"No... No, it's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore!" Ah Chou said as he lifted the quilt without saying anything. He got out of bed in a panic and ran out without looking back.
Last night, when it was dark and the lights were dim, she didn't feel embarrassed. But now it was broad daylight, and she couldn't do something shameful like sleeping in the same bed with Zhong Mingwei.
Huh?
Oh, right. How did she fall asleep last night? When did she fall asleep?
She really couldn't remember anything. She just remembered that the ballads Zhong Mingwei sang were very nice, Zhong Mingwei's hands were very warm, and Zhong Mingwei's arms were really comfortable.
Ahhhh!
How embarrassing!
But Ah Chou had just run out of the room when she suddenly stopped and slowed down her pace. She bent her legs slightly and walked awkwardly to the side room. She took out a piece of cotton cloth from the big wooden box.
…
Ah Chou's face had been red since early morning, and when it was time to eat, looking at the bowl of hot ginger and brown sugar water in front of him, Ah Chou's face became even redder.
"Drink it quickly. Don't let it get cold." Zhong Mingwei urged. Today's noodles were rolled by Ah Chou yesterday. All they needed to do was boil them. After the noodles were cooked, Zhong Mingwei started to make a bowl of ginger and brown sugar water for Ah Chou.
"Oh." Ah Chou picked up the bowl with a red face and started drinking it.
"Don't do embroidery work these days." Zhong Mingwei looked at Ah Chou while picking noodles, "Take a rest and don't get tired."
"If you don't do embroidery, what can you do?" Ah Chou disagreed. She glanced at Zhong Mingwei and turned away uncomfortably. She was muttering in her heart, "Isn't I going to do anything and just stare at you in the room?"
"Don't you want to hear a story? I'll tell you a story." Zhong Mingwei said.
"Really?" Ah Chou almost jumped up with joy. "Which book? How about The Dragonfly? I think the picture on the cover is really beautiful, a vivid jade dragonfly, and fairy mountains and blessed waters. The book is about fairies, right?"
Zhong Mingwei's hands froze, and he silently ate the noodles in his chopsticks, then looked up at Ah Chou: "Let's not talk about this, I'll tell you something better."
"That's fine, you can tell me anything, hehe," Ah Chou held the bowl and giggled, "I like listening to stories the most. When I was a child, I always pestered Xiang Ma to tell me stories, which annoyed Xiang Ma to death. Later, I went to the Yanxi Palace, where there were female storytellers, but how could a rough palace maid like me have the privilege of listening to stories? I could only watch people telling stories from afar and listen from time to time. I could never hear the whole story, which made me so greedy."
"Which story are you craving? Tell me now, I should be able to tell you the whole story," Zhong Mingwei said with a smile, reaching out to tuck Ah Chou's messy hair behind her ears, and said, "I'll braid your hair after dinner."
“I want to listen to Painted Skin!”
The corner of Zhong Mingwei's mouth twitched: "...Painted Skin?"
"Yes, it's the Painted Skin in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio! The storyteller tells it so well!" Ah Chou was so excited that he couldn't even eat his noodles. He tapped his chopsticks and said to Zhong Mingwei excitedly, "But I only heard the beginning, where the female ghost peeled off the skin. Then I left the palace and never heard the rest. I'm so greedy. What happened next? What did the female ghost do after peeling off the skin? Did she eat the man? How did she eat him? Did she dig out his heart and liver directly? Or did she peel off the skin or bite his neck?"
The corners of Zhong Mingwei's mouth twitched even more: "..."
"You don't know this story?" Ah Chou looked at Zhong Mingwei's expression, unable to hide his disappointment. He picked up the bowl and took a mouthful of noodles while trying to comfort Zhong Mingwei. "Oh, that's okay. It doesn't matter if you don't know. There are so many books, you can't have read them all. If you are curious, I can tell you about it. But I can't finish it. I can only tell you about the place where the female ghost peeled off the skin. The story begins with a man named Wang Sheng who met a beautiful girl on the road late at night. He thought she was pretty, but he didn't know that the girl was actually a female ghost, wearing human skin..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
