Translated by newbienoona

Edited by anks

(Idiom) Steal a chicken only to end up losing grains of rice – describes a person who is stunned, dumbfounded or transfixed with fear or amazement.

“Me?” Han Qilu frowns. “What am I?”

She wants to ask, “Do you still care about me?” However, when it reaches the tip of her tongue, she can't say it.

She's not afraid to show she's attracted to him, but she's afraid he'd look down on her if she asks whether he reciprocates the feeling.

“It's nothing.” As soon as her voice falls, she hears a click sound from the door before it opens.

As soon as they hear the sound, their eyes subconsciously look at the door.

“I'll give you… agh!” Jiang Yuan walks into the room with two gla.s.ses of milk. Her eyes widen as she sees the couple lying together on the floor.

An Chuxia just realizes neither of them is moving!

Without waiting for either to get up or hear an explanation, Jiang Yuan puts the milk aside and skips. “Go on. The milk's here. I won't bother you.”

“Ma!” An Chuxia calls out. “Mommy!” She yells as Jiang Yuan exits and closes the door behind her.

Her expression turns awkward as she sees the matron pretend to be deaf.

“Hey, do you like this position so much?” Han Qilu wiggles his eyebrows. His smile, evil. “I didn't expect you to be so fierce!”

“How can I?!” An Chuxia's complexion turns red as she quickly gets up from the ground and away from him. She walks to the side and brushes her hair.

Han Qilu easily gets up. Enlightened, he tiptoes toward An Chuxia and says, “Teacher, do the ancients say ‘ah' in vain?”

He acts like he is patiently waiting for sage advice, which infuriates her even more.

“I don't have time to mess with you. I can't teach you like this.” In order to deflect her embarra.s.sment, she changes topic. “You sort out the whole idea from this cla.s.sical Chinese text!”

“Come up with the idea?” He rolls his eyes. An Chuxia, he won't let her go that easily. Sure enough, he proceeds to say, “Can you just talk to me about it? Why am I sorting this all at once? What's the point of this article?”

An Chuxia looks around and finds no way to refute.

“Well, I'm sleepy. I'm going back to sleep!” After that, Han Qilu stretches from his waist and lets out a loud yawn.

They say sleep is infectious and soon she starts feeling sleepy herself. But the afternoon is almost over, and she hasn't taught Qilu anything at all, and that's bad.

As she thought of this, she rushes to Han Qilu and grabs him. She eagerly says, “No! You can't go!”

He turns his head and glances at her sadly. “You won't let me go back to my room to sleep. Would you let me sleep in your room?”

Her jaw tightens before she explains, “I didn't mean that! I mean… .”

Han Qilu cuts in. “It's not what you mean? Since you're so enthusiastic, I can't refuse you, right?”

He anxiously blinks at An Chuxia before walking toward her big bed.

Her heart turned complex. Would he really want to sleep in her room?

She walks over to him and says “Hey, get up!”

Han Qilu has since taken off his shoes and is lying spread-eagle on her bed. After hearing her voice, he opens his eyes partially and then closes them again.

Did he just ignore her?

“Get up! Mommy asked you to get tutored in my room, not sleep. Get up!” She stretches out one hand toward him as she plants one foot in the ground.

But Han Qilu is a tall man. He may look thin, but he's not that light. She tried for a while to pull him up in vain.

“Don't yank,” he says casually with his eyes closed. Let me sleep for ten minutes. After that, wouldn't it mean it would be ten minutes sooner for the session to end?”

An Chuxia listens to his request. Is her teaching method that boring?

Once she realizes he's asleep, she gets off the bed. Now that she's idle, she could easily write her novel, or leave the room.

As soon as the door opens, Jiang Yuan descends over her. An Chuxia felt a dark shadow falling beside her so she subconsciously moved to the side.

“Ouch!” Jiang Yuan cries out in pain when she attempts to stand up from the ground.

“Ma!” An Chuxia looks at her with surprise, as the older lady looks at her with embarra.s.sment. “Hey.”

She already knew Jiang Yuan was leaning at the door to overhear her conversation. She just didn't expect her to fall as soon as she opened the door. This is really like failing to steal a chicken and lose the grains of rice!

“I just wanted to ask if you have enough milk… .” she calmly says.

“I've yet to drink a gla.s.s. I just wanted to go down for a breath of air and take a break.” An Chuxia quickly remembers Jiang Yuan saw them in a compromising position.

“It's time to rest.” Jiang Yuan is giving her a meaningful look as she tries to glance inside the room.

An Chuxia pulls her along. “Then let's go together!”

An Chuxia doesn't want Jiang Yuan to misunderstand anything anymore. Besides, Xiang Mankuai is his girlfriend, and she's nothing more than his meimei. If this misunderstanding continues on, she would be considered a third person in other people's eyes.

Once they reach downstairs, Jiang Yuan tells her she's going to work on her ma.n.u.script, leaving An Chuxia sitting alone on the sofa.

A maid comes over to her and asks, “Xiaonainai, do you want a gla.s.s of milk?”

“No, you may leave.” An Chuxia waves her hand at her, thinking, the milk upstairs hasn't been touched!

She's about to read the newspaper when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She looks at it and sees an incoming call from Xiaonan.

As soon as she presses the answer b.u.t.ton, she hears her friend over the phone. “Chuxia, do you want to come out and play? No one's home and I'm dying of boredom!”

Meng Xiaonan's voice sounds awkward. The moment she hears her voice, she knows she isn't well. An Chuxia remembers her plan with Xiao Mingluo, and her heart stirs. “I can't come out. You know my feet aren't completely healed. Come to the Hans. I just happen to be idle, too.”

Meng Xiaonan's voice pauses. She seems hesitant. Then, she asks, “Do you want me to bring something to eat?”

The Han family lacks nothing, but An Chuxia hasn't had shortbread cookies in a long time. Meng Xiaonan thinks she could bring some along.

Stifling a giggle, Meng Xiaonan says, “Chuxia nainai, you've been grounded in the Han family for so long. How could a rich child like you get shortcakes?”

“I am not a rich child!” Chuxia quickly retorts. “Bring it or don't bring anything.”

“Of course, i'll bring it!” Xiaonan says before telling her she will arrive in half an hour.

As soon as the call ends, An Chuxia calls Xiao Mingluo.

“What happened, Chuxia?” Xiao Mingluo's voice sounds surprised, as if wondering why she called.

An Chuxia says,”Meng Xiaonan will be here in half an hour. Do you have time?”

She hears something snap shut like a closing notebook, followed by an excited-sounding Mingluo. “I happen to be free now. I will be there before her. I'm hanging up first.”

As she hangs up, she exhales a sigh of relief.

These two people obviously care for each other, but they constantly have misunderstandings like this, and it's frustrating. She just hopes they can make up quickly.

“Hey, Miss An, are you on strike?” Han Qilu's voice can be heard from the second floor railing.

An Chuxia glances at the direction of his voice, only to see him staring at her with a burning glance. Her heart uneasily skips a beat.

She'd die if he acts any cooler!

She doesn't answer as she walks up the steps.

“I say, Miss An, who were you calling just now?” He's constantly teasing her by intentionally calling her Miss An.

An Chuxia is thinking of a way to answer him when his phone rings. Han Qilu says “en” a few times before hanging up and looking at her.

“Mingluo says I have to meet with him in a while. Miss An, would you allow me to leave? You're not allowed to tease me.”

“Can you not be so full of it?” she says angrily. “I want you to ask Mommy for the leave.”

Han Qilu seems to like watching her get riled up, so he says to her, smiling, “Okay, I'll call my mother for you, Xiao Xia.”

Xiao Xia… seems weird, but it sounds better than the t.i.tle 'Miss An' or meimei.

An Chuxia raises her chin. “If anyone looks for me, I'm in my room.”

It isn't until she enters her room does she drop her gaze.

Why does she feel that the Han Qilu who got discharged is different? She can't tell what exactly is different.

Xiao Mingluo arrives and hurriedly enters An Chuxia's room with Han Qilu next to him.

“Why are you here?” She asks, surprised. Xiao Mingluo should be in Han Qilu's room and pretend he knows nothing, and then meet up with Xiaonan. Isn't that better?

Reading her thoughts, Xiao Mingluo says, “It's Qilu's idea, and he said it's better to come in your room.”