Did the Tsundere Miss Get Slapped in the Face Again Today? - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: “I Seem to Like Her Too.”

 

Her brain had been offline for an unknown amount of time, as if only a few seconds or maybe a few minutes had passed. When she finally came back to her senses, Lin Anran had already left.

 

The door was closed long ago, and the living room returned to quietness.

 

In the dark living room, the person lying on the sofa slowly opened her eyes.

 

She propped herself up on the sofa, slowly sitting up, and subconsciously touched the corner of her mouth that had just been kissed twice, her gaze instinctively looking towards the direction of the door.

 

She maintained the posture of touching her mouth and looking at the door for a very long time.

 

Why did she kiss me?

 

Jiang Zhi even suspected if she was dreaming, if she had been hallucinating.

 

But clearly, she wasn’t. She was wide awake, she hadn’t fallen asleep at all. Everything was real. Lin Anran did indeed kiss her, and it was twice, at the corner of her mouth.

 

Jiang Zhi had always defined Lin Anran’s excessive possessiveness as: she hadn’t made friends before, didn’t know how to get along with friends, and couldn’t grasp the necessary boundaries between friends.

 

But looking back now, was that really the case? Would someone really be completely unable to distinguish the boundaries between friendship and love?

 

Getting angry whenever she saw her getting close to someone else, sulking and disappearing for a month over a misunderstanding about wearing matching wristbands, being clingy every day, unable to be apart for a moment…

 

Lin Anran was childish, had a child’s personality, but she wasn’t an idiot.

 

Looking at it this way, the idiot… was herself?

 

After all this, the question still came back to the beginning: Why did she kiss her?

 

In fact, the answer had long been placed right in front of her.

 

But this answer gave Jiang Zhi a feeling of… dread.

 

More dominant than joy or a racing heart, the emotion that took over was actually dread, fear.

 

She stayed up all night, eyes open until dawn.

 

The alarm rang, and she was surprised to realize how quickly time had passed, and it was already morning in the blink of an eye.

 

There wasn’t much difference from usual. The alarm rang, she got up, and the first thing she did was go to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, then went to the kitchen to make breakfast.

 

Living together for a long time, Jiang Zhi also slowly figured out Lin Anran’s favorite tastes. She liked her fried egg sunny-side-up, still runny in the center. She didn’t like soy milk but preferred milk, and she didn’t like youtiao (fried dough sticks) but liked toast.

 

Lin Anran’s breakfast tastes were the complete opposite of Jiang Zhi’s.

 

Jiang Zhi liked her fried egg fully cooked. She was lactose intolerant and couldn’t drink milk. Compared to toast, she preferred youtiao.

 

Completely opposite tastes.

 

And what was opposite was more than just their food tastes—hobbies, interests, everything was different.

 

How could two people so different get together?

 

She was so lost in thought that a scorched smell came from the pan. The egg was half burned.

 

Jiang Zhi sighed, but couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. She removed the burnt part and put the rest on her own plate, then fried a new one for Lin Anran.

 

After the two eggs were cooked, Jiang Zhi stared at the one perfect egg and the one burnt egg, lost in thought.

 

Lin Anran deserved the best, just like the egg in the bowl. Even if it was slightly burned, it would never be given to her, but Jiang Zhi could eat this half-burnt egg.

 

A person like Jiang Zhi…

 

What kind of person was she? A person who couldn’t bear to throw away even a slightly burnt egg—how stingy, how petty.

 

Jiang Zhi lowered her eyes. Two people like this, they were incompatible in every way.

 

Just as she brought breakfast to the table, she heard the sound of the bedroom door opening.

 

Lin Anran came out of the room.

 

She hadn’t paid attention before, but today she suddenly noticed: Lin Anran seemed to be neat, clean, and beautiful every time she came out of her room in the morning. She seemed to have even put on lipstick and light makeup.

 

Many details had hinted at this, but Jiang Zhi had just never noticed. It was like Lin Anran’s winks had been wasted on a blind person who didn’t understand romance.

 

The “blind” Jiang Zhi finally opened her eyes today. She saw these things—her styled hair, her applied lipstick, her carefully prepared makeup.

 

“You’re up,” Jiang Zhi gathered her thoughts and managed a smile. “Go wash up quickly. Breakfast is ready. You can come and eat after washing up.”

 

Lin Anran said, “Oh.” As she passed by Jiang Zhi, she subtly, yet deliberately, flipped her hair.

 

Her passing brought a waft of peach-scented shower gel.

 

Perhaps it shouldn’t be called the scent of shower gel. Jiang Zhi belatedly realized that this seemed to be a perfume she deliberately sprayed.

 

Because it was similar to the shower gel scent, Jiang Zhi had overlooked it time and time again.

 

Jiang Zhi felt a bit strange. How early did she have to get up to do all this?

 

Styling her hair, doing her makeup, and spraying perfume—that must take at least half an hour, maybe more.

 

Jiang Zhi didn’t like makeup and often went to work barefaced. Plus, she wasn’t interested in makeup and hadn’t researched it, so she didn’t know how long it would take Lin Anran to apply such a look, but it wouldn’t be less than half an hour.

 

The spoiled princess had enough energy. She shopped all day, accompanied her to the convenience store part-time job at night, and could still wake up so early to do her makeup…

 

Jiang Zhi smiled and shook her head. She must have been truly blind to have not noticed her makeup, completely wasting her effort.

 

However, Lin Anran didn’t actually need to deliberately put on makeup. She was beautiful with or without it, so beautiful that Jiang Zhi would occasionally sigh that she didn’t seem like someone from this dimension.

 

Too beautiful, too exquisitely outstanding, sometimes giving a sense of unreality.

 

After a quick wash, Lin Anran came to the dining table and sat across from Jiang Zhi.

 

She elegantly picked up the glass, took a sip of milk, and frowned. “I like to drink it cold. Why did you warm it up again?”

 

Jiang Zhi lowered her head, eating the burnt egg. “It’s cold out. Eating something cold isn’t good.”

 

Lin Anran glared at her with dissatisfaction. “Annoying.”

 

Although she said that, she still obediently finished the milk. She was a pretty good girl.

 

Jiang Zhi was relatively quiet today. When Lin Anran spoke, she mostly responded with an “Mmm” or “Oh.”

 

Soon, Lin Anran noticed something was off. “What’s wrong with you today?”

 

Jiang Zhi took a tasteless bite of youtiao. “Huh? What is it?”

 

Lin Anran: “You look a bit off today.”

 

Jiang Zhi smiled. “What’s wrong? You must be mistaken.”

 

Lin Anran narrowed her eyes slightly. While tearing apart the toast in her hand, she observed the person sitting across from her.

 

She observed for a long time but couldn’t figure out the reason, but she did see that Jiang Zhi seemed unhappy.

 

Lin Anran dropped the toast back onto the plate, grabbed a napkin to wipe her hands, and picked up her phone on the side, skillfully tapping and operating it.

 

Immediately, the phone on Jiang Zhi’s table ding-donged.

 

Lin Anran nodded, signaling her to check her phone.

 

Jiang Zhi was confused. “We’re sitting face to face. Why can’t you just talk? You have to send a message…”

 

The rest of her words got stuck in her throat.

 

“Why are you transferring money to me out of the blue?”

 

“Aren’t you unhappy?”

 

Jiang Zhi’s expression froze. “Am I unhappy? Even if I am unhappy, you have to transfer money to me?”

 

Lin Anran pouted. “You pauper are happy when you see money. This is the fastest way to cheer you up, isn’t it?”

 

Jiang Zhi stared at her, falling into a brief silence.

 

“What are you doing? Getting sentimental all of a sudden? Drop the sentimentality. Keep the money without worry, just be less stingy with me normally.” Lin Anran snorted, put down her phone, and continued eating breakfast.

 

Jiang Zhi looked at the transferred money and muttered to herself, “That’s right, I’m petty and greedy for money. Why would you…”

 

Why would she like a person like that?

 

Someone with no good qualities, who was petty and stingy, materialistic and common. What was there to like about such a person?

 

Seeing her stop mid-sentence, Lin Anran frowned. “What? Are you playing a guessing game with me by stopping mid-sentence?”

 

Jiang Zhi bit her lip, looked at her, and seriously analyzed for her:

 

“See, you liked a helmet that cost over two thousand yuan before, but I was so petty that I insisted on only buying you one that cost ninety yuan, and the quality was very mediocre.”

 

“Also, you wanted to buy a stuffed bear before. I wasn’t very willing to buy it for you, and after buying it, I even wanted to return it. Just a few days ago, you wanted to order takeout, and I thought it was too expensive and didn’t let you…”

 

Lin Anran’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter, finally interrupting impatiently, “Why are you saying all this?”

 

Jiang Zhi suddenly fell silent.

 

That’s right, why am I saying all this? Jiang Zhi didn’t know what she was trying to do by saying these things.

 

Was she trying to prove to her that she was terrible? Prove that she wasn’t worthy of being liked?

 

Jiang Zhi also didn’t understand what she wanted to express, but she wanted to say something. In the end, it turned into a bunch of inexplicable and chaotic words.

 

“Aren’t you afraid that I’m only befriending you purely for your money?”

 

“So what? I have money anyway.”

 

Jiang Zhi was speechless. After a long pause, she half-jokingly said, “You sound like a gullible rich fool.”

 

Lin Anran immediately became unhappy. “Who’s a gullible rich fool? Are you sick? Do you want to be cursed at first thing in the morning? Shut up…”

 

Jia-jia-zha-zha, the daily routine of cursing began.

 

Jiang Zhi rested her head on one hand, quietly listening.

 

Lin Anran cursed until her throat was dry, picked up the milk, and took a sip. Because the milk was warm and not to her liking, she started a new round of cursing.

 

Jiang Zhi still listened quietly. As for what she was cursing about, Jiang Zhi didn’t register it.

 

Looking at Lin Anran’s constantly moving pink lips, Jiang Zhi recalled last night, the sensation on the corner of her lips.

 

The corner of her mouth suddenly felt itchy.

 

She raised her hand and pressed the corner of her mouth, trying to stop the itch.

 

It was the corner of her mouth that was itching, but even more so, it was her heart.

 

She dreaded Lin Anran’s affection, but at the same time, her heart pounded for her affection.

 

Reason was telling her: No, the difference between them is too far, too far.

 

But her beating heart said: Yes, no matter how far the distance, she’s right in front of you, isn’t she?

 

Lin Anran waved her hand in front of her. “What are you spacing out for? I’m talking to you. Are you listening?”

 

Jiang Zhi came back to her senses.

 

Lin Anran had somehow moved from sitting across the table to standing next to her.

 

She bent down, leaning closer.

 

Jiang Zhi’s breathing hitched slightly.

 

Lin Anran poked her cheek. “Hey, you’ve got a pimple there! Haha, you’re ugly, Jiang Yi, you’re disfigured! Hahahaha, Pimple-Face Jiang Yi is ugly.”

 

She mocked her unrestrainedly.

 

But listening to her mocking laughter, Jiang Zhi’s heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably.

 

The heartbeat gave the answer, a very obvious answer.