Chapter 25

When a person falls asleep at ease, he tends to sleep more deeply.

However, if something was on their mind, they could easily be awakened by the outside world.

Even someone like Jiang Yimiao, who had such a good quality of sleep, would be like this.

Remembering that Zhao Shuming’s fever hadn’t gone down, and that he would be sweating profusely during the night, Jiang Yimiao fell asleep and slept very lightly.

So shallow that when Zhao Shuming picked her up, Jiang Yimiao felt something around her waist.

In her consciousness, she seemed to hear Zhao Shuming’s voice, her eyes rolled back and then she opened her eyes violently, her body reflexively sat up directly from the bed.

There was only a night light on in the room, and through the dim light of the night light, Jiang Yimiao met Zhao Shuming’s somewhat stunned eyes.

He even forgot to breathe.

But Zhao Shuming was thinking, whether she heard it or not, it doesn’t matter, he likes her as a matter of fact, no need to hide it.

Zhao Shuming’s only fear was that Jiang Yimiao would gradually drift away from him because of this. Confessions between a best friend and oneself can sometimes turn into a horror story.

Especially on the premise that her feelings for him have always been pure, and he’s not the only one who isn’t pure.

“MiaoMiao ……” Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by her welcoming palm, and Jiang Yimiao raised her hand to Zhao Shuming’s forehead almost by reflex.

Perhaps because the temperature of his forehead was about the same as that of his hand, she couldn’t feel any warmth, “Has your fever gone down?”

Zhao Shuming let out a sharp breath, seeing Jiang Yimiao’s reaction she didn’t seem to have heard what he said just now.

Even if she did, she probably didn’t hear what he said.

He tilted his head back and let her right hand palm and back and forth to test his temperature, “Well, the fever should have gone down.”

“Then have you taken his temperature?”

Zhao Shuming shook his head, “Not yet.”

She suddenly put her hand on his shoulder, and lowered her forehead to Zhao Shuming’s forehead.

She didn’t know if Zhao Shuming’s breathing was a bit heavy and hot because of the fever.

It wasn’t until she used her forehead to feel that Zhao Shuming’s head wasn’t hot anymore, that Jiang Yimiao was sure that his fever had gone down.

He slightly turned his head sideways, blinking his eyelashes in a bit of a hurry.

Jiang Yimiao sat back down to where she had been lying, “It seems like the fever is gone, but your ears are still so red.”

As she said this, Zhao Shuming quickly covered his ears, the temperature of the auricle of the ear was usually cooler than the palm of the hand, but right now his ears were even hotter than the palm of his hand, “Maybe it’s a bit hot.”

He pulled a bullshit excuse, only Zhao Shuming knew why his ears were red.

He was still a bloodthirsty man after all, and maintaining such a close relationship with Jiang Yimiao all the time was psychologically pleasurable for him, but physically torturous.

Jiang Yimiao looked up in the direction of the air conditioner, ”Turn down the temperature a bit if it’s very hot? But don’t go too low, the doctor said you might have a wind chill fever, don’t catch a cold.”

She turned around and brought the thermometer over from the nightstand, “Take a temperature first.”

Zhao Shuming obeyed and did as he was told.

There was only the most traditional mercury thermometer in the house, so they still needed to wait several minutes for the results to come out, Jiang Yimiao sat cross-legged on his side, and the two of them were silent for quite a while.

Silence to the point where she felt a little embarrassed, Jiang Yimiao lowered her head and snapped her fingers, suddenly remembering something, “Right, were you talking to me when I just accidentally fell asleep? ”

She frowned, seemingly recalling, although she slept uneasily that time, between a state of being half asleep and half awake, Zhao Shuming’s voice was so soft that she didn’t pay attention to it, “Did you just say that you Did you just say that you like something?”

Jiang Yimiao actually had no need to dwell on what Zhao Shuming had just said, but her brain was just curious, but she couldn’t think of anything even if she was driven by curiosity.

Zhao Shuming froze in shock, a touch of bemusement flooding the bottom of his otherwise calm and gentle eyes, but this touch of dissimilarity disappeared too quickly, so quickly that Jiang Yimiao didn’t notice it.

He pulled up the corners of his mouth and spoke in a gentle tone, “I’d say, enjoying spending time with you.”

Jiang Yimiao blinked and suddenly burst out laughing, “Then I also like staying with you.”

When she stayed with Zhao Shuming, she never had to think about what stresses she had to deal with, her mind could completely abandon the things that upset her, and he would make her happy.

This feeling was just like staying by her mom and dad’s side, and she could always be a carefree child herself.

Jiang Yimiao propped her hands on the bed and leaned over to Zhao Shuming, “Then am I your best friend?”

Zhao Shuming actually had a lot of friends, and he seemed to have even more friends than she did, so many that the students in the next class even got to talk to Zhao Shuming when he was studying.

However, Jiang Yimiao could tell with her doll’s cotton head thinking about it that she was Zhao Shuming’s closest friend.

“Well, you’re the most important person in this world to me.”

Zhao Shuming wasn’t willing to admit that they would only end up being friends, so he subtly switched concepts, but at first glance, it sounded normal.

Jiang Yimiao was a little smug, “I knew it.”

He couldn’t suffer a purely straightforward gaze like Jiang Yimiao’s, Zhao Shuming hastily pulled out the thermometer and changed the subject, “It should be measured.”

“Let me see.”

“The fever has finally gone down.” Jiang Yimiao breathed a sigh of relief, and even her entire posture as she sat on the bed relaxed a bit.

“It’s not even twelve o’clock yet and your fever is gone, you should be able to sleep well without worry.”

Zhao Shuming smiled bitterly, “Not necessarily, I may also have insomnia.”

Although the quality of his sleep during this period of time was actually better than before when he lived by himself, insomnia was still a common occurrence for him.

Jiang Yimiao suddenly raised her hand, “I remembered that I recently discovered a very good way to fall asleep, I feel like you can try it.”

“I’ll show you.” Jiang Yimiao was always a man of action, she pushed Zhao Shuming down so that he could lie down, and she herself laid down on the new pillow and rolled over to cover the quilt.

“Hold your breath to hold it first.” Jiang Yimiao took a deep breath.

“And then?” Although he knew that there was a one-hundred-and-one percent chance that her quick-fall-asleep technique wouldn’t work for him, he still did as she said.

“Imagine you’re a dead man, a corpse.”

“Uh-huh.” Zhao Shuming stifled a laugh and answered her.

“Wait for the soon to be suffocated to resume normal breathing.” Jiang Yimiao exhaled a deep breath, “Now start imagining your corpse lying on a canoe.”

She paused, her voice getting lighter and lighter, “The canoe is floating in a very calm sea, it’s nighttime, the sky is dark, and when you look up, you can see a lot of …… stars in the sky.”

“Little stars?” Zhao Shuming interjected.

“It’s not little stars, it’s a lot of little sheep, one little sheep, two little sheep …… Thirteen little sheep.”

Gradually she lost her voice, interlocked hands on the stomach according to the frequency of breathing a stomach with the ups and downs.

Zhao Shuming looked at her with some surprise, “Miao Miao?”

“Miao Miao?” Seeing that she didn’t move he called out again.

“Oh, sorry, I almost fell asleep.” Jiang Yimiao, who had finally picked up the decibels of the outside world, snapped her eyes open again, “This method really works!”

Zhao Shuming could tell that this method worked for Jiang Yimiao, it worked to the point where she could fall asleep directly under his eyes while lying on his bed.

“You can try it when you’re sleeping.”

Zhao Shuming smiled and nodded, “Okay, I’ll try it afterward.” It was obvious that this method wouldn’t work for him, but Jiang Yimiao was so earnest and serious, he couldn’t afford to spoil her fun.

Jiang Yimiao got up from the bed in a single bound, and with Zhao Shuming’s scent all around her, she remembered that she was still in his room.

“Eh, then I’ll go back to my room to sleep first?” Speaking of sleeping, Jiang Yimiao tilted her head and yawned widely.

Zhao Shuming looked up at her, his eyes flowing, but his words were choked between his throats, and the air was so quiet that he could hear the sound of insects chirping in the neighborhood’s green belt.

Only after a long time did he speak, “Well, you rest early, good night.”

Jiang Yimiao balled up her quilt into a ball and hugged it in her arms, dragging her feet as she walked back to her room.

She didn’t even turn on the lights in her room, so she collapsed on the bed, she closed her eyes and touched the air conditioner remote control, and pressed the on/off button with muscle memory, and then her arms looked like the limbs of a doll that had lost its traction, and snapped and slammed back onto the bed. Slammed back onto the bed.

The quilt was pressed underneath her, and Jiang Yimiao maintained a motionless position.

Waiting for her own pressure to make her heart a little uncomfortable, she turned over, lying in her usual sleeping position, wrapped in her favorite quilt as well as hugging the doll, and slept peacefully.

This sleep lasted until the sun was up.

The sun was particularly bright this morning, shining in through the cracks in her undrawn curtains.

“There’s finally a nice day today.” Jiang Yimiao mumbled to herself, only after saying that did she remember that there was rain in the weather forecast today, Jiang Yimiao sighed again as she remembered that this weather was even more unpredictable than than the Peking Opera changing its face.

“Why are you sighing early in the morning?”

Jiang Yimiao turned around. Hearing Zhao Shuming’s voice sink a little, his voice was indeed a little slightly inflamed and mute. “You didn’t repeat the fever, did you?”

He smiled and shook his head.

“It’s good if you haven’t, but is your throat inflamed, let’s eat lighter in the last few days.”

“Well, it’s fine, I should be fine if I drink more water.” Zhao Shuming’s deliberate fever was indeed to divert her attention from the person Guan Zhengyu, but he didn’t want Jiang Yimiao to worry too much about him, making it so that she couldn’t get a good rest on the weekend.

Not to mention that the two of them usually had very light tastes, and there was no need for him to be able to adjust his weekday dishes just because he was sick.

Jiang Yimiao rolled up her sleeves and raised her hands, “I’ll cook for lunch today!”

Jiang Yimiao could actually cook, it was just that her skills were really not as good as Zhao Shuming’s either.

And because she rarely cooked, she could cook very few dishes. Every time she made a dish, she had to search the internet for a tutorial and follow the blogger’s steps step by step, and sometimes it might look average, but it still tasted good.

But she really didn’t love cooking because her hands would get grease stains on them every time, and she hated that sticky feeling.

Zhao Shuming didn’t refute her decision and just smiled and said yes.

She would occasionally make pastries with him in the kitchen on a whim, and although it was a bit ugly every time, but all in all, it was most important that she was happy.

It wasn’t until noon that, for a change from the cloudy skies of the entire last week, the world outside the window was actually still clear.

Beams of light fell from the tiled floor of the kitchen’s small balcony. Jiang Yimiao’s mood also became a little more pleasant because of today’s good mood.

She washed her hands and started searching on her cell phone screen for a tutorial on the dish she was going to make for lunch today, as the air conditioning fan and range hood in the kitchen roared to life.

Jiang Yimiao looked at the cover dish’s sellability and airplay and picked a video ready to click on it when Zhao Shuming followed her into the kitchen, “Miao Miao, there’s no need to search for a tutorial, I’ll teach you on the side.”

“Ah, okay.” Jiang Yimiao turned off her cell phone, and the screen was covered in water droplets from her hands.

Zhao Shuming helped her put on her apron, but this apron was a bit big for Jiang Yimiao.

Jiang Yimiao was going to make steamed fish, Huaishan pork rib soup, stir-fried vegetable hearts, and tomato scrambled eggs today, simple and homemade but loved.

The kitchen counter was filled with the freshest ingredients they had bought at the market in the morning.

The pork ribs had already been chopped into chunks by the pork store owner, washed and thrown into the pot.

Zhao Shuming was on one side helping her prepare the Huai Shan, while she stood on the other side preparing the marinade for the ribs, as well as ginger, green onion, garlic and other such condiments.

Making soup and steaming fish was a very simple task that required little skill, as long as the spices were prepared well and the heat was watched, the result would not be too difficult to eat.

Instead, it was the two vegetarian dishes that were more difficult for her to put in the oil and garlic first, then the vegetables. Jiang Yimiao read it in her mind, but it got a little stuck behind her.

“Throw in the vegetable roots first, and then put in the leaves when it’s a bit softer to fry.” Zhao Shuming stood at his side and said.

“Ohhh, okay.” She did as she was told.

“Add oyster sauce and also salt.”

“Is adding that much salt enough?”

“A little more.”

Jiang Yimiao inhaled her nose and felt that there was already a very strong flavor, “Is it fried now?”

“Stir fry for a while longer.” Zhao Shuming replied back, in fact, the fire was almost done now, but Jiang Yimiao liked to eat soft dishes, so he asked her to stir-fry for a while longer.

Zhao Shuming glanced sideways at the gas fire, walked behind her, and reached directly under her arm to turn down the gas a bit.

It was just that such an action inevitably made the two bodies close and even stick together, and Jiang Yimiao’s back keenly felt Zhao Shuming’s chest, as well as the body heat of his body.

It seemed to be a little hot …… In the past, Jiang Yimiao would only think that it was just because Zhao Shuming’s body temperature was higher than hers, but he had only just had a fever, so she thought that he wouldn’t be able to relapse again. She thought that he would have a fever again.

Almost subconsciously, Jiang Yimiao turned around and raised her hand, and her palm was right on Zhao Shuming’s chest.

“Miao, Miao Miao, you, what are you doing?” Her action of touching his chest was just a little too sudden, making Zhao Shuming a little confused.

“It feels like your body temperature is a bit high, you don’t have a fever again, do you?” Jiang Yimiao realized afterward that the part she touched was a bit ungentlemanly, and she smiled sarcastically as she probed her hand onto his forehead.

There didn’t seem to be any feeling before Jiang Yimiao put her hand down again.

“Don’t worry, there’s no fever, it’s probably just because my body temperature itself is higher than yours.”

He laughed, his gaze crossing over the top of Jiang Yimiao’s head to look at the dishes that were about to get burnt, “Miao Miao, stir fry it quickly, you can turn off the fire.”

Remembering that she was still doing serious work, Jiang Yimiao hurriedly turned around on her hands and knees to continue stir-frying the dish and then loaded the plate.

“There is still one last dish left, scrambled eggs with tomatoes ……,” Jiang Yimiao looked at the tomatoes with some embarrassment.

The first dish many people learn to fry might be scrambled eggs with tomatoes, but Jiang Yimiao herself felt that she was very strange, she just couldn’t scramble eggs with tomatoes, and she didn’t fry eggs very well either.

Instead, other more difficult dishes were made to sell better.

“Miao Miao, I’ll fry it, you go take a rest first.”

“Good.” Jiang Yimiao didn’t push back. She took off her apron and put it around Zhao Shuming, washed her hands and ran to the living room all relaxed.

Stir-frying was really a physical job, she drew two paper towels to wipe her sweat, and her line of sight was all about the rows of dolls on the sofa.

Jiang Yimiao took down all the dolls and held them in her arms. Cute aggression suddenly erupted as she kissed them one by one and pinched each doll again.

Her teeth felt really a bit sore, so she ran to her room and took a few bites of gum.

When she gradually slowed down and returned to the living room, Zhao Shuming was still in the kitchen.

According to his usual cooking speed, a tomato scrambled egg must already be done, but he seemed to still be busy, Jiang Yimiao walked into the kitchen with some suspicion.

“Are the tomato scrambled eggs done?”

“It’s done, only the soup is left to cook to the fire.” Zhao Shuming looked back at her.

“Then what are you still doing?” She poked her head out and found Zhao Shuming washing black grapes, and she saw the egg tart crust on the counter with her sharp eyes, “Baking an egg tart?”

“Well, didn’t you say you wanted to eat an egg tart yesterday, I recently saw a new way to add grapes and raisins to it, try to see if it’s good.”

“But you can’t eat egg tarts now that your throat is inflamed.” Jiang Yimiao inhaled her nose, the air was mixed with the aroma from the Melad reaction when stir-frying and the fresh smell of grapes.

“It’s fine if you eat it.” He was going to get the traditional plain egg tarts as well as a couple of grape tarts.

“It makes me want to eat grapes a little bit.” Jiang Yimiao hemmed and hawed.

“Let me peel a few for you after this is cleaned.” Zhao Shuming’s hands were still clean, but he washed them again before peeling a grape for her.

He held the grape in his left hand and handed it to her.

She swept her head down, and there was a scar there on the first joint at the distal end of Zhao Shuming’s left index finger, which he had accidentally cut when he used to cook for her.

The wound cut by the knife was not shallow, and later because Zhao Shuming touched water again and didn’t treat the wound in time, the scar proliferated, making it appear that this scar was a bit abrupt on the index finger.

But this scar did not cover up the objective fact that his hands did look good.

Jiang Yimiao lowered her head and swept away, just in time to see the lace trimmed apron around his body, the waistband of the apron was tied a bit tightly, making Zhao Shuming’s shoulders broad and waist narrow, and even the muscles that he had developed because of years of physical fitness were all outlined. His muscles were all outlined, especially his chest.

Jiang Yimiao unconsciously gulped.

The emotions from pinching the doll in the living room just now hadn’t completely dissipated, and now right in front of her was Zhao Shuming in a lace trimmed apron, which was also a cute factor, which made her hand that was hanging down by the seam of her pants stop trembling gently.

She re-drew her eyes back to his fingertips, which were tinted with the purple color of the grapes from peeling them for her, the juice from the skins staying on his fingertips, and even the small scar on her index finger had a purple juice on it.

His brain imagined the sweetness and sourness of the grapes, and Jiang Yimiao’s salivary glands felt like they were working uncontrollably.

“Miao Miao, what’s wrong, don’t want to eat?” Seeing that she hadn’t lowered her head to eat, Zhao Shuming asked with some suspicion.

Thinking that Zhao Shuming was going to put away his hand, Jiang Yimiao hurriedly raised her hand and grabbed his wrist, bringing his hand towards her lips.

She opened her mouth and bit down, but instead of biting the grapes, she directly bit down on Zhao Shuming’s index finger and thumb that were twisting the grapes.