Jiang Chen silently stood up, and walked out of the room. I followed behind him, explaining, "You are my boyfriend, I misheard just now, I thought you were asking me what I was searching for."
He waved his hand and said, "I got it, you don't need to say it."
Basically, as someone who had just been likened to underwear, his reaction was overly unperturbed, this made me very uneasy, because if someone compared me to underwear, my reaction would at least be…… be more…… vulgar.
I watched Jiang Chen drag a suitcase from beside the sofa, dragging it into the room. I was very amazed, when I entered the door I was only focused on exclaiming about the air conditioner, I unexpectedly didn't discover that there was such a large suitcase next to the sofa.
I followed behind his back foolishly, "Why is there a suitcase? Are you going on a business trip tomorrow?"
"Go help me pour a glass of water." He said.
"Oh." I happily and diligently ran out to help him pour water.
Jiang Chen searched out a bottle of medicine from the suitcase, he poured out two pieces, then swallowed them down together with the water, I couldn't help but grab the bottle to have a look - Vitamin U Aluminium Hydroxide and Magnesium Trisilicate Tablets, suitable for the following diseases: Used for stomach, duodenal ulcerations, chronic gastritis, gastric hyperacidity, gastric cramps etcetera.
I asked him, "Your stomach hurts?"
"Mm." He sat by the bedside with his hand covering his stomach.
"You ate too much at dinner, you even ate my portion." I took a pillow and passed it over to him. "Use this to cover your stomach, it'll be a little more comfortable."
Jiang Chen pressed the pillow to his stomach, and said while furrowing his brows, "Clear out a layer of your wardrobe, and help me put the clothes in the suitcase in."
"Okay, I'll put them now, why not you lie down and sleep for a while." Looking at him with his creased eyebrows and wan complexion, I felt that my heart hurt exceedingly. There will always be that one person whom you would be willing to suffer in their place when you saw them in pain. Don't talk about keeping away clothes, even if it was collecting a dead body, I'd do it without hesitation.
I took down the clothes in the topmost layer of my wardrobe, that layer was used for me to put some clothes that I didn't normally wear, anyway Jiang Chen was tall, in that case it was good for me to put his clothes on top.
Till my clothes were all shifted into a bag, and his clothes were mostly in the wardrobe, I suddenly felt that something was wrong somewhere, I turned around to look at Jiang Chen, he was lying on my bed and flipping through a manga book idly.
I blinked my eyes slowly, and said, "Why do you want to place so many clothes at my place?"
He lowered the manga book, revealing two eyes, "This way, I wouldn't have to bring clothes to wash up and change into every time I come."
He did have a point, he wasn't wrong……
"Could you have brought too many clothes?" I tiptoed as I piled the clothes up.
"You're really short." He said, "Throw some clothes to me, I'm going to take a shower."
"You're still going to stay at my place tonight?" I turned around to ask him.
He threw the manga book aside easily, walked over, picked two pieces of clothing from the clothes I was carrying and said, "Pack the clothes nicely, I'm going to take a shower."
After he finished speaking, he patted my head, slung the clothes over his shoulder, and took large steps akin to that of an uncle as he walked out of my room.
I felt a sort of bewilderment that he wasn't answering all my questions, was this a misconception of mine……
When Jiang Chen finished showering and came out, he had only put on a blue checkered pair of trousers, his hair was dripping with water, the water droplets splashed onto his shoulder with pattering sounds, then slid down his shoulder towards his sturdy chest, then rolled towards his well-defined abdomen.
I swallowed my saliva, "That, the air conditioner is switched on, you had better wear your top."
"I'll wear it after I wipe myself dry." He lifted his hand and wiped at the water on his face, "Help me buy two towels tomorrow."
"I have a new one in my cupboard, I'll take it for you." I searched out the towel from my cupboard and passed it to him very excitedly, "I've already rinsed it with water, it's very clean, you can use it now."
"Darlie Toothpaste? Can you give me articles for daily use that are not freebies?" He pointed at the little black person's head that was embroidered on (the towel) and asked.
I said, "Can't you just regard it as embroidery? It's just that the design is a little more special. What's more, freebies from an economical point of view are the most cost-effective."
He scoffed disdainfully, "You had better know economics."
I nodded my head solemnly, "At least I know how to talk nonsense."
Jiang Chen shook his head helplessly, sat down at the bedside, and said, "Help me dry my hair."
I climbed onto the bed, moved around to behind his body and helped him dry his hair, his hair was very soft, and was somewhat brown, I used the towel to rub lightly, other than him giving me a glare when I couldn't help but pluck out a strand of hair that was partially golden in colour, the atmosphere was overall still considered to be not a bad one.
After I finished drying his hair, I leaned forward to rest on his shoulders, the act of drying one's hair sure was tiring.
During the night, I was sleeping in a half-conscious state, I vaguely sensed something brushing lightly at my neck area, when I sent a slap across I heard a soft bellow, "Chen Xiaoxi, are you a female boxer!"
I turned around dazedly to hug him, "What are you doing, not sleeping in the depth of the night?"
"I can't sleep."
"Why can't you?" As I spoke, my eyelids were about to close again.
Then, I felt a pain of my face being pulled, Jiang Chen was pinching my face as he said, "My stomach hurts."
A lack of sleep easily causes one to birth evil thoughts in their heart, for example, currently I wanted to say, if your stomach hurts, go to the side and continue hurting, if you harass me again I'll let you never have a chance to have a stomach ache again in your lifetime……
Thankfully, that humane part of me deep down in my heart kept on calling out, only then could I reluctantly prop my eyes open and say to him, "I'll go pour water and search for your medications for you."
As I spoke, I was about to climb up, he held me by the waist to stall me, "No need, accompany me to chat to distract me."
Having a heart-to-heart talk in the middle of the night was really, really bothersome.
But since I was mainly promoting my being kind and understanding in my identity as a girlfriend, so I could only raise my spirits to deal with him, "What do you want to chat about?"
He said, "Chat about anything at random."
Nah, you must be reasonable when you conduct yourself, you can't say that you yourself want to chat yet make me search for a topic of conversation, this sort of behaviour was extremely irresponsible, extremely outrageous, he deserved to be dragged out and shot dead a hundred times.
I, being such a modern and resounding female, naturally would not look for a topic of conversation of my own accord, so I said, "Did you do any surgeries today?"
"I didn't, I was doing outpatient consultations all day today."
"Oh." I thought for a while, then said again, "Do you think Hu Ran Ran is pretty?"
"Pretty."
"How pretty?"
"Prettier than you."
I pinched the flesh on his waist and wrung it around, "I'm the female lead in your story, be more courteous when you speak!"
He hugged me tightly with great force, it was the kind of tightness as if he was going to crush me to pieces, forcing me to have no choice but to let go of my hand that was pinching at his flesh.
I said, "Do you think that her beauty is enough to have a man forgive her past?"
I felt that if a woman was pretty enough to a certain degree, it would form an inevitable magic power, this sort of magic power would cause people to can't help but forgive her for all the wrongs she did. For example, Hu Ran Ran was so beautiful that she had the appearance of a vixen, so the fact that she was really a vixen was actually classified as an innate skill and a human right, if you didn't forgive her, then you would really be too petty.
Jiang Chen was silent for a while, then said, "To me, it's not enough."
I said, "Then do you think Wu Bosong will break up with her?"
He said, "What's it got to do with you if they break up."
Look at how he said that, in this day and age, the cost of housing, the cost of oil, the cost of meat, the cost of garlic, the cost of green beans, toxic milk powder*, toxic vaccines*, toxic shampoos*…… they were all claimed to have nothing to do with me, but my good friend going through a break-up was bound to have something to do with me, right, if not I'll really have no contributions to society. (T/N: If I'm not wrong, these are all infamous scandals in China. E.g. toxic milk powder - a scandal in 2008 where formula milk powder was found to be contaminated with melamine)
I said, "Of course it's got something to do with me, if they break up, I have to go and comfort a hurt Wu Bosong."
That's right, you didn't misjudge, I too didn't say anything wrong, I did have a cheap mouth, I did like to provoke Jiang Chen till he was really angry…… But most likely my behaviour was too obvious, Jiang Chen totally didn't have the reaction that a normal crafty 'black-bellied'* male lead ought to have, not only did he not push me down and use his mouth to block my mouth, he too didn't rip my clothes apart and carry out a forced round of circles and crosses*. (T/N: 'black-bellied'/腹黑 – referring to a personality trope of male lead in Chinese romance novels/dramas where the guy is secretly sly/manipulative/a bully [not really a negative connotation], you guys can google it for a better explanation…) (T/N: 'circles and crosses' – *coughs* it refers to exactly what you are thinking, I probably don't have to spell it out……)
He said, "Chen Xiaoxi, next time, be a little less obvious, it'll be easier to infuriate me."
It wasn't good for one to be too clever, life would lose a lot of fun.
Since I couldn't tease him, I might as well seriously investigate this with him, "You really think they will break up?"
"Not necessarily."
"Why?"
"Because I am not Wu Bosong."
If someone told you that they wanted to chat with you, but his answers to every single one of your questions all pushed you to a situation where your cold sweat flowed directly (as you thought) "what can I reply after this?", would you want to kill him, slaughter him, or shoot him dead?
I sighed and started out afresh, "Then if it was me, would you forgive me?"
Don't blame me for being tacky, the majority of women all liked to compare, if they asked you whether you thought this person was pretty, their next line would be, then am I prettier or is she prettier.
Jiang Chen was silent for as long as a century, then he said, "I would."
I was caught off guard, because I had originally already prepared myself to receive his harsh words, such as, "Of course I wouldn't! I will slaughter you! I hope that you will die of AIDS!" and so on. With such a word bursting forth from him suddenly, I was truly at a loss of what to do, I could only mumble and question closely like a fool, "Why? Didn't you say I'm not as pretty as she is? Why?"
He kissed my forehead, "Because (I) love (you) enough."
I don't know how much romantic words other people can hear when they date, in any case, I've never heard a single line, so when I heard that, I first doubted my ears, then I chewed on and considered these four words repeatedly and carefully, finally I was certain that this was a romantic line, only then did I begin to be touched after a delay, there was a large expanse of rumbling blank space left in my brain, I only felt that the stomach ache, the middle of the night, romantic words fished out from the hearts and the lungs*, these were truly too awesome! (T/N: 'fished out from the heart and the lungs' - meaning wholeheartedly, devotedly)
Just as I was immersing myself in the pink bubbly world constructed by those romantic words, I suddenly felt my pyjamas being lifted up.
My pink bubble was punctured with a pop, I couldn't help but roll my eyes, "Fellow student Jiang Chen, can your hand not touch me randomly?"
"I'm not."
I slapped his hand that was plastered on my stomach, "Then what is this?"
His tone of voice was very solemn and serious, "I'm not touching randomly, I'm touching very purposefully."
I rolled my eyes again, "Your stomach doesn't hurt anymore?"
"It still hurts, chatting was ineffective, let's do some other things for distraction."