Chapter 35

The rain outside was getting heavier, and the thunder was dull, as if it wanted to swallow the whole city along with the rain that fell from the sky.

Jiang Yimiao had just lined up the dolls from the sofa on the table in her room, and each doll sat obediently on her vanity table. The only doll left on the bed was the one Zhao Shuming had given her as a child.

A long unworn nightgown, Jiang Yimiao guessed that she probably hadn’t moved into Zhao Shuming’s house at all.

She stuffed the doll under the covers and shook her head, “Forget it if I can’t find it, maybe I didn’t bring it here at all, I can’t remember myself.”

As soon as the words fell, the sky outside, as dark as a bottomless pit, suddenly broke into a bright light, and before the sound of thunder could be heard, Jiang Yimiao was frightened by the sudden flash of lightning and trembled.

In fact, Jiang Yimiao is not afraid of thunderstorms, but because human beings have natural disasters engraved in their genes, her body subconsciously avoids them.

However, after a short while, a thunderclap did sound in her ears.

Zhao Shuming looked out the window and paced to the window to close the curtains meticulously.

“Don’t think about it if you can’t remember, it’s not very important anyway.” Zhao Shuming turned around and narrowed his eyes at her, in reply to her last sentence.

In his heart, he loathed himself for being so shameful.

However, Zhao Shuming had long since realized that he was originally such a person.

Zhao Shuming had a smile on his face, and sat down on Jiang Yimiao’s bed, “It’s not early now, should I turn off the lights?”

“Uh-huh.”

The lights in the room hadn’t gone out yet, Jiang Yimiao was already lying on the bed, the quilt was pulled in front of her.

The doll was just brought to her stomach, she pulled it out with a smile and put it next to her arm, and patted the doll’s bulbous stomach filled with cotton with her hand.

“Good night.” Zhao Shuming took in her series of actions in the darkness and broke the peace in the room with a soft voice.

“Good night to you too.” Jiang Yimiao twisted her head and locked eyes with him.

There shouldn’t be any light in the room, but she could somehow still feel Zhao Shuming’s eyes sparkling with starlight.

The rain started to fall rapidly, accompanied by one or two thunderclaps. Jiang Yimiao unexpectedly didn’t sleep for a second, she turned her head towards the direction of the window, and all that came into her eyes was the dark curtains, she turned her head back again.

“Miao Miao, what’s wrong?” Zhao Shuming asked softly, so soft that it seemed like a sound made with breath.

Jiang Yimiao also lowered her voice like him, “Nothing, it just feels like it’s raining so hard.”

She paused, “I can’t remember exactly which year it was, but we slept together one night on a typhoon day. That night it was also raining thunderstorms.”

South City was near the sea, and the old home city was also a little bit related to the sea, but in the past, all the typhoons were small typhoons, or maybe they just brushed by.

But about a dozen years ago, they encountered an unprecedented typhoon landfall.

Jiang Yimiao remembers being in a physics class, and halfway through the class, the teacher suddenly rushed in and said, “Now everyone pack up their things and go home for the holidays.”

The local area hadn’t welcomed such a violent typhoon in many years, and the day after the vacation the typhoon made landfall, plunging the entire city into low pressure.

Zhao Shuming had always lived by himself in his hometown, and usually went to the supermarket with Jiang Yimiao to buy weekend groceries only on Fridays when he was on vacation.

This time, the typhoon came so suddenly that he was directly picked up by Jiang Yimiao’s parents, who had absolutely no food stored at home.

Although the two households were right next to each other, Zhao Shuming simply stayed directly at her place, and even slept at night nestled together.

The human body’s biorhythms are affected by the external environment, and typhoons and rainy days stimulate the human senses, secreting adrenaline and other substances that can cause excitement.

Jiang Yimiao felt inexplicably excited when she was lying on her bed outside the window listening to the wind, even though she knew she should be scared and nervous.

Toward the middle of the night, it began to rain heavily, and in a rare moment, she stayed awake.

Zhao Shuming was right next to her to keep her company, but next door Jiang Yimiao’s mom and dad had probably already fallen asleep, and the two kids were whispering in breathy tones.

And now like this in general.

“You actually remembered.” Zhao Shuming was a little surprised.

“Of course I remember ah, I remember that night we told so many gossips, from the chairman of the school, down to the uncle at window number three in the dining hall.”

Human memory was amazing, it seemed like they always remembered such small things that weren’t very important, but when they recalled it later they felt it was rare.

Jiang Yimiao yawned as she spoke, sleepiness finally running over her.

“I hope the rain will stop when I get up in the morning.” Zhao Shuming said softly.

“Miao Miao, it’s time for you to sleep when you’re sleepy, I’m not talking to you anymore.” Saying this, he raised his hand and crossed it over his mouth, making a zipper gesture.

Jiang Yimiao followed his example and also zipped over her mouth, “Sleep!”

As long as she genuinely wanted to fall asleep, then she could sleep quickly, for example, thinking of having to wake up early the next day, Jiang Yimiao, after touching the doll’s small hands, placed her hands peacefully on her abdomen and fell asleep counting the sheep.

Jiang Yimiao can’t remember exactly how many fell asleep, maybe the eighteenth, or maybe thirty-eight?

The rain has subsided, and the sound of the rain hitting the glass windows has also become smaller.

Jiang Yimiao was asleep, Zhao Shuming could guess.

He turned his head to look at Jiang Yimiao, who had already fallen asleep, and had just fallen asleep, maintaining the same position she had when she fell asleep, with her hands on her abdomen, and her whole body standing straight up like a pen.

Zhao Shuming took a deep breath and let out a soft sigh from his chest.

His reason had actually been telling himself that he shouldn’t be sharing a bed with her every night.

Even if it was true that both of them slept with two large pillows separating them, it wasn’t much different from sleeping in two beds that were close to each other.

But he wasn’t Jiang Yimiao, and Jiang Yimiao didn’t feel that sleeping in the same room together was something not quite normal because she was used to being this close to him.

But Zhao Shuming’s knowledge of the sexes and their relationship was clear, and in no way should he be doing this with her.

But his desires, thoughts, and sensuality had completely overpowered his reasoning.

He very much needed to increase the amount of time the two of them spent together, and very much needed the two of them to be closer.

Zhao Shuming felt that it was very difficult for him to make Jiang Yimiao accept his confession with peace of mind right now.

He could only revert to making it more and more impossible for her to leave him, making her life completely filled with traces of him.

For Zhao Shuming, it didn’t matter what the meaning of her love was, as long as she still loved him that was enough.

He comforted himself with self-justification before drifting off to sleep along with the sound of her breathing.

The last few days Zhao Shuming had slept in the same bed with her like this, he tried to make sure he didn’t cross the line, but if it was River who crossed the line, then Zhao Shuming let her come.

So he also let her sleep until the middle of the night and start rolling over, kicking pillows, putting her legs on him, and other behaviors.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s really more comfortable to sleep with her, or if it’s because Zhao Shuming’s hands have gotten busy lately and he’s so tired that it’s easier for him to fall asleep, but it’s very rare for him to get a week of nights with good quality sleep.

Now that there was still a small amount of time before college started, most of his recent work had come from that private counseling studio of Xing Anze’s.

“Miao Miao, it’s time to go to the office.” Zhao Shuming approached his body and tapped his shoulder with his hand.

“So soon?” Jiang Yimiao’s head whipped around and he sat up straight with a jerk.

Recently, Zhao Shuming also had to go to the studio during the day, so no matter if it was cloudy, sunny or rainy in the morning, he would always send Jiang Yimiao to Yi Ke first.

“Well, send me a message when you get to the workstation.”

She didn’t say anything but only nodded, and when she closed the car door, she didn’t forget to say the same thing to Zhao Shuming, “Tell me when you get to the workstation side as well.”

He smiled, “Well, I’ll report to you on time.”

Jiang Yimiao cocked her head, why did she somehow feel that Zhao Shuming’s words sounded strange.

But she didn’t think much about it, pulling out the eyeglass case she kept in her bag and putting on her glasses before going up to her office.

Qiu Xiaoyan was still accompanied by her Ice American style, and when she saw Jiang Yimiao coming, she greeted her.

“Good morning.” Jiang Yimiao put her bag down and stretched her back.

“Eh, Miao Miao, I always feel that you don’t look quite right today?”

“Me?” Jiang Yimiao pointed her finger at herself, somewhat puzzled, “I went to bed quite early last night, and I haven’t stayed up late lately, so what’s wrong?”

Jiang Yimiao also subconsciously rubbed her eyes.

Autumn Xiaoyan waved her hands repeatedly, “No, hiss, how can I say it?” Her eyes quickly locked onto the cartoon puppy on Jiang Yimiao’s t-shirt, “I know why it’s different, the color of your clothes today is actually bright!”

She lowered her head and scanned the clothes on her body, “Haha, just suddenly wanted to change my style, this cartoon puppy is kinda cute.”

“Indeed cute, your face is also round and adorable, at first I thought you were an undergraduate fresher, a cute girl.” Qiu Xiaoyan swept a glance at her black, white and gray desktop, “I didn’t expect to be more of a programmer than I thought, hahaha.”

Jiang Yimiao also glanced at her desktop, although she occasionally liked cute things, she also liked this black, white and gray minimalist style.

The “desensitization treatment” that Zhao Shuming had mentioned to her had allowed her to touch more of those cute items.

But that didn’t mean she had to change her original personal style, and Jiang Yimiao didn’t have any plans to do so herself.

“By the way, I just realized that you’re looking quite good.” Autumn Xiaoyan said with a smile, “It has a kind of spring breeze manliness.”

“Spring breeze?” Jiang Yimiao froze for a moment before thinking of the meaning of her words, “Saying this in broad daylight.”

She laughed and gave Qiu Xiaoyan a light slap.

“It’s probably because I’ve been drinking too much stew lately.” Jiang Yimiao touched her face, since the last time Zhao Zhengcheng made a trip to the house, Zhao Shuming’s soup stew was even more refined than before, even the amount of herbs were precisely measured.

She squinted her eyes at the blazing sun outside the ground window, “But it’s also possible that it’s too sunny outside and it’s reddening my face.”

“Fart, haven’t you been rubbing up against your friend’s car every day lately, where do you get the sun.”

“The front seat of the car gets sun too alright.”

The day started with a scuffle.

As a result, Jiang Yimiao sat on her ass in the office chair in addition to eating and going to the bathroom without getting up, until her eyes were dim and her hair was about to be made to blow up, she just stood up violently and ran to the window and took a deep breath.

I want to vomit …… Jiang Yimiao has not had this feeling for a long time, the last time I had this feeling may still be the senior high school evening self study. The last time I felt this way was probably the night study in my senior year of high school when I brushed a set of science papers in one breath.

On the cell phone, Zhao Shuming has asked her several times what time to go home, Jiang Yimiao holding her waist back to him: [just finished, now packing things ready to go home].

She looked up at the dark sky, today she had worked until almost eight o’clock again.

Zhao Shuming has been busy lately, and Jiang Yimiao happens to be busy as well.

Jiang Yimiao signed a three-party contract with ECO during the fall recruitment last September, and she happened to have nothing to do during the winter vacation in December, so she took an internship training in advance to offset the original three-month probationary period.

Because of the advance and the company assigned mentor contact with the content of the work, even now Jiang Yimiao seems to have graduated not long ago, but she is already more familiar with their own work content.

So much so that her business was also more skillful than that of a freshman who had only just joined the company, and this month, as her work content deepened, her work also became busy.

The group she was in was in one of the hand game departments under ECO, and it had been busy before because of the game’s anniversary celebration.

It was hard to take two breaths, but she had a new project to follow up and an old project to iterate on her hands at the same time, which meant she might have to work overtime again lately.

However, the better point was that they would never work overtime beyond nine o’clock at night, which was also acceptable to Jiang Yimiao.

She remembered that she had been a fighter in middle school, waking up at less than six o’clock to study until ten-thirty.

The cell phone in her hand vibrated again.

[Do you want me to pick you up?

No, I have a craving and want to stop by the subway station to buy a cup of milk tea.

Zhao Shuming did not insist, but before Jiang Yimiao walked to the door of the neighborhood, he advanced to the subway station on the other side of the home, he knew that Jiang Yimiao was still afraid of walking at night.

He knew that Jiang Yimiao was still afraid of walking at night, so he could walk with her and feel more at ease.

Today’s night is not so hot, and the evening breeze is slightly cooler.

Jiang Yimiao inhaled her nose and smelled the refreshing fragrance of his body, “You’ve already taken a bath?”

“Well, I didn’t go to the gym this morning, I went there in the evening, and I took a shower not long after I got home.”

“Oh.” She responded leisurely, and as soon as Jiang Yimiao returned home she took a hot shower and washed her hair, raising a scent that was even stronger than Zhao Shuming’s body as she sat on the sofa and watched TV.

She had been sitting for too long today, and her old problem of back pain had returned.

Jiang Yimiao subconsciously turned her elbows outward and hammered her waist with her hands clenched into fists, the posture of hammering herself was really a bit awkward, and the hammering wasn’t very comfortable, so she started to rub it.

“Miao Miao.” Zhao Shuming frowned, “Is your back hurting again?”

“Well, I sat all day today.”

“Why don’t I massage it for you again. It should be more comfortable if I rub it for you.”

He rarely wore his glasses, and the look on his face seemed even gentler than usual, perhaps just because the night set the person off more skillfully.

Jiang Yimiao’s own waist rubbing stopped and nodded towards him.

The sofa in the house was large, large enough to completely allow Jiang Yimiao to lie down flat. She lay directly on the sofa, her head looking in the direction of the LCD TV.

There was a rug in front of the sofa, and Zhao Shuming obediently knelt down and sat on the rug, “You watch TV, I’ll press it for you.”

As a result, his hand only touched the clothes on her waist, the clothes touched Jiang Yimiao’s waist only, and she started laughing again, her waist and body subconsciously avoiding his hand.

“Miao Miao ……” Zhao Shuming laughed somewhat helplessly, his hands propped up behind him as he sat on the carpet watching her laugh.

“I can’t, try again, press up harder and I probably won’t laugh.” Jiang Yimiao felt like her eyes were about to burst into tears from laughing.

After tossing and turning for most of the day, Zhao Shuming’s hand finally managed to press on her waist and began to massage her according to the memorized technique.

The TV interjected a commercial in the middle of the program, and Jiang Yimiao’s gaze shifted from the screen to his body, suddenly saying coldly, “You seem like one of those male technicians.”

“A technician?” Zhao Shuming knew there was no malice in her words, instead he took on her words and said, “Dear Ms. Jiang, technician number twenty-six is at your service.”

He straightened his body, but then bent slightly in Jiang Yimiao’s direction.

Zhao Shuming had changed the pajamas on his body into his regular clothes in order to pick her up at the subway station.

And now that the two were in the current position, Jiang Yimiao could see his collarbone and the area below it no matter how she looked.

Because his hands were exerting force, Zhao Shuming’s body was regularly leaning forward, and the small mole on his collarbone was sometimes blocked by shadows and sometimes illuminated by the living room light. And the odor on his body was also hidden like the small mole.

Seeing that Jiang Yimiao kept looking at him but didn’t say anything, Zhao Shuming raised his head and his tone was a few points softer than usual.

“What’s wrong, is it because I didn’t serve you well enough somewhere?”

Jiang Yimiao pursed her lips and swallowed, “No, no…… you continue.”

Zhao Shuming, however, stopped the movement of his hands, but his body bent down a little more, “Miao Miao, are you trying to bite something again?”