Pat Me Please

Neither too fast nor too slow, Yu Zhou ran out of energy and collapsed onto the sofa, not wanting to move.

Su Chang, on the other hand, seemed to have regained some spirits. She let go of the hand that was wrapped around Yu Zhou’s waist, sat up and gave Yu Zhou’s shoulder a rub. “Why don’t you stay here for a few days? Is that okay?”

“Why?”

“Too lazy to move.” Su Chang leaned her shoulder against the back of the sofa.

“No, there’s nothing here. It’s not convenient to stay and it’s too big. Don’t you think there’s an echo even if you speak a little louder? Heyheyhey!” As Yu Zhou spoke, she suddenly shouted thrice.

Su Chang couldn’t help but laugh.

After the outburst, Yu Zhou felt weak again and lay back on her arm, her voice almost faint. “If you don’t want to move, then you stay here. I’ll go back to my place.”

The hand that was gently stroking Yu Zhou’s shoulder came to a halt. Su Chang was still leaning against the sofa, but the corner of her mouth drooped slightly.

“What do you mean?” She asked softly.

A bit nervous but trying to keep calm, she inquired, “Aren’t we… together?”

? Yu Zhou, noticing the change in Su Chang’s tone, turned to face her and saw her quietly staring at herself with pursed lips.

“What? I was just saying… And even if we’re together, we can still live separately for a few days.”

Yu Zhou sat up and leaned against the armrest, grumbling, “We’ve already slept together, I’m not that kind of person.”

Really?

Su Chang raised her eyebrows leisurely and said, “It’s not like we haven’t slept together before.”

It was a meaningful remark – they had slept together in the past and yet they had broken up just like that.

Feeling a little guilty, Yu Zhou couldn’t argue and instead reached out, patting Su Chang’s thigh playfully.

Su Chang bit her lip momentarily and quickly released it, casting a glance at Yu Zhou. She then pinched her hand and pulled her up. “Go take a shower and come to work with me later?”

“Help…” Yu Zhou gasped weakly. “I want to sleep at home all day.”

“My office has a place to rest. You can even bring your computer and write inside,” Su Chang said.

Yu Zhou couldn’t take it anymore: “You are so clingy! How did I not notice that before?”

But there was a hint of happiness in her tone.

Su Chang noticed it and smiled gently. “Is it not alright?”

Being apart for more than a year, it wasn’t excessive to want to be this close now. At least for the next few days.

Yu Zhou sighed, realizing that the intimacy after making love was indeed different, both physically and psychologically. She remembered the awkwardness of not knowing the right boundaries when she first got together with Su Chang. However, after their first time, she couldn’t help but want to stick close to Su Chang from the moment she woke up the next day.

So while she was showering, she was also thinking that perhaps those people on the internet had a point when they said that in many cases, doing it once could solve the problem.

After Yu Zhou finished showering, Su Chang had also already finished her shower in the other bathroom. She sat on the sofa replying to messages while waiting for Yu Zhou.

Seeing Yu Zhou walk out, Su Chang looked up and frowned, “Not drying your hair again?”

“I didn’t slack off,” Yu Zhou tilted her head and raised her other hand to pat her head, “It feels like there’s water in my ear, so uncomfortable.”

But even after tilting her head from side to side, she couldn’t shake out the water.

“Come here.” Su Chang stretched out her hand.

Yu Zhou approached and laid her head on Su Chang’s thigh while Su Chang carefully dug out a cotton swab from the box she fetched from the drawer next to the sofa. She carefully inserted it into Yu Zhou’s ear to clean the water.

It felt very itchy and Yu Zhou shivered from the sensation.

After getting comfortable with it, it felt good and she narrowed her eyes like a cat.

Su Chang acted cautiously and called out to her softly from above, “Zhouzhou.”

“Hmm?”

She felt that Yu Zhou had changed a bit.

During this photo incident, if it were the chūnibyō Yu Zhou from before with her extreme sense of justice, she might have already been overwhelmed by anger, wanting to clarify that she took the photo herself – just like ants on a hot pan.

Sometimes she couldn’t figure it out, thinking that it was obviously her photography, so how could people be so wrong about it?

However, in this past year, she seemed to have witnessed a lot while learning to accept things that are not facts, that these things can exist and even be louder than the truth.

“You seem much calmer about the photo issue than before.”

Yu Zhou thought for a moment and said, “Yeah… Actually, I did think about posting on Weibo or something, but then I thought that my current ability to handle psychological stress isn’t very good. I’m afraid that if I get myself involved, I won’t be able to face it well with you and that I will cause you trouble.”

“So I’m just laying low for now, waiting to see how you guys handle it.” She hugged Su Chang’s waist, her breath warm on her waist.

Su Chang pinched her earlobe again, so adorable.

Yu Zhou said in a soft voice, “Su Chang, I don’t think this looks like your grandma’s house.”

“How so?”

“You tell me, how could any elderly person’s house be decorated in such a cold, minimalist style? And the hairdryer and all the other things are the brands you usually use. In my grandma’s house, there would be some paintings on the wall and air conditioners would be covered with protective covers.” She recalled the way her own grandmother sewed clothes for the remote control and found it amusing.

If this was Su Chang’s grandmother’s house, then this grandmother would be too cool, wouldn’t she?

Su Chang laughed, “My dad bought this. Indeed, he bought it for my grandma to stay when she returns to China, but my grandma doesn’t come back often. She prefers to stay with my aunt.”

“Oh.” No wonder Su Chang stayed here for so long; Grandmother didn’t come anyway.

Yu Zhou also imagined what it would be like to suddenly meet an old person one morning when she got up. Hahaha, she was such a drama queen.

Her imagination went wild.

After cleaning her ears, Su Chang gently patted her, signaling her to get up, but Yu Zhou didn’t.

She burrowed into Su Chang’s clothes, covering her head with the hem, before gently pecking Su Chang’s waist and staying still.

“What are you doing?” Su Chang looked down and touched her head through the clothes.

“I’m observing,” Yu Zhou’s voice was muffled.

“Hmm?”

“Someone actually doesn’t wear underwear.”

Su Chang couldn’t help laughing; she replied softly with her eyebrows slightly furrowed, “Who wears underwear at home?”

“I don’t care,” Yu Zhou laughed a bit wickedly, “I just know someone is caught not wearing underwear.”

She chuckled with her head tucked in and then came out, her face a little red and her eyes sparkling brightly as she looked at Su Chang.

Su Chang was a little dazed. When she first started dating Yu Zhou, Yu Zhou was just like this, cute and casual, with many strange thoughts in her head, sometimes very childish.

It had been a long time since Su Chang had seen Yu Zhou so relaxed and happy in front of her. She caressed Yu Zhou’s face without saying anything further.

“What’s wrong?” Yu Zhou obediently laid her head back on Su Chang’s thigh.

“Um…” Su Chang pondered, asking her, “Do you want me to come out of the closet?”

“Huh?” Yu Zhou was stunned. “Why suddenly think about this?”

“My relationship with my parents is not as close as yours, of course, it’s not bad either, it’s just that I feel there’s no need to explain many things, nor am I used to explaining,” Su Chang was considering her words.

“Mm.”

“But I want to now.” She looked down at Yu Zhou, wanting to hear her opinion.

Because she felt a little uneasy, perhaps due to the fact that she had just started resuscitating this relationship, she felt pressed for time, fearing that the emergency measures might not be in place and that the heart might stop beating again.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think it’s that necessary either. I’ve thought about it and my attitude towards this matter is like this: if your family is a particularly important and daily part of your emotional relationships, then I definitely hope to be involved in this important part of your life. But if… well, you’ve been used to being independent all this time, then actually, there is no need for me to force myself into it. It would be a bit awkward for me, neither too close nor too far from your family… Can you understand what I’m saying?”

Yu Zhou played with her hand as she sincerely explained it to her.

“Hmm.”

“But on the second day after we got back together, you started thinking about this, which made me feel a bit worried. We’ve been together for more than three years and you never thought about it before.” Yu Zhou frowned, Su Chang, something’s off about you.

“I don’t know, I just want to. I want to tell the people around me.” Su Chang might be starting to understand why Yu Zhou felt insecure before.

She paused for a moment before she continued, “I even thought…”

“What did you think?”

Su Chang looked at her with a hint of uneasiness in her eyes and spoke in a very soft voice, “I even saw some couples on my timeline… and wondered if I should call you… uh… wife… like they do.”

Her face turned red as she whispered the words.

“Ah, please don’t… I’m getting goosebumps!” Yu Zhou sat up and quickly moved away from her.

Su Chang didn’t really want to call her that, but Yu Zhou’s reaction made her startled. She looked at Yu Zhou and asked, “Why not?”

“It’s just that, it doesn’t suit us,” Yu Zhou replied with a furrowed brow, a hint of laughter, and after a moment of thought, she added, “Besides, I have this feeling, I don’t know if it’s appropriate or not, but we just got back together recently,and it feels like we’re not quite that close yet…”

She laughed.

Su Chang frowned, “Not close?”

Three years together and they’re not close?

“Err… it’s not quite that, it’s just…”

Su Chang rested her hand on the armrest of the sofa, turned her head, and stopped talking.

Yu Zhou leaned over and grabbed her still slightly red earlobe, rubbing it gently, “You really love getting angry now, don’t you?”

There was an unintentional coo in her tone and her voice was a little dumb.

As if she was trying to coax her.

Su Chang sighed and glanced at her, “Get dressed, let’s go pick up Peng Xiangzhi and have lunch together.”

Yu Zhou agreed and stretched.

Su Chang went to pick up Peng Xiangzhi because they had a recording project together in the afternoon. When she invited her, Director Peng put on a show, saying that she would only come if Boss Su personally picked her up. Otherwise, she wouldn’t come no matter how much money was offered.

When Su Chang set out, she sent a WeChat message to Peng Xiangzhi, who said she was across from her place at the L’Oreal store buying facial cleanser, asking Su Chang to wait for her in the underground parking lot of the shopping center.

Yu Zhou was still a bit sleepy, yawning several times while waiting in the garage.

When Peng Xiangzhi arrived carrying her shopping bags, she was taken aback to see Yu Zhou sitting in the passenger seat. She greeted her, “Oh, are you coming with us, Zhouzhou?”

She opened the door and got into the back seat of the car.

“Yep. I’ve been having some issues with the script for my audio drama. There were two scripts for the previous two episodes, but they weren’t very good. I was hoping to consult with the screenwriting teacher later and maybe have Director Peng look over it as well if she doesn’t mind,” Yu Zhou turned around to speak to her.

During the script reading for the “Shrine”, Peng Xiangzhi, as a voice director, had provided significant professional input.

“Your audio drama, the pat what?” Peng Xiangzhi asked her.

“Pat Me Please.”

“How dare you ask me to help you without inviting me first,” Peng Xiangzhi huffed, “Don’t you have an assistant director for this? I’m not doing it.”

She then sat down comfortably in the back seat.

As they were about to leave the underground parking lot, thinking about the parking fee, Yu Zhou opened WeChat in advance, intending to scan the QR code. Su Chang, while driving, said, “I have a mini-app for this mall in my recent WeChat apps. You can just open it and pay the parking fee from there.”

“Alright.” Yu Zhou picked up Su Chang’s phone from the center armrest box, unlocked it before proceeding to pay the parking fee.

Three seconds later, Peng Xiangzhi leaned forward, hugging the back of Su Chang’s seat and exclaimed, “You two are together, aren’t you?”