Hedgehog's Belly - Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Ye Nanqiao paused for a moment, her gaze falling on her clothes that had been soaked by Yan Yu’s water gun, and she couldn’t help but smile faintly.

“Please tell my brother for me,” Ye Nanqiao’s voice became serious, answering without hesitation: “I don’t regret it, because they are the best friends I’ve had in this life.”

Inside the car, Luo Daier had been waiting for a long time. She stood up to look out the window to check on the situation, and then the car door opened automatically. She found herself face-to-face with Ye Nanqiao, who was about to get in.

“I’m back, Daier-jie.”

Ye Nanqiao smiled like an innocent fool again and sat down beside her. She had already sprayed herself with a specially blended perfume to mask the smell of smoke, so as not to let the person in front of her find out.

However, Luo Daier—a medical student born into a family of doctors—had already sensed it. She didn’t point it out directly; instead, she frowned and whispered softly beside Ye Nanqiao: “Nanqiao, do you smell tobacco?”

“Tobacco? Oh, it must have been Uncle Zhang smoking next to me just now,” Ye Nanqiao played her part well, hugging Luo Daier’s arm aggrievedly and complaining in a low voice: “I told him to go smoke somewhere far away, but he never listens.”

“Second-hand smoke isn’t good either; pay attention to that in the future,” Luo Daier narrowed her eyes and flicked Ye Nanqiao’s nose with her knuckle, whispering an admonition in her ear.

Inwardly, she only hoped things weren’t as she imagined.

Ye Nanqiao nodded obediently, then asked nonchalantly: “Does Daier-jie dislike the smell of smoke?”

“Mm,” Luo Daier answered simply.

“Then when I become the head of the family, I’ll have the entire Ye household ban smoking,” Ye Nanqiao said with a smile, showing no pressure at all.

Luo Daier’s gaze was sorrowful, yet she nodded while suppressing her emotions. Ye Nanqiao leaned against Luo Daier’s shoulder; perhaps because she had such a great time playing with water guns with Yan Yu, she felt a bit sleepy now.

In a daze, she watched the night scenery outside the car window, the halos of the streetlights flickering hazily. Ye Nanqiao’s tone was coquettish yet slurred, carrying a slight sob, but Luo Daier heard her clearly: “There weren’t many stars today.”

Luo Daier answered gently: “It’s cloudy tonight.”

At least for tonight, they both hoped the darkness would last a little longer.

Upon returning home, the first thing Yan Qingzhu did was make Yan Yu wash her soaked clothes. Yan Qingzhu took brown sugar from the cupboard and simmered it with ginger slices. Her skillful movements made Luo Mu remark: “Truly a good sister.”

“What are you saying? This kid was always getting sick when she was little. After that, I’d always make this for her. If anything went wrong, Mother would never let me hear the end of it,” Yan Qingzhu joked, realizing she had never talked to Luo Mu about her family.

And Yan Qingzhu wasn’t sure what Luo Mu’s family was like, either.

“Do you want some?” Yan Qingzhu asked in passing.

“No,” Luo Mu sat by the kitchen island, her gaze warm and rippling. Supporting her chin with one hand, she calmly watched Yan Qingzhu’s every move. As the other skillfully boiled the ginger sugar water, Luo Mu felt that this person before her deserved her eternal favor.

From beginning to end, she made her heart dwell on her repeatedly, without end.

“I want to drink.” Inadvertently, the words slipped out of Luo Mu’s mouth.

Yan Qingzhu paused: “Really?”

“Really,” Luo Mu smiled faintly. “I understand why you didn’t let me drink at the beach. But now that we’re home, it wouldn’t make sense if I couldn’t drink. I’m not going to go rushing outside to act like a crazy drunk.”

Yan Qingzhu pondered for a moment. Once the ginger sugar water was finished, she took a bottle of fruit wine from the freezer; the alcohol content wasn’t high. She brought Luo Mu to sit in the bright living room.

“What, wanting to drink until you’re dead to the world?” Yan Qingzhu teased her.

“I just want to feel that tipsy sensation you guys talk about.” Luo Mu didn’t snap back; she skillfully pulled the tab, and after finishing one bottle, she felt nothing.

The sweet fruit fragrance masked the presence of alcohol, but the proof was too low; the taste was similar to a regular fruit-flavored beverage.

Yan Qingzhu stayed right by her side. In an instant, perhaps an unspeakable emotion surged—indescribable and untraceable.

“What are you thinking? Just this? Or beer?” Yan Qingzhu joked, using a tissue to wipe a wine stain from the corner of Luo Mu’s mouth.

Luo Mu didn’t hesitate: “Red.”

Yan Qingzhu was actually amused. She stood up, took a bottle of red wine from the glass cabinet, and brought out two tall wine glasses. Suddenly, slow English songs began playing in the living room. The low, lingering vocals set the mood, causing the atmosphere to gradually become indulgent.

Yan Qingzhu turned around to find that Yan Yu, having finished washing up, was about to drink her ginger sugar water and had connected the speakers to play some music.

“Wanted to listen to some songs,” Yan Yu explained.

Luo Mu sat on the living room rug and nodded with a smile.

“If you’re not used to it, don’t force yourself,” Yan Qingzhu poured the red wine into the glass, swirled it a few times, and handed it to Luo Mu. Luo Mu glanced at her, then raised the glass and drained it in one go.

Luo Mu set the glass down. Seeing no movement from Yan Qingzhu’s glass, she asked: “Aren’t you drinking?”

“I drank enough tonight.” Yan Qingzhu refilled the red wine for her. Only then did Luo Mu realize that back at the beach, this fool had been matching Ye Nanqiao drink for drink, and it only stopped when Luo Mu intervened.

“It’s fine. Since you aren’t drinking that glass, I’ll help you,” Luo Mu picked up Yan Qingzhu’s glass, toasted her, and tilted her head back to drain it as well.

The red wine flowed slowly down her esophagus into her stomach. Luo Mu never had the elegance of a wine taster; she was just an ordinary person, only a bit dazed. Luo Mu looked up and smiled slowly at her lover.

Just as Luo Mu was about to refill the wine, Yan Qingzhu stopped her. Luo Mu felt that the other’s eyes were trembling, like hesitation surfacing on a pool of water, creating ripples.

Luo Mu had thought many times that if she were to use a plant to describe Yan Qingzhu, it would surely be a wild-growing, resilient rose. Bold and dangerous, yet an irresistible temptation.

“Qingzhu, this is boring,” Luo Mu murmured into Yan Qingzhu’s ear, burying her head in her neck like a hedgehog leaning into her warmth for heat. The low, winding music rendered an ambiguous atmosphere; the faint scent of wood and jasmine flickered in and out, occupying the most rational corner of her mind.

“Let’s play something interesting.”

All kinds of greed, leaning on the medium of alcohol, took on a form of utter fearlessness.

The touch of skin felt searing, longing like ten thousand ants biting the heart.

“What?” Yan Qingzhu said in a low voice, placing a kiss on her lover’s forehead.

“I want to know you,” Luo Mu pressed her forehead against Yan Qingzhu’s. An indescribable emotion diffused through the air.

Luo Mu’s eyes filled with soft longing: “Starting with your secrets.”

Yan Qingzhu heard the provocative tone in her voice and smiled mischievously. She poured more red wine into the glass—it was ambiguity, and it was transgression.

“Oh?”

Yan Qingzhu’s brows lifted slightly as one hand supported Luo Mu’s waist. Luo Mu’s fingertips pressed against Yan Qingzhu’s jaw, filled with a beast-like sense of possession and rivalry.

“I happen to want to know your secrets, too.”

Luo Mu whispered softly in her ear, like a tiny electric current stimulating Yan Qingzhu’s nerves: “Is that so? What do you want to know about me?”

Luo Mu leaned her hands on Yan Qingzhu’s shoulders, taking advantage of her feigned drunkenness, intending to fish for a trace of a clue from the person in front of her.

As if she had been waiting for this day, Yan Qingzhu tilted her head to the side. She lightly bit Luo Mu’s earlobe, her voice like a soul-bewitching narcotic: “You told me before that your father has an adopted son.”

Luo Mu was instantly broken into a cold sweat, snapping awake.

At this moment, Luo Mu could not decipher the emotions in Yan Qingzhu’s pupils.

“Do you hate him?”

Luo Mu frowned. Regarding this question, she truly hadn’t thought about it.

Yan Qingzhu was asking if she hated him.

After a long time, the tremor at the corner of Luo Mu’s lips was already the answer. Luo Mu slowly lowered her hands from Yan Qingzhu’s shoulders, her gaze full of hesitation.

“If you want fame and fortune, in the future, I am willing to be your stepping stone…” Yan Qingzhu’s eyes were firm as she made a promise. But before she could finish, Luo Mu hurriedly pressed her fingertip against her lips.

Yan Qingzhu felt the warmth of her fingertip; her eyelashes lifted, and she inadvertently smiled.

“Don’t make promises to me.” Luo Mu suddenly threw the act of being drunk to the back of her mind. In a daze, her pupils dilated slightly, a faint ringing in her ears numbing her nerves, her gaze filled with panic: “You only need to say you love me.”

You only need to say you love me, and that’s enough.

Under the warm yellow light, Yan Qingzhu’s sharp and translucent eyes were intoxicating. The roses were in full bloom across the fields, yet one couldn’t see the hidden, poisonous thorns. Even though she knew every word from the person before her was carefully crafted and intentional, Luo Mu still couldn’t wait to drown in this ocean.

“Though he shares no blood with me, he has never made things difficult for me. He views me as family and treats me well,” Luo Mu replied calmly, and these were her true feelings.

“That’s good then.”

The sharpness in Yan Qingzhu’s gaze retracted, and her tone became soft. She pulled Luo Mu into her arms, carefully cherishing her like a precious treasure. Luo Mu closed her eyes and remained silent, listening to their mutual heartbeats for those few seconds.

“Muzi-jie, you aren’t drunk, are you?” This sentence from Yan Qingzhu didn’t sound like a question, but rather a confirmation.

Luo Mu blinked. So that was Yan Qingzhu’s goal all along.

Luo Mu’s lazy voice brushed against the other’s heart: “Who knows.”

Then Luo Mu slowly opened her eyes and murmured: “Then what about you? Why did you say you are sorry for Yan Yu?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt Yan Qingzhu’s body visibly stiffen. Her clear breathing became heavy, and Luo Mu chose not to meet her gaze. She knew this was likely a knot in Yan Qingzhu’s heart that was difficult to untie.

Suddenly, Yan Qingzhu’s phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and quickly set Luo Mu down. She then instructed Yan Yu to take good care of the “drunk” Luo Mu.

Luo Mu calmly watched her walk out to the balcony, feeling an indescribable sensation in her heart. Yan Yu looked at the red wine bottle on the coffee table and warned Luo Mu in a low voice: “Muzi-jie, if my sister tries to pour you drinks, you shouldn’t—”

Before Yan Yu could finish, Luo Mu suddenly picked up the bottle and filled her glass. The pouring motion was fluid, the crimson color rich and full. She then tilted her head back and drained it instantly. Although she clearly felt the un-aerated wine was heavily tart and astringent, the strong thumping of her heart made Luo Mu hang her head and close her eyes to concentrate.

“Muzi-jie… are you okay?” Yan Yu panicked instantly and carefully helped Luo Mu up. She then quickly poured a glass of water and handed it to her.

She had never seen such a sudden scene.

Luo Mu waved her hand, but then she directly gripped the neck of the wine bottle. Just as her lips touched the rim, she was quickly stopped by Yan Yu.

“Muzi-jie, drinking like this will cause problems…” Yan Yu’s face was awkward; caught between her sister’s instructions and Muzi-jie’s rebellion, she felt caught in the middle.

Luo Mu looked bleary-eyed, but her mind was still very clear. A shallow mist rose in her gaze as she shook the bottle; there was very little left.

“Keep it a secret for me, don’t tell your sister.”

“Muzi-jie, my sister isn’t stupid. How could she not know how much you drank…” Yan Yu tried to take the bottle from Luo Mu, but almost missed.

“Your sister is the stupid one; don’t learn from her.” Under the influence of the alcohol, Luo Mu’s face was flushed. She coughed a few times, thinking that these two sisters didn’t seem to have their “lightbulbs” turned on in these matters. She could only smile faintly; in the end, she had to say things more bluntly.

Luo Mu drained the last drop from her glass, calmed her emotions, and stared calmly at Yan Yu: “Can’t you tell? I’m also creating an opportunity for your sister.”