Chapter 10: Does That Make You Happy?
Went out with a phone in her pocket, came back with a flyer.
The dorm was always liveliest at night. Standing on the balcony, she could still hear someone in a nearby room humming an off-key tune.
Sui Mi had picked up some street food from off campus, as her roommate had asked.
She pushed the door open and got one foot inside.
Qin Shuangshuang, who had been sprawled flat on her bed, shot upright like a carp flipping out of water. She grabbed the bed rail, her voice dripping with warmth. "Our Manman's back~"
"It's your grilled cold noodles that are back."
Sui Mi set the food on her desk, calling her out without missing a beat.
Qin Shuangshuang chuckled and hopped off the bed in two quick moves.
"Same thing, same thing."
Then she launched into a loud complaint.
"That bowl of noodles tonight was just awful. Turns out bland, watery food really isn't for me—I need something fresh, fragrant, spicy, and numbing."
She sat down at her desk and pulled out her phone.
"Manman, I've sent you the money."
Sui Mi didn't turn around, just waved a hand to show she'd heard.
With the movement, a colorful flyer peeked out from her pocket, one corner slipping into view.
Qin Shuangshuang held her bowl of grilled cold noodles, bit into the sauce-glazed wrapper, and squinted at it. Around a mouthful of food, she mumbled, "What's that... a skateboard? You planning to learn?"
Sui Mi slapped a hand over her pocket: "..."
She took a deep breath, set her face in a stern expression, and spoke with dead seriousness.
"Yeah."
"Swung hard enough, that board could probably give someone painless amnesia."
Qin Shuangshuang: "?"
Sui Mi corrected herself. "Painful amnesia."
That way, Xi Jianbai would completely forget tonight's accidental, awkward contact.
Or maybe she should just ambush him with a sandbag tomorrow!
Sui Mi felt a flicker of temptation. But as her hand went into her pocket for the flyer, it brushed against the flat box of bandages, and she shamefully abandoned the plan.
Her ex-husband-to-be really was a good person.
He'd walked her to the bottom of the dorm building and even handed her a box of bandages.
Cold-faced and flat-toned as he was, he hadn't forgotten to remind her to take care of the wound.
Sui Mi took out the box of bandages.
She was about to toss it onto the corner of the desk when her fingertip brushed something small and papery on the back.
She flipped it over.
It was a half-printed receipt.
The ink was faint, its edges stuck to the label on the back of the box—quietly hiding itself, escaping the fate of being found and thrown away.
Under the bright dorm lights, she could just make out the header.
It was the pharmacy next to the Cantonese restaurant.
Item purchased: one box of bandages.
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Sui Mi stared at that faint line of ink and suddenly froze.
That was the time Xi Jianbai had left the table mid-meal, saying he was going to the restroom.
So.
Her stunned gaze dropped to the box of bandages in her hand.
...It wasn't luck that he'd happened to have them on him. It was quiet, deliberate care.
-
After washing up, sinking into a soft, clean bed was always one of life's happiest moments.
Back in university again, Sui Mi had picked up one of her old little habits.
Before bed, she looked at things adults were supposed to look at.
Tonight's choice was manga.
The tablet's large screen rendered every detail the artist had drawn with perfect clarity.
The powerful grip, the soft flesh squeezed between fingers.
Damp sweat soaking through clothes.
Sui Mi leaned against her plush pillow, face carefully blank, unhurriedly zooming in and back out with two fingers.
When she hit a particularly good part, she'd slap the screen face-down, shut her eyes, and take one long, deep breath.
Then, lips pressed together, she'd flip it back and continue her solemn appreciation.
By the time it was nearly midnight, she finally turned off the screen, thoroughly satisfied.
She was still savoring it as she drifted off.
Maybe that was why.
Sui Mi dreamed again.
Just like last night—a dream both real and unreal.
Her vision gradually cleared. The First Cafeteria, its layout far too familiar.
But this angle, this foggy glass window—
Tap.
A footstep landed, almost soundless.
A tall figure pressed up intimately from behind, covering her completely with his body.
The young man always ran burning hot. His face was cold as ice, brows and eyes frosted with snow, yet inside him seemed to burn an eternal, blazing flame.
No—that wasn't quite right either.
In last night's dream, Xi Jianbai hadn't worn a cold face at all. His pale eyes had flickered with satisfaction, with something wicked. He'd kissed her too hard, staining his thin lips a vivid, blood-bright red.
And this time.
In the faint reflection on the window, Sui Mi watched him bend down, unhurried and at ease.
Like some large beast pretending to be tame—claws retracted, fangs hidden, feigning docility—he pressed his face into her hair and breathed in deep.
The stiff, old-fashioned man who couldn't stand her scent in reality had become an insatiable sniffer in the dream.
His high nose slid into her black hair, trailed downward, brushed lightly over the soft white shell of her ear, then nuzzled against her cheek.
Too close. His breathing came deeper than any normal rhythm, as if every breath was a long inhale, greedily drawing in everything she was.
...How could she have such an absurd dream?
Was it because she liked this type so much that her brain had simply ignored reality and reshaped the ice-cold Xi Jianbai into this?
Sui Mi couldn't figure it out.
As Xi Jianbai nuzzled her cheek, strands of hair dragged across her skin, ticklish. She tilted her head instinctively to dodge.
"..."
The breathing by her ear paused.
"Baby."
Xi Jianbai's lips curved, faint and easy, and he leaned in again as if nothing had happened. "Why haven't you slapped your husband today? Is it because he behaved well?"
His hoarse whisper carried a smile, pressed right against her ear, murmuring secret sweet nothings.
"You dodged so late."
"Baby's face is all red from husband rubbing it."
"..."
So clingy.
Was this right? Definitely not!
But... it was her dream.
What was wrong with dreaming a little?
Sui Mi's lashes fluttered. She decided to play along. "Behaved well?"
She thought about it. "The bandages?"
Xi Jianbai raised an eyebrow slightly. "Why would baby think that?"
"That's what a husband is supposed to do."
His thin lips roamed her cheek and ear, licking and biting. When his sharp canines caught just right, they left a faint sting.
Sui Mi couldn't come up with an answer, and his clinginess was making her face hot. She reached out and pushed his face away with one hand.
"So what counts as behaving well?"
The young man let her cover the lower half of his face and push him back.
His cold brows lowered slightly, long lashes casting shadows that trembled against the back of her hand.
Slowly, he smiled.
His pale eyes curved, stirring the dark currents beneath, rippling with some unreadable, glinting light.
His lips parted slowly and closed around her fingertip.
His tongue curled around it.
Leaving a wet, scorching trace.
Xi Jianbai looked straight at Sui Mi, her finger still between his teeth, and spoke in a sticky, coaxing tone—like a good boy asking for a reward.
"Baby, I didn't charge in and kiss you in front of everyone."
"Didn't pin baby against the wall."
"Didn't grab baby by the throat."
"Didn't make you look only at me, only ever at me."
"Didn't kiss baby until your mouth couldn't close and your tongue couldn't pull back."
"Didn't leave you gasping in my arms."
"Didn't let everyone know that I belong to baby."
Dreams were strange like that.
His low, husky murmur drifted down—and the grimy glass window suddenly turned clean and clear, as if washed.
In the empty cafeteria, figures appeared in the blink of an eye, faces indistinct.
Students getting food, students eating. Kitchen staff working behind the counters.
And Guan Teng, standing in front of the vending machine, picking something out.
Bustling and lively, just like every day before.
As if at any moment someone might casually turn their head and see the two of them tangled together behind the window.
Sui Mi didn't know if it was from his bite or from the scene he'd described, but her body trembled, barely perceptible, shaking in small increments.
Xi Jianbai looked down at her.
Flushed cheeks, panicked expression, lips unconsciously bitten tight.
Beneath her lifted lashes, her almond eyes were misty with water, wet as if tears might spill over at any moment.
Xi Jianbai had dreamed of Sui Mi many times.
He would hold nothing back—dark, filthy, imposing every rough and shadowed thought on her.
Usually, those dreams ended with Sui Mi's slap and her look of disgust.
That was only natural.
After all, Sui Mi was so good, so sweet. When she smiled, her brows curved; when she looked at him, her eyes were clear and bright, pure and softly radiant.
What she liked was the bright, flawless moon.
Not the dark, wretched Xi Jianbai.
"..."
Trembling fingertips caught hold of his lapel.
The girl lifted her face, almond eyes shimmering with water, the corners red, wearing that naturally innocent, aggrieved look.
She pressed her lips together.
Her voice was sweet and soft, tinged with a hint of a nasal note, small and quiet.
"Will anyone see us right now?"
"See us kissing."
Sui Mi's lashes caught a glimmer of tears, fluttering. Cheeks pink, she said, embarrassed:
"...That would be way too thrilling."