Chapter 37: Smoothie

The evening wind, blowing on her sweaty skin after cleaning, felt sticky and uncomfortable.
Xiahou Ming was alone, leaning against the flower bed downstairs, kicking the stones under her feet boredly.
Wen Xuelan said she wanted to go back to the dormitory first.
She waited for a long time, so long that she thought Wen Xuelan had deserted.
Just then, the thin figure hurriedly ran out of the building.
Wen Xuelan had changed out of her sweaty school uniform and put on a light yellow T-shirt and a pair of dark trousers that were starched and a little stiff.
The clothes were ordinary, even a little rustic, but they were very clean and ironed without a wrinkle.
Her hair was wet, and although she tried hard to wipe it with a towel, water droplets were still dripping from the ends of her hair.
She went back to wash her hair.
But a completely different picture rushed into Xiahou Ming’s mind.
—One day in her first year of high school, she and Lin Xiaomei poured a whole bucket of dirty mop water over Wen Xuelan’s head.
At that time, she was just like she was now, with her hair stuck to her face, looking disheveled.
But at that time, her face did not have the blush of shyness and anticipation that appeared now.
There were only dead eyes and despair.
“Yes… I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long!” Wen Xuelan ran to her, a little out of breath because she ran too fast.
Xiahou Ming suddenly came to her senses and forced herself to suppress the disgusting images in her mind.
“…It’s okay.” She looked away, her voice a little dry, “Let’s go.”
The two walked toward the school gate together.
When she was about to reach the door, Wen Xuelan subconsciously wanted to sign the registration book in the guard room.
“This way,” Xiahou Ming grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a broken side door without saying anything. “Who cares about you?”
The force and body temperature coming from her wrist made Wen Xuelan’s heart skip a beat.
She gave up struggling and let the girl, who looked a head taller than her, lead her to complete a small “crossing of the line.”
“What are we going to eat?” Wen Xuelan followed Xiahou Ming and asked in a low voice.
“You’ll know when you get there.”
Relying on her past memories, Xiahou Ming led her to the entrance of an alley with ease.
A rich aroma mixed with cumin and chili hit them in the face.
A greasy fried skewers stall was surrounded by a group of students who had not yet dispersed.
Xiahou Ming pushed through the crowd and skillfully ordered a few skewers of fried pork tenderloin and rice cakes.
She also specifically asked for two skewers of fried bananas sprinkled with the most sugar, and then handed half of them to Wen Xuelan.
“Here, eat.”
Wen Xuelan was at a loss because of the noisy environment, the greasy floor, and the pungent smell of oil smoke.
She looked at the fried skewers in her hand dripping with red oil and sauce, and had no idea how to eat them.
“Hey, look, isn’t that Wen Xuelan from our class?”
“It’s her… Who’s that next to her? She looks familiar.”
“I don’t know… I think it’s that girl from Class 3? She’s the one who’s become quite famous recently.”
“Oh! It’s her! How could someone like Wen Xuelan be hanging out with her?”
“Who knows? I guess she’s just being played as a joke again.”
Several girls in Wen Xuelan’s class were standing not far away, pointing at her.
Their voices were not loud, but they pierced Wen Xuelan’s ears clearly like needles.
She subconsciously wanted to hide, her body trembling slightly.
At this moment, a pair of warm hands gently covered her ears.
Wen Xuelan’s whole body stiffened.
The world suddenly became quiet.
She could only hear the pounding of her own heart and the warmth coming from those palms.
She could smell a hint of sweat coming from the girl.
Xiahou Ming covered Wen Xuelan’s ears, her heart beating faster than hers.
She was scared.
She was afraid that the next words those girls would say would be the name she least wanted to hear.
She raised her head and glared at the girls who were still in a daze.
She mouthed two words to them:
“Get—away—”
Although the girls couldn’t hear the sound, they could read the undisguised malice in her fierce eyes.
They were so frightened that they shuddered, immediately fell silent, and slipped away quickly.
Xiahou Ming then let go of her hands, and then raised her middle finger toward their backs in frustration.
“…It’s okay.”
Xiahou Ming turned her head away with a somewhat stiff tone, an unnatural blush appearing on her face.
Wen Xuelan subconsciously touched her earlobe.
The ears and cheeks still retained the warmth of the other person’s palm, which was incredibly hot.
Her mind went blank, and she completely forgot what those girls had just said.
She lowered her head, looked at the fried skewers in her hand, and took a small bite cautiously.
The hot and spicy taste immediately irritated her, and she started coughing, her eyes red.
“Ahem… so… delicious.”
No matter how slow Xiahou Ming was, she could see that Wen Xuelan didn’t like it at all, or rather, she was not used to eating this kind of thing.
I messed up again…
She looked at the string of steaming pork tenderloin in her hand and felt for the first time that the simple and crude kindness of the past was so out of place in this kind of interaction between girls.
She glanced around and caught sight of a smoothie stand on the corner with a tiny lightbulb on.
“Huh?”
Before Wen Xuelan could react, Xiahou Ming had already taken all the bamboo sticks from her hand.
Then, under Wen Xuelan’s somewhat dazed gaze, she quickly stuffed all the fried skewers into her mouth.
Her cheeks were stuffed, and her mouth was smeared with grease and sauce.
She chewed hard and swallowed all the food whole.
“Burp.”
Wen Xuelan was completely stunned.
She simply couldn’t connect the girl in front of her who ate with such a bold manner with the lady in her mind.
Xiahou Ming roughly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then, in order to hide her embarrassment and to make Wen Xuelan feel less guilty, she deliberately frowned and commented:
“…It tastes terrible.”
Then, without giving Wen Xuelan any time to react, she grabbed her wrist.
In front of a small roadside stall, she took out the meager money in her pocket and said to the owner, “Hawthorn shaved ice.”
The vendor quickly shaved off fine ice flowers from a large block of ice, put them into a plastic cup, and then scooped a large spoonful of dark red hawthorn jam on it.
When the vendor handed her the plastic cup filled with smoothie, the cold water droplets condensed on the wall of the cup instantly irritated her palm.
“So cold!”
Xiahou Ming subconsciously exclaimed, almost losing her grip.
This was her first time handling something like this, and she hadn’t expected it to be this cold.
She looked at Wen Xuelan awkwardly and moved the smoothie to her other hand to hold it steadily.
At this moment, Wen Xuelan suddenly took a step forward.
She reached out and gently held Xiahou Ming’s frozen hand.
This unexpected action made Xiahou Ming stiffen.
Wen Xuelan didn’t say anything.
She just took Xiahou Ming’s hand and slowly placed it on her cheek, which was burning with shyness.
Xiahou Ming could feel that the warmth coming from the other person’s delicate skin was neutralizing the coldness bit by bit through her palms.
“This way…” Wen Xuelan lowered her head, not daring to look into her eyes, “Will it be… better?”
Xiahou Ming looked at her furry head and smelled the scent coming from her body, which she didn’t know whether it was soap or body fragrance.
All her thoughts seemed to be melted into a paste by the temperature.
She forgot who she was, where she was, why she came here, and only one thought remained in her mind:
Her face… was so hot.
She didn’t pull her hand away.
Holding a glass of smoothie, the two of them walked into a secluded alley.
In other words, Wen Xuelan was holding the smoothie, and Xiahou Ming’s hand was gently held by her, pressed against her face, and she never let go.
After being away from the gaze of the “world,” the atmosphere between them began to become natural.
At the end of the alley, Wen Xuelan pointed in the direction of the riverbank in the distance.
“That… Xia Houya,”
She finally let go of her hand somewhat embarrassedly and asked softly, with a hint of expectation in her eyes,
“The place in front… is where I often go. It’s very quiet. Do you want to… go and take a look?”
Xiahou Ming looked at her and nodded.