What is the concept of seven times in one night?
Yu Luo and Jiang Yin returned from going out to pick ingredients. Just as they entered the inn, they saw Tang Yu on the side with Ren Zhi and the children, shucking corn.
She was surprisingly not staying together with Qi Song.
Her eyebrow twitched slightly, and she walked straight toward the kitchen’s side hall.
Just as she entered the door, Qi Song, who was mixing sauces and seasonings by herself, seemed to sense something and turned her head to look.
“I’ve come to see, how has a certain person been knocked1 into shape?”
Yu Luo unhurriedly strolled to her side, a teasing smile in her tone.
Qi Song was slightly startled, understanding the 「knocking a certain person」 in her words as 「how was that promiscuous A knocked into shape」.
A bit of pleasure instantly rose in her heart——
It seems Yu Luo also really dislikes that Alpha.
So she turned off her mic2 and said calmly and in a low-key manner: “It was okay, anyway she left dejectedly.”
“Pfft.”
Yu Luo looked at her expression that was modest but faintly revealed that she was waiting for praise, and could not hold back a laugh.
She didn’t care about Tang Yu at all, and even less would she ask Qi Song how she had knocked Tang Yu into shape.
The words just now were clearly saying 「I’ve come to see how you, this wooden fish head, have been knocked into shape」.
However, for Qi Song to have a sense of crisis strong enough to make the other party leave dejectedly could also be considered a kind of progress.
Yu Luo unsparingly patted Qi Song’s head in praise, and sure enough, she saw the young woman’s lips curve up with pleasure.
“Why are your hands so cold?”
The warmth of the woman’s palm transmitted from the top of her hair, making Qi Song unable to help but start to care.
Is it very cold outside? Yu Luo’s cold seems to not have fully recovered yet.
“Mm.”
Yu Luo withdrew her hand, holding out both hands for her to see, and said with a somewhat guilty tone:
“When picking vegetables I saw a stream nearby that was clear to the bottom, so I reached out my hand to play for a bit. I didn’t expect the water to be bone-chillingly cold.”
She didn’t mention a single word about how she took the opportunity to play a while longer, so that a certain person could dote on her now.
——This was also a part of the ‘knocking’.
Qi Song stared at the red on the woman’s jade-white3 fingertips from the cold, her breathing slightly heavy, and she couldn’t help but lightly purse her lips.
“……” She suppressed a certain impulse and reminded her with restraint, “Your cold hasn’t fully recovered yet, you should still be a bit more careful……”
Yu Luo blinked her eyes innocently, deliberately showing a 「what you say makes sense but I won’t listen」 appearance, and said unhurriedly: “But, the mood to play doesn’t come every time.”
Qi Song’s lips opened and closed. Seeing the rare childlike nature the woman was showing, the persuasive words of a bitter mouth and a grandmother’s heart4 in her mouth suddenly seemed impossible to say.
She sighed lightly, a bit helplessly: “Alright then.”
A faint smile flashed through Yu Luo’s eyes.
She lowered her eyes to gaze at her own hands, as if talking to herself, her tone suppressed to be somewhat pitiful:
“So it doesn’t matter if my hands get frozen. Although I still have a bit of a cold, and the weather is cold, they probably won’t get warm for a while……”
Saying this, she turned around crisply and was about to leave.
She silently counted in her heart: One, two, three——
“Wait a moment.” A voice indeed sounded from behind.
The corner of her clothes was pulled, and Yu Luo’s lips curved up accordingly.
She turned back 「not understanding why」, and asked 「slightly puzzled」:
“What’s wrong?”
Qi Song endured and endured, but in the end, still couldn’t hold back.
Her eyelashes fluttered once. She slowly extended both hands towards Yu Luo, palms open and facing up, and said softly: “Come over, let me warm your hands for you.”
Yu Luo lowered her eyes to look at those two hands and considerately refused: “Let’s just forget it, my hands are too cold, I’m afraid of chilling you.”
As soon as she finished saying this, the two hands waiting for her to place her own on them directly and proactively grasped hers.
Warm palms enveloped the cold hands, unreservedly sharing their own temperature.
Immediately after, Qi Song threw out reasons one, two, and three:
“Your hands are so cold, you can’t even hold Taotao’s hand. And if your cold gets worse because of this, being on the show will be very tiring——you don’t want the audience to see you in a bad state, right? Besides……”
Yu Luo’s gaze fell on the young woman’s bright and beautiful face, looking at the unconcealable heartache in her pretty eyes. A moment later, her gaze moved down, past the high bridge of her nose, and stopped on those crimson lips that were opening and closing as she spoke.
Yu Luo’s throat tightened.
Tsk. What’s the point of saying so many seemingly right but actually wrong reasons?
Can’t you just straightforwardly say it’s because you feel sorry for her, can’t you just come over and kiss her directly.
This wooden fish head still hasn’t been knocked enough.
The two were separated by about half a meter. Yu Luo shifted her steps, eliminating this distance.
Then, in the posture of having both hands wrapped in her palms, she leaned her whole body against Qi Song, resting her head on her shoulder.
Tilting her head, her lips pressed against Qi Song’s ear, gently and softly teaching: “Next time this happens, you only need to say you feel sorry for me, and that’ll be enough.”
Qi Song’s breath hitched.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but the woman on her shoulder didn’t give her a chance to argue.
Yu Luo shifted the topic without any pause, saying in a soft voice: “Just now when I was playing with water, I suddenly felt a little like eating red-braised fish5.”
“……” Qi Song was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, “There are fish here.”
“You mean you’re going to make it for me?” Yu Luo lay on her shoulder, asking in an increasingly frail and unable-to-care-for-herself manner.
“……I can.” Qi Song said.
“But.” Yu Luo slowly repeated, “You told Tang Yu that you recently quit eating fish because you got a fish bone stuck, and because you couldn’t concentrate your feelings, you couldn’t make fish.”
Qi Song’s eyelashes trembled, and she muttered in a low voice: “You clearly know that was said on purpose.”
“Why is that?” Yu Luo nestled on her shoulder, patiently guiding with a follow-up question, “What benefit is there for you in refusing her?”
Qi Song frowned lightly: “How could I possibly cook for her? She is……”
“She likes me, so you hate her.”
Yu Luo said bluntly in a soft voice: “May I ask, Miss Qi, from what standpoint do you hate her?”
Qi Song was silent for a moment, seemingly with sound reasoning: “Aren’t her actions outrageous?”
It’s just that when these words were spoken, even she herself couldn’t be convinced.
In the world of adults, if it was merely because of finding something a little disagreeable, it wouldn’t lead to such strong emotions, and even less would it be expressed so undisguisedly in action.
“You’d better hope it’s only because of this.” Yu Luo touched upon it and stopped6, not probing further.
She understood Qi Song too well, knowing that saying this much was enough.
Her gaze fell on Qi Song’s earlobes, which had already secretly turned pink from guilt. Yu Luo was somewhat satisfied with the effect and took the opportunity to lean in and take a bite.
“Alright, make the red-braised fish for me when we get home.” She said with a light laugh, “To avoid being contradictory on the show.”
In a certain emotion of being exposed, Qi Song didn’t even have much of a reaction to her ear being bitten, only trembling reflexively.
She heard herself let out a low “mm,” seeming a bit obedient.
A kind of natural docility that couldn’t be defied.
Yu Luo pulled her hands out from her palms, raised her arms to wrap around her waist, and held tight.
It was as if she was the zone where Yu Luo could relax her whole body and mind; the woman let out a comfortable sound in this embrace, so languid it was as if she would fall asleep in the next second.
The kitchen’s side hall fell into silence.
Amidst the suddenly surging pleasure and satisfaction, a question that had always been intentionally or unintentionally ignored abruptly surfaced in Qi Song’s mind——
These light yet full emotions fit her own self like tight silk and a joined seam7. Could it really all be just the original owner’s instincts?
If it is, then where have her own emotions gone?
And if it’s not…… Qi Song’s chest tightened.
Tomorrow is the twenty-first anniversary of the inn’s operation. The program team issued a task: this afternoon, all the guests must go to the small town’s streets together to purchase decorative items and decorate the inn’s main hall to celebrate the anniversary.
The small town’s streets were quite lively, and various accessory shops were also dense. Walking into a small shop, Qi Song saw the 「toiletries section」 inside at a glance.
A thought moved in her mind. She let go of the hand she was holding with Yu Luo and said: “You and the cub can continue picking accessories, I’m going to look around inside.”
Qi Song came to a row of small bottled shower gels.
She chose carefully, unhesitatingly skipping over a series of lemon-scented shower gels, and selected a bottle with a gardenia scent.
It happened to be her pheromone scent. This scent surely wouldn’t have a hint of sourness, right? That would be too much of a mismatch.
She somewhat wanted to confirm.
Coincidentally, there was a bottle for customers to sample on the side. Qi Song picked it up and suddenly heard voices at the shop’s entrance.
“Teacher Yu, you guys are shopping here.”
It was one of the three flying guests8 for this episode of the show.
Qi Song’s movement paused, her brow slightly furrowed.
——When they set out just now, the three flying guests had formed a team, so Tang Yu was also there.
She tilted her head to look, and sure enough, saw Tang Yu standing at the entrance, her gaze fixed in Yu Luo’s direction.
“Yes.” Yu Luo answered in a gentle voice, and started discussing the progress of selecting accessories with the guest who had asked.
When they talked about something, Tang Yu also spoke a sentence.
Unlike her forthright and generous demeanor in front of others, when facing Yu Luo, she appeared reserved and constrained, even shy.
Qi Song’s breathing hitched.
She didn’t want to linger any longer. She hurriedly smelled the gardenia-scented shower gel sample and found that this bottle also had a hint of sourness in its sweetness. She screwed the cap back on and put it back, somewhat in disbelief.
Could it be that all the shower gels in this small town are expired?
Qi Song couldn’t be bothered with this for the time being, quickly retreated from the toiletries section, and walked back to the entrance.
She was anxious in her heart, but it didn’t show on her face at all.
First, she calmly and naturally greeted the guests, then her five fingers clasped Yu Luo’s hand, while asking in a soft voice 「Wife, how are you and Zaizai9 doing with the picking」, she seemingly unintentionally blocked the line of sight in Tang Yu’s direction.
Tang Yu withdrew her gaze and pouted.
How many years has it been, still a petty person as always.
The accompanying PDs10 on the side exchanged a look, seeing the helplessness in each other’s eyes——
These two really aren’t hiding it at all.
After coming out of the small shop, the two groups parted ways and whipped their horses11. Tang Yu disappeared from view, and only then did Qi Song feel relieved.
Today was an overcast day, the autumn wind was crisp and cool, and many small stalls were set up on the streets of the small town.
The stall owners would occasionally hawk their wares a few times, but more often they were leisurely discussing some gossip about the neighborhood.
The family of three stopped in front of a small stall for a ring toss game, Taotao was eager to try.
Yu Luo bought twenty rings, pointed at the small lemon doll on the stall and said to Taotao:
“Zaizai, try to help Mommy toss a ring over that lemon, okay?”
Taotao’s small hand gripped a ring, poised and ready, and let out an 「Ao」 in response.
Qi Song recently lacked a good impression of lemons, so she casually asked a question: “You like that doll?”
“Mhm.” Yu Luo responded, “And I feel like it looks quite a bit like you.”
“……” Qi Song stared at the lemon doll, saying nothing.
That lemon didn’t look exquisite, and the fur used probably wouldn’t feel soft to the touch. It felt like one bite of this kind of lemon would make one’s teeth sour for three days.
Taotao threw twenty rings; with the heart to plant flowers, the flowers don’t bloom, the lemon was never hit. But with no intention to plant a willow, a willow grows into shade12, she did hit a few small things.
She looked up at her Mommy with some self-blame, “Mommy, I didn’t get the lemon.”
“It’s okay.”
Yu Luo seemed to really want it. She patted the cub’s head and, with great wealth and thick breath13, bought another thirty rings, “Want to try again?”
Taotao continued to throw the rings with full concentration, the two adults standing behind her watching.
The stall owner’s novelty towards the celebrities filming a show here gradually faded, and they continued their unfinished gossip.
Their voices weren’t restrained either, speaking nonchalantly: “I barely slept a wink last night, was kept awake by the noise from next door.”
“That new wife-wife couple is still too young, they were clearly reminded that the soundproofing here isn’t good, yet they don’t restrain themselves at all at night.”
As if accustomed to this kind of topic, another stall owner casually chimed in: “One night? Aren’t the young people a bit too energetic. How many times?”
“At least seven times.” The vendor tsk-tsked and sighed.
“Seven times?” the other vendor repeated loudly in shock.
“……” Qi Song glanced over in that direction.
At first, she thought, how could these two be so unconcerned about the cameras filming right next to them, especially since this is a childcare variety show, and there are children present.
However, in the next second, she couldn’t help but tighten her hand, thinking with a bit of worldliness lacking——
What is the concept of seven times in one night? Would their hands still be usable?
She fell into a state of astonished sighing and contemplation, and suddenly felt the woman whose hand she was holding lean over.
Yu Luo expertly turned off her mic, her lips pressing against her ear, and said with a light laugh in a voice only the two of them could hear:
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve never seen the world.”
“Back when we were indulgent, one night——”
Qi Song’s throat tightened; she swallowed her saliva too quickly and choked.
Even in such a difficult state for speaking, she still tried hard to interrupt Yu Luo, saying in a hoarse voice: “Taotao got the lemon.”
She looked at the bright yellow lemon doll in Taotao’s hand, and couldn’t help but think——
Who wants to know how many times you and the original owner did it in one night?
Not interested, don’t care.
The author has something to say:
Qi · Lemon Spirit14 · Song (covering ears): I’m not listening, I’m not listening!
Yu Luo: I’m praising you for being capable, and you’re still not happy about it?
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