Glasses
Under the curtain of rain, the black umbrella stayed tilted toward her.
Xue Ling’s tears came and went quickly. Only her eyes were still red, and her voice still had a hint of a sob.
Xu Jingzhuo had already asked once. Now he asked again. “What happened?”
Xue Ling still wouldn’t say.
He stopped and looked at her reddened, damp eyes. His gaze was as gentle as he could make it, and his voice was soft, but the stormy scowl between his brows gave away his displeasure.
“You went out and came back in tears, and you still won’t let me know why?”
“I’ve stopped crying… I’m really fine.”
Unwilling to keep talking about it, Xue Ling changed the subject. Her gaze fell on the silver-framed glasses clipped to his lapel.
“If you’re nearsighted, you should wear your prescription glasses all the time. Otherwise, your eyes have to work harder, and your prescription will get worse.”
Xu Jingzhuo could see right through her clumsy change of subject, but said nothing. He only curled his lips at her mention of the glasses. “I’ve only had them off for a few minutes.”
Already nagging him.
Because his wife was a glasses fanatic. She thought her husband looked better in glasses and didn’t like him bare-faced.
The rain was coming down pretty hard, and he was tall, so Xue Ling didn’t catch his grumbling. “What?”
The man bent toward her, bringing his face close. He smiled gently, the points of his canines just barely showing. “I said, help me put them on.”
His sudden, close-up smile made Xue Ling’s face warm. She nodded, took the glasses from his lapel, and let her gaze linger on his face for a few seconds.
He was still more handsome without glasses.
How had he ended up nearsighted, anyway?
The arms settled over his ears and slid back as she pushed them into place. His high, straight nose held the frames perfectly. They shaded his eyes and softened the shape of his face, lending a touch of refinement to his strikingly predatory features.
Once his glasses were on, they continued toward the mall.
As soon as Mr. Xu and his wife reached the entrance, the assistant, who had been following close behind, hurried over to take the umbrella Mr. Xu had yet to fold away and watched the two of them go inside.
Xue Ling wanted to buy the books again, so they went into the bookstore together. Xu Jingzhuo ran into someone he knew and stopped to chat, while Xue Ling went to the manga section by herself.
She walked over to the display piled high with bestsellers, picked up two copies of Mily from the right, and studied the colorful stacks in front of her for a while. Then she took a couple of steps back and pulled out her phone to take a picture.
A bookstore employee happened to pass by. Seeing the books in her hands and the way she was taking pictures, the employee stopped for a few seconds, then couldn’t resist coming over to ask, “Miss, were you just here a little while ago? You picked up two books and stood right here taking pictures…”
The scene seemed so familiar that the employee wondered if her memory was playing tricks on her.
“Yes,” Xue Ling replied.
So she really did love Maoweicao’s Mily. The employee took the opportunity to recommend the display beside it, The Girl I Secretly Love Is Chattering Away Again Today, the new series by popular artist Lan Song, a romantic comedy about a bubbly chatterbox and a cool guy with aphasia.
The two popular bestsellers made up the manga section’s entrance display.
Mily had a fresh, pale-green cover, while Chatterbox was a bright yellow and pink. One was about a girl with a crush, the other about a boy with a crush. Both covers showed their couples being sweet together, and somehow the two books looked perfect side by side.
Xue Ling politely declined the copy of Chatterbox the employee offered. “I already have this one.”
“Do you have the signed edition? Our store…”
“I do.”
“All right, then.” The employee put the book back and straightened the display.
When Xue Ling went to pay, she was told that her husband had just put money on a store card, so the purchase would be charged to it.
She couldn’t see Xu Jingzhuo anywhere and had no idea where he’d gone, so she waited for him at the bookstore entrance with the paper bag in hand and checked a message from her publisher’s editor.
Editor Mian Yun: [Teacher Lan Song, Chatterbox volume one is still flying off the shelves! The editor-in-chief asked me to check one more time: are you really unwilling to join the offline promotion while the series is hot?]
Xue Ling: [No.]
Editor Mian Yun: [Chatterbox is doing so well online, and you have such a lovely appearance. If you’re willing to show your face for the promotion, we can start contacting platforms right away to market you as a beautiful manga artist. It would definitely boost print sales even more!]
Xue Ling: [That’s not in my contract.]
Editor Mian Yun: [[crying]] Editor Mian Yun: [It’s the marketing department that wants to try. If you really don’t want to, there’s nothing we can do. I’ll let them know.]
As she typed, she felt a shadow fall over her. She looked up and unexpectedly found herself face-to-chest with someone in a black shirt.
Xu Jingzhuo was in great shape. With a height difference of more than 20 centimeters between them, Xue Ling was always accidentally treated to an impressive view.
He was holding a cup of hot milk tea. She’d left the one she’d bought earlier at the bus stop after barely taking a few sips. Seeing her look a little dazed, he raised an eyebrow and gently tapped the cup against her cheek to bring her back to herself.
Xue Ling let out a small breath and hurriedly took it from him.
This milk tea is huge. No, this husband is so warm.
“Aren’t you busy today?”
Xue Ling drank her milk tea as they wandered around the mall. She’d handed him the paper bag with the books in it.
Xu Jingzhuo walked half a step behind her, making sure to keep her in sight. “I can stop being busy whenever I want. If you need me, come find me. Don’t worry about bothering me.”
He was also taking the opportunity to remind her that she’d left the house today without telling him. If the rain hadn’t held her up, she wouldn’t have even thought to contact him.
“I only went out for a walk. You were at the office. I couldn’t interrupt you over something like that. I can walk around by myself. I don’t need anyone to…”
She didn’t finish the word “keep me company.” The man’s eyelids lowered slightly. His dark, deep eyes held little emotion as he watched her through his glasses, yet she instinctively fell quiet, ready to listen.
“You don’t like having someone with you?” he asked softly.
Xue Ling nodded, then shook her head. “It’s just not that necessary. It’s not that I don’t like it.”
He suddenly bent toward her and raised a hand. Xue Ling thought he was going to pinch her cheek or pat her head, but all he did was tap the little bird hairpin at the side of her hair with his fingertip.
“That’s cute,” he said. “I see you wearing it at home, too.”
Xue Ling’s lips curved into a smile. “I bought it in college. It came as a pair, but I lost one later…”
He straightened and looked less than interested. “Mm.”
The rest of what Xue Ling had been about to say got stuck in her throat. She quietly stopped talking.
He’d only been making an offhand compliment. She shouldn’t have gone on like that. The story of buying a hairpin was so boring. Who’d want to hear it?
They passed a toy store. Xue Ling’s eyes lit up, and she left the awkward moment behind as she went in to browse.
She pushed a cart around the store, picking up plushies one moment and choosing fuzzy charms the next.
In a place like this, Xue Ling’s indecisiveness and hoarding tendencies would flare up at the same time. The best cure for indecision was to buy everything, and buying everything just happened to satisfy her urge to hoard.
The study at home was too big and still wasn’t full. It was where she worked, so it had to be crammed with things.
When she went out alone, she couldn’t carry that much, so she restrained herself. With Xu Jingzhuo there, she couldn’t stop herself from filling the cart.
The novelty store was brightly lit, its plush toys and charms lined up in neat rows in every color. The staff kept the shelves stocked, leaving not a single gap.
Xu Jingzhuo leaned against the entrance, holding the paper bag with the manga books as he watched her run around picking out plushies.
The brightest thing about her was the orange bird hairpin in her hair. Under the store lights, it glittered even more. Stare at it long enough, and all he could see was a sparkling little bird flying back and forth.
He opened his phone camera, zoomed in, and followed her through the viewfinder.
Click.
Click.
Click.
He needed both hands to take pictures, so the manga books bobbed inside the paper bag as he lifted it.
The bag was wide open. Xu Jingzhuo hadn’t paid attention to the manga cover before, but now, under the bright store lights with the book right beneath his eyes, he glanced down and clearly read the promotional slogan in big letters: “Healing 300 Million People! The Ultimate Unrequited Love Story!”
He raised an eyebrow and took the book out to look at it.
The cover showed the main couple.
As soon as he saw what the male lead looked like, he put the book back with a blank expression.
“Tch.”
Of course it was a bespectacled guy.
No wonder Xue Ling liked it so much. She’d bought it on both trips. She must really relate to the heroine. Who hadn’t had a heart-stopping crush on a guy in glasses in their youth?
Xu Jingzhuo stopped taking pictures of her and dropped his phone into the paper bag with the books.
Xue Ling found a particularly adorable charm and called him over.
Xu Jingzhuo came closer. Xue Ling held it up in front of him. “Isn’t it cute?”
Xu Jingzhuo looked down at her sparkling eyes, bright with the satisfaction of picking out things to hoard, and smiled. “Cute.”
His wife was cute. The charm wasn’t.
That ridiculous dog in glasses.
What did a dog need glasses for?
She really liked glasses that much.
Once Xue Ling had picked out a whole pile of plushies, she wanted to pay for them herself. But Xu Jingzhuo had already made a deal with the cashier, and she was only allowed to pay the token amount of 0.01.
The assistant and driver came over to take the plushies to the car. The two of them continued browsing. Apart from their phones, all they carried were the paper bag of manga and the glasses-wearing dog charm Xue Ling liked so much.
She’d hung it from the handle of the bag Xu Jingzhuo was carrying.
When Xue Ling found out Xu Jingzhuo had the whole afternoon free to spend with her, she was in a great mood. They sat together, deciding where to go next and what to have for dinner, their shoulders, arms, and legs brushing against each other now and then.
Xu Jingzhuo lowered his eyes with an expressionless face as he watched her bright, excited face. When she looked up, his lips lifted into a gentle smile.
Happy, are you? You should be.
A husband in glasses, carrying manga with a bespectacled male lead, with a glasses-wearing dog charm hanging from the bag.
Her kink must be going through the roof.