MTLY | Chapter 12

◎Sweet Peach Flavor.◎

“I… I didn’t,” Song Tinghuan denied immediately. Meeting Jiang Yu’s gaze made her feel strangely alarmed, “I’m going upstairs to read, you… you guys…”

What they did had nothing to do with her, did it? Song Tinghuan stammered for a moment, then grew annoyed with herself. “I’m not saying anything else.”

She turned and ran, practically fleeing in defeat.

Behind her, Jiang Yu slowly straightened up. He tilted his head, looking at the girl’s panicked back, then smiled slightly.

Back in her room, Song Tinghuan sat at her desk, but her whole body still felt irritable and hot.

She fanned herself with her hand, then opened the window. In the end, she simply put on noise-canceling headphones and queued up a section of a Heart-Calming Mantra for herself.

To calm down, definitely. Recently, she must have been listening to too much of Jiang Yu’s nonsense, which was why she had those… um, weird thoughts.

After listening to two segments of the Heart-Calming Mantra and finishing a full set of practice papers, Song Tinghuan finally felt herself settle down. The sun was gradually sinking, the sky outside the window washed into a pale blue-gray. Then Song Tinghuan received an intercom call, and Jiang Yu told her to come down for dinner.

She dawdled all the way downstairs, but the living room and dining room were empty.

The Jiang family villa had three floors. On the first day Song Tinghuan arrived, Auntie had told her that everywhere except the third floor was open to her, while the basement level was Jiang Yu’s private territory, a place Song Tinghuan still had not set foot in.

The door to the first-floor lounge was pushed open, and it was Han Shuming.

“Looking for Jiang Yu?”

Song Tinghuan nodded.

“In the screening room.”

Song Tinghuan kept walking, still a little hesitant.

Wasn’t it too rude to barge into someone else’s territory like this?

She was about to turn back, but at the instant she rounded the corner, the scene before her stunned her.

The huge circular space had its field of vision sliced apart by geometry.

Marvel heroes in matching scale stood in a row along the arc, and in the middle stood a cylinder about four or five meters high. Its body was divided into grid-like sections of varying sizes, covered in glass. From top to bottom, it was all anime figurines, probably over a thousand of them.

The visual impact made Song Tinghuan swallow hard. It was as if she had wandered into a cyberpunk future space, strange, dazzling, cool, and unknown.

Drawn forward, she walked step by step down the stairs, circled around the cylinder, and saw the matte-black industrial door standing open. Laughter and teasing voices from a group of boys drifted out from inside.

“Holy shit.”

“This one is kind of big.”

“The face is a little off, and the voice isn’t even nice.”

…

Song Tinghuan didn’t know what was going on. She walked closer slowly, the view ahead dark, only the screen’s pale, fleshy image clearly rushing into her pupils. Song Tinghuan froze in place all at once.

This time, it wasn’t because her imagination was running wild. What she saw in front of her couldn’t be mistaken.

Suddenly, a cool palm covered her eyes. The familiar, crisp, clean scent wrapped around her, lingering at the tip of her nose, thin and dense.

Song Tinghuan blinked slowly, her long lashes brushing against the palm of the person behind her.

Jiang Yu’s cool, low voice carried unmistakable displeasure as he said coldly to the people inside, “Turn it off.”

*

For dinner, Jiang Yu ordered hot pot delivery.

The noisy, running-his-mouth-too-much atmosphere they had expected never appeared. At the table sat seven boys, plus Song Tinghuan as the only girl. Everyone sat properly and ate… rather blandly.

The people who looked the most awkward were Jiang Yu’s few unfamiliar friends. Song Tinghuan, on the other hand, was eating quite happily.

It was a yin-yang hot pot. She couldn’t take much spice, and the bone broth was rich and fragrant, especially to her taste.

Halfway through the meal, Jiang Yu went out to take a call, and only then did the tense atmosphere at the table loosen a little. The boy with the lazy, roguish look and a head of silvery-gray hair was named Zhou Yize. He studied at Jiangbei Affiliated High School, and was said to be Jiang Yu’s childhood friend.

Zhou Yize let out a breath and muttered, “I’ve known Brother Yu for so many years, and this is the first time I’ve seen him so pissed.”

Song Tinghuan didn’t understand. She took a sip of juice. “Did Jiang Yu get angry?”

The people at the table exchanged glances.

He did. A hell of a lot.

All because they were watching something in the screening room… Actually, everyone knew it wasn’t about the video. It was because the little girl had seen it. But they really hadn’t known there was a little girl standing at the door at the time.

The whole group turned in unison to look at the instigator, Zhou Yize.

Zhou Yize: “…”

He was seated to Song Tinghuan’s left. Leaning slightly closer, he asked, “Hey, you’re Brother Yu’s little niece?”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

So this guy really was from the Affiliated High School, wasn’t he? Why did they even know the rumors from Qinde?

Song Tinghuan was the first to look up at Li Yiliang.

Li Yiliang hurriedly shook his head. “Tinghuan, I swear to heaven, it wasn’t me who said it.”

“Tinghuan?” Zhou Yize rolled the two words around in his mouth. “Li Yiliang is Brother Yu’s son, so calling you little sister is reasonable.”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

When Jiang Yu came back in, he saw a table full of boys, one after another calling out “Tinghuan little sister,” laughing and joking all at once.

And the girl sitting alone to one side had a smile in her eyes, apparently enjoying it quite a bit.

Nice. Adaptability was pretty strong.

“Tinghuan little sister, I’m telling you…”

Before Zhou Yize could finish, Jiang Yu grabbed his head and shoved him aside. He gave Zhou Yize a sidelong glance. “Want to call her little sister?”

“Not allowed?”

Jiang Yu sat down carelessly in the empty seat beside Song Tinghuan. “Fine, call me Dad first.”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

Zhou Yize cursed under his breath.

Not long after, Zhou Yize glanced at his phone and asked Jiang Yu, “Han Jingjing says she just got off the plane and wants to come over.”

The moment Song Tinghuan heard that name, her ears immediately pricked up. Jiang Yu glanced at her, and very much wanted to remind her, the look on a gossip addict’s face is way too obvious, tone it down.

Zhou Yize: “Should I tell her to come?”

Jiang Yu opened a can of Sprite and leaned back in his chair. “Eight-person hot pot. If she comes, do you leave?”

Zhou Yize: “…”

So that meant she wasn’t allowed to come.

Zhou Yize said, “A-Yu, I think you need to let go of the Han Jingjing thing. Even though the sneaky kiss…”

“Shut up.”

Song Tinghuan held down the shock in her eyes.

Sneaky kiss? Who kissed whom sneakily?

Han Jingjing sneaking a kiss on Jiang Yu…?

The gossip in her soft, dark eyes was impossible to hide. Jiang Yu glanced over, and Song Tinghuan immediately lowered her lashes, looking at her nose, then her nose at her heart.

No matter what, after that commotion, the hot pot table finally had some atmosphere. The boys gradually loosened up too, no longer so restrained. As they chatted somehow, the topic turned to what kind of girl Jiang Yu liked.

A boy nicknamed “Ergou” said, “I’m guessing someone like Zhang Xinran.”

Li Kuo asked, “Why?”

Ergou said, “Big chest.”

“I don’t think so. Brother Yu doesn’t look that shallow. I’m betting on Chen Tong, long legs.”

Someone else cut in, “Not necessarily. Fang Yashi is actually not bad, slim waist.”

Song Tinghuan listened in a daze.

Jiang Yu’s gaze stayed on Song Tinghuan’s face the whole time. The girl was eating gossip with great relish, and didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed.

Someone started heckling. “Brother Yu, give us the truth. What kind do you like?”

Jiang Yu: “Song Tingting.”

“Huh?” Song Tinghuan froze. Turning her head, she ran straight into Jiang Yu’s pair of wet, dark eyes.

Black and bright, misted over with watery steam from the rising heat.

Everyone else also looked at one another.

They asked him what kind he liked, so why was he suddenly calling out a girl’s name? Could it be… Before the whole group’s brainstorming had even begun, they heard Jiang Yu squint slightly and say, “If you used even half the attention you spend on gossip and put it on studying, your math wouldn’t be…”

Before Jiang Yu could finish, Song Tinghuan covered his mouth.

Her eyes were full of pleading. Brother, don’t say it. Didn’t she want any face?

Jiang Yu lowered his eyes slightly, though.

The girl’s palm was soft beyond words, like a clump of cotton candy. She had just drunk peach-flavored juice, and the pale skin of her cheeks had been warmed into a rosy flush. Even the breath at the tip of her nose carried a sweet peach scent.

Jiang Yu’s back stiffened. The Adam’s apple in his throat rolled once, impossible to suppress.

Author’s Note:

Jiang Yu: Roughly speaking, this counts as a confession.

Song Tinghuan: ?