You could tell at a glance that Shen Xingcan's sister-in-law obsession had flared up again

Did he still have the strength to push him away one more time?

The afternoon sunlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Most of the profile of the man sitting beside the sofa was hidden in light and shadow. Everything around him was quiet, making the figure on the sofa look all the more forlorn and lonely.

Shen Xingcan happened to catch this scene when he came out of the bathroom.

He stared at Xie Linchuan's back for a while, then spoke as though nothing were amiss. "I'm done. Go on in. Toss your clothes out once you get into the bathroom, and I'll wash our clothes while you're in there."

After a pause, Shen Xingcan added, as if something had just occurred to him, "You brought disposable underwear, right? I'm telling you, I'm not washing that stuff for you."

Keeping their little boat of friendship afloat was important, but washing underwear still crossed a line.

Xie Linchuan: "..."

He stood up, then looked at the person walking toward him.

Perhaps to save time, Shen Xingcan had come out of the bathroom wearing only a bathrobe.

The bathrobe was loosely tied, revealing his long, fair neck. His damp, medium-length hair lay against the back of his head, inexplicably lending his excessively beautiful face an extra touch of allure.

Tiny droplets ran down his hair into the roomy bathrobe, disappearing around his lovely, faintly visible collarbones, making one long to follow those droplets and explore what lay beneath.

The fabric fell along the smooth, slender line of his waist, its hem barely reaching above his knees and revealing a short stretch of luminous white calves. As he approached, the faint, fresh scent of his bath swept into Xie Linchuan's nose.

Xie Linchuan averted his gaze and headed straight into the bathroom with his change of clothes.

Hearing the bathroom door close, Shen Xingcan tightened his bathrobe with little expression.

Warm water washed over his skin. Xie Linchuan tipped his head back, letting the water pour down from above, but his thoughts strayed uncontrollably to the scene he had just witnessed.

That thought was like water-soaked silk, winding around every part of Xie Linchuan's body. His blood grew hot, his breathing became heavy, and even the running water seemed tinged with a clinging intimacy that wound around him until he could barely restrain himself.

Shen Xingcan stuffed his clothes and Xie Linchuan's into the machine all at once, then began getting himself ready.

Though he called it getting ready, he really only changed his clothes. Considering the embarrassing incident the chain had caused earlier, Shen Xingcan simply did without a jacket this time.

By the time he was more or less ready, Xie Linchuan had also come out of the bathroom.

Unlike Shen Xingcan, Xie Linchuan emerged fully dressed, with even his hair already blow-dried.

Looking at Shen Xingcan sitting on the sofa with water still dripping from his hair, Xie Linchuan frowned slightly. "Dry your hair."

Shen Xingcan brushed it off. "Can't be bothered. The clothes are washed. Let's go out now. I don't want those men in black breaking down the door."

With that, Shen Xingcan got up and headed outside on his own.

But before he had taken more than a few steps, someone caught his wrist. "Dry your hair."

Shen Xingcan said, "No. Drying my hair is a pain. I always do this at home, and I'm fine."

He tried to use an example to show that doing this would not have any serious consequences.

"No."

The island was windy. How could it possibly be the same as being at home?

Shen Xingcan said, "Then do it for me. I can't be bothered to do it myself anyway."

"Do your own things yourself."

Shen Xingcan argued confidently, "But we're a team now. You ought to look after your teammate. Besides, I just helped wash your clothes!"

Sure, the machine had washed the clothes, but he, Shen Xingcan, had been the one to press those buttons!

With a dark expression, Xie Linchuan helped Shen Xingcan blow-dry his hair.

Through the mirror, Shen Xingcan looked at the man standing behind him, his eyes curved in a smile. "You're so domestic, Xie Linchuan. When I look for a wife someday, I'm definitely using you as the template."

Xie Linchuan said icily, "With that personality of yours, your wife would kick you out within three days of getting married."

Shen Xingcan was unbothered by Xie Linchuan's mockery. "Really? Then sorry in advance for the trouble of taking me in."

"In your dreams."

Shen Xingcan protested, "You count as half a little brother from my side of the family, at least. Do you have to be so heartless?"

Xie Linchuan said nothing more, as though he had turned himself into an emotionless hair-drying machine.

When Shen Xingcan's hair was almost dry, the alarm went off.

Almost the instant the alarm sounded, there came the sound of the locked door being unlocked. Then five tall, burly men in black filed in with livestreaming equipment.

[Let me see, let me see.]

[Exciting, exciting!]

[They're not going to catch anything that shouldn't be on camera, are they?]

There was nothing provocative in the room. Shen Xingcan and Xie Linchuan were simply sitting and standing, respectively. The one standing happened to be right behind the one sitting, and he was also holding a hair dryer.

Even without having personally witnessed Xie Linchuan drying Shen Xingcan's hair, anyone with eyes could infer what had just happened from their current positions.

[Holy shit, Xie Linchuan was drying Shen Xingcan's hair???]

[What do you mean, drying his hair? Xie Linchuan's hand isn't on Shen Xingcan's head. He just wants to dry his own hair.]

[Thirty minutes isn't exactly long, but it isn't short either. I absolutely refuse to believe the two of them didn't deliberately arrange this final scene.]

[You could tell at a glance that Shen Xingcan's sister-in-law obsession had flared up again. Sigh, I feel for Xie Linchuan's fans. Having a sister-in-law who loves flaunting their relationship every day must be a life without daylight.]

[I ship it so hard, I ship it so hard! Waaaaah, getting to dry your sweet, pretty wife's hair-you must be over the moon, you lucky bastard!]

[You ship this too? Even this? Can the shippers give it a rest? So annoying!]

[They clearly aren't touching at all. Can you stop making things up? If you really have that much time on your hands, go tile the Great Wall.]