It wasn't just to placate the kid—the wounds on Song Yao's body suddenly beamed with warmth and weren't that painful anymore.
...
After lunch, Tuan Tuan volunteered to clean up the small room with Lin Nuan and Bai Xiaonian since he knew he would stay in it with Lin Nuan for the night.
The room wasn't as dirty as Lin Nuan had imagined - just a thin layer of dust. It wouldn't take much effort to tidy it up.
Lin Nuan removed the sheets and put them by the door to replace them with some new clean sheets. Tuan Tuan jumped off the couch despite being comfortably half-asleep half a minute ago. He skittled over to the door of the room, stuck out his butt, opened his arms wide and picked up the sheets covered with dust, which irritated his nose and made him sneeze.
The sheets were crumpled up into a ball and were a bit too heavy for Tuan Tuan to carry. Lin Nuan looked back and saw him half-dragging those sheets towards the washing machine, wobbling like a penguin.
Lin Nuan ran over and lifted up the sheets he was dragging on the floor. Tuan Tuan turned around and saw Lin Nuan standing behind him…
She cleared her throat and smiled. "Wait for Auntie Xiaonian to make the bed - you can sleep on the little bed for a while."
"It's Sister!" Bai Xiaonian emphasized, still feeling it wasn't enough. She repeated herself to Tuan Tuan, "Tuan Tuan… repeat after me, it's SISTER Xiaonian!"
"Then are you going to call Nuan Nuan 'Auntie'?" Song Xiao shot back at Bai Xiaonian.
Lin Nuan snickered and asked Tuan Tuan, "Do you want to sleep for a while?"
Tuan Tuan opened his eyes wide and shook his head to show he was still awake. "I'm not sleepy!"
After she tossed the dirty sheets into the washing machine, Lin Nuan let Tuan Tuan step in the tiny wooden stool so she could wash his little hands and face. She said she would lay in bed with him for a short while and he was so happy that he nodded eagerly.
Using the time Lin Nuan washed her face, Tuan Tuan dragged out his little wool blanket from the luggage that Lu Jinbei delivered and hugged it as he waited for her at the door of the bathroom.
...
Tuan Tuan lay in the bed next to Lin Nuan and fell fast asleep.
With the door of the room nearly open, Lin Nuan could vaguely hear Bai Xiaonian and Song Yao talking…
Bai Xiaonian was tidying up the dishes that she didn't have time to wash that afternoon. Song Yao couldn't help much - she leaned on the door of the kitchen and said to Bai Xiaonian, "Are you and Nuan Nuan really disappointed that I didn't keep our promise?"
Bai Xiaonian didn't say anything for a moment. After the water stopped running, she then replied, "Last night after you got drunk and fell asleep wę had a conversation… about what rights did we have in the end? We don't have a good background or support network - we can only use a decently young body and a decently pretty face - but both of these will quickly fade away with time."
"Something happened in the radio station a while ago - the famously beautiful Wu Qianying and the chief executive of the broadcasting department were role-playing in the office and were caught red-handed by Li Zhiguo's wife. She was beaten up pretty badly. The news got leaked online and now Wu Qianying's carer is pretty much over…"
Song Yao was reminded of herself when she heard Wu Qianying being beaten up by someone because she followed the "unspoken rules".
After being taken advantage of, Lin Nuan and Song Yao both knew Bai Xiaonian hated mistresses. Yet she hated jerks even more—there was no innocent one in the game for two.
"I thought what Wu Qianying did was despicable when she clearly knew the man had a wife yet still went for him. But if she had some support behind her, if it was the manager or her father and it was effortless for her to go on any channel she wanted, why would she even need to compromise herself for a balding, oily, disgusting middle-aged man like Li Zhiguo? I just can't bring myself to believe a girl blossoming at her age wouldn't like a handsome man, and instead fall for a fat, balding, morally degraded middle-aged uncle."