Together Forever

Chapter 17.2

When You Listen To Me Speak

Prior to New Year's holiday, anyone who hung around in a school would not be able to escape going to a lively evening celebration.

No matter where he was, Gu Pingsheng was always the most popular teacher. In order to ensure that he could indeed attend, the students of his faculty had specially told several of the ones who knew Tong Yan to call her and invite her as well.

She hung up the phone and silently calculated. She was clearly only twenty-two years old and a fourth-year university student, but with all these addresses of "Shimu" and "Little Shiniang[1]" ["Little Teacher-Mother"] coming from his students, she was nearly starting to doubt her own age.

"I'm still just on internship." She ran a deep brown wooden comb unhurriedly through her hair. "Teacher Gu, after being together with you for so long time, I've become old and serious ..."

Gu Pingsheng leaned back into the couch and glanced at his watch. "You should go have your afternoon nap now."

He had completely ignored her protests.

In her bare feet, Tong Yan jumped down onto the floor, and amid Gu Pingsheng's tireless voice cautioning her that she would catch a cold that way, she brought out a stack of glass bottles and an entire box of cotton swabs from the bedroom, dropping them onto the couch in a colorful display.

"Which color do you think is nice?" she asked him.

Gu Pingsheng really did not have much of a good opinion about these sorts of unhealthy products, but he knew that girls all liked to prettify themselves and occasionally allowing some leniency was necessary.

"This rose-colored one." With reluctance, he made himself offer an opinion.

"Do you know how to apply nail polish?"

"No." He gave her a look of incredulity. "Do you think I should?"

Tong Yan suppressed her grin and answered seriously, "Of course not. Mr. Gu may be a beauty, but he is not a girly man." She opened up that particular bottle, meticulously wiped the excess nail polish from the brush onto the inner rim of the bottle, and handed the brush to him.

Gu Pingsheng fell into silence and stared at her for some time. With a grim expression, he took the tool from Tong Yan, picked up her hand in his, and lowered his head to study where would be the best place to begin.

Tong Yan suddenly stretched out her finger and hooked it under his chin.

"What other instructions does Mrs. Gu have for me?" Gu Pingsheng's eyes curved into crescents, and his voice carried a soft teasing tone.

Tong Yan gave a pleased nod, advising him, "If you hold onto the entire hand, your nail painting is going to turn out to be a disaster. You need to prop up and hold the finger individually. Remember, make one stroke through the middle first, then swipe the brush along the two sides. Also never, never get polish onto the sides of the fingers. But if you do get polish on the sides, I got some cotton swabs and nail polish remover, so I'll be able to clean it up."

He gave an "oh" and continued to look down with head bowed. At last, he began to carry out his task.

She had been utterly prepared for all scenarios, but she underestimated Gu Pingsheng's care and attentiveness. Basically, after getting through the pinky finger, he settled completely into the correct rhythm. Tong Yan stared gloomily at him. She had originally wanted to make things difficult for him, just for fun, but contrary to her expectations, this turned out to be simply child's play for him.