Her throat had gone quite dry, and Sang Wan waited nervously for an answer.
“Yeah, sure. I don’t have any prejudices about that sort of thing, and aren’t Senior Sister Wen and Senior Sister Zhou a couple themselves?” Yue Bai replied without the slightest hesitation. She shrugged nonchalantly.
“That’s good.” Sang Wan had wanted to ask one more thing, but the words reached her lips and she didn’t know how to let them out.
Back at the Teachers’ Apartment, Sang Wan headed straight into the bathroom. Soon after, the sound of running water filled the air.
Yue Bai sat on the bed in the secondary bedroom, idly fiddling with her phone. She opened the Senior Sister Forum, and as expected, the top post was the dance Sang Wan had performed earlier.
In less than half an hour, that thread had garnered over a hundred comments. Even the older posts about the Freshman Welcome Party had been bumped back up.
“Senior Sister is so amazing.” Yue Bai’s lips curved into a smile, a hint of pride in her voice as she murmured the praise. Her fingers scrolled endlessly through the comments below the post, each one full of admiration and envy. It felt almost like they were praising her instead.
No doubt, by tomorrow, there would be even more comments on that post. Yue Bai finished browsing the thread and exited the app.
Next, she opened QQ. The class group chat was buzzing with heated discussions about the Opening Ceremony performances. Someone had uploaded videos of Sang Wan’s dance from multiple angles.
Yue Bai’s thumb held down on the videos, saving them one by one.
“@Academic Commissioner Yue Bai, do you have Senior Sister Sang’s contact info? Could you introduce me?” one of the boys in the class had tagged her.
The smile on Yue Bai’s lips froze. Her finger hovered over the chat box, but she didn’t type a single word.
“You’ve got a crush on Senior Sister Sang, huh?” someone in the group teased.
The boy who had tagged her first sent a shy emoji.
“Forget it. Senior Sister Sang isn’t that easy to chase. Otherwise, how could no one have succeeded by now? You’ve got some tough competition,” another person chimed in, pouring cold water on the idea.
Yue Bai bit her lower lip. She quickly typed on the keyboard: “You should ask Senior Sister for it yourself. It wouldn’t be right for me to give it out.”
“Exactly! What are you thinking? Sharing someone else’s contact info without permission is super rude,” Xu Nuo popped up in the chat to add.
“…Alright.” The boy gave up.
Yue Bai let out a breath and returned to the main screen. For a moment, she had the strange illusion that someone was prying into her possessions. She shook her head, clearing away the jumbled thoughts.
A red notification dot lit up on her QQ Space. Yue Bai tapped it casually.
It was a post from the A University Omnipotent Wall group she had joined before enrollment to learn more about A University.
The A University Omnipotent Wall had posted several updates in a row, each one accompanied by five or six screenshots of chats from different people.
All of them were confessions of love.
Yue Bai clicked through them one by one. Most were confessions for Sang Wan, with just a couple for others mixed in.
At some point, Yue Bai’s expression had turned cold. She finished reading the confessions, and a wave of discomfort churned in her chest.
“Senior Sister really is popular.” She couldn’t tell if she felt happy or dejected.
The door to the secondary bedroom opened. Sang Wan had finished her shower, blow-dried her hair, and changed into pajamas. Her loose, shoulder-length hair and the pure black sleepwear accentuated her exceptional feminine grace.
“Little Bai, I’m done. You can go wash up now.” Sang Wan approached with a smile, leaning in close to Yue Bai. “Your foot should be okay to get wet now, right?”
“Yeah.” Yue Bai forced a smile in response. She swiped up on her phone to return to the home screen. “I’ll go then.”
Sang Wan nodded.
Yue Bai closed the bathroom door and went through her routine wash-up. After changing into her pajamas, she remembered the spare clothes she hadn’t washed earlier due to her foot injury.
She searched the bathroom but couldn’t find them anywhere.
Had they been put somewhere else? Yue Bai frowned. For several days, she hadn’t even noticed when her clothes had gone missing.
It seemed like they had disappeared after she showered and changed on the second day.
Yue Bai straightened her pajamas and returned to the secondary bedroom.
“Senior Sister, do you know where I put the dirty clothes I changed out of before?” Yue Bai stood awkwardly in the doorway and asked.
Sang Wan looked up from her phone, her gaze lingering on Yue Bai for a few seconds. Her tone was light: “I washed them for you.”
“Huh?” Yue Bai froze.
“I used the washing machine.” Sang Wan pressed the power button on her phone.
“Oh, okay.” Yue Bai’s suspended heart settled.
“And the undergarments I hand-washed.” Sang Wan added quietly.
“Senior Sister…” Yue Bai’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
Sang Wan watched that face turn red enough to drip blood, amused by the sudden change—like a performer switching masks. How could it go that red so fast?
“I could have washed them myself.” Yue Bai’s voice came out as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
Sang Wan had already slipped under the covers. She hooked her lips carelessly: “Your foot was injured at the time, so I just did it as a favor.”
“I…” Yue Bai was at a loss for words. So embarrassing.
“It’s no big deal—just a few pieces of clothing.” Sang Wan held back a laugh. To avoid pressuring Yue Bai, she kept her eyes down, away from the person at the door.
“Thanks, Senior Sister.” Yue Bai still felt weird about it.
“No problem.” Sang Wan lit up her screen again and resumed typing to the person from earlier.
“Have you posted them all?” Sang Wan typed.
The reply came quickly: “I’ve posted some, but there are still more to go. I bet tonight’s confessions were all inspired by your performance. Didn’t you used to say not to post these? What changed this time?”
To make a certain someone a little jealous and get her to act sooner. Sang Wan’s eyes sparkled with amusement that nearly overflowed. From the corner of her eye, she saw that the person at the door had vanished.
She set her phone flat on the bed. Another message came from the contact noted as A University Omnipotent Wall: “Don’t tell me something’s up?”
“Maybe.” Sang Wan replied.
Yue Bai, her face still burning, washed the clothes she had just changed out of in the bathroom. Her fingers hesitated at one spot.
Aaaah! She screamed internally. Why hadn’t she noticed earlier that someone had washed her clothes? She wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it. How was she supposed to face Senior Sister later?
She dawdled in the bathroom for over half an hour until the blush had completely faded from her face.
When Yue Bai went out to the secondary bedroom balcony to hang the clothes, she deliberately avoided looking at Sang Wan.
On the balcony, several pieces of intimate apparel hung quietly from the railing. Yue Bai’s steady heartbeat suddenly quickened.
Her ears turned red again.
Fighting back the embarrassment, she hung up the freshly washed clothes. She had meant to take down the dry ones, but thinking about bringing them inside and facing Sang Wan’s gaze made her hesitate.
Forget it. She’d get them next time.
Yue Bai walked back into the room. As expected, Sang Wan’s eyes landed straight on her.
Perhaps because she wasn’t wearing her glasses, Sang Wan’s eyes were half-lidded, her palm pressed against one cheek.
“Senior Sister, I’m done washing.” Yue Bai’s scalp tingled. She stood frozen by the bed.
Sang Wan gave her a few more glances and shifted over a bit. “Mm, come on up. Don’t catch a chill.”
Yue Bai bit the tip of her tongue and climbed into bed without looking sideways. She lay propped against the headboard, scrolling aimlessly on her phone to distract herself.
“Little Bai, when are you coming back?” Xu Nuo had messaged her a few minutes ago.
“Sunday,” Yue Bai replied.
“Your foot’s pretty much healed, right?” Xu Nuo asked next.
“Yeah, I can walk normally now,” Yue Bai said.
She set her phone down. The warmth on her abdomen was impossible to ignore.
Yue Bai took a deep breath, her abdomen dipping slightly inward.
Sang Wan’s hand rested on Yue Bai’s stomach, her whole body pressed against Yue Bai’s.
“So tired.” Sang Wan murmured, nuzzling closer. Her palm pressed against Yue Bai’s soft abdomen and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Yue Bai’s already tense body stiffened even more. She lay flat on her back, her hands pressed tightly to her sides.
“Little Bai, could you turn off the light?” Sang Wan asked softly, her chin buried in Yue Bai’s shoulder.
“Oh, sure.” Yue Bai seized the chance to sit up. Sang Wan’s hand naturally slid to her leg.
After Yue Bai turned off the light and lay back down, the hand dutifully returned to her abdomen.
In the darkness, every sensation was heightened. Yue Bai stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, not the least bit sleepy.
Sang Wan’s arm felt like a massive boulder pressing down, making it hard to breathe. Yue Bai couldn’t convince herself it didn’t matter.
“Not sleepy?” Sang Wan’s face was pressed to Yue Bai’s shoulder, her voice muffled.
“Not really,” Yue Bai admitted honestly.
“Then play on your phone for a bit. Senior Sister’s going to sleep first.” With that, Sang Wan rolled over onto her back. Her hand left Yue Bai’s abdomen, moving to rest crossed over her own.
“Okay.” Yue Bai instantly felt much lighter. She obediently picked up her phone and, using the faint glow of the screen, sneaked a glance at the person with eyes gently closed.
Perfect facial contours, exquisite features—they came together to form Sang Wan’s stunning beauty. Yue Bai couldn’t help swallowing, reluctant to look away.
During the Sports Meet, aside from a brief trip midway to cheer on her classmates, Yue Bai spent the rest of her time at the Teachers’ Apartment.
Sang Wan, meanwhile, hugged her laptop as she researched materials and worked on homework that Yue Bai couldn’t understand.
The day after the Sports Meet ended, a post that had sunk down was quietly bumped back to the top.
On Saturday, Yue Bai was woken by the relentless chatter bombarding the Dorm Group Chat. Irritated, she muted her phone and rolled over to keep sleeping.
Sang Wan sat propped against the bed with her laptop, her slender fingers flying across the keyboard. She leaned over and smoothed the frown from Yue Bai’s brow, caused by her poor sleep.
Looking at the increasingly popular post, Sang Wan closed her laptop with satisfaction.
She stretched her back and set the computer on the bedside table.
“Don’t move.” Yue Bai let out a soft hum, one arm wrapping around Sang Wan’s raised waist. In her drowsy state, her hand slid up and down a couple of times restlessly before finally settling into a comfortable position.
“Mmm, I won’t.” Sang Wan lowered her gaze to the pale, slender hand at her waist. Any thought of getting up vanished like smoke in the wind under Yue Bai’s embrace.
When Yue Bai woke again, she found herself plastered against Sang Wan’s body—her arm draped over the other woman’s waist, one leg hooked over Sang Wan’s thigh.
She had no trace of a proper sleeping posture.
Yue Bai twitched the corner of her mouth and instinctively withdrew her limbs, scooting backward in a hurry.
“You’re awake?” Sang Wan chuckled, rubbing her temples with amusement.
“Senior Sister,” Yue Bai said apologetically. “That wasn’t on purpose. I usually sleep perfectly fine.”
“Mmm.” Sang Wan picked up the thread naturally. “We’ve shared a bed several times now.”
“But…” She pivoted with a sly smile. “You said some things in your sleep.”
“What things?” Yue Bai asked, curiosity piqued.
“Are you sure you want to know?” Sang Wan met her eyes seriously.
“Not really.” Yue Bai pursed her lips. She dreaded the thought of having spouted something foolish, but…
“Never mind, Senior Sister. Just tell me.” Yue Bai steeled herself with a resolute look.
“You said…” Sang Wan hesitated a moment before finishing, “I really want to hug Senior Sister’s little belly and sleep like this every day.”
“Fu—!” The last syllable caught in Yue Bai’s throat. Her mouth hung half-open—this did sound exactly like the kind of nonsense she might mutter.
“And at the end, you even giggled like an idiot a couple of times,” Sang Wan added.
“Wahhh, Senior Sister, stop! I’ve got no face left to show in this world.” Yue Bai buried her face in her hands. How could she have uttered something so mortifying?
“Mmm.” Sang Wan’s lips curved in a gentle smile.
Little junior sister—you’re so easy to tease.
