My Husband's Lover (8)

It was evening when we got home. The servants had already prepared the meal so we went to the dining room to eat together. We decided to change after supper.

I was shivering in my seat, but I still managed to glare at Liqin.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

"It's unfair. We both got wet but you're okay. Look at me. I look so pitiful."

"You should use the right words. Pitiful is an understatement. Say ugly."

I stabbed the tofu with my chopsticks. They did not look so appetizing anymore.

"Stop that."

"I'm not just ugly. I'm petty too."

"The tofu is innocent."

"I stabbed the wrong thing. Hand me the knife so I can do it right this time."

Liqin hurriedly put the knives away and said, "Let us not be too emotional. Let us use our head, okay?"

"Well, someone wasn't using his head when he said I was ugly."

"It was just a joke. You are taking it too seriously."

I could not help but laugh at his expression. He was pouting. He was like a child.

"You are really enjoying this, are you not?" he said.

I replied with a grin, "You don't know how fun this is."

When we finished eating, no servant attended to us. Taking the initiative, Liqin cleaned up the table. I followed him in the kitchen and there I saw Jie and two other servants lying on the floor. They were trying to get as much rest as they could. After we washed the dishes, my dress was almost dry.

"You can go change first. I will wipe the dishes myself," he said softly.

"Why? Let's do it together. I'm good at wiping, you know?"

"You may be good at wiping, but your dress is almost dry. If you do not change, you might get sick."

I touched his clothes and said, "But yours is drying too. You might get sick."

"I will be taking a bath after this so I will not get sick."

"Then I'll take a bath too." I grinned and put my face closer to his. "Why don't we take a bath together?"

Liqin's hand stopped wiping the plate. His eyes grew wide and gradually, a blush formed on his face. He looked the other way as he asked, "Are you crazy?" He was stuttering.

"Are you thinking of perverted things?" I laughed. "Wow. And here I am thinking Liqin is pure."

"I am not thinking of perverted things," he said while facing me.

"Say that when your cheeks aren't red."

He touched his cheeks and said, "I am not thinking of perverted things. I am only thinking of what naturally happens in a bath."

"Then what happens in a bath, Liqin?"

"No clothes," he inaudibly replied.

"I can't hear you. Maybe you're really a pervert."

"I said no clothes!"

One of the servants made a groan and Liqin froze. Because of fear, he put down the plate and the towel and dragged me out of the kitchen and into his room.

"A man and a woman cannot bathe together," he explained.

"A man and a woman cannot bathe together," I mimicked him. "Liqin, I think you're forgetting something. We're both women. You're just born in the wrong body."

***

I entered the bathe, and Liqin followed. We sat across each other, but I could feel his legs brushing mine below the water.

"Stop blushing. You're making this feel weird." I pointed at the red bottle behind him and said, "Give me that. I'm going to take care of my beautiful hair."

He passed me the blue bottle.

"The red one," I said.

"They are the same."

"My hair deserves only the best. Give me the red one."

"How do you know that the red one is better than the blue one?"

"Just give me the red bottle. I just love the color red."

He gave me back the red bottle after he took some for himself. We shampooed our hair together. His hair was long but not as long as mine.

"Yanyu, do you think it is okay for a man and a woman to bathe together?"

"I already told you we're both women. You're just born in the wrong body. You like Guowei, right?"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"You're a man and so is Guowei. And you like Guowei. So it's a man liking a man. If a man likes a man, he is gay. Gay people are women at heart," I explained.

"I have never thought about it like that."

"Well, you need to start thinking like that now."

"Do I really need to be a woman in some part just to like Guowei? To be honest, I do not think that I like men. I just like Guowei."

"Doesn't that mean the same thing?"

"It does not feel so."

I pointed at the green bottle. "Pass me that one."

"But you have already put the red one in your hair."

"I'm trying to make a rose, Liqin. Red for the petals and green for the stem and leaves. Do I really need to explain everything to you?"

"How can you make a rose with that? You are going to make the yellow color, not a rose. You must be thinking with your mouth," he muttered.

He grudgingly took the green bottle and was about to pass it to me. But before I could receive it, it fell. I crossed my arms.

"What?" he said defensively.

"If you don't like me ordering you around, just say so. You don't need to resort to this."

"It is not my fault that you did not catch it. My responsibility was to only give it to you and I did it pretty well."

I rolled my eyes and looked for the bottle below. Because of the shampoo from our hair that fell onto the water, I could not see below. Even before the shampoo dominated the water, it still was not clear because of the powder that Liqin added. After a few seconds of searching, I got a hold of something. But Liqin's breath hitched. I looked at him and his face was the reddest I had seen it.

"Please tell me this is the bottle."

He just looked away.