“Mn.”
There wasn’t any abnormal expression on Song Qing’s face. Seeing that her face was a little awkward, he instead reassured, “This hand cream is not good to use, I also always squeeze out too much.”
At first, he only wanted to apply to his hands, couldn’t squeeze it out, knocked it a few times, still no use, used a bit more force and then squeezed too much.
So he thought, might as well apply to the neck, just right, save the trouble of not finishing and wasting it.
Next time he only wanted to squeeze out enough for hands and neck, again squeezed too much, could only also apply to arms and legs.
After applying once he discovered, as long as you endure the sticky hands phase, the next day the applied areas would be more moisturized, simply from then on applied like this every time.
Four tubes is too much, with only a bit more than a month of shelf life, applying to the whole body is more than enough, might even not finish using them.
“So it’s like that.” Nan Zhi revealed a look of realization on her face.
In her heart she couldn’t hold back, cursed the brand of this product, can’t they let people test it more before putting it on the market?
This whole thing, people who don’t know might even think she did it on purpose, if it were anyone else they’d definitely misunderstand, luckily, Song Qing was rather simple-minded, didn’t think in other directions, he even adjusted his posture himself, from lying on his stomach to lying on his side, letting the side that wasn’t applied face her, cooperating with her, letting her continue.
Nan Zhi’s bit of guilt faded away, rolled up her sleeves and continued applying to his waist side.
While applying she couldn’t help but ask him, “Why are you applying this in the middle of the night?”
Song Qing gathered his clothes, paused slightly.
Didn’t really want to tell her, he was studying things until very late, and only now was preparing to sleep.
This hand cream thing, if applied too early it’s sticky and slippery, makes typing hands slip, so now he only applies before sleeping.
“Forgot before going to sleep, just now when I went to the toilet I remembered, so patching it up a bit.”
Nan Zhi blinked, felt like something was off, but couldn’t say where, only muttered in her heart.
He actually even has obsessive-compulsive disorder, can’t go one day without applying.
Maybe thinks it would be a pity if it expired and he forgot to use it.
Nan Zhi didn’t dig deeper, her hand slid back and forth along his waist side, evenly spreading out the bit of hand cream scooped from the other palm.
During this process, although she suppressed it hard, she still couldn’t avoid some thoughts coming out.
This was her first time touching a boy’s back and waist.
Have to say, it really felt good to the touch, like silk, could slide all the way up in one stroke from below.
Different from her own waist, looks thin, but actually soft, when she sits down there would be a little belly.
Song Qing’s was also soft, but had a kind of taut feeling, even when lying on his side, didn’t have the slightest bit of belly, abdomen flat and smooth, always looking good, the lines beautiful, to the touch like dough.
Nan Zhi had taken over dough that Grandma had kneaded, needed a lot of strength to continue kneading it, surface smooth and shiny, one press and it made a dent, looked very soft but actually had toughness.
Well, that makes sense, he’s still one month away from turning eighteen on his ID card, just in the phase between youth and teenage, like a fruit that is about to ripen but not yet fully ripe — not at its best maturity where it’s soft and mushy — right now looks pretty, but if you take a bite it’s still green and sour, can’t chew through.
Still needs to grow some more.
In Nan Zhi’s mind inexplicably appeared a scene — someone standing under a tree, waiting for the still green fruit on the tree to turn red.
That person was the back view of a girl — exactly who, couldn’t be seen.
Although she always said with her mouth that Song Qing was her wife, but without reaching the ending, who could know what the final situation would be.
Maybe she would meet someone even better, maybe Song Qing would also find someone else — who knows?
Nan Zhi settled her mind, focused on her hands. Fingers placed on his abdominal area, gave him a push backward — this person suddenly fell down, became lying face up.
Nan Zhi continued applying, moving while thinking.
She actually didn’t use any force, it was this person who sensed it and cooperated.
He was now also holding all the hem of his clothes in his arms, lifting them up, completely exposing his abdomen to make it convenient for her.
Speaking of which, after lying down flat, the waist and abdomen became even more flat.
But Nan Zhi’s attention was on his head — he was wearing a small clip she had tossed into the paper box when organizing things she didn’t want anymore.
It was a fuzzy pom-pom one. She had two of them — when drawing or washing her face, her hair would fall down when she lowered her head, very annoying, so she bought clips to hold it up.
The other pom-pom had already fallen off a long time ago and was thrown away by her. This one she often liked to tug and touch — the pom-pom got dirty, and after washing it, it wasn’t as smooth, so she ordered two more. After having the new ones, she didn’t want the old anymore, casually tossed it into a paper box.
Didn’t expect him to dig it out and continue using it.
Some of his notions were the same as her grandma’s. A lot of things she bought and didn’t use — like clothes and such — once she didn’t want them anymore, her grandma, even though she didn’t lack money, would still pick them up to wear herself.
So sometimes when going out, she’d find that the two of them were wearing similar styles of clothes. Because her grandma leaned toward younger styles, she looked like she was twenty years younger. Often people would see her wearing pink and say she was pretending to be young, but grandma didn’t care, still wore them, reluctant to throw them away.
Song Qing probably had the same mentality as her — looked at it as still good, and even though his hair was short and he couldn’t really use it much, he still wore it.
After all, this thing other than clipping hair, didn’t have any other function.
A pink fuzzy pom-pom, with eyes and a mouth on it, shaped like a little bird — worn on his head, a boy, actually was a bit comical — but Nan Zhi only felt it was cute.
Her line of sight moved up, and saw the desk also had some of the things she didn’t want anymore — dolls caught from the claw machine — after being placed in the cubbyhole cabinet for a long time they got dusty, looked dirty and ugly, she was too lazy to wash them, so just threw them away.
There was a little penguin, which he had cleaned till completely clean, placed in a newly emptied bookshelf after tidying.
Not gonna lie, placed like that, it actually looked even better.
On the desk surface there were also some other miscellaneous old favorite decorations — now she felt they took up space, so organized them all — he had wiped and cleaned them and placed them back out again.
Even a crystal doll had been fixed up by him, making the desk area feel a bit more elegant.
There were also facial masks and hand creams that were only a few months from expiration, not daring to use anymore, and tea leaves, etc. — all of them he was using and drinking.
She herself had low blood sugar, would get dizzy when on her period, must drink brown sugar ginger tea — but when she wanted to drink it, couldn’t find it, could only buy again — after buying, the previous bag would magically appear, super infuriating.
By accident she accumulated a few bags, couldn’t finish them, could only throw them out. When tidying up, it hurt her heart — once opened, there’s no way around it. But these past two days, she saw him drinking it.
Really not picky at all, drank it with enjoyment, made her also want to try a bit.
Probably because she would drink from his, so now when both of them were there, his cup would always have brown sugar ginger water, and he would even open it and drink it right in front of her, stirring up her urge to try.
After they separated, Nan Zhi took a look.
It was damp-expelling tea.
Sure enough, that brown sugar water was something he drank specifically to take care of her. Before, it was just a vague thought; now, seeing other tea confirmed it — it really was.
Brown sugar ginger tea, well, it’s very good for girls, nourishing. A long time ago, she had taken down a bag or two and placed them in the kitchen. He had brewed it for her too. The ones he specially brewed, she actually drank less, because it didn’t taste good.
The rest were all drunk by him.
After she didn’t want it anymore, he brewed it for himself every day. Then she thought it smelled good, couldn’t help being curious about the taste, so took the chance to drink a few sips — to replenish blood and energy.
Speaking of which, he had just had a major bleeding not long ago, and he was already thin, a bit malnourished — he also needed to replenish blood and qi.
If he drank it every day, who knew what he’d be nourished into.
Nan Zhi was actually quite looking forward to it. She lowered her head, looked at the person lying on the bed, felt that actually there were already signs — for example, this person’s complexion was better.
Brown sugar ginger tea, and the hair clip — Nan Zhi was turning over these things in her mouth, and couldn’t help but have some other thoughts rise in her heart — wanting to test them out. Of course, not today. Too late. Let’s talk tomorrow.
Nan Zhi gathered away all her thoughts, refocused her attention onto Song Qing.
He, like a well-behaved little baby, had his head resting on the quilt, hugging his clothes, watching her apply hand cream for him.
Her mind was floating far — sometimes when she wasn’t paying attention, her fingernail would catch on his clothes.
He was currently wearing a fuzzy homewear pajama set. Nan Zhi, because her body had been unwell for many years, would get cracks in her fingernails. When rubbing against clothes, strands of thread would sometimes get caught. Occasionally, when the weather was too dry, her hands too — would generate static electricity, and she’d get shocked.
Song Qing saw it, and pulled the clothes upward again, revealing more of his abdomen. Calling it abdomen — actually, it was already up to his chest.
Because more was exposed, Nan Zhi’s hand also moved upward — past the soft abdomen, the area above had a bit of slope. She wanted to push firmly, but her hand slipped, and bumped into the clothes again, and got zapped by static.
Song Qing once again pulled his clothes upward. It was already quite far up. After he adjusted it again, the clothes couldn’t cover the chest anymore — a bit of chunse \[春色 – literally “spring scenery,” a euphemism for exposed skin or sensuality] peeked out. Song Qing himself also noticed, and pulled the clothes down again to cover that glimpse of spring.
Nan Zhi observed the whole thing, and for a moment didn’t know what to say — only felt that his actions were adorable.
Truly, once you’ve formed an opinion of someone, everything they do afterward just reinforces it.
Nan Zhi had always thought Song Qing was cute — whatever he did just deepened that impression, and made her feel that way even more.
Actually, he himself was indeed very cute.
The hand cream in Nan Zhi’s right hand was finally all spread out, rubbed evenly. There was still a little bit left in her left palm, but all the areas that should be applied had already been done. The rest were places that couldn’t be touched — so she let Song Qing stretch out his hand.
Although Song Qing didn’t know what she wanted to do, when it wasn’t some big problem, he was always very obedient, obediently stretched out one hand.
Nan Zhi rubbed the leftover bit of hand cream into his palm.
There was still a small amount of white — Nan Zhi’s palm pressed against the soft flesh inside his palm, rubbed hard a few times.
Song Qing’s gaze had been fixed the whole time on the spot where the two of them were touching. After the hand cream was rubbed in, he clearly felt that soft flesh inside his palm had been rubbed repeatedly — giving rise to a trace of heat.