Chapter 12: Can I Have Congee?

Can I have congee?[1]

As Jiang Miao gazed at the beautiful Senior Sister, these words subconsciously popped into his mind.

Fortunately, he had excellent self-control and didn’t blurt it out.

Otherwise, he would have seemed like a creep.

“Coffee, please,” Jiang Miao said.

He had gone to bed late last night, had been woken up halfway through his noon nap, and had been under the sun for more than an hour in the sweltering afternoon. He was feeling quite tired.

“No way. The coffee is mine.” Su Huaizhou guarded the coffee in her right hand like a protective mother hen while handing the cocoa in her left hand to Jiang Miao. “Here, this one’s for you.”

Jiang Miao: “…”

Then why did you even ask me??

“If you had chosen the cocoa voluntarily, it would have made me seem really considerate.” Su Huaizhou smirked. She pulled a chair over, plopped down, stretched her legs, and exhaled deeply. “I’m exhausted.”

“Thank you, Senior Sister.” Jiang Miao picked up the cocoa on the desk, took a sip, and planned to leave immediately. “Okay, I won’t disturb you anymore.”

“Hey!” Su Huaizhou extended a leg to block his way. “Don’t go. Stay for a while.”

Jiang Miao glanced down at her straight, slender leg wrapped in cropped pants and said helplessly, “Senior Sister, this isn’t appropriate. After all, it’s the Youth Association’s office.”

“Relax. The second-years haven’t started school yet. For the next few days, it’s just me and your Senior Sister Qi in the office.” Su Huaizhou waved her hand and pointed at the chair in front of the desk. “You’ve already drunk my cocoa. The least you can do is chat with me for a bit, right?”

At this point, Jiang Miao felt it was too impolite to leave.

He sat down with the cocoa in his hand and looked at the charming and radiant Senior Sister before looking around the empty office.

Why does it feel like an ambiguous scene from a novel?

He had promised himself to keep a distance from Senior Sister Su, but somehow, he got further and further away until she was right beside him.

It was ridiculous.

Jiang Miao sighed inwardly and resigned himself to the situation.

He might as well consider it as collecting material for his writing.

As long as he was careful with his words and didn’t expose his identity as Peach Jam, it should be fine.

“You read it yesterday, right? The content creator novel.” Su Huaizhou retracted her leg and pressed her legs together when he sat down and sipped the coffee in her hand. “What do you think?”

“… Not bad.”

“Be specific. Any particular thoughts?” She leaned in closer, her curiosity evident.

Jiang Miao looked at Senior Sister up close. Her fair, oval face and peach blossom eyes accentuated by a teardrop mole were so captivating that he subconsciously leaned back in his chair.

As for his thoughts…

What can I possibly say about his own novel?

Should I praise myself for my excellent skill in writing sweet romance scenes or commend my ‘experience’ comparable to veterans of love?

In this situation, facing Senior Sister, there was no way he could say any of that.

“Well… it’s more in line with typical male fantasies,” Jiang Miao replied vaguely and tactfully. “I didn’t expect you’d enjoy reading stories where girls chase boys.”

“Because I’m curious.” Su Huaizhou smiled. “People have been pursuing me since I was young, so I’m quite curious about what it’s like for girls to chase boys.”

That’s a pretty confident statement… If you weren’t as good-looking as Senior Sister, wouldn’t saying something like that get you beaten up?

“Even so, you can’t use it as a reference… The author could just be imagining things.”

“Who said that? Peach Jam is a female author, and girls definitely understand girls well.”

Jiang Miao: “…”

Fuck, I can’t talk with her anymore.

Just when we were having a pleasant chat, she suddenly brought that up. How can the conversation keep going?

When he wrote, it was all based on his imagination.

How his ideal girlfriend should be to make him happy, that was what he wrote.

He didn’t care how girls actually thought…

But when it came to Senior Sister, why did it become Peach Jam being so understanding of girls?

From the time he left his mother’s womb, he had been solo until now. What did he know about girls?

He hadn’t even held hands before.

Seeing that Jiang Miao was silent, Su Huaizhou moved her face closer and looked at him carefully. “Junior Brother, are you shy?”

She had severe nearsightedness. If she didn’t wear glasses, she had to be very close to see other people’s expressions clearly.

“… No.” Jiang Miao lowered his head and drank the cocoa, thinking, I wasn’t shy at first. But Senior Sister, anyone would blush when you got this close.

Right now, he only wanted to return to his dorm room and check his recommendation spot and author’s dashboard, wondering how many more reading lists he was on in one afternoon.

With this thought in mind, Jiang Miao’s gaze suddenly landed on the laptop on the desk. “Senior Sister, can I use the laptop?”

“Sure.” Su Huaizhou nodded, placed her coffee on the desk, and stood up. “Feel free to use it. I’m going to the restroom.”

Jiang Miao didn’t stand on ceremony and reached out to press a key.

But just as Senior Sister was about to leave, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and said anxiously, “Wait!”

The laptop had been in sleep mode. After a key press, it automatically brought up the previously browsed page.

But before Jiang Miao could see what was on the screen, Senior Sister had already snatched the laptop away.

In the hurried glance, he could only vaguely make out the Xidian website and a frame resembling some drawing software in the bottom right corner.

Since he didn’t see it clearly, he wasn’t sure if he had seen it correctly.

But seeing how anxious Senior Sister looked, it felt a little fishy.

“Um… it’s some personal stuff,” Su Huaizhou explained vaguely. After making a few changes, she handed the laptop to Jiang Miao. “Okay, don’t go through my files. I’m going to the restroom.”

Jiang Miao was very curious about Senior Sister’s personal stuff, but he knew to respect her privacy.

Some things might not mean much to a person, but if others knew about them, it could be very embarrassing.

For example, his pen name.

He could understand this feeling, so he wouldn’t intentionally snoop around.

After Senior Sister left the office, he opened the browser’s incognito mode, logged into the Xidian website, and took out his phone to open the author’s dashboard.

On the other side, after Su Huaizhou walked out of the office, she held her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately. That was a close call. I almost exposed myself.

She had been looking at the featured recommendation for Peach Jam’s new novel on her laptop, and the browsing page was still on the New Arrivals section.

Moreover, she had had her drawing tablet connected. In the morning, she had stayed in the office to accompany Qi Lianyue while drawing the female lead illustration that she had promised Peach Jam.

If Jiang Miao had seen the initial draft just now, her identity as Congee Boss would have been instantly exposed.

What a close call…

So exciting.

It was quite amusing to think that Jiang Miao didn’t know Congee Boss was Senior Sister, but Senior Sister already knew that he was Peach Jam and her junior brother.

She couldn’t expose her identity so soon.

Previously, she had felt that meeting Peach Jam wouldn’t be a big deal. After all, they were both girls, so there was nothing to be shy about.

But after finding out that Peach Jam was actually a boy, Su Huaizhou changed her mind.

If possible, she had to ensure that Jiang Miao never found out she was Congee Boss!

After all, before this, she had stayed up all night sharing lewd pictures with Peach Jam…

Sometimes, they would even intensely discuss explicit storylines.

All sorts of dirty jokes would come out.

Since they were both girls, and it was rare to meet a kindred spirit to chat with online, she had never thought much about it before.

But thinking back on it now, Su Huaizhou only felt her head was about to turn into a steamy, dirty kettle, both hot and dizzy.

It was better not to let him find out.

Let her remain an excellent and outstanding senior sister.

As for Congee Boss, she didn’t know him at all!

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The zhou (粥) in Su Huaizhou’s name (苏怀粥) means congee. So it’s like he’s saying, “Can I have you?”↩