Chapter 44: A Beautiful Day Starts with Getting Out of Bed

The whole morning, no booked patients showed up, but Wuming still chose to get up early anyway.

“Se~re~na~”

“Time to wake up.”

Wuming came to Serena’s bedroom to rouse her. 

She was still buried under the covers, sound asleep, completely unaffected by his voice.

Still not waking up, huh.

He walked over to the window and yanked the curtains open, letting sunlight flood the room in hopes of waking her.

It didn’t work as well as he’d hoped. 

Serena let out a soft murmur, rolled over while still wrapped in the blanket, and dodged the direct rays.

“Let me sleep a little longer, Wuming…”

Serena mumbled, asking to snooze just a bit more—one more ten-minute stretch and she’d get up.

“Just ten more minutes, mm…”

“No—way!”

Wuming drew out the words, refusing to let her keep lazing around.

He climbed onto the bed, sat behind Serena, and shook her body with both hands to hurry her awake.

“You big lazy lump~!”

“The sun’s about to roast your butt. Get up, Serena.”

“Mm…”

“Big lazy lump~ Hurry and get up!”

Wuming’s adorable loli voice kept urging her while his shaking grew a little more vigorous. 

He was one step away from dumping cold water on her.

“Mm… fine, fine…”

“I’m up, I’m up.”

In the end Serena couldn’t resist his shaking and sat up. 

The moment she did, Wuming started to climb off the bed and head to the kitchen to check on the stove.

“Breakfast is almost ready, Se—”

Suddenly, without any warning, Serena threw her arms around Wuming from behind just as he was about to stand.

“Got—you~♡”

The next second, Serena pulled him backward and pinned him down on the bed, wrapping her arms and legs around him like an octopus in a death grip.

“You can’t escape my clutches anymore♡”

Serena leaned close to his ear and whispered over and over in a sweet, soft voice, “Darling, my husband, my favorite person in the whole world.”

This was the weakness she had discovered yesterday. Whenever she said these words, Wuming would turn adorably shy and let her do whatever she wanted.

Add in the ear-whispering, and the effect was overwhelming.

“Don’t… don’t do this, Serena…”

“I…”

Wuming panicked, trying to answer, but the constant whispering in his ear made the words die in his throat.

“Just let me hold you like this, okay~”

“I only want to cuddle with you for a bit.”

“Stop… stop messing around, Serena…”

“I’m still cooking.”

Wuming tried to wriggle free, but he couldn’t escape no matter what. 

Serena’s soft, loli-like murmurs kept drifting into his ear.

“Just ten minutes, okay, darling? Ten minutes and I’ll let you go…”

“Just let me hold you for ten minutes…”

“Ugh—I’m getting mad, Serena!”

But Serena refused to let go. 

The two of them stayed tangled together on the bed in exactly that position.

“Seriously…”

“It’s all your fault the noodles turned into a sticky mess, Serena.”

Wuming grumbled as he ate from his bowl, shooting a glance at Serena across the table. 

She was sipping her blood bag with a completely carefree expression.

She had kept him locked in her arms for several full minutes until the sound of boiling water overflowing finally made him panic and break free to check the stove.

“I just wanted to try sleeping together with Wuming, that’s all.”

Serena kept smiling brightly while she drank, still perfectly satisfied after hugging him.

So soft and squishy—one little push and he topples right over!

That was Serena’s conclusion about Wuming: an extremely easy-to-push-down ghost-clan loli.

“Don’t think this is over.”

Wuming spoke with mock fierceness. 

Of course he wasn’t going to let her off the hook—he had to punish her properly.

The weather hadn’t turned freezing yet, but it was getting close. 

Nanning’s climate was like that: scorching one second, freezing the next. 

After a heavy rain, the whole city had suddenly grown cold.

It was time to pull out the winter clothes and get everything ready while putting the summer ones away. 

That was Wuming’s main task for the morning.

As for Serena, she was going to serve as his little laborer and help carry the clothes.

“After breakfast, come to my room and help me get the clothes down. Don’t think I’m letting you off easy—you’re my pack mule today.”

“Sure, sure, I got it.”

Serena waved it off. It was just a few pieces of clothing—nothing difficult—so she didn’t see it as any kind of punishment.

Once they finished eating, Wuming and Serena went to the bedroom.

The clothes Wuming needed were stored on top of the wardrobe, neatly stacked in storage bags row after row. His first job was to bring them all down.

In the past his mom would have helped, but now that she was off traveling, he had to do it himself.

Luckily, he wasn’t alone anymore.

Wuming dragged over a chair, made sure it was steady, then held the edges while Serena climbed up to fetch the bags.

“Do you need all of these?”

“Every single one.”

Wuming looked upward, but his eyes accidentally caught a glimpse under the hem of Serena’s dress—the faint outline of her panties!

Blue-and-white stripes!

“…”

Wuming quickly lowered his head, desperately trying not to think about what he had just seen.

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”

He chanted the mantra silently in his heart.

May lust be forgiven.

Soon Serena had brought down bag after bag. 

Wuming emptied the winter clothes out and stuffed all his summer ones inside, repeating the process over and over.

Meanwhile, Serena wandered around his bedroom with nothing better to do, her eyes glued to his collection of figurines.

Huge X, huge X, and more huge X…

Plus the flat-chested ones…

“…”

Wuming’s life is way too good, isn’t it?!

Just looking at the figurines made Serena’s imagination run wild. 

Before she met him, exactly what kind of lewd life had he been living?

Being waited on hand and foot by all those big sisters…

“All right, Serena, help me put these bags back up there.”

Wuming wiped away nonexistent sweat and looked at Serena, who was still lost in fantasies about all sorts of indecent scenarios while staring at the figurines.

“Hey! Serena!”

He had to call her name again before her attention snapped back to him.

“What are you so absorbed in…” He pointed at the storage bags. “Hurry and help me carry these up.”

“Oh…”

With Serena’s help the hardest part was done. Now Wuming only needed to pull out the winter comforter and the electric blanket.

—Winter.

His favorite season.

Sitting on the electric blanket with his feet soaking in warm water while watching TV, wrapped up in a comforter several sizes too big so it felt like someone was pressing down on him.

The sense of safety and happiness was off the charts!

Serena and Wuming sat back down on the sofa together. 

They sighed about winter’s arrival and checked the date—tomorrow was already Halloween.

Even though it was a Western holiday, the important thing was joining in the fun.

So they still needed to set the mood.

Buy a few pumpkins to decorate the house, pick up some ornaments, and soak in the festive atmosphere.

They were free at home anyway, so they might as well do something together. 

Crosti would probably come lend a hand too.

Wuming decided they would head out soon to buy pumpkins and decorations and dress the place up.

“Wuming…”

Serena looked at the silly grin spreading across his face, wondering what he was daydreaming about.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing special,” Wuming dropped the goofy smile and shared what he had just been thinking. 

“Halloween’s coming, so I want to decorate the house a bit. Let’s go buy some stuff to spruce things up, Serena.”

“Halloween? I know all about that!”

Serena jumped to her feet in excitement, instantly full of energy. 

As a blood clan member, she was very familiar with the holiday!

“You know about Halloween?”

“Of course I do!” 

Serena declared enthusiastically. “Carving pumpkins, wearing different outfits, going door-to-door for candy—how could I not know?!”

She thumped her chest proudly.

“So you can leave everything to me, Wuming! You can relax a hundred percent—I know way more about this than anyone else!”

…Why did that sound so familiar?

She had said almost the exact same thing last night.

“I’ll definitely turn the whole house into a perfect Halloween wonderland, Wuming! Just wait and see!”

As long as you don’t wreck the place, I’ll already be thanking the heavens…

Wuming broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of disaster Serena might create.

“First… let’s go buy the pumpkins first. At least get the jack-o’-lanterns carved before anything else.”

“Sure! Let’s go pick them out together, Wuming!”

Serena was raring to go, showing no sign of tiredness after all the earlier work.

“Got it, got it.”

Seeing her this excited, Wuming couldn’t figure out why Halloween would make her so thrilled. What was so great about it?

What he didn’t know was that Serena had another purpose hidden behind her excitement.

“Should we invite Crosti along too?”

Wuming suddenly suggested bringing Crosti to help choose the pumpkins and see if she was free.

“Yeah, yeah! The more the merrier!”