Chapter 245: Life’s Ups and Downs… and Downs, Downs, Downs, Downs
On the sofa, Lin Muqing curled herself into a ball, sitting on the edge with a very guarded look toward Ye Ziming. She looked cutely fierce, like a small animal pretending to be scary. She didn’t want to drink the ginger sugar water, not even one sip!
If someone forced her, she would definitely bare her teeth and bite.
“How about this, let’s play a little game,” Ye Ziming suggested.
They had been stuck like this for a while, and looking at her stubborn expression, he couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. If it were anyone else sitting there, he would have already frowned and said, “Drink it or don’t, I don’t care, it’s not me who’s hurting.” But this was his little cutie. He couldn’t get angry. Instead, he thought of ways to coax her. This time, he came up with a pretty good idea.
“Game?”
When she heard that word, Lin Muqing lowered her guard just a bit and looked at him curiously.
“Yeah, a really simple game,” he said with a smile. To help her relax, he even put the bowl of ginger sugar water on the table first. Then, right in front of her, he took out his phone and opened the WeChat chat window.
“We’ll roll dice. Whoever gets the bigger number wins. If you win twice, I’ll give you a random snack. But if you lose even once, you have to drink a spoonful of ginger sugar water.”
He explained the rules carefully, even unlocking her phone with her fingerprint so she could play.
“Emmm…” Lin Muqing hesitated. These past few days, the only “snack” she’d had was sneaking a sip of iced cola last night. (And as great as that felt last night… today it didn’t feel so great.)
At first, it sounded like a bad deal. She needed to win twice to get a snack. But thinking about it, with a 50% win rate, she could still possibly get a week’s worth of snacks in one go.
“Alright!”
Her eyes lit up immediately. She lifted her head and agreed. A week’s worth of snacks! Just thinking about it made her excited. She took back her phone and got ready for the game, rubbing her hands like a fighter before battle.
“You first, or me first?” Ye Ziming asked.
“You choose. I’ll go first,” she said.
She tapped her phone screen, and a dice appeared in the WeChat game. The special match began.
…And after a while, Ye Ziming finally managed to get her to drink the entire bowl of ginger sugar water.
Now Lin Muqing sat on the sofa, hugging her knees, head down, looking completely defeated.
In that short game, she had experienced the “ups and downs” of life, except it was more like up… then down, down, down, down, down. She had only won once.
The first win made her so happy. But then she kept losing, going from disbelief, to frustration, to desperation, and finally to silent sadness.
“Good girl,” Ye Ziming said.
He put the empty bowl back in the kitchen, came back, and sat beside her. He gently patted her head in praise.
But he didn’t expect that his little cutie, who had only been sulking before, would suddenly be unable to hold back after being comforted.
She looked up sharply, met his eyes for two seconds, and her eyes started turning red, as if she was about to cry at any moment.
She didn’t say a word, just stared at him with big, beautiful almond-shaped eyes, frowning slightly, cheeks puffed out. She looked so wronged it almost hurt to look at her.
“Ah—wait, don’t cry. Look, look what I have!”
Seeing her like that first made Ye Ziming’s heart melt, then it made him panic. She looked so pitiful and wronged, and he couldn’t handle that kind of “soft” attack.
He quickly stood up, grabbed a few packs of snacks from nearby, and piled them all into her arms.
“Huh?”
She stared at the sudden pile of snacks, her mind going blank for a moment. Just a second ago, she had felt so wronged, so sure her good buddy was bullying her, and she was mad about it.
So, with a belly full of anger, she turned her head, opened her eyes wide, and glared at her good buddy, trying to show her biggest dissatisfaction through silence. But the result was… a bit unexpected.
“As long as you don’t cry, all of these are yours.”
He gently patted Lin Muqing’s head while giving her the snacks, and comforted the little cutie. Only he knew how nervous he was just now.
“Huh? Oh.”
Hearing his words, Lin Muqing was a little confused. She thought, ‘I wasn’t going to cry, right? Hmm… probably not. I’m not a crybaby… I think.’
She thought for a moment, but since she couldn’t figure it out, she decided not to think about it anymore. She happily accepted the snacks and nodded with a smile. As long as there was tasty food, she would nod to whatever her good buddy said and even let him pat her head.
She was truly the most obedient girl in the world.
“Do you still feel uncomfortable?”
The night grew late, and as bedtime came, Ye Ziming asked Lin Muqing with concern.
“Hmm… it’s fine.”
Actually, she still didn’t feel good. But to stop her friend from worrying, she hesitated for a moment and told a small lie.
However, during those two seconds of hesitation, Ye Ziming had already noticed something was off and could tell she was forcing herself to say that.
“Come, lie down.”
He thought for a moment, looked at Lin Muqing, then patted his own thigh to signal her to lie down.
Just earlier, he had spent some time searching online and learned that girls can have bigger mood swings during their period. He had also learned a few ways to ease period pain.
“What for?”
Lin Muqing, who was watching anime on the TV screen, asked with confusion. But even while asking, she followed what her friend said. She curled up at first, then lay down on her side, looking at him with a puzzled face.
Then, she saw him reach out and gently turn her over so she was lying flat on her back.
“A hot water bag? For me?”
She saw him holding a hot water bag in his hand, and suddenly she thought she understood.
Using a hot water bag on her belly could help ease the pain. Wow… so my good buddy is that thoughtful?
With a smile, she reached out her hands, ready to take the hot water bag and thank him, but suddenly Ye Ziming put it aside.
“Online it says if you rub your hands warm and place them on the belly to massage clockwise, it can help with the pain.”
Before starting, Ye Ziming made sure to explain, to avoid any strange misunderstandings again.
“Massage?”
Hearing this word, Lin Muqing tilted her head curiously.
“Mm.”
He nodded, and under her curious gaze, Ye Ziming quickly lifted her shirt while his hands were still warm and placed them on her lower belly.