“Ruanruan, come sleep with us too… so soft… so fragrant…”
Su Rou mumbled cheerfully. Like a greedy giant hamster, she overbearingly snatched Su Ruanruan, who had just landed on the bed, into her embrace as well.
Gu Hanyan was lying at the bottom, while Su Rou was sprawled in the middle like a piece of sandwich filling.
As for poor Su Ruanruan, she was held tightly against her mother’s chest, her entire face forced into a soft expanse that smelled of alcohol and milk.
“Mmph! Mom! Let go! I’m going to suffocate from this facial cleanser!”
Now it was Su Ruanruan’s turn to be unable to breathe. She waved her limbs desperately, trying to break free, but she could not push Su Rou’s small hands away with her meager strength.
To make matters worse, because the space on the bed was limited, Su Ruanruan’s short legs inevitably kicked Gu Hanyan at the very bottom during her struggle.
“Ruanruan, calm down…” Gu Hanyan’s voice carried a hint of weary hoarseness.
She took a deep breath, attempting to use her height and long legs to flip over from the “victim position” at the bottom to the middle, or at least change to a position where she could breathe.
“Rou, loosen up a bit and let me turn around…”
Gu Hanyan coaxed her gently while trying to move Su Rou’s leg, which was draped over her waist.
“No running away! Hanyan is mine!”
Su Rou pouted her pink lips and let out a highly dissatisfied hum.
In the next second, Su Rou’s two white arms tightly hugged Gu Hanyan’s neck. She buried her fuzzy head deep into the crook of Gu Hanyan’s shoulder, rubbing her head around frantically like a cat protecting its food. “You’re not allowed to go anywhere… hic.”
“…”
Gu Hanyan, who had been completely counter-attacked and ruthlessly stripped of even the chance to turn over, found her gold-rimmed glasses tilted completely to one side.
She lay flat on the bed, her eyes meeting Su Ruanruan’s, who had finally managed to catch her breath because her mother had rolled over.
The two of them, one large and one small, stared at each other under the dim light of the small nightlight.
Taking advantage of the fact that Su Rou’s attention was entirely focused on “suppressing Gu Hanyan,” Su Ruanruan scrambled toward the edge of the bed using both her hands and feet.
“Whew… whew…”
After successfully escaping the bed, Su Ruanruan hurriedly smoothed out her little dinosaur pajamas, which had been ruffled by her mother. She looked back at her Lolita Mom, who had turned into a terrifying face-hugging monster on the bed, with lingering fear.
“CEO Gu, you… take care of yourself! I’m leaving first!”
Sprinting back to her own room, Su Ruanruan locked the door and let out a long sigh of relief.
‘That scared me. I almost got strangled to death on the bed by Mom.’
She threw herself onto her soft, large bed and pulled up the covers, ready to close her eyes and end this rollercoaster of a day.
“Ding-dong.”
The phone on the bedside table suddenly rang.
Su Ruanruan picked it up and saw it was a message from an unknown number. It contained one picture and one line of text.
The moment the picture loaded, Su Ruanruan’s eyes widened.
The background of the photo was a high-end bathroom with dim, ambiguous lighting. In the frame, a pair of extremely long, straight legs were lazily crossed over the edge of a bathtub. They were wearing very thin black silk stockings, revealing the cool, white, and delicate skin underneath. Water droplets from a recent bath still clung to them, sparkling one by one under the light. The ankles were slender, and the toes were painted with transparent nail polish, looking pink, moist, and cute. They were rounded, each one looking like the flesh of a peeled lychee.
Then came that line of text:
“Lick it for me.”
“…”
Su Ruanruan’s mouth twitched.
She did not even need to think about it; it was definitely that psycho from the subway this afternoon.
This was sexual harassment; she should report this to the police.
But —
Her disloyal eyes uncontrollably drifted back to the photo.
Su Ruanruan zoomed in on the image and studied it seriously from top to bottom.
Although the legs were a bit short, the lines were truly smooth. That thin layer of black silk made the skin underneath appear even more delicate. The water droplets hung down along the stockings, and the lighting happened to fall exactly on the most worthwhile spots to look at.
Then, her gaze naturally fell down to those toes.
The transparent nail polish was applied very cleverly, making the toes look pink, tender, and rounded, like strawberry jelly. It made one unable to resist wanting to…
Su Ruanruan suddenly snapped out of it and slammed the phone face-down on the bed.
She took a deep breath while staring at the ceiling.
‘Tch, that’s it? It’s not even that good-looking; it’s not as good as my own. Asking me to lick? In her dreams!’
She muted her phone, tossed it onto the bedside table, and abruptly pulled the covers over herself.
‘Sleep! I’ll deal with the pervert stuff tomorrow!’
After an unknown amount of time, Su Ruanruan fell fast asleep, snoring softly.
—
The next day.
“Ding! You have 99+ unread messages.”
Su Ruanruan bolted upright in bed and tapped on her phone.
In the chat box with that unknown number, a screen full of high-definition pictures flooded down, nearly freezing her phone.
Su Ruanruan’s sleepiness evaporated instantly.
They were all photos, and they were all close-ups —
Legs wearing white stockings while kneeling on a bed; a torso wrapped in a bath towel after a shower, with collarbones and a small patch of snow-white skin faintly visible; and close-ups of those long, slender, well-defined hands.
“…”
Su Ruanruan held her phone, her small face turning as red as a crab. she remained in a daze on the bed for a full three seconds.
‘What… what is this?’
‘Does this count as sexual harassment?’
‘Or is this — some kind of fan service?!’
“What a lunatic…”
Su Ruanruan whispered with a red face. Her finger moved toward the “Delete Chat History” button and hovered there for a long time.
Finally, she slowly withdrew her finger.
‘…That lighting is really amazing. It’s not my fault.’
Su Ruanruan kicked off the covers and walked out of her room in her slippers.
In the living room, Su Rou was curled up on the sofa in a ball. She was holding her head with both hands, her hair a messy bird’s nest. She looked miserable.
“Mom, you’re awake?”
“Ugh…” Su Rou let out a muffled groan without looking up. “Keep it down… my head hurts…”
She was not fully conscious yet; the hangover after-effects were still lingering.
Su Ruanruan glanced at her without much sympathy and turned her gaze toward the kitchen.
Gu Hanyan was standing by the stove, wearing the same shirt from last night with her hair tied casually behind her head. She was frying something in a skillet. She was tall, and her back was straight as she stood there, but when one looked closer —
She had dark circles under her eyes. Very deep ones.
“CEO Gu?” Su Ruanruan walked over and stood at the kitchen door. “You… you know how to cook?”
“Just simple things,” Gu Hanyan replied without turning around, her tone flat. “Is your sister not up yet?”
“She’s still lying in bed. I can’t move her.”
Gu Hanyan gave a hum of acknowledgment. She rolled the egg out of the skillet and placed it neatly on a plate before reaching for the toast that was already done.
Her movements were very practiced, not looking like someone who only entered the kitchen occasionally.
Su Ruanruan leaned against the doorframe and peeked at her.
After being crushed by Su Rou all night, anyone else would have been filled with resentment, but this woman showed nothing on her face. Only the dark circles under her eyes betrayed her.
Before long, Gu Hanyan walked out carrying two plates of sandwiches.
“Su Rou.”
Su Rou let out a groan from the sofa but did not move.
“Time to eat.”
“…Not eating. I feel terrible.”
“You need to eat after drinking.” Gu Hanyan set the plates on the coffee table and sat down next to Su Rou. Her tone was as calm as if she were in a meeting. “Get up.”
Only then did Su Rou slowly lift her head. Her messy hair hung down, her cheeks were still flushed from sleep, and her watery eyes were squinted. she looked aggrieved, as if she had not slept enough.
Then, she saw the dark circles on Gu Hanyan’s face.
Su Rou froze for a second.
Immediately, her gaze began to wander.
She looked toward the coffee table, the television, the curtains — anywhere but Gu Hanyan’s face. The tips of her ears turned red, and she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.
“Um…” Su Rou’s voice was much smaller than usual, thin and soft. “Hanyan, did you… sleep well last night?”
“It was fine.”
“…Oh.”
Su Rou lowered her head. Her fingers began to twist together secretly. Her hair fell forward, covering half of her face, but the tips of her ears could still be seen turning bright red.
Su Ruanruan stood nearby, watching Su Rou sit there like a child caught doing something wrong. Her eyes darted everywhere, but she did not dare look Gu Hanyan in the eye.
“…Mom, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Su Rou immediately sat up straight, trying to make her voice sound normal. She grabbed a sandwich from the coffee table and took a bite. “Delicious! Anything Hanyan makes is delicious! Right, Ruanruan?”
She turned her head and gave Su Ruanruan a forceful “don’t say too much” look.
Su Ruanruan: “…”
‘Fine, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything.’
Gu Hanyan pushed the other plate in front of Su Ruanruan and spoke expressionlessly.
“Eat.”
Then, she picked up her teacup and took a sip of water. Her gaze rested lightly on Su Rou for a second, but she said nothing.
Su Rou felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up under that gaze. She stuffed a large bite of the sandwich into her mouth, her cheeks bulging. She lowered her head and chewed seriously — too seriously, as if she were afraid that if she stopped, her mouth would say something strange.
Su Ruanruan sat down and took a bite of her sandwich.
‘Mmh, not bad.’
As she chewed slowly, her eyes swept back and forth between Su Rou and Gu Hanyan before she lowered her head as if nothing were out of the ordinary.