When they arrived at the rental house, Su Huaizhou was dressed in a white goose-down jacket. After lying on the bed, she took it off, revealing a slim-fitting beige turtleneck sweater beneath.
The sweater hugged her figure as she lay upside-down on the bed, her head resting at the footboard.
Jiang Miao sat at the foot of the bed, typing on his laptop. But every time Su Huaizhou shifted, the blanket covering her slipped a little, and his gaze was irresistibly drawn over, as though it had been ensnared in a trap it couldn’t escape.
Just treat it as gathering material…
Jiang Miao ignored the 1,490-word draft on the screen, his attention fixed on Senior Sister’s exquisite face. His gaze trailed down from her delicate profile and lingered in the shadowy valley below.
More than ten minutes later, Su Huaizhou, half-asleep with her eyes barely open, suddenly lifted her head at the foot of the bed and asked in puzzlement, “Didn’t you say you were almost done? Why haven’t you finished writing yet?”
“Ahem…” Jiang Miao quickly averted his gaze as soon as Senior Sister opened her eyes and pretended to focus on his writing, hands hovering over the keyboard. “I’ve hit writer’s block and can’t figure out the ending.”
“How many words do you have?”
“1490.”
“Isn’t that just one sentence away?”
“Senior Sister, a key to writing serialized web novels is crafting the perfect chapter ending,” Jiang Miao spouted nonsense seriously. “It’s vital for keeping readers hooked and securing follow-up reads every day.”
“Isn’t it just about cliffhangers?” Su Huaizhou harrumphed. She reached out from under the blanket and scratched Junior Brother playfully, punishing him on behalf of the readers. “You’re making it sound so grandiose.”
“Cliffhangers are an art!” he declared solemnly. “They aren’t something you can master easily. I’m still learning and improving myself.”
She rolled over under the blanket, going from lying on her back to her stomach. She glared at the self-righteous Junior Brother, feeling an intense urge to bite him.
Under Senior Sister’s watchful gaze, despite the lingering allure of the abyss, Jiang Miao finally focused and added the concluding paragraph to the chapter.
The male lead carried the drunk, disoriented female lead back to her bed. After he wiped her down, she began acting out in a drunken haze. She pressed the voice button in her best friend’s WeChat chat and sent strange, incoherent messages.
Finally, she tapped on the chat labeled ‘Mother-in-Law’.
And then…?
And then, naturally, the chapter ended on a cliffhanger.
Jiang Miao deftly typed the final period, copied the entire chapter, uploaded it to the author’s dashboard, finalized the title, added an author’s note, and hit send. Finally, he exhaled a long sigh of relief.
“All done, Senior Sister,” he announced as he closed his laptop and then flopped face-down onto the bed. He was completely drained and only wanted to rest.
“Be careful.” Su Huaizhou quickly steadied the laptop that almost toppled off the bed from his movement and carefully placed it on the floor. Just as she was about to turn over, she realized that the single narrow bed gave her no room to move. “You’ve finished writing, and now you’re loafing around? Don’t sleep now.”
“My brain is fried. I need to recharge.” Jiang Miao burrowed into the soft bedding with a contented sigh. Then he pulled the blanket over himself and curled up beneath it. “I’ll nap for a bit and go downstairs later.”
“Hey.”
Jiang Miao dove onto the bed from the foot of it, so his head naturally faced the head of the bed, leaving him and Su Huaizhou lying in opposite directions.
His large feet ended up near her face, earning a disgruntled shove from her.
But just as Su Huaizhou was about to sit up and turn around, Jiang Miao, eyes already half-closed and ready to nap, wrapped his arms around her legs.
She wore light-colored, wide-legged pants today, but the long fabric had ridden up to her calves while she lay on the bed, revealing her feet in white socks and a glimpse of her delicate ankles and calves. When Junior Brother unconsciously pulled her legs into his arms, her cheeks flushed red as she struggled slightly.
It wasn’t until Senior Sister’s sock-clad foot brushed against his chin that Jiang Miao realized he had hugged the wrong thing. After sheepishly letting go, he watched as she turned around to lie properly at the head of the bed. Then he turned on his side, hugged her soft, warm body, and closed his eyes to doze off.
By now, Su Huaizhou was no longer sleepy. She glanced down at Junior Brother clinging to her, a rare trace of tenderness flickering in her eyes.
She reached out and brushed her slender fingers through his hair, her touch light and careful. Gazing at his well-defined profile, she became lost in thought.
The person she liked was right here, sleeping against her, the bodies nestled together on a narrow single bed. The intimacy and closeness felt almost unreal, filling her with both gratitude and joy.
Three months ago, she would never have imagined herself hugging a boy like this, snuggled up so closely together on a narrow single bed.
She only knew that she had no regrets and even felt fortunate. From someone who once doubted love to someone now willing to embrace it, all it took was one Jiang Miao.
Or perhaps, Peach Jam?
Su Huaizhou smiled, feeling the steady, calm rhythm of Junior Brother’s breathing as he drifted into sleep. Unable to resist, she leaned down and lightly kissed his cheek.
Then, as if bewitched, her lips wandered from his cheek to the corner of his mouth.
Soft.
Sweet.
Feeling Junior Brother stirring slightly, his brow knitting faintly, Su Huaizhou quickly pulled back to avoid waking him up.
For some reason, she always felt shy about kissing him when he was awake, often pushing him away unless she absolutely couldn’t resist.
But every time Junior Brother fell asleep, she couldn’t control her mouth and liked to kiss him secretly.
She knew she could kiss him whenever she wanted, but the thrill of secrecy, the allure of stolen moments, had her utterly addicted.
To keep herself in check, Su Huaizhou took out her phone and opened the latest chapter that Peach Jam had just uploaded, hoping to distract herself.
In the new update, the male and female leads were still on their National Day getaway in Xiamen.
Peach Jam had already written over 20 chapters for this vacation arc, with the upcoming chapters set to revolve around the female lead’s birthday. It seemed there was still plenty of story left to tell.
Su Huaizhou read at a leisurely pace, worried she’d finish too quickly.
But just like a popsicle once unwrapped, no matter how slowly you savored it, it would eventually be gone.
Even though Su Huaizhou paused often to read the chapter comments, she still finished reading the chapter in eight minutes.
When she reached the cliffhanger at the end, she clenched her teeth and barely resisted the urge to shake Junior Brother awake and demand he keep writing.
Having such a perfect small dark room was rare. It felt like a waste not to lock him in and drain him dry.
Su Huaizhou set her phone on the blanket, kicked her feet idly beneath it, and sighed.
She really wanted to know what happened next!
Why was it that, even after finding someone she liked—who also happened to be her favorite author—she still felt unsatisfied?
Even now, seeing the comments accusing Peach Jam of short updates, word padding, or being a cliffhanger fiend, she felt uncomfortable.
She really wanted to refute every single critic, but she refrained, worried that starting a fight might affect Peach Jam.
In the end, all she could do was pretend not to see them.
Like many others, she used to think that writing was easy: just sit down, stay focused, and churn out at least 10,000 words a day—no problem.
But in reality, such a situation was difficult for anyone to achieve.
It was like when parents said that if their child focused entirely on studying, sat still, and didn’t slack off, they’d definitely ace the college entrance examination and get into a top college.
But everyone knew how it went in practice.
In comparison, Su Huaizhou thought Jiang Miao was already very impressive.
At least, compared to most first-year students, the majority wouldn’t be able to handle keeping up with a 3,000-word daily update, with occasional bonus chapters.
In fact, authors who could maintain consistent updates without fail were already rare gems.
In that case, her Peach Jam was already quite capable.
Su Huaizhou looked down at Jiang Miao’s profile, gently tapped her finger on his forehead, slid it down his tall nose, and finally brushed it lightly over his lips.
Hmm… just one more kiss.
Su Huaizhou’s expression was conflicted, hesitant, yet her movements were decisive.
Just one more kiss, and she would stop.
Just one more.
Just one.
…
“Mm…”
When Jiang Miao woke up, he felt his lips were wet.
Before he could even open his eyes, he felt Senior Sister wiping his lips with a tissue.
“Senior Sister, what are you doing?!” He was startled, his eyes wide open in confusion
“Ahem…” Su Huaizhou, who was cleaning up the battlefield, felt a bit guilty, but her hands didn’t stop moving until Junior Brother’s lips were clean. “You… you drooled while sleeping. It was gross.”
“Really?” Jiang Miao, still unaware of the truth, felt a bit embarrassed. He sat up and wiped his now-dry lips. “Sorry to trouble you, Senior Sister.”
“No problem. We should head downstairs now.” She quickly got up to avoid Junior Brother noticing anything odd. She threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and put on her down jacket. “Let’s go.”
He grabbed his laptop and followed Senior Sister downstairs, placing it in his backpack along the way.
“Ah, Senior Sister, you two are finally down.” Song Huanhuan immediately waved at them as soon as she saw them. “Wanna play Mafia?”
“Sure, coming!” Su Huaizhou pulled Jiang Miao to sit down and join the others in the game.
Sun Yumeng, sitting beside Song Huanhuan, had a complicated expression in her eyes as she looked at Su Huaizhou and Jiang Miao. Her gaze darted back and forth between them, searching for clues.
Senior Sister’s hair is slightly messy.
The collar of her sweater is a little crooked.
Her lips are moist.
Jiang Miao looks a bit tired.
And his lips seem slightly swollen.
When someone had already formed an opinion in their mind, they could always find ‘evidence’ that confirmed their assumptions, reinforcing their stance.
At this moment, in Sun Yumeng’s mind, these ‘obvious’ clues were enough to fuel her wild imagination into writing a hundred-thousand-word story, causing her face to flush red.
Fortunately, the air conditioner in the rental house was on, so her flushed face wasn’t noticeable. Everyone was immersed in the fun of Mafia, so no one noticed Sun Yumeng’s strange behavior.
By around nine o’clock in the evening, a few students who weren’t planning to stay the night said their goodbyes and took a taxi back to the school.
The remaining people tidied up the mess on the table before diving into the second half of the night’s festivities.
Senior Sister dragged Jiang Miao to play mahjong again, vowing to get revenge for the afternoon’s defeat, though her other opponents this time were Zhao Lu and Qi Lianyue.
After winning two more rounds, Jiang Miao said kindly, “Senior Sister, why don’t we play Mafia instead? At least you can win without trying. Or we could play the claw machine. The claw here is pretty strong.”
“No way! Again!” Su Huaizhou gritted her teeth, flipped the tiles, and continued the fight.
…
At around ten o’clock at night, Ding Ning, who was singing with Pei Jue and others in the karaoke room, suddenly heard her phone ring. When she checked it, her face lit up with joy, and she quietly slipped out of the room.
The living room was empty. Everyone was either playing mahjong, singing, or dozing off while watching a movie in the home theater.
“Hello, Haoshang?”
“I’m here. What floor?”
“Twelfth floor!”
“I’m coming up.”
Ding Ning carefully opened the door and stepped into the corridor. She looked at the floor numbers changing on the screen beside the elevator until it finally stopped at twelve.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
When the elevator doors opened, the boy she had been missing all day appeared in front of her. She almost couldn’t hold back her desire to rush forward and throw herself into Chen Haoshang’s arms.
Thankfully, she managed to hold back. Standing at the elevator entrance, she watched him walk out. She only reached out to grab his sleeve and led him into the house.
Chen Haoshang didn’t come here for fun.
It was Ding Ning’s first time dining out with her classmates and staying overnight in college, so he couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.
So after finishing his delivery shift tonight, he hopped on his electric scooter and rushed over.
The rental house was warm. After following her inside, Chen Haoshang took off his black coat and hung it on the rack by the door.
Ding Ning jobbed over to the table, planning to pour him a drink, but he waved her off and poured himself a glass of warm water from the water dispenser.
Then the two of them sat at the table, doing nothing in particular, just chatting.
Most of the time, it was Ding Ning who spoke while Chen Haoshang listened quietly.
One seemed to have an endless stream of words, while the other seemed to have boundless patience.
Since Chen Haoshang was busy every day, the two of them didn’t get to spend much time together.
Every day, Ding Ning would send him good morning and goodnight messages on WeChat and share bits and pieces of her school life.
But she was always careful not to say too much, afraid of distracting him. She would carefully pick the things she most wanted to share.
Moments like today, where they could sit and chat together, much less for an entire night, had become a rare occurrence.
When Chen Haoshang came back to his senses, Ding Ning had already quietly tucked her small hand into his palm.
It wasn’t until the four people in the mahjong room came out that Ding Ning suddenly withdrew her hand and lowered her head with a flushed face like a child caught doing something naughty.
“Huh? Brother Shang, you’re here too?” Jiang Miao’s eyes lit up when he saw Chen Haoshang. He looked at the time again. It was already past 11 p.m.
At this hour, Chen Haoshang definitely wouldn’t return to the dorm.
So Jiang Miao took out his phone and opened WeChat, intending to inform Xun Liang, only to discover that it had already been done.
[No Tears in the Wind]: I’m staying out tonight.
[Ranran’s Dog]: ???
[Ranran’s Dog]: What the hell?
[Ranran’s Dog]: What are you three doing? You’re just leaving me alone in the room?!
[No Tears in the Wind]: Jiang Miao and Wang Xin should already be there. I’m on my way.
[Ranran’s Dog]: Fuck!
System Notification: [Ranran’s Dog has left the group.]
The thought of Dog spending the night alone in the room made Jiang Miao laugh. He pulled Chen Haoshang and called Wang Xin out of the home theater. The three of them took a group photo by the pool table.
Then Jiang Miao invited Xun Liang back into the group chat.
System Notification: [You have invited Ranran’s Dog to join the group.]
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: (Picture)
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Dog, take care of the house. Your dads won’t be coming home tonight.
[Ranran’s Dog]: Get lost!
[Ranran’s Dog]: (Let it all burn!.jpg)