Bath towel

Perhaps preoccupied by his own fluctuating thoughts and fearing something might go wrong, Jiang Chen walked quickly. The flight of stairs could not slow his pace as he made his way straight to the master bedroom on the second floor.

The vase that had originally stood by the door had vanished.

Ye Mian stood there, looking innocently at the shards of shattered porcelain scattered densely across the floor, leaving nowhere to step.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up at the man.

"Jiang Chen, this vase was placed by the door. I knocked it over when I closed it. Is it expensive?"

Jiang Chen seemed not to hear her.

Stepping past the porcelain pieces, he pushed them aside and carefully checked the feet of her slippers to confirm there were no injuries, before saying softly, "Step out first."

"Oh." Ye Mian nodded, leaning on his hand to step across the debris, only to notice that Jiang Chen was wearing nothing but socks.

Recalling the sound of the falling porcelain and the speed of the man's arrival, Ye Mian realized something in that exact moment.

He really liked her quite a bit.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed over so anxiously, without even putting on his slippers.

Half a minute later, Jiang Chen cleared away all the broken porcelain from the floor. Several times, Ye Mian tried to reach out and help, but each time he called her to the side.

She could only stand by anxiously, feeling like someone who had made a mess and was waiting for someone else to clean it up.

Jiang Chen stood up, ruffled her hair, his eyes and brows infinitely gentle: "Go on downstairs, it doesn't matter."

While following Jiang Chen down the stairs, a massive flash of lightning tore across the sky outside, accompanied by a booming crash of thunder that pierced the eardrums.

Ye Mian was startled by the shock and muttered, "Is it going to rain?"

No sooner had the words left her mouth than the rain began to fall in sparse, scattered drops, growing torrential within mere seconds. The entire exterior of the house seemed to plunge into an apocalyptic scene of howling winds and dim, heavy gloom.

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow: "That's twice now, fortune-teller Ye."

Ye Mian suddenly remembered that there had once been another such sudden rainstorm, like some kind of spell that even she found magical.

Facing the man's teasing, Ye Mian curved her eyes and spoke nonsense in return: "Then, according to my divination, you are not suited to go out tonight."

The heavy rain continued unabated until ten o'clock that night.

Ye Mian listlessly gazed at the floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the rain fell in sheets, occasionally punctuated by flashes of white lightning.

She wasn't used to strong tea, and drinking grape juice only made her drowsier, causing her to yawn repeatedly.

Jiang Chen raised a hand, ruffled the hair at the nape of her neck, paused for a moment to choose his words, and asked gently, "Which room do you want to sleep in tonight? Go upstairs and pick one."

Ye Mian was taken aback, her sleepiness instantly fading quite a bit.

"Aren't you going to send me back?"

Jiang Chen looked at the torrential rain outside, narrowing his eyes with a faint smile: "A certain fortune-teller said I shouldn't go out tonight."

Ye Mian: "......"

The fortune-teller silently vowed never to talk nonsense again.

Amidst the heavy wind and rain, the atmosphere inside the villa was exceptionally harmonious.

Ye Mian did not mind staying at Half-Mountain Island. She and Jiang Chen had long since experienced cohabiting while sleeping in separate rooms, so there was nothing awkward about it.

With the heavy rain outside and the lateness of the night, she was also concerned about safety.

Thus, heeding Jiang Chen's words, she chose the room she had slept in before. Primarily, she hadn't been into any of the other rooms, and she felt the previous one was quite nice.

After sitting with Jiang Chen for a little while, she went upstairs to take a bath.

One had to admit, villas had their perks.

The bathroom in Jiang Chen's house had an exceptionally large bathtub that looked at first glance like a miniature swimming pool.

Ye Mian pressed the button on the wall, and the tub automatically filled with water. She sank comfortably into the water, the steam rising against her face. The sensation was so relaxing that she let out a sigh and even felt like dozing off.

After soaking for ten minutes or so, Ye Mian emerged from the tub, feeling lightheaded and unsteady on her feet.

She pressed the drain button again, and a whirlpool formed at the bottom of the pool.

Then she discovered that the clothes she had placed on the nearby shelf had somehow had their hems trailing in the water. Under the violent swirling current, all of her garments had been dragged inside.

When Ye Mian tried to reach in and grab them...

Well...

It was already too late...

Damn it!

Ye Mian was dumbfounded. Once the water in the tub had drained completely, she picked up the clothes lying limply at the bottom.

They were thoroughly soaked.

Droplets streamed from the lowest edges of the fabric, rivaling the torrential downpour outside.

The atmosphere in the bathroom was dead silent.

Fine. Drying them in the hair-dryer might make them wearable.

Ye Mian took a deep breath, helplessly wrapped a large bath towel around her chest, and made sure nothing would be exposed before preparing to sneak back to her room.

Just as she pushed open the sliding bathroom door, a gust of cool wind swept in.

A pale, slender hand suddenly appeared right in front of her.

Jiang Chen was standing outside the door, seemingly about to knock.

Hearing the sound, Jiang Chen withdrew his hand and lowered his gaze to look at her.

—Their eyes met.

Today's quota for public mortification had officially been met.

Unsurprisingly, Jiang Chen's gaze landed on the bath towel clutched against her chest, before he quickly and chivalrously looked away, asking with an amused and gentle smile, "Aren't you cold?"

"..."

Ye Mian was terrified, completely frozen and unable to react.

The scare almost made her heart stop.

A massive wave of embarrassment instantly caused her face to flush crimson.

Good heavens!

Was there any coincidence more awkward than this?

Hearing the man's inquiry, she lowered her voice and explained, "My clothes got wet."

Which meant to say—she was forced into this by circumstances!

Jiang Chen let out a low chuckle before turning to leave: "Hurry back to your room, it's quite chilly out here."

—

Inside the master bedroom.

Ye Mian lay on the bed, the quilt pulled up to cover half her face.

Hearing the footsteps outside gradually fade away, she felt as though the air was being slowly sucked out of the room.

Her heartbeat was pounding wildly.

She had a lingering sense that something was deeply wrong everywhere she looked.

Try as she might, she couldn't figure it out.

Rolling over, she called Jiang Yuan, attempting to chat and let her best friend shoulder half of the awkwardness.

Twenty minutes or so later, someone knocked on the room door.

There were only two people in the massive villa: her and Jiang Chen.

Ye Mian spoke a quick word to Jiang Yuan, hung up the phone, and went out wrapped in her bath towel.

Opening the door, Jiang Chen stood on the threshold holding a men's bathrobe. "Put this on first. I'll have someone send some clothes over for you tomorrow."

"You don't need to have anyone send them, my clothes will be dry by tomorrow."

Jiang Chen didn't speak; he just smiled silently.

Ye Mian tightly clutched the edge of the door, reached out to take the bathrobe, muttered a thank you, and carefully closed the door.

Jiang Chen stood outside looking at the door, rubbed his temple, and walked toward the guest room next door.

Ye Mian's face was still red. The bathrobe seemed freshly laundered, yet it still carried a faint trace of the man's clean, detached scent.

She slipped the bathrobe on. The oversized black garment covered her body completely, releasing her from the stifling awkwardness she had just felt.

The bath towel she had taken off was soaking wet. She walked over to the wardrobe, intending to find a clothes hanger inside.

As she pulled open the cabinet doors, rows of dark-colored clothes hung neatly from the rod.

Ye Mian blinked.

Looking at the gloomy tones of the room and the heavy, oppressive curtains, it was only now, during her second time staying here, that it finally dawned on her.

Ah. So this was actually Jiang Chen's room.

After hanging up the bath towel to dry, Ye Mian's earlier sleepiness had completely vanished.

Her mouth felt a bit dry.

She got up and left the room, only to find that the living room was still brightly lit, but Jiang Chen was nowhere to be found on the sofa.