The bar owner was aware of the strange relationship between Jiang Ran and Beijiao.
He couldn’t understand it at all—was the mattress in the 200-square-meter apartment of Junrun Mansion, priced at over 100,000 per square meter, uncomfortable, or were the legs of the suddenly appeared older sister not thick enough? Why would Beijiao willingly endure hardship by sleeping on a spring bed in a small bar’s storage room?
Outside, even at midnight, the temperature remained above thirty degrees Celsius.
Inside, there wasn’t even an air conditioner.
Therefore, when Beijiao sent Jiang Ran home this time, the bar owner had already mentally prepared himself—he wasn’t expecting Beijiao to come back tonight.
…
The car eventually drove smoothly toward a very quiet residential community.
At the entrance, the pedestrian walkway was separated from the underground garage entrance, effectively preventing engine noise from late-night returning cars from disturbing the residents inside the community.
On such a hot night, Beijiao noticed that the security guard at the community entrance was neatly dressed in uniform, even wearing a hat. When he saw the car approach, he stood up from the booth, bowed, and politely greeted them with a “Good evening.”
Beijiao glanced back at the woman sitting in the back seat. She was leaning against the car door with her eyes closed, seemingly accustomed to all of this.
The designated driver whistled, saying that high-end communities were indeed different. In their residential area, only elderly men served as guards. During summer, those old men, wearing holey white tank tops and shorts, would sit there fanning themselves with banana-leaf fans while humming along to the radio.
His description was vivid. Jiang Ran in the back seat snorted softly and slowly opened her eyes, stating a parking space number.
Seeing that she had woken up, and knowing she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep after arriving home, the driver continued chatting nonstop.
As they drove into the underground garage, he kept looking around, sighing at the luxury cars parked there, and couldn’t help but ask Jiang Ran, “Miss, you’re so young yet live in such a community and drive such a great car—what do you do for work? Or were you born in Rome? You know Rolls-Royce, right? People say if you weren’t born driving one, you’ll probably never get to drive one in your entire life.”
He kept asking questions.
Jiang Ran hadn’t had time to answer.
Beijiao had originally been spacing out, but upon hearing this, he brought his gaze back from outside the window, turned his head slowly toward the driver…
The driver shuddered under Beijiao’s emotionless stare, realizing he had asked too much, and dared not speak further.
The car smoothly entered the garage and parked.
Beijiao took out his phone inside the car to pay the fee, then got out and opened the back door—
Then, as the door opened, an arm stretched out, hooked over his shoulder, and with a bit of leverage, she jumped down from the back seat.
He reached out to support her, but she didn’t allow his help for long. The next second, it was as if a time bomb had stuck to him, and he instinctively pushed her sideways against a nearby pillar.
Jiang Ran lost her balance, her shoulder painfully colliding with the hard wall. She wanted to lash out—but just as the curses reached the tip of her tongue, she remembered she was feigning drunkenness. Under his icy, indifferent gaze, she could only pout in frustration.
He watched her acting cute with no sympathy at all.
In fact, he turned away, leaving her standing alone, and went to help the driver take out the folded electric bike. He looked at it and asked, “Are you heading back to the bar area? Can this bike carry a passenger?”
As soon as the question came out, two out of the three people on the scene were stunned.
The driver said, “You don’t live here?”
Leaning against the cold stone pillar, Jiang Ran finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She crossed her arms and said coolly, “Which eye of yours sees this shabby electric bike as capable of carrying another person?”
She had been silent all night, and when she suddenly spoke, her voice was hoarse, slightly slurred from the alcohol, sounding completely non-threatening—
This voice caused both male beings to simultaneously turn their heads to look at her. She raised her hand, hooking her finger around the young man’s short-sleeved shirt, pulling him closer.
At the same time, she looked up, past his broad shoulders, she announced to the driver, “He’s not leaving.”
He’s not leaving. The driver needs to go. He had already lost the mood to ask the question “Are you two siblings or is there some other bizarre plot?” He quickly rode off on the electric bike, escaping the scene.
Beijiao could only watch helplessly as the figure receded further and further away.
At this hour, the subway had long stopped running.
Returning to “Wuwo” by taxi from here would mean the bar owner wouldn’t reimburse him, meaning he had worked for nothing tonight.
Riding a shared bike back?
It would break his legs.
His only hope was driven away. When the driver’s figure finally disappeared, Beijiao leaned against the pillar and silently looked at Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran seemed to be in a standoff with him, unmoving, lifting her chin to stare at him—
Just as he realized he was arguing with a drunk person, the heavy low-pressure atmosphere around him instantly dissipated. He slightly bent down, unusually taking the initiative to get closer to her, expressionless as he asked, “What do you want now?”
His voice sounded as impatient as always.
The parking lot lights were bright, but the summer heat still lingered warmly, and as they drew closer, it was impossible to tell whose breath was overpowering whose.
Under normal circumstances, anyone else would have jumped five meters away by now.
But Jiang Ran stood straight, not moving an inch. She blinked and said, “My dad told me to take care of you. If he finds out that ‘taking care of you’ means letting you sleep on a spring bed in a small bar’s storage room, my allowance for next month will be severely cut.”
“So what?”
“I still have a guest room. You’ll sleep there until summer vacation ends.” Jiang Ran raised her hand again, tugging at his sleeve. He realized she really liked touching him.
Arrogant and inexplicable command.
Beijiao found it somewhat absurd.
After a while, he smiled, staring at her hazy eyes, a playful expression on his face: “Are you serious? Inviting a man to cohabitate with you?”
Their faces were very close.
Close enough for him to smell the base liquor from her last drink.
He had intended to scare her away, but after waiting for a moment, he received a soft hand pressing against the back of his head.
His mocking expression stiffened.
This time, it was his turn to hesitate to act rashly.
Her pale face, affected by the alcohol, had a faint blush, a delicate, almost sickly hue that surprisingly looked quite beautiful.
Her sharpness gone, she gently rubbed his hair, smiling faintly, “Kid, you’re not even a real man yet.”
…
During the elevator ride, Beijiao remained silent with his head down.
His ears were bright red.
Angry.
The entrance of Jiang Ran’s home was unlit, but upon opening the door, the room still had a warm glow.
A wooden fishbone-shaped floor lamp placed beside the living room sofa cast a large fishbone structure like the wings of a bird. The lamp bulbs within the fishbones, like a heart, illuminated most of the spacious area.
Her home was simply decorated but had a strong sense of design, with a light-colored theme… Upon entering, a faint fragrance greeted them, somewhat similar to Jiang Ran’s own scent.
Compared to the old wall-mounted air conditioner at the bar or the dormitory, the central air conditioning cooled the room quickly. Standing barefoot on the wooden floor at the entrance, Beijiao looked down at his socks—thankfully clean and without holes.
Jiang Ran didn’t have any slippers he could wear.
She had her own, but there wasn’t a size larger than hers… probably because men rarely visited her home.
After returning home, she casually threw her bag onto the sofa, then opened the door to the second bedroom, leaning against the wall. Turning her head, she saw the young man standing hesitantly at the door, not moving. She curled her lips into a smirk, “What are you hesitating for? At least tonight, you definitely can’t go back.”
This sounded exactly like a female bandit forcing an innocent man into captivity?
Yet she herself was so drunk she could barely stand.
Beijiao glanced at her without responding, but his body moved before his mind could catch up, obediently walking to her side. He leaned his head in to look—
A soft laugh sounded in his ear as she reached out and turned on the light in the second bedroom, illuminating everything.
Light-colored wooden floors, a low bed with a light tone, no main ceiling light—only the LED strips along the edge of the platform and the light from the empty closet provided illumination.
On the platform lay a mattress that looked incredibly soft, with a fluffy, irregularly shaped artificial fur carpet on its side…
Beijiao’s gaze fixed on the wall opposite the bed, realizing this spare room wasn’t entirely unused.
On the blank wall, five long ski boards were arranged in a row—different in length, their bases facing outward.
The boards were mostly black, but at their upper ends, varying designs were present, each featuring a small tree silhouette resembling a Christmas tree. Behind each tree, the background colors differed—white, bright red, yellow-green, and so on.
It looked like a special decorative wall.
Below the skis were lined up five or six, seven or eight helmets, and four or five pairs of different styles of ski boots.
Beijiao didn’t know how to ski, but he recognized what these items were for.
She even skied?
These casually placed personal belongings reminded him even more—he had entered the home of a relatively unfamiliar woman who lived alone.
He spoke first: “I’m just staying one night.”
She tilted her head: “Then back to that broken spring bed at the bar?”
He really hated the bar owner for blabbering everything to others.
“No.” Beijiao didn’t know why he had the patience to explain this to her, “I got a spot from the school basketball team.”
In his mind, the logic was very simple—
Since the dormitory beds were reserved for those participating in the university sports games, he would become one of them and naturally move in. That made perfect sense.
“You think they’ll just give you a spot if you ask?” Jiang Ran looked at him, clearly not believing, “The competition is about to start. They’d rather use outsiders instead of real, known team members?”
“Yeah,” ignoring her rudeness, Beijiao simply responded with a nasal hum, “Because I’m better than all of them.”
He said it decisively.
Jiang Ran didn’t argue, raising her eyebrows at him, even finding his confidence somewhat endearing.
Seeing her reaction, Beijiao realized she didn’t believe him at all and slightly frowned, “Tomorrow there’s a friendly match with another school. They’ll evaluate me then. If I win, I can join the school team.”
Jiang Ran thought to herself, a friendly match? That did sound somewhat familiar.
She yawned, trying to clear her alcohol-fogged brain, struggling to recall for a while before exclaiming, “Ah, I know about that.”
Beijiao gave her a confused glance.
Jiang Ran nodded seriously, indicating she truly knew, “Didn’t you notice the group I was drinking with tonight? They were all pretty tall.”
In an instant, all the expressions on his face vanished.
Jiang Ran, affected by alcohol, didn’t sense the sudden change in atmosphere, and even thought she had found a common topic, continued happily on her own, “Among them, there’s one particularly tall guy—he’s the captain of the basketball team from Liaoning C University. He also mentioned there’s a friendly match with your school tomorrow and even invited me to watch…”
She kept talking while gesturing with her hands.
When she mentioned the “particularly tall” one, she even stood on tiptoe, raising her hand to indicate a position slightly above Beijiao’s head—
He almost wanted to chop her hand off.
He lowered his eyes, long eyelashes covering the dark clouds in his eyes. His voice, however, sounded perfectly normal.
“And then? Did you agree?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“…”
She was completely unaware that his voice seemed to be gritting his back molars to speak, and she was even happily clapping her hands together, “Good thing I agreed to go watch. That’s perfect then. Wait for me tomorrow morning. I’ll drive you to school. Taking the subway would be too much trouble—”
She hadn’t finished speaking yet.
The person standing in front of her had already taken a step back.
The two who had been standing very close suddenly pulled apart. She hadn’t yet reacted to his sudden action, lifting her head to ask when she saw the bedroom door slam shut right in front of her face.
With a loud “Bang.”
As if she owed him three thousand yuan or something.
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