Chapter 12

“It’s... it’s okay.”

Jiang Chao coughed softly and did her best to keep her expression steady, hoping Sheng Huaixi wouldn’t notice anything strange.

Sheng Huaixi let out a regretful sigh, her voice carrying a teasing lilt. “Is that so? I thought if someone touched me twice, it meant they liked it a lot. So it was just okay, hmm?”

So Sheng Huaixi really had noticed that little move just now!

The hot, steamy mist drifting before Jiang Chao’s eyes seemed almost tangible, as if it could scald someone from the inside out. Her face burned. Her wrist, still moving downward, couldn’t help trembling.

Jiang Chao decided silence was the best answer.

What put her a little at ease was that Sheng Huaixi, unusually, showed a bit of consideration at that moment and happened to stay quiet as well.

Only, as Jiang Chao kept washing her wrist, Sheng Huaixi would occasionally let out a muffled groan from the back of her throat, languid and feminine, low and husky.

It left Jiang Chao flushed all the way to her ears, wanting to suppress it but unable to.

Mostly because every thought that flashed through her mind was one of those embarrassingly setting-appropriate things that made people blush.

The skin beneath her hand was smooth and slick; the muffled sounds from the woman’s throat occasionally brushed against her ears, as if they were being drawn out by her movements...

The heat in the bathroom spread unchecked. Blindfolded, Jiang Chao felt as if her body were swaying and her mind had gone soft and hazy.

It was as if she were pinned beneath a scorching gaze. That gaze burned like fire, bright and searing, heating every blood vessel in her body until even her reason seemed to melt away.

The rippling water slid over her wrist; the waterline formed a boundary above and below. Jiang Chao shifted slightly downward, and the light before her eyes seemed to change with it, blurring into a dizzy haze.

Just as her ear twitched, Sheng Huaixi asked in a hoarse voice, “Done?”

Jiang Chao subconsciously nodded. Still foggy-headed, she stood and turned around without thinking. She had only taken two steps when she slammed into the cabinet with a loud thud.

“Ack!” This time Jiang Chao was fully jolted awake.

“Are you all right?”

Water splashed near her ears; it seemed Sheng Huaixi had pushed herself up and stood from the bath. Jiang Chao quickly waved behind her. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Take it slow.”

Pulling off the blindfold, Jiang Chao was instantly wrapped in a thin veil of warm mist drifting all around them.

Holding her forehead where it hurt, Jiang Chao hurriedly opened the door and ran out, dragging a large cloud of steam with her.

Click, click—the door shut and locked behind her. The mist that had spilled out with Jiang Chao floated lazily through the air, mischievous and unhurried, watching with interest as the person crouched by the door panted for breath.

Jiang Chao covered her ears, her heartbeat pounding nonstop, violently out of sync beside them.

She was suffering from tinnitus.

A soundproof door separated the ringing in her ears and the muffled sounds inside from the world outside.

“Mm—”

Sheng Huaixi arched her neck in a graceful curve as she lifted her wrist from the water, her body leaning back languidly, wrist resting against the edge of the tub.

Crystal-clear, sticky liquid dripped from her pale fingertips, clinging between two knuckles in a broken thread that still refused to part completely.

Her left hand really wasn’t very convenient.

Sheng Huaixi narrowed her eyes and lazily glanced at the faintly trembling wrist, quietly savoring the afterglow as her body’s desire slowly settled.

Tiny currents of electricity slipped through the cracks between her unsatisfied bones, sharing as much of that pleasure as they could; soft, numb, and lingering.

Limp against the tub, her long black lashes trembling with moisture, Sheng Huaixi lightly licked her lips and stared at her still-shaking fingertips. Then she clicked her tongue softly.

Self-inflicted.

Failed seduction; desire tangled itself up.

*

“All right, the medicine’s on. When you sleep tonight, be careful not to bump it.”

Jiang Chao looked at the wrist she had carefully bandaged and, satisfied, set it down. Then she reminded Sheng Huaixi several more times, just to be safe.

Sheng Huaixi withdrew her wrist and looked at it, then nodded approvingly. “Have you thought about changing careers and becoming my private doctor? You’re very good at this.”

Jiang Chao refused without hesitation. “No way. I already said I’m loyal to Shengjing.”

Sheng Huaixi nodded knowingly and calmly changed her wording. “Then it seems you prefer the job of private assistant more.”

Jiang Chao thought about it and replied, “That’s true, if my boss could just do a little less of the kind of things that make my heart pound.”

That was Jiang Chao’s honest wish.

Leaving aside Sheng Huaixi’s occasional madwoman side, who wouldn’t like a boss who was beautiful, capable, and seemed protective of her own people?

And sometimes, Sheng Huaixi even had that mischievous habit of deliberately going against people, just like now.

“Then I’m afraid it really can only be if.”

Sheng Huaixi raised an eyebrow, pulled the blanket higher, and said softly, “Go back. Get some rest early.”

Jiang Chao nodded and looked around the room.

She placed Sheng Huaixi’s phone and water cup within reach of the outstretched wrist, then, still uneasy, gave one last reminder.

“If anything comes up, you have to call me.”

Sheng Huaixi’s lips pressed together slightly. Under Jiang Chao’s serious gaze, she nodded and gave a low “Mm.”

After that, the warm orange light in the room dimmed, and the dark, thick night fully settled in.

Exhausted from the whole day, Jiang Chao returned to her room, tidied up a little, and fell straight asleep. It was deep, blissful rest.

In the silent night, the clock standing off to the side ticked softly, recording the passage of time as it slowly moved toward midnight.

A quiet midnight.

The tightly shut bedroom door opened without a sound.

A tall woman walked in under the moonlight, noiseless and ghostlike, her eyes gleaming in the dark with an excitement that was almost frightening.

She approached, and her restless emotions finally found somewhere to land.

“Chaochao—”

“You’re finally sleeping in this bed, Chaochao.”

The woman’s voice was tender and obsessed, spreading dangerously through the muffled night, while in the depths of her fixed gaze, there was no longer a trace of concealment.