097 Tattoo Stickers
On Friday night, in Longhu Residential Community.
Qin Ren, who had just finished working overtime, was rubbing his tired eyes with one hand and petting Tuantuan in his arms with the other, lounging on the sofa.
The TV wasn’t on demand, but was showing various live channels.
Actually, there wasn’t much to watch on the satellite channels. The content was not as exciting or targeted as on-demand. But since it was called a TV, Qin Ren still liked to turn on the live broadcast and watch whatever came on, just like when he was a child.
What he watched wasn’t important. It was the feeling that mattered.
“Tuantuan.”
“Meow?”
“Have you gotten fat? Let me see if your butt is fat.”
“Meow~”
The little furball shyly stuck out her bottom. Her breed had always been unknown, so some of her features were actually always different from ordinary cats.
For example, her bottom was always clean, and the smell of her litter box was always much lighter than that of ordinary cats, even having a hint of a musky scent. Qin Ren had even imagined more than once whether the civet coffee made by Tuantuan would be more fragrant than that of ordinary cats.
“You’ve really gotten fat. Tsk tsk, your little fleshy bottom is on par with Sister Yun’s.”
“Meow…”
“No, no, I’m not disgusted. It’s good to be a little fat here.”
“Goo-gee~”
Qin Ren was teasing Tuantuan. A certain slime also wanted to join in. A string of bubbles came from the bathtub on the coffee table, and the shape of a peach appeared on the surface of the gelatinous water.
“Mizhi, you can’t.”
“Goo?”
Qin Ren poked the surface of the water.
“You’re still young. Don’t make such unhealthy jokes.”
…
To be able to relax and pet a cat and a slime after a hard day’s work was a luxury that Qin Ren could not have imagined before. But it was different now.
With a virtuous snake at home, Qin Ren could eat a hot meal before 10 p.m. and didn’t even have to wash the dishes after dinner. On Mondays and Tuesdays, Yu Yourong would wash with Luo Yao. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Yu Yourong would wash with her master.
And like today, the clattering in the kitchen was his older sister, Gu Qing, who had come home on Friday, washing the dishes with Yu Yourong.
The two girls didn’t talk much, but occasionally, a soft whisper could still be heard. Qin Ren got up and walked over, poking his head in through the crack in the door with a grin. The two girls both glared at him, which made Qin Ren very puzzled.
“I’m just kindly visiting. What’s with the look?”
“Nothing.”
Gu Qing scrubbed a plate and hummed.
“We were just talking about how annoying you are.”
“Sister Qing told me about how you unhooked a girl’s bra strap in school…”
Yu Yourong was embarrassed to even say it. She glared at him again softly.
“…Ge, so you’ve always been such a pervert…”
“Rumors! Don’t listen to her, Yourong. This girl is twisting the story. At that time, the girl in front of me was too annoying. She would always lean on my desk when she was shaking her leg in class, so I got my revenge.”
“Hehe, wasn’t it you who first… hey~ what are you doing, let go…”
Qin Ren’s arm wrapped around Gu Qing’s soft waist from behind, his chin resting on her small shoulder, not letting his sister continue to expose him.
“Shh—, Jie, you wash. I’ll watch you.”
“…”
Although his sister usually didn’t mind, there was an outsider present, after all. Seeing that Yu Yourong had deliberately turned her head away, she couldn’t help but feel shy. She let out a soft huff and patted her little brother’s large hand, which was covering her waist, with the loofah in her hand.
“Wash my ass. I’m going to the bathroom. Let go.”
“Alright.”
Qin Ren let go. After his sister went out, he turned his head and happened to catch Yu Yourong’s stunned little face as she was peeking, and also the faint resentment in her eyes.
“Cough, Yourong…”
“…”
Yu Yourong blinked her eyes and hastily turned her face away to continue washing the dishes.
Qin Ren went over and used the same old trick, his body pressing against her warm and soft back, the hand on her waist thoughtfully avoiding her reverse scale.
“Thanks for your hard work.”
Qin Ren also rested his chin on classmate Yu Yourong’s shoulder and watched her wash.
“A hug for you too.”
“I… I didn’t want one…”
How did her brother see through her little thoughts? Yu Yourong blushed and wondered.
“Even if you don’t want one, I have to give you one. Older sister, younger sister, it’s all the same. I’m not biased.”
Achieving peace is not easy, and maintaining it is even harder. Qin Ren had gradually begun to consciously learn the way of balance, both at home and at the company.
There was no other way. A man who was both a younger brother and an older brother would always have more difficulties than an ordinary man. He would have to pay more attention to such details in the future.
———————
When his sister came back, Qin Ren had already slipped back to the living room and was lying on the sofa, watching TV and playing on his phone.
In the living room, Master Yu was engrossed in a game. Luo Yao stood behind her, one hand on the back of the chair, the other eating an egg roll, sometimes looking at the computer, sometimes at Yu Ling’er, just like a primary school student in an internet cafe who has no money to go online and can only watch the adults play games.
But in fact, the Pixiu was not that interested in League of Legends. She was just looking at Yu Ling’er with a thoughtful expression, her eyes flashing, who knows what she was thinking.
“Luo Yao, do you want to play?” Yu Ling’er turned her head and gently probed her former mount.
Luo Yao shook her head. Yu Ling’er smiled slightly and said no more.
Logically speaking, although compared to the ripe housewife next door, Yu Ling’er had a stronger “newlywed” flavor, the heart-pounding feeling she gave when she smiled was not at all less than a housewife’s.
It was just that once she entered the game state, this charm of hers would be discounted by all sorts of stupid operations.
She now usually played one match for every five games. Qin Ren had already turned off the chat and, on the grounds that “the chat box will increase CPU power consumption and cause the computer to explode,” had instructed Yu Ling’er not to open it. So throughout the game, Yu Ling’er did not see any of her teammates praising her.
“What is this?”
Luo Yao watched her play for a while and pointed at “Mejai’s Soulstealer” in the item bar. It looked like it had layers and seemed very delicious.
“This is the Soulstealer.”
Yu Ling’er couldn’t multitask. After a mumbled reply, she continued to fight. Luo Yao then turned and flipped over the sofa, into the arms of a certain corporate slave.
“Qin Ren, Qin Ren, this eminence wants to eat shrimp crisps.”
“You dummy, she said Soulstealer. Come, repeat after me. Soul, steal, er.”
“Shrimp~ crisp~”
“…”
This time it was obviously on purpose. The little girl chirped, giggled mischievously, and comfortably rubbed in Qin Ren’s arms for a good while before she settled down and started to play Landlords.
“By the way, Master Yu.”
Qin Ren didn’t forget to remind Yu Ling’er behind him.
“The hero you’re playing now is called Irelia. The Soulstealer is useless.”
“Huh?”
Yu Ling’er had missed it before. Only now did she notice that the Soulstealer increased magic damage. For every kill or assist, her ability power would increase, and it would decrease if she died.
“Then why isn’t there a Sword of the Occult?”
Yu Ling’er felt it was unfair. A sword was so good, handsome and useful. Back on the Myriad Demon Continent, when she was slaying the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons, Yu Ling’er basically killed one with each sword strike.
“Actually, there was one a long time ago. But because a player called [Vincent] was too strong with it, the Sword of the Occult was removed.”
“He’s that good?”
Actually, this was probably a rumor. But people always enjoy legendary stories. Yu Ling’er’s eyes also sparkled as she listened, and she immediately opened a website to search.
“What’s his name again?”
“Vincent.”
“Wo-en-wen, si-en-sen…”
Yu Ling’er was still using the one-finger technique to type. She pressed the three letters WST on the keyboard one by one, and without looking carefully, she pressed enter. As a result, she found that she had typed the three characters for “Vincent” as “tattoo sticker,” and then some strange pictures came up, all of women’s exposed white bellies with inexplicably seductive flower vines…
“Did you find it?”
“No… no! I’ll search later!”
Yu Ling’er was startled and closed the browser, her pretty face flushed red.
Tattoo stickers…
Yu Ling’er was very embarrassed. There was actually such a seductive thing on Earth.
And…
And she didn’t know if she was remembering wrong, but these flower-vine-like tattoo stickers, she always felt that they were very similar to the demon patterns on those Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons…
————————
Yu Ling’er was quite emotional about this kind of seductive tattoo sticker. At the same time, the single mother, Su Yu, next door, who had just finished her shower, was also sighing at a similar flower vine.
The only difference was that Yu Ling’er was in front of a computer screen, while Su Yu was in front of a mirror in the bathroom.
In the lingering white steam, the beautiful woman’s devilish, curvaceous figure was half-hidden in the reflection in front of the mirror. Below her small, button-like navel, a magnificent flower vine pattern was branded on her snow-white lower abdomen, in the shape of a pair of flying wings. It looked like a tattoo, but its fineness and naturalness were far beyond the level of a simple tattoo. It could only be described as if it were natural.
A faint sorrow was on Su Yu’s brow. This was a side she had never shown in front of her daughter, Tang Bobo.
After staring at the mirror for a while, she got dressed, went to the bedroom, and gently tucked in the already sleeping Tang Bobo. Then she lay down on her side by her daughter, opened her phone, and clicked on the news about the recent blood moon in her browser, scrolling through them one by one, unable to sleep for a long time…
***
Translator’s Notes
-
Shrimp crisps / Soulstealer (虾仁酥 / 杀人书): A pun. Luo Yao mishears “shārén shū” (杀人书, Soulstealer) as the similar-sounding “xiārén sū” (虾仁酥, shrimp crisps).
-
WST / Tattoo sticker (纹身贴): Yu Ling’er tries to type the pinyin for “Wén-sēn-tè”(Vincent) but only gets the first letters, “WST.” This happens to be the pinyin for “wénshēn tiē” (纹身贴), which means “tattoo sticker.”
