Chapter 121: Birthday Present
But she was very vigilant. As soon as she felt that Junior Brother wanted to do something bad, she immediately tilted her head back after licking the cream off his face, leaving him grasping at air.
“Senior Sister…”
“No…” She pressed her hands against his chest again as she avoided his burning gaze with a flushed face and whispered, “That’s something you can only do after unlocking the second stage.”
“Then why did you do it in advance?”
“I was just giving you a demonstration.” Su Huaizhou buried her face against his chest. “Now that the demonstration is over, you can’t do it again.”
“But after the teacher demonstrates, shouldn’t the student practice to reinforce what they’ve learned?” Jiang Miao wouldn’t let her hide. He gently touched Senior Sister’s face with one hand and lifted her chin.
Instead of kissing her lips directly, he turned his head and placed his lips on her cheek like she had done earlier.
This time, Su Huaizhou felt the electric shock.Unlike a girl’s soft kiss, even if a boy shaved, there would still be some faintly prickly stubble around his lips.
After being kissed on the cheek, she could feel a ticklish sensation on her face, and her body trembled slightly.
But soon, Su Huaizhou felt that Junior Brother had mischievous intentions.
As his lips continued kissing, they gradually inched closer to the corner of her mouth.
His intentions were clear.
But she couldn’t bear to stop him, enjoying his affection too much, so she could only pretend not to notice, and her hands resting on his shoulder gripped tighter and tighter.
It wasn’t until Jiang Miao kissed Senior Sister’s soft cheek all the way to the corner of her lips that she came back to her senses and pushed him away.
“N-no, we can’t…” Su Huaizhou slipped away from his arms in a flash. Her face red, she glared at Junior Brother before running away into her bedroom.
Watching her flee, he touched his lips in a daze.
A girl’s face is…
… so fragrant, so soft.
It was like kissing a freshly peeled, soft-boiled egg—smooth, translucent, with a rosy glow beneath the skin. A light kiss revealed a subtle, alluring elasticity.
When he kissed her and her cheek pushed back, it was a sensation that was addictive.
Jiang Miao’s hands were still hovering in the air, as though Senior Sister were still nestled in his arms. So, this is what being in love feels like.
The emotions he had written in his stories were worlds apart from reality.
Why was I so stubborn before?
If I had started dating Senior Sister soon, I would have already tasted her soft, sweet lips by now.
Thinking of this, Jiang Miao felt a wave of regret.
It’s all my fault for being too blunt and exposing Senior Sister’s identity.
If he had known what would happen, he would have waited until he had completely won her over before exposing her Congee Boss identity.
At the time, no matter how mortified or shy Senior Sister was, she would already be his, and he wouldn’t be stuck like this now, where he could only sample the appetizer occasionally, while the main course remained untouched.
Jiang Miao sighed, but he wasn’t too dissatisfied.
With a girlfriend like Senior Sister, what was there to complain about?
She read his novels, drew character illustrations for them, and even hugged and kissed him to help him get material.
For a web novel author, a girl like this was simply perfect.
After savoring the moment in the chair for a while, Jiang Miao got up to clean the table.
There was still a third of the cake left, which could serve as a late-night snack.
But there was one issue now: should they return to the dorms tonight?
“Senior Sister, I’m done washing the dishes.”
Ten minutes later, Jiang Miao came out of the kitchen and went to the door of Senior Sister’s bedroom. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to the dorms? I haven’t written anything today.”
“Wait!” The bedroom door flew open, and Su Huaizhou rushed out and grabbed his hand. “W-why are you in such a hurry to leave?”
“I haven’t written anything…” Jiang Miao scratched his head helplessly. “But it’s my birthday today, so maybe I can take the day off.”
“No!” The moment Su Huaizhou heard Peach Jam say he wanted to take a break, she frowned. “How dare you ask for a day off in front of your loyal reader?”
“Good idea.”
“Good idea, my foot!” Su Huaizhou stepped on him lightly, dragged him into the guest room next door, and pushed him in front of the computer domineeringly. “Isn’t this a ready-made writing station, all ready to go? You’re not leaving until you’re done!”
“Alright.” Jiang Miao stayed ‘reluctantly’ and obediently began writing.
While he typed away, she left him in peace.
Even though she really wanted to stay by Junior Brother’s side, hugging and kissing without being apart, she knew it wasn’t realistic.
Besides, she had something more important to do.
Su Huaizhou walked out of the guest room, closed the door, and slipped back into her room.
If Jiang Miao had looked more closely just now, he would have definitely seen that her bed was covered with JK uniforms.
Which one should I wear? Su Huaizhou furrowed her brows in thought, struggling to decide which outfit to pick.
It wasn’t that she found any of them unappealing.
After all, she had plenty of confidence in her looks and figure. Anything she wore, as long as it wasn’t too outrageous, would look good on her.
But the problem was that these JK uniforms were all too outrageous!
Take the one on the far left, for instance. The skirt was shorter than her underwear and barely covered anything at all.
Then there was the one beside it. It had a completely sheer top!
There were also cutouts, laces, straps… all kinds of daring designs.
In short, there wasn’t a single normal JK uniform.
After all, she didn’t wear JK uniforms in her daily life. She had originally bought these outfits for a big commission—she had been tasked with designing character illustrations for a school romance game.
It was why she had purchased a bunch of sexy JK-themed outfits for reference.
These outfits were never meant to be worn out.
Su Huaizhou remembered that she had bought these outfits last year, so her memory of them wasn’t very clear.
When she promised Junior Brother to draw the female lead in a JK uniform earlier, she only remembered that she had bought many JK uniforms, which was why she had agreed so readily.
Who would have thought that none of these JK uniforms were actually wearable in a decent way?!
Su Huaizhou scratched her head in distress. Finally, she gritted her teeth, decisively picked one from the pile, walked out of her bedroom, and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
…
Meanwhile, thanks to the buff from Senior Sister, Jiang Miao’s writing speed soared, and inspiration gushed out like a clear spring.
In just an hour and a half, he had written 3,000 words.
He looked at the time. It was only a little past eight in the evening.
If he pushed himself a bit more, he should be able to write another 3,000 words before midnight.
But if he did, would he still be Peach Jam?
Of course not!
A web novel author always kept their word. 3,000 words a day meant 3,000 words!
Jiang Miao opened the author’s dashboard, pasted the freshly written 3,000 words, added a title, and started on the author’s note.
[Author’s Note]: It’s my birthday today, but I didn’t take a day off! I still diligently finished today’s writing! For such a hard-working writer, it’s not too much to ask for a monthly vote, right?
Once he finished this, he clicked to upload the chapter, but instead of releasing it immediately, he chose to schedule it.
He set the release time for 11:17 p.m. It looked late enough, and since the release time wasn’t on the hour or half-hour, it would appear as though he had released it right after finishing.
After settling everything, Jiang Miao clicked confirm and smiled smugly. How witty~
With a birthday release scheduled just before midnight, even though it was the usual 3,000 words, the readers would surely be touched.
Maybe he could even reel in a few monthly votes!
Besides, he wasn’t lying. Everything in the author’s note was true.
He had simply adjusted the release time a bit.
Moreover, after finishing 3,000 words, he felt like a deflated balloon and lacked the motivation to write more.
Clearly, the buff from Senior Sister had run its course.
Pushing himself to write more would only wear him out, so he wisely decided to end his writing session.
This was perfectly reasonable, wasn’t it?
With this thought in mind, Jiang Miao opened QQ to check the reader group and the author groups.
Recently, many readers had been asking about a subscribers-only group, but since his novel’s premium release was not long ago, he planned to wait until he had more content before creating one.
Besides, simply establishing a group didn’t hold much practical significance anyway.
It was better to wait until his male and female leads made substantial progress in their relationship before writing some special content that he couldn’t share publicly. At that time, he could include some of the expanded content as extras for the subscribers-only group, treating his loyal readers to some exclusive perks.
Otherwise, just having a group would be rather meaningless.
After looking at the reader group filled with people who only seemed to ask for more releases or post lewd images, Jiang Miao silently saved a few good pictures and continued lurking.
When he checked the author groups, he looked at not only his usual hangout, the Ten Thousand Words a Day Writing Group, but also a few larger groups, including the official contract signing group for light novel authors.
In addition, because he had reached 3,000 average subscriptions in a few days, his editor, Night’s Rest, had added him to the high-quality light novel group.
Having ascended from the signing group to the high-quality group, Jiang Miao was like the main character of a fantasy novel who had ascended and found himself on a new map with powerful bosses everywhere.
However, these bosses liked to pretend to be newbies. As soon as he joined the group, a flurry of messages like ‘Hello, Big Shot’ and ‘Group status -1’ greeted him.
It felt rather embarrassing.
The commotion almost scared him away.
After lurking and catching up on the discussions in various groups, Jiang Miao planned to continue gathering material for his novel.
But when he propped his elbows on his thighs, he suddenly noticed his pocket was bulging slightly. Only then did he remember he had something in it.
He reached into his pocket and took out Senior Sister’s white sock, his expression strange.
After all, it had just been a playful moment between them. He had wanted to tease her and then return the sock to her.
But after Senior Sister kissed his cheek, he became so dazed that he completely forgot about it.
Only now did he remember.
Jiang Miao looked down at the sock. It was a very ordinary white sock, and since the weather was still warm, it was quite thin.
There was a blue floral pattern near the ankle.
Senior Sister had been wearing the sock for the entire day. Even after he stuffed it in his pants for a while, he could still make out the shape of her small foot.
Thinking about how this sock had wrapped around her earlier, he felt an inexplicable urge and subconsciously lowered his head, intending to take a whiff.
But he immediately returned to his senses and threw this perverted thought away.
But at this moment, the door of the guest room opened.
Su Huaizhou poked her head in. Just as she was about to say something, she saw Junior Brother holding her sock with his head slightly lowered, looking as if he was about to kiss it.
Bang!
“Pervert!!!”
Jiang Miao’s expression changed drastically. He hurriedly jumped out of the chair and dashed to the living room to explain, “Senior Sister! You’ve misunderstood!”
“I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear it!!” Su Huaizhou, wearing a white bathrobe, shrank back onto the couch and said in a condemning voice, “Junior Brother, you’re a pervert! You don’t even let go of my sock!”
“…” Jiang Miao’s lips twitched. He felt he wouldn’t be able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Qiantang River, so he could only fight back. “Senior Sister, didn’t you secretly smell my underwear before?”
“I didn’t!” she retorted, flustered. “I was going to wash it for you!”
“Then I just took this sock out of my pocket and was thinking about how to deal with it.” He held the sock out towards her. “You’re just thinking blindly.”
“You’re clearly the pervert,” Su Huaizhou murmured, taking the sock and even turning around to sniff it discreetly.
Not detecting any strange smells, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had been afraid that Junior Brother had done something weird with her sock.
“Did you just finish showering,” Jiang Miao asked, noticing her damp hair. He walked over to the coffee table and picked up the hairdryer. “Shall I help you dry your hair?”
“Hmph.” Su Huaizhou harrumphed, but her movements were very honest. She sat properly on the couch and pushed her hair back. “You’re taking advantage of me.”
“I can let you take advantage of me every day.”
“Who cares about you?”
“Then I’ll ask another girl…”
“You dare!”
Jiang Miao chuckled softly.
He loved this protective side of Senior Sister. It was oddly cute.
He turned on the hairdryer, gently lifted her long hair, and began to blow dry it. “Senior Sister, are you staying here tonight?”
“Nope. We have to go ahead before ten-thirty.”
Today was Thursday. If they really stayed here, just the thought of facing Shen Yu’s and Qi Lianyue’s gazes when she returned to school tomorrow was unbearable.
It would be beyond embarrassing.
“Then why did you shower?” Jiang Miao asked, puzzled.
“I showered here so I wouldn’t have to do it in my dorm room later.”
“That makes sense.” He nodded. “Then should I shower too?”
“Up-up to you,” Su Huaizhou said softly before adding, “Your bathrobe is in the cabinet. If you want to change clothes, there’s some in the guest room wardrobe.”
“Okay.” Jiang Miao smiled, feeling the silky strands of Senior Sister’s hair slide between his fingers, the sensation tingling pleasantly and brightening his mood.
After spending about twenty minutes, he finished blow drying her hair.
It was only 8:30 pm, so he decided to take a shower.
But just as he put the hairdryer away and started heading to the bathroom, Senior Sister, sitting on the couch, suddenly grabbed his wrist.
“Senior Sister, what’s the matter?”
“W-wait a sec…” Su Huaizhou held his wrist with one hand and covered her chest with the other. She bit her lip, finding it difficult to speak.
Jiang Miao had a puzzled expression as he moved back towards Senior Sister. “Is there anything else?”
“Umm…” Su Huaizhou looked up at Junior Brother but quickly turned her head to avoid his gaze.
She stood up from the couch, lowered her flushed face, and whispered, “I prepared a birthday present for you, but I haven’t given it to you yet.”
“There’s more?”
“The previous one doesn’t count!” Su Huaizhou puffed her cheeks. “Do you really want a sock as your gift?”
That’s not bad, Jiang Miao thought, but he still asked curiously, “Then what’s the birthday present?”
“… It’s on me.” Her voice softened to a whisper, barely audible. “Do you want to see it?”
Jiang Miao’s heart skipped a beat. He looked down at the enticing Senior Sister and felt his body tense up.
What do you mean… do you want to see it?
See what?
His mind swirled with all sorts of thrilling and steamy guesses.
A sudden heat welled up inside him.
“Senior Sister…” Jiang Miao gulped, his lips feeling dry.
The next second, Su Huaizhou gently grasped his hands and slowly guided them towards her.
Finally, his hands landed on the thin belt tied around the waist of her bathrobe.
The thin belt was tied into a beautiful bow, and at this moment, the ends of the bowstring fell into Jiang Miao’s hands.
As long as he pulled gently, Senior Sister’s bathrobe would open up for him.
Su Huaizhou had already shut her eyes tightly, loosened her hands, clenched them into small fists, and shrunk them into the sleeves of her bathrobe. Her face, flushed with nervousness and embarrassment, hung low, too shy to look at Jiang Miao.
“Junior Brother…” Su Huaizhou said with a trembling voice, soft as the buzzing of a mosquito. “Your birthday present… you can unwrap it now…”
In the dimly lit living room, the small table lamp on the coffee table cast a warm, soft glow.
The girl’s whisper, full of shyness and anticipation, brushed against Jiang Miao’s already sensitive ear.
The next second…
The bow unraveled.