You Sound Sleepy

An awkward silence pervaded the atmosphere. Lin Mian met his deep, profound black eyes and drew back the fingers that were holding the cat food can.

Que Qingyan had a subtle expression on his face that didn’t reveal if he was feeling joy or anger. I can’t tell what he’s thinking.

Lin Mian’s heart thumped, as she looked at his indecipherable reaction. The passionate boiling blood of a young girl began to cool in an instant and the hormones left. 

She had come back to her senses. After all, this wasn’t one of her ‘the brainless girl who is vulnerable to indifferent, charming men’ manhua. The man in front of her was Que Qingyan. Normally, the girl when she was alone with the guy would just let her desires run rampant in her manhua. However, currently if she had decided to directly flirt with him, then being carried off to write a review would be considered a light punishment.

She had been enlightened by this from her experience with him many years ago. 

After chanting in her heart Haste makes waste three times, Lin Mian hesitated for a moment, blinked, and then decided to retreat. “If you’re busy, I’ll leave first – don’t want to bother you….”

“Not going back with your roommates?”

“Eh?” Lin Mian blankly raised her head and then reacted quickly, saying “My roommates have no classes in the afternoon and have already returned to the apartment before, so I won’t go with anyone.”

My roommates? Nonexistent.

Her expression was too apprehensive and expectant, like a child who wants candy but is afraid to speak more for fear of rejection. Que Qingyan fixed his eyes on her for two seconds. Then, he turned his eyes away and said, “Let’s go.”

Lin Mian was in pure shock.  “… ah.”

With a slight smile in his eyes, Que Qingyan halted his footsteps and asked, “Not going to accompany me?”

Lin Mian stumbled over her words. “I – I will accompany you.”

She had just received Que Qingyan’s tacit approval. She glanced at Que Qingyan’s tall and straight back. As he was facing away, his line of sight could not see her fiercely blushing face. Her mind filled with the  emoji and with a playful expression, she lightly skipped over to him in an endearing manner.

As a best-selling shoujo manhua author, Lin Mian was very familiar with how to draw out a cutesy romance scene. She could display the epitome of moé. Even if it was a simple plot, she would be able to incite her fans excited squeals with charming interactions.

But, the people who were familiar with her came to the reasonable conclusion that she didn’t have a girlish heart. 

After all, Author Mu Mian loved watching horror movies and hated reading her own manhua.

In addition, her editor could not stop sighing. Other people had more or less some interest and passion in their area of expertise, but Mu Mian was an extremely talented shoujo manga author that clearly hated her own work.

Some day or another the author’s talent of pumping out great releases would be exhausted. Once exhausted, the author would fall into a grueling period of being unable to produce. It would give every author a headache.

Lin Mian would fall into such a state for at most a day or two. During her worst, she would have no more than 10 hours of sleep over a span of 3 days. Wide awake in the middle of the night, Lin Mian could play the part of a spooky female ghost if you draped a white blanket over her.

However, under a strange combination of circumstances, she had managed to run into Que Qingyan again. The blood in her body ignited and reached a boiling point, rekindling her once burnt out girlish heart.

Que Qingyan’s car wasn’t far away. Que Qingyan opened the door. Lin Mian placed her delicate pale fingers on the chilly handlebars and sneaked a peak of him.

Coincidentally, they met each other’s gaze across the body of the painted black car. 

Que Qingyan didn’t pay much mind to her unconscious staring and lightly tapped the roof of the car with his fingers. “Get in.” His voice was steady and calm.

Hearing his words, Lin Mian opened the door, fastened her seatbelt, and sat upright. She looked straight ahead.

Her seating posture was so serious that it looked like she was taking a drivers test.

Currently dusk in October, the outside temperature still hasn’t dropped. Que Qingyan turned on the air conditioning, glanced at Lin Mian’s incredibly serious posture, and stopped the action of starting the car.

Surprised that the car wasn’t moving, Lin Mian couldn’t help but tilt her head at him. She saw that one hand was on the steering wheel and the other hand reached forward, pulling out the car’s storage compartment. Her eyes drifted to the compartment. There were a few small cartons of milk inside.

A law professor in the dignified K University, a gracious, mature, and charming man, would have a storage compartment filled with none other than… milk cartons.  

There weren’t any snacks in the car, and Que Qingyan didn’t have a habit of driving while munching. The milk cartons came from when Que Qingyan was picking up his niece Qin Min from the airport two days ago. His little niece only drank one carton, and the leftover cartons were left in the compartment.

Que Qingyan could see Lin Mian’s puzzlement but did not bother to clarify. “Want to drink milk?”

He handed a carton to her. Lin Mian’s eyes lit up, and she quietly thanked him.

The milk carton was square shaped. Resolved, she managed to resist drinking the milk, only wanting to bring the milk carton back and find a glass case to display it as an exhibit in her collection. The exhibit would be named: “Que Qingyan の Warm Milk.”

Eh… I’ll draw a pink heart next to it too.

Her heart sugary, Lin Mian inspected the milk carton in her two hands and saw a line of English printed on the side of the carton. 

“Recommended Ages:  1-3”

Lin Mian: “…”

The car smoothly drove through the boulevard and out of the campus. Lin Mian’s heart was vigorously jumping up and down. While she was caressing the milk carton’s edges, she was racking her head to think of a conversation topic. I didn’t anticipate this far ahead…. The other party spoke first.

“Do you listen to any songs?”

A gentle, warm voice flowed through her ears. Que Qingyan’s temper was surprisingly mild. Lin Mian originally thought that going back to the apartment together with him was the limit. Unexpectedly, he would actually take the lead and ask her a question.

Lin Mian shook her head, and with a docile expression, answered. “It’s a short distance so there’s no need to listen to music.”

Que Qingyan with a gentle voice responded, “Do you want to sleep then?”

“……..” Lin Mian felt like collapsing. She wanted to cry.

Was he going to bring up the sleeping matter here??

He let me in his car to talk about this?! The sudden blow steadied Lin Mian’s chaotic thoughts, incidentally dispersing her romantic reverie and indecent imaginations. 

She was planning to take advantage of the gentle atmosphere and in passing mention the 40,000 word reflection paper to ask for a reduction in words…. Now it looks like she luckily didn’t raise that matter.

Her eyes tearful, she turned to him. “Professor Que, I – I was wrong. I really won’t sleep in your class next time.” She suspected that it wasn’t convincing enough, so she firmly added, “It’s true. I promise you!”

Her apology was remarkably sincere. Que Qingyan said in surprise, “Eh?”

He really didn’t have the bad habit of settling school matters outside of school. The sentence he said was just casual banter, without any implications. He truly didn’t expect her reaction to be so great.

His ‘eh’ sound began to rise up in, accidentally carrying a slight hoarseness. When it entered Lin Mian’s ears, she interpreted it completely differently.

Her Interpretation: You’ve promised me time and time again, yet you repeatedly sleep. You think an apology is useful now, EH?

Lin Mian’s heart rapidly went up and down. Weakly crying and looking pitiful, she wanted to bite her seatbelt and escape. 

There was a red light on the road up ahead. The car ran over a speedbump and slowly came to a stop. Que Qingyan turned his face and looked at Lin Mian, his facial features blending with the dusk from the window. Unable to resist chuckling, he asked, “Am I that scary?” 

Lin Mian was shocked for an instant and hurriedly replied, “No…”

“I may have rigorous requirements for my students, but I believe I don’t have a sharp temper.” When the red light ended, Que Qingyan turned his face to the front. “So there’s no need to be so stiff in front of me.”

Lin Mian gave a couple of soft ‘uh-huh’ sounds.

I – I can’t.

How can I not act stiff?

She secretly thought, If you knew how I was thinking of you, then I’m afraid it won’t be as simple as some sharp words.

He treats me like a child. Yet, I want him to treat me like a…

*cough*

Que Qingyan no longer paid her any attention. Bored, Lin Mian took out her phone and began browsing. She had received a WeChat message.

【Xu Zhu：Little sister!】

【Lin Mian：Big brother!】

【Xu Zhu：Little sister, your big brother has just recently experienced amnesia and doesn’t remember you becoming my little sister. Why don’t you explain yourself, little sister? 】

When Xu Zhu blatantly deceived Qye Qingyan back then, they both knew full well that Xu Zhu wasn’t Lin Mian’s big brother. 

A student of S University’s Fine Arts department, Lin Mian had joined the debate club there, and Xu Zhu also happened to be in the club.  They both participated in a College Debate League competition. Due to their talking points conflicting with each other, disagreements between them popped up like weeds, and the team was forced to disband. What happened was pretty miserable. Since then, they reconciled their differences and became acquaintances. 

Xu Zhu and Lin Mian were in the same year at S University but were in different departments. One had graduated and became a manhua author, while the other continued his studies in University K to get his masters in law. They in no way had a big brother and little sister relationship.

Lin Mian explained the situation in a few sentences and simply explained the fact that she had taken the place of Xu Tong for some time.

It’s kinda like acting in a spy movie. After waiting for two minutes, Lin Mian received a message from Xu Zhu.

【Xu Zhu： 】

【Lin Mian：？】

【Xu Zhu：Not many people have the guts to deceive the boss like that. I will light candles for you in advance. My deepest condolences. 】

The boss referred to Que Qingyan.

Lin Mian put her phone down. She guilty glanced at the man driving.

Given that Que Qingyan is Xu Zhu’s instructor…

Suddenly, a lightbulb flashed over Lin Mian’s head and she reopened WeChat and sincerely typed a line of words.

【Xu Zhu：What are you going to do with the boss’s WeChat? Do you actually want to be my little sister?】

Lin Mian thought, No, I want to be the wife of your teacher… But of course that was currently just her dreaming.

After a bit, Xu Zhu gave Que Qingyan’s WeChat to her. 

Lin Mian looked at Que Qingyan’s WeChat, her thumb that was pressed on her phone screen began to heat up. She hesitated for a moment, thanked Xu Zhu, and closed WeChat.

…no…I don’t dare add him!

It was only a 20 minute drive from K University to Lin Mian’s apartment. Just as the car was approaching the underground garage, she told Que Qingyan, “Professor Que, I’ll get off here.” And ended it off seriously, “Thank you.”

Que Qingyan looked at her.

The elevator in the underground garage had access to all the floors in the apartment. Instead, Lin Mian had decided to get off in front of the building. Lin Mian paused and said in a soft voice, “I want to run two laps around.”

I need to cool down.

With a little blush on her face, she said some nonsense. “Strong, uh, got to maintain physical fitness.”

The two separated in front of the apartment. Also, Lin Mian actually ran two laps around the apartment building. When she returned home panting, she collapsed on the sofa, her face redder and her heart thumping.

She tapped open WeChat and looked at an unfamiliar avatar with the WeChat name Que written in English.

To add or not to add?

She made up her mind. She decided to add.

Before adding, she made some preparations in advance. She replaced her avatar that read “This person doesn’t have an avatar” with a sweet and fresh Japanese style, and cut off all her WeChat friends that could give away her real identity. She portrayed a quiet and simple life.

After sending the friend’s application, curled like a pancake, she rolled on her sofa, hugging her phone.

After Lin Mian calmed down, she began to sit up, silently staring at the phone in her hands.

5 minutes, nothing

10 minutes, nothing

30 minutes…

Still nothing

“…”

Come to think of it, Que Qingyan doesn’t add strangers.

Lin Mian stayed silent for a few seconds. Then, she wobbled to her feet, put down her phone, and decisively decided to move on to other things, leaving to take a bath and calm down.

After she exited the bathroom, Lin Mian, wiping her hair, went to the kitchen to cook some soup. She resisted the constant urges to fish out her phone. 

As the soup was simmering, Lin Mian, rubbing her wet hair against the side of the sofa, sluggishly tapped her phone open, slowly tapped WeChat, and slowly…

A moment of silence followed. Lin Mian: “AHHHHHHH–”

My friend request got through!!

Fireworks burst and bloomed into several smoky flowers in her mind. She looked at the text field that allowed her to send messages to Que Qingyan, her finger tips hovering above the screen. For a while, she didn’t know what she should say.

Resisting her tumultuous heart, she sent:

【Professor Que, hello.】

The greeting conformed with proper etiquette. There was no reply.

Now what…

She was currently Xu Tong. What could she do? Should she actually chat about stuff law majors talk about?

After she imagined a scenario where she and him would have an academic conversation concerning case analysis, she immediately eliminated that possibility. 

What if I didn’t act as Xu Tong? What if I was myself…

I lost my cool in front of Que Qingyan several times this week alone. Maybe he’s already noticed something? If I come clean now, it’ll be much better than him discovering it himself later on…. yeah.  

She thought about it and decided to ask Xu Zhu first. She earnestly tapped Xu Zhu’s text field.

【Lin Mian：Xu Zhu, if a I confess to Que Qingyan that I’ve deceiving him this whole time, will there be any… consequences?】

Xu Zhu quickly replied.

【Xu Zhu：My boss isn’t a human that holds a grudge】

Lin Mian sighed in relief. Just as she was about to exit the chat room to have a heart-to-heart chat with Que Qingyan, she saw Xu Zhu send another message.

【Xu Zhu：My boss isn’t a human[1] when he holds a grudge】

Lin Mian: “…”

After a few minutes, news of Que Qingyan replying arrived.

【Que：What?】

Lin Mian looked at the single cold  “What?” and, thinking back to Xu Zhu’s words, suppressed her desire to confess. It was in order to survive. 

What to say…

30 seconds later.

【Lin Mian：Let’s discuss WeChat Business】

[1]: It means he doesn’t act like a human (ruthless) when he holds a grudge

TL Note: The Xu in Xu Zhu and Xu Tong are different. The Xu in Xu Zhu is 徐, and the Xu in Xu Tong is 许.