The landlord was roused from bed by Xia Xia’s phone call, trudging over from the opposite apartment complex in his slippers and shorts to unclog their toilet in the middle of the night.
After Xia Xia finished organizing the daily necessities and food she had bought, she turned to see Hui Tao absorbed in his phone at the dining table.
The landlord, wearing a mask, poked his head out of the bathroom. “Young man, come help.”
Hui Tao responded lazily, “No, it stinks.”
“Didn’t you unclog the toilet yesterday?” asked the landlord.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Why didn’t you complain about the smell yesterday?”
Still maintaining his casual demeanor, Hui Tao sauntered over. “It clogs after every use. You should replace this toilet soon.”
The landlord retorted, “The rent is only 300 yuan a month. What do you expect? Want an ivory toilet?”
“If you don’t replace it, that’s fine too,” said Hui Tao. “As long as you don’t mind coming to unclog it every day.”
The landlord playfully raised the toilet brush as if to hit him. Hui Tao held his nose and helped clear the pipes.
After the landlord left, Hui Tao realized something. This morning, they had agreed that Xia Xia would clean it, but he ended up doing it again. He had said he would teach her a lesson – if he let her off this time, given her increasingly bold attitude, who knew what she might try next.
Hui Tao went to look for Xia Xia, who had slipped into her room after putting away the groceries. He knocked, but there was no response. When he tried the handle, the door was locked from inside.
“Xia Xia,” he said calmly. “Open up, I need to talk to you.”
Xia Xia listened at the door. Hui Tao stood outside, his shadow blocking the living room light, leaving only dim illumination through the door crack.
She ran back to her bed, keeping a safe distance before responding sweetly, “What is it, Brother Hui? I’m already in bed.” She tried to charm her way out of trouble, “It’s late, can we talk tomorrow?”
“Already in bed?” Hui Tao said flatly. “Never mind then.”
Xia Xia heard him washing up in the bathroom, and then turning off the lights. The door crack went dark, and with the sound of a closing door, Hui Tao returned to his room.
Like a vigilant rabbit, Xia Xia waited another five minutes until all was quiet before getting up to find her towel and underwear. She hadn’t bathed in two days and felt uncomfortably sticky – she needed to clean up before bed.
Just as she opened the door, a dark figure flashed before her. Before she could make out Hui Tao’s silhouette in the darkness, he had already hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her to the living room.
Hui Tao lifted her as easily as carrying a chick, restraining all her struggles with one hand. Passing by the switch, he casually turned on the living room lights.
The sofa was soft as Hui Tao dropped her onto it. His hair was still wet from his shower, water dripping from the ends. He stood before Xia Xia, silently watching her with deep black eyes containing a faint glimmer.
He was paying her back with the same trick she had used on him that morning.
Xia Xia clutched her towel tightly. “Don’t try anything! Given our current relationship, you’ll be the one who suffers if you do!”
“Oh?” Hui Tao responded with his trademark questioning tone. “Are you sure about that?”
He leaned down, placing his hands on the sofa.
Up close, the faint lemon scent of his body wash reached Xia Xia’s nose, making her cheeks flush and her voice stutter.
“W-what are you doing? A man and woman alone… don’t get so close.”
“You dared to trick me,” Hui Tao pressed down on her shoulder blades, pinning her firmly to the sofa. He said in a low voice, “Didn’t I say I would teach you a lesson?”
Every cell in Xia Xia’s body trembled at his words. Being this close, their breaths mingling, she found herself intoxicated by his fresh scent. Her mind went blank and scattered for a moment, recalling many things from the past.
Hui Tao looked down at her.
The girl wore a light blue nightgown that fell to her calves, with thin straps revealing her rounded shoulders and white, lotus-stem-like arms.
The Xia Xia from before was cute, and obedient, like a small rabbit nestling by his side.
The current Xia Xia was also cute, clever, and cunning, a radiant little fox who could manipulate him with a single word, whose angry glance could make him willingly take a beating without even thinking of retaliating.
Whether docile or cunning, these traits seemed to be innately hers, and Hui Tao never found any of these characteristics incongruous with Xia Xia.
As long as it was part of her, it was good.
Hui Tao repeated in his deep voice, “I said I would teach you a lesson.”
“No… let’s talk about this…” Xia Xia pleaded.
“No discussion.” Hui Tao’s hand moved down to her waist.
Xia Xia’s mind went blank for a moment, filled with thoughts: Hui Tao is pinning me to the sofa! His hand is on my waist! I’m in my nightgown and he just showered! What a beautiful night with such a pleasant breeze! Something wonderful must happen on such a wonderful night, right?
Before Hui Tao could say anything, she had already imagined a hundred scenarios of how he might take advantage of her.
Then, switching perspectives, she also imagined her responses.
She would need to refuse appropriately, play hard to get, and first cry out tearfully: “Brother Hui, no— you can’t—”
She must first act reserved, then when the time is right, pretend to be powerless and lie weakly beneath him at his mercy. This way, not only would she enjoy it, but might also arouse Hui Tao’s sympathy. After everything, he might even hold her in his arms and tenderly kiss away her pretend tears.
Hui Tao would surely do as she imagined, right?
Xia Xia thought, with such moonlight and such a position, that if he didn’t do anything, he couldn’t be called a man.
Hui Tao had barely touched her waist with his fingertips, but Xia Xia’s mind had already raced through countless possibilities, the script already written.
However, Hui Tao didn’t follow her script. His fingertips curled slightly, tickling her waist.
The two sensitive spots on Xia Xia’s waist reacted almost instantly, all those romantic scenes in her mind vanishing immediately as she burst out laughing.
Hui Tao said coldly: “Think you can trick me?”
“Dare to call me a dog?”
“Dare to hit me in the street?”
“And dare to make me clean the toilet?”
With each sentence, he tickled her waist once.
“And you dare act like an innocent good girl, trying to win my sympathy and kindness?”
Xia Xia laughed until tears came out, her helpless screams audible to neighbors above and below through the floor. She wanted to move, but Hui Tao’s hands were like vices holding her down, leaving her unable to break free at all.
“If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll forget your surname?” Hui Tao asked, “Still dare to do it?”
Xia Xia’s voice choked, her eyes misty: “Brother Hui, please spare me, I won’t dare do it again.”
The girl’s tears clung to her face, looking pure and pitiful.
Hui Tao’s Adam’s apple trembled slightly. Facing the girl’s pleading gaze, his heart fluttered with cuteness, but he said: “Dream on, I’ll never believe you again.”
He was just teasing Xia Xia, but who knew the girl would throw caution to the wind once she realized there was no escape?
She gathered her courage and suddenly swung the towel in her hands at Hui Tao’s head.
“Trash Hui Tao! Who the hell wants to beg you? Don’t even think about it!”
Xia Xia said fiercely: “You stinking man if you have the guts, tickle me to death. Otherwise, if you leave me even a breath of life, I’ll take revenge!”
As soon as she finished speaking, an unidentified object flew out from the towel, landing right on Hui Tao’s head.
He took it down, and the object was light and soft, made of cotton fabric.
A small triangle, light blue with light pink ducks printed on it.
“I’ll take revenge, you hear me!” Xia Xia’s eyes were tearful from tickling, her emotions running high, “You better close the bathroom door properly in the future, otherwise I’ll…”
Hui Tao held the object in front of Xia Xia’s eyes. She wiped away her overflow of tears and saw what was in his hands.
— It was the clean underwear she had prepared to change into after her bath.
Xia Xia’s stream of curses and harsh words suddenly stopped.
Her cheeks, already red from crying, turned an even deeper shade of red. Her pink lips were slightly parted, frozen in place.
The spot on Hui Tao’s face where he’d been hit tingled with an imagined peculiar numbness. His nose seemed to still catch the faint soap smell from the freshly washed underwear.
He had just declared he wouldn’t let Xia Xia off, but now he couldn’t be bothered to discipline her. Before Xia Xia could notice his unnatural expression, he dove back into his room.
The door slammed shut, shocking Xia Xia out of her daze.
Her underwear had been thrown onto the sofa by Hui Tao. She picked it up and rolled around on the sofa, covering her head.
“Ahhhhh!”
Xia Xia messed up her hair completely, and after such an embarrassing incident, she felt like grinding herself up and stuffing herself into the floorboard cracks.
— Flinging her underwear onto Hui Tao’s head, how lucky was she that he didn’t kill her on the spot?
Xia Xia couldn’t even be angry anymore. She ran barefoot to Hui Tao’s door and knocked.
“Brother Hui?”
No movement inside.
Xia Xia sincerely said: “I’m sorry, it wasn’t on purpose.”
Still no movement.
Hui Tao leaned against the door panel, tilting his head back against the door, breathing softly.
The room was pitch black, his mind in chaos, thinking why he had to go provoke her when everything was fine. She was just an energetic little fox, if she played a few tricks on him, so be it. After playing with her for a while, he ended up being the embarrassed one instead.
His muscles tensed, a difficult-to-extinguish fire in his heart that couldn’t be doused, and Xia Xia came to provoke him again, making him indescribably restless.
“If you’re angry, don’t keep it to yourself. You can come out and tickle me some more, consider it my apology.”
“Brother Hui?” Xia Xia kept knocking.
“I’m not angry.” Hui Tao tried to control himself. “Go to bed.”
“You say you’re not angry, but everything was fine just now, and then you suddenly went back to your room.” Xia Xia said softly, “If you don’t want to tickle me, you can throw the underwear on my head instead, one time each, we’ll call it even.”
“I told you I’m not angry, and I told you to go to bed, don’t you understand?” Hui Tao said impatiently.
Xia Xia could hear the irritation in his tone, and her mood dropped. She turned to walk back to her room.
She had annoyed him, she thought uneasily.
After a few steps, she realized something.
Hui Tao was very quiet inside, not making a sound.
Xia Xia suddenly asked: “Hui Tao, you’re not embarrassed, are you?”
Hui Tao was silent for a long time, and just when Xia Xia thought he was using silence to deny it, he spoke in an unnaturally hoarse, low voice: “Get lost.”