By coincidence, someone posted a similar question on a certain forum, and the replies were as follows.
Reply one: Unsatisfied, next.
Reply two: Alright, we know you all have romances to talk about, go play somewhere else.
Reply three: OP, are you sure you did not hide key plot points just to pass censorship?
Reply four: Just a hug?
Reply five: Pure romance went out of style ages ago. Next time, I suggest straight up dreaming about adult stuff, as that gets better engagement.
Luo Bai: ” ”
Incomprehensible.
Perhaps she should just ask Qiu Wu directly?
The alarm clock rang. It was already time to get up.
This ointment really works.
Qiu Wu had slept facedown all night. When she got up in the morning and looked in the mirror, the ointment had been absorbed into a thin layer. The swelling had flattened out, and the bruises had faded significantly.
Luo Bai helped her wipe away the leftover ointment and applied a fresh layer. Because she had to wait for the ointment to dry, Qiu Wu could only wrap a blanket around her waist and sit on the bed to wait.
At this time yesterday, Luo Bai had very considerately left the room, but now she was standing right in her spot, gazing at her with a thoughtful expression, as if pondering something.
Qiu Wu did not know how to shoo her away. The two of them just stared at each other blankly. Before the atmosphere could grow any more awkward, Qiu Wu said, “I was not in a very good mood yesterday and did not talk much. Sorry about that.”
After a night of rest, her thick skinned psychological defense had successfully coaxed her back into a good mood.
Neither the attitude of the Qiu family mother and daughter nor the gap between her and Luo Bai was something she could change.
There was very little she could actually do, and she simply did not have the spare energy to lament the jokes of fate.
Once she stopped feeling sorry for her own situation, she was finally able to cast her gaze elsewhere.
That was when she realized she seemed to have left Luo Bai hanging yesterday. The woman had looked at her repeatedly in passing, and even right before leaving the room, she still wore a hesitant, words dying on her lips expression.
Qiu Wu felt she had to explain.
Luo Bai nodded and then shook her head. “Mhm, no need to apologize. Why were you in a bad mood?”
Although she had never been in a bad mood herself, she still knew the common sense that people do not like to talk when they are in a bad mood.
Qiu Wu twiddled the corner of her blanket and smiled at her. “Just some minor things, not worth mentioning.”
Luo Bai: ” ”
Qiu Wu took the initiative to explain and flashed the exact same smile as before, and that vague, taut string hanging in her head finally went slack. In her relaxed state, the words just slipped out, “I dreamed about hugging you yesterday.”
Qiu Wu raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Luo Bai’s articulation was very clear, but Qiu Wu still suspected she had misheard.
The woman looked straight into her eyes and stated with complete composure, “I dreamed that you were standing in front of me shirtless just like last night, facing me directly. You did not speak, you just kept smiling, and then I hugged you.”
The woman blinked those innocent, oblivious, pitch black eyes at her and asked for instruction on something she did not understand, “Have you ever had a similar experience? Why would this happen?”
Qiu Wu: “No.”
Unbidden, the scene from Luo Bai’s dream surfaced in her mind, and her cheeks instantly grew hot.
If she did not already partially understand Luo Bai’s character, she genuinely would have suspected the woman of intentionally harassing her.
“Oh.” Luo Bai furrowed her brows in a conflicted expression, clearly still puzzled by that dream.
Seeing her like this, Qiu Wu suddenly felt an urgent urge to rescue her.
As a human with normal emotions, she had to answer this question properly. This was a crucial step for Luo Bai in understanding complex human feelings.
“Uh, actually this is totally normal. What you think about by day, you dream about by night. Dreaming about this should be, um, not really strange.”
She truly had no such experience, let alone the ability to explain its underlying principles. If she spoke her mind right now, the conversation would instantly veer into inappropriate territory.
After a bout of incoherent rambling mixed with embarrassment, Qiu Wu’s brain completely short circuited. Out of self-abandonment, she blurted out, “Well, do you want to wake up right now and try hugging for real?”
As soon as those words left her mouth, the scene instantly froze.
Luo Bai had been listening to Qiu Wu earnestly. Upon hearing this, her eyes widened slightly before narrowing, as if she were contemplating the feasibility of the idea.
Qiu Wu waved her hands. “I did not mean it like that.”
Luo Bai looked at her, looking somewhat wronged.
“Fine, fine, hug, hug, hug.” Qiu Wu tossed the blanket aside, spread her arms, smiled helplessly, and looked up at her. “Is this okay?”
Luo Bai: ” ”
The woman sitting on the bed looked up at her. The morning sunlight was filtered by the curtains into a layer of pale gold, shimmering across her deep orange hair and green eyes. Her smile was far more vivid and pretty than in the dream.
A control experiment should eliminate variance in experimental conditions.
Yet Luo Bai raised no objections, because she felt the exact same impulse as in her dream.
Under conditions that were not entirely identical, she had arrived at the exact same result.
Her heart pounded like a drum, and she wanted to embrace her.
She lowered her body, cautiously and stiffly avoiding Qiu Wu’s shoulders, and wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist.
It tickled.
Qiu Wu shifted uncomfortably. Luo Bai was not wearing gloves, and her slightly cool hands slowly pressed flat against her waist. She could feel the light calluses on the woman’s fingertips and palms brushing against the skin of her waist.
Their bodies pressed somewhat loosely together. Luo Bai’s body temperature was slightly lower than hers, and that detached, icy sweet scent enveloped her, with warm breaths blowing past her neck.
Her heart felt clutched and heavy, a sensation akin to danger. Qiu Wu trembled, rallied her spirits, and joked, “Feel anything yet?”
Luo Bai shook her head near her face and immediately replied, “No.”
Then let go first.
Qiu Wu’s heart beat faster and faster, her face growing hotter and hotter. Finding it awkward to ask Luo Bai to let go, she finally raised her hands slowly, rested them on the woman’s shoulders, and used a bit of force to push her away.
Luo Bai had not been holding her very tightly, so she simply released her in response to the push.
Qiu Wu looked up. There was not much expression on Luo Bai’s face, but a light blush was slowly creeping up her fair cheeks.
Seeing her like this, Qiu Wu actually relaxed and smiled. “Why are you blushing?”
“Blushing?” Luo Bai raised a hand to touch her face, seeming startled by the temperature of her own skin. She quickly pulled her hand back and looked with puzzlement at the amused Qiu Wu. “I do not know.”
During the embrace, she had tried to analyze the origin of that impulse, but her brain had uncharacteristically refused to think, leaving her mind filled only with objective descriptions like Qiu Wu smells nice, is soft, and is warm.
The only thing she could be certain of was that this inexplicable impulse had not vanished upon hugging Qiu Wu in reality, and instead, its presence had grown even more distinct, urging her to do something more.
Why?