Chapter 32

“What is it?” Su Ci asked from the doorway.

“There’s no hot water,” Yan Can said.

She tried again the way Su Ci had taught her earlier. The water started running once more, but after waiting a while, it was still cold. “Did the gas run out?”

“Wait a moment.” Su Ci went to the kitchen and quickly came back. “There’s gas.”

“Then why isn’t there…” Yan Can muttered. Then she heard Su Ci say, “Try it again.”

Yan Can did as Su Ci said, turning it on and off again, but there was still no hot water.

Just as a trace of irritation rose in her chest, she suddenly heard Su Ci say, “I’ll come in and take a look.”

Yan Can lowered her head and glanced at herself, not a stitch on: “Wait.”

A rustling sound came from behind the door.

The bathroom door was frosted glass; faintly, she could see the figure inside shift to the side. Then the door opened, first a sliver, then slowly halfway.

A fluffy head poked out from behind the door. “You can come in now.”

Su Ci walked in without even glancing aside.

The bathroom floor was wet, and there wasn’t a hint of warmth in the air.

Yan Can hid half her body behind the door and watched Su Ci twist the showerhead open. Su Ci didn’t know anything about repairs, but she still managed to figure out where the problem was: the inlet hose inside was clogged.

After twisting the showerhead back on, hot water finally came out.

When Su Ci finished, she turned her head. Her gaze still didn’t stray, but she still accidentally caught sight of Yan Can’s exposed body.

Her shoulders and neck were beautifully shaped, her skin delicate and flawless; she was the kind of young lady only a life of luxury and indulgence could have nurtured.

Su Ci quickly looked away and stepped out, gently pulling the door shut behind her.

Yan Can hadn’t washed her hair, so she was out in less than ten minutes.

The door opened, and a rush of humid heat carrying the scent of shower gel spilled out, brushing past Su Ci’s nose.

“I’m done,” Yan Can said.

Su Ci lifted her eyes. Her gaze traveled upward from the other girl’s pink toes, swept over her fair, slender calves like running water, and landed on her flushed cheeks.

Fresh from the bath, Yan Can’s eyelashes were still beaded with water. The droplets trembled free with the flutter of her lashes, falling into the collar of her clothes and sliding over her exquisite collarbones before disappearing into the unseen valley below.

Yan Can looked at her with wet eyes and smiled.

Su Ci put away her phone, straightened up, and said, “Then go back to your room and rest first. I’ll come over after I’m done.”

As she spoke, she picked up the washbasin that had been set aside long ago; her change of clothes was already inside. Yan Can nodded. After watching her go in and the door close, she headed back to the bedroom.

On the way through the living room, Yan Can greeted Wei Li and sweetly called her Auntie. Wei Li smiled and, seeing that she’d finished showering, told her to go back and get some rest early.

Yan Can had napped in Su Ci’s room with Su Ci at noon before; there was a faint, clean scent of laundry detergent in the air. The pillow was soft; when she pressed her cheek into it, it sank in slightly. Her nose caught a faint cool fragrance, Su Ci’s scent, which somehow made people feel at ease.

Yan Can lay there for a while when her phone rang. Picking it up, she saw it was her cheap dad calling.

She was a little surprised, unconsciously frowning. Besides the first few days after her accident, her cheap dad rarely contacted her on his own.

After all, how could someone managing such a huge group possibly have time to worry about a daughter like her?

With suspicion, Yan Can answered. On the other end, her cheap dad was at the airport; she could hear the sounds of boarding through the receiver.

“I happen to have a project to handle back home. Let’s have a meal together tomorrow.”

He spoke as if issuing an order. Without waiting for her reaction, he immediately hung up.

At the same time, her phone received the flight information he’d sent.

Yan Can was a little unsure; was her cheap dad trying to have her pick him up?

Secretary Cen quickly confirmed that guess.

She sent a message: Miss, Chairman Yan has returned to the country. He’ll arrive at XX International Airport at nine tomorrow morning. I’ll drive over to pick you up tomorrow.

Fine; that was indeed what he meant.

Yan Can sent her cheap dad an OK emoji, then sent Secretary Cen an address and told her to pick her up there tomorrow.

After sending those messages, she saw an @ mention in the group chat with Zhang Ru and Yu Ting, so she clicked in to take a look. Nothing needed an especially serious reply. There were more than twenty messages in all; Zhang Ru had just been sending goofy stickers and @ing her, asking why she wasn’t saying anything and whether she really liked lurking that much.

Yan Can couldn’t be bothered to reply. She knew that with Zhang Ru’s personality, once she answered, it wouldn’t stop after one or two lines.

The heavy rain outside still hadn’t stopped, and weather alerts kept popping up on her phone one after another. She checked the forecast again; the rain would continue until midnight and wouldn’t stop until the next day.

Su Ci was still in the shower and hadn’t come in yet. Yan Can couldn’t get into studying, so she played Candy Crush on her phone instead.

It was only after an hour had passed that Su Ci still hadn’t come in. Yan Can leaned in and listened carefully toward the bathroom; she could still hear water.

Why was she taking so long?

Yan Can was almost tempted to go check, but she held back. This was someone else’s home, and the aunt was still here too; it wouldn’t be appropriate to run to the bathroom and hurry her along, so she forced herself to endure it.

In the bathroom, Su Ci finished showering and even washed her clothes while she was at it. Halfway through, she noticed the clothes Yan Can had changed out of piled in a basin in the corner. After hesitating for a moment, she washed those too.

After Su Ci finished washing everything and took it out to dry on the small balcony, she finally returned to the room.

Seeing her come back at last, Yan Can couldn’t help asking, “Why did it take so long?”

She hadn’t even seen Su Ci wash her hair; her hair was dry, only the bangs at the front were damp and stuck to the sides of her fair cheeks.

Su Ci walked to the bedside, took a sip of water, and then said, “I washed clothes.”

Yan Can said oh and got out of bed to use the bathroom. When she came back, her face was a little red. Standing in the doorway, she asked Su Ci, “You washed my clothes?”

Su Ci was already lying down. Hearing that, she gave a quiet mm-hm.

Blushing, Yan Can awkwardly climbed onto the bed and knelt beside her, lowering her voice as if afraid someone might hear: “By hand?”

She hadn’t seen a washing machine in Su Ci’s house; it was obviously hand-washed.

Su Ci opened her eyes and turned to look at her. “Your hands weren’t free.”

It was considerate, but Yan Can still felt a little embarrassed.

Aside from when she was very, very little and her mom washed her underwear and panties for her, no one had ever washed them for her again.

Seeing the blush spreading over her face and neck, Su Ci sat up and looked at her with a pair of light brown almond eyes. “We’re both girls; what’s the big deal?”

Meaning she was making a fuss over nothing?

Yan Can blinked twice, a little startled by Su Ci’s line of reasoning.

But on second thought, Su Ci did seem rather unconcerned about such things.

Whether it was kissing, or helping her wash her underclothes.

It all seemed so natural.

Could it be that she had done these things to other people before?

Thinking of that, her chest felt stuffy.

Not long after, the sound of the shower came from the bathroom again. About ten minutes later, it stopped.

Five minutes after that, footsteps passed by their bedroom door; after a while, the living room lights also went out.

Yan Can glanced at the person beside her. Seeing that Su Ci had closed her eyes, she very sensibly turned off the light.

There was no window in the bedroom, so not a trace of light could get in. The moment the lamp went out, everything sank into pitch-black darkness.

After lying down, Yan Can didn’t close her eyes right away. She turned over in the dark, facing Su Ci’s direction.

Once her eyes adjusted, she could make out the outline of the other girl, but not her face or expression.

At the tip of her nose was Su Ci’s pleasant scent, with a hint of shampoo and body wash, but beneath it there was also a faint natural fragrance that belonged only to her.

This time Yan Can was staying the night at her place, so she had taken a look at the toiletries in Su Ci’s bathroom. Just like the link Su Ci had sent her last time, this person really didn’t use any body lotion at all.

There was none in the bathroom; the bedroom was even simpler. Aside from a bed, a simple wardrobe, and an old bedside table with a bottle of water and a few extracurricular books on it, there was nothing to use on her face, let alone lip balm, lotion, or anything like that.

She was just naturally beautiful.

The room was very quiet. She could hear the storm outside easing up a lot. Letting out a yawn, she was just about to turn over when the person beside her moved first. The distance between them suddenly narrowed, and Yan Can’s heart gave a hard leap.

Before she could settle herself, warmth suddenly covered her chest, and her body stiffened at once; even her breathing stopped.

The person beside her was probably asleep and had taken her for a pillow or a stuffed toy, letting a hand slowly circle and rub at the center of her chest.

A prickling numbness spread from that spot instantly throughout her body.

Yan Can nearly couldn’t bear it and almost cried out. She bit down hard on her lower lip, doing everything she could to keep that shameful sound from slipping out between her teeth.

Fortunately, Su Ci didn’t treat her like a human pillow for very long.

Just as Yan Can felt the movement stop and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, that hand slipped into the gap between the buttons of her pajama top.

Caught off guard by the sudden touch against soft flesh, Yan Can couldn’t hold back a soft, shaky sound.

Realizing she’d made such a strange noise, she immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. Feeling that hand still behaving wickedly, she instinctively grabbed hold of it.

Yan Can’s breathing was ragged. She tilted her head to look at Su Ci; the two of them were face-to-face, and the other girl’s long, steady breaths brushed over Yan Can’s face, ticklish and warm.

Compared to the itch on her face, Yan Can found that her heart was even itchier, as if ten thousand ants were gnawing at it.

She suddenly wanted to kiss her mouth again.

Kissing should be fine, right…

Clutching Su Ci’s wrist, she pressed her forehead against Su Ci’s and leaned in with her lips. She missed slightly, landing at the corner of Su Ci’s mouth.

With her eyes closed, she let her lips slowly wander over the area around Su Ci’s mouth before finally pressing against her lips.

No matter how many times, it was still just as sweet.

Anyway, Su Ci had said before that kissing between girls wasn’t a big deal.

Besides, this wasn’t the first or second time for them.

Thinking that way, she felt no psychological burden at all as she pried open the other girl’s lips and pushed her soft tongue inside.

She had thought the person asleep would definitely struggle, but unexpectedly, when she probed in, the other girl slightly parted her lips. Yan Can froze for a moment, but didn’t think much of it; she just held onto her wrist and tangled with her like that…

Until she fell asleep…

Early the next morning, when Yan Can woke up, there was already no one beside her.

The sound of the wind and rain outside had stopped, and the whole house was quiet.

She blinked, and after a moment of gathering herself, she thought about last night and couldn’t help rolling around on the bed several times.

Su Ci, hearing the movement outside, pushed the door open and came in, asking her, “Are dumplings okay for breakfast?”

Yan Can could barely hold back her smile; she waved at Su Ci, signaling her to come over.

Su Ci frowned, but still walked over as told. Yan Can patted the side of the bed, indicating that she should sit down and talk.

Su Ci sat down and asked with a frown, “What is it?”

Thinking of last night, Yan Can was still a little embarrassed, but she said it anyway: “You touched me last night.”

The room hadn’t had the light on, so it was a little dim. Yan Can couldn’t make out her expression and continued, “Just… rubbed there.”

She glanced at that spot.

“Oh.” Su Ci said calmly, “Then do you want me to rub you back?”

Yan Can’s eyes widened. She blinked several times before confirming Su Ci was serious.

Was this person always this direct?

Seeing her not respond, Su Ci said, “Are you getting up or not? If not, get up and brush your teeth, wash your face, and eat breakfast.”

She stood up and was about to leave.

Yan Can grabbed her at once.

Su Ci turned back. Yan Can said softly, “I want to… touch back.”