Chapter 11

Li Miao moved closer to Pei Huai, her fluffy, soft hair swaying gently, brushing against Pei Huai's chin, causing a tingling, itchy sensation on his cheeks.

With a twitch of his nostrils, Pei Huai clearly smelled the boy's gentle, milky scent, like sunshine.

"Pei Huai, thank you for helping me." Li Miao's soft, full lips parted, her voice gentle.

"Cough, it's nothing." Pei Huai immediately snapped back to reality, ignoring the scent he caught from Li Miao, and looked down at Li Miao's belt.

Li Miao is nearly 1.8 meters tall, and the clothes she picked were made to fit her height.

The length was just right, but the size was too loose for Li Miao's slender figure.

Pei Huai looked down and could even see the color of Li Miao's underwear inside her pants; it was white.

Her eyes and ears were burning uncontrollably, and her well-defined hands were still helping Li Miao grab her pants.

He just didn't continue to peek at the edge of Li Miao's underwear.

Pei Huai asked Liang Yixuan to borrow a hole punch for belts.

After asking around, Liang Yixuan still couldn't borrow any tools.

Li Miao tilted her head back and obediently asked what to do now.

Pei Huai pursed his lips, and finally went downstairs to borrow a Torx screwdriver from the dormitory supervisor.

He gripped the screwdriver tightly and manually punched a tighter hole in Li Miao's belt.

The location was chosen perfectly, and it was done on the first try.

Pei Huai even helped Li Miao fasten her belt.

It's like taking care of a child.

Li Miao, a boy who looks like an adult, doesn't feel at all that it's ambiguous for someone to fasten his belt for him.

Pei Huai's palms were bright red after he manually punched the hole.

Li Miao grasped his wrist, rubbed Pei Huai's palms with both hands, and even blew on them with her lips pursed.

The warm air caressed his palm, and Pei Huai's lowered eyelashes trembled.

Liang Yixuan keenly sensed the subtle undercurrent between his good brother and Li Miao. He narrowed his eyes, watched the scene unfold, and whistled.

"You guys continue, I'll go return the screwdriver for you." Liang Yixuan picked up the screwdriver from the table.

"Continue with what?" Li Miao asked innocently.

Pei Huai: "..."

"It's nothing, hurry up and get ready to go downstairs for breakfast."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Pei Huai." Li Miao smiled and thanked him politely, then turned around and went back to the balcony to wash up.

Pei Huai was left standing there, completely stunned. His heart felt warm as if it were wrapped in a big ball of cotton, or as if someone had gently brushed it with a feather.

Calling him "brother" is one thing, but using reduplicated words is another.

It gives you a feeling of pleasure, like petting a cat.

He was completely charmed by it.

Li Hang called him twice before Pei Huai came back to his senses.

When Pei Huai went to the cafeteria for breakfast, he noticed that Li Miao had only bought one steamed bun to eat that day.

"We still have military training this morning, is this much food enough?" Pei Huai, who was sitting next to Li Miao, asked.

"That's enough." Li Miao had eaten a lot of food for two days, and thought that his brother had invited him to a big meal today.

It's better to eat less for breakfast and lunch.

It'll save me money to buy a computer.

Since Li Miao herself said she had enough to eat, Pei Huai couldn't say anything more.

After breakfast, they went to the playground with other freshmen wearing the same camouflage uniforms.

Military training has officially begun.

After getting to know the instructors, Li Miao and her roommates began to stand at attention.

After standing at attention, students immediately learn drills, including marching, parade marching, and stepping, which are repeated over and over again.

Li Miao spends his days running up and down the mountain, so this little bit of activity in the morning is a piece of cake for him.

When the morning training session ended, Pei Huai, Liang Yixuan, and Li Hang were all surprised.

Surprisingly, Li Miao, who didn't seem to have much stamina but had a fair complexion, was able to persevere through the entire ordeal.

"This is hardly any exercise, it's a piece of cake!" Li Miao said nonchalantly.

As Li Miao went to the cafeteria for lunch, she looked at the various hot dishes in the display window and swallowed hard.

Finally, the auntie gave him two vegetarian dishes and a large bowl of rice.

"Don't you want anything else?" The aunt's voice softened considerably as she looked at the student with the good-looking face.

"Thank you, Auntie, these are all I need."

Li Miao carried the tray back to find Pei Huai and the others.

As soon as he sat down, the food he had ordered attracted attention.

My roommates all frowned, saying that eating so much vegetarian food wouldn't work, and they wouldn't feel full without meat.

"It's okay. My brother is going to take me out for a big meal after military training today. I can save money by eating less at lunch," Li Miao explained slowly.

Although she only ordered very inexpensive dishes, Li Miao did not feel inferior or ashamed, but rather acted with great confidence.

Liang Yixuan and the others understood that Li Miao didn't have much money and needed to be frugal.

Pei Huai lowered his eyes and put the food from his plate onto Li Miao's plate.

Liang Yixuan and Li Hang are the same.

Li Miao was taken aback at first, then quickly waved her hand and said that she really didn't need it.

He thanked everyone for their concern, but Miaomiao's irregular eating habits were really nothing to worry about; at most, he just felt a little uncomfortable with an empty stomach.

And so, Li Miao's plate was filled with food from her roommates.

Before leaving the cafeteria after lunch, Pei Huai swiped his meal card at the window and bought a large chicken leg.

Liang Yixuan: "Aren't you full?"

Pei Huai: "Well, I guess so."

Liang Yixuan yawned, feeling a bit dizzy from eating too much earlier, and said lazily, "What do you mean by 'consider'? It's either yes or no."

Pei Huai did not respond.

The group returned to their dormitory to prepare for a lunch break.

Li Miao sat back in her seat, ready to get some warm water to drink.

When I returned from getting water, I saw a large chicken leg on my seat.

The chicken drumsticks were braised, with a beautiful color and tender, plump meat. Every piece of chicken seemed to have absorbed the braising liquid.

Li Miao wasn't actually hungry. She had eaten a lot of white rice at noon, but the vegetables weren't as seasoned as the meat dishes, so they tasted a bit bland.

In comparison, the large chicken leg looks incredibly delicious.

Li Miao is a little kitten who can't resist delicious food.

Clutching the chicken leg tightly, he asked Pei Huai if he had put it in the wrong place, and why he wasn't eating the one he had bought.

Pei Huai sat with his legs slightly apart, glanced at the chicken leg, looked up and continued, "I wanted to eat it when I bought it, but now I don't have much of an appetite."

"Could you please eat this for me?"

Faced with the large chicken leg delivered to her door, Li Miao didn't think anything was wrong. Pei Huai had no appetite and couldn't eat the chicken leg, so he asked her for help.

Li Miao naturally took on the task without hesitation.

"Okay, it's not troublesome at all."

Li Miao opened the food bag and started eating a chicken leg. Her cheeks were bulging, and the way she ate made people's mouths water. It also made the person feeding her very satisfied.

"If you have no appetite like this again next time, you can come to me." Li Miao hadn't swallowed all the chicken leg in her mouth, and her words were mumbled.

What was originally a rather crude scene appears clumsy and adorable when contrasted with Li Miao's beautiful face.

"Okay, then if something like this happens again, I'll have to trouble you," Pei Huai said.

Li Miao: "It's no trouble at all."

Liang Yixuan and Li Hang, who had been watching the whole thing, exchanged a glance and both wondered if the two of them had some serious illness, since they were putting on this brotherly and respectful act in broad daylight.

The key point is that Li Miao's stupidity doesn't seem like an act.

Pei Huai's willingness to act alongside Li Miao was genuine.

***

At noon, the temperature in Beijing reached 35 degrees Celsius, and the sun was blazing.

On the way to the playground, Li Miao felt as if he had forgotten something.

He stood in the shade, with layers of leaves overhead, and dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves onto the boy's eyelashes.

Li Miao suddenly stopped.

Pei Huai and the other two turned around and asked what was wrong.

Li Miao only knew that she had forgotten something, but unfortunately she couldn't remember it no matter how hard she thought about it. She comforted herself that it shouldn't be a big deal, shook her head, and skipped over the matter.

The military training continued until 3 p.m.

Li Miao then remembered something he had forgotten.

He forgot to listen to his brother and apply sunscreen.

Her skin, which was already fair and delicate, turned bright red after being exposed to the scorching sun for so long.

Her entire face, collarbone, and arms exposed outside her short sleeves were extremely red, abnormally red, and also slightly painful.

During halftime, Pei Huai also noticed this problem.

He pinched Li Miao's arm with one hand and looked at it, his brows furrowing.

If I keep getting this much sun, I'm afraid my skin will get sunburned.

He took Li Miao to the handwashing station outside the playground toilet to wash and cool her down.

The icy water flowed over my sunburnt arms, taking away the summer heat.

Li Miao let out a comfortable sigh.

"It's so cool and refreshing."

"It's good that you're cool. I didn't expect your skin to be so delicate. Wash your face again; it's very red." Pei Huai said, looking down.

"Mmm." Li Miao obediently washed her face with water in her hands.

Crystal-clear water droplets slid down from the boy's delicate eyes and eyebrows, and his full lips, like flower petals covered in dew, were no longer as dry and chapped as before.

Li Miao's nape was also red, a place he couldn't cool down on his own.

Pei Huai saw this, rinsed his hands, and gently patted the back of Li Miao's neck twice with the remaining cool water.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Li Miao covered the back of her neck and took two steps back, pouting as she looked at Pei Huai with dissatisfaction.

Pei Huai's hands hovered in the air, his dark eyes filled with confusion: "I didn't do anything. I just noticed your neck was red and thought I'd help you cool it down."

“Oh…” Li Miao nodded slowly after hearing the explanation.

Knowing that Pei Huai's actions were unintentional, Li Miao was no longer so unhappy.

"Okay, but you can't touch the back of my neck like that next time."

When Li Miao was still a kitten, his grandma and brother would often bite the scruff of his neck and carry him around.

Like a cat's tail, the back of its neck is a place that should not be touched carelessly.

“Hmm.” Pei Huai nodded in agreement, but his eyes couldn’t help glancing at Li Miao’s slender nape again.

Therefore, is the back of the neck a sensitive spot for Li Miao?

"That's enough, let's go back." Li Miao looked in the mirror and saw that her face wasn't so red anymore.

Pei Huai followed him back.

After returning home, Pei Huai even borrowed some sunscreen from a girl in his class.

When Pei Huai asked for help, the girl in the class who always carried sunscreen with her readily agreed.

After Pei Huai walked away with the sunscreen, the girl's roommates from the same dormitory quietly teased her.

When they saw Pei Huai unscrew the sunscreen, squeeze out the liquid, and apply it to Li Miao's face, the girls' cheering immediately changed direction.

"Ah, so it wasn't him who borrowed it, but someone else borrowed it for Li Miao."

"Li Miao is so cute with her face tilted back and eyes closed! I could do this job too, let me do the painting!"

"Wow, this is so good-looking, I'm totally smitten."