Beijiao’s uninjured hand was indeed holding a long down jacket, the same one he wore when he was discharged today—the heating on the second floor hadn’t been very good recently, and it was warmer to sleep with an extra piece of clothing on top of the blanket.
He really had come downstairs to fetch the jacket.
Jiang Ran’s expression shifted from playful to neutral. She let go of Ajue’s face, stepped back a little, and their legs, previously entangled from their playful tussle, separated naturally.
She calmly said, “Oh,” as if she hadn’t sensed his intense gaze at all. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and asked, “Did you get it?”
As if she were blind.
The person standing in front of her glanced down at the jacket hanging from his hand and murmured, “Mm.”
“If you got it, go to sleep already. Do you know what time it is?”
Her voice carried no emotional inflection, leaving Ajue, who had been initially nervous, to relax as if snapping out of it…
It wasn’t his fault.
If looks could kill, there had been a moment when the little dog might have already sliced him into a thousand pieces.
Beijiao stood there for a while longer, then responded in a low tone, casting one last deep look at the woman who appeared so indifferent, now gazing out the window, before turning to head toward the staircase—
His back was very straight.
Because his injury was on his collarbone, the wound hadn’t fully healed after surgery, and he always felt that standing upright would pull the skin tight against the wound, so these past few days, he had walked slightly hunched over. If asked to stand straight and walk normally, he would say, “It hurts from the wound pulling.”
Yet at this moment, the boy’s back was stiff and straight—no one could tell whether his wound had suddenly healed or if he had simply stopped feeling the pain altogether.
Ajue stared at his retreating figure, somewhat dazed, feeling that even though Beijiao acted recklessly, there was something pitiful about him…
If Lin Shuang had done this after he was injured, he probably would have—
Probably would have rushed forward, hugged her, and cried his heart out first.
He turned to look at Jiang Ran again, who showed no reaction whatsoever.
Ajue: “…”
Jiang Ran had already turned her attention to the window, and now was hugging a pillow and playing on her phone, looking as if nothing had happened just moments ago—her boyfriend hadn’t just left with a resentful gaze only to be coldly dismissed by her.
Ajue sighed and gave her a light kick with his foot: “You’re seriously heartless. Saying you want to break up and then deciding from now on you won’t even bother to look at him unless absolutely necessary?”
“Why would I look at him now that we’re breaking up?”
“He looked like he was about to cry just now, all angry but too afraid to say anything.”
“Oh, so let him cry then?” Jiang Ran tilted her head, “Do you want to go comfort him?”
“Thanks, but no thanks. After what just happened, do you think he might have wanted to punch me at that moment?”
Ajue thought to himself: What the hell, hadn’t he been comforting that guy enough these past few days? Now look, the guy probably thought he was some scheming, upstart green tea bitch.
Jiang Ran snorted: “What ‘just now’?”
Ajue tried to think of the right adjective: “…Too close.”
Jiang Ran was flabbergasted. She was about to say something like, “If there was anything going on between us, wouldn’t we have already had kids by now? They’d be in kindergarten by this point!” But when she saw Ajue’s lingering unease, she stopped herself.
She folded her arms and laughed: “Are you out of your mind? That’s what you call ‘too close’?”
Ajue couldn’t come up with a response.
Jiang Ran suddenly became playful. The usually cheerful young man looked so serious now—it was just too amusing. She said, “Oh,” then suddenly leaned in again, cupping his face: “I just realized earlier, when I looked closely, you’re actually not bad-looking—”
Just a little less than that dog.
She wisely kept that last sentence to herself.
She stared at him blankly: “Wanna try?”
Ajue: “? Try what—”
Ajue completely tensed up, his mind racing with “No way,” “Nope,” and “Now you think Grandpa is handsome? Are you blind?” all clashing together. “That mutt he—”
“He’ll be broken up with tomorrow.”
Jiang Ran drew closer, her breath warm and laced with alcohol, getting dangerously near. Ajue felt his hair standing on end. He wondered if shouting “Help!” at this moment would make him look like a total coward!
Their lips were inches apart. Just as Ajue resigned himself, thinking, Well, what can you do with a drunk girl anyway?—ready to face suffocation with a stoic expression, Jiang Ran stopped.
Her deep brown eyes blinked, and she said, “Pfft.”
Ajue: “?”
The woman’s pretty face pulled away, sliding her hands from his face down to his shoulders, then gave them a couple of hard pats that almost broke his shoulders. She laughed loudly: “Nope, I really can’t go through with it—it feels like there’s some kind of reproductive isolation going on. It’s not even about sexual orientation!”
Ajue exhaled in relief, his face darkening as he swatted her hands away: “You can kiss a dog, but you’re talking about reproductive isolation!”
Jiang Ran returned to her original seat, cracking her fingers and laughing to herself.
Earlier, their conversation had been interrupted by Beijiao, who had come back after leaving. Jiang Ran had lost the mood to continue talking. Men and women really did think differently. Facing the same kind of partner, Ajue chose to wait for her to settle down, while Jiang Ran instinctively rejected any more heart-pounding days…
She yawned.
A wave of drowsiness hit her, so she decided to end this unproductive conversation with her ten-level shadowy colleague, Ajue. She casually put her phone in her pocket and downed the last sip of wine from the glass beside her—
Her throat was numb, and she couldn’t even tell what kind of alcohol it was anymore. She stumbled, feeling only the burning sensation of the strong liquor scorching her throat, almost making her tear up.
She coughed loudly a few times, then, with red eyes, said to Ajue: “I’m going to bed. Don’t call me tomorrow unless it’s something really important.”
Ajue, exhausted and clearly annoyed, waved her off with a grimace.
…
The people in the living room were already sprawled out asleep. The underfloor heating downstairs was strong, so there was no need to worry about catching a chill.
Though Jiang Ran herself was unsteady on her feet, she didn’t forget to kindly cover her friends with blankets. However, Li Xingnan immediately kicked his off the moment it was placed over him: “Too hot. Don’t need it.”
Qiu Nian also stirred drowsily, pulling the hand of whoever had covered her and kissing the back of it solemnly. Jiang Ran had no doubt that Qiu Nian probably had no idea who had covered her—
In this house, she kissed everyone with the same confidence anyway.
After settling everything, she turned off most of the lights in the living room. When everything fell into darkness, she leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath, steady her heartbeat, and then slowly made her way upstairs.
Halfway up the stairs, she deliberately glanced toward a certain door on the second floor—it was closed.
She pursed her lips, unable to describe the thoughts swirling inside her. Just now, when he had looked at her with that dying expression, she hadn’t given him even a hint of warmth. Yet now, seeing his door firmly shut, she felt a bit sad.
Neither Ajue nor Beijiao knew that just moments ago, she had been watching his retreating figure through the glass the entire time—
He had never once looked back.
She climbed the stairs somewhat absentmindedly, and then suddenly, halfway around the corner, someone grabbed her wrist. The sudden heat startled her, and in the darkness, she blinked her eyes wide in confusion.
The next second, she was pushed against the wall!
“You…”
She barely managed to utter the first syllable before the next second, a fierce kiss rained down on her lips like a storm, forceful, as if he wanted to devour her whole.
Unlike his usual careful, gentle kisses where he would tenderly explore with his tongue, he now pinned her lower abdomen with his knee, and with his uninjured hand gripping her jaw, he forced her mouth open and plunged his tongue inside.
Jiang Ran’s scalp tingled from the kiss, and she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Wait—wait!” She dodged his lips, “What are you doing?”
They separated momentarily. She heard her own heavy breathing, and also his ragged breath close to her ear. The air was filled with the scent of his wound ointment and disinfectant bandages.
“You’re asking me what I’m doing?” Feeling her trying to push him away, he pressed her back against the wall effortlessly with just a slight pressure from his knee.
“This isn’t supposed to be your question.”
Strangely enough, when he wanted to act like this, it seemed that with just one hand and one leg, he could pin her against the wall completely.
“You wanted to try things out with Huang Can, didn’t you?” His voice was emotionless in the darkness, just a faint, mocking scoff, “Did you try it already? Didn’t work out?”
…So this person hadn’t actually left yet?
Then how much had he heard?
Had he heard anything useful at all?
As she remained silent in the darkness, he didn’t know what she was thinking and genuinely assumed she was regretful over the “failed experiment.” A surge of sourness rose in his chest.
He lowered his head and accurately found her lips again, kissing her—
His tongue hooked around hers, more urgent and deeper than ever before, making her emit frequent gasps of suffocation. Already dizzy from the alcohol, her cheeks flushed red, and her vision blurred from lack of oxygen.
Her body softened and slid downward until she was practically sitting on his bent leg.
Realizing this, her sense of shame nearly exploded. She tried to twist her body away—
But she was like a sack that had lost its support, clumsily toppling sideways. Fortunately, his long arm swiftly caught her, and for a moment, she felt her nose was only half an arm’s length from the ground.
“Let go.”
She was pressed back against the wall by his strong hand, dizzy and nauseous, her voice tight.
Her heart was pounding rapidly, for various reasons.
He lifted the leg he had bent and nudged her slightly, hearing her sharp, short cry… His pitch-black eyes in the darkness were as bright as a hungry wolf’s, staring at her intensely.
He tilted his head, as if forcibly suppressing his emotions, his voice hoarse: “Let go? Fine.”
The hand on her waist let go, then reached out to take one of her wrists, guiding her hand to press against his bandaged shoulder: “Push here.”
He said.
Through the hoodie, she could feel the rough gauze and the rhythm of his breathing. This area, probably because of the wound, was hotter than the chest cavity pressed against her.
It made her heartbeat accelerate, her whole body seemingly rising in temperature by several degrees…
Deep within her emotionally numb heart, a fire had been lit.
Now, it was spreading rapidly.
Her breath trembled, and with great effort, she curved her lips upward, her voice raspy and frightening: “Do you think I’m afraid?”
Beijiao’s gaze shifted slightly, half-smiling, half-confused, as he let out a soft “Ah,” genuinely not thinking she was afraid of anything.
He believed she was capable of killing him.
But he didn’t say it out loud. Maintaining the position where her hand was pressed on his shoulder, he used his other hand to prop himself against the wall beside her head, determinedly not letting her go.
“Move your hand!” she warned in a low voice.
In response, he lightly bit her lips, then lowered his gaze, no longer responding to her warning or threats, instead focusing on licking and kissing her lips—
Her mouth was filled with the complex taste of alcohol; she must have had quite a bit tonight.
It felt as if the alcohol content was being transferred to him through her tongue. From deep in his throat, he let out a muffled “murmur,” his Adam’s apple bobbing, completely immersed in this kiss he had been longing for.
Who knew how long passed before the second floor was filled only with the sound of their lips and tongues moving together. As their breathing grew heavier, she suddenly bit down on his tongue without warning—
He hissed, pausing slightly… In that moment of hesitation, her hand pushed hard against his shoulder. The intense pain shot through him, making his face go pale as he stumbled backward three steps!
The sudden loss of support caused her to slide down the wall as well.
He held his shoulder, staring at her in shock. He had been prepared, but hadn’t expected her to actually go through with it—
Jiang Ran met his gaze calmly.
The two of them, one sitting and one standing, fell into an awkward silence.
A cold breeze blew through, and the window at the entrance to the second-floor corridor creaked with a faint groan of wood expanding and contracting, breaking the brief, tense silence.
In Jiang Ran’s line of sight, she saw the boy’s shoulders stiffen slightly.
Beijiao held his shoulder, his head drooping after the initial eye contact, not straightening up for a while. She knew she hadn’t held back just now, so he was probably really in pain—
In the past, if he had just rolled on the snow slope, he would have come running to her, insisting she check for bruises…
Now, he just stood there, holding his pain, eyes red, not daring to come close and bother her.
She wasn’t heartless either. Seeing him like this didn’t make her feel particularly happy. Supporting herself against the wall, she unsteadily got up and asked in a low voice: “Did the wound split open?”
He didn’t answer her question. She grew impatient, her expression twisting despite her red eyes, and reached out to move his hand to check, but he subtly dodged away.
She clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Just as she was about to say something, he asked—
“What were you so happy talking to Huang Can about?”
And you were so close.
His voice was nasal, not feigned coquettishness this time, but genuinely congested and breathy…
He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he just couldn’t help but care.
Fine.
Suddenly, he realized that now, even jealousy couldn’t be expressed openly anymore.
When he came downstairs and saw them playing and laughing together, compared to seeing that scene, at that moment, he would rather someone just stab him and get it over with.
He couldn’t help himself and went to interrupt them.
Later, he didn’t know whether she had done it on purpose to provoke him or just out of playful mischief, but the two of them really leaned in. Pretending to leave, Beijiao crouched in the corner and watched, his scalp crawling. Rationally, he was screaming inside to separate the two and beat them up properly before he could feel like a real man again—
But his feet felt as if weighed down by a thousand pounds.
Finally, he gave up and squatted down, thinking bitterly, if he wasn’t a real man, then so be it.
Anyway, he didn’t believe she would actually do anything—he refused to believe it, right until the very last second.
At this moment, hearing his question, Jiang Ran’s eyes flickered with emotion after emotion. In the end, all the words she had prepared turned cold and blunt on her tongue: “Say to Lin Shuang that I asked Huang Can, when Lin Shuang foolishly got herself killed, what was he thinking?”
Beijiao stared at her blankly.
Jiang Ran gave him a quick smile, then resumed her usual emotionless expression a second later.
How could he, being so smart, not understand what she meant?
Beijiao removed his hand from his wound. A sudden gust of cold wind blew from somewhere, bringing with it the scent of blood, mingled with the smell of medicine and disinfectant. These scents blended into the natural wooden fragrance of the second floor’s floorboards—
evoking the image of a deserted, decaying school infirmary.
As Jiang Ran was lost in her thoughts, she heard the boy chuckle softly: “You go ask him how it feels to be the one left behind. Why not ask me if I was ready to abandon you and die first?”
Jiang Ran glanced around. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find anything to throw at his face.
“Jiang Ran, I don’t know if you remember or not, but we haven’t officially broken up yet.”
Even saying these two words carried a tremble in his voice—
“Whether it’s climbing mountains or diving into the sea, even going to hell, I want to take you with me.”
She didn’t know where that courage had come from.
Perhaps it was because he had already given up all restraint that he could say such crazy words.
If her mind hadn’t been in chaos right now, she might have mocked him. But at this moment, she had no mood for that at all. She could hear her own impatient heartbeat and the brief moment her voice was stolen again—
She looked up at him, moved her lips, and after a long pause, finally heard her own cold, hoarse voice: “You’ve had enough of life? I haven’t… Not broken up yet? Then let’s break up now.”
He stood rooted to the spot.
The fierce rebuttal or questioning he had imagined didn’t happen.
Jiang Ran waited for a while, then pushed herself up from the wall, unsteady on her feet as she walked toward her room, brushing past him and even bumping into his shoulder.
The smell of blood in the air seemed to have become even stronger than before, and with the warmth of the heating, it filled her nostrils.
Back in her room, she instinctively glanced at her palms after turning on the light. They were clean, no blood.
She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, her heart pounding so fast that she felt almost faint.
After hesitating for a moment, she turned around, opened the door again, and stared at the boy still standing outside, his back to her door, obviously lost in thought. “Come in.”
…
Beijiao hadn’t expected that he would still be allowed into this room.
The room’s arrangement hadn’t changed much from what he remembered. For a long time in the past, every morning he would naturally walk in, lean over her bed, pull her out from under the covers, kiss her cheek or lips, and then leave.
Things that once felt natural now seemed almost luxurious to him.
Beside her was a white first-aid kit. Sitting on the bed, Jiang Ran stared expressionlessly at the boy peeking halfway through the door, clearly hesitant.
“What? You weren’t afraid to go skiing recklessly on a foggy mountain highway, but now you’re afraid to come into my room?”
“…
She was merciless when she wanted to mock someone.
Beijiao had no retort and could only obediently enter the room, keeping his head lowered the entire time. Seeing him like this didn’t make her feel any better; instead, she thought he was being insincere.
“You’re not afraid of heaven or earth normally,” she couldn’t help but mock him, “so stop pretending.”
“What if I just say ‘I’m sorry, it won’t happen again’—”
“Cut the crap.”
“Can’t you give me three seconds of peace?” He finished emotionlessly.
At least he had the self-awareness to know that the limit of peace he could hope for was three seconds… She lifted her eyelids slightly but didn’t respond to his words. Instead, she said, “Take off your clothes.”
Beijiao: “Why?”
Jiang Ran: “Your wound isn’t open again, is it? Let me check.”
She didn’t even ask if it had reopened; she spoke with absolute certainty… Beijiao had originally refused to admit how fragile he was, how easily a simple shove could reopen the wound. But at this moment, the occasional whiff of blood in his nose told him the truth: Yes, you really are this fragile.
He took off his clothes and threw them aside.
The teenager’s body was so tense and solid, broad shoulders and clearly defined abdominal muscles—qualities that naturally invited lingering gazes… Jiang Ran slightly shifted her sitting posture, forcing herself to look away and not reveal even a hint of emotion stirred by the sight—
His hoodie, still warm from his body heat, was casually tossed onto the bed. He stood there, towering over her, intently watching every flicker of expression on her face.
“Why are you looking at my face?” Jiang Ran glanced at his shoulder. “Look at your own wound.”
Wrapped around his collarbone was a thick layer of white bandage. It should have been a yellowish color from the medicine powder, but right at the center near the wound, a faint pink stain had spread out.
He glanced at his shoulder, about to say, “This kind of wound doesn’t matter at all,” when he suddenly recalled their meaningless argument in the hallway earlier…
He stopped himself.
Obediently, he sat down beside her.
Luckily, her shove earlier hadn’t been too forceful, only slightly pulling at the wound. The bleeding was minimal, limited to a few stitches at the most difficult-to-heal spot, not because the wound had completely reopened.
The old gauze was removed, and new gauze, sprinkled with medicine powder, was applied in its place.
As she wrapped the bandages around him in circles, her face was turned sideways, calm and peaceful, almost level with his, close enough that her warm breath lightly brushed against his ear—
He slightly turned his face and gently kissed her cheek, without any hint of desire.
Her fingers froze mid-wrap, and she instinctively stopped, turning her head to meet his lowered gaze, which was intensely focused. She could feel a sharp ache spreading from her heart all the way to her abdomen, and her eyes reddened with sadness.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered hoarsely, seeing her like this made his own eyes red too. “Was just one kiss not even allowed?”
She raised her hand and rubbed her eyes.
His large hands gripped her shoulders, not letting her avoid his gaze. His deep eyes, like a hawk locking onto its prey, stared at her intently: “You still like me.”
A definitive statement.
She didn’t deny it.
But this development brought him no excitement or joy, only more confusion. Instead, it deepened his confusion. “Then why do we have to break up? Jiang Ran, I know all the stupid things I do make you disappointed and sad, but at least you should give me one last chance to prove—”
“It’s not about giving you a chance.”
His voice stopped abruptly.
“It’s not about whether I give you a chance or not,” she slightly lifted her face to look at him. “I like you, but do you like me?”
What a ridiculous question to ask.
Beijiao was stunned. After a few seconds of confusion, he quickly and without hesitation replied, “What are you talking about? Of course I—”
“Think carefully before you answer.”
She interrupted him.
After finishing the bandage, she cut off the excess and threw it back into the first-aid kit. She felt a strange confusion, unsure who exactly she was torturing.
“Go back to sleep. Goodnight.”
…
After changing Beijiao’s bandages, she watched the bare-chested boy walk out of the room.
Overwhelming fatigue swept over her, and Jiang Ran only wanted to quickly wash up and lie back down on the bed.
It seemed as if, after the battle in the hallway, followed by the quiet moment in the room changing the bandages, she had used up all her strength—now the effects of alcohol reached their peak. She barely managed to push herself into the bathroom, leaning on the sink for a while before she had the strength to take off her coat.
In just a tank top and sleep shorts, she vaguely remembered needing to turn on the water heater first to preheat it. Supporting herself against the wall, she reached out to turn on the hot water.
Just as she turned it on, the shower head made a “whoosh” sound, and suddenly there was a loud noise of someone forcefully twisting the doorknob from outside. She turned around in confusion and just in time saw the door being pushed open from the outside!
“I’ve thought about it. What the hell does it matter whether I like you or not! Breaking up isn’t something you can just decide on your own—”
The teenager’s angry voice abruptly stopped.
In the bathroom, the two locked eyes.
Her sleepwear was thin, almost like just shedding her outer layer left her in nothing but skin. At this moment, her long, disheveled hair hung over her chest, covering everything. Underneath the pale white fabric, only her belly button was faintly visible.
She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself.
“Get out!”
Her voice, sharp and piercing, carried an edge of irritation.
Under his gaze, she turned red from her shoulders all the way to her neck and ears—
Her furrowed brows made her look unusually fierce, though the effect was greatly weakened by the white nightgown she was wearing.
His gaze calmly swept over the hem of her nightgown. Once, it had been stained with blood, probably washed clean by now.
Under the hem, her tightly closed legs were faintly visible.
Her soft, voluminous curls were splashed with water droplets from turning on the shower head, and beads of water slid down her pale, delicate arms…
Yet he looked at her with no flicker of emotion in his dark pupils.
“Speak,” he reminded hoarsely.
Clutching the towel tightly, Jiang Ran’s heart raced so fast it was almost suffocating. Hearing him, she was so angry she almost laughed: “Speak about what? Can’t you stop being so inexplicably strange? Bursting in here, making me speak, and now this? What do you want me to say? About what?”
“I want you to talk about breaking up,” Beijiao interrupted her near-hysterical outburst. “You’re determined that I don’t like you and decide to break up? Then I say I don’t like you anymore, and you just nod and agree? That’s not how you listen to someone—”
“Listen to you?” She raised her voice to interrupt him, using a tone as if she had heard the most absurd thing in the world, “Who are you talking about? Who listens to you?”
Under her gradually reddening gaze, he quieted down, gradually losing his initial aggressive momentum.
But he didn’t back down.
“… I just want to know why,” his voice softened slightly, pausing for a moment, “Convince me, and I’ll leave.”
“…
Jiang Ran closed her eyes for a moment, almost forgetting how stubborn teenagers could be. Once they set their minds on something, they wouldn’t let go until it was explained clearly…
Call him a dog.
Stubborn as an ox, even a dog would be annoyed.
It seemed like tonight she would definitely have to clarify everything.
Taking a deep breath, she gave in: “We can’t talk like this now. You go out and wait for me a minute while I turn off the water and get dressed.”
The hot water was still running behind her, already warm, and the steam started to fill the bathroom, carrying the familiar scent of her shower gel. Even though she hadn’t used it yet, the fragrance was already rushing out—
filling the chest of the boy standing at the door, making his heart feel full, aching with a bitter fullness.
Back in Guangzhou, he had used her bathroom too, using the same shower gel she used.
Back then, he was addicted to the scent of every inch of her skin. If this had happened at another time, he wouldn’t have been so easily sent away with just a few words—
But now wasn’t the time. It seemed like he had completely lost the instinct to be affectionate or cheeky with her. Somehow, he had started to cherish every remaining moment he could have with her, walking on eggshells.
He blinked, his mind buzzing. Even with his eyes closed, all he could see was her profile earlier when she was sitting by the window, smiling at Ah Ju.
At that moment, he was thinking, how long had it been since she last smiled at him like that?
—Being with him made her unhappy.
The mere thought of that made him unbearably sad.
He lowered his eyes, stepped back, and even gently closed the door behind him.
As the door softly clicked shut with a “bang,” Jiang Ran relaxed her hand, and the towel, which she had barely been holding, slipped from her palm to the floor. She exhaled in relief.
…
After Beijiao left, he didn’t go far, just stood outside the door waiting, in case she did something unexpected inside.
He could smell the occasional scent of blood rising from his wound on his shoulder, mixed with the medicinal smell of the fresh bandages, almost filling his entire nose.
But in his mind, he kept remembering her scent.
Leaning against the bathroom wall, he absentmindedly played with the knot on the bandage, fiddling with it until it came undone…
He paused slightly, looking down—her handiwork was indeed not great, the bandage was wrapped quite poorly.
But he didn’t care about that. In fact, he rather wanted to keep everything related to her forever. So calmly, he retied the loosened bandage—
a bit too tightly, causing pain at the wound, but he didn’t even flinch… Apart from the initial pain, he didn’t think much about it.
He didn’t have time for such trivial matters.
At first, he was shocked and angry when she proposed breaking up, then during the wound dressing his mind went blank, and now, finally, he had calmed down—
only wanting to understand the reason, even if it meant the end.
Inside, she was making some rustling sounds, and he remembered how unsteady she was on her feet before she went in, almost unable to walk straight after drinking—
Thinking of this, he slightly furrowed his brow and turned around, facing the bathroom door, he called out, “Hey.”
As soon as the word left his mouth, a loud noise followed.
The plastic chair in the bathroom had been knocked over, followed by a clattering sound of something scattering all over the floor.
His heart tightened, and without thinking, he pushed the door open again.
As the door swung open, aside from the rush of steam and the sound of running water, he saw bottles and jars scattered across the floor, a white plastic rack overturned, and the chair lying on its back.
The shower head was still pouring water furiously. A woman in white pajamas sat helplessly on the bathroom floor, drenched, as water poured from above, running down her hair and chin—
Her wet clothes clung to her body, outlining her delicate curves. She must have tried to reach for the tap but slipped and fell. At this moment, one of her calves bore a heavy red mark from the plastic chair…
Luckily, there was no bleeding.
But it was still quite shocking.
She supported herself with one hand on the floor, trying to stand but failing. After standing at the bathroom door, the boy stared coldly at her for about ten seconds before taking a big step forward, leaning into the shower area, and pulling her up.
She swayed unsteadily, her feet slipping, and her nose accidentally bumped into his chest. With only one hand to support himself, he nearly fell along with her—
They staggered, his back hitting the glass door of the shower with a loud bang. At the same time, he was soaked through.
The sound of the running water seemed to be the only sound left in the world.
Water droplets poured down like a waterfall, soaking not only her but also the fresh bandages on him. The bandages instantly absorbed the water. The warm, steamy air of the shower, tinged with the smell of blood, filled their nostrils. She caught the scent.
Panicked, she looked up at him, and at that moment, he also lowered his gaze—
Jiang Ran’s nose was still dripping, softly brushing against his chin. She felt the strong arm around her waist tighten. He lowered his head, his dark, deep wolf-like eyes locking onto hers.
“Break up?” His voice was slow and hoarse. “I wasn’t watching you for just three minutes, and you’ve managed to do this to yourself—”
His eyes were rimmed with red. His perfect face showed no emotion as he looked down at her, practically grinding out the words between clenched teeth.
“That’s how I’ve been for the past twenty-four years too.”
Her cold words had barely left her lips when she was forcefully pressed against the solid chest in front of her.
The thin fabric, soaked through, clung with a slick wetness. Jiang Ran was completely soaked, her head under the hot water streaming down her pale face…
Finally, she let out a whimper.
Her eyes widened, desperately trying to see his face through the steam, though her gaze was hollow.
Transparent water droplets fell from her chin, impossible to distinguish whether they were hot water or something else equally warm or scalding—
“But you don’t like me.”
Her voice was very soft, almost inaudible.
“You only think you do.”
As the boy was stunned by these faint words, like thunder in his ears, he felt her soft fingertips brush against his cheek.
“Do you know how Lin Shuang died, Ajiao?” she asked. “Don’t you know?”
Her voice choked, as if she were dying from sadness.
Under the cover of the steam, she finally let her guard down, her deep brown eyes glistening as she looked at him—
“If you really had even a little bit of affection for me, if you really cared about me even slightly, if you truly felt even a tiny bit reluctant to let me go, how could you keep walking the same path she did, again and again?”
Her hands, touching his face, moved across his jawline, then his lips, nose, and eyebrows.
“I never told you the details of how Lin Shuang passed away.”
She swallowed hard. The burning pain in her leg almost made her collapse.
“Now you tell me—” she continued, “just say—” you don’t know anything about Lin Shuang, you don’t know how she died, you’ve never heard any more details from Qiu Nian, Li Xingnan, or Aju…”
She paused.
“Just say it, and I’ll believe you.”
Her words fell into silence. Unfortunately, his answer was complete silence.
“Say it.”
She raised her voice.
“Say it!”
In the shower, filled completely with steam, they could barely see each other’s faces. The one wanting to lie could even smile easily, without controlling facial expressions—
That’s how Jiang Ran imagined it.
Unfortunately, the boy’s face was too clear. His thin lips were tightly pressed together, his eyes not even showing a hint of struggle to deceive her.
Water flowed down his short hair, dripping onto her forehead. Without wavering, he chose honesty toward her.
Yet she felt even greater despair because of his honesty—
Look.
Sometimes, honesty is a knife that can kill.
She gave a faint laugh and broke free from his arms.
With a sudden motion, she slapped his face lightly, not very hard, but enough to turn his face sideways with a soft “slap.”
“Break up.”
Her face was pale and emotionless.
“Three years. Starting today, don’t let me see you for three years.”
“Get out.”
Author’s note:
Today’s self-doubting dog: I almost believed I really don’t like you.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage