Did the Tsundere Miss Get Slapped in the Face Again Today? - Chapter 89

Chapter 89: “A New Person Appears.”

In the corner of the yard, a person sat in a crouch, focusing intently on drawing on the earthen wall with a piece of charcoal.

She was deeply absorbed, occasionally rubbing her nose or resting her chin on her hand in deep thought. After a full half-hour of work, the final product on the wall was… concerning.

“What are you doing crouching in the corner?” Lin Anran stepped out from the inner room.

She was wearing pink pajamas, her hair sticking up in a small messy tuft. She yawned, looking like she hadn’t quite woken up yet.

“You’re awake,” Jiang Zhi stood up.

Anran’s yawn cut short as she looked at the black soot smeared on the tip of Jiang Zhi’s nose. She burst out laughing.

“What do you look like? Why did you rub so much ash on your face? You’re so ugly,” Anran teased.

“Ah? Is there ash on my face?” Jiang Zhi haphazardly rubbed her face with her hands, but since her hands were also covered in soot, her face only got darker. She now looked like she had been working in a coal mine.

Anran looked at her with feigned disgust. “Maybe look at your hands first?”

Anran stopped paying attention to her and looked past her at the earthen wall.

“Are you drawing? What is this?” She walked closer to inspect. On the wall were two figures—to be precise, two crooked, rather terrifying-looking stick figures. “It’s quite abstract. If someone walked past here at midnight and saw this, they’d get a heart attack.”

Jiang Zhi’s eye twitched. “It’s you and me.”

Anran went silent for a moment. She took another careful look, and her silence grew even louder.

“Jiang Yi, you truly have zero artistic talent. Forget it. Just forget it. I almost thought you were drawing female ghosts.” Anran shot her down without mercy.

“Is it really that exaggerated? Fine, I’ll wipe it off.” Jiang Zhi turned toward the kitchen to find a rag.

When she returned, she found Lin Anran crouching in the corner, holding her phone up to the wall. She was taking photos from every possible angle.

“Didn’t you say they looked like ghosts? That they were terrifying? Why are you taking pictures?” Jiang Zhi came up behind her.

Anran ignored her. After snapping a few more, she stood up and walked to the side, looking down at her phone to fiddle with something.

Jiang Zhi didn’t bother asking what she was doing. She crouched down with the wet rag, ready to erase the drawing. Just as she moved, she felt a light kick against her back.

“What are you doing?”

“Erasing the drawing.”

“Who gave you permission to erase it? You’re not allowed. It’s you and me; how can you just wipe it away? Even if it’s ugly, you have to keep it for me.” Anran lifted her foot again, preparing to give her another nudge.

Jiang Zhi precisely caught her ankle. “Why do you like kicking people so much?”

Last night in bed, she had been kicked many times. Sometimes, when she couldn’t dodge in time, a kick really stung…

The scene was a bit odd: one person standing, leg raised in a kicking motion, the other crouching below, holding the captured foot. Their gazes met in a top-down exchange. The atmosphere grew strangely thick.

Thinking of something, Anran’s face flushed red, and she hurriedly pulled her foot back.

“Pervert,” Anran cursed.

“You’re the one kicking, but I’m not allowed to stop you?” Jiang Zhi looked at her with amusement.

Anran’s voice dropped. “I wasn’t talking about that… You kissed my feet last night. Pervert.”

Jiang Zhi stood up and pulled her close, wrapping her arms around Anran’s waist. “Was it just a foot kiss? I seem to recall there was more. My memory isn’t great—why don’t you help me remember?”

Anran’s face turned bright red. She glared at her, her voice as quiet as a mosquito: “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

The person claiming not to remember was, however, uncontrollably replaying the scene in her mind.

In the dark of the night, Jiang Zhi had leaned into her ear. Her voice had been tender, but the words she spoke were incredibly bold. She had said: “You mentioned that in the dead of night, when you miss me, you do that by yourself. I’ve always been curious about exactly how you do it. I’m not sure… can you show me?”

With a bit of coaxing and trickery, Anran had performed a demonstration. Her face had been completely flushed, and she had wanted to give up several times, but under Jiang Zhi’s focused gaze, she found herself unable to stop.

“You really don’t remember?” Jiang Zhi whispered against her ear. “Since you don’t remember, shall we recreate the memory tonight? Just so you don’t forget.”

Anran buried her face in Jiang Zhi’s neck and muttered, “I don’t want to. I’m never doing that again.”

Jiang Zhi kissed the tip of her nose. “You were beautiful like that. I liked it very much.”

Anran bit her lip, her face so red she looked feverish. Overcome with shame and indignation, she bit Jiang Zhi—though she didn’t have the heart to do it hard; it didn’t hurt.

Jiang Zhi took off her glasses and leaned down to kiss her.

Anran turned her head away. “I just woke up. I haven’t brushed my teeth.”

“It’s fine.” Jiang Zhi gently turned her head back, her eyes burning with intensity.

As she moved closer, instead of a kiss, she got a firm headbutt to the forehead.

“I mind!” Anran said after the collision. “Your face is covered in charcoal. I’m not kissing an ugly monster.”

With that, Anran nimbly broke free. “By the way, I just posted to my Moments. Go like it right now.”

Moments?

Confused, Jiang Zhi took out her phone. Upon refreshing, she saw the latest update from “Little Kitten.”

“My wife and me (Image) (Image)”

She clicked the images. It was the “two ghosts” Jiang Zhi had drawn with charcoal. Jiang Zhi let out a soft laugh. Anran had just been insulting the drawing, calling it hideous, yet she immediately ran to her social circle to show it off, completely unbothered by how embarrassing it was.

Jiang Zhi happily gave it a “Like.”

“I put a new toothbrush out for you. Did you see it?” Jiang Zhi called out toward the bathroom.

“I saw it,” a voice called back. “But I don’t like it. It’s not pink.”

Jiang Zhi leaned her back against the bathroom door. “I didn’t expect you to come, so I didn’t prepare that much. Just make do for now.”

Anran: “Then remember to prepare it next time.”

Jiang Zhi: “Fine. Next time I’ll have everything ready.”

The bathroom door suddenly swung open. Jiang Zhi, who was leaning on it, stumbled and nearly fell.

Anran narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “What are you doing? Peeping through the door?”

Jiang Zhi choked. “What? I was just leaning my back against the door! What are you thinking? Besides, do I need to peep? If I want to see, I’ll just walk in.”

Anran scoffed. “I wouldn’t let a charcoal-faced monster like you look anyway.”

“How much ash is actually on my face for you to be this disgusted?” Jiang Zhi went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. “Oh…”

A black spot on her nose, several streaks across her cheeks and forehead—essentially, her whole face was smudged like a little calico cat. No wonder Anran was so repulsed. She grabbed a towel and wiped away the soot.

Once clean, she came out and grinned at Anran. “Clean now. Not ugly anymore, right?”

Anran looked at the woman preening in front of her. She looked clean and fresh, and her smile carried a purity that made the heart skip a beat.

“Still ugly. A total monster,” Anran replied, her words betraying her heart.

Jiang Zhi didn’t mind. She gave her a light peck on the lips. “Ugliness is contagious. You’re finished, Little Kitten. I kissed you, so you’ve caught my ‘ugly.’ You’re going to turn into a monster too.”

Anran was silent for a moment, then rolled her eyes. She poked Jiang Zhi’s shoulder. “Are you a child? So childish.”

Jiang Zhi: “Childish? I learned it from you. You love saying things like that. I think my imitation was pretty spot on.”

“What? I’m not nearly as childish as you.”

“You’re the most childish of all, Little Childish Lin.”

“I’ve told you many times, don’t give me messy nicknames.”

“Understood. I won’t. I’ll listen to Little Childish Lin.”

“Tch! You’re so annoying!”

In the small country courtyard, the two teased and laughed. As the sun rose and set, they bickered, hugged, and kissed. And when night fell, they shared moments that were meant for no one else’s ears.

They lay side-by-side on the grass by the river, gazing at the brilliant sunlight and feeling the gentle breeze. Their hearts were filled with profound peace.

“Did you come to this river often when you were a kid?” Anran asked, turning her head.

“Yeah, all the time.” Jiang Zhi turned to look at her as well.

They lay there, looking at each other, accompanied by the birdsong in the trees and the frogs in the river. Time seemed to slow down.

“But every time I came to play in the water, my grandma would scold me. Once, I even got a spanking.”

“So you were a naughty kid,” Anran laughed. “A kid playing by the river definitely deserves a spanking. Good for her. It’s dangerous; she should have paddled you until your bottom was flowery.”

“Your wife got hit, and here you are gloating.”

Jiang Zhi leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I feel so happy these past few days. Truly happy. I don’t know how to describe the feeling… it’s like I’m floating. Will you always be by my side like this?”

When one is excessively happy, a groundless fear often arises—a fear that this beautiful life might be shattered.

Anran’s gaze was steady. “Of course I’ll always be by your side. Jiang Yi, I’ve realized you have a very serious problem.”

“Hm? what problem?”

“You don’t seem to believe in love very much.”

Jiang Zhi’s expression faltered. “Do I? I don’t think so…” She tried to deny it, but halfway through, she gave up. “Fine. I admit I have a little bit of that.”

Anran: “Do you always feel like… over time, I’ll stop loving you? That I’ll get bored, and our relationship will just fade away?”

Jiang Zhi: “That was my thought before. But now, it seems to have changed a little.”

Because she had never seen anyone wait for someone for two years, but she had seen it in Lin Anran. It made her—someone who didn’t really believe in love—believe just a little. She believed that love wasn’t fleeting; that it could last; that they could grow old together.

“You don’t trust me, and you don’t trust yourself. Am I right? You think feelings inevitably fade with time, that 99.9% of romances end that way,” Anran pressed her forehead against Jiang Zhi’s. “But I can tell you very seriously: No. I never will.”

She made her solemn promise on a bright, sunny day, amidst the summer breeze.

Lin Anran stayed in the village for a week. Eventually, she had to return because of urgent company business. Meanwhile, Jiang Zhi couldn’t stay in Mucheng for long; she needed to continue filming her videos in the countryside.

Because of their respective jobs, they were forced into a long-distance relationship. This distance lasted for half a year, stretching from summer into winter.

During those six months, Jiang Zhi traveled back and forth between Mucheng and the village. She saved every single train ticket, forming a thick stack. Although they spent more time apart than together, their relationship remained rock solid.

However, recently, a small “accident” occurred.

Lin Anran had made a new friend.

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