"Come now," Jiang Yanxin said, wiping carefully. "I did this for you. Your mental energy threshold has definitely expanded after a session like that. We should practice like this regularly."
"Regularly?" Chen Wan looked at her wife with a pained expression. She couldn't do anything to Jiang Yanxin in there and kept getting handled instead.
Jiang Yanxin thought her alpha looked very endearing like this. She cupped Chen Wan's face and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Don't sulk. My alpha is the most well-behaved person I know — she couldn't possibly be angry at me, could she?"
Chen Wan gave a muffled nod. She was well-behaved. But she was also supposed to be the capable one — wasn't she?
She decided to conserve energy and try her luck tonight. She might not have the advantage in the mindscape, but in the physical world, the situation was entirely different. She would need to have a quiet word with Yang Yang at some point — see if the little one could be convinced to sleep with Grandma again tonight.
Jiang Yanxin, unaware that she was already being schemed against, rested pleasantly against Chen Wan's shoulder, occasionally poking her cheek with one finger. Chen Wan, still genuinely depleted, let her.
Down in the dining area, Yi Yi and Jiang Wanning had been talking for a while when Ye Lan called Jiang Wanning upstairs — Yang Yang was awake and requesting a story from her little auntie.
Jiang Wanning stood to go and found Yi Yi watching her with an expression that could only be described as hopeful. She reached out and ruffled Yi Yi's hair. "I'll come back and sit with you once Yang Yang is settled. Wait here."
Yi Yi nodded — then felt faintly strange about it. She wasn't a child who needed looking after. She just liked having someone to talk to. But Jiang Wanning had already gone upstairs, so Yi Yi turned her attention to the topic she'd been meaning to research: human jealousy. Did it occur exclusively between romantic partners, or also between close friends? What did it look like? And — most practically — how did one address it?
Yi Yi closed her eyes, leaned back against the sofa, and pulled up a video from her optical brain's database for reference. It showed two young women in an argument. One was upset because the other had spent too long talking to someone else and hadn't paid attention to her. When explanations didn't work, the second woman simply pulled the first one into her arms and kissed her. A few exchanges later, they had made up entirely.
Yi Yi scratched her head. That didn't seem right as a general approach. She moved to a second video. The second was even more extreme — a wall pin and an immediate kiss before the other party could object.
Yi Yi muttered to herself that this was all wrong. She was clearly watching the wrong category. She found what was labeled a friendship-oriented video and felt confident this one would give her the appropriate answer. This, surely, was what humans called platonic female friendship.
In the video, the girl on the left leaned against the girl on the right, who wasn't responding to her. She tried kissing her on the cheek. No response. She tried the nose. Still nothing. She moved to the corner of the mouth. The girl on the right began to smile. The girl on the left pressed her advantage with a direct kiss. The girl on the right was completely won over.
The girls in the video were reconciled. Yi Yi, however, was not in a good state. Was this how human women treated their close friends?
She decided to consult Qin Ke. She found her on the lower bunk with her novel. Qin Ke looked up. "What is it? Done talking to your girlfriend?"
Yi Yi almost put a hand over Qin Ke's mouth. "Please don't say things like that. Wanning and I are good friends."
Qin Ke lay there with casual ease. "Sure. Good friends for a few more days, probably."
Yi Yi felt even more confused. Humans were extraordinarily complicated.
She described the friendship video she'd found to Qin Ke. Even composed, unflappable Qin Ke took a moment to stop laughing.
"Your optical brain has some interesting content," Qin Ke managed.
"Of course. That's nothing — there's far more comprehensive material available." Her optical brain had everything. Reconciliation tutorials were basic.
"So tell me — is that method in the video actually correct? Do human women really reconcile with their close friends by kissing them?"
Qin Ke kept a straight face with visible effort. "Yes, that method is quite direct and effective. And sometimes it starts as friendship and becomes something else. You could try it next time you've upset Wanning — but only with Wanning. That particular approach only works on one person."
Yi Yi studied Qin Ke's expression carefully. She looked completely sincere. Yi Yi returned to the dining area and pulled out the sofa bed, turning the question over.
On the other side of the RV, Chen Wan had fallen asleep holding Jiang Yanxin, the mental energy expenditure having caught up with her entirely.
Yang Yang came padding downstairs with Jiang Wanning, looked around the main area, found no Mama or Mom, and went directly to the bedroom door. She was too small to reach the handle. She looked at Qin Ke for assistance. "Auntie, open please."
Qin Ke obliged. Yang Yang toddled in, found Mama holding Mom in her sleep without her, and was deeply displeased. She went to Chen Wan's side of the bed and tried to climb up — couldn't reach — and settled for grabbing Chen Wan's fingers with both hands, tugging gently. "Mama~ play with me. Carry me."
Chen Wan was pulled out of sleep by the small, persistent voice and opened her eyes to find Yang Yang standing at the bedside with a look of patient expectation. "Sweetheart, give Mama just a minute," she said softly.
Careful not to wake Jiang Yanxin, she eased her wife onto the pillow, slipped out of bed, put on her shoes, and picked Yang Yang up from the floor.
Yang Yang was immediately delighted.
"Little troublemaker — you woke Mama up on purpose, didn't you?" Chen Wan bounced her gently as she carried her out.
"Yes!" Yang Yang pressed her cheek against Chen Wan's without a trace of guilt.
Chen Wan carried her to the front passenger seat and settled in, which Yang Yang immediately interpreted as an invitation to play with the RV. Her small hand shot toward the steering wheel. "Drive the car."
"All right, let's drive." Chen Wan swapped to the driver's seat and let Yang Yang sit in her lap. Yang Yang gripped the wheel with both hands and turned it with tremendous concentration, deeply satisfied — she had watched Mama and the aunties do this many times, and had been wanting a turn for ages.
Chen Wan watched the little one's serious face with quiet amusement, rubbing her cheek softly. "Our Yang Yang is so clever — already knows how to drive."
Yang Yang heard the praise, found a moment between her steering efforts, and looked up to beam at Chen Wan.
Chen Wan judged the moment right. "Sweetheart, Mama wants to ask you something. Tonight, could you sleep with Grandma or Little Auntie? Mama and Mom have something they need to take care of."
Yang Yang scratched her little head with one hand, looking puzzled. "Busy again? But I want to sleep with Mom and Mama~."
Chen Wan focused briefly, and two strawberry-flavored sweets appeared in her palm. She held them where Yang Yang could see. "If you go to sleep with Grandma tonight, Mama will give you two extra strawberry sweets on top of your crystal cores. Just one night — then tomorrow we all sleep together again."
Yang Yang stared at the sweets. Her little mouth pressed together in thought. "Just tonight with Grandma?"
"Just tonight. Mama knew Yang Yang was the best." Chen Wan unwrapped one and offered it. Yang Yang took it directly from Chen Wan's palm with her teeth, then returned to the wheel with even greater enthusiasm.
"But sweetheart — this has to be our secret. Don't tell Mom. Mama won't tell Mom about the extra sweets either, and you don't tell her about this arrangement. All right?"
Yang Yang nodded with great solemnity, conspiratorial and thrilled. "Okay!"
When Jiang Yanxin emerged later, she found the two of them sitting in the driver's seat, Yang Yang turning the steering wheel with both hands while Chen Wan watched. Jiang Yanxin settled into the front passenger seat. "Yang Yang's driving?"
Yang Yang straightened up and applied herself to the wheel with renewed purpose.
"Very impressive. When you're grown up, you can drive Mama and Mom around. How does that sound?" Jiang Yanxin smiled.
"Yes! I'll drive!" Yang Yang announced with full confidence.
Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan cooked dinner that evening, with the younger ones helping and Yi Yi keeping Yang Yang entertained. They made dumplings — Chen Wan's compressed storage had a good range of seasoning, and though there were no fresh aromatics like garlic or spring onion, they found that pickled mustard greens with the mutant beef filling worked well enough, cutting the richness and adding texture. Jiang Wanning still couldn't eat beef, so Ye Lan made her a separate batch with luncheon meat and mustard greens.
Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan handled the wrappers while the younger ones folded. Ye Lan looked around at everyone working and shook her head with a quiet smile. "You know, when we were at the base, I couldn't have imagined anything like this. It feels like a lifetime ago."
"That's because of Chen Wan and her group coming to find us," Jiang Zhao Yuan agreed, smiling.
Jiang Wanning's eyes drifted to Yi Yi, her expression warm. She thought the same thing — if her sister hadn't come to the base, she would never have met Yi Yi.
"It was nothing." Chen Wan kept folding dumplings and smiled.