Chapter 110: Chapter 106: The Bootlicker Chapter 110: Chapter 106: The Bootlicker Sheng Xian: Can’t remember how many Spring Festivals I’ve spent alone, and this year, I’m spending it with an injury.

This Moments post also came with a photo of the hand injury.

Lu Jingyan endured for ten minutes, but eventually, she still clicked on that photo.

Sheng Xian had just had his stitches removed, a scar meandering in his palm, the stitched area not fully healed yet, and the stitch marks were clearly visible.

Lu Jingyan studied the photo repeatedly, suddenly feeling regret for letting Chen Kai accompany Sheng Xian to get the stitches removed.

She didn’t know if he remembered the precautions for post-stitch removal.

For the next couple of days after the removal, the stitch holes, which hadn’t healed yet, couldn’t touch water; she wondered if he understood that.

Lu Jingyan put down her phone and, gazing at the ceiling, sighed heavily with a sense of melancholy.

She had never been so concerned about herself; when she was sick, she would take medicine or not based purely on her mood. Now, she was anxious and worried for Sheng Xian.

Could this be what liking someone feels like?

Every year she spent Spring Festival alone, never pitying herself; and now here she was, feeling pity for Sheng Xian.

A faint sorrow enshrouded Lu Jingyan’s heart as she sighed deeply at the ceiling again.

Could liking someone make you so selfless?

…

Lu Jingyan hardly slept that night. It was only in the early morning that she finally dozed off, and then she started having those bizarre dreams.

The dreams were no longer set in that dark room, nor were there any of those messy, inappropriate tools; this time, the dreamscape was surprisingly beautiful. In the dream, she and Sheng Xian lived in a world of immortals and cultivators, Sheng Xian being an exalted figure everyone looked up to, and she was an unknown little flower demon.

After a lot of hard work, she finally made her way to the exalted one’s side, trying to please him in every possible way, the very picture of a sycophant, licking his boots. The dream ended with the exalted one getting married to a little fox demon he kept as a concubine. Upon hearing the news that night, she drank herself into a stupor, clinging to the exalted one’s leg and confessed her feelings, even going as far as saying, “I can be your concubine,” such lowly words.

Unmoved, and annoyed by her persistence, he waved his sleeve in anger, banishing her to the mortal realm, and she was reborn as a poor man’s daughter, sold to a local wealthy merchant as a concubine at sixteen.

At first, the merchant was old and ugly, but on the night of her wedding, the merchant’s disgusting face suddenly turned into Yang Xu’s.

Then she completely lost her stomach.

After that, she was disgusted awake by the dream.

Lu Jingyan opened her eyes and stared at the familiar ceiling for a while before she could process the terrifying dream.

In the dream, she turned herself into a sycophant who ends up with nothing, and even dreamed of marrying Yang Xu.

No, not marry, but sold to Yang Xu to be a concubine.

She might very well be her own worst detractor, debasing herself so much in her own dream.

Lu Jingyan suppressed the urge to kill herself and got out of bed to wash up.

Today was already the twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month. Aunt Sun had taken time off, and before leaving yesterday, she had wrapped a lot of dumplings and frozen them in the fridge for her.

Lu Jingyan counted out a few and dropped them into a pot of boiling water, checking her phone for unread messages while waiting for the dumplings to cook.

Sheng Xian, still at the top of the chat list, has gone from 6 unread messages last night to 9.

Lu Jingyan’s finger hesitated, then moved down to Chen Kai below, who had already arrived in Hainan and was bragging with lots of photos.

Lu Jingyan replied with an indifferent “Heh” emoji, and tapped into Song Xian’s WeChat.

Song Xian had just arrived at her hometown and immediately called a video chat when she saw Lu Jingyan’s reply.

Lu Jingyan answered.

Song Xian’s face instantly popped up on the phone screen: “Ayan, what are you up to?”

Lu Jingyan, listless: “Cooking dumplings.”

A sudden slap sound came from the phone, and the screen showed Song Xian transformed into a bare date tree.

Ten seconds later, Song Xian’s face reappeared on the screen: “What? Cooking dumplings? Since when did you learn to cook dumplings? Don’t forget, we’re young ladies. Young ladies are only responsible for being beautiful and shopping; we shouldn’t be doing such labor!”

Lu Jingyan looked at the dumplings bubbling in the pot and said nothing.

Yeah, when did she learn to cook dumplings?

Oh right, she learned it at Sheng Xian’s place while watching him cook noodles.

Why is it that even cooking dumplings relates back to him?

Could it be that when you like someone, they infiltrate every aspect of your life?

Song Xian had spoken her fill and noticed an unusual silence on the other end of the phone. She stopped eating, looked up, and saw the screen.

The young lady, responsible for only beauty and shopping, seemed a bit wilted.

Song Xian thought she was feeling sentimental about spending the Spring Festival alone, “Ayan, why don’t you book a flight and come to my place.”

Lu Jingyan was startled, “Huh?”

“This place is actually a tourist area, if you come over, we can hang out for a few days.”

Lu Jingyan let out another “ah,” sounding listless, “Can’t be bothered to move.”

Without waiting for Song Xian to respond, Lu Jingyan added, “My dumplings are ready, I’ll stop chatting.”

After hanging up with Song Xian, Lu Jingyan served the dumplings, brought them to the table, and absentmindedly ate them while playing with her phone and spoon.

She was browsing gossip news, and somehow, she wound up on Sheng Xian’s Moments.

Three hours ago, he had posted an update.

Sheng Xian: Does anyone know how to take care of stitches after they’re removed?

She didn’t have many mutual friends with Sheng Xian, and his Moments from the past couple of days were empty.

But this was different; he had replied to this Moment three times himself.

Sheng Xian: Dietary restrictions?

Sheng Xian: Can’t get it wet?

Sheng Xian: Thank you.

Was he trying to reply to someone else and ended up replying to all the comments?

Lu Jingyan curled her lips and, with a dumpling in her mouth, left Sheng Xian’s Moments.

She casually refreshed her own Moments homepage and, to her surprise, Sheng Xian’s new Moment popped up.

Sheng Xian: My hand got wet.

Lu Jingyan subconsciously clicked on Sheng Xian’s name.

Thinking the three words had disappeared, she refreshed the page.

Sheng Xian: Wanted to eat dumplings, so I wore gloves, but it still got wet.

The photo showed his hand, freshly stitches removed the night before, the palm damp.

Lu Jingyan stopped chewing the dumplings in her mouth.

Looking at the picture on her phone and then at the dumplings on her plate, suddenly she felt the urge to give all the dumplings Aunt Sun had frozen in the fridge yesterday to Sheng Xian.

Lu Jingyan opened her mouth, then opened it again, and then remembered the dream that had nauseated her awake.

Fuck.

Had that dream come true?

Was she really becoming a bootlicker?

Lu Jingyan slapped her phone down and chewed on the dumplings forcefully.

Three minutes later, she picked up her phone like a thief, poking into Sheng Xian’s Moments, and then she clicked on Sheng Xian’s name.

Lu Jingyan: “If it gets wet, you should disinfect it immediately to prevent infection.”

Sheng Xian: “I’ve disinfected it.”

Sheng Xian: “Thank you.”

Professor Sheng had been exceptionally talkative these past few days, uttering more words than he had to her in all the time she had known him.

Lu Jingyan didn’t know what to say for a moment, staring at the screen in a daze before putting the phone down.

The next second, the phone vibrated on the table.

Sheng Xian: “Do you feel like eating noodles?”

Lu Jingyan was stunned to see this message.

Sheng Xian: “I want to cook them for you.”

Sheng Xian: “Do you understand what I’m saying? If not, I’ll make it clearer.”

Sheng Xian: “I want to spend New Year’s Eve with you.”

Sheng Xian: “Is that okay?”

Sheng Xian: “Ayan.”