Chapter 29 (1)
You’re Beautiful When You Smile
Tong Yao had a nightmare that night.
In the dream, she was in the bar at the street corner and was so intoxicated that she was jumping up and down like a monkey. After she returned to the base and saw the new mid who was going to replace her……She cried, cried so hard that her tongue was tied in a knot. Amid the endless tears, the only sentence she could utter was, “I’m strong, I don’t want to be the alternate who can only keep an eye on the drinking fountain.” In the end, she hugged Lu Sicheng and earnestly said: Cheng Ge, I’ll sing a song for you. Let me be the starting mid.
Afterwards, she began solemnly sing “Fireflies Fly.”
Half way through the song, she was so moved by the song that she held Lu Sicheng so tight as if he was her long lost father and she began to cry again– —
In the dream, it felt as if the whole world had abandoned her.
Tong Yao didn’t know what happened after that as she abruptly awoke from the dream. The expressionless and mean face of Lu Sicheng, while listening to her singing, was so real in her dream, it looked like a picture on a wanted poster.
“……”
Tong Yao opened her eyes to check the clock in her room. It was 11 am. The ceiling in her room was twirling– –She widened her eyes and kicked her blanket with her foot. Nothing fuzzy came rushing out of her blanket: Dabing wasn’t here.
It was already past the regular breakfast and bathroom time for her cat. As a responsible cat owner, she was afraid that her own cat would flip over the litter box out of hunger and frustrating and struggled to get out of bed……
Then she discovered that the whole world was spinning.
She had a severe headache and was sore all over like she had exercised too much last night. When she stepped on the floor, her knees were weak……She dragged herself into the bathroom to take a shower. After the shower, she had sobered up somewhat. She opened the door looking for her cat while drying her hair. As soon as she opened the door, she kicked a plastic bag placed right in front of her door– —
“……What’s this?”
Tong Yao bent down to pick the bag up and found out that it was medicine to help sober up.
She freezed with the medicine in hand at the doorway for about 30 seconds, then returned back to the room and closed the door.
……
An hour later, at noon, the door to Lu Sicheng’s room opened. The young man walked out of the room yawning. His wet black hair drooped down, water beads dripping along his face……
The disappearing cat came out from the room behind him. The cat squeezed out its head between the ankle of the man and the door frame to take a look. Then it went downstairs with its short legs– —
The man looked down from the second floor and saw a unknown person wearing a mask of Sun Wukong sitting in front of the computer furthest to the right.
She was curled up in the chair, still wearing her white sleeping gown. The fat cat came to her, meowing, then jumped on and began stepping over her.
— –It was empty at the first floor of the base. Everyone was exhausted after the drama last night and probably wouldn’t wake up until it was time for choosing the new uniform.
Lu Sicheng walked downstairs, went to the refrigerator, and opened it to see there was nothing inside. He raised his eyebrows when he saw all the empty yogurt drink bottles piled up in the trash can nearby. He closed the refrigerator and walked behind the only other lively person in the base. He stuck out one finger to lift up a corner of the mask on her face. “Sun Wukong, where are my yogurt drinks? There were 5 or 6 bottles before I went to sleep last night.”
“……”
The person on the chair was playing Super Mario.
Mario was busy jumping to grab all the coins, eating mushrooms, and stepping on turtles. The person who was playing Mario was also very busy. She slowly backed away from Lu Sicheng’s hand, the mask bounced back onto her face.
She cried out in pain and covered a portion of her face.
Lu Sicheng: “What are you doing?”
Tong Yao: “I’m reflecting on life.”
Lu Sicheng: “Starting from when? From the second you’re born or about 15 hours ago when you started drinking your first Long Island Iced Tea?”
Tong Yao: “……”
“I suggest the latter.” Lu Sicheng lightly said, “Since it’s already rich enough for you to ponder on for a long time.”
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