Chapter 02

Zhao Shuming’s hand held on the edge of the door, looking at her with the light at his back.

Because she had walked in a bit of a hurry and it was hot outside, Jiang Yimiao had very fine beads of sweat on the corners of her forehead, and even her fluffy, broken hair was wilted.

The pesky summer night as well as the whole day’s work had made her look a bit exhausted and even a bit lousy.

But Zhao Shuming didn’t recognize it that way; she was adorable, exactly the same as when she was a child.

Seeing that Jiang Yimiao still kept her hands wrapped in front of her body in a defensive state, Zhao Shuming helplessly frowned and smiled, trying to soften his voice as much as possible and said, “Miao Miao, long time no see.”

After a second, he added, “Did …… my mom and aunt not tell you about me coming back?”

Jiang Yimiao shook her head, just before her head shook a few times, she suddenly remembered that when she was chatting with her mom on the phone at noon today, she seemed to have heard her mention a mouthful of Zhao Shuming returning to China this month, and she nodded again.

She pursed her lips, wanting to say something but unable to, “I just thought you were back.”

No one had told her that Zhao Shuming had moved here as well ah.

“I’m sorry, I also forgot to tell you first and wanted to give you a surprise.”

It’s just that he didn’t expect to scare Jiang Yimiao.

Zhao Shuming still looked more or less the same as before, even his expression was still polite and courteous, but excluding New Year’s festivals, they hadn’t seen each other for a few years.

In her eyes, he looked a bit more mature than before, so Jiang Yimiao felt that his expression looked a bit stranger.

Zhao Shuming seemed to be much taller than before, and she had to tilt her head to see his face. But he happened to have his back to the light right now, so she couldn’t quite see his face.

And the sensor light behind her happened to go out suddenly, the strange light, making both people look a little unnatural.

The unexpected reunion made Jiang Yimiao subconsciously measure him.

He was wearing the same shade as her today, all gray.

But while she was wearing a gray skirt, he was wearing pajamas.

After her shocked mood calmed down, Jiang Yimiao was able to smell the refreshing scent of his washed body, as well as see the somewhat damp hair on his forehead.

“Working late tonight? Come in first.”

Zhao Shuming broke the silence between the two of them, then naturally took her shoulder bag and hung it on the coat rack at the entranceway, “I made some sugar water, do you want to drink it?”

“Yeah.” She nodded.

Jiang Yimiao handed her bag to Zhao Shuming before she could react.

Like in the old days, he was always the one to take her book bag before they parted ways in her senior year of high school.

Zhao Shuming’s hands were hot because he had just been pounding food in the kitchen, and her fingertips were hot and swollen because she had just walked home from a thirty-degree outdoor day.

The moment the two hands with similar temperatures touched, Jiang Yimiao didn’t even feel the touch of his fingertips as they crossed the back of her hand.

Jiang Yimiao shuffled her slippers and sat at the dining table, facing away from him.

Zhao Shuming was Auntie Zhao’s son, and a few years ago, when Zhao Yilan went abroad to work, he followed her abroad to study.

He was two years older than her, so he was a serious childhood friend.

When they were young, they went to kindergarten and elementary school together, but Zhao Shuming left home when he was in fifth grade because of Zhao Yilan’s job change, and then came back two years later because he was in middle school.

It had been several years since they had spent time together, and even if they had occasionally chatted across the two screens of their cell phones, Jiang Yimiao could feel that their relationship was also far less intimate than before.

“I heard from Auntie that you work at Yi Ke.” Zhao Shuming put the frozen sugar water in front of her, “Is it so stressful in a big factory that you have to work overtime until so late at night?”

“Just the last few days have been busy, usually it’s fine.” She replied back, her hand on the table was still stained with drops of water from when she had just washed her hands, and her fingers clasped the edge of the dining table somewhat uncomfortably.

“Isn’t my return too sudden.” Zhao Shuming asked, suddenly looking up as he sat across from her.

“Ah no no no.”

Jiang Yimiao raised her hand and waved it.

“It’s just that I felt surprised, I had thought that you would stay abroad and work. I hadn’t heard of you wanting to come back to develop before either.”

The smile on Zhao Shuming’s face seemed to stiffen for a moment, it wasn’t like he hadn’t mentioned it, it was just that she had forgotten.

She probably didn’t care about him anymore. After all, it was a friend who she might not contact again in the future, so how could she still care about him.

“And I just heard my mom say that you came back to work this year, I didn’t expect you to come back now.” Jiang Yimiao picked up a spoon and took a small bite.

Right now she was hot and thirsty, causing her to all but let go of the discomfort of an acquaintance she hadn’t seen in a long time, and she couldn’t be distracted at all from the fact that she seemed to be moving in with Zhao Shuming next.

Jiang Yimiao only wanted to drink ice-cold sugar water now.

She lowered her head and placed her fingertips over the edge of the ceramic bowl, the edge of the bowl was stained with liquefied water droplets, and even her fingertips were blotted with transparent water droplets.

There was a pile of taro puree mixed in the sugar water, she liked eating taro puree type sugar water the most, just because the taro puree was extremely easy to deteriorate, in reality it was very difficult for her to eat pure and delicious taro puree sugar water.

“Appetizing?”

Jiang Yimiao raised her head, and saw Zhao Shuming with his head slightly sideways, his gaze fixed on his own body, as if he was looking forward to her answer.

“Delicious, you’ve gotten better at cooking again after not seeing me for so long.”

Zhao Shuming’s fingertips tapped the tabletop, and when he heard her reply like this, his fingertips paused in mid-air.

“Was I a bad cook before?”

“But you haven’t made me this kind of sugar water before.” Jiang Yimiao said frankly.

Because of Auntie Zhao’s work transfer, Zhao Shuming had gone to middle school alone in his hometown.

At that time, Jiang Yimiao’s parents were also busy at work, and the two children spent far more time together than their parents did with them.

Every year during the summer and winter vacations, Zhao Shuming was her mother and father, when she was a little younger, she still hired an aunt to cook for her, and when she got older, Zhao Shuming cooked for her.

No one is born with good cooking skills, Zhao Shuming is certainly no exception, Jiang Yimiao can be considered the only one who witnessed the growth history of his cooking skills.

“There’s no rush, drink slowly, no one is stealing it from you.”

“Too thirsty, just walked out of the subway station for a while, the hot air is about to vaporize me.”

Because she was swallowing sugar water, Jiang Yimiao’s speech was a bit slurred.

“The water heater is on, so you can go take a shower after eating and resting for a while.” Zhao Shuming glanced at the balcony, “It’s suddenly cloudy in the afternoon and I’m afraid of rain, so I took your clothes back first.”

Jiang Yimiao nodded her head busily.

She and Zhao Shuming were a little too familiar, so familiar that even if they hadn’t seen each other for a long time, they could quickly go back to getting along like before, at least that’s what she thought now.

Not to mention collecting clothes, Zhao Shuming had even helped her wash her clothes.

It was just that she didn’t know why, but Jiang Yimiao always felt something strange in the bottom of her heart.

The bowl in front of her quickly reached the bottom, and when she looked up again, she realized that Zhao Shuming was still looking at her.

The pupils of his eyes were deep, like a pool of stagnant water that couldn’t even be stirred up by dropping a stone.

But what was completely different from his eyes was that he always smiled gently.

All along, Jiang Yimiao’s best friend always felt that the tall and big brother who followed her around looked strange, speaking gently with a gentle expression, but such gentleness was only polite, so polite that people could not get close to him at all.

To put it bluntly, it is very false, false expression, false tenderness.

Jiang Yimiao would not agree with her friend’s opinion, Zhao Shuming used to have a place in her heart, when she was a child, she felt that Zhao Shuming should be the world’s best and the most approachable person.

Because he would cook for her and bring her snacks.

But Jiang Yimiao now seemed to have some understanding of what the politeness in her friend’s mouth meant, and she was now actually a little confused as to whether Zhao Shuming was really gentle with her, or just polite and courteous.

She opened her lips slightly, her voice stuck in her throat.

When she was very young she had always called him brother, and when she got a little older she just called him brother.

But now that they were both in their twenties, she inexplicably felt that such a title was a bit awkward, so awkward that she couldn’t call him that at all, her tongue felt like it was tied in knots.

The unfamiliarity after years of separation made her finally call him directly by his full name, “Zhao Shuming.”

“What’s wrong?” Zhao Shuming’s expression was somewhat complicated.

It seemed that she had never directly called him by his full name before, and when they had just met, she had called him the same way ……

“That, did you come back today?”

He shook his head, “I came back two days ago.” Zhao Shuming said truthfully.

Both of his family’s houses were about the same distance from the university, and it didn’t make a difference where they lived. However, the other house was closer to the airport, so when he returned to South City the day before yesterday, Zhao Shuming went straight to the other house.

But he didn’t realize that Jiang Yimiao was already living in this house. So after dealing with the handover of work over the past two days, Zhao Shuming packed his bags and moved here this morning at a rapid pace.

“Ow.” Jiang Yimiao nodded without thinking much, “So where do you work?”

Jiang Yimiao was not so unaware of Zhao Shuming’s major, he studied psychology abroad, cold and difficult to employ, but his education was quite good, coming back to work should not worry.

As for her, she played normally in the college entrance exam and got into a famous school, and after graduating from the software engineering graduate school, she successfully got an offer from a big factory to do back-end development. Her life had always been smooth, the most envied standard life in the eyes of millions of ordinary people.

“South University.” He returned, “Your alma mater.”

“Hmm? Did you go to our school to become a teacher?” Jiang Yimiao blinked.

“Well, psychology post, and went to your school two days ago to do some work-related handovers.” Zhao Shuming took the empty bowl in front of her, “Are you full, do you still want to drink?”

“No no no, it’s so bracing.” Said she also patted her stomach, through the cotton dress, the moment her stomach collided with her palm made a very soft sound, trying to prove that she was full.

“Good.” Zhao Shuming put the bowl back in the kitchen, and in the afterglow she was still rubbing her stomach.

She always loved to touch her stomach when she was full as a child.

In order to prove that she was full she would also hold her stomach up, but growing up she wouldn’t do such actions anymore.

Anyone who was once a child would become an adult afterward, but an adult’s memory would deteriorate and they would forget a lot of things. Just like her, it seemed like she had already forgotten a lot of things.

Jiang Yimiao looked towards the kitchen where he was standing and washing dishes, she propped her head up and hiccupped.

Zhao Shuming seemed to have changed a lot but then again he didn’t seem to have changed, Jiang Yimiao raised her hand and compared it, only to come to a conclusion – he was taller and stronger.

At an age when some of his peers were starting to get fat, Zhao Shuming’s figure still looked quite good.

Seemingly sensing her gaze, Zhao Shuming turned back to look at her, and the overhead light from the kitchen fell diagonally on his head, reflecting his eyes exceptionally bright.

However, Zhao Shuming was somewhat slightly nearsighted, in order to see her face clearly, he squinted slightly, “What’s wrong?”

Caught peeking, Jiang Yimiao’s hand awkwardly stopped in mid-air and stiffened for a split second, then she hastily waved her hand, “Nothing, nothing, I’ll go take a shower first.” She propped up her hand and stood up, but she accidentally tripped over the foot of the dining table chair.

Jiang Yimiao looked down at the chair feet and then looked back at him.

“Be …… careful,” but before Zhao Shuming could finish his sentence, she flew away before his eyes.

He seemed to let out a sigh and shook his head with a smile, and the conversation between the two ended in the silence of the night.

The bathroom was filled with water mist, and after taking a shower that finally washed away that sticky and disgusting feeling of summer, her entire body was drowned in such heat.

Jiang Yimiao took the bath towel and wiped her body, and in hindsight realized that her nightgown had fallen to the floor, and was already soaked through, her light gray nightgown blotched into a darker color.

She couldn’t think of anything more painful in this world than dropping clothes to the floor while taking a bath, which could be included in the top ten human tortures.

Jiang Yimiao clutched her own bath towel, and through the bathroom door, she could vaguely see the lights scurrying from the living room to the hallway.

If she was alone in the house, she could probably wrap herself in the bath towel and run out of the room to get a new nightgown, but Zhao Shuming was probably still outside as well ……

The shower hanging by the wall dripped down spots of water that were still warm, but the fog in the bathroom gradually dissipated.

Jiang Yimiao felt the tip of her nose itch a little, and was about to sneeze when a dark shadow flashed through the door.

She stood in the bathroom and knocked on the door.

The black shadow outside the door stopped, “Miao Miao?”

Zhao Shuming happened to be preparing to go back to his room to pack up some baggage trifles, and when he heard the sound of her knocking on the door, he tentatively asked out, “What’s wrong?”

“That, my pajamas fell on the floor and got wet, can you help me get a new pair of pajamas, a short-sleeved one will do.”

She pressed herself against the door, afraid that Zhao Shuming wouldn’t be able to hear her words.

Zhao Shuming looked over towards the bathroom door, which was made of double-layered long rainbow glass, and was usually invisible to the interior of the bathroom.

But she pressed a little too close, so close that he could see her blurry outline.

A little panicked, he averted his gaze to look at the flowery white wall beside the bathroom door.

Two more knocks came from the door, “Please please please, just take any t-shirt.”

Jiang Yimiao was a bit puzzled when she saw that he didn’t reply.

“Uh, okay, I’ll go get it for you now, wait for me for a while.”

Jiang Yimiao held up the bath towel and wrapped herself in it, turning around.

Why do you think Zhao Shuming’s voice just now sounded a bit strange ……