Chapter 24 Meow Meow, this way no one will hear.

He said he misses you.

Based on the context, Zhou Jinqin understood at that moment that "he said he missed you," meaning that it was her kitten Tuantuan who missed her.

Thinking of how clingy Tuantuan usually is, Zhou Jinqin's heart softened completely. She put her ear close to the phone and listened to Liang Minghe's newly sent cat meowing sound several times. Instantly, she smiled bitterly.

Connor thought she was expressing her longing for Liang Minghe, and the single guy immediately protested, feeling like he had been hit with a million points of damage. He wailed that he couldn't bear to watch and waved his hand, saying that he would grant them their wish.

"Forget it, forget it anyway, I'm like a dead person when I'm asleep. You can go and keep your clingy little devil company when I get back to the underworld." She covered her mouth and waved her hand, making an exaggerated gesture of choking up. "It's okay if you don't come back tonight."

It was only then that Zhou Jinqin noticed the undeniable warm male voice mixed in with the voice message. Her heartbeat suddenly became erratic. It turned out that the one who had been "ringing" all along was Liang Minghe.

Not long after, Kanna's breathing became even, and she seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.

Zhou Jinqin, however, completely lost the will to sleep. Her mind had been clamoring and acting out for a long time. She tried to close her eyes and struggle several times, but all attempts failed.

She sighed and gave in.

Zhou Jinqin got up quietly, reached out and carefully checked the breathing of the person next to her, and only after confirming that the other person was really asleep did she pick up her phone to type.

Are you asleep? I want to see the cat that makes noise.

Zhou Jinqin even suspected that Liang Minghe was living in WeChat, because he replied to her messages very quickly.

[Waiting for you, see you in the small room.]

The small room refers to the last bedroom in this guesthouse. It faces north and is quite small, not suitable for two people, so it is temporarily vacant tonight.

Zhou Jinqin quickly put on her slippers and walked to the other side of the airplane-shaped apartment.

When she arrived, Liang Minghe was already waiting inside the house.

The room used old-fashioned light bulbs, which had a dim, yellowish tint. Combined with the insufficient brightness, it was actually difficult to see people clearly, but in this noisy rainy night, it added a touch of ambiguity.

The tall, handsome man stood under the lamp, his eyes crinkling as he stared at her with a smile, transforming her from a butterfly into an alluring flower laden with honey.

Zhou Jinqin blushed and awkwardly turned her head away. Like a bee gathering nectar, she circled the flower, but didn't see any other of her kind. She asked softly, "Where's Tuantuan?"

Liang Minghe raised an eyebrow, like a runway model, turned around to face her side, and showed her the other side of the clothes.

He wore a wide-brimmed hoodie at night, and the chubby cat, Tuantuan, comfortably nestled inside the hood.

Zhou Jinqin chuckled, tiptoed over his clothes and pulled the cat out, asking him, "Isn't it choking you?"

Liang Minghe shook his head, a clear smile playing on his lips: "Even if it were you sitting on my shoulders, it would be a piece of cake."

"..." Zhou Jinqin blushed and remained silent, only squatting on the ground with her eyes down, casually teasing Tuantuan.

Liang Minghe, however, did not intend to remain silent. He looked at her slender fingers kneading Tuantuan's body and said meaningfully, "Are you planning to devote yourself entirely to the kitten tonight?"

"Otherwise what?" Zhou Jinqin pretended not to understand. "It keeps ringing at night, so I definitely need to spend more time with it."

Liang Minghe asked, "Do you know that there is such a thing as a father and son being of one heart?"

"Hmm?" Zhou Jinqin looked up at him, wondering why he suddenly brought up this topic.

Looking into her pure, misty eyes, Liang Minghe smiled silently, then bent down to squat beside her. Because of the close distance, his voice was especially clear to her.

Meow~

For a professional, his imitation of a cat's meow is absolutely masterful and incredibly lifelike.

Liang Minghe rested his chin on his hand, looking at her blank expression, and said with a smile, "What I mean is, I've actually been ringing the whole time tonight too."

He lowered his head, pulled Zhou Jinqin's hand over, and rubbed it against his head: "Don't be indifferent to me."

Zhou Jinqin's eyelashes trembled: "What do you want me to do?"

Liang Ming threw a small ball he had bought during the day into the corner, and Tuantuan chased after it and started playing with it. Zhou Jinqin's hands were completely cleared, so he simply took over her other hand as well.

He lifted Zhou Jinqin by the waist, guided her to place her hands on his shoulders, then tightened his grip on her waist, half-closing his eyes as he pressed his lips to hers.

Like summer rain, it comes without any warning or transition, arriving with overwhelming force.

Caught completely off guard, Zhou Jinqin's lips and teeth were captured, and her tongue was seized by the "enemy," causing her endless torment.

Her legs quickly gave way, and Zhou Jinqin could barely stand on her own. Her watery eyes were pitiful, but instead of receiving any affection, she was met with relentless pressure.

She was pressed against the wall, her breathing becoming increasingly rapid, yet she stubbornly suppressed the moan that was about to escape her throat.

In a small, empty room, every sound is amplified...

Liang Minghe reached out and opened the window beside him, letting the roar of the downpour flood the room. He smiled and whispered in her ear, "That way no one will hear us."

After a long, long time, their lips finally parted.

Zhou Jinqin's eyes seemed shrouded in a thick fog, and her voice was dry and hoarse. She looked at him blankly and asked, "Is it over?"

Liang Minghe lowered his head and pressed his forehead against hers: "Not really."

He said softly, "My neck is just a little sore."

Although Zhou Jinqin is not short at 165 cm, she is 23 cm shorter than Liang Minghe, making kissing under such a height difference bound to be somewhat difficult.

Zhou Jinqin reached out and massaged his shoulders and neck, her eyes darting around, not daring to look at him: "Then let's rest first..."

Liang Minghe chuckled sweetly in her ear, then shook his head against her cheek and said in a coquettish tone, "No."

While she was still suspicious, Zhou Jinqin was suddenly lifted up and placed on the wooden cabinet next to her, instantly bridging the height difference between them.

The wooden cabinet was about fifty centimeters deep. Liang Minghe only placed her on the edge of the cabinet, but Zhou Jinqin spontaneously moved back to sit at the very bottom.

Liang Ming grabbed her calf and pulled her back, then wrapped her legs around his waist, holding her waist to prevent her from escaping: "Why did you run so far?"

Zhou Jinqin blinked, remained silent for a while, and then decided to temporarily break the existing ambiguous atmosphere. She said, "There are cockroaches on the floor..."

Liang Minghe followed her gaze and saw a huge Cantonese specialty lying at the foot of the bed, the kind that looked like it could take off at any moment.

Tuantuan's attention was no longer on the toy Liang Minghe had given it; it tentatively poked at the cockroach's body with its paw, looking quite interested.

"Do you think it might eat the cockroaches?" Zhou Jinqin felt desperate just thinking about it; she couldn't accept her child eating such a thing.

Liang Minghe asked her, "Are you scared?"

"Hmm..." Zhou Jinqin unconsciously leaned closer to him. "I heard that the cockroaches here are very ferocious and will secretly bite people at night."

She had heard that cockroaches in Guangdong were big, but she didn't expect them to be this big. She even felt that she could see a hint of urgency in their backs.

Liang Minghe has always lived in a house with good pest control measures since he was a child, so he doesn't actually have many opportunities to see cockroaches. However, because he has always liked to observe biodiversity, he is not that afraid of them.

He calmed Zhou Jinqin down a little, then quickly grabbed the cat that was still playing with the insects, hoisted it onto his shoulder, precisely covered the cockroach with two pieces of paper, and then swiftly stomped it to death and threw it into the trash can, all in one smooth motion.

But when you find one cockroach, it means there's already a whole bunch of them in that space.

Zhou Jinqin dared not stay in the room any longer. After wiping Tuantuan's feet clean with a wet wipe, she eagerly said that she wanted to go back to find Kangna.

Although Liang Minghe was not satisfied, there was nothing he could do. He rubbed her head and said helplessly, "Well, it will be good for a while."

He handed the cat to her: "Tuantuan will sleep with you tonight. If anything happens, it can protect Mom just like Daddy does."

"What 'mama'?" Zhou Jinqin thought of Kong Feifei's words again, and her face turned red. She picked up the cat and hurriedly returned to her original room.

When Zhou Jinqin woke up in the morning, she felt a pain in her scalp. After a moment, she realized that Tuantuan was sleeping on top of her head, pressing her hair down on top of her.

Her hair is short now, which is already difficult to manage and prone to frizz. With the added weight to help hold it in place, her hair is now a complete mess.

Kanna, who woke up to find her cat there, felt very happy. She even found the young couple much more agreeable at that moment and decided to find some benefits for Xiaoming.

Seeing Zhou Jinqin struggling with her hair, she smiled and suggested, "If you can't do it well yourself, why don't you ask Liang Minghe for help?"

"He even knows this?" Zhou Jinqin asked, somewhat surprised.

“Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t gain his experience on other women,” Conna explained. “He bought a lot of long-haired dolls, didn’t he? He practices with them all the time, mainly for the girl characters in children’s picture books. Your husband is very skilled.”

As she spoke, she called Liang Minghe in on her own.

Liang Minghe asked Zhou Jinqin what she was wearing today, displaying the composure of a stylist director.

Zhou Jinqin showed him a dress with a Peter Pan collar. Liang Minghe nodded and quickly tied her hair into two buns.

Zhou Jinqin touched the little tuft on her head and said shyly, "Isn't this too childish?"

Actually, she doesn't usually wear clothes with Peter Pan collars. This one was bought by Xiang Ziqing after she tried it on at the mall and Xiang Ziqing thought it looked good on her.

Liang Minghe focused intently on curling the strands of hair he pulled from her bun with a hair straightener, saying nonchalantly, "Who says this hairstyle can only be worn by children?"

He held her chin and looked her up and down, then told her very seriously, "I think you look good just the way you are."

He asked, "And are you very old?"

Zhou Jinqin stared at herself in the mirror. At the age of twenty-eight, there weren't actually many signs of aging on her face.

If life is divided into three stages—youth, middle age, and old age—and evenly divided according to a lifespan of one hundred years, she would still be in her youth.

Moreover, whether one is young or faded, life is free and should never be limited by anything.

This is good too. She likes being this lively and energetic version of herself. Zhou Jinqin smiled with relief: "Yes, this seems to be good too."

Kanna chimed in, "Don't even mention it, I'm almost in love with her too! Sweet girls are the most beloved thing in my life!"

Liang Ming glanced at her coldly: "Don't you have a wife yourself?"

Connor rolled her eyes at him, chased him away, and then came back to whisper in Zhou Jinqin's ear to continue praising her to the skies.

She circled around her and sighed, "Sigh, all men in this world really do have a brother's heart."

"Brother?" Zhou Jinqin looked bewildered.

Kanna chuckled: "Trust me, if you call him 'brother,' he'll be so happy he'd give you his life."

Zhou Jinqin said helplessly, "You should read fewer novels..."

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Author's Note: Thank you for the nutrient solution [upright-eared rabbit head]

Xiao Ming, a man who can sculpt his own cat [doge emoji]

If Xiaoqin calls him "brother," will Xiaoming react with red eyes, hands on hips, and a "I'd give you my life" gesture? [winking emoji]