfast, too lazy to bother with him.
During the meal, afraid of the awkwardness from having nothing to say while facing each other,
It wasn’t quiet for long before Chen Jinyao took the initiative to find a topic. She told Yan Cheng about what had happened with her classmate Ji Xiao earlier.
In the end, she knew enough to sigh at how hard it was to make money.
She had encountered situations like her classmate Ji Xiao more than once or twice. There would always be people who would take for granted that since you could open a clinic, you wouldn’t lack that bit of money. She did indeed not lack money, but going out to work was to make the wallet fatter. There was no reason to operate at a loss for herself.
“You bother so much for what!” Yan Cheng tore down the youtiao he was biting on. “If it were me, I wouldn’t even give the 500 yuan discount.”
Then, “You can just say your family still has people and cats to feed.”
Chen Jinyao spread her hand, “No need to say so much, it’s already fallen through.”
Yan Cheng: “……………………”
——————————————–
Time flies, and the New Year was just around the corner before they realized it.
When they reacted, there were only a few days left until New Year’s Eve. Heavy snow filled the imperial capital, rows of camphor trees along the roads were hung with big red lanterns. When night fell, it was full of red light, looking lively and bustling, adding to the festive atmosphere.
They didn’t need to go to the Yan family for New Year’s Eve this year.
This was proposed by Yan Cheng. He didn’t know what got into him for the young master who had finally settled down and not gone out making trouble these days. In Yan’s mother’s eyes, it was probably all thanks to Chen Jinyao. Now the sweet couple wanted a world of their own, so Yan’s mother naturally agreed readily.
After her period ended, Chen Jinyao regained her lively spirit.
It was as if the person who had wilted and almost fainted before was not her at all.
“……” Yan Cheng felt a little emotional about this. At the same time, he also urged her to see a doctor and slowly recuperate, to prevent being tortured by the pain again in the future.
Chen Jinyao perfunctorily “okay okay”-ed with her mouth, but took no action.
Over time, after seeing through this woman’s true colors, Yan Cheng grabbed her. Expressionless, he scoffed, “The pain is forgotten once the wound has healed.”
“Don’t expect me to rub your belly for you in the future.”
Chen Jinyao: “I’ll definitely go see the doctor after New Year’s.”
There were five days until New Year’s Eve.
That night the sports channel seemed to have a live broadcast of some game.
Most guys liked watching live game broadcasts, and tended to watch all night. What they chased was this kind of fun, a kind of fun that watching reruns could not provide.
Yan Cheng was no exception. He showered early, hugging the quilt to the living room sofa, then self-righteously told Chen Jinyao, “You can sleep by yourself tonight, I won’t be going back to the bedroom.”
“Oh,” Chen Jinyao nodded in understanding.
As it turned out, a man’s word was unreliable, even pigs could climb trees1.
Chen Jinyao believed Yan Cheng’s “I won’t be going back to the bedroom tonight” words. That was why she dared to take the body lotion from the bathroom after her shower.
The bedroom heating was on. She sat cross-legged on the bed, bathrobe open, slowly applying lotion on herself, starting from her neck and going down slowly.
She had just applied it up to her collarbones when the door clicked.
Yan Cheng came in hugging Duni, “Tonight I’ll allow this little beast to…” accompany you.
Glancing up, their eyes met face to face. What his line of sight peeked at was picturesque scenery, causing the latter half of the sentence to get stuck in his throat.
Yan Cheng: “……”
Chen Jinyao: “……”
Chen Jinyao: “!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Yan Cheng: “……………………………………”
- Chinese version of “when pigs fly”. ↩︎
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