Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 21 - Eared Socks?

In a dark room, Gun closed his eyes and handed his mobile phone to 97. “Delete it for me.”

Huh? What was Leader up to, eh? He had just installed the Weibo app and now he wanted to uninstall it? 97 took the phone from him and, not daring to delay, deleted it straightaway under Gun’s gaze.

And here he had thought Leader had finally been enlightened and was going to register for a personal Weibo account.

Who didn’t have a personal Weibo account in this day and age? If news spread that Gun had registered a Weibo account, his followers, overnight, would definitely be equal in numbers to SP’s Solo as well as Dt and grunt. Oh, no, wait. Back then, Gun’s face had obviously been the fairest of them all while his personality had been the most difficult. Regardless of what day and age it was, this sort of cool, aloof guy was always the most attractive to girls, right? His follower count should definitely be even more…

Ah, no wonder.

By the time 97 handed the mobile phone back to Gun, he already understood Leader’s intentions behind not opening an account of his own: he was scared Sister-In-Law would get jealous.

In the space of this one thought, 97 felt suddenly that the Great Demon Overlord before him was actually a little like a normal human being?

“On Weibo, do you all normally communicate through leaving comments?” He had not slept for two days, having grabbed two players on the team and played practice matches the entire time. Now, Gun truly was so tired he had a headache.

“Ah? I guess so.” This question was a little weird, eh. When you chatted with people you knew, you normally used WeChat. Who would leave comments in Weibo? The ones who left comments were all fans and followers. “But PMing is relatively more convenient.”

PMing? With difficulty, Gun forced his eyes open and flicked a gaze toward 97.

Instantly, the latter felt a chill down his neck.

Forget it. Couldn’t be bothered to care. Once again closing his eyes in exhaustion, Gun fell into his “do not disturb” mode.

In K&K, there were a few rules and bans regarding Gun. For example, like right now, when he wanted to sleep, it was best to just instantaneously disappear and not say a single extra sentence of bullsheet.

97 at once clamped his mouth shut. Very lightly, he stepped out of the room and slowly, ever so slowly, closed the door.

Whew. Lately, the pressure in this room of Leader’s was a little too suffocating, you know…

He stood in front of the door and, after patting himself on the chest to calm his nerves, immediately pulled out his mobile phone to browse his own Weibo. All of a sudden, his finger paused. Holy dang…

Leader specifically went and registered on Weibo just to… watch Sister-In-Law flaunt her lovey-dovey affections for him?!

* * * * *

Breathe. Breathe. Deep breaths…

Tong Nian tried hard to pull back her awareness. The first things to do were to copy down that phone number, quickly follow his account in Weibo, and then delete that comment. Everything was done swiftly in one smooth go, but it was still discovered by sharp-eyed fans.

Random person: Did I see wrong?! Her Highness followed an alt account!! A mobile phone user account that has no avatar!!

Random person: Where where?

Random person: On my knees to you… Requesting we mutually follow one another, AH!!

Random person: Sure enough, our Squidie Dada’s taste is different from the ordinary person!

Random person: I’m going to register an alt account!!!! I want to be followed by Her Highness!!!!

……

She was stupefied by the comments flooding the screen. Hurriedly, she went into his Weibo and took a look. Phew. Thank goodness. It was so barren there, not even a random blade of grass growing on that profile page. He wouldn’t be hit on or bothered by people. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And so, she, the one who had not had a good sleep for two days, smugly hugged that phone number against herself and rolled around on the bed.

Who cared what sort of chaos had broken out on Weibo? Right now, all her heart and mind cared about was this one thing. Everything else was as substantial to her as floating clouds!

Under the glow of the bedside lamp, she raised her mobile phone high above her head and stared at that string of numbers…

It was eight o’clock right now. That wasn’t considered late, right?

Deep breath.

Don’t be scared.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

She pressed the dial button, then gently brought the phone to her ear.

Thump, thump, thump… Her heartbeat.

Brrrrt…brrrt… brrrt… The phone’s ringback tone.

Thump, thump, thump… Her heartbeat.

Brrrrt…brrrt… brrrt…

Suddenly, the call was answered—

And then, there no sound… no sound at all…

Dazedly, she held onto her phone and gave a tentative “Hello?” Still no sound…

She had copied the number down wrong? That couldn’t be. She had checked it several times just now.

……

A few seconds later, she sat up from the bed. Right as she was about to hang up the call, his voice was unexpectedly heard from within the phone, sounding only half-awake and… in a bad mood. “Tong Nian?”

“Mm, mm. It’s me…” She instantly could hear that he had been sleeping. “I was just— ”

What did she want to say? T.T Why had she forgotten all of it? She was so dumb she could cry…

“I’m going to the U.S. on February 24.” Gun’s voice was very, very, very low… as if he was going to fall into a deep slumber at any second. “Back March 19. EK306—”

“Oh, oh.” She immediately committed this string of information to memory.

“If there’s anything”—his voice was already rather indistinct, as if he was struggling at the edge of dreamland—“we’ll talk about it when I’m back.”

She gave a couple of “uh-huh, uh-huhs,” wanting to tell him that she did not really have anything important. However, the person on the other end of the line had already fallen into a pure, peaceful quiet.

She softly said hello a couple of times again. Very thoughtfully, she did not continue to disturb him and hung up the call of her own accord.

Then, she stared vacantly at her mobile phone for a full two minutes.

He needed to go to the U.S., and for so long, too. For a competition? So exhausting. The Lunar New Year’s celebrations weren’t even over yet.

And so it was for nearly half a month.

There was no contact between the two of them. Every time Tong Nian pulled out her phone, wanting to call him, she would remember that he needed to lead his team in training, needed to compete, needed to engage in social activities for networking, needed to… Anyway, he should not be readily disturbed. And then, she would wordlessly put her phone away again.

On the day of the Lantern Festival[1], she was clasping her mobile phone, staring undecidedly at his phone number while simultaneously pondering over whether she should make a phone call to him on this holiday. Her mom brought out a bowl of yuanxiao[2] [glutinous rice balls] with peanut-sesame filling from the kitchen and passed it into her hands. Probingly, her mom asked the question, “Have you and your boyfriend broken up?”

“Huh?” She paused in blank surprise as she extended a hand to take the bowl.

“It’s hot. Mom will carry it over there for you.” Her dearest mother did not want her to burn her hand. Seeing her dull expression, Mom laughed, “It doesn’t matter. If you’ve broken up, then you’ve broken up. You’re still young. Freedom to love as you want, right? Mom won’t interfere.”

“We haven’t broken up,” she murmured lightly as she very displeasedly followed behind her mom. “He’s just busy.”

“Oh, busy.” Her dearest mother beamed at her. Things were evident from the chat history in her phone. It had been nearly a full month where they had not even called each other. “Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter.” After saying this, she set down the bowl that was filled with yuanxiao and, in passing, stroked Tong Nian’s hair. “How about this? If, in the future, you feel like you want to break up but you’re worried that the adults of the two families will overthink the situation, Mom will help you out and say it for you, okay?”

……

“I don’t want to break up…” Picking up a spoon, she poked at the yuanxiao.

All of a sudden, she remembered that there eventually would be a day when they would break up.

Somewhat gloomily, she continued stabbing at the yuanxiao until gradually, one became a squashed mess.

And then… she continued to stab at the next one…

Without warning, her hand halted. Wait! He specifically told me the flight number. Does that mean he wants me to go to the airport to meet his flight? Hmm, that doesn’t seem very likely… But, as his girlfriend, it shouldn’t be a problem to go meet him there, right?

No problem, right?

With those thoughts, she no longer was depressed. Merrily, she slurped down that bowl of yuanxiao that she had stabbed to a mush, then immediately wiped her mouth clean, tossed down her spoon, and bounced upstairs to choose her clothes.

Even though today was only the fifth of March and there was still another half a month…

Half a month later, she had finally settled on the outfit that she would be going out in. She was even for once wearing shoes with a slight heel, in hopes that she could measure up to even a little bit of his height. When she was sitting inside the taxi, the driver looked in the rearview mirror at this young girl and could not help asking cheerfully, “Going to the airport to pick up your boyfriend?” On such a chilly day, to be dressed so cutely and not care at all about temperature and warmth—it could only be for the boyfriend.

Especially since it was raining torrentially…

A little embarrassed, she gave an “mm” in answer before taking a moist towelette and, with all seriousness, wiping at the rain on her shoes.

Finding this little girlie to be adorable, the driver purposely drove faster for her. Due to traffic congestion, though, by the time she arrived at the airport, she was still late. The driver deliberately stopped on the cleanest stretch of ground. Repeatedly expressing her thanks, Tong Nian stepped out of the car, held down her little dress hat with her hand, and dashed to the main entrance. People were everywhere, especially at the arrivals door, where they were packed tightly together, and there was simply no place for her to get settled and wait…

She could only thicken her skin and, with all her might, continuously squeeze her way forward and then squeeze some more.

Then, holding onto the security rope, she steadied herself on her feet.

Nervously, her eyes watched the travellers that were coming out one after another.

He wasn’t there.

That wasn’t him.

That still wasn’t him…

There were fewer and fewer people coming out. Gradually, she began to grow uneasy. It was clearly displayed on the monitors that the plane had just landed. She shouldn’t have missed him, right? Wait… There! He was simply too eye-catching. She had instantly spotted him once he stepped out from the frosted glass doors. However, he was speaking with two unfamiliar men, who each wore a camera hanging from the neck. Following behind him was grunt, but neither of them looked in her direction. Just like that, in a spot three steps away, they walked straight past her…

“Han…” she called out, but all of a sudden feeling self-conscious, she very slowly lowered the volume of the remaining word. “Shangyan…” How come he yet again didn’t see me? …

In the instant when her eyes dimmed, a hand suddenly waved in front of them.

“It’s you.” The beautiful, short-haired woman smiled and asked her, “You came to wait for Gun?”

“… Mm.” It was her…

She was somewhat hesitant, not really bold enough to talk to appledog. After all, Gun had demonstrated all along that he was not very friendly towards her, causing Tong Nian to not know what to do, either.

“Dt.” appledog turned and addressed the young man who had walked out alongside her. “How about you bring her over? I’m going to go first.”

It was also only after appledog caught sight of her that Dt noticed Tong Nian crammed in the masses of people. Originally, he had still been considering whether he should say hello, but now, seeing as the woman before him had said this, he of course needed to treat her words as his task that he needed to complete. “Sure.”

“See you later.” Towing her suitcase with her, appledog waved at Tong Nian. After thinking for a moment, though, she moved over close to her and whispered, “Wishing you guys happiness. Going now.”

……

“Thank you.” Tong Nian’s face became completely crimson.

And so, she watched as, side by side, the beautiful woman and a teenage boy strode outside.

Without saying any superfluous words, Dt pointed at the main doors of the airport, motioning to Tong Nian that she should go with him. Tong Nian immediately stepped out from the crowd and, following him, walked straight out of the airport. There, she saw that Gun had already sat into a private minivan.

This person whom she had not seen for one month was right now leaning his head back into the seat and resting. Perhaps because he was worried he would be disturbed, his jacket had been taken off and was being used to cover his face… With one leg crossed over the other, he was as comfortable as he could get and as relaxed as he could be.

“Your girlfriend’s here.” Dt suddenly spoke, breaking the silence within the vehicle.

……

……

He did not so much as stir. It was apparent he did not know Dt was talking to him.

Behind him, grunt bent his pointer finger and shoved up his glasses. With an evil grin, he chimed, “Oh, hey, Sister-In-Law.”

Only then did Gun move his arm, rather slowly pulling down the garment that was covering his face. Because he had been about to fall asleep, he really could not maintain any sort of pleasant face or friendly mood at this moment. In his blurred vision, he saw a girl dressed in a green, plaid suit dress, hugging her black wool coat against herself and even wearing a deep green, little dress hat…

Wasn’t she cold? He moved his arms to loosen them up, then took another glance at that hat. A green hat… What kind of taste was that?[3]

So, he set down that leg that had been crossed on top of the other one and sat up straight. Resting both his elbows on his knees, he looked down at her where she stood outside the van door. “Something the matter?”

grunt covered his forehead with his hand. What a waste of words. What else could it be?

“No… nothing. I just came to meet your flight.” Her head was down.

Sure enough, he was not happy about it.

Dt lowered his head to cast a look at Tong Nian’s calves, which were exposed to the biting wind, and fell deep into contemplation. If they didn’t let the little girl into the van, would it create a situation where tomorrow, she would have a cold, and then by the time she was old, she would be unable to walk due to aching joints? And plus, from the looks of it, “she” really seemed to like this little girl… As he thought of this point, he at last did the rare thing of opening his mouth to say a sentence of casual chitchat. “Go ahead and get in the van first. You’ll end up dying from the cold first if you wait for him to tell you to get in.”

……

She dared not move.

The weight of the threefold gaze coming from the driver plus grunt and Dt caused Gun to finally, from somewhere within his tiredness, find a sliver of the goodness of human nature. He looked down, and after three seconds of forcing his mind to clear even more, he raised his head again. “Get in the van.”

Only then did Tong Nian give an “mm” and obediently step into the vehicle.

Gun shifted inwards from the outside, freeing up a seat for her. And then, after she had sat down, his eyes slowly travelled down and landed on that bare pair of legs. “Not cold?”

“Not cold.” She shook her head, somewhat embarrassed that her little notion had been exposed. “Honest, I don’t feel cold.”

Didn’t feel cold, and yet her legs were so chilled they were pale?

Conjuring up in his mind how his legs had felt during a trip to Antarctica, Gun swept his eyes once again over those slender, snowy-white legs. “Where are those longs socks of yours, with the ears?”

Huh? Socks with the ears?

Tong Nian paused blankly in surprise. Stammering somewhat, she asked in reply, “You… like me wearing those?”

……

……

……

……

“Pffffft!” Grunt sprayed out a laugh.

That question was… just wicked!