Chapter 301: Embarra.s.sing Matter
He waited quietly in the living room, sitting on the sofa, somewhat apprehensively. It was a while before Ji Siying got dressed and came out, slinking with her head hung low, blus.h.i.+ng up to her ears.
“Err, about this… I’m, err, sorry.”
Xiao Luo just didn’t know what to say, but he thought he should just apologize first.
“Mmm,” Ji Siying attempted a barely audible reply, then explained, “the showerhead in my room’s broken, Mr. Xiao Luo. Err, so I went to the bathroom in your room instead…”
“So that’s what happened!”
Xiao Luo nodded in realization. “I’ll go to town for a new one and get it fixed by tomorrow. It’s getting late, and you should get some rest.”
He rose and walked into his room rather awkwardly.
Ji Siying nodded, and stood silently with her shoulders hunched, looking like a hurt little lamb. Suddenly, she stiffened and instantly cupped her hand over her mouth as she let out a yelp. She had just realized something–her undergarments were still drying on the rack in the Xiao Luo’s bathroom! She was frantic when Xiao Luo saw her in the shower, and with her head in a whirl, she forgot all about it. Things just couldn’t get any worse than this.
“Oh no, what am I supposed to do now?”
She couldn’t go through another embarra.s.sing episode and felt like she was going mad. Fl.u.s.tered, she stood where she was and repeatedly stamped her foot on the ground in frustration.
Meanwhile, Xiao Luo had just walked into his bathroom to take a bath and was stunned by what he saw. Ji Siying’s white panty and black bra were hanging on the rack, and the image of her showering in the nude earlier instantly flashed in his mind again. In this respect, he was like any other ordinary man, and strong-willed as he was, at that moment, he was close to getting a nosebleed, and his heart was racing.
Outside Xiao Luo’s room, after racking her brains on what to do, Ji Siying finally made up her mind to wait until the moment Xiao Luo left the next day before she would sneak in quietly to collect her undergarments. She felt quite sure that Xiao Luo would pretend not to see them as well, and they would both conveniently forget the whole affair after that.
Suddenly, the room door swung open, and Xiao Luo walked out, looked at her, and gestured at the bathroom inside the room with his thumb. “Ji Siying, you seem to have left some things in there.”
“Ahh…?”
Ji Siying’s cheeks immediately turned a bright red, and her eyes bulged from sheer embarra.s.sment.
“Err, I… I’ll go take it now!”
She almost cried but forced an awkward smile and ran into the bathroom desperately. She quickly stuffed her drying undergarments in her blouse, and hugging them tightly, ran back to her room like a frightened rabbit.
“Hmm, I seem to have done the wrong thing here.”
Xiao Luo thought to himself with a tinge of guilt. He had tried his best to act nonchalant like it didn’t matter so that she wouldn’t feel embarra.s.sed, but as it turned out, it was awkward for them both.
Just then, his phone rang, and the call was from Zhang Dashan.
“Old Xiao, happy new year in advance! So, do you miss your brother already? Meaning ‘me,’ haha.” Zhang Dashan’s gruff voice came over the line.
Xiao Luo wasn’t really in the mood and was abrupt in reply. He simply said, “Get lost!”
“F*ck, what did you swallow, some explosives? Why are you in such an irritable mood, what happened?” Zhang Dashan asked.
Xiao Luo thought about it for a moment and then told Zhang Dashan everything about what happened that night.
“D*mn, brother, you are the king of posers, no matter where you go,” Zhang Dashan commented.
“Can you speak in proper human speech?” Xiao Luo responded, a sense of exasperation creeping upon him.
“You did a great job of teaching them a lesson. I think you should have beaten them up even more, like maybe breaking their arms and legs.”
Xiao Luo said, “We’re from the same clan, I can’t bear to treat them so harshly.”
“True, if that’s the case, then the way you handled it is good enough, and you’ve sent them a clear message. They wouldn’t dare to come to bother your family again, even if they had ten times the courage,” Zhang Dashan said.
“And one more thing… you are quite well-versed in this area, so I need your opinion on something.”
Xiao Luo kept no secrets from Zhang Dashan, and they were very close, to the extent that they wouldn’t feel awkward showering naked together.
Then he told Zhang Dashan how he had accidentally walked into the bathroom while Ji Siying was having her shower, and how he had later asked her to retrieve the undergarments she left behind. Zhang Dashan couldn’t stop howling in laughter at the other end of the phone. He laughed so hard that he was tearing up.
“Old Xiao, you have some problems with your EQ. Couldn’t you just have pretended that you didn’t see anything and give an excuse to leave home for a while tomorrow? Then Ji Siying could quietly retrieve them while you’re away, and after that, you both would have an unspoken understanding, just keeping it to yourselves. It would be the perfect way to handle the situation, but of all the things to do, you had to bring the matter up into the open. Why are you so bold, brother, I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but you very are bold, hahaha.”
“I take it that you must find it pretty funny that you can’t stop laughing?” Xiao Luo said, feeling rather foolish.
“Hahaha… brother, let me laugh for a bit more first. Help, I just can’t, haha. Oh, I must post this in my Wechat Moments and share the joy with everyone, hahaha,” Zhang Dashan teased, he couldn’t stop cackling the whole while.
“I’ll whack you if you dare to expose me there!” Xiao Luo warned.
“Don’t worry, I’ll not expose your name, I’ll just say that it’s my brother,” Zhang Dashan replied, still keen on posting the story.
Xiao Luo swore that if Zhang Dashan were right in front of him now, he would kick him so hard it would split his b.u.t.tocks. He and Zhang Dashan had many mutual friends, and these people would immediately know that Zhang Dashan was referring to him merely by the mention of “his brother.”
“I mean it, if you dare to post about it, the next time I see you, I will stick your headfirst into the paddy fields!”
“Okay, okay. F*ck!” Zhang Dashan was a little alarmed and even felt a chill run down his spine.
He knew what Xiao Luo meant, and he’d literally grab someone and push them headfirst into the wet paddy soil like piling post.
…
At dawn the next day, a forlorn wail came from the street below, drawing out the neighbors who crowded around the front of his home.
Xiao Luo shook his head when he saw that it was none other than Xiao Qiudong’s mother, Madam Dongzhao. Xiao Qiudong’s father wasn’t around, and he had probably gone to the hospital to take care of Xiao Qiudong. Even though Xiao Luo didn’t beat him up too badly last night, Xiao Qiudong would still have to spend a day or two in hospital.
Xiao Ping and many of the Luo villagers who were there when the incident took place yesterday were consoling and advising her downstairs. But Madam Dongzhao paid them no heed at all. She was lying p.r.o.ne on the ground, crying and moaning in deep anguish. She as so infuriated that she cursed at Xiao Luo to die young and die like a dog. She accused him of being so cruel that he’d beat up his childhood friend that badly, and lamented how blind she had been to give Xiao Luo so much food, calling Xiao Luo an ingrate and a beast.
Her words were sharp and mean. Xiao Luo’s grandparents, who were trying hard to calm her downstairs, also became the subjects of her ridicule.
“Mr. Xiao Luo, shall I go and knock her out?’ asked Ji Siying.
Xiao Luo glanced at her.
Ji Siying suddenly felt a wave of self-consciousness and glanced at the floor in a hurry, recalling the embarra.s.sing incident last night, and her cheeks blushed immediately.
“There’s no need for that, I’ll go down myself.”
Xiao Luo said calmly. When he was a kid, Madam Dongzhao had indeed treated him well. Whenever he visited, she would bring out any delicious snacks she had in her house, and he remembered some of them vividly: potato chips, airplane-shaped biscuits, and mint sweets.
Whatever snacks Xiao Qiudong had, he would receive a serving too.
In his heart, he had always respected her, and he genuinely didn’t want the matters between them to get any worse. However, he didn’t regret beating up Xiao Qiudong the slightest. If he could rewind the times and have another chance at it, he would still ferociously beat up Xiao Qiudong.
It was for no other reason than the fact that Xiao Qiudong deserved a good beating!
…