Chapter 30 Her chin lifted slightly: "Beg me..."
Although today is Wednesday, a day when we need to work.
But as if everyone had planned it together, they all took the day off, and the park was still packed with people, with almost all the benches occupied.
Jiang Shan led Zhu Meng around for almost ten minutes before finally squeezing into a restaurant amidst the sea of people.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was packed with people, and the two of them could only find a small spot that could fit one person at a time.
"...Please have a seat."
Jiang Shan was about to squeeze in, but when he looked back at Zhu Meng's pale face, his sympathy, like a river in flood season, suddenly overflowed the banks of reason.
As she made way for him, she tentatively asked Zhu Meng, "You don't look well. Are you starting to feel unwell now?"
Zhu Meng gently shook his head.
Outside, dark clouds were gathering and the sky was overcast, but it should still be about ten minutes before it rains.
His skin was only slightly itchy as always, which he could tolerate.
"I'm fine, please sit down."
Jiang Shan hesitated to sit down, but when she looked down, she noticed that Zhu Meng was still holding her handbag. She then leaned on the table and suddenly stood up.
"No, you can't, you're still carrying a bag."
Zhu Meng was unwilling to change his gentlemanly principles.
He politely extended his hand: "Ladies first."
The two people were politely deferring to each other for two or three minutes without reaching a conclusion when a little girl wearing an Elsa princess dress popped her head out with a "hello" and pigtails.
"Hello, older sister and older brother, would you like to sit here? If not, could my mom sit here first?"
Jiang Shan didn't say anything immediately.
To be honest, she didn't want to give up this position.
It wasn't that she disrespected the elderly or was deliberately targeting the little girl; it was just that there were so many people here, and she had finally managed to grab a spot. Giving it up like that would be too much of a loss.
"Brother, is it okay?" The little girl tugged at Zhu Meng's sleeve.
Without her noticing, she poked Zhu Meng's exposed wrist with her finger.
Zhu Meng's face turned pale, and he withdrew his hand as if he had been electrocuted.
His body trembled slightly, like a powder keg about to explode at any moment.
The little girl also started trembling, as if she was about to cry from Zhu Meng's fright. She clutched her puffy skirt tightly with her left hand, pouted, looked at Jiang Shan, and pointed with her right hand at the middle-aged woman who was carrying a large bag in her left hand and a doll in her right.
"Sister, my mom is carrying a lot of things, and her arms are sore. She's not feeling well today. Please, let her sit down for a while."
Jiang Shan looked at the apologetic smile on the middle-aged woman's pale face and her slightly hunched back from the weight of her backpack, and his heart softened in the end.
She and Zhu Meng are young people with vigorous metabolisms, while this little girl is only five or six years old and can't lift anything heavy, and this middle-aged woman has no helper by her side...
Forget it, let's just give the seats to them.
Women help women.
Jiang Shan let out a soft breath.
"Then, little one, you and your mother can sit down."
"Thank you, sister!" The little girl ran quickly to the middle-aged woman's side, snatched the large shopping bag from her hand without saying a word, and said in a clear voice, "Mom, come and sit down, sister agreed!"
The middle-aged woman first bowed deeply to Jiang Shan, then carefully sat down and let the little girl sit on her lap: "Little girl, thank you so much."
"It's alright, it's alright." Jiang Shan smiled politely and reached out to pull Zhu Meng out of the restaurant.
She tugged at his sleeve, but couldn't budge it.
I pulled again with all my might, but it still wouldn't budge.
What's the story behind Zhu Meng?
Jiang Shan looked at Zhu Meng's face with suspicion and was startled by his obviously abnormal expression.
Zhu Meng's face was flushed, as if various shades of red art paint had been spilled all over his face, creating a painting entirely composed of red.
Even fresh tomatoes picked straight from the field aren't as red as his face, are they?
"You..." Jiang Shan hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.
Amidst the puzzled gazes of the crowd, she grabbed Zhu Meng's wrist and forcefully dragged the now-sane Zhu Meng, who had finally come to her senses and begun to cooperate with her, out of the restaurant.
Jiang Shan looked around and led him to a relatively secluded corner.
Almost the instant she stood still, raindrops began to fall.
Jiang Shan bent down slightly, quickly pulled a dual-purpose umbrella from Zhu Meng's bag, and held it over their heads with a "whoosh": "It's really raining? It was sunny yesterday. Luckily I brought an umbrella."
Zhu Meng grunted an "Mmm," but it was unclear what he meant.
The two stood facing each other, listening quietly to the raindrops pattering against the umbrella. After about a minute, Zhu Meng suddenly said something.
"...May I... hug you?"
Jiang Shan looked up into his eyes, puzzled: "Why?"
Zhu Meng's Adam's apple bobbed: "This umbrella is a bit small."
Jiang Shan didn't quite agree.
The umbrella is a bit small, but is it really necessary for them to huddle together so tightly to avoid this drizzle?
"No, I don't think so?" She shook her head.
Zhu Meng's breathing suddenly became rapid, panting heavily, like an asthma patient having an attack.
Jiang Shan was startled, but she pinched her arm to force herself to calm down. She listened carefully but couldn't detect the wheezing sound typical of asthma in his breathing.
She stared at Zhu Meng's flushed face and calmly analyzed the situation.
"What exactly are your symptoms? It can't just be a simple fear of thunder, right? ... After all, it's only drizzling, there's no thunder at all. If you were just afraid of thunder, you wouldn't be feeling unwell now."
Zhu Meng couldn't understand why the country was still so peaceful.
They could even combine his previous vague statements to deduce a whole host of well-founded conclusions.
The string of reason in his mind was about to snap.
I want to hug her, I want to hug her, I want to hug her, I want to kiss her, I want to kiss her, I want to kiss her…
The six magical words, like bullet comments, kept scrolling through Zhu Mengli's chaotic mind.
He gripped the cold, iron umbrella handle tightly with his fingers, forcing himself to stop the restlessness emanating from within, almost in a self-destructive way.
"...skin hunger syndrome."
After struggling for ten seconds, Zhu Meng finally uttered those five words—words he hadn't wanted to hear for a long time after his diagnosis—in a fit of despair.
Jiang Shan's eyes widened slightly: "Huh?"
She had heard of this disease and even read about it in some rather unusual articles.
According to the settings, Zhu Meng should...
However, if that's the case, then Zhu Meng's previous strange behavior can indeed be explained.
She unconsciously stroked her chin with her fingers, like a perfectionist researcher meticulously recording precious experimental data on a rare species that is only seen once every few centuries.
"So... to alleviate these symptoms, is it necessary to have physical contact with people? Is it okay with animals?"
Zhu Meng's temples throbbed.
"Animals? No." He didn't know how he managed to say this lie without any expression. Maybe he had lied to Jiangshan once before, and this time, he had somehow mastered it without any instruction.
Zhu Meng stared at Jiang Shan's calm yet heartbreaking expression, his voice trembling slightly: "It doesn't have to be physical contact with any particular person, it's fine."
Jiang Shan raised an eyebrow slightly.
The way he said it sounds a lot like "Not all milk is called Mengniu."
Zhu Meng, on the other side, was trembling with suppressed anger, yet she was still calmly analyzing the situation.
"Who can I have that with? Friends?"
Zhu Meng shook her head, leaned forward slightly, and shortened the distance between the two of them.
His eyes, which hadn't slept well for two nights in a row, were covered with large, unevenly distributed red blood vessels.
"...Only you."
The park was teeming with visitors. Although there were many couples, Jiang Shan and Zhu Meng were the only ones in this area standing face to face, holding umbrellas and not moving.
A little boy of five or six years old stopped and stood facing Zhu Meng, staring straight at them.
Zhu Meng frowned.
His hand, which had been loosely circling the waist of the mountain, moved to the ground without warning.
Zhu Meng covered the back of Jiang Shan's head with his broad palm, his thin lips pressed into a straight line, and forcefully shoved her face into his massive pectoral muscles.
The action is no different from that of a kangaroo parent quickly hiding their child in their pouch when they encounter danger.
Jiang Shan was forced to use face wash, completely bewildered.
Although the feel is quite nice, why is that?
Her voice squeezed out from the gap in his chest, muffled.
"What happened?"
The two were very close, Jiang Shan's lips almost touching Zhu Meng's silk shirt. As he uttered each word, his lips opened and closed, causing a slight tremor.
It's like throwing four pebbles into a calm lake, hoping the lake will eventually crumble and ripple.
Zhu Meng's voice was a little hoarse.
"...Sorry, someone is watching."
His wet, puppy-dog eyes drooped down, revealing the sharpness unique to phoenix eyes.
The little boy burst into tears, a heart-wrenching cry.
The boy's male parent quickly arrived after hearing the news. He was about to scold Zhu Meng, but Zhu Meng's glare made him shudder. He shrank back and started scolding his own son, whom he considered a pushover.
"Oh dear, I told you not to join in the fun, but you insisted on coming anyway. Now look what happened! Your brother is angry!" The parent pressed down on the little boy's shoulder, smiling apologetically at Zhu Meng, "Our little brother didn't mean it, I'm sorry," while displaying his proud parental authority, "Quickly, apologize to your brother."
The little boy refused to speak and struggled to run away. The male parent said "I'm sorry" twice and called out "Wait a minute, baby," before quickly chasing after him.
After this farce, passersby only dared to cast questioning glances at Jiang Shan and Zhu Meng, and dared not linger any longer.
Jiang Shan noticed that things had quieted down a bit, guessing that the people who had gathered around should have left. He patted Zhu Meng's arm, which was taut from exerting too much force.
"Can you loosen the space a little? It's so stuffy."
Zhu Meng heard this, but did not want to do as instructed.
He shamelessly remained in the same position until Jiang Shan impatiently urged him twice more before slowly letting go.
"……Um."
The first thing Jiangshan did after regaining his freedom was to reach his hand out of the umbrella and probe the environment, where it was no longer possible to tell with the naked eye whether it was raining or not.
“The rain has stopped,” she quickly concluded.
Zhu Meng's heart, still full of warmth, suddenly felt as if it had been gripped by an invisible hand, releasing the sour scent of fresh lemons.
The rain has indeed stopped.
But... he hadn't hugged her enough yet.
Jiang Shan wasn't a mind reader like Zhu Meng, so he didn't know what Zhu Meng was thinking. He ruthlessly pulled his hand away from Zhu Meng's shoulder blade.
Zhu Meng felt a deep emptiness in her heart.
Anxiety, like a seed saturated with water and nutrients, grew wildly in his aching heart, causing him chest pain.
He bent down slightly, looking Jiang Shan in the eye.
"Can I... hug you a little longer?"
"Why?" Jiang Shan took out his phone from his pocket and checked the time. "Wasn't it supposed to take half an hour before?"
Zhu Meng pursed her lips, as if she was stumped by the question, or perhaps she knew the answer but was too shy to say it.
He gently bit his lip with his canine teeth, quickly wiped away the physiological tears from the corners of his eyes with the hand that wasn't holding the umbrella, and stammered out an obvious lie.
"It's...drizzling a little."
Jiang Shan could hear the unspoken meaning in Zhu Meng's words.
But she raised an eyebrow, feigning ignorance.
"so what?"
Zhu Meng's eyes had a faint red tinge at the corners, like strawberries still in their growth stage, needing watering and care.
But he just bit his lip and remained silent.
Jiang Shan sighed softly to himself.
Sigh, he's so stubborn.
She brushed her thumb against Zhu Meng's cheek, which was still slightly flushed from emotion, and tilted her chin up slightly. It was a very light movement, but it carried the sharpness of a sword being drawn from its sheath.
"Beg me."
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