Chapter 138: Blow-Drying Hair
This time, the pajama pants her good buddy gave her were better. They had a white drawstring, so as long as she tied it tight, she didn’t have to worry about them slipping down. The top was a bit loose though, showing most of her collarbone and part of her shoulder, still felt a little too big.
But compared to wearing girls’ clothes in front of her good buddy, she felt this was much better. At least it was boy’s clothes!
"Come here, I'll dry your hair for you."
Seeing the panicked look in Lin Muqing’s eyes and how she held her small hands tightly in front of her chest, Ye Ziming couldn’t help but laugh. She still said she wasn’t a girl, but just look at her now, anyone would say this is a cute girl, he thought to himself, a bit helpless.
“O-okay...”
Frozen in place, Lin Muqing carefully watched her good buddy’s eyes and movements, like a startled kitten. When she heard Ye Ziming’s words, she nervously took two small steps forward.
After making sure he wasn’t going to bring up that topic again, she cautiously walked over and sat on the sofa.
“Come a bit closer, I’m not gonna eat you.”
Seeing her sitting all the way on the other end of the sofa, Ye Ziming felt a little speechless. Did he really look that scary? After saying this, he turned to check that the hairdryer cord was long enough, then moved closer to her himself.
"Uhh, I can do it myself..."
As her good buddy got closer, Lin Muqing stammered, reaching out to take the hairdryer.
Even though he didn’t bring up the embarrassing topic from earlier, just seeing him come near made her remember it on her own. Her face turned red. She had finally managed to forget that her good buddy was also her online friend, but now he’d brought it up again. It was really hard to handle!
"Let me do it."
Ye Ziming reached out and gently pushed her hand away.
Earlier, when he had some free time, he had come across a post with the title, “What it means when a guy blow-dries a girl’s hair.” Normally, he wouldn’t have clicked on something like that, it was clearly clickbait.
But this time was different. After hesitating for a second, he clicked in and actually learned how to blow-dry a girl's hair properly. Just wanting to give it a try, he brought the hairdryer over, had Lin Muqing turn her back to him, and started drying her hair.
“Emmm...”
Unable to refuse him, Lin Muqing gave up, dried her feet, and sat cross-legged on the sofa with her back to her good buddy. As the warm air blew through her hair, she absentmindedly played with her fingers and stared into the empty living room.
As he dried her hair, she slowly started to relax. It actually felt pretty nice... she even felt a little happy inside. This was what it felt like to be taken care of.
She remembered when she was little, her mom used to hold a hairdryer like this, sitting on the living room sofa, helping her dry her hair.
Thinking of that, she instinctively leaned back a little, partly to make it easier for him to dry her hair, and partly because she kind of wanted to lean against him. Just like she used to lean on her mom.
"Ahem, done."
Just as she was about to lean fully into the warmth behind her, Ye Ziming’s voice suddenly came, snapping her out of it. She immediately realized this was his house, not her own home from back then.
"Ah, okay."
She quickly sat up straight and turned to look behind her.
She glanced at the comb in his hand, then touched her long hair. Her eyes lit up, he did a really good job. It might even be better than when she did it herself. That was kind of impressive.
"You still have homework to finish, right?"
Ye Ziming gave a subtle look at her chest area, then quickly looked away and turned his head. His phone happened to be in that direction, so he walked over to pick it up as he casually said:
“Oh yeah, I haven’t done my English homework yet.”
Suddenly remembering something, Lin Muqing stood up from the sofa.
"Uh, then I’ll go do my homework first."
She turned around and said something to her good buddy, then walked toward her room. Her homework was already placed on the desk inside. As she spoke, she slipped on her pink slippers and walked into the room with a light tapping sound, leaving her phone on the living room sofa out of habit. After all, putting homework far away makes it easier to focus... on playing with her phone.
“Hm.”
Watching her walk into the room from the corner of his eye, Ye Ziming let out a quiet breath, trying to ease the awkward feeling in his chest. He had noticed earlier that when Lin Muqing wore his thin white pajama shirt, there were two mysterious bumps on her chest. And while blow-drying her hair, a gust of wind had accidentally blown up her collar...
What he saw... was the kind of scene that would definitely get censored if he described it too clearly.
Now he was wondering, should he tell her to be more careful? That was a serious question.
As he thought about this, he noticed that Lin Muqing had left her phone on the sofa. He knew it was an older model, and even the phone case was worn out. The screen was still on, and it happened to be showing her recent chat list on QQ.
Then he spotted an ID that surprised him.
[Qiansha]
If he remembered correctly, that was his older sister Ye Mengze’s in-game name.
Just like him, Ye Mengze played that game from time to time. When she wasn’t playing, she paid someone to level up her account. She was a pretty casual player. But her favorite thing in the game… was pretending to be weak and then showing off later.
As that thought crossed his mind, Ye Ziming’s expression became a bit strange. Could this really just be a coincidence…?
“Phew~ Done!”
After finishing her homework, Lin Muqing really wanted to cheer out loud. Then she immediately reached behind her and opened her laptop, ready to go shopping online.
But she quickly realized, this wasn’t her house. She hadn’t brought her computer. And there wasn’t one here either. That was kind of disappointing.
Thinking about it, she walked out of the room and into the living room, grabbed her phone from the sofa, and started looking around for her good buddy.
“You finished your homework?”
While she was still searching, Ye Ziming’s voice suddenly came from behind her. He was holding an empty cup.
“Ah... mm-hmm,” she nodded.
“Wanna play a game for a bit?” Ye Ziming glanced at the time, then remembered something. He pointed toward his room.
“But it’s kind of late already.”
Lin Muqing almost blurted out “Sure!” without thinking. But thankfully, she caught herself just in time and quickly changed her words.
After what had happened earlier, Lin Muqing was pretty sure her good buddy was trying to trap her.
He was using a game invite to trick her into logging into her account... and confessing that she was actually “Mumu-chan.”
Hmph~ She was way too smart to fall for that.
Ye Ziming: Was that really my plan...? How come I don’t even know about it...?