Takoyaki

The morning sunlight was like a golden blade, silently piercing through the gap in the heavy curtains and landing precisely on Tang Wulin's eyelids.

He frowned and instinctively burrowed deeper toward the source of warmth, letting out a muffled mumble like some oversized canine acting cute.

"Mm... so soft... so fragrant..."

With his eyes closed, he rubbed his cheek against the soft, delicate warmth in his arms. His arms tightened several degrees like iron hoops, refusing to let go. It was an utterly possessive posture born of instinct, as though he wanted to knead everything in his embrace into his very bones and blood.

At that moment, Gu Yue, whom he had tightly imprisoned in his arms as a "human-shaped body pillow," had actually been awake for quite some time.

She could even count clearly that exactly seven minutes and three seconds had passed since the sunlight entered the room.

After that unfinished, ambiguous interlude last night, the two of them had eventually fallen sound asleep. Tang Wulin's childish behavior had been like a pebble tossed into the lake of her heart, and the ripples it stirred had yet to settle. Gu Yue was not someone easily teased into losing control, but Tang Wulin's pure enthusiasm always effortlessly tore down the defenses of reason she had built.

She had not pushed him away.

Perhaps because she, too, craved this warmth. In this city, on this absurdly soft five-star bed, being held by him so completely gave her a strange, reassuring sense of belonging. She could even hear his steady, powerful heartbeat, thump after thump against her eardrums—and against the tip of her heart.

So she lay there quietly without moving, letting him hold her like an exquisite, fragile doll. Until dawn broke. Until he woke.

Gu Yue slightly moved the arm that had gone a little numb beneath his weight, intending to gently pull it free and adjust her position. But the instant she moved, Tang Wulin's arm, which had merely been loosely draped around her waist, instantly turned into a dead knot.

"Mm..." Tang Wulin grunted unhappily in his sleep. Not only did he not loosen his hold, he pressed his chin into the hollow of her neck and took a deep breath, as though confirming the presence of some precious treasure.

"So fragrant... smells like takoyaki..."

He muttered indistinctly, and then did something Gu Yue had never expected.

Tang Wulin began rubbing his head back and forth against the hollow of her neck. The force, the angle—it was exactly like a husky that had been starving for three days and nights, madly gnawing on its favorite steak.

"Hiss—"

Gu Yue sucked in a sharp breath, not from pain, but from an indescribable sense of being offended mixed with sheer absurdity. She could feel his warm lips brushing, again and again, against the most sensitive skin at the side of her neck, sending shivers of electricity through her body.

"Tang Wulin, what... are you doing?" she asked in a low voice, trying to wake him.

But how could someone asleep hear her? He seemed to have mistaken her for some unparalleled delicacy. His arms tightened again, squeezing Gu Yue so hard that she could barely breathe.

"So bouncy... so flavorful... little takoyaki balls... hehehe... mine... all mine..."

He giggled stupidly as he used his cheek to "crush" the contours of Gu Yue's neck. His greediness was even more exaggerated than if he had actually seen an entire pan of takoyaki.

Gu Yue was nearly strangled senseless by his grip. The air in her lungs was squeezed out, and black spots even began appearing before her eyes. At last, she could endure it no longer. She no longer cared about being "gentle" or "composed."

Smack!

A crisp, merciless knuckle rap landed solidly on Tang Wulin's forehead.

"Ow—!"

The blow was so strong that Tang Wulin instantly fell from the clouds of his sweet dream and woke in a cold sweat. He opened his eyes groggily, and the first thing he saw was Gu Yue's stunning face inches away from his, filled with murderous intent.

"Gu... Gu Yue? What's wrong? Was there an earthquake? Did the building collapse?" His mind was completely blank, and he instinctively tried to shrink beneath the blanket.

"You were squeezing me to death. Is that enough of a reason?" Gu Yue's voice was three degrees colder than the winter wind outside. She had already sat up and was staring at him expressionlessly. There was not a trace left in her violet eyes of last night's indulgence or amusement—only icy scrutiny.

Only then did Tang Wulin belatedly realize that he was holding Gu Yue in an extraordinarily indecent position. His arms were like steel cables, tightly locking down her slender waist and limbs, while his face was buried in the hollow of her neck. The posture was intimate enough to make anyone misunderstand.

"I... I..." Tang Wulin's face flushed from his neck to his hairline in an instant, as fast as a soul device running at full power. He let go as if electrocuted, rolled off Gu Yue in a panic, and landed on his butt at the foot of the bed. Grabbing at his hair, he stammered, "I-I-I-I didn't do anything! I swear! I was just... just dreaming! I dreamed... dreamed that you turned into a huge plate of takoyaki! Really! I swear I didn't bite you! I just... just wanted to taste it! Really! I can swear to heaven! I, Tang Wulin, swear to heaven that if I said even half a lie, then may I never eat anything delicious for the rest of my life!"

His oath rang loud and strong, as though he were afraid the entire hotel might not hear him.

Watching him look so embarrassed that he wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground, the ice in Gu Yue's eyes began visibly melting. She took a deep breath and worked to steady the breathing he had thrown into disarray before speaking slowly. "So you mistook me for takoyaki?"

"Yes! It was a dream! A nightmare! No, a sweet dream! A very, very... very terrible sweet dream!" Tang Wulin wailed, gesturing wildly toward the sky. "I don't know what happened to me either. When I woke up, it was... it was like this. I promise, I absolutely didn't mean anything by it! I... I was just too obsessed with takoyaki. And after eating so much at the revolving restaurant yesterday, maybe... maybe it was just what I thought about during the day showing up in my dreams at night..."

The more he spoke, the guiltier he felt. In the end, he simply pulled the blanket over his head and let out mournful "woo woo woo" cries, like a golden retriever caught red-handed by its owner and repenting for its crimes.

Gu Yue looked at his ostrich-like behavior and truly could not hold back anymore. The corner of her lips lifted into a faint, fleeting curve. She lay back down on the pillow, pulled the blanket over herself, and revealed only her eyes as she gave him a calm glance. "Get up. It's almost eight. Didn't you say we were going to breakfast?"

"Huh? It's eight already?" Tang Wulin poked half his head out from under the blanket and glanced at the electronic clock on the bedside table.

He clumsily threw off the blanket, haphazardly pulled on his cartoon pajamas, then charged into the bathroom at the speed of a hundred-meter sprint.

Splash, splash—

The hurried sound of running water began. Listening to his flustered footsteps and the water, Gu Yue's smile gradually deepened. She reached up and touched her neck, where the lingering warmth of his rubbing and a faint, almost imperceptible tickle still seemed to remain.

This idiot...