"May I ask?" Tang Xue tilted her head to look at her.
Lin Xiaoxiao took her hand off the table, leaned back, and exhaled softly, trying to keep her tone as normal as possible.
"I just chatted with Li Yu for a bit, and I heard that you have a good relationship with Teacher Cheng Yi."
Tang Xue's smile froze for a moment. "Xiao Xiao, you seem to be quite interested in Teacher Cheng Yi."
“Yes.” Lin Xiaoxiao nodded. If she could, she wouldn’t want to pay attention to Cheng Yi, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to know just how much Tang Xue liked Cheng Yi.
Tang Xue's smile vanished, and she clenched her fist tightly around the cup. "You care so much about Teacher Cheng Yi, could it be that Teacher Cheng Yi is your type?"
Tang Xue's voice was a little tight. She didn't avoid the question anymore. She looked up at Lin Xiaoxiao opposite her. She wanted to smile, not wanting Lin Xiaoxiao to notice her abnormality, and wanted to return to the way she usually treated Lin Xiaoxiao.
But at this moment, all the acting skills that were usually etched in her mind vanished without a trace.
Her nerves were on edge, her gaze fixed on Lin Xiaoxiao's red lips, afraid to hear an answer she didn't want to hear at all.
Chapter 39
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What she was seeing should have made Lin Xiaoxiao sad, but for some reason, the melodramatic plots from the soap operas she had watched in her past life popped into her mind.
The plot of best friends turning against each other because of a man made Lin Xiaoxiao twitch her lips and burst out laughing, though she didn't know why she was laughing.
But she found the scene truly laughable. Why hadn't she realized Tang Xue liked Cheng Yi sooner? If she had realized it sooner, would she not have realized she liked Tang Xue? Would she not be in so much pain?
"Xiaoxiao?" Lin Xiaoxiao's laughter startled Tang Xue. She didn't know why Lin Xiaoxiao was laughing, nor did she know that her words had tickled Lin Xiaoxiao's funny bone.
"Xiaoxue." Lin Xiaoxiao wiped away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes, placed her hands on the table, rested her chin on her hand, and looked at the girl opposite her. Her eyes gradually softened. "Don't worry, I will help you get whatever you want, no matter what it is."
Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes were gentle, and her voice was full of warmth. For a moment, Tang Xue even had the illusion that Lin Xiaoxiao liked her too.
Shaking her head, Tang Xue looked at the girl opposite her with a gentle smile on her lips, and felt her heart soften like water, making it impossible for her to suppress her inner impulses and emotions.
"Xiaoxiao, you are a very, very important person to me. I swear, no matter what happens, I will be by your side. No matter what you want, I will do my best to get it for you. I will always, always be by your side."
"Forever?" Tears welled up in Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes. "Because I have already received such precious treatment from you, can't I ask for more? If you knew, I long for your complete attention."
If you knew that I long for you to belong to me completely, body and soul, if you knew that I am jealous of the person who is different from you, would you hate me because of that?
Lin Xiaoxiao covered her face with her hands. Couldn't she be a little more selfish?
"Xiaoxiao, what's wrong?" Tang Xue panicked and quickly walked to Lin Xiaoxiao's side. "Did I say something wrong? Don't cry. If I'm wrong, you can hit me or scold me."
Tang Xue reached out and hugged Lin Xiaoxiao, gently patting her back. She could hear the girl's soft sobs in her arms and feel her shoulders trembling slightly.
That slight trembling, that faint sobbing, was like a series of sharp daggers piercing deep into Tang Xue's heart, quickly bringing tears to her eyes. "Xiao Xiao," Tang Xue's voice trembled slightly, "What's wrong?"
Sensing Tang Xue's trembling voice, Lin Xiaoxiao stiffened for a moment. When she looked up, she saw Tang Xue's slightly red eyes, as if tears were about to fall.
Lin Xiaoxiao felt a pang of heartache. "It's okay, don't be sad." Lin Xiaoxiao hurriedly wiped her face and touched Tang Xue's eyes with some tenderness.
"I'm happy." Lin Xiaoxiao smiled gently. "You're so good to me, I'm really happy. This is the first time someone has said something like this to me, Xiaoxue, I'm really happy."
From childhood to adulthood, Tang Xue was the first person to treat her so gently, and the first person to cherish her so much. So, that was enough, more than enough. She couldn't be too greedy.
As long as she can be by this person's side, as long as she can look at her, as long as she can be treated so gently, she should be content. The rest is something she shouldn't dare to hope for.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Tang Xue gently wiped Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes. "You're clearly better to me."
Lin Xiaoxiao sniffed. "I'm hungry."
"Okay." Tang Xue chuckled softly. "Let's eat."
After that, neither of them spoke again. "Come back to the hotel with me."
After dinner, Tang Xue invited Lin Xiaoxiao to her hotel. Although Lin Xiaoxiao explained that she had cried because she was happy, Tang Xue was still worried about letting Lin Xiaoxiao leave like that.
"No need, I'm going back now. Don't worry, I'll message you when I get home." For Lin Xiaoxiao, there was no such thing as Cheng Yi.
So, after hearing Tang Xue's invitation, she would have agreed without hesitation. But now, Lin Xiaoxiao felt that she needed some alone time to calm down.
"Then I'll take you back." Tang Xue was unwilling to let Lin Xiaoxiao go back by herself, so Lin Xiaoxiao only had two choices.
Either Tang Xue would take her back, or she would go with Tang Xue to her hotel. In the end, Lin Xiaoxiao was the one who chose to compromise, even though her place was not far from here.
But it would take two hours to drive there, and she didn't want Tang Xue to drop her off and then she would have to come back alone.
"Go take a shower first." Tang Xue handed Lin Xiaoxiao a set of her own pajamas. "Just make do with these for today."
Looking at the pajamas Tang Xue handed her, Lin Xiaoxiao's gaze swept over Tang Xue before she reached out and took the pajamas. "Then I'm going to take a shower."
"Hmm." Tang Xue patted her face as she watched Lin Xiaoxiao walk into the bathroom. She had only brought two sets of pajamas with her when she came over.
Therefore, the pajamas she gave Lin Xiaoxiao were ones she had worn. The thought of Lin Xiaoxiao wearing her own pajamas made Tang Xue blush.
Tang Xue fanned her face with her hand and sat on the bed, but her gaze involuntarily drifted to the bathroom door. After realizing what she had done, she immediately looked away.
But the next second, her gaze shifted to the bathroom again. The room was very quiet, so quiet that Tang Xue could clearly hear the sound of water coming from the bathroom.
At this very moment, the girl she liked was behind that door. Tang Xue's throat moved, and her hands unconsciously gripped the sheets beneath her.
She knew she shouldn't be thinking about it, but her mind was filled with the image she had seen that morning: that long, slender, fair neck, that delicate and beautiful collarbone, that full, rounded...
Shaking her head, Tang Xue cupped her face in her hands, mentally berating herself, but the temperature on her face did not drop because of her action.
At this moment, Lin Xiaoxiao, who was taking a cold shower in the bathroom, had no idea that just across the door, the girl she liked was having a lot of dirty thoughts on her mind.
For Lin Xiaoxiao, today was truly a memorable day. On this day, she learned that she had fallen in love with a girl, and on this day, she also learned that she could only keep this love hidden in her heart.
In order to stay by her side and continue to enjoy her tenderness, she could not reveal even a trace of her changed feelings for that person.
In order to stay by her side, she had to maintain her image as a good friend, not be greedy, and not let her realize that her feelings for her had changed.
The icy water poured down from above, seemingly freezing her passionate heart bit by bit, leaving Lin Xiaoxiao's face somewhat pale.
Even her lips lost their color, her body trembled slightly, and tears were washed away by the cold water pouring down from her head and disappeared into the ground.
Lin Xiaoxiao didn't know how long she stayed in the bathroom. She only knew that when she was so cold that her teeth were chattering and she no longer had the energy to be sad, she turned off the shower.
After drying herself off, she put on the pajamas Tang Xue had given her. Her body, which had been cold, warmed up the moment she was wrapped in the clothes.
Smelling the familiar scent on the clothes, Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes reddened again. She sniffed and forced herself to hold back her tears.
She crouched down and hugged herself tightly, imagining that at this moment, she was being held in that person's arms, and her cold heart gradually warmed up.
Time passed by, and Tang Xue, who was outside, became restless. After the initial period of wild thoughts, worry took over her entire mind.
She still remembered how Lin Xiaoxiao cried at the restaurant. Could she be hiding inside crying now? Once this thought popped into her head, she couldn't suppress it anymore.
Looking at the bathroom door, Tang Xue hesitated for a moment before standing up and walking over. But when she reached out to knock, she hesitated again.
Perhaps she's overthinking it. Maybe Lin Xiaoxiao just took a little longer to shower. What should she say if she knocks on the door now?
Are you done washing? Or did you take a little too long to wash, and I'm a little worried? Tang Xue frowned, as either way seemed strange.
Just as Tang Xue was still hesitating, the sound of water in the bathroom stopped. Startled, Tang Xue immediately took a step back and quickly sat back on the bed.
He casually picked up the script from the bedside table, pretended to turn a page, as if trying to erase the scene of rushing to the bathroom door.
However, after waiting for a while, the bathroom door still didn't open. Tang Xue couldn't help but worry again. Gripping the script in her hand tightly, Tang Xue gritted her teeth and stood at the bathroom door once more, but she couldn't bring herself to knock.
Tang Xue, who was hesitating outside, was unaware that Lin Xiaoxiao, in the bathroom, was indeed hiding away and crying, just as Tang Xue had feared.
After crying, Lin Xiaoxiao composed herself and turned on the hot water in the shower. She didn't want Tang Xue to know that she had just taken a cold shower.
Looking at herself in the mirror, with her pale face and bloodless lips, Lin Xiaoxiao forced a smile, took off her pajamas, and let hot water wash over her from head to toe.
Feeling that Tang Xue could no longer tell anything from her face, Lin Xiaoxiao turned off the shower, dried herself off, put on her pajamas, and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
Lin Xiaoxiao smiled. Because of the hot water, her face and neck were flushed. She rubbed her face to make sure she was back to her best condition. Even her tear-stained eyes couldn't see anything wrong anymore.
Lin Xiaoxiao had just opened the bathroom door with her clothes in her arms when she was greeted by a finger that almost landed on her forehead.
Chapter 40
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Tang Xue was genuinely surprised. She had just raised her hand and hadn't even had a chance to knock when the door was opened, revealing a stunned Lin Xiaoxiao.
Tang Xue blinked and, following the other person's gaze, saw her own hand still raised in mid-air.
Tang Xue withdrew her hand as quickly as lightning and took a few steps back. "Um... I just wanted to ask how the shower is. It wasn't very good when I used it before."
Tang Xue's mind raced, and she came up with a reason that sounded plausible.
"A shower?" Lin Xiaoxiao tilted her head and thought for a moment. "It works quite well." As she spoke, a faint smile appeared in her eyes. "I thought you were going to call me because I had been showering for too long."
"No...no." Tang Xue immediately waved her hand in denial. "How could that be? I was just worried that the shower might malfunction."
Looking at the person opposite her who didn't dare to meet her gaze at all, Lin Xiaoxiao pursed her lips, took a step forward, tilted her head and looked at Tang Xue, "You're not thinking of doing something bad, are you?"
When Tang Xue met Lin Xiaoxiao's gaze, she blushed slightly and coughed lightly, "How could that be? Besides, we're both girls, what bad things could we possibly do?"
Tang Xue spoke with some unease, her ears, hidden in her hair, turning a deep, almost blood-red as she uttered those words.
She had been thinking about unspeakable things before, and her gaze involuntarily shifted to Lin Xiaoxiao's neck.
Because she had just taken a shower, Lin Xiaoxiao's originally fair skin was flushed. Her gaze moved upwards and landed on those red lips that she had longed for for a long time.
Swallowing hard, Tang Xue took a step back and said somewhat flusteredly, "I, I'm going to take a shower first."
"Wait a minute." Lin Xiaoxiao reached out, but still couldn't grab Tang Xue's clothes. Watching the bathroom door close in front of her, Lin Xiaoxiao said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "You didn't bring your pajamas."
Looking at the closed bathroom door and recalling Tang Xue's previous reaction, Lin Xiaoxiao touched her chin in confusion. Was she shy? Or did she feel embarrassed?
Before she could figure it out, the bathroom door opened. "I...I'm just grabbing a nightgown."
Tang Xue knew her face must be incredibly red, but whenever she was with Lin Xiaoxiao, she felt like her brain wasn't working properly.
Tang Xue had no idea that she would have such a strong desire when facing someone she liked, wanting to hug her, kiss her, and do all sorts of things to her.
"Xiaoxue, are you shy?" Lin Xiaoxiao couldn't help but be surprised when she saw Tang Xue's face getting redder and redder. The Tang Xue she knew was aloof and gentle.
It's quite rare to see Tang Xue blushing like this, but it's rather cute. Lin Xiaoxiao reached out and poked Tang Xue's face, "If I bring an egg over, will it be cooked?"
"I could put an egg on your face and it would cook, and besides, I'm not shy." Because of her earlier thought, Tang Xue felt particularly guilty, so she subconsciously refuted the fact that she was shy.
"Hmm!" Lin Xiaoxiao hesitated for a moment, and her eyes looked at Tang Xue with a hint of doting affection for a child. "Yes, yes, you're right, you're not shy."