The sound of clothes rubbing against the covers was especially distinct at night. As if he could no longer stand it, the man on the bed picked up the remote beside him and lowered the air-conditioning a little.
Summer had only just begun, but the weather was still very hot, and the air conditioner usually just ran at a constant temperature. Chi Ye wondered why it was so hot tonight, leaving him tossing and turning, completely unable to sleep.
He stared straight at the ceiling, trying to lull himself to sleep. In the empty air, his breath grew hotter and hotter, his panting increasingly audible.
He threw the covers aside and recited Buddhist sutras in utter despair. Thanks to the old man, he could now rattle them off at will.
If he still did not know what had caused this, he would have lived all those years for nothing.
The housekeeper, the housekeeper-it was the housekeeper again! That soup had actually been turtle soup. No wonder all the solids had been scooped out so thoroughly. This had clearly been a trap.
He was such an idiot. The red wine had already been a warning, so how had he still drunk that soup without a worry?
[Why am I getting a nosebleed?] A cool female voice rang out. Chi Ye heard Shen Zhiyi's thoughts, but the situation seemed...
She had only drunk one bowl, which was not much. So a nosebleed was only the mildest symptom. She did not seem to care, either, and lay back down on the bed after dealing with it.
Chi Ye, on the other hand, was not faring so well. He had drunk more than half of it, and now he was burning with desire.
He struggled to steady his breathing. The faster he recited the sutras, the more pronounced his heartbeat became. Under the same moonlight, he held that cool, aloof figure in his arms.
Shen Zhiyi looked up at him, their gazes meeting. Her eyes held the chill of clear snow, cold no matter whom she looked at.
But now the corners of her eyes were flushed crimson, her eyes misty, her lips turned down in a wounded pout as she looked at him. Chi Ye felt as though his heart were about to leap out of his chest. Otherwise, why did his brain seem to have stopped working?
Shen Zhiyi's hand slowly climbed onto his shoulder, moving little by little until it touched his bobbing Adam's apple.
He swallowed helplessly, looking at Shen Zhiyi with a somewhat flustered gaze.
"Sh-Shen Zhiyi, wh-what's wrong?" His voice was hoarse and nervous, and an unmistakable heat rose around them.
Shen Zhiyi simply looked at him, the corners of her eyes reddening further, the mist in them about to brim over into tears. She rose onto her toes and pressed her cold, thin lips to his Adam's apple.
Chi Ye's eyes widened, his hands unconsciously locking around her waist.
"Do you know what you're doing, Shen Zhiyi?" His voice was so hoarse it was barely recognizable. Shen Zhiyi still said nothing, only pressing harder with her lips.
Unable to hold back, he let out a low, muffled groan. "Mm~"
On a night like this, it stirred endless imaginings. Chi Ye could no longer control the urge to lower his head. He wanted to capture those red lips and stop her from wreaking any more havoc.
Even more, he wanted those cold lips to take on his warmth, to let her feel what he was feeling now.
They drew closer and closer, closer and closer.
"Shit." Chi Ye jolted upright in bed, his forehead, face, and hair drenched in sweat. He looked down,
"Fuck." He cursed in frustration, then hurried out of bed and into the bathroom. Cold water poured down, cooling his burning heart at once.
He stood beneath the shower, his ears flushed red, unable to stop recalling the scenes from his dream. He thought he must have gotten carried away. Shen Zhiyi had only just agreed to cooperate with him, and he was already having that kind of dream.
It felt like betraying the revolution. He remembered every scene, every inch of that dream with perfect clarity. Whenever he recalled Shen Zhiyi looking up, the corners of her eyes both cool and flushed, his feelings grew even more intense.
He glanced down at the arousal that still had not subsided after so long and closed his eyes in resignation.
In the pitch-black night, ill-timed sounds and lights made the night especially long. In another room, Shen Zhiyi sat on the balcony, staring blankly at the moon in the sky.
She reached out a hand. Moonlight passed between her fingers and fell across her face. She blinked, secretly closing the moonlight into her eyes.
Perhaps, once she finished that last thing, she could bloom into a dazzling red rose on the ground below a balcony with a view of the moon.
The next day, Chi Ye was not in very good spirits, his eyes bleary. Though he should have left for work long ago, he was still dawdling at home, unwilling to leave.
Yet he was also acting strangely, as though he were avoiding Shen Zhiyi. Specifically, whenever Shen Zhiyi looked at him, he immediately turned his gaze away.
Whenever Shen Zhiyi appeared in his line of sight, he hurried to keep his distance. Or he would be sitting on the sofa looking at his phone, only to get up and leave the moment he saw Shen Zhiyi coming over.
Anyone could tell he was avoiding Shen Zhiyi.
Shen Zhiyi did not take any of it to heart. Only when she saw Chi Ye turn away yet again did she lightly dig her fingers into her palm.
She knew no one could help disliking someone who was ill. Besides, in other people's eyes, she was more like someone making a fuss over nothing and looking for trouble.
It's all right, she told herself.
She calmly sat on the living room sofa and began watching television. As always, she slouched in her seat. On the television was the variety show the housekeeper had recommended, which she now watched every day.
Chi Ye had not gone very far, either. He wanted to listen to Shen Zhiyi's thoughts. The fact that he had been able to hear them from another room last night meant that, as long as they were not too far apart, there was no problem hearing her thoughts.
So he sat at the dining table with his phone and glanced sideways at Shen Zhiyi. He wanted to hear exactly what she was thinking now, and whether she thought he was acting strangely today.
But he waited a long time without a single word from Shen Zhiyi's mind. She really was watching the variety show very attentively. Other people, however, watched variety shows to relax and laugh.
She seemed more like she was treating it as a task someone had assigned her, as though she could immediately write a very, very long reflection on it once she finished watching.
The housekeeper craned his neck, followed Chi Ye's gaze, and spoke in a low voice.
"You're no good at this, young master~"
Startled by his sudden remark, Chi Ye turned and shot back without any politeness.
"An old man should stay out of young people's business."
The housekeeper scoffed. "Young master, Miss Shen will like you even less if you keep this up. You're being far too obvious."
Chi Ye did not argue. Of course he knew how obvious he was being, but no one could possibly remain unmoved by what had happened last night.
He was filled with boundless guilt toward Shen Zhiyi and had yet to work out how to face her.
But to outsiders and Shen Zhiyi, it looked as though he was deliberately distancing himself from her. Shen Zhiyi mistakenly thought he was afraid of her, or that this was another way of showing his aversion.
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