The Disobedient Girl Awakened

Chapter 26: Skincare routine

By the evening, Xia Yao had already listened to several English podcasts and consolidated her political history knowledge. She glanced at the boy who was happily making juice on the side, then looked at the time, and said: “Xu Shizhou, won’t you go home? It’s almost 9 pm.”
“You are not healed and you are already thinking of driving me away?” He took a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and put it in her hand.
“No, you see, it’s late.” The girl motioned at the clock.
“9 pm, it’s still early.”
Xia Yao looked up at Xu Shizhou and said seriously: “No, I want to rest.”
“Good.” Xu Shizhou nodded.”
“Ah?” Well, why don’t you go home then?
“Your hand is hurt.” He took her hand and looked at her palm. When she had rolled down the hill, she had been scratched by thorns and had some shallow wounds on her arms and hands.
“I will help you wash your face!”
“Ah??” Xia Yao immediately retracted her hand. What? How was she reduced to asking others to help her wash her face? She wasn’t that delicate!

Seeing that Xu Shizhou was about to get up and act, Xia Yao quickly shouted: “Hold on! No need, I can do it myself!”
She tried to roll over and get out of the bed, but the pain of her injured leg made her subconsciously tear up. Hey, hey, she wasn’t hurting that much just now, why was she suddenly in pain?
Xu Shizhou looked at the girl who had turned pale and put one hand on her soft hair, pressing her back on the bed. He leaned forward and said in a low and hoarse voice: “Say you can do it again.” He rubbed her hair and softly added: “Good girl.”

Xia Yao’s head was pressed down on the soft pillow and muttered dully: “Next time… I will definitely be able to next time!”
She sighed silently in her heart. She felt that Xu Shizhou was being very ambiguous and if it hadn’t been for her injury, she would have slapped his hand away.
But as she was still thinking about it, Xu Shizhou had already walked out of the bathroom with a warm towel. Seeing she was not cooperating and deliberately leaning backward, he moved away the hair behind her ears and pinched her chin. Xia Yao shrank in shock and quickly obediently turned to him, before raising her head high and revealing her white and delicate cheeks.
Xu Shizhou was not a good person! She warned herself in her heart.

Xia Yao’s face was small and her eyes were tightly closed. Her eyelashes were dark and long, just like butterflies wings. After a while, she did not feel anything and she frowned before opening her mouth: “Xu Shizhou, my face isn’t big, why are you taking so long? Quickly wipe it.”
Xu Shizhou’s eyelashes trembled. He moved his gaze that was riveted on her beautiful face and started using the towel in his hand.
“Your… Your hair smells good.” He said lazily as if to hide his slowness.
“Oh, thank you for the compliment. I haven’t washed my hair in three days.”
The girl felt the rough movement on her face and guessed it was probably the first time the young master Xu was ever serving someone and didn’t say anything. Once her face was finally cleaned, she breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking it was finally over. But as she was about to drive him away, she noticed Xu Shizhou take a glass bottle out of nowhere.
What big-name skincare brand was this?
“…” Xia Yao watched him in shock as he took bottle after bottle.
“You… what are you doing?”
“Don’t girls always put a lot of things on their faces?” He asked, “Xia Yao, what type of skin do you have? Dry? Oily? Mixed? Sensitive?”
Xia Yao: Excuse me? A boy like you knows more than me?
Xia Yao was stunned and slowly answered: “I don’t know…”
—Dammit, every time Sweet Sister and Xu Yinuan went shopping for beauty products, she was always studying! She didn’t understand anything about it, how stupid she must sound.
“I just heard from the nurses just now, there might not be everything.” After Xu Shizhou finished speaking, he took out his phone, “Let me check first.”
“…” 

After a while, the boy said: “Then let’s follow the sensitive skincare routine.”
Xia Yao nodded. She didn’t understand anything anyway, she temporarily believed that Xu Shizhou would not disfigure her. Hopefully.
“Skin toner, moisturizing serum, night cream.” He picked three bottles out of the pile of products. He unscrewed the lid of the toner and poured some on a cotton pad, but wasn’t able to control his strength well, and too much fell on it.
The scene was somewhat embarrassing for a while and Xia Yao tightened her lips to prevent herself from laughing.
As he prepared everything in a hurry and put the cotton on the girl’s face, Xia Yao suddenly thought of something: “Wait, shouldn’t any skincare start with a facial cleaner?”
She asked very sincerely as if she was discussing academics. The boy was stunned and his hands froze on her face before he whispered: “Really? Then should I wash your face again?”
“No, no need, I was just asking casually.”

***

Ji Huai was in a hurry but he wasn’t sure why. When he had learned that Xu Shizhou had taken Xia Yao to the hospital, he had continued camping normally. But when Xia Xi had said Xia Yao liked Xu Shizhou, he had panicked.
Xia Yao had been injured but had not called her friends but asked for Xu Shizhou’s help… Ji Huai had felt that he had to go to the hospital right away, and that was exactly what he had done in the end.

He pushed the door of the ward open, only to realize he had barged without knocking. The room was very large, lilies were on the table in the living room and were very eye-catching under the light. The boy looked over the flower; someone was lying on the bed and a frowning teenager was sitting on the edge. The girl’s face was hidden under the quilt as she had been teased and when the door opened, she instinctively sat up.
“Ji Huai?” Xia Yao noticed the boy at the door.
Xu Shizhou’s expression suddenly became alert, ready to get rid of him.

Seeing them so close as soon as he opened the door, Ji Huai’s heart was blocked, as if filled with vinegar and lemon juice, and the thousands of words in his head were reduced to only a few of them: “I came to see you, I heard you were seriously injured.”
It had taken one or two hours by taxi from the campsite to the hospital. Xia Yao felt that he had gone through a lot of trouble just for this reason and vaguely guessed things must not have been as simple. She just couldn’t figure out why yet.
Her tone was relaxed: “It’s not that serious, I did not break anything. I should be fine after a few days.”
The sudden pain from a few minutes ago was just an accident.
“That’s good.” Ji Huai’s voice was gentle and he didn’t get closer to the bed. For a few moments, the three people in the room were in a stalemate and Xia Yao was very confused with this atmosphere. She looked at Ji Huai, then at Xu Shizhou, but felt tired and wanted to sleep.

After a while, Ji Huai finally walked through the living room and approached the bed.
“How did you get hurt?”
“Xia Xi pushed me.” Xia Yao answered honestly and not surprisingly, Ji Huai’s expression darkened. As he was about to say something, the girl’s indifferent tone sounded again and she shrugged.
“It’s nothing, I pulled her with me.”
The two teenagers looked at her and Ji Huai spoke first: “Then… you won’t be able to go to school for a few days, you may fall behind. I can come over to tutor you every day!”
Xia Yao wanted to answer but the other boy took the lead: “No need, Xia Yao can get first place in the exam, she doesn’t need any tutoring.”
Xia Yao: No, no, the first place was a lot of hard work! It was the result of lots of sleepless nights, don’t be so casual, I’m not a genius!
“The final exam will come before long. Xu Shizhou, Xia Yao, and you are different, she cares about her studies.”
“Yes, she cares a lot. She was just listening to English podcasts, she can take a couple of days off.”
“Xia Yao’s physics is not that good. She lost points last time because of it, I can help her with this subject.”
“You don’t need to go through this trouble.”
“Then what about you?”
“This is my hospital, I can sleep here if I want.”
“…”
The girl on the bed looked at the two quarrel like children, a small smile on her face. She suddenly felt that the genius teenager and the little bully looked rather well together, didn’t they?

***

Xia Yao deserved to be the strongest person in school, who broke bricks with her bare hands and crushed boulders on her chest. When she entered the classroom a few days later with the wind that was about to blow into winter, the bell had not rung yet and she wasn’t late.

During her hospitalization, Xu Shizhou and Ji Huai had come together and even her brother Xia Yuan had visited her symbolically. He had asked when she would go back to school and once he had gotten the answer he wanted to hear, he had hurried away; Xia Yao had been aware that there had been another family member that had needed to be pampered.

Xia Yao glanced at the girl who wore a little white dress all year round not far away, which was made of thick fabric today to keep her warm. A long time had passed since the forum’s incident and everybody seemed to have forgotten about it. The classmates who had scolded her frantically on the Internet surrounded and flattered her once again.
Seriously, passersby’s memories were only five minutes long.

Xia Yao looked away and began to think about how to deal with her moving funds. She didn’t know much about real estate’s cost in City T and she just wanted to rent a small house, for her and her grandmother. She lowered her head and picked up her phone, she opened a renting website and discreetly swiped the screen under her desk. After staring at her phone for a long time, her eyelids felt heavy and after a moment, her head knocked on the desk and she fell asleep. She had probably studied too much lately and had not slept enough.

“Student, student, why are you sleeping in class?” A voice suddenly came. Today’s class had a new teacher; he had heard that Class A was the best in this school but someone was sleeping on his first day and he felt very annoyed. And because Xu Shizhou had skipped again today, Xia Yao was the only one napping.
Xia Yao opened her eyes in a daze and saw a teacher she didn’t know. The man looked even more irritable, he was standing on the podium with a book and was pointing at Xia Yao with trembling fingers: “You sleep in math class, do you have the ability to get full marks then? Instead of sleeping, go answer this equation, let’s see how much you know!”
Xia Yao stood up slowly, without the embarrassment of being caught sleeping in class. But the moment she got up, the phone on her lap slid down and fell to the ground.
Seeing the device, the teacher became even angrier and he raised his voice: “Not only do you sleep in class but you also play with your phone! Go answer the questions right now!”
“…”
Xia Yao tried to carefully kick the phone away but someone bent down at the same time and picked it up.
“Teacher, I was the one playing with the phone.”
A clear voice echoed, attracting everybody’s attention.

Chapter 26: Skincare routine

By the evening, Xia Yao had already listened to several English podcasts and consolidated her political history knowledge. She glanced at the boy who was happily making juice on the side, then looked at the time, and said: “Xu Shizhou, won’t you go home? It’s almost 9 pm.”

“You are not healed and you are already thinking of driving me away?” He took a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and put it in her hand.

“No, you see, it’s late.” The girl motioned at the clock.

“9 pm, it’s still early.”

Xia Yao looked up at Xu Shizhou and said seriously: “No, I want to rest.”

“Good.” Xu Shizhou nodded.”

“Ah?” Well, why don’t you go home then?

“Your hand is hurt.” He took her hand and looked at her palm. When she had rolled down the hill, she had been scratched by thorns and had some shallow wounds on her arms and hands.

“I will help you wash your face!”

“Ah??” Xia Yao immediately retracted her hand. What? How was she reduced to asking others to help her wash her face? She wasn’t that delicate!

Seeing that Xu Shizhou was about to get up and act, Xia Yao quickly shouted: “Hold on! No need, I can do it myself!”

She tried to roll over and get out of the bed, but the pain of her injured leg made her subconsciously tear up. Hey, hey, she wasn’t hurting that much just now, why was she suddenly in pain?

Xu Shizhou looked at the girl who had turned pale and put one hand on her soft hair, pressing her back on the bed. He leaned forward and said in a low and hoarse voice: “Say you can do it again.” He rubbed her hair and softly added: “Good girl.”

Xia Yao’s head was pressed down on the soft pillow and muttered dully: “Next time… I will definitely be able to next time!”

She sighed silently in her heart. She felt that Xu Shizhou was being very ambiguous and if it hadn’t been for her injury, she would have slapped his hand away.

But as she was still thinking about it, Xu Shizhou had already walked out of the bathroom with a warm towel. Seeing she was not cooperating and deliberately leaning backward, he moved away the hair behind her ears and pinched her chin. Xia Yao shrank in shock and quickly obediently turned to him, before raising her head high and revealing her white and delicate cheeks.

Xu Shizhou was not a good person! She warned herself in her heart.

Xia Yao’s face was small and her eyes were tightly closed. Her eyelashes were dark and long, just like butterflies wings. After a while, she did not feel anything and she frowned before opening her mouth: “Xu Shizhou, my face isn’t big, why are you taking so long? Quickly wipe it.”

Xu Shizhou’s eyelashes trembled. He moved his gaze that was riveted on her beautiful face and started using the towel in his hand.

“Your… Your hair smells good.” He said lazily as if to hide his slowness.

“Oh, thank you for the compliment. I haven’t washed my hair in three days.”

The girl felt the rough movement on her face and guessed it was probably the first time the young master Xu was ever serving someone and didn’t say anything. Once her face was finally cleaned, she breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking it was finally over. But as she was about to drive him away, she noticed Xu Shizhou take a glass bottle out of nowhere.

What big-name skincare brand was this?

“…” Xia Yao watched him in shock as he took bottle after bottle.

“You… what are you doing?”

“Don’t girls always put a lot of things on their faces?” He asked, “Xia Yao, what type of skin do you have? Dry? Oily? Mixed? Sensitive?”

Xia Yao: Excuse me? A boy like you knows more than me?

Xia Yao was stunned and slowly answered: “I don’t know…”

—Dammit, every time Sweet Sister and Xu Yinuan went shopping for beauty products, she was always studying! She didn’t understand anything about it, how stupid she must sound.

“I just heard from the nurses just now, there might not be everything.” After Xu Shizhou finished speaking, he took out his phone, “Let me check first.”

“…” 

After a while, the boy said: “Then let’s follow the sensitive skincare routine.”

Xia Yao nodded. She didn’t understand anything anyway, she temporarily believed that Xu Shizhou would not disfigure her. Hopefully.

“Skin toner, moisturizing serum, night cream.” He picked three bottles out of the pile of products. He unscrewed the lid of the toner and poured some on a cotton pad, but wasn’t able to control his strength well, and too much fell on it.

The scene was somewhat embarrassing for a while and Xia Yao tightened her lips to prevent herself from laughing.

As he prepared everything in a hurry and put the cotton on the girl’s face, Xia Yao suddenly thought of something: “Wait, shouldn’t any skincare start with a facial cleaner?”

She asked very sincerely as if she was discussing academics. The boy was stunned and his hands froze on her face before he whispered: “Really? Then should I wash your face again?”

“No, no need, I was just asking casually.”

***

Ji Huai was in a hurry but he wasn’t sure why. When he had learned that Xu Shizhou had taken Xia Yao to the hospital, he had continued camping normally. But when Xia Xi had said Xia Yao liked Xu Shizhou, he had panicked.Xia Yao had been injured but had not called her friends but asked for Xu Shizhou’s help… Ji Huai had felt that he had to go to the hospital right away, and that was exactly what he had done in the end.

He pushed the door of the ward open, only to realize he had barged without knocking. The room was very large, lilies were on the table in the living room and were very eye-catching under the light. The boy looked over the flower; someone was lying on the bed and a frowning teenager was sitting on the edge. The girl’s face was hidden under the quilt as she had been teased and when the door opened, she instinctively sat up.

“Ji Huai?” Xia Yao noticed the boy at the door.

Xu Shizhou’s expression suddenly became alert, ready to get rid of him.

Seeing them so close as soon as he opened the door, Ji Huai’s heart was blocked, as if filled with vinegar and lemon juice, and the thousands of words in his head were reduced to only a few of them: “I came to see you, I heard you were seriously injured.”

It had taken one or two hours by taxi from the campsite to the hospital. Xia Yao felt that he had gone through a lot of trouble just for this reason and vaguely guessed things must not have been as simple. She just couldn’t figure out why yet.

Her tone was relaxed: “It’s not that serious, I did not break anything. I should be fine after a few days.”

The sudden pain from a few minutes ago was just an accident.

“That’s good.” Ji Huai’s voice was gentle and he didn’t get closer to the bed. For a few moments, the three people in the room were in a stalemate and Xia Yao was very confused with this atmosphere. She looked at Ji Huai, then at Xu Shizhou, but felt tired and wanted to sleep.

After a while, Ji Huai finally walked through the living room and approached the bed.

“How did you get hurt?”

“Xia Xi pushed me.” Xia Yao answered honestly and not surprisingly, Ji Huai’s expression darkened. As he was about to say something, the girl’s indifferent tone sounded again and she shrugged.

“It’s nothing, I pulled her with me.”

The two teenagers looked at her and Ji Huai spoke first: “Then… you won’t be able to go to school for a few days, you may fall behind. I can come over to tutor you every day!”

Xia Yao wanted to answer but the other boy took the lead: “No need, Xia Yao can get first place in the exam, she doesn’t need any tutoring.”

Xia Yao: No, no, the first place was a lot of hard work! It was the result of lots of sleepless nights, don’t be so casual, I’m not a genius!

“The final exam will come before long. Xu Shizhou, Xia Yao, and you are different, she cares about her studies.”

“Yes, she cares a lot. She was just listening to English podcasts, she can take a couple of days off.”

“Xia Yao’s physics is not that good. She lost points last time because of it, I can help her with this subject.”

“You don’t need to go through this trouble.”

“Then what about you?”

“This is my hospital, I can sleep here if I want.”

“…”

The girl on the bed looked at the two quarrel like children, a small smile on her face. She suddenly felt that the genius teenager and the little bully looked rather well together, didn’t they?

***

Xia Yao deserved to be the strongest person in school, who broke bricks with her bare hands and crushed boulders on her chest. When she entered the classroom a few days later with the wind that was about to blow into winter, the bell had not rung yet and she wasn’t late.

During her hospitalization, Xu Shizhou and Ji Huai had come together and even her brother Xia Yuan had visited her symbolically. He had asked when she would go back to school and once he had gotten the answer he wanted to hear, he had hurried away; Xia Yao had been aware that there had been another family member that had needed to be pampered.

Xia Yao glanced at the girl who wore a little white dress all year round not far away, which was made of thick fabric today to keep her warm. A long time had passed since the forum’s incident and everybody seemed to have forgotten about it. The classmates who had scolded her frantically on the Internet surrounded and flattered her once again.Seriously, passersby’s memories were only five minutes long.

Xia Yao looked away and began to think about how to deal with her moving funds. She didn’t know much about real estate’s cost in City T and she just wanted to rent a small house, for her and her grandmother. She lowered her head and picked up her phone, she opened a renting website and discreetly swiped the screen under her desk. After staring at her phone for a long time, her eyelids felt heavy and after a moment, her head knocked on the desk and she fell asleep. She had probably studied too much lately and had not slept enough.

“Student, student, why are you sleeping in class?” A voice suddenly came. Today’s class had a new teacher; he had heard that Class A was the best in this school but someone was sleeping on his first day and he felt very annoyed. And because Xu Shizhou had skipped again today, Xia Yao was the only one napping.

Xia Yao opened her eyes in a daze and saw a teacher she didn’t know. The man looked even more irritable, he was standing on the podium with a book and was pointing at Xia Yao with trembling fingers: “You sleep in math class, do you have the ability to get full marks then? Instead of sleeping, go answer this equation, let’s see how much you know!”

Xia Yao stood up slowly, without the embarrassment of being caught sleeping in class. But the moment she got up, the phone on her lap slid down and fell to the ground.

Seeing the device, the teacher became even angrier and he raised his voice: “Not only do you sleep in class but you also play with your phone! Go answer the questions right now!”

“…”

Xia Yao tried to carefully kick the phone away but someone bent down at the same time and picked it up.

“Teacher, I was the one playing with the phone.”

A clear voice echoed, attracting everybody’s attention.