Chapter 21: Cute
With a slight tilt of her head, Wen Yu’s cheek gently pressed against Ye Qizhen’s hair. Meanwhile, Ye Qizhen’s hand was still stroking back and forth on her waist, and her leg was rubbing against hers intermittently.
Wen Yu closed her eyes again, sleep completely gone.
After a while, the person beside her finally settled down, simply resting her arm quietly on her waist. Rustling sounds came from beside her ear; Qi Yun must have turned off the light and gone to bed.
Listening to the sound of raindrops.
Not knowing when she finally fell asleep.
Wen Yu’s sleep quality had always been poor; not only did she fall asleep late, but she also slept lightly. She woke up easily at night. Tonight was the same, but discovering Ye Qizhen clinging to her, a ball of warmth, she surprisingly felt comfortable and at ease.
Around six in the morning, Wen Yu woke up naturally. The room was only dimly lit. She looked at the side of the pillow; Ye Qizhen’s head was rubbing against her shoulder, still sound asleep.
She subconsciously touched Ye Qizhen’s forehead.
Not hot, the fever was gone.
Ye Qizhen twisted her head, woken by Wen Yu’s small movements. Her expression was dazed, not because she was uncomfortable, but because she hadn’t slept enough. Her voice when she just woke up was soft and muddled. Looking vaguely at Wen Yu’s face, she asked, “What time is it?”
Seeing she hadn’t slept enough, Wen Yu whispered, “Still early, go back to sleep.”
“Mn,” Ye Qizhen hummed, closing her eyes quickly again, as if she couldn’t keep them open for another half second. Then, in less than half a minute, she fell asleep again.
“Ye Qizhen?” Wen Yu tried calling her name softly, but there was no reaction; she had actually fallen asleep.
Wen Yu originally wanted to get up, but Ye Qizhen, sleeping in, became more unrestrained. After turning over, she hugged her directly, and casually lifted her leg to pin down Wen Yu’s legs firmly.
This sleeping posture…
A clingy, coquettish energy.
Looking at Ye Qizhen’s face, Wen Yu just wanted to laugh. How did she do it? Clearly loving to cry and act coquettishly, yet usually pretending to be impeccable. Anyway, it was still early, and being hugged by Ye Qizhen was quite comfortable, so she squinted her eyes and went back to sleep.
Without an alarm clock, Ye Qizhen slept comfortably until she woke up naturally. When she woke up, she was the only one lying on the bed; Wen Yu was gone. She lifted the bed curtain a little to look out. The dorm was quiet, seeming empty of others.
Staying overnight in someone else’s dorm and sleeping this late, would she be despised? Ye Qizhen sat cross-legged on the bed, spacing out. She was like this when she just woke up; she had to space out for a minute first.
Before she finished spacing out, there was the sound of a key turning in the lock, and then the door was pushed open. Ye Qizhen poked her head out to look down. It was Wen Yu who came in, carrying two bags of breakfast in her hand.
“Finally awake?” Wen Yu honestly hadn’t seen anyone who could sleep as much as Ye Qizhen. She went to sleep at eleven last night, and now it was almost ten in the morning.
Ye Qizhen smiled embarrassedly. After carefully tidying up the bedding, she climbed down from the bed slowly.
“You went to buy breakfast?” Ye Qizhen recognized it from the packaging; it was the specialty soup dumplings from the Third Cafeteria. She had told Wen Yu once that they were delicious. “You went to the Third Cafeteria?”
The Third Cafeteria was far from this dormitory building, requiring a walk of ten to twenty minutes.
Wen Yu didn’t waste a word. “Go brush your teeth and wash your face, eat breakfast.”
“Mn, thank you.” Ye Qizhen watched Wen Yu unpacking and looked at Wen Yu’s profile, thinking it was truly a pity Tang Xiao couldn’t catch Wen Yu. But on second thought, it wasn’t a pity; she felt a girl like Wen Yu must be with someone who truly understood her.
Seeing Ye Qizhen staring blankly, Wen Yu stopped what she was doing and stepped forward to touch Ye Qizhen’s forehead again.
“Didn’t you touch it in the morning?” Ye Qizhen said.
“Seeing you look a bit dull, I thought the fever came back.” Wen Yu withdrew her hand.
“Where am I dull? I’m very bright and lively, okay?” Ye Qizhen smiled dazedly, defending herself.
“Okay, you’re bright and lively.” Wen Yu laughed at Ye Qizhen’s appearance and urged, “Go wash up quickly.”
Ye Qizhen: “You eat first.”
“Mn.”
Qi Yun went out to have fun early in the morning. Wen Yu pulled Qi Yun’s chair to her own desk, still waiting for Ye Qizhen to finish washing up so they could eat together; she would have a better appetite.
Soup dumplings, steamed dumplings, plus two bowls of plain porridge. After the fever broke, Ye Qizhen’s appetite immediately improved. Coupled with not eating much last night, her stomach was hungry. Seeing Ye Qizhen’s good appetite, Wen Yu was glad she ordered large portions for both the soup dumplings and steamed dumplings.
“Sorry to trouble you last night, thank you.” Ye Qizhen thanked Wen Yu again. After saying it, she felt she was too polite. Although she hadn’t known Wen Yu for long, it felt different from ordinary friends; politeness seemed strange instead.
Wen Yu drank porridge, looked at Ye Qizhen, smiled, and followed up with a completely unrelated sentence: “What did you dream about last night?”
“Huh?” Asked so abruptly by Wen Yu, Ye Qizhen felt guilty first. Her hand reaching for a soup dumpling stopped. “What did I do, talk in my sleep?”
She was worried she said something embarrassing and Wen Yu heard it. She was someone who cared about saving face, the kind where face could be eaten as rice.
“No,” Wen Yu said.
Good, no. Ye Qizhen breathed a secret sigh of relief and extended her chopsticks to pick up the soup dumpling again.
“You kept touching me.” Wen Yu added while looking at Ye Qizhen, her tone indifferent.
The air suddenly went quiet.
The soup dumpling Ye Qizhen hadn’t gripped firmly fell back into the bowl. Hearing this sentence from Wen Yu, she was meeting Wen Yu’s gaze. Although her reaction was fairly calm, she was numb with embarrassment and didn’t know what to say.
Wen Yu stared at Ye Qizhen. “My figure is okay, right?”
Ye Qizhen: “…”
Okay, completely numb.
Wen Yu laughed gloatingly, deciding not to tease Ye Qizhen anymore. Otherwise, someone would be too shy to eat the soup dumplings.
Teasing me again. She saw it; Wen Yu just liked bullying her. Ye Qizhen stammered and asked Wen Yu, “…Is my sleeping posture very bad?”
Wen Yu shook her head. “Quite cute.”
Ye Qizhen knew it; her sleeping posture must be terrible. She buried her head and drank a mouthful of porridge absent-mindedly, trying not to think about this embarrassing matter. But the more she tried not to think, the more it popped up in her mind.
Still guilty. She dreamed of Wen Yu last night, dreamed she was hugging Wen Yu’s slender waist face to face, and Wen Yu was holding her and coaxing her about something…
A fair hand reached over. Ye Qizhen came back to her senses; Wen Yu had pulled a tissue and was wiping the corner of her mouth for her. Meeting Wen Yu’s gaze, for some reason, she smiled smugly.
Wen Yu’s finger inadvertently brushed lightly across Ye Qizhen’s lower lip, rosy and soft. She suddenly remembered Qi Yun’s words: You’d think a girl’s lips are soft and want to kiss them…
When Ye Qizhen touched her waist and hugged her intimately, she had an indescribable feeling.
“Eat some more, there’s so much left.” Ye Qizhen thought Wen Yu ate too little; she would definitely be malnourished in the long run.
Thoughts pulled back, Wen Yu threw the tissue into the trash can. “You eat, I’m full.”
There were three steamed dumplings left in the bowl; Ye Qizhen had demolished most of them.
“Eat one more.” Ye Qizhen acted first and reported later, picking up a dumpling and bringing it to Wen Yu’s mouth. Remembering she used her own chopsticks, she didn’t even consider if Wen Yu minded.
Ye Qizhen fed it to her mouth, and Wen Yu decisively accepted the dumpling with her mouth, even though she hadn’t planned to eat anymore.
Ye Qizhen realized she overthought it. Seizing this opportunity, she picked up another one and fed it over. “Last one.”
Wen Yu paused, but helplessly ate it.
Ye Qizhen got into feeding her.
Seeing Ye Qizhen pick up the very last dumpling intending to feed it to her again, Wen Yu reacted quickly, grabbed Ye Qizhen’s hand, and stuffed the dumpling directly into Ye Qizhen’s mouth.
Ye Qizhen smiled with bulging cheeks. This breakfast was eaten too childishly.
Just a few days after recovering from the fever, Ye Qizhen caught the flu again, tossing and turning repeatedly for over a week. Coupled with Nancheng’s mostly cold and rainy days during this period, Ye Qizhen spent her time in a sickly state.
It wasn’t until the end of November that the weather showed signs of clearing up.
Ye Qizhen posted a screenshot of the weather on Moments showing sunny days for the next ten days. She captioned it: Mushrooms are growing on me, finally…
Wen Yu didn’t have many friends on WeChat, and she was used to muting others’ Moments. As a result, as soon as she opened Moments, more than half were updates from Ye Qizhen. Every time she scrolled past, she would casually like them.
As soon as the weather cleared, Ye Qizhen couldn’t stay idle, wandering around the school with her camera, taking pictures everywhere. So her recent Moments were all autumn scenes of the school.
Ye Qizhen actually really wanted to ask Wen Yu out for a photoshoot, but was afraid her skills weren’t good enough and felt a bit embarrassed.
In the evening, Wen Yu returned to the dorm and heard several people chatting. The girl holding a notebook was their class monitor.
“Climbing a mountain? No interest, no interest.” Qi Yun shook her head repeatedly in disdain. “What’s fun about climbing a mountain? It’s exhausting. Can’t you come up with some creative activities?”
“You come up with a creative activity for me.”
“How about a three-day tour or something?” Qi Yun said.
“You’re dreaming (thinking of peaches).” The monitor had given up on Qi Yun and went to incite the other two in the dorm. “Are you guys going? Just this weekend, leave in the morning and come back at night. Sign up, the scenery there is very good. It’s rare for the whole class to travel together.”
“Can we bring family members?”
“Sure, just tell me in advance.”
…
When the monitor turned and saw Wen Yu, she just smiled and didn’t plan to mention this to Wen Yu at all. After all, Wen Yu was too aloof and never participated in collective activities.
Wen Yu thought about it and picked up her phone to send a WeChat message to Ye Qizhen.
w: Our department is going mountain climbing this weekend, do you want to go?
Ye Qizhen was drinking milk, biting the straw. She replied: It’s not appropriate for me to participate in your department’s activity, right?
w: Can bring family members.
Doesn’t “family members” mean boyfriend or girlfriend? Ye Qizhen was a very rigorous person, thinking if everyone else brought their partners, wouldn’t she be very awkward?
y: Bring family members, why bring me?
Wen Yu just asked: Want to go? Heard the scenery is nice.
Ye Qizhen sucked a mouthful of milk. Between Wen Yu’s lines, she seemed to read a meaning that she really wanted her to go. She replied two words: Want to go.
She did want to go.
Could take the opportunity to take pictures of Wen Yu.
Wen Yu smiled at the phone screen.
w: Mn, I signed up.
After receiving the registration information voluntarily sent by Wen Yu, the monitor was shocked. Seeing Wen Yu say she wanted to bring a family member, shock opened the door for shock’s mom—shock arrived home.
