At this moment, it wouldn’t have been shameful to be at someone else’s mercy—after all, he was wearing pants while she was completely naked.
But not Jiang Ran.
The words “surrender” or “give up” simply didn’t exist in her dictionary. Her eyes shifted repeatedly, confirming she had already obtained what she wanted (mineral water). Once she had successfully executed her plan, she finally spoke, asking in a calm yet highly aggressive tone amidst the boy’s provocative atmosphere: “What exactly are you so pleased about?”
Beijiao dropped his earlier half-mocking expression, lowered his gaze to look at her quietly, and patiently waited for her to continue.
Sure enough, she slowly added, “Even if there was a castrated tomcat standing outside the door today, I wouldn’t run around naked in front of it. That’s because I have a sense of shame. This is what makes humans human, not just apes—”
Professor Jiang was about to start a lecture.
She began with the origin of species and was about to bring up the great Darwin.
Beijiao, tired of listening to her ramble, decisively turned around, went back to his room, and slammed the door shut—
Although he hadn’t said a single word, his resolute departure clearly conveyed, “If I look at you one more second, I really will turn into that castrated tomcat.”
Behind the door, Jiang Ran listened to the loud bang of his door slamming shut and, victorious, still couldn’t help muttering, “Have a little consideration! It’s late at night—you’re going to get complaints from the neighbors!”
There was no response from behind the closed door.
She listened carefully for a while, then mumbled after a long pause, “So fragile, mentally.” She then opened the bathroom door, stretched out her wet, pale arm, and dragged the two bottles of water placed beside the door inside with one hand each.
……………When she used the word “dragged,” she herself felt something was off.
Normally, when pouring water from a mineral water bottle into a cup, she would unscrew the cap and use both hands to hold the bottle and pour.
But now, trying to grip the bottle with one hand while brushing her hair with the other, she realized it might not be possible…
Jiang Ran mimicked the motion with her hands and found she could only grip about two-thirds of the bottle with one hand.
Not to mention that a 2L bottle was also quite heavy.
She could hold it with both hands raised high above her head to pour, but with her thick and long hair, such a haphazard rinse wouldn’t clean it properly anyway—it would just waste water.
Clearly, she didn’t have many other options left.
She simply threw the towel aside, sat naked in the bathroom—her posture no longer matching her usual cold and elegant image, but it didn’t matter since there was no audience anyway…
Quietly, she unscrewed the cap and firmly grabbed a bottle of mineral water with her left hand, trying to pour it over her head.
For the first three seconds, she managed fine, the water pouring out smoothly.
By the fourth second, her wrist started to ache.
By the fifth, her whole arm was trembling.
At the sixth second, there was a loud “crack”—the heavy bottle slipped from her hand and fell directly onto her head with a thud.
The sudden pain made her see stars, unable to even cry out in pain. Already a bit unsteady on her feet from the alcohol, she swayed and fell cleanly.
Her back hit the wall behind her, and the soft flesh of her butt did nothing to cushion the blow, as dull pain spread through every part of her body.
Reflexive tears immediately filled her eyes, blurring her vision.
She curled up in a corner of the bathroom, holding her head, feeling like she must be the most pitiful person in the world at that moment.
…
Outside the bathroom, in the guest room.
Beijiao lay on the bed with his legs crossed, absentmindedly playing on his phone.
His jeans still loosely hung on his waist—he hadn’t taken them off for some inexplicable reason, as if he had a feeling something else might happen.
Right now, he was watching a recently posted instructional snowboarding video from Zhao Keyan, someone who followed him back on the short video app. Although he didn’t know how to ski, he had some experience with skateboarding, and he found that what Zhao Keyan was teaching was quite similar to skateboarding—
Interesting.
He didn’t scroll past and watched it for a while.
Don’t underestimate Zhao Keyan—he might essentially be a promiscuous Casanova, but with the basic physical traits of a typical heartthrob and his excellent athletic coordination, he had become a somewhat popular minor influencer on the short video platform.
The instructional video had just been posted and already received several thousand likes and hundreds of comments.
Beijiao clicked into the comment section and saw many people asking, “How much for a lesson with you?” Below were replies from Zhao Keyan: “Send me a private message.”
Beijiao sat up from the bed, his eyes lighting up at the mention of “money.”
Just then, he suddenly heard a loud “bang” from the toilet. He froze, instinctively lifting his head to look toward the outside through the closed bedroom door.
Unfortunately, there was no further sound from outside.
He lay back down, still wondering what kind of trouble the person in the bathroom was causing now, when his phone suddenly pinged with a new WeChat message—
【Who’s My Darling: Come in.】
…
Beijiao returned to the bathroom door but didn’t rush in.
This time, he knew she was still alive—at least she could send a WeChat message, so nothing serious had happened.
Leaning lazily against the door frame, his gaze fell on the frosted bathroom door. He couldn’t see any movement inside the frosted glass. The boy paused before asking, “Where are you? Are you lying on the floor?”
His tone was purely mocking.
For once, the person inside didn’t retort. Soon, some rustling sounds came from within.
It seemed like an eternity had passed before he heard her muffled voice:
“Turn off the lights—turn off the lights in the living room and hallway too. Leave only the whale light on, then come in.”
Beijiao raised an eyebrow, puzzled by her strange request. Why turn off the lights?
Still, he obediently put his hands in his pockets, barefoot, and obediently went to turn off the lights in the living room and hallway. The room suddenly became dark—
Outside the window, the heavy rain battered the glass, making a clattering sound, as if trying to shatter the window.
In the living room, the wooden whale once again became the only source of light. The central air conditioning hummed softly, and amidst the white noise of the storm, the house suddenly fell into an indescribable stillness.
Inside the bathroom, the person was as silent as a mute, making no sound at all.
The house was very quiet, a kind of drowsy, intimate silence that allowed Beijiao to clearly hear his own heartbeat…
He turned back toward the bathroom door, his hand already on the bathroom light switch, but suddenly thought something was off—
In a flash, he remembered Zhang Liang, who had looked heartbroken and dramatically shouted at him: “Seriously, not recommended!!”
“…”
His hand on the bathroom light switch retracted.
“You’d better not try anything funny, Jiang Ran.” He leaned against the door frame with one hand, bluntly calling her by her full name to warn the person inside, “If you think turning off the lights and creating a nice atmosphere will trick me into coming in so you can do something, I suggest you better—”
“Can you stop being stupid?”
From inside the bathroom came her calm voice, slightly muffled by the door.
“Turn off the lights. Come in.”
This time, the command was reduced to just four words.
Beijiao was silent for a moment, thinking that if she wanted to do something, she probably couldn’t overpower him. At worst, he could just run—could she even run faster than him?
After a brief calculation, he reached out and decisively turned off the light. Grabbing the doorknob, he twisted it, and the door clicked open—she hadn’t locked it.
Everything in the bathroom came into view—
The white mist from the hot water had long since dissipated, leaving only droplets clinging precariously to the walls and mirrors. The air was filled with the sweet scent of body wash and shampoo…
The bathroom was small.
If the lights had been on, he would have seen everything in one glance.
But at this moment, it was nearly pitch black inside. Only a faint light from outside filtered in. In that dim light, the woman, completely soaked, stood at the far end wrapped in a towel, silently watching him.
His gaze swept over her, catching only the faint glint of a water droplet on her pale shoulder.
His hand, still on the doorknob, suddenly tightened.
In his almost breathless silence, she held the towel with one hand, expressionless, and pointed at the mineral water bottle beside her with the other: “Wash my hair. I can’t lift this.”
This request was unexpected, yet understandable.
But it was somehow more acceptable than asking him to take off his pants. (Overthinking.jpg)
“…” Beijiao gave the young woman a quick once-over and understood, “So that loud noise earlier was because the water bottle fell when you couldn’t hold it anymore?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did it hit?”
“What?”
“Did it hit your head?”
His tone even sounded a bit eager.
Jiang Ran paused for a moment.
“Kid, are you looking for a fight?”
…
In his youth, Beijiao had imagined more than once how he might react, what he might say, or what expression he might wear when facing a naked female being who wasn’t an ordinary animal—
But in all his limited fantasies, it definitely didn’t include a scenario like this.
In the pitch-dark bathroom, the two of them stood unusually close, yet maintained the stiffest and most polite distance possible—
He stood by the sink, stretching his arm as far as he could;
At the end of his arm, beneath his palm, she curled into a ball beside the washbasin, both hands gripping the edge of the sink, her elbows pressing tightly on the towel.
Both were as tense as a tightly drawn bowstring.
One dared not move rashly, while the other was on the verge of breaking down.
Jiang Ran’s towel was wrapped tightly, so tightly that it left a red mark across her flawless, pale back.
Beijiao noticed but didn’t point it out.
At this moment, he bit the inside of his cheek, half-closed his eyes, and steadily held the full bottle of mineral water in one hand. Tilting it slightly, the clear water flowed down.
Under the sound of flowing water, his other free hand lifted, hovering above her head for three seconds…
“Jiang Ran.”
“Yeah?”
Her voice carried a nasal tone.
“I’m touching now.”
He sounded lazy.
Without waiting for her response, his fingertips descended. His neatly trimmed, rounded nails suddenly seemed to find their purpose, parting strands of her hair as they passed through.
Under the stream of mineral water, his fingertips, surprisingly gentle and contradicting his usual cold and harsh demeanor, brushed across her scalp.
Bent over, Jiang Ran didn’t need to look to feel the sensation magnified infinitely in the darkness—
The soft rustling sound of fingers rubbing against her scalp filled her ears.
Goosebumps rose all over her body.
The water flowed down, washing away the foam and disappearing into the drain with a gurgling sound. She forced her eyes wide open, only able to see the tips of his toes peeking out from the short jeans, slightly moving in small ranges as he worked.
Starting from the roots, he patiently worked through her thick hair, layer by layer, until the previously slippery strands began to feel slightly rough.
“Can you ski?”
Suddenly, he asked in the darkness.
It sounded like idle chatter.
Jiang Ran let out a “Huh?” not immediately catching on.
“I saw a snowboard in your room,” he paused, “How expensive is it to learn that?”
Jiang Ran naturally replied, “Expensive.”
“Tell me more.”
“In China, during summer you usually go to indoor ski resorts like Sunac, now called Hot Snow Miracle… ticket prices vary by location, averaging around 400-500 RMB. In winter, there are outdoor ski resorts in Chongli, Jilin, and Xinjiang. Established resorts can charge 600-700 RMB for entry alone—not to mention the equipment like snowboards and bindings, which can cost around ten thousand RMB altogether…”
She casually listed the expenses she was so familiar with.
As she spoke, she felt the person above her fall silent for a moment, then respond with a flat “Oh.”
Her voice trailed off, sensing something was off but unsure what. Instinctively, she wanted to lift her head to see his expression, but as soon as she started to raise it, a large hand pressed firmly on the back of her head, pushing her back down.
“What are you moving around for?”
His voice sounded as emotionless as ever.
Soon, the two bottles were used up, just enough to rinse her hair clean. Jiang Ran reached out and wrapped her hair in a dry towel, finally standing up straight…
It was pitch black, so her towel wasn’t tied tightly.
Combined with the slight dizziness from the alcohol and the sudden rush of blood to her head after bending over for so long, she almost lost her balance when she stood up and instinctively grabbed the cool sink beside her.
A long strand of hair fell from the front of her towel, swaying gently, carrying a droplet that landed on her cheek.
Jiang Ran didn’t reach out to wipe it.
She was still immersed in the previous topic. In the darkness, her eyes were unusually bright as she stared at the boy standing before her—the light from outside the window casting him into a shadowy interplay of light and dark.
“You want to learn to ski,” she stated, not asked.
Beijiao paused, then slowly let out a nasal sound, neither confirming nor denying.
“I can teach you,” she stared into his eyes. “I won’t charge you.”
The weight of those four words—if made public, the threshold of Sunac in Guangzhou would be trampled by eager learners tomorrow.
But the boy in front of her had no idea.
Upon hearing this, his expression didn’t even change. He simply chuckled lightly, lifting his hand with a slightly bent index finger—
Brushing away the droplet hanging on her cheek with his knuckles.
The rough sensation was fleeting.
“We’ll see,” his usual flat voice sounded again. “I was just asking casually. Not that interested anyway.”
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