You Sound Sleepy

The soup was almost done simmering. The rich aroma of rib soup pervaded throughout the air, lingering. Slight bubbling noises arose from the casserole pot’s holes, and fragrant steam blanketed the room.

It has been half an hour since Lin Mian’s last message. Lin Mian stared at the quiet chat room. No response. She pulled a pillow from the sofa and silently buried her face into it.

Fretting, Lin Mian cutely bit the edge of her pillow. “Ah….”

…Why??!!

He couldn’t have already blocked me, right?

Lin Mian wavered for a while, not daring to send another message to confirm that thought. She curled up into a ball on the plushy sofa and anxiously scrolled through all the WeChat messages in front of her.

His WeChat avatar was a casual landscape picture, a top-down night view of Wudaokou that was covered in dense neon lights. She began to flip through his other details. His WeChat status was empty. His friend list was also empty.

There was not a shred of personal information. It was so low-key and restrained that it tempted her. 

Scanning the monotone picture several times, Lin Mian finally, with a crooked smile, grudgingly put down her phone and drifted to the kitchen to take out the soup.

Currently, thinking that Que Qingyan was only two floors away, she had the urge to run those laps again to cool down. Not only am I close to him, I also have his WeChat.

After she finished eating, Lin Mian tidied up the dishes and entered her study room.

Said “study room,” was more like a work office that had been converted into a study room. Lin Mian’s manhua was half drawn digitally and half drawn by hand. Normally, she could draft and draw characters and backgrounds anywhere, but when it came to producing serious drafts, she would be in the work office, suffering. 

She turned on her computer, checked her emails, and found some emails from Xu Tong. The latter had sent over the written paper.

When Xu Tong had asked Lin Mian to attend the International Economic Law class previously, Lin Mian mentioned to Xu Tong the matter of the midterm paper, while on the phone. Although the class didn’t usually have homework, it did have a midterm paper. It didn’t take long for Xu Tong to write it and send the midterm paper to her.  

The paper was due next week.

Ok…

I also have to hand it in with the 40,000 word reflection paper to Que Qingyan.

“…” Suddenly, her heart stifled.

She had talked to Xu Tong about the paper. As for writing for the reflection paper…she didn’t say a word about it.

If she said she was caught sleeping in class while she was helping with Xu Tong’s attendance and now had to write a 40,000 word reflection paper…

Lin Mian since childhood had always had a thick face, but this was a little too humiliating, even for her.

She weighed the importance of the two matters at hand. From the bottom of her heart, she felt the draft could be delayed a tad. Therefore, she should write the reflection paper first…

While Lin Mian was sipping milk and brooding, the phone placed on her writing desk began vibrating.

Lin Mian answered, “Hi.” Miss Bai’s voice was on the other end. “Mian Bao[1], I’ll check in soon. I’m boarding at the Saipan airport, estimated arrival time is tomorrow morning.”

“My appearance fees are expensive. There’ll be labor fees for making me get up early to pick you up from the airport.” Lin Mian licked the bubbly milky froth on the side of her lips. It was a little sweet. “Aren’t you still on your honeymoon?” 

Miss Bai’s full name was Bai Jiayi. The daughter of the Bai Family Group, Miss Bai was besties with Lin Mian since childhood. Also, she was the only friend who kept in close contact with Lin Mian after the Lin Family had fallen from grace.

Last month, Miss Bai married the son of the Shen Group. After getting married in City B, they flew out of the country for their honeymoon. According to the time, she should have come back next month.

Bai Jiayi flared up. “I spent the honeymoon with that #[email protected]!%. Do you know what he was doing those days?”

Lin Mian bit the rim of the milk glass. “What happened?”

The other party had been suppressing her grievances for several days and finally found someone to talk to. The sentences began pouring out. “So, I went to a designer store to buy a bag and try some shoes. Guess what? He flirted with the shop’s assistant, a foreign girl! If I left for longer, maybe they would have returned to his room and had some “alone” time. And don’t even get me started on yesterday. When we went to the beach, that idiot kept lustfully staring at pretty girls. He actually had the guts to tell me that he was just looking at the waves. Oh, so there were waves in those girls’ bikinis, ah?”

“Before I got married, I asked someone to check his background. They told me he was hanging out with his dog-like friends, drinking and racing with women all day. I couldn’t believe it at the time. After all, he seemed fine when I was asked to marry him. Now it all starts to make sense. His parents were keeping an eye on him during the marriage process. Now that he has been released from his little birdy cage, he is the equivalent to a mentally-handicapped bird. I actually kinda feel pity for him. How can one be born so stupid? This…this marriage to him was an injustice!”

Bai Jaiyi was throwing a tantrum and the more she spoke, the angrier she got. “Just thinking about this honeymoon pisses me off. Anyways, I am afraid I just couldn’t stop myself from using my high heels to send this good for nothing’s ballsack into another dimension. Needless to say, I’m coming back early.”

After she finished, Lin Mian placed down her glass of milk and said with a solemn tone, “Stop talking, I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.” She ended it by saying softly, “No fee.”

Bai Jiayi: “…”

The next day, Lin Mian diligently set her alarm clock and picked up Bai Jiayi from the airport. It appeared that in the middle of their honeymoon the newlyweds were fuming to the point they returned early. This matter had to be kept hidden from their families. So, Lin Mian brought the currently homeless Bai Jiayi to her house. Two people entered the house.

Bai Jiayi placed her heavy suitcase in the entrance hall and found a pair of slippers. With the slippers, she trotted into the living room and threw herself into the plush sofa, sighing comfortably. 

“If I knew earlier I wouldn’t have left. Mian Bao, it’s more comfortable here than the honeymoon.” After lying down for a while, Bai Jiayi, with a cushion supporting her, sat up and seriously said, in a matter-of-fact way, “I basically knew, family marriages kill people. Now I know, I must pursue true love and let the scummy men piss off.”

“Hmm….” It was a faint response.

 Lin Mian got up early, and her biological clock was not operating. With a sleepy face, she rested on the sofa, gently rubbing her eyes.

Her apricot eyes were reddish and sparkling with water. Her long black hair draped over her shoulders. She began to curl into a small round ball, shrinking into the corner of the sofa. Bai Jiayi glanced at Lin Mian and felt a little envious.

The Lin Family had been defeated. Now, there was only the mother left.

Even if the mother had the makings of a strong woman, she alone couldn’t save much. The Lin Family fell to the point that it wouldn’t just take a short three to five years to climb back up. To go from the bottom, to return to its past glory, networking and human relationships were key. In such a terrible situation, marriage sounded like a good thing.

However, Lin Mian’s mother had doted on Lin Mian since childhood and didn’t know how much it would hurt her daughter to raise such a matter, so she never mentioned anything about marriage.

Lin Mian was a pampered treasure, her texture clean and smooth.

“By the way Mian Bao, I brought a gift for you and left it in the suitcase. It’s the one in the pink box.”

Palm-sized, the pink gift box was wrapped in a butterfly knot and had elegant packaging. Mu Lian opened it. It was a Swiss couple’s watch. 

“Are you proposing to me?” Lin Mian groaned and then raised her head. “But I already have some else in my heart. We are not fated to be. Sorry. I’ve burdened you.”

“Someone in your heart?” Bai Jiayi ignored the other playful words, and accurately pinpointed the important part. “Who?”

Lin Mian closed the gift box and replied bluntly, “I want to chase Que Qingyan.”

“…”

“……”

“………”

Que Qingyan? Who else but THE Que Qingyan??

Bai Jiayi, with a thunderstruck face, touched Lin Mian’s forehead with concern. “Little Mian Bao, do you have a fever?”

She knew who Que Qingyan was.

She had heard of the reputation of the young master in the Que Family. He studied like a madman and was now an elite in law. Compared to those greasy, flowery young masters, he remained restrained and proper.

But the problem was…

“Even if he was only -” Bai Jiayi began counting carefully. “Only four years older than you, but – but when you were only graduating junior high, he was graduating with a masters degree! The actual age isn’t much different, but the mental age is – is too far… you two just aren’t compatible.”

“It’s fine. He’s upstairs.” Lin Mian found a comfortable sleeping position on the sofa, and her long lashes fell. Closing her eyes, she said in a small voice, “Two floors above.”

[1] Nickname for a Lin Mian