Yi Yi opened her eyes the moment she heard Jiang Wanning come down, and immediately sat up. "I'm awake — let's talk."
She had been watching another tutorial video just moments before, and her gaze drifted, without quite meaning to, to Jiang Wanning's lips. The girls in those videos had seemed so reluctant to stop once they started — did that mean it really felt that nice? Yi Yi was genuinely curious.
Jiang Wanning noticed Yi Yi staring at her face, but not at her eyes — more in the direction of her mouth. Her face went red. "What are you looking at? If you don't behave yourself, I'm going back to sleep."
"I'm not doing anything. Don't go — stay with me a while." Yi Yi patted the seat beside her, inviting Jiang Wanning over.
Jiang Wanning had spent most of the day looking after Yang Yang and hadn't had much time with Yi Yi at all. She sat down, worried Yi Yi was going stir-crazy. "Behave yourself if you want to talk. Eyes forward."
"All right." Yi Yi answered, then glanced sideways at her and asked: "Wanning — were you jealous this morning?"
Jiang Wanning blinked, then felt a flush work its way up from her neck. She had felt a little sour when she saw Yi Yi and Chen Wan communicating through the mindlink — but did Yi Yi have to just come out and say it like that? Were androids always this direct?
"I was not. What would I even be jealous about?" Jiang Wanning denied it promptly.
"Really? My optical brain analyzed it and concluded that you were. The optical brain is very accurate." Yi Yi watched her with an expression of open curiosity, and when Jiang Wanning's face went red, read it as embarrassment.
"If you keep bringing this up, I'm not talking to you anymore." Jiang Wanning's face was burning. It wasn't as though anything had even happened between them — what was there to be jealous of?
"All right, I won't say it again. Wanning, your face is red." Yi Yi immediately said the one thing she'd just promised not to.
Jiang Wanning decided she was done and moved to get up. A hand curved around her waist from the side. "Don't go — just a little longer. Look, everyone else has disappeared, and I can't sleep."
Yi Yi looked at her with an expression of complete helplessness. Jiang Wanning didn't move — partly because Yi Yi was holding on quite firmly, and she genuinely couldn't.
She cleared her throat. "Fine, I'll stay. But let go first."
Yi Yi was reluctant. There was something warm about holding Jiang Wanning, and her optical brain was producing a signal that could only be described as contentment. So she tried her luck one more time. "Can't we just stay like this?"
"You can't just go around holding people. It's not like I'm your girlfriend." Jiang Wanning muttered it — she didn't dislike being held, she was just worried that Yi Yi, being an android, might not understand the implications.
"Then I'll be your girlfriend. Problem solved." Yi Yi's expression lit up, and she said it before thinking twice.
"It doesn't work like that. Do you even know what a girlfriend is?" Jiang Wanning laughed despite herself. Androids really didn't understand human relationships.
"Of course I do. I also know how to make a girlfriend happy. Want to try?" Yi Yi blinked at her with those bright peach-blossom eyes, arm still firmly around her waist.
Jiang Wanning cleared her throat. She told herself that Yi Yi, being an android, probably didn't know what she was getting into. But she had feelings for Yi Yi, and letting her try didn't seem like such a terrible idea.
She gave herself a moment to settle her nerves, then looked at Yi Yi and nodded. "Fine. Show me what you've got."
Yi Yi hadn't even made her move yet when her optical brain announced that her CPU temperature was critical and the internal cooling fans had switched on. She pressed her lips together, tightened her arm around Jiang Wanning's waist, and leaned in.
Jiang Wanning's first thought was that making someone feel better usually involved saying nice things. Why was Yi Yi getting this close?
Then her lips met something soft, and she stopped thinking entirely.
It was not a quick or timid kiss. Yi Yi held her properly and kissed her thoroughly, which was — admittedly — a form of using one's mouth to make someone feel better, just not the kind Jiang Wanning had envisioned.
She stayed frozen for a few seconds, then found herself kissing back. By the time they separated, neither of them was entirely steady.
Yi Yi's CPU had nearly given out mid-kiss, requiring three cooling fans running simultaneously to keep the whole system from melting. She considered this a worthwhile cost.
Jiang Wanning pressed her hands against Yi Yi's shoulders and pushed — not hard, but the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth made it look less like displeasure and more like the opposite.
Yi Yi, having spent the better part of the day studying educational material, had concluded that this reaction meant Jiang Wanning was playing coy. She held on tighter and leaned down to ask, very seriously: "How was that? Good at it?"
Jiang Wanning looked up to find Yi Yi watching her with a completely self-satisfied expression, those pretty eyes flicking down to her lips every few seconds, practically radiating the expectation of a compliment.
Jiang Wanning decided she was absolutely not going to give her one. If she praised her, Yi Yi's confidence would become unmanageable. She pushed at her and said flatly: "Not great. The technique needs work. No emotional depth. I'm done — I'm going back to check on Yang Yang."
Yi Yi kept her right where she was, eyes curving with something like challenge. She leaned in and said softly, "Then practice makes perfect. Stay and practice with me a little longer?"
She didn't wait for an answer.
Jiang Wanning, discovering that she was considerably weaker than an android and that struggling accomplished nothing, eventually stopped struggling. When Yi Yi finally let her go, she shoved her away with both hands, face entirely red, and fled upstairs.
Androids. Absolutely terrible. She had said she would show her how to make someone feel better, and then she had just kissed her — twice — and now Jiang Wanning's legs were unsteady, and her heart was doing something she couldn't control. She was definitely not talking to Yi Yi in the morning.
From the lower bunk, Qin Ke lowered her novel, looked at the ceiling, and decided that at the rate things were developing, the RV was going to need significantly more rooms very soon. She was already eating front-row drama daily, and Yan Yan wasn't even back yet.