(1)
The birds outside were chirping noisily, ushering in the morning breeze.
An Jing groggily opened her eyes, but all she could see was a blur in front of her—nothing was clear.
Something soft seemed to be pressing against her face, making it a little hard to breathe.
“Mmm…” She groggily lifted the thing pressing on her face, and then a large patch of light purple came into view.
It was a kind of purple with a slightly powdery texture, a bit like crayon, but the grain wasn’t as distinct.
However, the granular sensation from her palm made An Jing’s body shudder. She instinctively withdrew her hand, and then saw Zhu Ying slap her face down onto An Jing’s chest with a thump.
“Ah!”
“Fuum…”
That commotion finally woke her from her dream. She sleepily rubbed her eyes, smearing a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth onto An Jing’s collarbone, and muttered indistinctly, “Haah—hoo… mornin’…”
An Jing shyly averted her gaze from Zhu Ying, who was wearing only a purple tank top, and coughed dryly twice. “Why are you always lying on top of me when you sleep? I’m not a bed…”
“Because Xiao Jing is softer… ehehe… Is my bed really that hard?”
“A lot harder than mine. You don’t even have a spring mattress here… haah…” Zhu Ying said, yawning widely again, then nuzzled An Jing’s face like a kitten. “What time is it?”
“Uh—” An Jing tilted her head and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand, which was about the size of a pager. “5:30…”
“So early… what time did we go to bed yesterday…?”
“8 p.m…..”
For some reason, last night An Jing and Zhu Ying played games for a while, but then it felt like playing wasn’t much fun. They opened a couple of episodes of an anime, got sleepy after watching two episodes, and Zhu Ying fell asleep leaning against An Jing’s shoulder before the show even ended.
Not knowing what else to do, An Jing simply lay down on the bed with her and turned off the lights. She thought it was only 8 p.m., so it wouldn’t be easy to fall asleep, but listening to Zhu Ying’s steady breathing, she gradually drifted off without realizing it.
Thinking back now, An Jing felt that when Zhu Ying slept beside her last night, she felt especially relaxed and at ease.
Having grown up surrounded by a large group of siblings, she was indeed more accustomed to having someone beside her when falling asleep.
“Sleepy—”
“If you’re sleepy, don’t bang your head against my chest… it hurts.”
“Huh…? Did I hit something there?”
“Yeah, that hard spot hurts a lot when you hit it.” An Jing muttered, stretched, and threw off the thin blanket that was all twisted over her, casually slipping into the slippers by the bed.
“Xiao Jing, where are you going?”
“…To the bathroom… If I don’t go soon, I’ll burst.” An Jing squeezed her legs together and quickly walked to the living room, which still held some of yesterday’s warmth, then turned into the bathroom.
Back in the bedroom, Zhu Ying tilted her head to look at the bedside, and couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “Xiao Jing didn’t even realize she put on the wrong slippers… one is mine, one is hers…”
(2)
Even after washing up, it was still barely past six o’clock.
For the weekend, this was indeed a time that made one feel lazy and leisurely.
But thinking that there was a whole long day ahead to do all sorts of things, she instead didn’t know what to do.
The two of them were now sitting on the windowsill in the room, enjoying the morning breeze.
The ground was still a bit damp, seeming like it had rained heavily last night.
An Jing was only wearing a loose top, revealing two fair and plump thighs. She occasionally lifted her pink soles, gently shaking her feet. “The morning sky is also light purple.”
“Purple looks good, right?”
“Yeah… not bad. It looks like a purple beach.” An Jing took a sip of the milk she was holding, which had just been taken out of the fridge, with crystal-clear water droplets still forming on the paper carton.
Breakfast was milk and slices of bread with peanut butter. Simple, but refreshing and pleasant to eat.
Maybe summer is the season best suited for simple food like this.
“Mmm—peanut butter is fragrant, but it’s really dry to eat.” An Jing muttered and took another bite of bread.
“But it’s delicious, the flavor is very rich.”
“Actually, I don’t usually eat peanut butter—only because we’re out of ketchup and jam.”
“Then does Xiao Jing like sesame butter?” “I like that for hotpot dipping.”
“Don’t shake so much, careful you might fall.”
“Don’t worry, half my body is leaning against the wall!” “Are we going to study at home today?”
“Mmm—let’s study. We’ve been slacking off all day yesterday; we can’t keep being lazy.” “For some reason, I kind of regret not having to take the Zhong Kao. At times like this, I can’t share your mood at all.” “For you, there’s really no pressure…” An Jing tilted her head and pointed at the corner of Zhu Ying’s mouth. “You got peanut butter on your mouth.”
“Where?”
“Right here.”
“Xiao Jing, lick it off for me~ Maybe the bit near my mouth tastes even better!”
“Is your face smeared with sugar or something…”
“Hurry up, hurry up, clean it with your tongue!”
“Hey hey, don’t say it so pervertedly, okay!”
“Hmph, I know you really want to try it deep down, right?”
“Urgh—tsk!” With no secrets from Zhu Ying, An Jing pouted, then as if in defiance, leaned forward and gently touched the peanut butter at the corner of Zhu Ying’s mouth with the tip of her soft tongue. Then she closed her eyes with an “I’m ready for anything” look and gave it a good lick.
“Pfft, that was totally unromantic! It was like you were gnawing on pork!”
“Th-then how should I lick it?!”
The cunning light danced in Zhu Ying’s eyes. She suddenly used her finger to wipe a bit of peanut butter onto An Jing’s mouth.
“Watch closely—like this—little dabs, slowly, gently…”
“Eek—!!”
It was just licking peanut butter off the corner of the mouth, but Zhu Ying’s gentle movements made An Jing feel as if electric currents were running through her body. She instinctively tensed her arches and leaned back unnaturally.
“There! That’s how you do it! Not that huge mouthful—did you think you were eating a pig trotter?!”
“Ugh…” An Jing panicked and grabbed the window frame, her slightly trembling body seeming as if she might fall off the windowsill at any moment. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
In response to Zhu Ying’s confusion, An Jing stuffed the rest of the bread into her mouth messily, jumped down from the windowsill in a flash, didn’t even bother with slippers, and bolted outside barefoot.
“P-pee emergency!”
(3)
Yu Minghui and Yu Mingfei were still not at home today, but the apartment wasn’t exactly quiet.
Not only because Zhu Ying was there, but also because most people were off work today. Through the not-so-thick walls, sounds from the neighbors could always be heard.
Even though the specific words were usually unclear, it still made one feel that they weren’t living here alone—a kind of inexplicable sense of comfort.
Many people might long for a life in a remote suburb with no one to bother them, but as someone who grew up on an island, An Jing still preferred liveliness—after all, she’d already experienced enough of that isolated feeling as a child.
At the desk, An Jing was working on the mountain of weekend homework, while Zhu Ying was holding a black-violet notebook, writing away with a shh shh sound—it didn’t look like homework.
“You finished your homework?”
“I’m kind of too lazy to write it. The teachers aren’t collecting it to check anymore anyway.”
“Then what are you writing…”
“I’m writing the story of the two of us.”
“Huh?”
“I’m trying to write a novel. It’s about our story. Even if I wrote it as realistic fiction, no one would believe these things actually happened in real life, right?” “Actually, having superpowers is already pretty unrealistic…” An Jing tilted her head to look at the dense, delicate handwriting in the notebook. “But I’m curious how you’re going to write it.”
“I’ll start from the dream world. Write down everything I remember so I don’t forget later.”
“Oh~”
“Does Xiao Jing want to read it?”
“Let me read it after you’ve written more. I’m curious about what happened in the dream too—though I’ve recalled a few things, they’re just fragments, not complete at all.”
“I don’t exactly remember everything completely either. It was a dream, after all.”
“Mmm… But you’re too relaxed. You don’t even plan to do homework. Be careful—you might fall behind in high school.”
“It’s that feeling—the closer you get to graduation, the less you want to do anything. Maybe I’ll just study high school material ahead of time during summer break.”
“Will the school hand out textbooks early?”
“Even if they don’t, we can buy them at the bookstore. It’s called getting a head start~ Then school will be easier, and I won’t have to worry about the teacher going too fast.”
“Studying… it really is endless.”
“Does Xiao Jing like studying?”
“I don’t exactly like it, but I don’t hate it either. I just treat it as something that has to be done, like eating and washing up.”
Zhu Ying pursed her lips and smiled, ruffling An Jing’s head vigorously.
The sky, which had just seen the sun rise, suddenly became covered with lead-gray clouds again. Within half a minute, a torrential rain was pouring down with a clatter.
Strong winds carried raindrops into the room, rattling the half-closed window with a bang bang sound.
As if to make up for the previous half-month of clear skies, today’s rain was particularly fierce—seems it hadn’t rained enough last night.
“Xiao Ying… close the window for me.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, and pour me a glass of water too?”
“Can do~”
“And grab two bags of snacks from under the coffee table…”
“Eeh, so many demands from Xiao Jing—you need to pay a fee, okay?”
“Huh? What fee?”
“Like getting your mouth licked good by me! It would be better if we had jam; peanut butter is a bit salty.”
“Th-that kind of thing—no way!” An Jing unconsciously clamped her legs together. “I’ll get the snacks myself!”
“Too late! Xiao Jing better just accept that I’ll collect my fee~”
“Mmph mmph!!”
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