Chapter 28

Zhao Shuming had thought for the first time about the possibility of a platonic relationship with Jiang Yimiao.

It wasn’t because he didn’t have the desire, but he was afraid that Jiang Yimiao wouldn’t be able to develop a physical desire for him. He didn’t know if he could make her desire him.

He didn’t know if he’d ever made her negatively sexually minded – the peer-to-peer Westermarck effect, whereby two childhood friends who grew up as brother and sister would be less sexually attracted to each other. But it was necessary for him to rule out all negative influences.

But sadly, Zhao Shuming felt she was too familiar with him, too familiar already to be mentally attracted to her. His flesh. His physical body seemed to be one of his few advantages.

Jiang Yimiao was a normal person with a normal mind, and if she was in love then she would definitely have desire.

She would want to get close, to touch, to do things that normal people don’t do……. In any case, he should at least be able to attract Jiang Yimiao physically and in terms of desire. He had to be able to attract Jiang Yimiao physically and in terms of desire.

That was why Jiang Yimiao would occasionally stare at the veins on his arms, and would also notice his intentionally open neckline, focusing on the lines of his body, all of which Zhao Shuming had done on purpose.

Now Jiang Yimiao would touch his arm as she used to do, she didn’t mind his proximity when she sat on the sofa, and she would take the initiative to look for him when she was scared.

These seem to be the behaviors that she likes to be close to him, but Zhao Shuming didn’t know that this is more out of habit, and this habit is also the result of his step-by-step guidance. But he didn’t expect Jiang Yimiao to come straight to him.

But he didn’t expect Jiang Yimiao to ask such a question.

“Do you want to try sleeping with me?”

Zhao Shuming’s waist, which was half-bent over her quilt, froze in mid-air, and for a moment, he thought that he was hallucinating, or that he had misheard her words.

The quilt covering her body was still her favorite plush but somewhat thin quilt, the edge of the quilt covering Jiang Yimiao’s nose, the tip of her nose gently touching her. The edge of the quilt covered the tip of Jiang Yimiao’s nose, and with a gentle sniff, she was able to smell the gentle and cozy scent that she loved so much on the quilt.

Jiang Yimiao felt inexplicably happy when she was wrapped in the familiar scent.

The light of the room fell from the roof, and Zhao Shuming’s shadow was reflected like a ball on her slightly arched quilt.

Jiang Yimiao blinked, her eyes full of seriousness, just as she usually did when she was typing code on the computer.

This was not a joke or a random suggestion, but something she had thought about.

It wasn’t until the air was quiet for a few seconds that she realized that her suggestion sounded a bit unclear.

Jiang Yimiao loosened her grip on the corner of the quilt and touched the tip of her nose, “What I mean is that when you were a child, lying in bed with me always seemed to make it easier to fall asleep… …”

“Maybe you can try that now too.” Jiang Yimiao paused, “And we’ll have to keep an eye on you in the next two days to see if you get a fever repeatedly.”

Zhao Shuming pulled a gentle smile at her, “Miao Miao, you won’t mind, or think there’s anything wrong with this?”

“Yes, what’s wrong with it?” Jiang Yimiao felt that Zhao Shuming was a bit strange.

Although she couldn’t get to the root of Zhao Shuming’s insomnia, she had always felt that Zhao Shuming might just like a human environment, and that in a room with a close people together, it was easier for him to fall asleep peacefully.

In addition to Zhao Shuming being very close to her since he was a child, Jiang Yimiao’s family was actually very close, and although her mother wouldn’t eat anything Jiang Yimiao had eaten, she occasionally slept with her mother when she was that old.

She didn’t feel that it was something excessive.

The most important thing was that she meant to simply sleep in the same room.

It wasn’t like they were cuddling and sleeping together.

Jiang Yimiao’s entire body was covered by the quilt, only showing her head out, she skimmed her head to look at the other side of the bed, “And this bed is huge, so big that it’s actually no different from two beds, it doesn’t matter if you sleep over there, right? ”

She only saw him straighten up and let out a laugh.

Zhao Shuming had always thought that he was the one who had intentionally thrown down the gauntlet of temptation, but it was actually him who couldn’t help it.

He nodded and said softly, “Okay, if Miao Miao doesn’t mind me, I can give it a try.”

Jiang Yimiao climbed up in a single bound, “I’m used to sleeping on this side of the bedside table because there’s a chance that I’ll be thirsty and want to drink water in the middle of the night.” She pointed to the other side, “You sleep over there.”

“Good.” Zhao Shuming only felt his heart thumping now.

However, he didn’t expect Jiang Yimiao to pull two pillows to separate them in the middle, her bed had one more pillow, and Zhao Shuming’s bed happened to also have One more pillow, two vertically separated in the middle.

Just like the Chu River and Han River boundary on the chessboard, it looked hard to cross the boundary.

Jiang Yimiao patted one of the pillows forcefully, she couldn’t control her urge to squeeze or punch something soft when she saw it.

“Does this make you feel like you have a smaller place to sleep?”

“It’s okay.” Zhao Shuming looked at the demarcation line between the two.

Jiang Yimiao let out a breath and threw up her hands and fell headfirst onto the bed, “That’s good.”

“So comfortable, I love my bed so much.” She muttered to herself.

Jiang Yimiao hated summer, but meant that summers where she had to work, summers where she had to go out and be outdoors would be hard on her.

But what had to be admitted was that lying in an air-conditioned room, wrapped in a familiar scent and covered with a soft quilt was a very happy thing.

Jiang Yimiao’s legs rubbed against her soft quilt, “It feels like I’ve returned to the past.”

She looked sideways at Zhao Shuming, “Why haven’t you fallen asleep yet.”

Zhao Shuming followed her words and laid down in the sleeping area she had assigned to him.

“Back to the old days?”

“Yeah, I remember after my midterm exams, didn’t I go on a trip with the two of you. I don’t know why when I was a kid I was just afraid of ghosts and hotels, I didn’t dare to stay by myself, we opened twin bed rooms ah.”

In fact, now Jiang Yimiao would also be afraid of the dark night, afraid of hearing some strange movements in the dark night.

But she knew that there were no ghosts in the world, and if there were ghosts, they wouldn’t harm her.

People are 10,000 times scarier than ghosts.

But every time she thought of her childhood self who was afraid of ghosts and monsters, she felt a little funny.

“Even though it’s two beds, the beds are very close to each other, it’s not much different from what we have now.” She rolled over and pressed her arm into one of the pillows.

“I don’t know where you read that when you were a kid, but you also knew that you had to knock before entering a hotel room, and you refused to stay in the room at the end of the corridor.” Zhao Shuming turned on his side, his head pressed against his arm facing Jiang Yimiao’s direction.

Her brain circuits had been strange since childhood, but there was something reasonable in the strangeness.

“I read a lot of urban oddities when I was a kid, I still remember a lot of those urban oddity posts on the internet at that time, but I can’t seem to find them now.”

Jiang Yimiao was curious, she just loved strange things like that, she liked to watch unsolved crimes being solved, and she also liked to read stories about spirits and weirdness.

No wonder she refused to close the door when she slept as a child because she was afraid of ghosts.

“Why don’t you sleep with the door closed tonight.” Jiang Yimiao glanced up at the room door.

“What’s wrong, suddenly you want to sleep with the door closed.”

“You’re in my room, I’m not afraid. Even if there really is a ghost, you will definitely protect me.” She bit her lower lip and thought very seriously.

“River.”

“Hmm?”

“You trust me that much?”

“That’s for sure.” She raised her hand and broke her fingers, “You, mom and dad, are all family.”

Zhao Shuming lowered his eyelashes and smiled without saying anything, but he silently repeated in his heart, family.

In the future he would become her family in the true sense of the word, even if he did nothing.

The position of lying on her side pressed half of her body a bit paralyzed, Jiang Yimiao rolled over again to lie flat on her back, the cold air from the air conditioner blew a bit cooler, she pulled up the quilt to cover herself.

She wrapped the quilt around the doll’s body, even though this doll had stayed by her side even longer than Zhao Shuming had been with her, she still found the doll adorable and never got tired of it.

Her emotions were still constantly stirred up by this adorable doll.

Ignoring Zhao Shuming’s gaze beside her, Jiang Yimiao hugged the doll and kissed it a few times, the tip of her nose touching the doll’s round little nose.

Just this simple pinch couldn’t calm her down completely.

Jiang Yimiao turned her back to Zhao Shuming and hugged the doll in her arms, rubbing it so hard that the plush blanket was also rubbed into her arms.

Generally in the eyes of outsiders, Jiang Yimiao would rarely have a reckless fit, but Zhao Shuming was different, he had been bitten by her, and Jiang Yimiao didn’t mind having a fit in front of him at all.

And it was still Zhao Shuming who told her not to restrain her emotions when she had a strange attack.

Jiang Yimiao buried her head in the quilt and inhaled hard, inhaling until she was about to suffocate before she lifted her head again and took a big gulp to grab the air.

Zhao Shuming watched in silence as she seethed at the doll and the quilt, his gaze falling on the doll in her hand.

Sometimes he was quite jealous, jealous of the doll that had no warmth or soul, and even jealous of the quilt on her.

She used to have fits at the dolls, sure, but she used to have fits at him, too, being able to grab her arm with her nails without a care in the world; she wouldn’t even bite the dolls, but she would bite him.

But now she didn’t even feel like biting him.

“So cool.” Jiang Yimiao muttered, and when she turned around again Zhao Shuming was still maintaining the position he had just held sideways to look at her.

“The doll is too cute.” She didn’t have the need to explain, but still said subconsciously.

“It’s fine, vent more and vent more, it’s not a bad thing.”

More venting and letting off steam would one day bite into the scar on his arm for her like it used to.

The night in the middle of the city wasn’t silent at all, and even though the house wasn’t poorly soundproofed, the sound of cars honking still reached high into the sky.

The more she heard this kind of ambient sound, the easier it was for Jiang Yimiao to get sleepy, and she yawned towards the ceiling, “I kind of want to sleep.”

“Good, let’s sleep together.”

Separated by two large pillows, Zhao Shuming couldn’t even feel the temperature of Jiang Yimiao’s body, but as long as he could feel her presence that was enough.

He got up and turned off the light.

Temporarily unable to see anything with her eyes that hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet, Jiang Yimiao blinked in the darkness, placed the doll next to her left hand, tucked her hand over her navel, and prepared to start falling asleep.

“Good night.” She said.

“Good night.” He returned.

Zhao Shuming liked her and loved her, so he would generate a lot of intense emotions because of Jiang Yimiao. But now he was inexplicably calm, as calm as if he should be sleeping with her.

Jiang Yimiao thought well, when he slept with her, Zhao Shuming could always sleep more peacefully.

He was more precocious than many of his peers, probably because he had learned to take care of himself from a very young age, and he had adapted to living alone very early.

But the lack of security from childhood would always be buried in the deepest part of his heart.

When Jiang Yimiao was by his side, his nearly forgotten sense of unease was truly soothed.

Zhao Shuming quietly glanced at her in the darkness of the night and let out a light breath before laying down on his back like she did, attempting to fall asleep using the quick-fall-asleep method that Jiang Yimiao had taught him.

Jiang Yimiao was also counting sheep, only when she counted to fifteen, she suddenly felt something wrong all over her body.

She moved her body, only to realize that no matter how she lay down, her waist didn’t feel very comfortable.

Jiang Yimiao silently sat up again, this period of time sitting in the office was just too long, when reading, she also sat for half a day, over time, her waist got not very good.

She looked back at Zhao Shuming, although the room was dim and dark, she could see his closed eyes, he should be trying to fall asleep right now.

Jiang Yimiao propped one hand on the bed and carefully sat up, gently pulling open the drawer of the nightstand again, ready to take a piece of ointment and stick it on the back side of her waist.

It wouldn’t cure the root but it would stop the pain.

“River?”

The familiar call rang out in the darkness.

“Did I wake you up?” Jiang Yimiao said in an airy voice.

“No, I haven’t been asleep yet, what’s wrong with you, are you looking for something, I’ll turn on a light?” There were two switches in the room, one by the door and one at the end where Zhao Shuming was sleeping.

“No no no, I’m just getting a salve.”

“Ointment? River, are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

The room was still filled with light, Jiang Yimiao squinted her eyes and found the ointment that was placed in the drawer, it was something she used specifically for her waist, so it was placed directly in the room.

“The waist is a bit sore, not very comfortable.” Jiang Yimiao said honestly.

“I can help you massage it.” Zhao Shuming dropped his gaze to the side of her waist, because the pajamas were rather loose, and Jiang Yimiao had just rolled around on the bed again, a corner of her blouse curled up, revealing a bit of her waist area.

“Ah, massage, do you know how?” Jiang Yimiao usually just took a small hammer to pound her back and hammer her waist in the office, or else she would just rub her back hand on the area of her waist socket.

Although there was no relief at all, it got a heartfelt comfort.

Zhao Shuming laughed, “Miao Miao, you forgot, when you were in your third year, the sports midterm training gave you a broken foot, or I helped you rub it.”

After laughing, he frowned and looked at her waist with some concern.

Jiang Yimiao’s thoughts went back to ten years ago, she grew up with no major illnesses, but wrestling collisions and other injuries have not endured a lot of first and second grade because of the size of too small was always bumped into by senior students. The first and second grades, because she was too small, she was always bumped into by students in the upper grades.

As a result, Zhao Shuming grew up knowing how to keep band-aids and iodine pills in his book bag. This habit hadn’t changed even now.

“I haven’t forgotten, that twist really hurt me.” Jiang Yimiao said with a drooping face.

Zhao Shuming’s father happened to be a doctor of orthopedic injuries and helped her reset it properly. Under subtle influence, Zhao Shuming also knew some acupressure techniques.

“Does it hurt? I can help you press the acupoints on your back to relieve it.”

“Well, it hurts a bit, and it’s also a bit sore.” Jiang Yimiao sent the ointment she took out by the pillow and directly lay down on her back, “Do I have to lie down like this? Should I get my clothes up?”

“No, no need.”

Zhao Shuming hurriedly stopped her, she was just too unsuspecting of him, even if Zhao Shuming really wouldn’t harm her …… for fear that Jiang Yimiao would get the clothes on her back waist up, Zhao Shuming hurriedly held down her hand.

He walked over to her side of the bed, “I’ll first help you press the acupoints to ease the pain, then massage the waist area, and later I’ll use a hot towel to give you a warm compress. ”

“Ohhh, okay.” Jiang Yimiao pressed her chin on the back of her hand and nodded.

Zhao Shuming would press his palm onto her waist.

Only just touching her waist, Jiang Yimiao couldn’t stop herself from laughing out loud, “Wait wait wait a minute! It’s so itchy.”

Jiang Yimiao’s waist was very ticklish, and she could laugh non-stop when it was touched by others. But she didn’t think she would react that much and directly rolled over and kicked Zhao Shuming.

She didn’t know which part of him she kicked, but she heard Zhao Shuming seemingly gasp at her kick.

Jiang Yimiao popped up and sat up holding Zhao Shuming’s hand in her hands, “I’m sorry I’m sorry, I didn’t hurt you did I.”

“It’s …… fine,” Zhao Shuming lowered his eyebrows, and her hand subconsciously gripped his palm.

She sat on her knees on the bed, her mind a little blank for a moment.

But Jiang Yimiao only felt that Zhao Shuming’s palm was so hot, and what passed through her hand was not only his body heat, but also the familiar scent of his body. In addition to his body heat, there was also that familiar scent on his body.

As well as he just gasped that sound quite good ……