Jiang Ran raised her foot toward the tightly shut door, ready to kick it, but before exerting any force, she suddenly remembered this damn house was hers. Why should she take it out on herself?
With her hands on her hips, she raised her voice, “If you’ve got the guts, just don’t come out to take a shower! You’ll stink to death anyway!”
The door remained silent, possibly because the person inside had already met some misfortune and was truly dead.
Jiang Ran dejectedly lowered her hands, dragging her slippers loudly as she aimlessly circled the living room. Alcohol had dulled her mind, and she realized she hadn’t yet figured out what to do next to ensure Bei Jiao would stay at her house obediently for the remainder of the summer vacation—
She had once tried to entice him with the luxurious five-digit mattress in the spare bedroom, but later changed her mind: what if he preferred a hard bed?
Endless imagination frustrated her, and she irritably ran her fingers through her hair.
She slowly moved to the balcony, where a humid evening breeze blew in, causing the soft white curtains to brush against her body.
Jiang Ran sniffed, catching the scent of damp earth in the air.
The next second, thunder exploded in her ears, followed by a torrential downpour from the summer night sky.
Jiang Ran stared emotionlessly out the window for a while, watching the trees sway in the courtyard like a devilish forest outside an evil queen’s castle.
After a few seconds, she turned and quickly walked back to the tightly closed spare bedroom door, knocking rapidly with a “knock-knock” rhythm until the door finally opened—
“What?”
A foreign masculine aura enveloped her as the teenager stood behind the dimly lit crack of the door like a foul and stubborn Arctic iceberg, his face stiff.
Outside, Jiang Ran’s hand remained slightly curled from knocking. She paused, then withdrew it, “Nothing. It’s just thundering outside.”
“And?”
He wasn’t deaf.
As he wondered if she was afraid of thunder—after all, women often had peculiar quirks like that (?)—he saw the young woman standing in front of him, tilting her head up with concern in her eyes.
She let out a soft hiccup, her face flushed under the dim living room light.
The alcohol was finally kicking in.
She reached out, gripping the edge of the door, her expression serious, “But it’s just thunder. It’s okay. Don’t be scared.”
Her unusually gentle voice soothed him.
“…”
Bei Jiao felt ashamed of his previous concern for the drunken fool.
Rain poured down suddenly outside the window, soaking the entire world in humid air. He glanced down at the strand of damp hair in front of her forehead, trembling slightly with her breath…
It made her seem uncharacteristically fragile.
Or maybe it was the hypnotic sound of the rain, or perhaps the way her eyes looked unusually moist, but he had an illusion. The harsh words he had turned over in his mind several times were swallowed back again.
His shoulders relaxed slightly as he leaned against the doorframe, his gaze thus becoming less aggressive. “What nonsense are you talking about,” Bei Jiao said, “if you’re scared of thunder, I can just leave the door open.”
He rarely spoke to her so normally.
Jiang Ran was a bit stunned, her eyes flicking across his face uncertainly a few times. She thought: oh my god, when did this dog start acting human?
Jiang Ran wasn’t scared of thunder at all.
Her thunder-befuddled brain suddenly cleared a little, and she took a cautious step back, scrutinizing him up and down. “As long as you’re not scared of thunder, then I’ll go take a shower.”
Bei Jiao chuckled slightly and said, “Okay.”
…
Jiang Ran didn’t consider that Bei Jiao might need the bathroom next, so she lingered there.
She removed her makeup, washed her face, applied a mud mask to exfoliate, sat on the toilet playing on her phone for a while, then rinsed off the mask before thoroughly cleaning her face. Only then did she turn on the shower.
Warm water splashed onto her skin, causing goosebumps to rise where it had been exposed to the cold air from the air conditioner… The white, plump skin on her arms turned red where the hot water hit. She leaned one hand against the wall, standing under the water with her eyes closed, caught between drunkenness and clarity.
Her mind and consciousness were clear.
She was just a bit unsteady.
The “No Me” bar’s twelve-drink challenge really had some kick. If she hadn’t been determined to trick the disobedient kid back today, she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths… and certainly wouldn’t touch it again.
Her chest heaved slightly, the rising steam creating a suffocating drowsiness.
Wet fingers reached for shampoo, pouring it onto her head. Under the rushing water, foam gradually filled her hair.
Then she heard a “creak,” followed by an ominous hum from the tap. The pipes embedded in the walls began vibrating like a pile driver—
At first, Jiang Ran thought it was just her imagination, until the showerhead above her released one last spray of water before suddenly going still.
The water had been cut off.
Dazed under a head full of shampoo foam, Jiang Ran stood there, stunned.
…
She flicked her tongue over her damp lips, tasting only the bitterness of shampoo.
With both hands covered in foam, she turned on the faucet at the sink, using the last couple of drops of water stored in the pipes to rinse off her hands. She grabbed her phone and opened the community group chat.
Usually, in upscale communities, the property manager would give advance notice of water or power outages.
But now, the chat only had a few people complaining about the water being off. At 2 a.m., the manager reluctantly replied that due to the heavy rain and typhoon outside, many trees had been knocked down, and some water pipes had been damaged during excavation. Repairs were underway.
They expected the water to be restored before 6 a.m. the next morning, when most people would start their workday.
Most people were already asleep by now. The only unfortunate soul standing under a faucet with shampoo foam might just be Jiang Ran. Wordlessly clutching her phone, she posted a frustrated meme in the group: “I was in the middle of washing my hair.”
The manager replied with ellipses and then offered a practical suggestion: if she had bottled water at home, it might help tide her over.
Jiang Ran also replied with ellipses. She did, in fact, have bottled water at home.
Grabbing a towel, she wrapped herself in it and aimlessly wandered around the bathroom for a couple of circles. Her feet were covered in foam, and if she walked out to the kitchen to get mineral water, she’d have to mop the floor afterward…
Wouldn’t this night never end?
Just then, she suddenly remembered there was another person in the house.
So she stood by the bathroom door and shouted Bei Jiao’s name.
…
Bei Jiao had originally been half-asleep on the bed, playing on his phone.
Not fully asleep, he still preferred to brush his teeth and wash up before bed. He patiently waited for the person in the bathroom who was taking forever to finish. After waiting a long time without hearing her come out, he suddenly heard her calling his name.
Her voice sounded urgent.
Startled, the teenager almost dropped his phone on his face. His mind went blank, and he quickly grabbed the jeans he had tossed aside, slipped them on, and rushed out barefoot. He was so panicked he didn’t even understand why—
He had already prepared himself for the possibility that she had fallen and broken a bone, unable to move.
But when he reached the bathroom door, before he could knock, a blurry shadow appeared behind the door. Then the door was pulled open from inside, revealing a damp face with lashes dripping water, looking at him with wide, pleading eyes: “The water’s out.”
She was perfectly fine.
Her voice was slightly hoarse, carrying a hint of petulance.
Bei Jiao abruptly stopped, one hand braced against the bathroom doorframe.
His heart had just plummeted from the sky to the ground like a diver hitting the water flat, nearly knocking the breath out of him—
But all this complex emotional rollercoaster translated into nothing more than a paler-than-usual face and slightly quickened breath as he stared at her.
Silence.
“So what?”
He gritted out the two words, nearly wanting to punch her.
“What good does it do to scream my name just because the water’s out?”
This time, Jiang Ran clearly sensed his teeth-clenching frustration. Standing inside the door, she blinked as she looked at the figure in the doorway, backlit and impossible to see clearly, but she knew without needing to confirm that he must look absolutely murderous right now.
The door, which had been slightly ajar, opened just a little more as she poked her head out to give him a better view: “Look, I’ve got shampoo all over my hair.”
Suddenly, the sweet scent of shampoo filled his nose.
She had a misconception about her height. Actually, Bei Jiao didn’t need to lower his head to see her white foam-covered hair—he could see it just fine without her ducking—
But at this moment, she was bowing her head, her gaze naturally falling to his waist, where she noticed he hadn’t properly fastened his pants.
His jeans were hastily pulled on, hanging loosely at his hips, the waistband unbuttoned and the zipper down, carelessly open. The hem of his thin white T-shirt was haphazardly stuffed into the open waistband of his jeans…
The shirt was thin enough to be slightly transparent, revealing the defined abs beneath, rising and falling with his still-unsteady breathing.
He actually had a great physique; maybe his claim about playing basketball wasn’t just hot air.
Jiang Ran’s thoughts wandered. At that moment, as if sensing her gaze had strayed somewhere inappropriate, he raised his hand and zipped up his jeans—
The sudden “zip” startled her, and she looked up, meeting his expressionless eyes.
“And then?” he asked.
“Huh?”
Jiang Ran stood there, locked in eye contact with him.
“What do you want?” he frowned.
“Oh,” Jiang Ran murmured, explaining that there were a few boxes of 2L bottled water in the kitchen cabinet and asking him to bring two bottles.
Bei Jiao was emotionally drained at this point and too tired to argue. Without another word, he turned and went to the kitchen, returning a while later with two bottles of mineral water—
The living room light illuminated the taut muscles in his shoulders, clearly outlining the defined lines of his arms beneath the thin shirt.
Meanwhile, the person hiding behind the door peeked out suspiciously.
Seeing him approach, the door crack narrowed slightly. Her long, pale fingers extended from the gap, pointing to the floor outside the bathroom: “Just leave them here, then you can go back to your room.”
If you looked back centuries ago, a cotton plantation owner couldn’t have sounded more condescending.
Bei Jiao was annoyed by her peeking from behind the door while still bossing him around. He exhaled sharply through his nose, suppressing his irritation as he asked the pair of eyes peering from the crack: “What are you hiding for?”
Jiang Ran replied in a tone that suggested he was crazy: “I’m only wearing a towel!”
Bei Jiao: “Can’t you just put some clothes on?”
Jiang Ran: “How can I put on clothes when I’m covered in foam?”
He thought about it and realized she had a point.
Bei Jiao placed the two bottles down, turned to leave, and had taken a couple of steps when he suddenly spun around without warning. The person behind the door, who had been watching him intently, jumped in surprise, her foot lifting slightly off the white ceramic tiles.
Bei Jiao felt satisfied.
A smirk tugged at his lips, revealing his white teeth as he used a tone that suggested settling old scores: “Now you know how to hide, huh? Who was it earlier at the parking lot calling me less than a man?”
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