CH 46

As Ms. Zhao’s voice faded away, Xiang Wan began to react.

Her face turned red as she apologized: “I’m sorry.”

Yu Zhou raised her eyes, seeing that Xiang Wan looked a bit at a loss. Without any expression, Yu Zhou cast a glance at her before saying, “Make a funny face.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll have to spend a lot of time explaining, if you make a funny face, I’ll forgive you.” She wasn’t really angry, but she really wanted to see the young lady make funny faces.

Xiang Wan cautiously asked her, “Make… a funny face?”

She had no idea how to do it.

So, Yu Zhou raised her hand to pull on Xiang Wan’s cheeks gently. Xiang Wan’s eyelashes twitched as her lips were pulled apart. It looked a bit ridiculous and dumb as she stared at Yu Zhou.

Hahaha! Seeing Xiang Wan, who was always so proud, being so funny made Yu Zhou happy.

Xiang Wan had never had her face pinched before, so she was stunned and felt a little pain. Instinctively, she raised her hand to support Yu Zhou’s hand.

But the sticky finger cot on her left hand was still on and stuck to Yu Zhou’s hand back. As Yu Zhou took a glance at it, there was a little bit of pink on the white finger cot… it was really sensual.

Xiang Wan reacted before quickly taking her hand back, lowering her head to remove the finger cot.

Yu Zhou also let go as she watched as she deftly rolled off the finger cot.

After all, she was truly a miss from the prime minister’s family. Her hands were so tender that even a finger cot could make her finger turn red.

Wait a minute, this red color is suspicious.

She leaned over Xiang Wan to take out a tissue, saying, “Clean it up.”

Could it be that the finger cot had lost its color?

Xiang Wan took the tissue to wipe it, but it didn’t come off. However, her fingertips were still very red. As she scratched her finger roots, it made one more area redder.

“Hiss…” Yu Zhou looked carefully. “Does it feel a little itchy?”

“A little bit.”

“Are you allergic?” It had been so long since she had used it, she didn’t know how long its shelf life was.

She hurriedly got up and grabbed Xiang Wan’s hand before heading to the bathroom. “Wash it first and see if it still itches.”

Following her instructions, Xiang Wan went to the bathroom as Yu Zhou turned on the tap for her. “Wash your hands twice. Sometimes, I get allergic when I cut mountain yam and I have to wash it thoroughly.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Zhao was still shouting outside, “Are you eating or not?”

“Coming! Just washing hands!” Yu Zhou shouted back.

Watching Xiang Wan wet her hands before taking some hand soap, washing her hands first before carefully cleaning her middle finger.

Her left hand hung slightly while her right-hand fingers forcefully rubbed over and over again, wrapping around her finger from root to tip.

Yu Zhou glanced at this motion while really feeling guilty now.

She looked away as she hugged her arms while leaning against the door, thinking that sometimes you can just learn without a teacher.

With such a talent, why be a gentle lady? Being a top, a sweet top would be so much better.

But as she imagined Xiang Wan being a sweet top, she couldn’t help but laugh. After laughing for a while, she suddenly stopped and mused to herself. Through their back-and-forth, she had come to realize that Xiang Wan was not as young as she had originally thought.

To put it bluntly, she had always thought of herself as Xiang Wan’s mother and had forgotten that Xiang Wan was from a different era instead of just an eighteen-year-old girl.

Always being a little girl wouldn’t do, so Yu Zhou unraveled her crossed arms before holding from another direction.

“What are you thinking?” Xiang Wan looked up at her.

“Nothing. Have you finished washing up?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go eat.” Yu Zhou handed her a napkin.

They walked out while still wiping their hands. Innocent Ms. Zhao’s face turned red again as she put on an affected tone and voice. “You’re finally willing to go out?”

Glancing at Yu Zhou, she couldn’t understand why Yu Zhou was always positioned at the bottom, whether the other party was twenty-nine or eighteen.

Eighteen! So outrageous!

The more she looked at Xiang Wan, the more she felt that Xiang Wan was forced into this position. After all, as a freshly legal-aged girl with youthfulness and beauty, what would she know? She couldn’t do anything other than follow the instructions of adults.

She burped before glancing at Yu Zhou, intending to say something but hesitated.

“Mom…can you not look at me like that with such lustful eyes, please? I beg you.” Yu Zhou was speechless.

“Cough…umm…” Ms. Zhao cleared her throat for the thirty-eighth time.

Yu Zhou put down her bowl as she decided to speak plainly. “It’s really not what you think. She didn’t know anything and mistook it for gloves so she put them in the kitchen. I corrected her but she still didn’t understand, so she took it to play with. And between us, we’re just friends.”

“Right.” Xiang Wan nodded in agreement.

Compared to Yu Zhou’s words, Ms. Zhao found Xiang Wan’s gaze more believable. But she didn’t want to admit that she had been thinking too much, so she raised her eyebrows as she continued to eat. She picked up some food with her chopsticks and leaned her body to one side while muttering, “Well, I guess I haven’t said anything then.”

“You better not have.”

“You two have nothing going on, right? Then can I invite Changchang for dinner?” Ms. Zhao perked up while holding her bowl.

Looking at Xiang Wan calmly eating her food, it really seemed like nothing was going on between them.

“You really miss her, huh? You two should just be together then.” Yu Zhou sneered.

Ms. Zhao looked at them with the air of a seasoned person. “You young people just like to make a fuss about these things. When you reach my age, you’ll understand how trivial all those loves and hates of your youth are.”

“Take your mother’s first love, for example. It was Uncle Liu, my old classmate who you remember, right? Even though we both have families now, it was still a revolutionary friendship between us. His son is my godson and I dance square dance[1] together with his wife every day. Our relationship couldn’t be better.”

“What are you looking at me like that for? I’m just saying that life is long. You and Changchang might still be able to dance square dance together when you’re old.”

“I’m just thinking that Changchang is excellent and well-behaved. Having more people to rely on is always helpful. It’s not like we need to have more contact or anything. We can just exchange greetings on holidays. What’s more,  if you happen to get sick in Jiang city or something, Mom can have someone to ask around.”

Yu Zhou didn’t say anything and buried her head in her food.

As a mother knows best, Ms. Zhao knew Yu Zhou was upset, so she wisely shut up without bringing up Su Chang again.

“Ahh.” Ms. Zhao was very sad. Usually, it took until the third day after Yu Zhou came home for them to go from a tearful reunion to seeing each other as annoying again. It was only the second day and her lovely daughter had nothing to say to her.

She silently adjusted her original plan of staying seven days to five.

The days passed quickly. Yu Zhou urgently trained Xiang Wan in some basic academic knowledge, such as calligraphy. Yu Zhou was afraid that if Xiang Wan needed to take notes, she didn’t need to write well, but at least she had to hold a ballpoint pen in a proper way instead of lifting it like a brush pen.

So that her classmates wouldn’t notice her strangeness.

Yu Zhou also strengthened Xiang Wan’s knowledge of iPad usage a bit as Yu Zhou hadn’t been to school for a long time and was unsure if the classes would use electronic devices such as an iPad.

It was really worrisome.

On the fourth day, Xiang Wan was going to school. Yu Zhou helped her pack a small backpack like a mother would and even brought a water bottle for her.

Ms. Zhao swept the cabinet with a chicken feather duster, looking very disdainful. “Who brings a water bottle for kids nowadays?”

“Huh? Shouldn’t I?”

“In that what voice studio, do they not have bottled water?”

“Right, they probably do.” But she had not trained Xiang Wan to use a vending machine yet, so they might as well bring the bottle.

Seeing that it was almost time, Yu Zhou said goodbye to Ms. Zhao before taking Xiang Wan downstairs, saying that she was going to teach Xiang Wan how to take the subway.

“How odd,” Ms. Zhao watched them close the door as she muttered, “Why is she like a calabash kid that doesn’t know anything.”

“Hey, did you bring the lunchbox?” Ms. Zhao shouted outside the door.

“I did, I did!”

They arrived at Tianyin Building 20 minutes early and ran into Su Chang downstairs, who was holding an iced coffee as usual while talking to a male friend in the lobby.

Seeing Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan, she nodded to greet them, then smiled at the man in front of her. The male friend went upstairs first while Su Chang stayed behind, waiting for them as she took a sip of coffee.

Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan took a closer look after they approached, Su Chang was wearing the outfit she’d bought at the shopping center that day while Xiang Wan was also wearing new clothes.

Both were in white shirt and white long skirt of the same brand’s flagship design for the season, with some common elements that made them look like couples in matching outfit.

Yu Zhou remembered the rumors online and felt uneasy

Su Chang asked her: “Since you’re here, would you like to come up and sit for a while?”

Yu Zhou still had some things to tell Xiang Wan, so she followed them into the elevator.

While waiting for the elevator, she said to Xiang Wan: “I brought you a lunchbox, but you should see how your classmates eat lunch first. If they all eat their own food, then take out the lunchbox to eat. You know how to use the microwave, right?”

“If your classmates are all going to the cafeteria downstairs, then you can go with them. Don’t make yourself stand out.”

Xiang Wan nodded and remembered while Su Chang listened beside them, raising one eyebrow curiously as if wondering where these particular ideas came from.

Yu Zhou saw her expression and explained: “That’s how it was when I was working. I didn’t eat with my colleagues so they said I wasn’t part of the group and dissed me behind my back.”

Su Chang was a little surprised as she hesitated for a while before whispering, “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Did I not mention it?” Yu Zhou was stunned for a moment, “I don’t remember.”

Su Chang lowered her eyelids without saying anything more.

When the elevator arrived at the fifteenth floor, Su Chang walked out first with Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan following behind. There were already several trainees in the lounge and they were a little nervous when they saw Su Chang, but they were all adults so would not show too much nervousness. They greeted her boldly: “Miss Su.”

There were also some who knew her from before and called her “Sis Chang” with a smile.

Su Chang greeted them with a faint smile as she said, “You are so early.”

Some of the trainees cast a glance at Xiang Wan, who was standing half a step behind her.

Yu Zhou was quite alert as she observed whether there were any evil shippers among them.

Indeed, some people looked at Xiang Wan a little more, but the difference between online and real-life was evident. Even if they ship to death online, in real life, they just smiled politely like an auntie while shouting in their hearts.

Auntie’s smile was hard to read, so Yu Zhou gave up and turned to Xiang Wan, saying, “I’m leaving now. Message me if you need anything.”

Since there were so many people around, she didn’t want to stay any longer.

“Okay,” Xiang Wan replied, standing still but not moving.

Yu Zhou looked up at her.

“Can you go ahead and take the elevator first, okay?” Xiang Wan remembered Yu Zhou’s instructions and changed “is it okay?” to “okay?”

“Sure, I’ll go now.”

Xiang Wan watched as Yu Zhou walked away with hands in her pockets and shoulders swaying as if she didn’t care about anything.

It looked empty, Xiang Wan thought.