Right Here Waiting For You

Li Yanmo smoothed her frown with his fingertips. “Don’t people say that life is incomplete without having played truant at least once or twice?”

Ning Tiantian was between laughter and tears. She was about to rub her eyes but gasped in pain as soon as her fingers made contact with them. “Ouch! Inky, my eyes hurt…”

“They’ve swollen to the size of golf balls. Of course they’d hurt!” Li Yanmo grimaced and walked into the bathroom.

When he returned, there was not only a hot towel, but also a necklace with a pendant shaped like an ink bottle.

“That’s my necklace!” Ning Tiantian’s eyes widened. After taking it from him and verifying that it was indeed her necklace, she couldn’t help asking him, “Inky? Where did you find this?”

“Did you remove it yesterday, before taking your shower?” Where else could he have found it? It was right under the washstand.

Ning Tiantian blinked her eyes innocently and scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, I think so…”

Li Yanmo had to hand it to her. After so much havoc, spanking, and crying, it turned out to be a silly mistake all along?

“Inky, the towel’s getting cold,” Ning Tiantian reminded him weakly. She didn’t realize that she had forgotten to put back on her necklace, after having removed it.

Li Yanmo walked over resignedly. After placing the hot towel on her eyes, he applied a light massage so as to help reduce the swelling.

“Inky.”

She said it with a pout.

“Speak.”

“You already called me your wife!” Two little dimples appeared on her face. Ning Tiantian asked cheerily, “From now on, may I call you my hubby too?”

Li Yanmo’s fingers stopped moving, and he responded curtly, “No.”

“But why can’t I call you hubby if you’ve already admitted that I’m your wife?”

Taken aback by her ferocity, Li Yanmo said with furrowed brows, “I was only trying to help you out. These forms of address are to be used only after marriage.”

“That’s not a problem! It’s only a matter of time until we get married, so we’ll just use them in advance!”

“She’s speaking nonsense again,” he thought.

“Pretty please, with a cherry on top? Inky?” She said as she batted her eyelashes, in an attempt to endear herself to him.

Since he didn’t respond, Tiantian took the opportunity to plant a wet one on him.

“You’re not to kiss me!” Li Yanmo stood up immediately, and put some distance between the two of them, before saying impatiently, “Say whatever you like. I can’t stop you. But you’re not allowed to address me like that in front of outsiders.”

“All right, I got it!” Tiantian jumped on the bed in joy, while calling him “hubby” over and over again.

Li Yanmo was in a foul mood.

So was Tiantian, by the time morning came around, because it meant that she would have to go to preschool on her own from now on.

When Li Yanmo got out of bed at seven, Tiantian got up as well, her little hands rubbing her eyes sleepily.

“Why are you up so early when preschool starts at 8?” Li Yanmo said with raised brows as he adjusted the red scarf around his neck.

“I can’t sleep without hubby by my side,” sighed Ning Tiantian. Staring at his blue and white uniform enviously, she asked, “When can I go to elementary school?”

“When you’re done with preschool.”

Li Yanmo smiled at her briefly, then turned around to retrieve her preschool uniform from the wardrobe.