Chapter 4 - Xiao Man, let’s date!

Douchi (tempeh), dried chilies, sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic, crystal sugar… Xiao Man was in the kitchen preparing the soup base, putting in more than a dozen ingredients in it. She vaguely felt that she left something out, that something did not seem right…

When she smelled the soup base carefully, it still had the familiar flavor, but why did she feel something was amiss?

Xiao Man stirred the pot of soup twice, a wave of heat gushed over her face and she instantly felt a sense of enlightenment.

“Long Jia!” Turns out that the reason why she was feeling uneasy was because of Long Jia!

She hadn’t heard any movement from that woman since she had entered her house. That really didn’t fit with her usual style, right? Xiao Man put the stove to simmer and walked to the living room in suspicion, but the room was in complete darkness so she went to the bedroom.

The bedside lamp had been switched on and adjusted to its dimmest light. Xiao Man softly called out to the person on the bed but she did not get a response from the other party. She must have probably fallen asleep after waiting for too long.

Long Jia was lying on Xiao Man’s bed. Her long hair spread messily over her face, covering her eyes and lips, only showing the tall bridge of her nose.

Underneath her hair, Long Jia’s lips were slightly open, and Xiao Man stared at them for a moment, feeling an urge to brush away her unruly hair. Xiao Man was taken aback by this sudden thought, and later felt that there was nothing to make a fuss about, it was just probably her Virgo temperament 1 up to some mischief.

Frankly speaking, it was because she [LJ] was such an eyesore that she [XM] wanted to do that. Xiao Man stretched out her hand, thinking that her movements were extremely light, but the moment she touched the tip of Long Jia’s hair, she was held down by the other.

“What are you doing?” Long Jia opened her eyes and smiled at the panicking Xiao Man.

“What are you doing?” Was this woman pretending to be asleep? And she even had the nerve to ask what she was doing? Xiao Man tried to pull back her hand, but Long Jia yanked her closer.

“I’m not doing anything, I’m asking you what you’re doing,” Long Jia explained succinctly, completely disrupting Xiao Man’s thinking logic.

She just wanted to brush away Long Jia’s hair, she didn’t want to do anything else in the first place, but this woman, not responding after her name was called, unexpectedly was pretending to be asleep! In the end, what did she want to do?

“I…” Xiao Man was afraid that Long Jia would misinterpret her words, so she didn’t continue talking in circles with her, “I was here to ask you what vegetables to add to the hotpot?”

Long Jia kept some distance as she stared straight at Xiao Man whilst ignoring her previous words, “Did you just try to touch my face?”

Having heard Long Jia’s words, Xiao Man immediately exasperated, “I just wanted to touch your hair!”

Wait, that’s not right! How could she say the word ‘touch’ after saying Long Jia’s name?! That sounded so vulgar and lewd!

“Oh…what difference does it make?” Long Jia looked up and seemed to be thinking seriously.

“I’m too lazy to pay attention to you!” Xiao Man turned to leave.

She must have also been brain-dead to bring this woman into her own home in the middle of the night, which turned out asking for trouble for herself! That’s okay, after she had eaten the hotpot, she would send away this senior Big Buddha 2 and take for granted that she had paid off her debt.

Xiao Man was about to leave but Long Jia didn’t let go. The two played a tug-of-war and the winner wasn’t decided yet. At the same time, the opening of the door was heard — seemed like Ah Fang had returned.

“Long Jia, why are you so annoying!” Xiao Man habitually wanted to go open the door but Long Jia pulled her back.

“You touched my face and now you say I’m annoying.” Long Jia pretended to be wronged, but in her heart she loved Xiao Man’s duplicity.

Impossible to deal with! Xiao Man was flustered and furious, no matter whether Long Jia did loosen her grip or not, she directly headed towards the door. Long Jia hadn’t expected Xiao Man’s action and so, due to the unstable center of gravity, she was dragged out of bed. Out of her sense of self-protection, she immediately fell on Xiao Man.

It was pretty similar to their previous situation, the only difference was that there was no red plastic chair between them. Long Jia’s body slammed into Xiao Man so firmly she thought it would be painful, but it was proved otherwise.

She was surprised, wondering what soft thing that had played the buffering role 3 in the collision, but she then saw Xiao Man’s flushed face who said with a stutter, “You… go down…”

Ah Fang opened the door and happily walked into the bedroom, “Xiao Man, I bought a watermelon, you…”

Before she could ask the other person if she wanted to eat or not, Ah Fang saw the city manager nicknamed Dragon Girl 4 lying on top of Xiao Man and smiling at her.

“Isn’t this the city manager…” Could it be that the city manager had come to their house to arrest someone? The simple-minded Ah Fang was literally on the verge of crying but had no tears to cry.

“Xiao Man and I are both good people, aren’t we just setting up a stall? Please don’t arrest me…” Ah Fang said bitterly, and suddenly her eyes lit up, “You can catch Xiao Man! She is the boss, I’m just the worker.”

“Ah Fang…” Xiao Man rolled her eyes, her chest was already hurting a bit from Long Jia’s hit and now it hurt even more from Ah Fang’s stupidity.

“You misunderstood,” Long Jia lowered her head and smiled at Xiao Man, then slowly got up, “I was looking for Xiao Man to eat hotpot.”

“Aiya, what bad luck.” Xiao Man then remembered the pot of soup that was still being boiled in the kitchen! She trotted to the kitchen and turned off the stove, but feeling not so pleasant, she put in a big handful of dried chilies and continued to make soup.

What a true delight! Her mood also soon brightened up!

Few people liked to eat super spicy hotpot… This much of spiciness would be even difficult for a Sichuan girl to handle, let alone Long Jia who was born in Jiangnan 5 .

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Xiao Man casually added some random dishes, put it in a big bowl, and set it in front of Long Jia.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Long Jia asked Xiao Man, who was sitting across from her. She’d rarely smile so brightly at her.

“You just eat, okay?” Xiao Man politely handed the chopsticks to Long Jia.

“Let’s eat together.” Long Jia looked at her expectantly.

“No, no, I’ll just watch you eat.” Xiao Man held her cheeks with her hands, showing a sweet, harmless smile.

For the first time, Long Jia felt a little embarrassed as she picked up a piece of lettuce. Being treated gently by Xiao Man and being intensely stared at by her was… rather uncomfortable.

The lush green vegetable leaves were stained with bright red soup filled with the rich aroma, and looking at Xiao Man’s smiling face, Long Jia felt that there was nothing more happier than this moment.

But her helpless happiness was short-lived. Long Jia then understood the meaning of the four words “Fate worse than death” in the next second.

“Is it delicious?” Xiao Man asked her with a smile.

She couldn’t chew the food that was inside her mouth nor could she spit it. If she swallowed the food, she was afraid it might burn her stomach and intestine. Long Jia only felt like her entire mouth was on fire; she first felt a burning sensation, then numbness, and then the burning feeling suddenly spread through her whole body.

She also smiled back at Xiao Man, nodding firmly even as the corner of her spicy mouth twitched.

Xiao Man stood up, ladled out a spoonful of soup and fed her personally, “The soup base is my own creation, and I can’t make it without those eighteen spices. Any of the spicy hotpots on Laji Street aren’t as good as mine.”

Long Jia’s tongue was numb, and she couldn’t talk normally. She wanted to ask Xiao Man whether or not she had put too much spices in it, but when Xiao Man herself fed her the soup, her brain became hot and she ended up saying, “Ish delishus 6 .”

“It’s delicious, right!” Xiao Man sat beside Long Jia, with a spoon reaching Long Jia’s lips while she had a triumphant expression.

As soon as the soup goes down… it will probably burn a hole in her esophagus… Just as Xiao Man put the edge of the spoon on her lips, Long Jia’s lips went numb.

Watching Long Jia hesitate but still dare not refuse, Xiao Man hooked her neck and softly persuaded, “Come on, open your mouth.”

Was she someone who could be molested for nothing? What a joke!

Long Jia turned her head sideways to look at her and saw Xiao Man smiling warmly at her. She was taken aback and seemed quite silly. When she had seen her for the first time, everyone on Laji street was fleeing frantically because of the arrival of the city management department. There were smashing and clamors everywhere. In the midst of the chaos, Long Jia had crossed the crowd and found Xiao Man.

Xiao Man, at that time, was also smiling like that, as if everything over there had nothing to do with her. She was talking to Ah Fang beside her, her gentle and clean appearance made Long Jia couldn’t resist drawing closer to that person.

It was in the midst of this stare-down that Long Jia held Xiao Man’s hand and drank the spicy, tear-jerking spoonful of red soup.

“Long Jia…” Xiao Man had just wanted to tease her, but she never expected that Long Jia would actually drink the soup so resolutely. After drinking the soup, Long Jia turned her face away instantly, her shoulders trembling.

Xiao Man called her worriedly and when Long Jia turned around, two lines of tears were streaming down her face.

“Xiao Man… the soup,” she sniffled and pointed to the large bowl with tears, “It’s too spicy…”

“Pffft!” Xiao Man couldn’t hold back as she burst out laughing. “Hahahahahaha—“

“Were you messing with me?” Long Jia understood instantly, no wonder she fed her the soup so enthusiastically.

“Didn’t you also give me a hard time? Am I not allowed to mess with you?” Xiao Man crossed her hands over her chest, not feeling the slightest guilt.

Long Jia stood up abruptly. Before Xiao Man could react, she was held down by her shoulders, her whole body pressed against the back of the chair.

One of Long Jia’s legs was half-kneeling, set on one side of Xiao Man’s body as she leaned down to stare at the other person, her expression sly and serious. At this moment, Xiao Man only felt that she couldn’t move at all.

“You…you, what are you doing again?” Xiao Man’s back had tilted to its limit. She had a hunch that something strange would happen!

Long Jia hooked her lips, “Don’t talk.”

I’m not going to listen to her! Xiao Man turned her head and shouted into the room, “Ah Fang! Ah Fang!”

“In the shower!” Ah Fang shouted back, and Xiao Man knew no one would come to her rescue.

Under the lights, Long Jia’s eyes seemed to be shining brightly, looking like a hungry beast ready to eat its prey!

With her stomach not burning as much as it did earlier, Long Jia asked her annoyedly, “Do you have any idea how spicy your hotpot is?”

Xiao Man nodded, but on a second thought, thinking that she shouldn’t be admitting that she was deliberate, she shook her head quickly.

Long Jia carefully took in the change in her expression and blinked. Xiao Man analyzed Long Jia’s motives, but at this moment Long Jia lifted her chin. Xiao Man’s eyes widened as Long Jia’s face full of delicate makeup slowly enlarged.

Something warm was pressed against her lips, and then something wet and soft slid into her mouth as a hot sensation spread over her taste buds, making Xiao Man tremble all over!

Xiao Man was completely stunned. She had been in the society for so long but she had never experienced such a thing…

Whether it was shame or annoyance, she had no idea. Just as she was about to push Long Jia away, the other party parted in time and said something that made Xiao Man even more embarrassed, “Is it very spicy?”

Xiao Man felt she was bullied, and by a woman at that!

“What the hell are you doing!”

“I like you!” Long Jia said with a rare seriousness and with a tone that one couldn’t refute, “Xiao Man, let’s date!”

“God… You’ve gone nuts!” Xiao Man was seriously frightened!

Translator: KinGiGe

Editor: Darkchocolatesan

Footnotes

TLN: In case you didn’t know, Virgos have a thing for orderliness/cleanliness and as a Virgo myself, I also want to brush away Long Jia’s hair and lowkey want Long Jia to get up suddenly and kiss Xiao Man but meh . [TLN: To call someone big buddha means to say that that person is one you can’t afford to offend or so.] [TLN: Buffering role = so/sth that acted as a cushion in a collision.] TL: In case you’ve forgotten, Long in Long Jia means Dragon [TLN: Ppl from Sichuan and their cuisine consist of hot and spicy flavor while, I’m guessing, ppl from Jiangnan have much lighter taste.] [ED: She is saying ‘It’s delicious’ with her mouth full.]