Chapter 164: So Thoughtful
In the room, Ye Ziming was drying his hair while quietly watching Lin Muqing.
Right now, she looked no different from a curious little kitten, exploring this new environment by looking around.
“Boss.”
Just as he was about to finish drying his hair, Lin Muqing, who was sitting by the bed, suddenly called out to him.
“Hmm?”
Ye Ziming turned off the hair dryer and put it away. Then he walked over to the bed and looked at Lin Muqing with a confused expression.
“Is it really okay to leave these things here?”
She glanced at a few small boxes on the nightstand, then turned to look at him again with a slightly strange expression in her eyes.
“?”
Ye Ziming was puzzled by her question and her strange look, but it didn’t take long for him to figure it out. Lin Muqing was holding two small boxes in her hands and even held them out toward him so he could see them up close.
“Ahem… Boss, do you use these often?”
Looking at the two boxes in her hands, Lin Muqing seemed a little embarrassed, her face turning slightly red.
There were several boxes like these sitting right on the nightstand. Out of curiosity, she picked up two to take a look. At first, she didn’t notice anything strange since the labels were in English. She only thought the brand name looked a bit familiar.
Then she opened one of the boxes.
Oh boy. Now she realized, these were condoms.
Even though she wasn’t an adult yet, Lin Muqing knew this was something used during those kinds of intimate moments. And the fact that they were left in such an obvious and convenient spot, right on the nightstand…
Ahhh—this was too much. Lin Muqing didn’t even dare to keep imagining it.
“Where did you get those?”
Now it was Ye Ziming’s turn to have a complicated expression. He also felt awkward, and he definitely knew what those were. Trying to keep a calm face, he frowned slightly and asked.
“From here.”
Lin Muqing scooted over and made room so her best friend could clearly see the nightstand, and the boxes on top of it. Then she gave him an innocent look, blinking as if to say, ‘I didn’t go through your stuff, okay?’
Shocked + embarrassed.jpg
There was no need for more explanation, Ye Ziming already figured out where they came from.
Looking at the spare bedsheet and the two quilts on the bed, he could only say his mom had really thought of everything.
“Ahem… I didn’t see anything.”
After sharing a brief look with Ye Ziming, Lin Muqing shyly put the boxes back, then walked around to sit on the other side of the bed.
This was way too embarrassing, especially when she saw the word “protection” on one of the boxes. She almost wanted to open—no, throw it away.
“I don’t know why they’re here,”
Ye Ziming’s eyelid twitched slightly as he looked at the blushing, flustered Lin Muqing, trying to clear his name.
“And I’ve never used that kind of thing before.”
“Oh… okay.”
Sitting at the edge of the bed with her legs tightly pressed together, Lin Muqing looked away with a bit of a guilty and awkward expression and gave a half-hearted nod.
Right now, she wasn’t even thinking about whether or not she believed what her best friend just said.
She was just… once she saw those boxes, her mind kept imagining some really embarrassing scenarios, and her heart started beating faster as her face turned red again.
“You don’t believe me?”
Ye Ziming sounded a little unhappy, noticing how dismissive Lin Muqing was being.
“I didn’t say that.”
She quickly waved her hands to deny it.
But what Lin Muqing didn’t know was that her guilty-looking reaction made Ye Ziming feel like she didn’t trust him. Thinking this, he frowned, clearly very bothered. He didn’t want Lin Muqing to misunderstand him.
So, he grabbed Lin Muqing’s small hand, put on a serious face, and said to her very sincerely, “I can prove it.”
“P-Prove it...?”
“A man’s first time usually doesn’t last very long. But from the second time on, it lasts longer—”
“Wait, wait! That’s not what I meant. Calm down, big bro!”
Seeing her good friend say something like that with such a serious face, and hearing what he said, Lin Muqing’s face instantly felt hot. What kind of wild and bold stuff was this!?
It was too scary!
Originally, it was Ye Ziming trying to prove himself, but it somehow turned into Lin Muqing needing to prove that she believed what her good friend said. She felt like crying but had no tears. Life was just too hard for her.
The room stayed noisy for a while, but finally, the good news was that Ye Ziming gave up on that idea. Lin Muqing luckily escaped being *if you know you know*. Near midnight, she finally finished washing up, got into bed, and pulled up the blanket.
There were two blankets and two pillows. One for each person, just right. To feel safer, Lin Muqing even suggested making a boundary line.
Lin Muqing didn’t actually believe anything would happen, but what just happened made her feel really embarrassed.
They drew a line in the middle of the bed, splitting it into two halves, and made a rule that neither of them could cross the line.
If anyone broke the rule, the next day they would get three smacks on the butt from the other person.
“Umm… big bro?”
After the lights in the room were turned off completely, Lin Muqing stayed quiet for a while with her eyes closed, ready to sleep.
Then suddenly she realized something, even though the room was completely dark, she didn’t feel scared at all. She didn’t feel uneasy. In fact, she felt a strange sense of safety.
Thinking about that, she turned her head and softly called out to her good friend.
“Mm?”
Ye Ziming’s voice came from the darkness.
“Good night~”
Hearing his reply, Lin Muqing suddenly felt shy for no reason, and a little nervous too.
Her small hands gripped the blanket tightly, leaving only her pretty eyes peeking out. After hesitating a bit, she softly mumbled two words:
“Mm, good night.”
Her voice was very soft and gentle. At least to Lin Muqing, that’s how it sounded.
Then, the room fell silent again. Lin Muqing stared at the darkness and felt the warmth of the blanket. For some reason, she felt very happy. Maybe even a little excited, just from knowing her good friend was nearby.
Tonight was definitely special, because in the past year or more, she had never felt so relaxed and peaceful in the dark. In fact, she slept even better than usual.
Even Lin Muqing herself didn’t know that after she fell asleep, there was still a small smile on her lips.
Meanwhile, in another room, Ye Ziming’s mother and Aunt Meng were watching a movie together.
Because Ye’s father was on a last-minute business trip, the two of them happily enjoyed some girls’ time together, eating tasty food and doing fun things.
“Oh right, Xiao Meng, do you still remember that trip we took to a Taoist temple more than ten years ago? The one where we got those matching jade pendants?”
In the middle of chatting, Ye Ziming’s mom suddenly remembered how her son had asked a few days ago about where his jade pendant came from.
She remembered it was given by a very powerful Taoist priest. But that person was mysterious, and when she went back to that place again later, the priest had disappeared.
So when Ye Ziming asked her who the priest was, she couldn’t answer and had to ask around to try and find out.