Rainwater dripped from her pleated skirt onto the floor, quickly forming a small puddle.
"Achoo—"
Lin Xi hugged her arms, pursing her lips as she looked at the cramped apartment and the tiny sofa. Leaving now was clearly out of the question; the rain outside showed no signs of stopping, and she had nowhere else to go. Was she supposed to end up on the streets?
Stay, then.
She glanced at the closed bedroom door. It seemed all right to spend the night here; he seemed like quite the gentleman, she thought.
At worst, she just wouldn't fall into a deep sleep. Yes, that was the plan.
Just then, the bedroom door suddenly opened, and Xue Yang stepped out. Their eyes met. Lin Xi was startled and immediately pulled her collar tight.
Xue Yang averted his gaze and gave a light cough. "If you don't mind, I'll shower first. I’ll be quick."
"Oh."
Lin Xi stepped aside to let him pass. Xue Yang ducked into the bathroom and took a hot shower with the speed of a man on a mission.
"You should go ahead and shower, too. You don't want to catch a cold." He paused, then added, "I won't come out of my room again tonight."
With that, he closed the door again, leaving no room for a reply.
"Hey—"
Staring at the closed door, Lin Xi felt a moment of contemplation. He really was a gentleman, even going out of his way to tell her he wouldn't come out.
"Who knows if he was just saying that on purpose?" she muttered. "Whatever. I might as well stay the night."
With that thought, she picked up her clothes and went to the bathroom.
Xue Yang sat on his bed and pulled back the curtain to look out the window. A sea of lights flickered in the city, with endless streams of traffic, yet none of those lights belonged to him, and not a single car was his.
His mood was at an absolute low point.
And yet, despite his own life being a total mess, he still found the headspace to help someone else. He didn't know what had come over him.
Yanbei University was the pinnacle of every student's dreams. Everyone who came there arrived with aspirations. Before this, Xue Yang had never dared to imagine that he would one day be accepted.
His grades had once been, quite frankly, atrocious.
In short, he had been the school’s black sheep, a troublemaker, a complete disaster, a total deadweight.
No one had expected that a deadweight like him would end up at Yanbei, a fact that had left everyone’s jaws on the floor.
He once thought that this was the magic of love, and that Chen Ying was the noble soul who had given him infinite motivation.
They say that even the finest vows cannot compare to two identical acceptance letters.
At the time, when he had joyfully brought his Yanbei acceptance letter to Chen Ying, she hadn't even glanced at it before ushering him out the door. Back then, he had assumed she was just being shy and hadn't thought much of it.
Everyone told him that since Xue Yang had gotten into Yanbei—the same university as Chen Ying—he was sure to win her over this time. Xue Yang had thought so too. So, just as military training ended, he set up a massive display of candles in the shape of a heart beneath her dormitory building to confess his feelings.
The result was no surprise. He was rejected, and she had said some truly cruel things to him.
"Get out of my sight."
...
The sound of the shower in the bathroom had stopped. Xue Yang guessed she was finished, so he rubbed his hair dry and lay down on the bed.
He had expected to be unable to sleep, but he ended up drifting off until dawn.
The next morning, Xue Yang woke up on time. He opened the bedroom door, but Lin Xi was still asleep.
She was wearing his white T-shirt. The sight of her in her sleep caught Xue Yang by surprise.
Two strands of hair fell naturally onto the floor, catching the light with a lustrous sheen.
Because she was asleep, her cheeks were flushed a soft pink. Previously, he hadn't been able to see her face clearly through her mask, but it had been tossed into the trash bin, revealing a beauty that was truly breathtaking.
Her naturally curled, long lashes fluttered slightly. Her lips were like cherries, her skin like fine jade. It was such a picture of a sleeping beauty that one couldn't bear to look away.
The broom she was clutching in her arms spoiled the aesthetic slightly, but not enough to ruin it.
Lin Xi's small frame was dwarfed by his oversized T-shirt, making her look petite, yet where curves were concerned, she was anything but small. Her long, beautiful legs were crossed naturally on the sofa.
Seeing such a sight early in the morning sent a strange sensation straight to his head. Xue Yang quickly looked away.
His former school had plenty of beauties, but not one of them was like this girl—just lying there, she was enough to stir a man's imagination.
She possessed a naive, clumsy charm, and within that clumsy charm was a hidden grace, yet it was all layered with an unmistakable sense of cold indifference and pride.
She was like a prized flower fallen into the common world; even in the middle of a slum, one could see at a glance that she was extraordinary.
"What kind of treasure of a girl have I brought home?" Xue Yang couldn't help but mutter to himself.
But it didn't matter anymore. They would be going their separate ways today, with no possibility of ever meeting again.
Lin Xi sensed someone watching her and suddenly opened her eyes. She instinctively pulled her collar up and looked at Xue Yang with wariness. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Damn it!
How could she have fallen into such a deep sleep in a stranger's home?
Lin Xi regretted it deeply. She had promised herself last night not to fall into a deep sleep. If he had tried to pull something, she wouldn't have been able to react in time. She gripped the broom tighter, thinking that if he dared to come closer, she would hit him with the handle and make a run for it.
"Sorry. I just didn't realize you were quite so pretty."
"I was already pretty. You’re not allowed to look anymore! Stop looking!"
Xue Yang pulled his gaze away and took a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket. "This is all I can give you. Take it for your cab fare and head home. You've been gone all night; your family must be worried."
Lin Xi felt a bit awkward. Had she really judged a gentleman by the measure of a villain? She tried to get up, but the sofa had been so uncomfortable that her entire body ached as if she'd been beaten, and she couldn't stand up right away.
Growing up, she had always had the best of everything, never having suffered like this. Everywhere she went, she was treated like a star.
Yet here, he had left her to spend the night on a cramped sofa.
She wanted to complain, but then she remembered they were just strangers passing through. Him taking her in at all was already generous, especially considering how she had misjudged him.
"Thank you."
When she was lying down, it hadn't been obvious, but as Lin Xi stood up, the oversized T-shirt revealed her long, shapely legs. The exquisite line of her legs as she walked offered endless room for imagination—a sight he had only ever seen in manga, never believing it could exist in real life.
The girl before him was truly a stunner.