Chapter 20: Girl’s heart

Six or seven days passed in a flash, and Wu Chun had returned to her usual energetic self.

The moment she was fully recovered, she couldn’t wait to go find Zheng Yang.

“So, what are we playing today?”

Zheng Yang no longer put on the airs of being the older sister and asked sincerely.

She now felt that even if she couldn’t get into the things Wu Chun liked, at the very least, she wouldn’t feel disgust or fear towards them.

Wu Chun was pondering when Zheng Yang quickly added, “Let’s get this straight first, I’m really clumsy.

If I can’t keep up, you’re not allowed to laugh at me!”

Wu Chun shot her a “you’re overthinking it” look, then suddenly, catching sight of Zheng Yang’s ample chest, a mischievous idea popped into her head.

She leaned close to Zheng Yang’s ear.

“Let’s go buy you some bras!”

Zheng Yang’s heart gave a violent lurch.

What? No, no, no!

She had mentally prepared herself for all sorts of things—amusement parks, plaster dolls, escape rooms… she could handle those.

She never expected, she truly never expected, that Chun Chun could still surprise her like this.

“No… no, no… there’s no need. I have some!”

“But you don’t even know your own size! I bet you don’t have more than a couple of bras!”

Zheng Yang’s delicate eyebrows furrowed into a worried ‘八’ shape—do teenage girls all have such sharp powers of observation?!

Wu Chun was already tugging on her arm.

“Come on, let’s go! I’m with you, don’t be shy! Knowing your size is really important, you have to find out. The shop assistant will measure you when you buy them.”

“Ah? Measure my chest? Do I have to… take everything off?”

“You can if you want to! That would be more accurate!” Wu Chun looked like she was hoping for a good show.

Zheng Yang shivered.

But from Wu Chun’s tone, it seemed like it could be done without stripping completely.

……

The entire process of buying bras was spent in a haze of shame, awkwardness, and helplessness for Zheng Yang.

Thankfully, Wu Chun was there.

No—actually, if it weren’t for her, there wouldn’t have been this shame and awkwardness in the first place.

But she also knew that relying on just that one “factory default setting” definitely wouldn’t do.

So, this step was inevitable sooner or later.

Thinking about it that way, having Chun Chun as her “life coach” was actually a blessing.

After buying the bras, Wu Chun said there was an indoor playground on the mall’s third floor and wanted to go play.

Zheng Yang’s old hang-ups resurfaced.

She didn’t want to carry a bag of bras around everywhere and just wanted to go home.

But Wu Chun said the playground had luggage storage, so it wouldn’t be a problem.

“But… aren’t playgrounds for little kids? We’re way too old for that…”

Hearing this, Wu Chun didn’t explain immediately.

Instead, she pulled Zheng Yang to the playground entrance and pointed at the “Visitor Notice.”

It read: Admission for those under 16 years old and under 70 kilograms.

“Yang Yang, you’re not going to tell me you weigh over 140 pounds, are you?”

Zheng Yang used to weigh around 150 pounds.

She hadn’t weighed herself since becoming a girl.

Although her chest felt a bit heavy, she was also quite a bit shorter.

She knew that slender teenage girls like her and Wu Chun couldn’t possibly weigh more than 120 pounds at the absolute most.

At the entrance to a multi-level slide complex, Zheng Yang pointed inside.

“Look, it’s all little kids.”

It seemed like a final attempt at resistance.

Wu Chun just gave her a push from behind.

“In you go!”

Sigh, well, since we’re here, might as well make the best of it.

She recalled when her son was little, back when she was only around 130 pounds herself, she had taken him into places like this.

Crawling around the slide castle tunnels with him, bumping into each other, roughhousing, having a blast.

Even though it was to entertain her son back then, if she could have fun then, she should be able to now, right…

In a playground, even if they don’t know each other, older kids naturally have leadership and appeal for the younger ones.

Soon, Zheng Yang and Wu Chun, the two pretty older sisters, were surrounded by children, forming two rival “factions,” crawling and running all over the place, chasing and playing.

Zheng Yang didn’t want to disappoint the kids and played along enthusiastically.

Finally, at the entrance tunnel of the largest slide, her group collided with the one led by Wu Chun.

Zheng Yang was about to let Wu Chun’s group go first, but the kids behind her wouldn’t have it.

“Go, big sister! Defeat them!”

Zheng Yang suddenly felt a surge of competitive spirit.

She and Wu Chun knelt, facing each other, and pressed their foreheads together, pushing.

Both girls strained with their heads and mouths, like two bulls locking horns, as if they wouldn’t stop until the other was toppled over.

However, Zheng Yang’s large chest didn’t necessarily mean great strength.

The result was a “mutual defeat.”

They ended up pressed body-to-body, falling to the side, clearing the tunnel entrance.

Seeing their leaders had “perished together,” the remaining children were fired up, scrambling eagerly towards the slide entrance.

Worried, Zheng Yang shouted, “No fighting, kiddos!”

After watching for a few seconds and seeing everyone was actually being friendly, she relaxed and turned back to Wu Chun.

The tunnel wasn’t very wide.

To avoid the kids, they had pressed themselves tightly together.

A hair’s breadth apart—no, zero distance apart.

They could even feel the heat radiating from each other’s pores. Both couldn’t help but blush slightly.

Zheng Yang playfully pinched Wu Chun’s waist.

“You’re pretty strong for a little thing!”

Not to be outdone, Wu Chun gave Zheng Yang’s butt a light pinch in return.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Yang Yang!”

“Wow, you touched my butt!”

“You pinched my waist!”

“That’s not the same! Hmph, take this!”

“Don’t underestimate me just because you’re the older sister!”

They tussled and play-fought for a while, touching pretty much every place, appropriate or not.

Only when both were flushed red and their hearts were pounding did Zheng Yang, panting slightly, whisper, “Let’s go down and play. We shouldn’t block the little ones…”

“Okay…”

The hem of Zheng Yang’s T-shirt had ridden up to her ribs during the scuffle, revealing a slender strip of pale waist.

She quickly straightened it out, and together with Wu Chun, she crawled down from the slide castle.

Once on the ground, Zheng Yang brushed back the stray hairs stuck to her forehead with sweat, her mind replaying the scene from moments ago: Wu Chun’s lovely face, flushed from laughter, and… her own clear, melodious, even slightly breathless girlish laughter…

A belated realization hit Zheng Yang, and her heart skipped a beat.

That laughter… was that mine?

Never mind that it actually sounded really nice.

The very fact that it was a sound free of burden, free of calculation, purely born from happiness, was enough to move Zheng Yang.

She couldn’t remember how many years it had been since she’d last made a sound like that.

Heh… getting emotional over yourself, Zheng Yang? Really something.

Thinking this, she instinctively looked down.

The chest still heaving dramatically, the graceful curves, the weight she was gradually getting used to… they were all hers.

Impossible to ignore any longer.

She couldn’t explain why, but she only knew a feeling she’d never had before was emerging, like a tender sprout in early spring, timidly pushing its way out from her long-withered 38-year-old heart.

Wu Chun crawled up beside her, fanning herself with her hand.

“Whew, these indoor playgrounds can get a bit stuffy when you play too hard. Next time, let’s go to that garden playground in the suburbs! They have lots of swings, and little bunnies, and even fawns!”

Looking into Wu Chun’s eyes, for the first time, Zheng Yang responded naturally, her voice clear and crisp.

“Okay!”