When Lu Huaizheng entered the door, Yu Hao was already awake, sitting cross-legged on the bed with a foggy mind, her hair messed up like a bird’s nest from her scratching. Hearing movement at the door, she turned her head dazedly. The man in a tracksuit came in, leaning against the bedroom door, carrying a plastic bag of breakfast in one hand and playfully swinging his car keys in the other.
“Did you find money on the street?” Yu Hao asked, rubbing her messy hair with sleepy eyes.
Lu Huaizheng laughed, “Am I that shallow in your eyes?” After saying this, he put the breakfast aside and turned to the bathroom to wash his face. He bent down, scooped up water with his hands, and vigorously scrubbed his face to wash away the fatigue of the entire night.
Something soft pressed against his back, embracing him tightly.
Yu Hao rested her head against his firm back, finding a comfortable position, and mumbled with her eyes closed, “How is Professor Jiang doing? Should I go see him?”
Lu Huaizheng had told her a bit about Professor Jiang’s situation the night before. Lu Huaizheng didn’t have many elders in his life, and only a few treated him like their own son. Yu Hao understood—Professor Jiang meant to him what Professor Han meant to her. If Professor Han were lying in a hospital bed right now, Yu Hao knew her nose would sting just thinking about it. The hands around his waist unconsciously tightened a little more.
Lu Huaizheng turned off the water and turned around. He hadn’t dried his face; it was still wet with water dripping down. Leaning against the sink, his tracksuit had some water stains on it. He didn’t care and held Yu Hao close. His chin showed some stubble, which he gently rubbed against her cheek.
Wet and prickly.
Yu Hao’s drowsiness lessened somewhat as she opened her sleepy eyes to look at him. The man said a gentle “okay,” gazed at her affectionately for a moment, then lowered his head to capture her lips.
Yu Hao pushed against his solid chest, murmuring, “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet…”
Lu Huaizheng, as if deliberately, insisted on prying open her lips, his tongue reaching deep into her mouth. He was particularly mischievous, drawing out strands of saliva to show her. Yu Hao was too embarrassed to look and hid in his embrace. “You’re so disgusting.”
Lu Huaizheng leaned against the sink, contentedly holding the soft, fragrant woman in his arms. He deliberately lowered his head and laughed in her ear, “Morning saliva cures a hundred diseases. Haven’t you heard?”
“Nonsense.”
“When have I ever lied to you?”
“I still don’t believe it.”
He smiled and didn’t continue, gently stroking the back of her head.
Yu Hao buried her face in his chest, lazily hanging her arms around his neck, still drowsy. Muffled, she said, “So tired… don’t want to go to work.”
Lu Huaizheng held her and looked at his watch.
“It’s only six-thirty. You can sleep for another half hour,” he then lowered his head and whispered in her ear, “Shall I carry you back to bed?”
Yu Hao shook her head, saying dazedly, “No need. I’ll just rest on you for a bit, and I’ll wake up soon.”
This human pillow ended up being used until seven-thirty. In between, Lu Huaizheng had wanted to wake her but couldn’t bring himself to do it. She must have been exhausted from last night, and he felt a bit guilty now. Seeing her sleep so deeply, he really couldn’t bear to wake her.
Lu Huaizheng poked Yu Hao’s face several times with his finger, all to no avail. Either she tilted to one side and continued sleeping, or she smacked her lips, telling him not to disturb her so she could sleep a bit longer. Seeing this, he realized they’d need to show more restraint in the future.
Lu Huaizheng sighed. Finally, while Yu Hao was asleep, he grabbed a towel from the side and wiped her face. While she was still drowsy, he asked, “Do you need to put on makeup for work?”
Yu Hao shook her head. “No makeup.”
That made things easier.
After washing her face, Lu Huaizheng even changed her clothes—it was like taking care of a mentally challenged child.
When sitting at the table eating breakfast, Yu Hao was finally alert. She broke pieces of fried dough sticks and put them in her mouth. Lu Huaizheng sat across from her, leaning back in his chair, peeling a boiled egg for her.
Yu Hao stuffed the last piece of fried dough stick into her mouth, and Lu Huaizheng promptly placed the peeled egg in her bowl. “Eat this.”
Yu Hao didn’t like eggs.
She especially disliked egg yolks, but she noticed that Lu Huaizheng liked to give her eggs. She drank her soy milk, her bright eyes slowly rolling as she tried to think of an excuse to decline. By then, Lu Huaizheng had already taken a tissue to wipe his hands, glancing at her casually, “You’re too thin. You need to supplement your protein. Your stamina is poor too, which is why you can’t wake up in the morning.”
Without looking up, he added, “Also, I just checked your WeChat step count. You only walk two to three thousand steps every day. If you continue like this, forget about not waking up in the morning—you’ll never wake up at all.”
Yu Hao silently drank her soy milk, turning her gaze away, pretending not to hear.
Lu Huaizheng finished wiping his hands and tossed the tissue on the table to collect later. He leaned back again. “Playing dead doesn’t work. From today, I’m monitoring your WeChat step count every day.”
Yu Hao’s eyes brightened. “Then can we send WeChat messages every day?”
Lu Huaizheng laughed, exasperated. “Send you a big head. I’ll check once a week. You figure it out.”
“My stamina is fine,” Yu Hao retracted her neck and argued.
Lu Huaizheng looked at her askance for a while, his eyes full of teasing, with a skeptical expression: “Then who was crying and begging for mercy last night?”
She complained quietly, “Who does it… three times in one night.”
Lu Huaizheng’s three times weren’t that long. Not including foreplay, they didn’t exceed an hour in total. The first time was longer; the latter two were rushed because he was afraid Yu Hao couldn’t handle it. During the last time, Yu Hao was crying so much that he couldn’t bear it and, gritting his teeth, finished in just a few minutes.
He smiled, his eyes once again revealing that meaningful, rakish quality as he lazily looked at her: “It’s not that much. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so my stamina wasn’t at its best.”
Yu Hao listened in disbelief. This… this was him without stamina?
“Stop trying to scare me.”
Lu Huaizheng crossed his arms and laughed, no longer teasing her. He lifted his chin slightly, pointing to the egg in her bowl. “Be good, eat it.”
Yu Hao reluctantly ate the egg white but refused to eat the yolk. Before leaving, Lu Huaizheng ate the leftover yolk from her bowl.
After Yu Hao finished packing her things and came out, she stood at the bedroom door with her bag, watching him put the egg yolk in his mouth and then clean up the leftover trash. He walked to the entrance to change his shoes, still chewing.
This casual attitude inexplicably made Yu Hao’s heart pound.
Lu Huaizheng parked the car at the entrance of the research institute.
Yu Hao was reluctant to get out of the car, fidgeting. He looked at her suspiciously and kindly reminded her, “You’re going to be late.”
After a while, seeing Yu Hao’s face alternating between red and white, she finally blurted out, “This morning… did you help me… dress?”
Lu Huaizheng leaned back in his seat, bringing his gaze back from outside the window, straightforwardly saying, “Seeing how drowsy you were, I helped you change your clothes.”
“Just changed clothes?” Yu Hao carefully confirmed with him.
Lu Huaizheng clicked his tongue and sucked in a breath. “You were that drowsy—what could I have done to you?”
He tilted his head slightly, frowning with some dissatisfaction: “Besides if I were to do that to you, could you have felt nothing? It’s not like it’s an enoki mushroom.”
Nonsense!!!
What on earth was he talking about?
Yu Hao was furious and let out a world-shattering roar at him: “Who said anything about that?!”
Lu Huaizheng still looked confused: “Then what are you talking about?”
She exploded: “You forgot to put my bra on, you big idiot!”
…
The car was silent for three seconds. After Yu Hao’s outburst, they both froze, faces red, neither breaking the silence, as if the air had been vacuumed out.
Until Lu Huaizheng came to his senses. In his mind, he hadn’t even thought about that kind of garment—he’d just put on her clothes and considered it done. He carefully tried to recall what Yu Hao’s bra looked like, vaguely remembering it was black, but couldn’t remember seeing it at home that morning.
It was probably stuffed in some corner by him the night before.
“Why weren’t you wearing one while sleeping last night?”
“Who wears a bra to sleep?!”
Noted—apparently one doesn’t wear that thing to sleep.
“Shall I go back and get it for you?” After saying this, Lu Huaizheng’s gaze fell on her chest area. Fortunately, the blouse was a bit thick and not very transparent—loose and large, it didn’t show Yu Hao’s modest chest at all. This was something he dared not say; if he did, Yu Hao would hit him. “You go clock in first. After that, hide in the bathroom, and I’ll bring it to you once I find it.”
…
Lu Huaizheng raced back home. He searched for a long time but couldn’t find Yu Hao’s bra. Finally, he found it in the crevice of the bedroom sofa, a testament to last night’s intense encounter.
Back at the research institute, Yu Hao emerged with a red face after changing into her bra.
Looking up, she saw the man leaning against the bathroom door, hands in his pockets, head down, trying to suppress his laughter—his shoulders were shaking continuously.
The more Yu Hao looked, the angrier she became. She raised her hand to hit him.
Lu Huaizheng caught her hand and bent down to whisper in her ear: “Truly inexperienced. ‘Practice makes perfect’—this saying is right. Tomorrow, I promise to put on all your garments without missing a single one.”
Yu Hao’s face burned. “Why is your mouth so annoying?”
Lu Huaizheng smiled and was about to speak when he saw Professor Han approaching from behind, quietly walking with a teacup. He released her hand, suppressed his smile, straightened up, and maintained a certain distance from Yu Hao. He lightly coughed, cleared his throat, and smiled innocently, stating seriously: “Comrade Yu Hao, we should work hard today. Even if we can’t bring glory to our country, we can at least try to earn money and contribute to our motherland’s GDP.”
Han Zhichen passed by, steady as a mountain, glanced at the two, and dropped a line: “With that level of political awareness, it’s a real pity the Red Army didn’t recruit you during the Long March.”
Yu Hao turned to follow him inside.
As Lu Huaizheng turned to go to his car, he heard people whispering in the bathroom.
“Did you see Di Yanni’s Weibo? That crazy fan who threw sulfuric acid at Yu Hao last time has been released. She even posted on Weibo yesterday, saying she wants to punish someone.”
“Punish who?”
“Yu Hao, of course. Yu Hao is the only one who openly challenged Di Yanni. If not her, who else would they punish?”