Crossing the Clouds and Sky to Fall in Love with You - Chapter 20

With her there, the usually familiar dining table felt very different.

My parents complimented her beauty, making her a bit embarrassed; Xiaopei and Xiaowen were curious about her age and height, and that camera she carried everywhere. I only realized she had brought gifts when I got home for dinner! Plus, the crystal necklace she gave me… Oh my god! How could she be so “polite with gifts”!

She had only brought one large backpack down south after returning home for a trip; it was different from the one she usually carried, probably a clean replacement because she thought the other was dirty.

“It’s my turn to sleep in your room,” she raised an eyebrow, looked around, and whistled.

“Ha! Satisfied?”

She raised an eyebrow. “It’s just a girl’s room.”

I turned back to glare at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I was met with her continuous laughter.

My room is a yafang (room without an attached bathroom), so I have to go outside to shower; when she came back, she kept rubbing the top of her head, and I realized she was too tall! She had accidentally bumped her head entering the bathroom!

“Oops! Sorry, Gulliver the Giant, our house is Lilliput!” I winked teasingly, and she responded with a wry smile.

With her company, I couldn’t bear to spend time on the computer or phone. I clung to her, asking about the scenery in Sri Lanka. She only said this trip was mainly to photograph animals and the local rainforest environment, and then she shared the photos from this journey with me.

“Although I didn’t buy it back, they have a specialty product related to elephants there!”

“Ivory?”

She glared at me. “No! You have no imagination… Guess again?”

What specialty product? No hints at all… “What is it related to?”

Her mouth curved into a smile, and she mysteriously showed me a picture. “It’s related to elephant excrement.”

The object in the picture looked like it had unique textures, exquisite and beautiful, almost like a piece of art. “I don’t know, what is it?”

“Elephant dung paper. Have you heard of it?”

Huh! This thing is actually made from an elephant’s… poop! I shook my head vigorously. Not only had I never heard of it, but I couldn’t even imagine it!

She explained the method of making elephant dung paper in detail; we looked at pictures and chatted until it was our usual bedtime back in the north.

It’s truly never boring when she’s around.

We lay down together, each covered by a thick blanket. I reached out an arm toward her, and sensing the movement, she immediately reached out and held my hand.

So warm! Her hand was so big it could completely envelop mine.

“Don’t tell me you have to hold hands like this to fall asleep when you sleep with your classmates or your sister!” She lifted our clasped hands and swung them back and forth.

“Only with you.”

She gave me a side-eye, saying with a mix of amusement and frustration: ” Xiaoning! Don’t you think you’re a little too clingy with me?”

Unlike her, who always closes the room until it’s pitch black before she falls asleep, my room often has a small nightlight on. Her delicate, well-defined features looked hazy under the nightlight. I knew she was smiling, and her eyes were too.

I paused, then deliberately replied, “Is it not allowed? Just now, someone told me to depend on her as much as I want, didn’t they?”

“You misunderstood! Of course you can depend on me, but…” Her expression suddenly revealed a hint of distress. “I meant the physical contact part.”

“Hmm?” I widened my eyes and nodded.

Her response was a sigh. “Have you forgotten? I like women.”

My calm heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

“And you like boys, right? Have you never considered dating a girl?”

It felt like there was something stuck in my throat, and I couldn’t find my voice for a moment. “S-so… are you implying that I shouldn’t interact with you like this?”

She leaned slightly closer to me and whispered, “I just want you to know that getting too close can easily lead to misunderstandings.”

“But I do this with my sister too…” I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “I even slept while hugging my sister yesterday! Like this!” I don’t know where the courage came from, but I suddenly had the urge to tease her. I shook off her hand and directly pounced onto her! “Ah! Hugging is super warm! Xiaopei was totally used as a heater by me…”

I giggled. Hugging Sister Tao didn’t feel awkward or shy at all, after all, I’ve hugged her so many times! And she had also changed into her pajamas with her back to me. It’s nothing!

Sister Tao was pressed beneath me. We were hugging through the blanket. She widened her eyes, but her smile seemed unnatural; I even felt her body was stiff and rigid?

“Sister Tao?”

She gazed at me for a while, then gently closed her eyes. I heard a sound like a deep sigh or gasp.

“You, you…” I hooked my arms around her neck. Even her sigh sounded incredibly pleasant. “Do you even understand precaution? To me, you acting like this is like you’re teasing me.”

She slowly opened her eyes. The distance between us was close enough to lick each other’s lips; I knew Sister Tao’s eyes were beautiful, but I hadn’t expected her gaze to be so intense, enough to swallow and capture another person’s heart… It was a beauty that made one hold their breath.

“You can play; but, Xiaoning, you have to be sure you can handle it.” She reached out and cupped my face. “Don’t look at me with that kind of gaze again… It makes me want to kiss you.”

“I’m sorry…” I covered my mouth, and she regained her smile, shaking her head; I carefully returned to my side of the bed and lay down, while Sister Tao pulled her blanket higher. She turned her back to me.

“Go to sleep. If there’s nothing else, don’t touch me easily.”

“Oh…”

I originally had so much more to say, but my little test ruined the pleasant atmosphere between us; even normal conversation and casual physical interaction became restrained.

It also instantly wiped away the joy of receiving the gift.

What an idiot I am.

The next day, we caught the long-distance bus north together early. Although we still talked, physical contact was noticeably much less.

Even a simple act of holding hands was avoided by her.

‘Don’t touch me easily.’

Now that our distance had become so close, suddenly dropping that sentence built an invisible wall between us again.

I once heard a saying, roughly: “The distance between bodies largely represents the distance between two hearts.”

I couldn’t help but recall our interaction when we were wandering near home before dinner; at the time, I didn’t think much of it, but thinking back now, I cried resting on her back, she held me, and we had a very intimate hug by the riverbank… Our lips were only a few centimeters apart.

It was a distance were leaning forward slightly could kiss each other; a distance were sticking out one’s tongue could lick the corner of the other’s mouth… a distance where we could smell each other’s breath and feel the heat of each other’s breathing.

It was the special distance exclusive to couples.

I just remembered how much I cared about my place in Sister Tao’s heart before; was I really being possessive? That almost jealous feeling.

‘And you like boys, right? Have you never considered dating a girl?’

Dating a girl… Sister Tao?

No! That’s, that’s too absurd! Leaving everything else aside, Sister Tao is a woman, and she’s also Tao Yian’s older sister… date the older sister of a guy who is currently pursuing me?

That’s too strange, isn’t it? To me…

Any feeling approaching love that I have for Sister Tao must be because we’ve been spending so much time together recently.

So, maybe this distance is a good thing? Maybe it is… it can let me calm down and re-evaluate my relationship with Sister Tao.

We got off the bus, took a taxi home together, and went upstairs. Standing at the doorways of our respective rooms on the third floor, we looked at each other.

“I’ll unpack first. You can come over anytime afterward.”

“Mmm…”

She swung her keys, opened her door, and slipped into her own space; only after her door was completely closed did, I slowly take out my key and unlock mine.

Should I go over? If Sister Tao insists on keeping her distance from me, shouldn’t I stop lingering in her room?

If we’re just going to interact with this distance while in the same space, wouldn’t it be more awkward to be together?

I put down my bag, casually flicked the power switch, and then sat on my computer chair, holding my head.

No, when I’m quiet, I start thinking about the past again… and when I was in the room with Lü Hanjun… we only did things that couples do.

I aimlessly browsed the internet to drive away the chaotic thoughts.

Unconsciously, I opened a social media page; on the homepage’s latest updates, a video update from Lü Hanjun popped up, along with a message from Renmianyu (Face-man Fish). I decisively unfollowed him. As for Renmianyu… after some thought, I decided to keep it for now.

I hadn’t checked my phone messages for over a week, so a pile had accumulated. It was a good time to delete them one by one.

After deleting them, I returned to the computer and refreshed the homepage updates—

A new update from Chu popped up.

She rarely let her hand appear in the picture, but as expected, her hand was large, so no matter how you looked at it, you wouldn’t realize it was a woman’s hand.

A purple gemstone was resting in her palm.

‘The most well-known specialty product in Sri Lanka besides tea—gemstones; Amethyst, besides having the effect of calming emotions and aiding sleep, is also used as a token of love between couples.

Do you have someone you like but can’t confess to?’*

Token of love between couples… Amethyst.

The stone in the picture is the one on my neck!

This update was posted two days ago… which means it was when she was about to return to Taiwan.

‘It makes me want to kiss you.’ I subconsciously covered my lips.

She was serious.

She likes… me?

I kicked my desk, sliding away from the screen to calm down.

Sister Tao has… developed feelings similar to a couples for me? When did it start? And did I inadvertently reveal such signals? Was I teasing her?

A torrent of chaotic thoughts violently flooded me. I grasped the amethyst around my neck, feeling its weight grow heavier.

She must not have known I would see this update, so she posted it without any reservations, but it allowed me to inadvertently learn her true feelings.

So, it’s not that she didn’t care about me; she never didn’t care. Instead, she cared… far beyond what I could have imagined.

Because she cared so much, she knew I was sad about her journey, so she rushed back to Taiwan and immediately came south to find me… just to give me this gem sooner.

And yesterday, after I said I missed her company, she couldn’t help but say something… something I hadn’t dared to be certain of.

‘I miss you too.’

She likes me.

Xiaoning, what about you?

Do you like her?