Chapter 347: I Missed You? So Did Brother
Xie Youchen had come over after finishing a meeting. His black military uniform was crisp and neat, giving him a solemn, cold, and unapproachable air, but when he indulged Jiang Qingli’s childish request to be spun around, he showed a perfectly natural tenderness.
After a few spins, Jiang Qingli landed steadily on her feet.
Xie Youchen raised his hand and naturally tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "Want to play some more?"
"I’m done." Jiang Qingli was afraid someone might pass by, but she didn’t let go right away.
Xie Youchen had been too busy recently, so they hadn’t spent much time together. ’I want to hug him a little longer,’ she thought.
Jiang Qingli leaned her full weight against him. Remembering the phone call from earlier in the day, she looked up and asked, "Was there something you wanted to tell me on the phone?"
"Mhm."
Xie Youchen didn’t deny it. He kept his arms around her, his nose gently brushing against her earlobe.
It tickled. Jiang Qingli laughed, her fingers tracing circles on his neck. "What was it?"
Xie Youchen didn’t answer directly. "Take a guess."
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Qingli said, "...’I missed you’?"
Xie Youchen chuckled softly, his breath against her ear an intense, burning tenderness.
His low, magnetic voice responded by her ear, "Mhm, I missed you too."
The tips of her ears burned. Jiang Qingli instantly realized what had happened and said with feigned anger, "Hey! You tricked me!"
Xie Youchen’s smile deepened. He hugged her tighter, burying his face in the crook of her neck and taking a deep breath, as if trying to steal and hoard her entire scent.
He repeated, "Ah Li, I really, really missed you."
"I missed you too." Jiang Qingli hugged him back, nuzzling her cheek against his.
Seizing the opportunity, Xie Youchen said, "That game you liked was released. Why don’t you come over to my place tonight? I’ll play it with you, okay?"
Jiang Qingli didn’t answer right away.
Some distance away, Yuan Shimo was walking out of the hospital room, one hand still on the doorknob. His jade-green eyes lifted, seemingly by chance.
Their eyes met unexpectedly. Jiang Qingli didn’t know if Yuan Shimo had heard their conversation, but she suddenly remembered she had promised him she would stay at his place for a couple of days.
Jiang Qingli thought for a moment and decided to stick to her principle of treating everyone equally. She replied earnestly, "I’ll go to your place on Saturday. It’d be a bit troublesome to mess up the schedule."
Xie Youchen didn’t press the issue, just smiling. "Alright."
He straightened up and stroked Jiang Qingli’s hair. He said gently, "Then I’ll take you home later."
"Okay." Jiang Qingli nodded. "I’m going to ask the doctor about his condition."
Xie Youchen still had things to take care of, so he went to wait for her in the car.
As he passed by Yuan Shimo, he didn’t pause, as if he hadn’t noticed anyone there at all.
’What a tedious provocation from this unrecognized ’mistress’,’ Yuan Shimo thought, his lip curling in a sarcastic sneer. ’Pure self-deception.’
"How’s your brother doing?" Jiang Qingli walked over, took his hand, and gave it a little swing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the person inside the glass window glance their way.
Just as Jiang Qingli was about to turn her head to look, Yuan Shimo stepped forward to block her view.
"Much better. The doctor needs to change his bandages, so let’s head back first." Yuan Shimo naturally took her hand and led her away, telling her that the late-night snack he had prepared today was a strawberry cake he’d made himself.
Jiang Qingli’s eyes lit up, her attention successfully diverted. By the time they got downstairs, she was still praising him for being so domestic.
Seeing the surprised praise in her eyes, Yuan Shimo couldn’t help but smile.
’In the past, he’d always felt that words like ’domestic’ were an insult to one’s masculinity.’
’But now that she liked these traits, he was just glad he had skills that could win her favor and make her rely on him a little more.’
’He even found himself thinking that since Yuan Shiyao’s cooking was so bad it had driven away several teachers, Shiyao would surely never have the chance to do these things for her.’
...
On the way back, Xie Youchen and Yuan Shimo sat on either side of Jiang Qingli, managing to make the spacious seat feel a bit cramped.
Jiang Qingli didn’t have time to mediate their cold war at the moment; she was frowning at a message from Ye Linyuan.
After getting her terminal during the day, Jiang Qingli had messaged Ye Linyuan. She briefly told him about the surprise attack in the forest and about the boy who looked strikingly similar to him, asking if he knew anything.
Ye Linyuan’s reply was slow in coming, and consisted of only four words: [I will handle it.]
Jiang Qingli asked: [How are you going to handle it?]
Ye Linyuan: [I’m going to the Lower District for a while. If you need anything, contact my subordinates.] This was followed by a few contact details.
After that, Jiang Qingli asked a few more questions, but he just reiterated that she wouldn’t encounter any more danger in the First District and that he would handle it.
But even now, he hadn’t answered her questions directly, as if he were deliberately hiding something.
Jiang Qingli was a little annoyed and questioned 030: [Does he really like me? Who treats someone they like this way?]
hurriedly explained: [Trust me, sweetie! Our favorability system is never wrong. Ye Linyuan’s favorability toward you is at 100%.]
[Him not talking is his problem, not our system’s problem! Our favorability rating is never wrong! QAQ]
Jiang Qingli: [...Alright then.]
After a moment’s thought, she went ahead and added the contacts for Ye Linyuan’s subordinates that he’d sent, and had them send someone to tail Ye Linyuan.
’Ye Linyuan gave her the authority; how she used it was her business.’
-
They didn’t go straight home, but went to Yuan Shimo’s apartment.
The apartment was a spacious, open-plan flat with a wide field of view, specially provided by the academy for talented researchers.
Before he married Jiang Qingli, Yuan Shimo usually lived here, so there were books lying around in many places. As Jiang Qingli sat on the sofa waiting for him to get the strawberry cake, she noticed a few strands of white cat fur.
She picked one up and confirmed that it was from Yuan Shimo’s cat tail.
’She couldn’t help but find it interesting.’
’So Cat Teacher lets his tail out when no one’s around. Come to think of it, there were a few times when he was absorbed in a book that his tail would start swaying unconsciously beneath the hem of his clothes.’
’How cute.’
Jiang Qingli was smiling, her eyes crinkled, when she suddenly heard a soft cough.
"Time for cake."
The tips of his ears were red as he placed the dessert plate and utensils in her hands, then casually took the few strands of cat fur from her and threw them in the trash.
Then, before she could say anything to tease him, he tossed out, "I’m going to take a shower first," and disappeared into the bathroom.
Jiang Qingli forked a piece of cake, and its rich, sweet aroma filled her mouth.
After two bites, she suddenly heard a sound behind her.
Turning her head, she saw that the translucent shadow kitten had appeared at some point and was painstakingly using its paws to gather the stray cat hairs on the sofa, pick them up in its mouth, and drop them in the trash.
There weren’t many hairs to begin with, but the shadow kitten worked diligently and quickly cleaned them up. It picked up the last hair in its mouth and was about to toss it away when its world suddenly spun.
Jiang Qingli had grabbed its little cat tail and was holding the translucent white cat up, watching it with a grin.
The little kitten’s eyes went wide, and it froze instantly, whether from the embarrassment of being caught or something else.
"Mew..."
It let out a tiny, soft mewl, as if pleading for mercy, or perhaps it just couldn’t hold it back.
Jiang Qingli was about to carry the shadow to Yuan Shimo and tease him a bit, but she felt the shadow slip from her grasp.
In the blink of an eye, the shadow transformed into Yuan Shimo’s form. He dove into her arms, knocking her down onto the sofa. He gently nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck, meowing nonstop.
At the same time, the bathroom door opened.
Yuan Shimo, enveloped in a cloud of steam, walked toward them.