Give Me Another Smile

Tang Yu sighed in relief when she felt the gaze on her disappearing. Then, she quickly freshened up herself and returned to the bedroom.

Tang Yu poured two cups of warm water, handing one to the girl sitting on the floor while taking small sips from the other.

"Tang-Tang."

"Hm?"

With an anxious yet excited look on her face, Yin Zhao-an said, "My mom told me to find a girlfriend."

"Pft—"

Tang Yu instantly spat out the water in her mouth. She even choked on some, her face becoming bright red.

Yin Zhao-an didn't know why Tang Yu would have such a huge reaction, but she hurriedly grabbed a piece of tissue for Tang Yu before gently patting Tang Yu's back while asking, "What happened to you?"

"You came out of the closet?!" Tang Yu asked with a look of shock on her face.

"Closet? W-What closet?" Yin Zhao-an responded with a confused look.

When Tang Yu saw that Yin Zhao-an didn't seem to be faking ignorance, she gently patted her frightened heart and felt a little at ease. After all, Yin Zhao-an had been as straight as a steel pipe in her previous life, so how could the girl possibly get bent all of a sudden?

"It's nothing. It's just… My clothes are still in the closet, so I need to go get them," Tang Yu hurriedly said, dodging the topic as she made her way to the closet.

Yin Zhao-an came to a realization. So, her Tang-Tang was talking about the clothes cupboard…

…

After changing into her casual clothes in the bathroom, Tang Yu sat cross-legged on the bed and said, "You, come here."

There was nobody else in the room, so Yin Zhao-an froze for only a second before obediently sitting in front of Tang Yu and asking, "What's wrong?"

"Just now…you said your mother told you to find a girlfriend?"

Yin Zhao-an nodded. It was indeed her mother who told her that.

Tang Yu chuckled. Then, like a knowledgeable older sister, she explained, "Couldn't you tell that she was joking with you? You're a girl, so you should be finding a boyfriend. Also, I wasn't serious when I said you couldn't find a boyfriend because of your height."

Dubiously, Yin Zhao-an asked, "...Really?"

"Of course!" Tang Yu said as she sincerely looked at Yin Zhao-an, her eyes seemingly saying, "Can you see the sincerity?"

Yin Zhao-an suddenly smiled when she saw Tang Yu's behavior, and she couldn't help but reach out and squeeze Tang Yu's delicate face. "You're so cute, Tang-Tang."

Hey! You're focusing on the wrong thing!! Tang Yu inwardly yelled.

Seeing that her Tang-Tang's face had deformed, Yin Zhao-an awkwardly retracted her hands. Then, she promptly expressed her understanding, saying, "Okay, I understand."

Now that's a good girl!

Tang Yu nodded in satisfaction. So long as Yin Zhao-an walked on the right track, Tang Yu could avoid returning to that dark basement!

Because of her good mood, Tang Yu was not stingy with her smile, the two dimples on her cheeks lingering for a long time. Meanwhile, the sight of those dimples on Tang Yu's delicate face mesmerized Yin Zhao-an.

While both girls were lost in their respective thoughts, Tang Yu suddenly held her stomach and frowned. However, the pain was only minor and brief, vanishing before Tang Yu even had time to think about it.

Tang Yu didn't think too deeply about the pain and simply shrugged it off as her feeling hungry. Yin Zhao-an, though, grew agitated. However, she didn't know why she would suddenly get such a panicky feeling. She only knew that there was an insuppressible panic in her heart.

"I'm going down for breakfast. Have you eaten?" Tang Yu asked out of politeness. Then, after receiving a positive affirmation from Yin Zhao-an, she responded with an "Oh" before heading out.

…

While Tang Yu was in the middle of enjoying her congee, she heard Yin Zhao-an hastily bidding her and her mother goodbye before leaving through the front door. Yu Wanrou didn't even get to say anything before Yin Zhao-an's figure disappeared from their vision.

The mother and daughter at the dining table looked at each other before simultaneously revealing a helpless smile.

"An-An has quite a lively nature," Yu Wanrou commented.

"She is quite lively indeed." Tang Yu nodded in agreement.

…

When Yin Zhao-an arrived back home, Wang Zhen was already back from her night shift at the hospital and was having her breakfast while struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Morning, Mom."

Wang Zhen lifted her face from her food, revealing the heavy bags under her eyes. Then, she sluggishly responded, "...Morning."

Yin Zhao-an instantly got goosebumps from hearing her mother's response. Hurriedly, she fled from the living room and dashed into the study.

…

Inside the study, Yin Changcheng was in the middle of a meeting with his colleagues on the computer…

"I think this proposal is doable. The only problem is whether executing it is going to be too challen—"

Bang—

Yin Changcheng was startled by the door suddenly being slammed open, the unexpected intrusion causing him to forget what he was going to say. The people on the other end of the video conference were similarly startled.

When Yin Zhao-an saw that her father was actually inside the study, she perfunctorily apologized, saying, "My bad. I'm just looking for something, so just ignore me."

Yin Changcheng was already used to his daughter's boisterous behavior, so he simply let out a helpless sigh and said to the people on the other end of the video conference, "It's fine. It's just my daughter. Let's continue our meeting."

Similar to Yin Changcheng, the other people attending the conference were military personnel who had retired from the army for various reasons. After losing their ability to protect their homeland, their families became their only faith. Hence, they simply smiled at the minor interruption. After all, who here wasn't working for the sake of their families?

In the meantime, Yin Zhao-an quickly scanned the entire wall of bookshelves. A portion of these bookshelves housed Wang Zhen's book collection, while the other housed Yin Changcheng's book collection. Yin Changcheng's collection was originally filled with military-related books. Now, though, books on economics were gradually being added to the collection. As for Wang Zhen's collection, it housed solely medical books like always.

The books were categorized and labeled accordingly, but because Yin Zhao-an didn't know what type of book she needed, she could only rely on her gut feeling, and she eventually settled on a book on internal medicine. However, the book was filled with a variety of complex terminology that made her dizzy, so she decisively gave up on reading it after only a few minutes.

Sure enough, it was better if she asked her mother for help.