Chapter 54 Tenderness "Don't you feel how frequently we're making physical contact..."

As the weather turned cold, fog filled the darkness outside the window, but the room was warm and cozy.

Zhang Minglang followed Tang Yi closely, going almost wherever she went, while deliberately asking, "You suddenly ran away because you couldn't bear to leave me, right?"

Tang Yi lowered her head and stepped forward: "No!"

"Then hug me at the door? Tang Xiaoyi, how come I never noticed you were so proactive before?"

Tang Yi denied everything.

She ran away, and he chased her to the sofa. Zhang Minglang grabbed her, made her sit down, and said he would apply medicine to her.

One sat on the sofa, the other knelt on the floor. Zhang Minglang's warm hands carefully held her feet and applied medicine to her ankles.

Essential oils need to be rubbed in to be effective, but friction generates heat. Not only Tang Yi, but Zhang Minglang's eyes were also unfocused, as if he had been boiled alive, and he was covered in sweat.

The cap of the spray bottle clicked shut, making a crisp sound that was particularly noticeable in the quiet room where only the two of them could be heard breathing.

Zhang Minglang released her, and the part of her foot that he had been covering under his palm suddenly came into contact with the cold air. Tang Yi's foot bounced slightly as if by reflex, with a very small amplitude.

She turned her head and looked around the living room, trying to cover her tracks. It was a place she knew all too well, but her eyes seemed to suddenly feel that everything was new, wandering around until they landed on the rug in the corner of the sofa.

Tang Yi's eyes lit up. She propped herself up and was about to get up: "How did you slide off the sofa back and get there? I'll go tidy it up..."

Zhang Minglang stepped back and followed her gaze. Upon seeing the mass, a sound like a string snapping instantly filled his mind.

He recalled the perverted act he had taken that afternoon, sitting there with the blanket over his face, inhaling her scent.

Now it was his turn to blush.

It was too late, so Tang Yi had no choice but to let him stay for the night.

Zhang Minglang went into the bathroom to take a shower, and the water from the shower splashed onto the floor, reaching Tang Yi's ears clearly.

She rubbed her ears, swiping aimlessly on her phone while finding it amusing.

The two of them seem to be having a pretty fair relationship, taking turns staying at each other's homes for a day each?

Scrolling through Xu Xiaoxiao's WeChat Moments, it seems the young lady has gone off to have some fun again. The nine-grid layout is filled with selfies and qipao photos, with the backdrop of the Jiangnan water towns.

The copy, however, pretentiously states: "No matter how vast the world is, there's always someone more! Suitable! Than you!!!"

Several exclamation marks almost jumped off the screen. Tang Yi could imagine the indignant expression on her face and the crisp sound of her nails clicking as she typed those words.

Who has upset her this time?

Tang Yi glanced at the bathroom; the sound of water was still pattering. So she got up, pushed open the glass door to the balcony, and sat down in the cradle.

The video was sent, and Xu Xiaoxiao answered almost instantly. Her wide grin suddenly appeared on the screen.

"Hi~ Xiaoyiyi! What made you decide to video call me?"

Xu Xiaoxiao's voice was bright and cheerful, but when Tang Yi heard the words "Xiao Yiyi", it was as if she was suddenly pulled into a certain situation.

In the scene, Zhang Minglang relentlessly circled around her, jumping to her left and right, constantly calling out, "Tang Xiaoyi, Tang Xiaoyi..."

"What are you doing? What are you spacing out for?"

Xu Xiaoxiao's voice pulled Tang Yi back to reality. She snapped out of her daze, afraid the other would press for more questions, and quickly cleared her throat to preemptively ask, "Where have you been off to have some fun? And 'there's always someone more suitable than you,' who's upset you this time?"

Tang Yi waited quietly for her long, rambling rant, which might be late but was sure to come, to buy herself some time to calm her racing heart and recover her composure.

However, Xu Xiaoxiao, unlike her usual carefree self, waved her hand and said in a somewhat stiff tone, "Who cares? He's just a passerby! I can't be bothered to talk about him."

Tang Yi squinted, her tone suspicious: "Xu Xiaoxiao?"

Xu Xiaoxiao seemed to have been stepped on, and jumped up suddenly. Her face on the phone screen shook violently, making Tang Yi dizzy.

"What problem could I possibly have? It's just that someone provoked me..."

In the bathroom, Zhang Minglang opened the door and went out, wearing a disposable bathrobe. The knot around his waist was one he had deliberately tied in front of the mirror for a long time; he named it the "knot that it will suddenly break, but with a gentle pull, the whole garment will slip off like a corn husk."

As for why it was corn husks, Zhang Minglang lowered his head and stroked his lower abdomen, revealing six well-defined abdominal muscles.

He slipped on the men's slippers Tang Yi had specially prepared for him and walked out, leaving a trail of dampness in his wake. He rubbed his head haphazardly with a towel, his eyes darting around the living room searching for Tang Yi.

Not here?

He reached up and pulled off the towel from his head, letting his wet hair drape over his neck, but no longer letting it drip water.

Voices came from the balcony, and Zhang Minglang naturally followed the sound. He only glanced outside before seeing Tang Yi in the cradle. At that moment, she was sitting with her knees together, elbows resting on her knees, video chatting on her phone.

He squinted and saw that it was a girl, but he didn't pay much attention and continued to wipe his hair.

In the video, Xu Xiaoxiao stared at Tang Yi's face as she spoke, when suddenly she saw a dark shadow flash past behind her.

A chill ran down her spine, and she quickly interrupted her in a low voice, her tone tense: "Tang Yi, is anyone home?"

Tang Yi was startled. She instinctively turned her head to look, but Zhang Minglang wasn't in the living room. She suddenly realized that her actions were making things more suspicious. So she quickly turned her head back, changed the angle of her phone to block the glass door behind her, and then said casually, "No, how could anyone be here?"

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than a loud crashing sound came from behind him.

Tang Yi's eyelids twitched. She suddenly stood up, pushed open the door, and hurried towards the bathroom, ignoring the shaky video on her phone.

The bathroom door was open, and she nervously pushed it open, but it wouldn't budge.

Zhang Minglang slowly walked out from behind the door, holding the mop and the loose hook that had been hanging there. He looked at her cautiously, his eyes full of flattery: "Your mop ambushed me. It didn't break for so long, but it deliberately broke while I was here."

Tang Yi's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, eased slightly. She assumed the sound was because the ground was too slippery and he had slipped and fallen.

Seeing that she didn't react, Zhang Minglang quickly stepped forward and held her shoulders, saying, "I really didn't mean to. I was just standing at the sink when the mop suddenly fell and hit my head. Feel it, feel it yourself."

As he spoke, he bent down and buried his head in her arms, one hand touching the spot in his hair where he had been hit, while the other hand reached out to grab her hand and guide it to his head.

A third person's voice came from inside the room where there were only two people.

"I said... can you two show me a little respect? I'm a person, after all, even if it's just a head in the video."

Xu Xiaoxiao's soft voice came from the phone, and Tang Yi's eyes widened. She looked down and saw Xu Xiaoxiao's speechless face magnified on the screen.

Her hand trembled, and the phone fell to the ground with a "thud".

Xu Xiaoxiao, lying on the ground, protested: "Hey, hey, why are you wearing this? Why is she so dark? Tang Xiaoyi? Holy crap, you're living with a man and you didn't even tell me! Explain yourself!"

Upon hearing those three words, Zhang Minglang raised an eyebrow, leaned forward slightly, and stared into Tang Yi's panicked eyes, trying to confuse her: "How can she call you Tang Xiaoyi too? You need to make it clear to her that this title is reserved for me..."

Tang Yi's mind had turned into a complete mess.

After an hour, Tang Yi sat cross-legged on the sofa and explained everything about her and Zhang Minglang to Xu Xiaoxiao.

Of course, it can't be said to be entirely true, since the person involved was sitting right next to her. Tang Yi still had some self-respect, so when she talked about some of the more embarrassing parts, she just hummed and hawed to brush it off.

It was truly fortunate that top student Zhang Minglang provided detailed explanations, allowing Xu Xiaoxiao to understand the entire process of how the two established their relationship, as if she had stood beside them and witnessed everything.

It was only during the review process with her that Tang Yi realized that the probability of her humming and hawing off was actually quite high...

The video call ended, and Tang Yi started to settle scores with the talkative top student.

She glanced at his still-wet hair with annoyance, her tone suspicious: "You didn't deliberately knock my mop off, did you?"

Zhang Minglang raised his hand and retorted repeatedly, "I really didn't, it really fell by itself!"

"I was making a video call on the balcony, so it must have been you who deliberately went over there, wandered around, and then slipped away, right?"

Zhang Minglang was stunned. He recalled that he did seem to have peeked out from outside the balcony door, but he really didn't know anything about it!

He clasped his hands together and said sincerely, "I swear to God, it wasn't my intention to show my face."

Tang Yi didn't actually intend to pursue the matter. She waved her hand and easily forgave him.

Zhang Minglang climbed up the bar. He stood up from the carpet and suddenly sat down next to Tang Yi. The sofa sank, and Tang Yi almost bounced back because she wasn't sitting properly.

Zhang Minglang, who was beside her, had already reached out and hugged her tightly. He kept burying his head in her arms, and his wet hair soaked Tang Yi's thin clothes.

She pushed him aside with disdain, asking, "Don't you think we're having a little too much physical contact?"

Zhang Minglang looked up, confused: "You don't like it?"

Tang Yi looked down at him, and he looked at her with a pitiful expression. She couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh, nor could she go against her own heart.

So she raised her head, touched the back of her neck, and said somewhat awkwardly, "It's not that..."

Zhang Minglang hummed twice and continued to hug her: "That means you like her."

Tang Yi pushed him away again: "Don't come out without drying your hair next time. The ground is all wet, and my clothes are wet too."

“I’ll mop the floor in a bit,” Zhang Minglang said, then, as if suddenly grasping the implied meaning in her words, he asked meaningfully, “The future? You’ve already thought about our future?”

Tang Yi, caught out of her composure and unsure how to respond, simply pushed him up and urged, "Go get the hairdryer!"

Zhang Minglang remained unmoved: "I'm not going unless you help me blow-dry my hair."

Tang Yi had no choice but to agree repeatedly.