Chapter 46
“Ran Jin, come closer.”
Chi Yu raised her hand toward Ran Jin.
Ran Jin didn’t expect her to suddenly want to touch her and instinctively leaned back to avoid it.
Chi Yu only wanted to wipe away the cream on the tip of her nose and hadn’t intended to do anything else. Seeing Ran Jin dodge, Chi Yu subconsciously reached out; her fingers slid past Ran Jin’s cheek to cup her ear, steadying the dodging face and controlling her movements.
“What are you hiding for?”
Chi Yu’s palms were always so warm. Pressed against Ran Jin’s perpetually cold cheek, it felt as if a ball of fire had rolled into a field of snow.
Her long fingers brushed aside Ran Jin’s thick, dark hair, passing over the warm skin of her neck and extending to the nape.
There was a sense of being completely surrounded, falling entirely into Chi Yu’s hands.
Chi Yu saw that Ran Jin’s eyes seemed unable to turn, and a sudden thought caused a dryness in her own throat, giving her an instantaneous urge to cough.
Clearing one’s throat at a time like this would easily expose illicit thoughts. Chi Yu exercised great self-control and quickly wiped the tip of Ran Jin’s nose.
As the fingertip grazed her nose, Ran Jin blinked reflexively. She looked at the bit of cream on Chi Yu’s fingertip and understood.
For a moment, the atmosphere was somewhat awkward, silently fermenting with ambiguity.
“Thank you, Xiao Yu,” Ran Jin said. “I didn’t know when I got it on there.”
She didn’t protest the fact that Chi Yu had just called her by her full name, silently indulging it.
Compared to Ran Jin’s attempt to talk about other things, Chi Yu was much more candid. She let go of her cheek and laughed, “It obviously happened when you were taking big bites of the cake.”
Ran Jin’s lips twitched slightly as she returned her focus to the reports.
However, Chi Yu noticed that the tips of her ears had turned red.
Was it because of that brief touch?
Chi Yu couldn’t pull her attention away from Ran Jin’s earlobes. Just a light touch made them turn that red? So sensitive?
The ears on that cold, white skin, with their burning red tips, made Chi Yu think of her favorite peaches. Soft, fragrant, and very sweet.
She didn’t even notice when she had stopped forking the cake; her entire focus was locked onto Ran Jin, sticking to her tightly.
“Ran Jin,” she called again, clearly on purpose. “Is there something special about this report? You’ve been looking at it for ten minutes.”
Ran Jin: “…”
She only then realized she had indeed been staring at the report for a long time. If the report could feel Ran Jin’s gaze—which was hot enough to burn through a computer screen—it probably would have packed its bags and fled long ago.
Ran Jin acted as if nothing were wrong, saying, “There’s nothing special, just very ordinary market research data.”
She then calmly swiped the report away, as if this were a conversation without any hidden meaning. Even though she was this steady, trying to pretend nothing had happened, Chi Yu still noticed the redness spread from the tips of her ears to her cheeks.
Chi Yu’s heart was thumping uncontrollably.
“Ran Jin,” Chi Yu called her this for the third time, as if addicted. It felt as though only by using this name could she shatter the barrier between them—one that shouldn’t have existed yet could never be ignored.
“Stop poking that decoration; you can’t eat that.”
With Chi Yu’s reminder, Ran Jin realized that after swiping away the report, her other hand was holding a fork, trying to pick up a small resin grape she had removed from the cake.
No wonder it wouldn’t go in.
Ran Jin looked back. Chi Yu’s smiling eyes were focused intently on her. Rather than “looking,” it was more like she was “savoring” her.
Without any warning, Ran Jin suddenly stood up and said, “I’m going to the bathroom.”
Then she fled in a hurry.
Just as she entered the bathroom, Chi Yu heard a series of short, suppressed sneezes.
Chi Yu: “…”
She sniffed herself. Her perfume wasn’t particularly pungent today.
Was it a coincidence? Or was Ran Jin just that sensitive?
Chi Yu leaned back in her chair, unable to stop herself from replaying everything that had just happened frame by frame in her mind. A smile appeared on her lips without her even realizing it.
She looked at that translucent resin grape; it looked exactly like Ran Jin’s little ear under the lights.
Chi Yu mimicked Ran Jin’s action and poked it with the fork. The round little grape rolled away, and Chi Yu poked it back. Poking it back and forth, she treated it entirely as if it were Ran Jin herself.
Before today, the things that triggered the emotion of “liking” in Chi Yu were rarely human.
L-brand desserts were cute and delicious; lop-eared rabbits were soft and adorable; the way Lulu stood on the air conditioner unit with her dry, long fur made her look like a reigning monarch.
Those were the things she liked, the things she was attracted to.
As for humans—they were full of foul habits and tried to spread that nature to outer space.
But the Ran Jin before her was different. Using the word “cute” on her transcended the limits of age and appearance; it was perfectly appropriate. Even if one stacked the word “cute” into a thousand-foot tower, it wouldn’t describe even a ten-thousandth of her true, moving nature to someone who hadn’t met her.
Not knowing what Ran Jin was doing in the bathroom, she didn’t emerge for quite a while.
When she did, Chi Yu saw that the bangs above her eyebrows and the hair on the sides were wet, and the makeup on her face was gone. Had she gone to wash her face?
This reminded Chi Yu of the night Lulu went missing, when she had stood alone in the cold wind trying to cool down her own heat.
“You only got a bit of cream on you; there was no need to wash your whole face, was there?” Chi Yu tilted her head, wearing a coquettish smile, asking despite already knowing the answer.
“I just washed it while I was at it.” Ran Jin didn’t look at her, sitting back down at the computer.
“Did you put on moisturizer? Isn’t it dry?” Chi Yu kicked her chair, following her again.
“Mhm… I didn’t bring any.”
As soon as Ran Jin finished speaking, Chi Yu, as expected, responded quickly: “I brought some.”
Ran Jin: “…”
Chi Yu took out a small makeup bag containing everything she could possibly need, even portable cotton pads.
“Come, let me put some toner on you first.” Chi Yu patted some toner onto a cotton pad and prepared to apply it to Ran Jin’s face.
“I’ll do it myself.” Ran Jin tried to take it.
“Do you even know how to do it?”
Being questioned on this, Ran Jin laughed helplessly: “My makeup skills are terrible, but I know basic skincare.”
“Oh, alright then.” Chi Yu lined up a bunch of portable bottles and jars—toner, base, essence, eye cream, and moisturizer—in front of her. “Be my guest.”
Ran Jin: “…”
She picked them up one by one. She recognized the words on the bottles, but when put together, she was truly confused about their functions and the specific order of application.
Seeing her confused look, Chi Yu burst out laughing.
“Forget it, I’ll help you.” Chi Yu took the bottles back and said in a low, meaningful tone, “You don’t have to be good at everything.”
A small ripple flashed in Ran Jin’s eyes.
You don’t have to be good at everything, and you aren’t alone.
You still have me.
As the skincare products were layered onto her face, Chi Yu’s fingertips stroked Ran Jin’s face again and again. Throughout the process, Ran Jin kept her back perfectly straight, as if she were participating in a military parade.
Only then did Ran Jin realize that skincare required so many steps.
“Alright, you can open your eyes now. Does your face feel less tight?” Chi Yu smiled slightly.
“Mhm.” Ran Jin’s answers were always concise. To others, it might sound cold, but Chi Yu didn’t think so.
Ran Jin turned to continue working, but Chi Yu stood up and placed her still-damp palm over the back of Ran Jin’s hand. Taking advantage of her momentary daze, she took the mouse from her hand.
“I say,” Chi Yu stood behind Ran Jin, one hand propped on the desk, looking directly at Ran Jin’s face with a bit of annoyance. “Today is your birthday. Can’t you give yourself a day off and stop working? Even if you don’t like birthdays, surely no one dislikes relaxing and having a happy time? Forget the endless cake and the never-ending work. For today, be a little impulsive. Isn’t it good to just focus on being happy?”
Ran Jin started to say something, but Chi Yu didn’t want to hear it. She made her save all the files, shut down the computer, and even unplugged the power.
“Let’s go, I’m taking you to play.”
Hearing the word “play,” Ran Jin couldn’t even imagine a specific scene in her head.
“Play what?”
Chi Yu saw her looking like a dazed fool and couldn’t stand it: “You don’t even know how to play?”
Then again, looking at Ran Jin’s work schedule—which looked like it could lead to sudden death at any moment—it was understandable that the word “play” wasn’t in her dictionary.
“Just follow me.” Chi Yu pulled her up and walked to the coat rack. She took down the trench coat and, as if afraid she would run away, insisted on helping her put it on, making her slide her arms in like she was taking care of a silly daughter.
“Where are we going?” Ran Jin was instinctively worried about things she didn’t know or couldn’t control.
Chi Yu tied the belt for her and gave a brilliant smile: “Tonight, I’m going to make this antique feel young again.”
Ran Jin was truly unfamiliar with a colorful night-time amusement park. It was like a dream; those dazzling colors and sweet scents exploded into everyone’s fantasies and happiness within the long night.
Being led by the hand by Chi Yu, Ran Jin took every step hesitantly, as if her next step might suddenly land in empty air and wake her from the dream.
“You’ve seriously never been to an amusement park?” Chi Yu had one hand in her pocket and the other holding Ran Jin, fearing she might suddenly regret it and turn to run.
Ran Jin looked at the long row of various crane machines beside her, her eyes looking a bit dazed: “I’ve been.”
She had indeed been, but it was a very, very long time ago. So long that when she thought of it, it felt like a memory from a previous life.
She was about eight or nine then. Near the entrance of a near-bankrupt amusement park, beside a carousel with eerie-looking horses, there were two small, broken crane machines. They were stuffed with poor-quality, crooked-faced knock-off plushies, yet Ran Jin had liked them very much, looking at them every time she passed by. There was a chubby little yellow chick buried at the very bottom that was so cute.
“Do you want it?” back then, someone had held her hand and asked her.
Ran Jin didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to become a burden; she knew the person taking care of her was already struggling.
“Your birthday is coming up. When it’s your birthday, I’ll bring you here to catch it, okay?” the person pointed at the little yellow chick. “We’ll catch that one.”
“Really?” A child is always full of curiosity and desire for the world.
“Really! Mommy promised you!”
“Thank you…” A look of anticipation appeared on little Ran Jin’s precocious face. She really, really wanted that little yellow chick.
However, that small wish was never realized. The person who was going to take her to play disappeared before her birthday.
“Ran Jin!”
Chi Yu’s voice exploded in her ear, pulling her thoughts back.
“You like this chick?” Chi Yu pointed to a giant yellow chick Ran Jin had been staring at for who knows how long.
Ran Jin: “…”
Inside the giant crane machine in front of her—one even taller than Ran Jin—hung a giant yellow chick almost the size of her upper body. It looked somewhat similar to the little yellow chick she never got, only much larger, with a cute round face that was perfectly symmetrical and a chubby, charming body. A thin plastic tag was tucked behind its neck, hanging just in front of a protruding metal rod. It looked like a single grab with the claw would knock it down.
Ran Jin said, “I didn’t say I liked it. I was just a bit surprised at how much crane machines have upgraded.”
A whole row of crane machines occupied the entire wall, filled with all kinds of plushies and various ways to play. Chi Yu glanced at them and didn’t bother to criticize: These are all old models.
Ran Jin was about to say “just looking is fine,” but before the words could leave her mouth, Chi Yu scanned a payment QR code. With a loud clatter, an mountain of game tokens dropped out; who knew how many she had bought.
Ran Jin was startled: “What are you doing?”
Chi Yu picked up two tokens and dropped them into the giant yellow chick machine: “Catching this chick for you. I won’t stop until I get it.”
Ran Jin: “…” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I didn’t say I wanted this chick!”
Chi Yu made a “shhh” gesture, grabbed the joystick, and without blinking, quickly moved it over the fat chick’s head.
“Is that okay?” Ran Jin became nervous as well.
Chi Yu directed her: “Go to the side and help me check the angle.”
Ran Jin immediately moved to the side of the machine: “It looks just right.”
“Go!” Chi Yu pressed the button, and the claw descended.
Ran Jin saw that the claw seemed a bit off and was about to cry out “What a pity,” when she saw that although the claw didn’t hook the plastic tag behind the fat chick’s neck, it scraped the top where the metal rod and the tag connected on its way back up. The rod vibrated with a “hum,” and the fat chick was shaken loose, falling down.
Chi Yu: “!”
Ran Jin: “!”
Chi Yu pulled the fat chick out of the delivery chute. She and Ran Jin both looked at it with shocked faces.
“Am I that awesome? Got it in two tokens? Or did it hear your call and throw itself into your arms?”
Chi Yu stuffed the giant yellow chick into Ran Jin’s arms. Ran Jin was nearly knocked backward by it.
Chi Yu: “It’s yours. Hold it tight.”
Ran Jin: “…”
It was fat and soft, and it felt so good to the touch. Ran Jin hadn’t expected Chi Yu to have such an impressive skill. Her heart thundered, and she used the giant yellow chick to hide her burning face. She asked Chi Yu, “Then what are you going to do with all those tokens you bought?”
“Play, of course. Use them all.” Chi Yu put the tokens into a box and smiled at Ran Jin. “No going home today until we’ve used every single one.”
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