herbal tea flavor
January 1, 2023
Fu Yanjin dragged me out of bed early this morning to go with me to the bubble tea shop to buy Lucky Start collaboration merchandise. "Wake up, come with me to buy bubble tea!"
"Mmm~ I'll sleep a little longer, just a little while~" She snuggled deeper into the blankets.
He yanked Jiang Yanmu's blanket off. "It's getting late, the sun's already high in the sky."
"Hmm~ Get up~" Jiang Yanmu sat up with her eyes closed and asked, "What time is it?"
Fu Yanjin picked up her phone to check the time and replied guiltily, "Oh, it's only 3:30. It's not early." She then ran to the doorway, which was far from the bed, and stood there.
"What! What time did you say?"
"Ahem, it's 3:30." She turned her back, playing with her hair, twirling it around her fingers. Knowing Fu Yanjin was like this for a while, she sighed and got up to wash. Fu Yanjin came back, sat on the sofa, and browsed for movies showing on New Year's Day. She planned to watch them after buying the Jiang Yin collaboration-themed milk tea and merchandise.
Jiang Yanmu was showering inside while Fu Yanjin called out from outside, afraid she wouldn't hear him while washing up, "After we buy milk tea, let's go see a movie, that one..." He then glanced at the page again. "Changjin Lake Water Gate Bridge"
"There's a movie this morning?" Jiang Yanmu asked, brushing her teeth with foam in her mouth.
"have"
"Okay, you're amazing. Do those milk tea shops open that early?"
"No, but I can get Jiang Yin's..."
The surrounding areas unanimously agreed.
I knew it.
How did you know?
Jiang Yanmu spat out the foam in her mouth, rinsed her mouth, and explained, "Nine out of ten times, it's about your idol. How could I not know? It's hard not to know." She picked out a gray sweatshirt from the closet and placed it on the bed.
The two of them stood in front of the milk tea shop like idiots, waiting for it to open. The reason they didn't wait anywhere else to open and then come over was because Fu Yanjin said, "Compared to waiting somewhere else and then running over, waiting directly will give us a better chance of getting something."
“…You’re right.” Every now and then, passing cars would glance at them. Their eyes seemed to say, how could anyone stand outside in the cold wind like an idiot? Jiang Yanmu wished she could disappear into the ground, but she couldn’t. She buried her face in Fu Yanjin’s neck and whispered, “Next time something so embarrassing happens, please don’t come to me, please.”
"That won't do, who else would I ask if not you?"
"I can't argue with you," he said, as the milk tea shop opened and he slowly got up and walked in.
Fu Yan was very satisfied with the Jiang Yin merchandise he had bought, and happily hugged Jiang Yanmu, jumping and spinning around several times. "If you keep jumping, I'm going to faint, Yan."
"Oh, okay, I was too excited, sorry." He immediately let go of Jiang Yanmu.
She pulled Fu Yanjin towards a hot pot restaurant. They'd gotten up too early and hadn't eaten, plus it was still cold, so hot pot was perfect. Jiang Yanmu angrily ordered several dishes, but then worried they wouldn't be able to finish them, so she temporarily let Fu Yanjin go, letting her stay with her for those few hours standing in front of the milk tea shop. "You have to make it up to me," she said.
"Okay~" He poured Jiang Yanmu a glass of plum juice. "You can eat whatever you want, or even me~" He winked at Jiang Yanmu.
She gave Fu Yanjin a small push, "Ew~ No!"
Not long after returning home, Jiang Yanmu developed a fever. Most of the cold medicine at home had expired, and she'd already used it all. She was too tired to move and just lay there. "So tired, just a little while, just a little while..."
Jiang Yanmu woke up when her mother called around dinnertime. She lifted her heavy head, half-lying down, to answer the phone. Her voice hoarse, she said, "I don't want to eat," and hung up immediately, lying back down. Her mother wanted to come up and try to persuade her again, knowing she'd feel unwell if she didn't eat, and asked what was wrong. She knocked on the door but heard nothing.
He opened the door and saw Jiang Yanmu lying there. He went over and patted the blanket. "Wake up, let's eat first."
"I'm not eating," she said, pulling the blanket up further. Seeing that Jiang Yanmu still didn't react, she grabbed her arm, lifted her up, and then pulled back the blanket. "Eat first, then sleep."
Jiang Yanmu said listlessly, "Um... I don't want to eat."
"Why don't you want to eat? Are you feeling unwell?" He leaned forward and touched Jiang Yanmu's forehead, finding it was indeed a little hot. "Let's go to the clinic."
"Hmm~ I don't want to go," Jiang's mother said, lifting Jiang Yanmu up and helping her down the stairs to sit on the electric scooter. She then let Jiang Yanmu hug her mother and lean against her. She had also bought some porridge outside. She made Jiang Yanmu drink the porridge first, then give her cold medicine. Jiang Yanmu couldn't take pills, any kind that's swallowed whole, so whenever she had a cold, she only needed the powdered kind.
After taking my cold medicine, I sat motionless in a chair for a few minutes, then, almost unconsciously, I picked up my summer homework and started writing. My head was still spinning, and I couldn't finish it, so I messaged Ye Ziyi to ask if he was free to video chat. [Are you free?]
【What's wrong? 】
[I have a question I can't answer, I'd like to ask you via video call. (Kitten fainting.jpg)]
[I] propped my head up and listened to the whole thing, but the worst part was that I didn't absorb a single word...
A few days ago, Jiang Yanmu fell ill, so the whole family went to a hot spring to warm up. The senior year curriculum is getting increasingly demanding. Every day, I get up early to go to the cafeteria, trying to bring food to class if possible; if not, I try to finish eating as quickly as possible. Fortunately, before morning reading, I have a little more time to do practice problems. I listen to English with headphones on, do math problems, and review the material, worried that I might forget it again.
The desk is piled high with exercise books, test papers, and textbooks. You can see it the moment you lie down. Right now, all they do is prepare for the college entrance exam; their lives revolve around two points: school and home, studying via video calls non-stop. Although they can now solve almost any problem, they still do practice questions together via video call—it's become a habit for both of them.
Even when doing practice problems in the library, she kept her video on. Jiang Nan, who was out with classmates, passed by the library, and her friend nudged her, curiously tilting her chin and asking, "Is that your sister?"
Jiang Nan was looking down at her phone when she heard someone talking next to her. She looked over and said coldly, "Hmm, is there a problem?"
"Why don't you call me 'sister' and come play with me?" The boy nudged Jiang Nan's shoulder again.
I refuse.
"Why won't they let us meet up?" the boy asked anxiously.
"I'm busy preparing for the college entrance exam, so I don't have time to go out and have fun."
"Then what are you laughing at?" The boy's eyes were fixed on Jiang Yanmu, never looking away.
"Don't laugh," Jiang Nan's voice faded into the distance.
Jiang Yanmu was reminded by Ye Ziyi that she had misspelled an English word, but she couldn't find it for a long time. In fact, she had seen it several times, but she just pretended not to see it and kept searching for it, muttering to herself, "I can't see it. Where is it?"
Ye Ziyi just smiled and said, "Start counting from the beginning again. I'll call you when you get there." He also spoke softly to Jiang Yanmu.
After finally finding it, she covered her mouth and laughed so hard she almost fell over. "So it was here! Haha, I saw it but it's like I didn't see it at all, hahaha." In order to keep quiet in the library and not disturb others, she buried herself in her arms and continued to laugh until her ears turned red.
She accidentally laughed so hard she choked on her own saliva. "Cough cough," she waved at the screen, indicating she was fine and would be alright in a bit. Around closing time, Jiang Yanmu ended the video call with Ye Ziyi and left the library. Her phone vibrated: "Are you still in the library?"
[Just came out, what's wrong?]
[Image of McDonald's Siu Mai]
[Kitten drooling.jpg]
The two of them took a car home together. As soon as they entered the house, Jiang Yanmu couldn't wait to grab the shumai, open it, and place it on a plate. "It smells so good!"
"Mmm, delicious~" She held her face in her hands while eating the shumai.
The tablet has videos playing, and my phone is showing teachers explaining how to write essays. I've pretty much mastered everything else; now I'm tackling essays, reading comprehension, and classical Chinese. My essays, however, are absolutely terrible; I'm disgusted with myself for them.
He clenched his fist, placed it on the table, leaned his head towards the screen, and asked curiously how Ye wrote his essays. "Hey, Ye, how do you write your essays? I want to learn from you."
"Hmm..." Ye Ziyi held his pen to his lips, thinking seriously: "Just write about the content of the question, and then address the question again."
"I know this, but I don't know how to write it."
That's difficult.
"Sigh," she sighed, slumping onto the table. For the next few days, Jiang Yanmu relentlessly focused on her Chinese language studies.
I wrote a classical Chinese version of "Ode to the Red Cliff." "In the autumn of the year Renxu, on the sixteenth day of the seventh month, Su Shi and his guests went boating on the Red Cliff. Then…"
Jiang Yanmu looked at the large stack of unfinished test papers on the table, rested her head on her arm, and casually said, "Ye, why don't you help me finish this pile?"
"Okay, but you can do it again later." He agreed without hesitation.
"I knew it. Ye, you're so kind. You even wrote down the answers for me so I could check them later."
"Um"
The closer the college entrance exam gets, the more nervous and stressed Jiang Yanmu becomes. In her recent video chats, she would often start scribbling and erasing questions while writing. She would even switch to different questions, ultimately getting nothing right. Now, even though she appears to be concentrating on the questions, she's still afraid, causing her to answer incorrectly. "This isn't right. It's been like this lately; you're not really focused."
"I don't want this to happen, but I can't help thinking about it. I've never felt this way during previous exams, but now..."
"Because it's the college entrance exam now, it's naturally different from before. And the pressure is high, but you can't think of it that way, or blame yourself. It's normal; many people experience pressure during the college entrance exam. Just relax, and think of it as... just me writing this on video."
"Mmm...okay!" Hearing this, tears streamed down her face.
Jiang Yanmu's crying left Ye Ziyi at a loss for words. He tried to say something, "Let's go out and have fun tomorrow."
"What "
"Relax a bit. Doing problems all the time is tiring, isn't it..."
"Mmm!" Jiang Yanmu smiled at Ye Ziyi through her tears. She thought to herself, "Thank you, Ye Ziyi."
We had a whole day to play together. First, we went to eat McDonald's shumai. "Ye, you should try this shumai, it's really delicious! I love eating here."
"good"
"How about it "
"tasty"
"Hmph~ Try this one again..." After finishing the shumai, I took a walk on the nearby street to digest. I saw someone dressed in cosplay selling balloons on the street. I went over and bought a cat balloon. I asked Ye Ziyi to help me tie the balloon to my wrist. "Thank you~"
Where would you like to go next?
"This means you can play with me all day long and have me with you, right?"
"yes"
Jiang Yanmu snapped her fingers: "How about we go see a movie first, and then..."
"good"
As we left the movie theater, we saw a flower stall across the street. She tugged at Ye Ziyi's sleeve and pointed to the stall, saying, "They sell flowers! Let's go check it out."
"good"
Seeing a bunch of beautiful flowers, Jiang Yanmu, who already had trouble making choices, was at a loss. "Why don't you help me choose, Ye?"
"Okay," Ye Ziyi said, carefully selecting flowers. The shop owner, who was trimming flower branches on the table, watched this scene and smiled as he continued trimming the flowers in his hands. Ye Ziyi thought that girls would probably like pink flowers, so he finally chose an Aurora and pointed it out to the shop owner: "Shop owner, I want this flower."
"Okay, I'll wrap it up for you right away." The shopkeeper took a wet wipe, wiped his hands, and went over to wrap Aurora in light pink paper for Ye Ziyi.
"This bouquet is called Aurora, and its flower language is that the Northern Lights and I will appear before dawn."
Ye Ziyi accepted Aurora's gift: "Thank you."
The boss whispered to Ye Ziyi, "You have a good eye for choosing."
As they were leaving, the owner said to them, "Come again next time."
She handed the flowers to Jiang Yanmu, saying, "Thank you, I really like them."
"Whatever you like."
Holding the flowers, she touched the petals. So engrossed in looking at them, she didn't notice the car. Ye Ziyi pulled her back and dragged her into the aisle. "Thank you."
"fine"
As they walked further down the street, vendors called out their wares along the way. Stalls displayed various trinkets, snacks, and more… They stopped at a jewelry stall, picked up a lily-of-the-valley bracelet, and exclaimed, “Beautiful! How much is this, sir?”
"twenty"
We strolled around the market and bought a bunch of things. "I bought a bit too much, could you please help me carry these? Let's go rest at that teahouse up ahead."
"good"
The teahouse was decorated in a simple, elegant, traditional Chinese style. They served me herbal tea, taro and milk mochi balls, and mango sago pudding. "Delicious!"
Jiang Yanmu tried the herbal tea next to her, pouring a small cup. "Ugh, it's still so awful." She couldn't stand the herbal tea, so much so that she frowned and closed one eye.
Before entering, Jiang Yanmu took a kitten pendant from a paper bag. She fastened it to her finger, held the kitten in her hand, and held it up to Ye Ziyi. The kitten appeared before him, saying, "Thank you for spending time with me today and helping me carry so many things. This kitten is for you!"
"Thanks"
Tilting his head, he looked at Ye Ziyi and said, "I might have to trouble you again to take it off my hands yourself."
"Okay," she said, extending a hand to gently remove the kitten pendant from Jiang Yanmu's fingers and hold it in her palm.
"Bye-bye," she said, gently waving the flowers in her hand.
"Bye-bye" raised his hand.
Before taking the flowers out, I held them in my arms and took a picture, then placed them on the table for another one. I edited the picture, covered my face, and posted it on Weibo with the caption "Flowers, so beautiful," humming a song as I carefully took the aurora flowers out and placed them in the vase I had previously bought to hold the flowers Wenyan had given me. Then I took a few more pictures and posted them in the Weibo comments section with the caption "Put them in a vase, making a peace sign emoji."
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