Chapter 14

Jiang Yimiao wrapped her arms around his waist, not saying a word, the beautifully tied bow of her apron was pressed against her wrist, and her blazing body heat was transmitted through the fabric of her dress.

Zhao Shuming didn’t say another word, while the hand that fell behind her back maintained the motion of patting her lightly.

He lowered his head, and the beads of his lips brushed across her forehead, very, very gently, so gently that Jiang Yimiao herself didn’t even realize it.

He looked at Jiang Yimiao’s tightly closed eyes as well as her slightly fluttering eyelashes, Zhao Shuming lowered his head again and pressed his cheek to her forehead.

Zhao Shuming thought back to the day she suddenly sent him a message in the wee hours of the morning in China during her freshman year.

On Zhao Shuming’s side, it was six in the afternoon, just in time to prepare for dinner. Jiang Yimiao, on the other hand, sent him a WeChat at this time, the time in China was seven hours faster than him, and it was about one in the morning on her side.

Jiang Yimiao wasn’t a very good at staying up late, unless she was catching up on her homework, she was usually sure to be asleep by twelve o’clock.

They obviously didn’t have any blood relationship, but Zhao Shuming seemed to sense that something was wrong with Jiang Yimiao at that moment.

After receiving his reply, Jiang Yimiao simply ran to the dormitory balcony and called Zhao Shuming.

It turned out that a classmate in the next dormitory building had jumped to his death, and even though the school immediately blocked all news, Jiang Yimiao and her roommate still heard about that classmate’s tragic death.

In the night of the summer, the insects were playing the life force of the summer.

But a whole dormitory of girls didn’t sleep.

For the girls who had just started college, it was as if a new journey in their lives had just begun, and it was hard for her to imagine that kind of grief.

Zhao Shuming chatted with her for a long time, but it was only to talk to her about family matters and divert her attention before putting Jiang Yimiao to bed.

He had lived with her for over ten years, so how could Zhao Shuming not know that Jiang Yimiao was a person with strong empathy.

She was extraordinarily sensitive and attentive to things in the outside world, probably because her own life had been relatively smooth, but she wasn’t very sensitive to her own affairs.

She’s the kind of person who can cry at the news.

However, her ability to empathize with others and her empathy can lead to vicarious traumatization when she is exposed to too much negative news.

Especially now in this Internet era, the rapid spread of information would cause a steady stream of other people’s traumatic events to be exposed to Jiang Yimiao.

As long as she opened the social software, she had to go through these traumatic events nearly every day, and even if she sometimes already deliberately didn’t look at negative news like that, she still couldn’t hide from the push of the big data, and then was forced to heal herself.

Zhao Shuming guessed that she should have just received another message related to the murder case on her way home.

She wasn’t the kind of fear that she had for the murder panic now, it was more of a sadness.

Jiang Yimiao’s body seemed to be trembling slightly, Zhao Shuming slowed down his patting of her back and turned to hold her tightly, “The law will punish the murderer.”

“Hungry, eat first, it won’t be good if it gets cold.” He lowered his head and looked at her, “Okay?”

Jiang Yimiao then leaned on him and nodded, the shoulder strap of her apron tickled her, her face was already colored with his temperature.

She slowly took a breath to slightly calm down.

It was not until she had eaten her fill that Jiang Yimiao talked to her parents again about today’s events. The house she was looking at was only two buildings away from the scene of the crime, and the other house was only one street away.

Jiang Yimiao had completely given up on these two apartments.

Having eaten too much, she collapsed onto the sofa with a loss of energy, and said in a somewhat mournful tone, “So what should we do, we have to look again ……”

“Miao Miao, you can actually totally stay here all the time.” Zhao Shuming cut half of the peeled pear in his hand and handed it to her, “Two people can take care of each other, and I don’t feel comfortable with you living alone.”

Jiang Yimiao took a bite of the pear, “But it’s not good to live in someone else’s house all the time.”

She couldn’t finish a whole pear, and didn’t like to use a knife to peel the skin, so a pear was divided into two pieces, one was shoved to her, and one was left in Zhao Shuming’s hand. He swept his head down and glanced at the pear that she had already taken a big bite out of.

Her limbs and ego were still willing to be close to him, and many times there would be some subconscious behavior that was also dependent on him. However, the years of separation in between did make Jiang Yimiao and him become alienated.

And perhaps because in the process of growing up the concept of people have changed, Jiang Yimiao and he has been in a state that is difficult to break through.

Because of her personality, Jiang Yimiao doesn’t like to bother others and is afraid of delaying other people’s time and energy. The current Zhao Shuming was also included in the group of “others” in her perception.

Seeing that Zhao Shuming didn’t reply, Jiang Yimiao raised her head to look at him with some doubt.

While looking at each other, Zhao Shuming leisurely spoke, “When you like to play with me, you say that I’m your half-brother, but when you don’t like me, I become someone else in your mouth.”

He propped up his chin and looked at her meaningfully, “Miao Miao, do you dislike me a lot?”

Jiang Yimiao’s eyes widened as she hastily waved her hands, “No, I like you a lot, ah, no no no, I don’t dislike you ……”

She looked at Zhao Shuming’s familiar pair of eyebrows, but couldn’t see his current emotions.

Shen Man and Zhao Yanlan were very close homo sapiens, and if they had to trace back, they might have been related by blood ten generations ago. Both of them look very similar to their mother, and even when they were young they looked a bit alike.

They’d both been asked more than once on the way out of school as kids if they were siblings.

That was why they liked to describe themselves as half-brothers and half-sisters.

Jiang Yimiao pursed her lips and looked down at the pear in her hand that she had bitten twice, “You really don’t mind?” She asked solemnly.

Zhao Shuming gathered the smile on his face, “Miao Miao, my home is your home, why would I mind.”

“It’s easier for both of us to cook together, and I can pick you up if you work late at night. I can’t think of any harm in us living together for now, if you trust me as a person.”

She snapped her fingers and hurriedly answered, “I believe ……”

Zhao Shuming was used to speaking to her in a gentle tone, and now Jiang Yimiao unprecedentedly heard the aggravation in his tone that came from nowhere?

“Then, then stay here, I’ll have to trouble you more in the future.” She touched the tip of her nose, she would have to trouble Zhao Shuming to cook for her every day.

“No trouble, Miao Miao, you’re as important to me as my parents.” Zhao Shuming spilled out a low chuckle and exhaled again, “Then don’t worry about finding an apartment, take a good rest in the next two days.”

“Good.” Jiang Yimiao responded a bit more cheerfully this time.

In fact, Jiang Yimiao herself didn’t know why she was obsessed with finding a house to move out, it seemed like she was unintentionally pushing Zhao Shuming away, perhaps she always defaulted to the idea that a lot of things would change when she grew up.

But in the end, she realized that Zhao Shuming was still as good as before.

Then she might as well choose to rest on her laurels, after all, the current life was also very comfortable and happy for her.

Jiang Yimiao found it amazing how Zhao Shuming, who had been away for several years, had suddenly melted back into her life and become one of her closest friends.

They seemed to be connected by some unseen bond.

Sunday was not as hot as the day before, but the morning was still bright.

With a full stomach and bright sunshine, Jiang Yimiao was in a much better mood.

Looking at the warm daylight that shot into the balcony, she stretched and turned back to her room to pack up the things she was going to take with her when she went out later.

Zhao Shuming wanted to add some objects to the house, remembering that he usually did most of the housework, Jiang Yimiao did not know what was lacking in the house, so she also went with Zhao Shuming to the largest home furnishings mall in the neighborhood to shop.

But Jiang Yimiao didn’t know that what he had in mind was that the reason he wanted to redecorate the home was that it was now his and Jiang Yimiao’s home.

Zhao Shuming felt like a gardener’s bird, building exquisite nests and trying to do everything he could to attract her and keep her.

He wanted to purchase some kitchen utensils first, but the first floor of the mall was more of a convenience food item. He and Jiang Yimiao aimlessly strolled around the first floor.

Jiang Yimiao bought some snacks and took an ice cream for the road.

“Let’s go to the second floor then.” Seeing that she had finished her ice cream, he smoothly took the leftover ice cream carton.

“Uh-huh.” Jiang Yimiao swept a glance and pushed the shopping cart with Zhao Shuming to continue on.

She saw a large shelf full of dolls with sharp eyes, and Jiang Yimiao glanced at the pile of furry dolls.

She only saw a passing customer pinch the doll’s stomach, and with the naked eye, she could tell that the doll was soft, and with its dopey expression, it looked adorable.

The salivary glands in her mouth seemed to be working frantically again, and she gulped and silently watched the process of the doll’s tummy bouncing back with some cuteness ……

Jiang Yimiao skimmed her head and tried to control herself from looking at the pile of dolls, but she still couldn’t help but take a look.

She happened to see a couple holding a little baby who couldn’t talk yet, the baby scratched one of the dolls and the mom threw the doll into the shopping cart.

She didn’t like small children much, but she sometimes had to admit that good-looking babies were really cute.

Jiang Yimiao felt as if her body was starting to tremble and her breathing became rapid. Something was bad, she rarely had fits outside of her home.

Subconsciously, she clutched Zhao Shuming’s arm, her fingertips sinking deeper along the course of her muscles, her pale skin instantly reddening, and several nail marks of varying depths were left on the redness.

Jiang Yimiao realized with hindsight that what she had grabbed was not her own arm, it was Zhao Shuming’s arm.

She hurriedly let go of her claws, and before she could say “I’m sorry”, Zhao Shuming’s palm suddenly covered the back of her hand, and then pressed her hand down on the part that had just been scratched.

The air conditioning in the mall was turned up a bit, making Jiang Yimiao’s palm a bit cold, but his palm was still warm, and she looked up at him with puzzled eyes.

Zhao Shuming, however, laughed and said, “Miao Miao, if you like to grab it, then grab it.”

Anyway, this wasn’t the first time she had scratched him, and there were traces of her scratches on his body, as well as traces of her bites.

Some daredevil with a bad memory might have forgotten, but he wouldn’t.

Anywhere on his body from now on, there would be traces of her left behind.