MTB - Chapter 20
Chapter 20: I Will Fall in Love with You
“I waited for you for so long, and this is all you have to say to me!”
“Lower your voice,” Tang Yuelou reminded her. “There are patients sleeping here.”
Ye Ziqiu’s furious roar came through the phone.
Tang Yuelou had originally planned to go to the company today. Ye Ziqiu had arranged to ask for her help with a porcelain design draft for her mother’s birthday. The draft arrived on time, but the person suddenly didn’t. When she called, she was told she was at home taking care of a patient and couldn’t get away.
“Choosing lovers over friends.” Ye Ziqiu summarized the behavior in four words.
“Send me the draft now, and I’ll look at it for you.” Tang Yuelou closed the living room window, shutting out the sound of the wind and rain. “But I have a lot of miscellaneous things to do these next few days, so I can’t guarantee speed.”
“Fine, fine, as long as you guarantee the quality. You can spend the rest of your time taking care of your little one. Tsk, people in love… so blind.”
Tang Yuelou: “I’m not…”
“Don’t give me that,” Ye Ziqiu immediately retorted before she could finish. “‘Curiosity’ plus ‘liking’ plus ‘wanting to take care of someone’—in the minds of us normal people, that’s usually a prelude to falling in love.”
Tang Yuelou was at a loss for words.
Holding her phone, she glanced at the closed bedroom door.
Perhaps Yun Yang’s question today—“What is our relationship?”—was unintentional, but for a moment, she truly didn’t know how to answer.
There was nothing in the world more illusory than “love.” If you broke it down, you would find that what it contained was far from being as pure as it appeared on the surface—the person holding a rose one second might treat you with cold indifference the next. The person who leads you into marriage full of hope might be the very one who guides you to your grave.
Believing in love was a foolish thing to begin with.
“I only said a few words, and you’ve extrapolated so much meaning from them?” Tang Yuelou frowned. “You seem to be overstepping a bit.”
“Never mind that. Let me ask you,” Ye Ziqiu’s tone grew slightly serious. “Who are you seeing her as? You’re repeating your past mistakes.”
Tang Yuelou silently hung up the phone.
When Yun Yang fully regained consciousness, she found herself in Tang Yuelou’s bed.
The temperature on her forehead had cooled, but the feeling of weakness in her limbs remained. She moved her arms and legs and suddenly felt that the texture of what was under her head wasn’t quite right. With her eyes still closed, Yun Yang casually reached out to the side.
And then she was wide awake.
She realized she wasn’t resting on a pillow, but on Tang Yuelou’s arm. She was clinging to her like a koala, a complete mess of a sleeper, wrinkling Tang Yuelou’s clothes. Tang Yuelou was still fast asleep. As if sensing Yun Yang’s movement, she furrowed her brow in her dream and unconsciously caressed Yun Yang’s wrist.
The sky was completely dark. The bedroom curtains weren’t fully drawn, revealing a corner of the window. It seemed to be raining outside. Yun Yang didn’t know how long she had slept. She vaguely remembered Tang Yuelou bringing her home after her IV drip finished and feeding her some porridge at noon.
Her mind had been groggy from the high fever, and she couldn’t even tell if the porridge was sweet or salty. Now that her temperature had dropped, the feeling of hunger slowly began to surface. But she was too lazy to get out of bed, so she rolled over and stared, lost in thought, at Tang Yuelou’s sleeping face.
Whenever she was with Tang Yuelou, Yun Yang was always the one who went to bed early and woke up late. Opportunities to watch her sleep were rare. With those eyes that seemed to see through people’s hearts closed, her face was left with only a quiet gentleness, like a sleeping beauty from an ancient painting.
No matter how many times she looked at this face, she found it flawless. Such a beautiful person—it was a pity she had a mouth.
At this thought, Yun Yang couldn’t help but smile. She touched Tang Yuelou’s drooping eyelashes with her finger, then waited two seconds. Seeing that Tang Yuelou didn’t wake up, she grew bolder and grazed her lips.
Just then, a phone suddenly rang. Yun Yang jumped in fright. She fumbled around, finally discovering it was Tang Yuelou’s phone on the other nightstand. She scrambled over Tang Yuelou to reach for it, but before she could touch it, her fingers were seized.
Yun Yang was so startled she nearly leaped out of bed.
“Why are you awake?” She was propped up over Tang Yuelou, her hand still outstretched. She gave an awkward smile. “No, I mean, when did you wake up?”
“Just now.” Tang Yuelou’s voice was still hoarse from sleep. She glanced at the caller ID, frowning slightly. She let the phone ring for two more seconds before the caller hung up. The bedroom fell silent again. In the same position, she raised a hand to support Yun Yang’s waist.
“Be careful, you’re already stirring things up right after your fever broke.” She touched Yun Yang’s forehead and asked, “How are you feeling? Still uncomfortable?”
At her touch, a slight dizziness belatedly returned. Yun Yang shook her head and asked, “Aren’t you going to answer the phone?”
Tang Yuelou didn’t answer. She helped her lie back down, then took her temperature again. After confirming the fever was gone, she leaned over and kissed her forehead, asking softly, “Are you hungry?”
Yun Yang nodded.
“There isn’t much food at home, and it’s not convenient to go out and buy some at this hour. Is porridge okay?”
Yun Yang nodded again. She picked up her own phone from the nightstand and only then realized it was two in the morning.
Faint sounds came from the kitchen. She looked at the little red dots indicating a pile of unread messages on her phone, but her heart felt inexplicably soft and aching.
They say being sick lowers one’s psychological defenses. She suddenly thought seriously that if they could go on like this forever, it would be quite nice.
But Yun Yang couldn’t figure out Tang Yuelou’s thoughts—she never seemed to dwell on their relationship. Come to think of it, in the first month they were together, she had never once mentioned that the two of them were dating. On reflection, Tang Yuelou’s attitude was even more ambiguous than her own.
After figuring certain things out, the indescribable guilt in Yun Yang’s heart vanished, and she felt a sense of relief. Yet, she also felt stifled and uncomfortable. This complex, ineffable emotion churned inside her a few times before Tang Yuelou’s phone, left in the bedroom, rang again.
Yun Yang shook her head, trying to shake all these messy thoughts out of her brain. She picked up the phone to take it to Tang Yuelou and saw the caller ID: “Secretary Li.”
Secretary? Whose secretary? Yun Yang couldn’t help but stare for a couple of extra seconds. She was curious but didn’t ask.
This time, Tang Yuelou answered the phone.
Peeking from the bedroom door, Yun Yang witnessed the fleeting look of astonishment on her face a few seconds after she answered the call. But it quickly returned to normal. She said calmly, “I understand.”
“What’s wrong?” Yun Yang couldn’t suppress her curiosity. “Is it something urgent?”
“It’s nothing, just a small family matter.” Tang Yuelou hung up and took her hand, sitting her down on the bed. “You rest first. I’ll call you when the porridge is ready.”
She paused, then added another instruction: “No playing on your phone.”
“Teacher,” Yun Yang stared into her eyes and said half-jokingly, “if you’re this good to me, I’ll fall in love with you.”
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