TSDT - 40

He didn’t move. Amidst her struggles, he held her tighter, burying his face in her long hair, breathing deeply, as if drawing energy from her warmth and scent.

His muffled voice came out: “Grandma’s sick.”

Jiang Ying seemed to be on pause. The barrage of “blows” ended. Suddenly, she couldn’t speak, stuck for half a minute before she finally managed to ask:

“What kind of illness? How is she now?” She kept her voice very, very soft.

“Pneumonia, she’s much better now... The day I went back, she fainted due to low blood pressure. My aunt called and said that the check-up showed a shadow on her lung... so I went back. Thankfully, it was just pneumonia.”

He spoke these few sentences with immense difficulty.

Opening up wasn’t easy, especially for someone so accustomed to being aloof, who had never revealed his true feelings to anyone throughout his life.

But she asked twice, squeezing out these emotions he tried to hide, little by little.

He didn’t want to appear this vulnerable, but... he couldn’t help it.

Saying it out loud, surprisingly, felt much lighter.

Jiang Ying turned around, gently embracing him face to face, comforting him: “It’s good that she’s okay.”

Their breaths mingled. He craved her gentleness, completely indulging himself.

“I wasn’t ready. My grandma has always been very healthy.”

“...But Grandpa was also very healthy, and then he suddenly passed away, with no warning at all.”

“Do you think... in the future, it’s really a matter of, seeing her once less each time?”

It was the first time he had such an intense feeling that, in this world, he would eventually be left alone. So, all the random thoughts, both significant and insignificant, that he had mulled over for years, poured out like beans, without logic or restraint.

It was hard to articulate what it felt like to hear these words.

Like dry, stiff tea leaves steeped in hot water, becoming soft, yet more resilient.

“Can’t you do math?” Jiang Ying squeezed his firm jaw, poking it repeatedly with her thumb like a stamp, her tone leaving no room for doubt, “Of course it’s seeing her once more each time.”

He gazed steadily at her. In the extremely faint light, he could only make out her general outline, but he knew her eyes must be as sincere, firm, and pure as ever.

“You’re right,” he said.

The corners of Jiang Ying’s mouth curved. Her hands clasped his shoulder and arm, and they clung to each other like magnets, leaving no gap between them.

She intentionally teased him: “You rushed back so eagerly; Grandma must have been very happy, right?”

“Mm, yes, she was quite happy.”

At this moment, he remembered what his grandmother had said. He remembered that feeling of emptiness when he returned home tonight, a feeling that had nothing to do with the physical space. The person he was thinking of wasn’t by his side, and no matter what, he couldn’t feel at ease.

“What about you?” he suddenly asked.

“Hm?”

“Are you happy? With me.” His nose brushed against hers, their chests pressed together. Every word he uttered was wrapped in softness and a hint of probing, inviting her resonance.

Women probably have a perverse tendency to be unable to resist being depended upon.

Why am I so intimate with you, why am I so honest, why do I value your feelings so much?

Don’t pretend to be deaf and mute anymore.

Receiving the vulnerability of an arrogant person comes at a price.

She was emotional, driven by impulse. In this moment, the urge to embrace him outweighed everything else. She decided to go for it.

Just like this, it might not be bad.

“Not bad,” she said.

________________________________________

That night, Jiang Ying had a bizarre dream. She dreamt she was on a group tour to space, and her phone signal was terrible. The group, dressed in bulky spacesuits, followed their guide to a tree that was fenced off as a tourist attraction.

The guide introduced it: “This is the first plant successfully grown by Earthlings on this planet. We’re wearing masks now, so we can’t smell its fragrance... This 2.7-meter tall tree in front of us is actually mint. Surprising, isn’t it? A tiny plant on Earth growing so robustly here. The reason is that it absorbed YN elements from the soil here, causing a mutation...”

Jiang Ying, shaking her phone while scrolling Weibo, hadn’t even finished marveling that this giant was mint when she was completely stunned by the information that popped up—

She had won a grand prize, becoming the second XX treasure Koi in the entire country!

The official website was privately messaging her, asking for her contact information and address.

But then the signal cut out again. Her reply couldn’t be sent no matter what, yet she could still receive replies from the other end. The official website stated that if they couldn’t reach her within an hour, they would redraw.

Jiang Ying was frantic, sweating profusely, and yanked off her mask. A violent dizzy spell hit her, and she suddenly remembered she was still in space and would lack oxygen without a mask. So she quickly tried to put it back on.

Just then, a fierce wind blew up. The 2.7-meter mint plant suddenly transformed into a monstrous, clawing creature. With a flick of its branches, it knocked off everyone’s masks, and amidst everyone’s terror, it let out a laugh similar to Luban No. 7’s: “Traveling to space comes at a price... Hahahaha hahahaha...”

Jiang Ying couldn’t breathe. Her survival instinct made her jolt awake!

She opened her eyes, gasping for air, and found that most of her face was squashed into the pillow; she had slept on her stomach all night.

And Meng Jingshu... was lying on her back, almost flattening her.

Jiang Ying used her last bit of strength to push him away. Air slowly returned to her lungs, and she escaped.

Meng Jingshu was awakened, opening his eyes groggily. Of course, he didn’t know someone had almost been suffocated by his weight. He instinctively sought closeness and pulled her back into his arms.

Jiang Ying had no strength to resist. She squinted, complaining softly, “I’m so dizzy, Meng Jingshu... I dreamt I went to space, and I was oxygen-deprived, my heart was pounding, my head hurt, I felt like I was going to die from dizziness, and I even lost a big prize, and it turned out you caused it all! Don’t sleep on your stomach anymore... I’m about to be flattened,” she exaggerated, “If you gained ten more pounds, I might actually die.”

Waking up to her mumbling with a nasal voice, Meng Jingshu chuckled softly, kissing her face and head several times.

“Headache? I’ll give you a rub.”

As he spoke, he reached to touch her head.

His voice was hoarse from sleep, a little muddled and completely relaxed, clearly not focusing on the main points of what she was saying.

“Oh, stop,” Jiang Ying pushed his hand away. “I told you not to sleep on your stomach; it’s bad for your heart, really bad, and you drool easily. You’re not allowed to sleep on your stomach anymore, understand?”

Meng Jingshu said nothing, burying his face in her hair, his muffled laughter shaking her.

Why is he giggling like an idiot so early in the morning?

Jiang Ying was annoyed. She turned and pinched him. The man had a low body fat percentage, and his waist and abdomen were firm. She tried several times but couldn’t pinch any flesh, so she poked him in frustration.

“Speak up, did you hear me?”

Jiang Ying kicked him, hooked his calf with her own, and held him tight. She was entirely enveloped in his embrace.

“Got it, Teacher Jiang. From now on, please... make sure you supervise me well.”

A breathy, laughing sound brushed past Jiang Ying’s ear, and Meng Jingshu gently sucked on her neck. Jiang Ying was fully awake, easily flushed by this person’s words and actions.

They lingered for a while, then the alarm rang, and they didn’t continue.

Jiang Ying lazily picked up her phone to play with, “Don’t want to get up... Five more minutes, please.”

Meng Jingshu also lingered with her, too comfortable to move.

He played with Jiang Ying’s hair, twirling a black, soft strand around his fingers.

“My friend is having a proposal ceremony this weekend. It’s quite a big deal. You should come with me.”

“Ah...” Jiang Ying hid her smile where he couldn’t see it, deliberately asking, “Why should I go with you?”

“Why not? You’ll have to meet my friends sooner or later,” he said, as if it were obvious.

Jiang Ying wasn’t looking for sweet talk. His meaning was clear, and she had made her decision, so there was no need to be coy.

Just as she was about to readily agree, she heard him say again: “Those kinds of occasions are for bringing plus-ones. Only lonely people go by themselves.”

“...”

Plus-one...

Damn it.

Her face flushed again.

She was so numb she couldn’t speak.

Meng Jingshu was a little anxious, holding her and shaking her back and forth: “Are you saying yes, are you saying yes...”

Jiang Ying’s voice was almost shaking apart: “Oh, oh, oh, oh... yes, yes, fine?”

He was satisfied, stopped shaking her, and instead squeezed her hand, whispering something.

Jiang Ying heard it in one ear and out the other.

She was spacing out, thinking about how a proposal ceremony sounded so grand. Should she buy a new dress? And new shoes to go with it...

“...Don’t worry, no one will talk nonsense...”

What nonsense?

My foundation looks a bit oxidized, that’s real...

“...Actually, when I went back to Nanqing... I investigated...”

Investigated?

Wait.

“When is your friend’s proposal? I’m on a business trip Friday and Saturday.” Jiang Ying snapped out of it, remembering her work schedule. One of their consulting clients in a neighboring city was doing an acquisition, and they had to go investigate the target company. It was a time arranged by multiple parties and couldn’t be changed.

Meng Jingshu paused.

“...Saturday.” He squeezed her hand hard.

“Mm... I’ll be back very late on Saturday, I think.”

“Then never mind,” Meng Jingshu said with regret, but there was nothing to be done, “Next time.”

Jiang Ying chuckled: “Are you cursing your friend’s proposal to fail?”

Meng Jingshu hummed and then leaned over to nibble her ear. Jiang Ying laughed, shrinking her shoulders, but hugged by him, she had nowhere to hide. The light nibbling eventually turned into kisses, and she enjoyed the intimacy he gave.

Seeing a new message on WeChat, she didn’t even think to hide it and opened it directly—

“Good morning, Miss!~”

“It’s not raining today, a good day! Hope you have a great one!”

“...”

The screen was right in front of them, and Meng Jingshu’s gaze casually swept over it.

“Who’s this?” His voice immediately turned several degrees colder. “Sucking up so early in the morning.”

Hmm... Jiang Ying suddenly felt a little guilty.

This was a lingering effect from that outing with Xiaoman and her boyfriend... A few singles in their office had been pestering the junior male student to set them up, and Jiang Ying had joined in the teasing at the time. Unexpectedly, the junior student took it seriously and showed their group photo to his friends. So, one of these younger guys took a liking to Jiang Ying and had been diligently sending her good morning, good afternoon, and good night messages these past few days.

She absolutely couldn’t let Meng Jingshu know this.

She said: “It’s probably a WeChat vendor.”

Meng Jingshu squinted: “This profile picture is a man. He sent a message last night too. Were there others before?”

Jiang Ying: “Yes, why is he so annoying? I’ll delete him right away!”

To prevent Meng Jingshu from getting annoyed and checking the chat history, potentially exposing her lie, she decided to act first and ruthlessly delete this good morning/afternoon/night enthusiast.

She’d apologize to Xiaoman later.

Meng Jingshu supervised the entire process, seemingly approving of this solution.

He had developed the habit of getting up first to get her clothes. Today, he even directly helped her put them on, pulling the thermal underwear over her head, causing her long hair to be pulled tight against her scalp.

Jiang Ying glared at him speechlessly.

Only then did he lose his composure and chuckle, then sternly warned: “You better be more conscious from now on!”