Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
The cup of milk that went to Song Qingchun’s mouth stopped moving. She looked at Su Zhinian open the door, and in her desperation to speak, she choked on the milk and started to cough violently.
Su Zhinian turned from the noise and saw Song Qingchun’s face started to redden from nonstop coughing. She pointed at the comforter and pillows in his grasp and tried to speak but was consumed by coughing every time.
However, he soon got her message. In the bedroom warm lights, his footsteps that moved toward her slowed, and the nervousness on his face due to her sudden coughing disappeared. He finally said,
I’ll sleep in the living room.
Then, he turned to open the door. As he stepped outside, he stopped, as if remembering something. He didn’t turn to face her. As the light from the living room fell on his face, it framed her practically crystalline skin. His tone was lighter than before, but somehow it sounded intensely helpless.
You can rest without worry; I will not come in even after you fall asleep.
You can rest without worry, I will not come in even after you fall asleep.
The tone he used was awfully similar to the one he had used when she found him in her bedroom after she was scared awake by her nightmare. He had said back then,
I promise, I will never touch you again.
Song Qingchun’s heart that relaxed when she realized he was going to spend the night in the living started to wrench with an indescribable unease.
She could clearly sense a part of her heart giving. Many times, the words had reached her mouth, but she would swallow them back down her throat again.
She stared at his profile and eventually lowered her cup to look into the cup of warm milk without saying anything.
Su Zhinian did not add anything else and left the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
He left with the light in the room. Song Qingchun finished the milk in one gulp and placed the empty cup on the bedside table. She tossed and turned in the bed, unable to fall asleep. Finally, she leaned on her side, biting her lower lip, hugging the comforter, and staring at the closed door. It was her wish that they would not have to share the same bed, and he had granted her wish, so why was she not feeling happy?
Plus, had she lost her mind earlier? When he said he wouldn’t come into the bedroom after she fell asleep, a dull pain started in her heart, and there was even a moment when she wanted to blurt out and tell him to just stay in her bed.
Song Qingchun was flustered, thinking about all these contradictory thoughts. She covered her face with the comforter and started counting sheep, trying to lull herself to sleep.
…
The room became quieter as the night darkened.
Song Qingchun was tired, but her mind simply wouldn’t rest. She found herself half-dreaming; she dreamed of Song Cheng, Qin Yinan, and Su Zhinian. She was tormented by these dreams for many hours, and Song Qingchun was finally falling asleep when she heard a voice in her ear saying,
Tingting!
The voice was familiar and sounded earnest. Song Qingchun frowned in her half-sleep. As her locked brow started to relax, she once again heard someone call
Tingting.
The desperation was more pointed than before, like some great pain was hidden behind it, a pain that made her heart twitch and her eyes fly wide open.
