Chapter 16

“Th-This..."

Gu Yanqiu looked at Lin Yuewei with a subtle expression.

Lin Yuewei spread her hands. "I’m not forcing you."

Gu Yanqiu pressed her lips together. "Okay."

This time, it was Lin Yuewei’s turn to be surprised. Her eyes darted away, and a sudden wave of regret hit her.

Gu Yanqiu looked at her. "When? Now?"

Gu Yanqiu recovered her composure very quickly; the flush behind her ears vanished without a trace, and she looked perfectly normal again.

Lin Yuewei stalled. "After I take a shower."

The two of them actually didn’t have much to say when they were together. Gu Yanqiu kept everything tucked away in her heart, while Lin Yuewei was the kind of person who would give back only what she was given; if you ignored her, she wouldn’t go out of her way to strike up conversation unless she had another reason.

She didn’t have much to gain from Gu Yanqiu. She had gotten a little just now, and she still felt uneasy about it.

Gu Yanqiu’s room only had one bed. The sofa was a single, but there was a lounge chair. Lin Yuewei watched as Gu Yanqiu tidied the room and took a quilt out of the wardrobe, laying it on the lounge chair.

Lin Yuewei: "..."

Gu Yanqiu methodically finished making up the bed she would sleep in tonight, then placed the pajamas she would wear on the bed. Lin Yuewei glanced over; they were long-sleeved, long pants, black silk, exactly the same style as the one she had worn in the wedding room.

Lin Yuewei knew there were people who were terrifyingly set in their routines, who would never take the initiative to change anything. It seemed Gu Yanqiu was one of them, unlike Lin Yuewei, who liked novelty and had all kinds of pajamas hanging in one wardrobe.

The problem was, Lin Yuewei had come without bringing pajamas. She rather wanted to see what kind Gu Yanqiu would prepare for her; whether it would be the same style as hers. If so, wouldn’t that make them couple pajamas?

Lin Yuewei glanced sideways, her calf giving a light bounce before she forced herself back into calm.

Then she saw Gu Yanqiu take out, from the very deepest part of the wardrobe, a set of cartoon pajamas that were completely unlike her usual style. From a quick glance, the pattern seemed to be MashiMaro. Lin Yuewei thought to herself: so she has two sides? One refined and abstinent, the other childish as hell.

"Miss Lin."

"Mm?" Lin Yuewei guessed what she meant and answered casually.

"Your mother said you like wearing this kind of thing at home. It’s already been washed; I bought it a long time ago. I wasn’t deliberately trying to please you," Gu Yanqiu said. "I don’t have any other intentions toward you."

The spell of "I don’t mean anything by it" had already been mostly digested by Lin Yuewei over the past few days. Hearing it again now gave her a splitting headache.

Lin Yuewei said, "Got it. The next time you say that, I’ll take it as meaning you do have intentions toward me." She was grinding her teeth in her heart; let’s see if you dare say that again.

Gu Yanqiu: "Huh?" Was she even allowed to force a sale like that?

Lin Yuewei glared. "What ‘huh’? Just remember it."

She found that Gu Yanqiu always had a way of making her lose control. She had never been this angry even with Jiang Congbi.

Gu Yanqiu: "Okay."

It was all small matters, nothing unbecoming; she would just follow Lin Yuewei’s lead.

At this point, Gu Yanqiu still did not know that their current way of getting along had already laid the groundwork for a long future.

Lin Yuewei shuffled over in her slippers and took the pajamas from Gu Yanqiu’s hands. "I’m going to shower first." The more she looked at Gu Yanqiu, the angrier she became; she was so angry it made her heart race.

After a few steps, Lin Yuewei suddenly turned back and said impatiently, "Why are you following me?"

"Do you know where everything is inside? I..." Gu Yanqiu had originally wanted to say that she would go inside and explain things more clearly, but Lin Yuewei cut her off. "I have eyes. I can look myself."

Gu Yanqiu thought, When did I annoy you again? But since Lin Yuewei said so, she readily accepted it and stopped in place, raising both hands to indicate that Lin Yuewei could do as she pleased.

Lin Yuewei shut the bathroom door.

Gu Yanqiu stood there for a while, looking at the shadow reflected on the bathroom door. She quickly flicked the Buddhist beads a couple of times, as if waking from a dream, then turned back to her desk.

Lin Yuewei took a little extra time and came out after a proper shower, drying her hair with a large towel. The MashiMaro pattern on the front of her pajamas was especially eye-catching; Gu Yanqiu’s gaze lingered on it for a moment, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly, before she nodded at Lin Yuewei and looked away.

Lin Yuewei heard her on the phone, switching between Chinese and English; her Chinese pronunciation was rounded and clear, and her English accent was very authentic. If Lin Yuewei heard anyone else talk like that, she would definitely curse them inwardly for showing off, but not Gu Yanqiu. It sounded very special. Lin Yuewei clicked her tongue inwardly; as expected, having a good voice mattered. Anything sounded pleasant when she said it.

Lin Yuewei wanted to blow-dry her hair. After thinking for a moment, she didn’t disturb Gu Yanqiu, who was on the phone, and opened the bedside drawer according to her experience. Sure enough, she found a hairdryer; there were other things inside too, but she didn’t look any further and only took out the hairdryer.

She didn’t rush to dry her hair. Instead, her eyes lowered slightly as she pretended to fuss with the power cord, while her ears pricked up, listening to Gu Yanqiu speak; listening to her intimate tone, to the corners of her mouth lifting from time to time. It probably wasn’t someone from business.

This person could also laugh so sincerely? For no reason at all, Lin Yuewei felt something she couldn’t name rise in her chest, leaving her uncomfortable.

"It’s not convenient. Someone’s here."

Lin Yuewei pouted in dissatisfaction: was she the someone? Her code name was just "someone"???

"Okay, okay, I’m perfectly fine. No need to come back to the country; even if you came back, you wouldn’t be able to help. Take care of your own matters and don’t worry about me."

"I’m hanging up. I’m going to shower; I’ll video call you when I’m free next time."

"Bye-bye."

Gu Yanqiu hung up and turned around. "Lin..."

Just then, Lin Yuewei turned on the hairdryer, and the buzzing roar drowned out her voice completely.

Gu Yanqiu: "..."

She didn’t know what mood she was in now. Perhaps she was just coincidentally blow-drying her hair. Whatever the reason, Gu Yanqiu had no grounds to demand an explanation, so she simply took her pajamas and went into the bathroom.

Lin Yuewei turned the hairdryer up to maximum and blew herself into a golden-haired lion.

Then Lin Yuewei suddenly realized something. Before this, she had been worrying all along that Gu Yanqiu might fall for her; she had never once considered whether the other woman already had someone in her heart. A twenty-five-year-old young lady studying abroad, with a face that was already so striking—if she had no past at all, that would be abnormal.

What if she had someone she liked? Even worse, what if she already had a lover?

Lin Yuewei’s thoughts drifted farther and farther off course without her meaning to; the more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and the more unsettled she felt. She was even shocked by her own inability to stop thinking about it. In the end, she forcefully rationalized it for herself: she was only thinking about these things because of what she had done these past few days. If it were true, wouldn’t she look like an idiot?

Hiss—

She sucked in a sharp breath; without paying attention, she had burned herself with the hot air and quickly moved the hairdryer away.

Gu Yanqiu took longer to shower than Lin Yuewei. After Lin Yuewei finished drying her hair, she lay on the bed and skipped through half an episode of a variety show on her iPad, then opened her memo and revised the notes inside.

An hour passed, and there was still no sound from the bathroom.

Lin Yuewei got out of bed, slipped her feet into her slippers, and slowly walked toward the bathroom door. Why hadn’t she called Gu Yanqiu’s name? Even she didn’t know; her first instinct was just to go and take a look.

The bathroom door was full of steam, hazy and indistinct. Lin Yuewei raised a hand; just as her fingers touched the door, it was pulled open from inside, and Gu Yanqiu, wrapped in lingering moisture, stood at the doorway with her long hair loose and wet.

The distance between them was less than twenty centimeters; their faces were even closer, close enough to see the fine down on each other’s skin clearly. From the outside, Gu Yanqiu and Lin Yuewei were about the same height, though Lin Yuewei was actually a little shorter.

Gu Yanqiu had inner double eyelids, which were only obvious when her eyes were lowered. Her lashes were thick, like natural eyeliner, revealing a kind of breathtaking beauty at its peak. The light was blocked by her curled lashes, casting a shadow over her eyes.

Neither of them moved back; they just looked at each other. Lin Yuewei met her gaze for two seconds, then let her eyes travel down the straight line of her nose and land on her lips, which were especially full and soft after the shower. She paused for a second, then continued downward.

Gu Yanqiu’s pajama collar was slightly open, revealing a collarbone that was flat, straight, and pale as white jade; it was like the tender green shoots that burst across the mountains in early spring, yet also like the thinnest layer of snow perched on the branches of a winter forest.

"Miss Lin?" Gu Yanqiu was the first to break the silence between them.

This wasn’t the first time Lin Yuewei had heard her call her that. Perhaps because of the atmosphere now, or perhaps because she had just finished showering, her voice sounded different from usual; it was extremely soft and clear, like a warm, ticklish breath right beneath her ear.

Lin Yuewei somehow lifted a hand and touched the back of her neck, feeling a prickling, greasy itch, a rising wave of it that started from the soles of her feet and climbed all the way up, making her extremely uncomfortable.

Instinctively sensing danger, Lin Yuewei almost fearfully took a step back. Fresh air rushed in from all around her nose, dispersing the agarwood scent that had nearly stolen her reason a moment ago.

Gu Yanqiu took a step forward, looking like she wasn’t about to let it go. She took Lin Yuewei’s hand and pressed it against the front of her collar.

"Miss Lin, what you said you wanted to do earlier; now you can."

The instant Lin Yuewei’s fingers touched that small patch of skin, it felt as if they had touched a red-hot iron; scorching. She stammered, "I-I-I..."

"Weren’t we agreed? Are you going back on your word?"

"No, I..."

Gu Yanqiu gently seized her wrist, tugged once, then pressed her against the wall beside them. Her eyes were tender and lingering as she looked down at her. Lin Yuewei’s gaze grew hazy; her smooth, jade-like face was tense enough to bead with sweat, and before her eyes there was only the flicker of those red lips.

Lin Yuewei swallowed and lifted her head to meet her...