Hardness test!
"Hardness test!"
7.
When Lan Jian returned to the car, she was carrying two small brown paper bags. They couldn't stop there for long, so Chongming started the car as soon as she was seated. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw that she was still holding the paper bags. Knowing the answer already, he asked, "Why don't you eat first?"
"We'll be at your house soon, so we won't eat in the car."
She bought the red bean cakes that she would intermittently clamor for before group meetings in the lab. Back when the younger students hadn't entered the lab yet, and there were only four people in the lab, the group meetings were held at night, and food delivery couldn't get into the campus, so it was better to go out and buy them ourselves. We could even go a little further to buy the meals that everyone wanted to eat. So Chongming had to drive Lanjian to pick up the meals.
Once, Chongming didn't drive, so he borrowed Ma Yuehe's electric scooter to go out to buy food. Lanjian was used to being Chongming's "little shadow." That was the best time for her to "rehearse her lines" with Chongming before each group meeting. Chongming would ride his electric scooter around the campus, watching the sunset, while listening to her rehearse her group meeting report.
At that time, Chongming wasn't single, so Lanjian never sat in the passenger seat when riding in his car. But electric scooters were different. Unlike the passenger seat in a car or the back seat on a bicycle, electric scooters didn't have the same considerations as the passenger seat in a car or the back seat on a bicycle, due to common Asian "dating etiquette" that might affect whether a partner would mind. The back seat of an electric scooter was often lower than the driver's seat, and the seat was longer, creating a considerable distance between people and maintaining a neat sense of space.
Just like the relationship between Chongming and Lanjian, the senior and junior siblings, it was well-organized.
What was unusual was that both of them were so captivated by the novelty of the electric scooter that they rode it until it was almost out of power before finally leaving the school gate to find food. It was also while passing by this road that day that Lan Jian suddenly said that she wanted to eat red bean cakes.
Previously, because parking was difficult, Lan Jian had never mentioned wanting to eat red bean cakes, a dessert that was neither a proper meal nor past afternoon tea time. After that incident, Lan Jian would always stop Chongming every now and then when passing by that shop, and she would get out of the car to buy red bean cakes.
The name "red bean cake" only contains the word "red bean," but the filling isn't limited to just red bean. That shop sells four flavors: red bean, cream, sweet potato, and taro. Sometimes they also offer seasonal limited editions.
Lan Jian, that traitor, doesn't even like to eat red bean cakes that are red bean flavored.
Just like now, after Chongming gave her permission to eat in the car, she began to bite into the golden and crispy crust of the red bean cake, sucking on the sweet potato puree that she could swallow without using her teeth, as if she only needed to taste the sweetness. Before she had even finished swallowing a bite, her hand was already squeezing the filling to her lips.
At the last traffic light before heading home, Chongming saw Lanjian's expression; as always, she was completely absorbed in it, thoroughly enjoying herself.
"Give me one!"
Influenced by Lan Jian, Chongming immediately started eating red bean cakes to fill his stomach as soon as he arrived home, even while still in the underground garage.
Lan Jian shared a red bean cake with him. She still had a cream cake left, each wrapped in an oil paper bag. She contentedly peeled the red bean cake in half and held it up to Chongming—
"cheers!"
Chongming, holding up his own, childishly clinked the crusts together with hers, "Cheers!"
Chongming ate quickly. When he finished and wanted to wipe his hands, he found that the tissue box next to him was empty. He wanted Lanjian to get a pack of tissues from the storage drawer in front of her seat, but seeing that she was focused on eating, he didn't want her to do it for him. He unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned over to Lanjian's seat, and said gentlemanly, "Lanjian, I'm getting a tissue."
Chongming's fluffy head suddenly peeked over, and Lan Jian's gaze lingered on his slender neck. He wore a thin, dark gray shirt collar, and it appeared he wasn't even wearing a wool sweater underneath.
"Aren't you cold today?" Lan Jian asked him instinctively.
"It's not cold. The temperature dropped to 9℃ today, and the humidity isn't high either." Chongming said as he rummaged through the storage drawers. He reached for something but couldn't find it, so he leaned forward even more. "There's no reason why they should all be used up."
His breath almost landed on Lan Jian's legs.
Lan Jian dared not move.
She was afraid he would notice her nervousness.
But his ears were thin and smooth, exposed to Lan Jian's view.
At that moment, Lan Jian was somewhat bewitched, and her fingertips uncontrollably reached to Chongming's ear and gently pinched Chongming's earlobe.
It is warm.
It is also soft and has a fleshy texture.
The seemingly impromptu action left both of them frozen in place.
"Oh, that's me,"
It just suddenly occurred to me that someone said the temperature of the ears is relatively low... You said you weren't cold, so I thought I'd test it to see if the areas with lower temperatures were also warm..."
Lan Jian spoke softer and softer until, in the end, it was as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
Chongming couldn't find any tissues, and now he's given up on looking for them.
He leaned back into the driver's seat, sat up straight, and turned to look at Lan Jian. "I thought on our first day of marriage you'd be pulling my ear and establishing your dominance as a wife!"
Caught red-faced by Chongming's embarrassment, Lan Jian retorted, "What did I do wrong?"
"Otherwise, what would you call that?"
Lan Jian meant to say "temperature test," but her mouth came out too fast and her head couldn't keep up—
"Hardness test!"
"..."
Inside the car after the engine was turned off, an awkward and ambiguous slip of the tongue caused the temperature to rise sharply.
Chongming calmly crossed his arms and looked at Lanjian, waiting for her to explain herself.
Meng Lanjian, in a fit of desperation, quickly said before getting out of the car, "Aren't we going to have married life? It's not too much to ask me to check the basics before I get out of the car, is it?"
In the end, I still couldn't bring myself to say the words "sex life".
Lan Jian didn't think she was particularly innocent.
He's just a bit stubborn.
This was Lan Jian's third visit to Chongming's duplex apartment. Although he lived alone, the apartment was large enough to accommodate three generations. The first time he came was after a team-building event at the lab. On the way back, Xue Xiang suddenly suggested they go to Chongming's place to play games. So Lan Jian, Ma Yuehe, and others joined them. They played until after 10 PM when Chongming finally asked them to leave.
The second time was when I rode the electric scooter. After buying red bean cakes, the scooter quickly slowed down and ran out of power. Chongming pedaled for a while, thinking about finding a charging station by the roadside to charge it for a bit before continuing, but unexpectedly, it started raining.
Chongming pedaled quickly, and before the drizzle turned into a downpour, he rode home with Lanjian on his back. After charging the electric scooter, he took Lanjian upstairs. He gave Lanjian his only raincoat, while Chongming, soaked to the bone, needed to change his clothes.
Chongming went upstairs to tidy himself up, while Lanjian stayed in the game room on the first floor to play his Wii.
Chongming has a dedicated gaming room. Besides his top-of-the-line computer with a custom-made graphics card, there's another half of the area where people play games on Switch, Wii, and PSP.
This time, Lan Jian entered his house under a different identity. Apart from having a suitcase behind her, she still didn't seem to realize that she was "already a wife." After changing into slippers, she even walked to the game room with the same quick pace.
Chongming followed behind her with his suitcase, and unsurprisingly turned on the lights in every room of the house one by one.
"Wow! Chongming!" Lan Jian ran out holding a VR headset. She saw Chongming carrying her suitcase up to the second floor. She had never been up to the second floor before, so she followed him excitedly and asked, "When did you buy this? Is this the new Quest Pro? We played with the Quest 2 at the last tech expo, right?"
The month before last, the lab went to a tech expo together. Lan Jian tried VR games for the first time, and she didn't feel dizzy at all; she was completely absorbed in the game. Before Chongming returned to China, he happened to see a new model and bought this VR headset, which filled almost half of his suitcase.
"Hmm, I downloaded that rhythm game you mentioned wanting to play last time. I tried it out a few days ago, and the overall feel was pretty good." Chongming paused for a few seconds before reaching his room. He turned thoughtfully to look at Lan Jian, who was still enthusiastically examining the headset. After a moment's thought, he opened his bedroom door and led Lan Jian inside, continuing, "But it's still in the trial phase; only one song has been released yet. You can go downstairs and play by yourself later. Come in and unpack your things first."
Upon hearing this, Lan Jian looked up as if waking from a dream—
This is Chongming's bedroom.
- The red bean cake is based on a type of wagashi (Japanese sweet) called wheel cake or Imagawa yaki. When writing this section about red bean cakes, I used the direct Chinese translation because of common usage. (The author and Lan Jian are different; the author's favorite is red bean cake with red bean filling! What about you?)
The VR rhythm game mentioned is called Maestro: The Masterclass (currently only available on Meta's AppLab).
-A little spoiler: Actually, Chongming Dizziness VR.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
