MTB - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: A Departure from Comfort

The phone on the table chimed with a new message.

Yun Yang paid it no mind, her gaze not even shifting from her tablet. She silenced her phone and shifted her position on the sofa. Seeing she didn’t reply, the sender persistently sent several more messages. The screen repeatedly lit up and went dark until, finally annoyed, she flipped the phone face down on the table.

“Aren’t you going to see who it is?” Tang Yuelou asked.

She had washed her hands and was walking out of the kitchen. Without looking up, Yun Yang said casually, “It’s either people looking for gossip or telling me not to take things too hard. What else could it be? It’s been going off all afternoon.”

However, after she said this, Tang Yuelou fell silent. When Tang Yuelou didn’t reply, Yun Yang propped herself up in confusion and looked back. Tang Yuelou was kneeling in front of the sofa, raising a hand to touch her cheek.

“Are you okay?”

Yun Yang wanted to say “Of course,” but under her gaze, she suddenly couldn’t get the words out.

The university had acted quickly. By now, most of the posts on the Anonymous Wall had been deleted. But public opinion was the hardest thing to control. This unusually fast response had instead become a case of “the more one tries to hide, the more one is exposed.” As a result, various name abbreviations and screenshots were still circulating wildly.

To be framed for no reason and have no way to defend herself—no one could remain heartless in such a situation. This farce made her feel not only angry but also wronged. She was surrounded by either onlookers kicking her while she was down or “teachers and friends” advising her to let the matter rest. The cost of slandering someone was so low, while proving one’s own innocence had become the difficult part. It was utterly ridiculous.

Besides, even if the truth was clarified and the rumormonger was brought to justice, how could the damage done be repaired?

“Yangyang?”

Yun Yang covered her hand with her own.

“You’ve already done so well,” Tang Yuelou said, gently stroking the side of her face. “With me, you can be a little willful.”

She looked up at Yun Yang, her eyes filled with unconcealed worry. As they met, her eyes reflected the soft, warm light, making Yun Yang feel as if all the forbearance and panic she had suppressed that afternoon had nowhere to hide.

“I’m not okay,” Yun Yang said, wrinkling her nose indignantly. “I really hope I’ll see Chen Hao expelled tomorrow. It’d be best if he was sentenced and got a criminal record.”

“As he should be,” Tang Yuelou said. “Although it won’t be that fast, it will be resolved soon.”

She knew this was just a comforting platitude meant to agree with her, but coming from Tang Yuelou’s lips, these empty words inexplicably had a soothing effect. Yun Yang unconsciously nuzzled the palm of her hand.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Tang Yuelou asked.

Yun Yang nodded. “Hold me.”

Tang Yuelou wrapped her arms around her waist.

Yun Yang smelled the fragrance of her hair. They clearly used the same shampoo, but when mixed with the very faint scent of perfume on Tang Yuelou’s body, it became her own unique scent. Just like the feeling she gave people, it was gentle and reassuring.

The feelings she had suppressed all afternoon were easily healed by this embrace. Yun Yang hooked a strand of her hair with her fingertip, wondering, What has this person been through?

She had overheard Tang Yuelou’s conversation with Ouyang Jun. Although she hadn’t heard everything, Yun Yang couldn’t help but think of their conversation in the car. It had sounded absurd at first, but upon careful reflection, there were indeed clues to support it.

What if it was true?

Her thoughts drifted further and further away, and she accidentally pulled out two of Tang Yuelou’s hairs. Tang Yuelou drew in a soft breath, grabbed her wrist, and asked with a half-smile, “Why are you spacing out?”

Only then did Yun Yang snap back to reality.

“Haha, my apologies.” She held the few strands of Tang Yuelou’s hair, a little embarrassed. “Teacher Tang, you have plenty of hair. You won’t miss these two.”

Tang Yuelou laughed out loud. “What were you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” she answered perfunctorily. The other woman remained skeptical. Seeing that she couldn’t bluff her way through, an idea struck Yun Yang. She put on a mischievous smile, leaned close to her ear, and said, “I was wondering if, in a little while, you could…”

She lowered her voice for the last few words, her enunciation indistinct. Tang Yuelou paused for a moment, but she quickly caught on and didn’t fall for it. “Are you trying to change the subject?”

“Yes,” Yun Yang admitted frankly. “Seduction. Is it working?”

“But the food is getting cold, Yangyang.”

“Ah, what should we do then?” Yun Yang blinked and said in a low voice, “I’m about to be left out in the cold by you too, Teacher.”

The corner of Tang Yuelou’s brow twitched slightly.

Yun Yang knew her seduction was about to succeed, so she lowered her head and kissed her.

As expected, Tang Yuelou didn’t push her away. She remained kneeling on the floor, cupping the back of Yun Yang’s head to pull her down and deepen the kiss.

The air seemed to heat up. The warm lighting in the living room had an inherently intimate feel, causing the atmosphere to gradually diverge from the initial “comfort.”

Yun Yang kicked off her slippers. Her hands, which had started on Tang Yuelou’s shoulders, moved to cup her jaw. She subconsciously fumbled to take off her own clothes, but Tang Yuelou caught her hand and said in a low voice, “Don’t move.”

Kissed into a daze, Yun Yang let out a confused “Hm?” and asked, “What’s wrong… hm?”

Tang Yuelou took off her glasses and casually placed them on the coffee table. Then she took the hair tie from her wrist and gathered her long hair into a loose ponytail at the back of her head.

She rarely tied her hair up, usually just sweeping it to one side when it got in the way. Now, with her hair tied back, her smooth jawline was exposed. From Yun Yang’s perspective, some of the steady elegance that belonged to “Tang Yuelou” receded, replaced by an inexplicable touch of youthfulness—a different kind of charm.

“Can you do this style more often in the future?” Yun Yang asked sincerely.

Tang Yuelou raised an eyebrow, noncommittal, and asked in return, “Are you sure?”

Yun Yang: “…I’m sure.”

Every time she asked that, things usually didn’t end well for Yun Yang. But faced with such beauty, Yun Yang was ready to sacrifice herself for the greater good.

Tang Yuelou gently pushed her back. Caught off guard, her upper body fell back onto the sofa. There were throw pillows behind her, so it didn’t hurt much. Yun Yang frowned and was about to speak when she let out a gasp—Tang Yuelou had lowered her head and was unzipping her jeans with her teeth.

“Tang Yuelou… T-T-Teacher!” Her face flushed red in an instant. Realizing what Tang Yuelou intended to do, she shot up, flustered. “Don’t, wai-wait a second…”

Tang Yuelou’s fingers hooked the hem of her shirt, her voice rising at the end. “Hm?”

The words of refusal circled on the tip of Yun Yang’s tongue but ultimately went unspoken. After a two-second standoff, she chose to grasp Tang Yuelou’s wrist.

Tang Yuelou gave a low chuckle and asked, feigning ignorance, “What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”

“Good.” She curled her fingers, lifted Yun Yang’s hand, and placed a kiss on the back of it. “Now then, don’t move around, understand?”

She softened her tone, sounding exceptionally gentle. Yun Yang nodded, but she didn’t dare forget the rule about “answering when asked a question.” Although she felt ashamed, she bit her lip lightly and said obediently, “I understand… Teacher.”

---

Perhaps not forgetting her original intention to “comfort” her, Tang Yuelou surprisingly didn’t act up or make any of her usual bizarre requests. She was so considerate that Yun Yang almost lost her bearings. It was late by the time she finished her shower. During this period of living with Tang Yuelou, Yun Yang’s biological clock had been corrected to an incredibly healthy rhythm. Now she was so sleepy her eyelids were fighting to stay open. She came out of the bathroom and collapsed onto the bed like a corpse.

But when she heard Tang Yuelou heating up dinner, instinct made her haul herself out of bed.

Putting other things aside, Tang Yuelou’s cooking skills were absolutely impeccable. Yun Yang floated to the kitchen in search of food and heard her sigh leisurely, “You were complaining about being hungry on the way here, then said you wouldn’t eat when we got back, and now you’re hungry again.”

“Who cooks in the middle of the night? Do you have nothing better to do?” Yun Yang shot her a disdainful look, but her body honestly picked up the chopsticks.

“Mm… indeed.” Tang Yuelou nodded with a smile, looking thoughtful.

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but the slight smile on her lips seemed particularly meaningful. Yun Yang’s mind naturally went to a dirty place, and she couldn’t help but curse, “Fuck.”

“What are you thinking of now? No, wait, what did I just say?”

“Don’t swear,” Tang Yuelou reminded her.

“…Fine.”

Eating was more important, so Yun Yang couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. She picked up a piece of braised pork. Tang Yuelou sat opposite her without touching her chopsticks. She had put her glasses back on and was typing on her laptop while replying to someone’s message. She seemed very busy these past few days, leaving early in the morning and sometimes staying in the study until midnight. She said she was helping her graduate students with their theses, but it was obvious no graduate student would be messaging their advisor at this hour.

However, Yun Yang firmly believed that for a slash “youth” like Teacher Tang, being so busy she never touched the ground should be the norm.

As she was lost in her thoughts, the phone she had forgotten on the coffee table suddenly rang—it was a WeChat video call, and the ringer wasn’t silenced. Yun Yang jumped, frowning in displeasure.

“Who makes a video call in the middle of the night…”

She muttered as she went to hang up, but she froze when she saw the caller ID.

It was Yun Guangwen.

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