“I know. Jiang Wenzhe narrowed his eyes, sharp as an eagle’s, his voice deep and hoarse.
He took a new bottle of body wash from the cabinet, tore open the seal, and tapped the frosted glass door with his knuckles.
The sound of running water stopped abruptly.
As soon as the glass door was pushed open a crack, the heat from behind it seemed to take shape, seeping out mixed with dampness. The sticky steam washed over Jiang Wenzhe’s face, as if he were about to be pulled into the stifling heat behind the door.
The door opened wider, and Lin Sangyu’s head peeked out. Her face, as white and translucent as jade, was dotted with water droplets; her raven-feather-like eyelashes trembled slightly. Her rosy lips, steamed by the mist, looked like plump, juicy berries in the height of summer—ready to burst with juice at the slightest touch.
Immediately afterward, an arm as white as a lotus root reached out and grasped Jiang Wenzhe’s hand—the one holding the body wash. She flashed a radiant smile, revealing a few white teeth: “Thank you, Jiang Wenzhe.”
He saw it.
He saw a steamy droplet of water fall from her feathery lashes, plummeting straight onto her delicate, beautiful collarbone, gliding over her chest as it rose and fell with her breath, then slowly disappearing beneath it.
“Splash—” The door slammed shut again.
Jiang Wenzhe stood rooted to the spot, unable to move. The full-length mirror in the bathroom, shrouded in a haze of steam, reflected his tall, slender silhouette.
He covered his face with one hand, the skin behind his ears growing slightly warm.
He regretted it.
But then again, what had he done wrong?
Didn’t Lin Sangyu also knock on his door from time to time while he was showering?
All he was doing was returning the favor.
It was no big deal.
*
Lin Sangyu seized this opportunity to go viral and immediately put the theoretical knowledge she’d been studying for so long into practice.
Riding the wave of her sudden popularity, she posted a video of herself eating fried silkworm pupae. The camera angle was extremely unconventional—an exaggerated “mosquito’s-eye view.”
Lin Sanyu mounted the camera on top of her head, set it to a 0.5x wide-angle lens, and framed the shot so that the sugar glider and the food plate each occupied half the frame. This made her eyes appear especially large and the food particularly tempting.
Unsurprisingly, that video went a little viral; on the two platforms where she posted it, one broke 500,000 likes and the other broke 690,000 likes.
The comments section was also buzzing with activity.
[Who knew there were such cute pets to keep at home?]
[Is this the sugar glider that helped with the marriage proposal? It looks even cuter from this angle.]
[I can’t take it anymore—when I get home from work, I just need to watch cute little animals like this to heal my bitter, jaded heart.]
[Do you have a link for the fried silkworm pupae, host?]
[Does the host usually lock the door at home? If not, where’s the address?]
Lin Sangyu looked at the “99+” notifications flooding her backend and kept clicking in to enjoy the buzz.
Private messages in her backend were also gradually piling up, including quite a few from advertisers.
Lin Sangyu glanced at the products they wanted her to promote; she had never tried any of them, and an online search revealed that most of them didn’t even exist.
Although she really wanted to make money, she wasn’t about to take money for junk, so she politely prepared to turn them down one by one.
As she lay on the couch halfway through replying, she heard the sound of the door opening.
Lin Sangyu sat up immediately and called out to the dark silhouette at the door, “Jiang Wenzhe.”
Summer was in full swing. Jiang Wenzhe wore a finely tailored white shirt; on his bare arms, several prominent veins stood out. Aside from the watch on his wrist, he wore no other accessories—his appearance was clean and crisp.
He carried a white gift bag and walked steadily toward Lin Sangyu; the light cast strands of silvery shadows across his broad shoulders.
Lin Sangyu was sitting on the sofa. He approached and crouched beside her, taking her hand in his large, calloused palm.
He remained silent the entire time, his head slightly bowed as he quietly took a light blue bracelet from the gift box and carefully fastened it around she wrist.
From Lin Sangyu’s vantage point, she could see only his high, mountain-like nose and his thick eyelashes, which fluttered softly with each blink.
Noticing Jiang Wenzhe’s half-kneeling posture, Lin Sangyu’s mind went blank, and she suddenly had a nervous flashback to the scene two days earlier when Tang Lin had knelt to propose.
Without warning, blood rushed to her head, and her heartbeat quickened.
Only after fastening the bracelet did Jiang Wenzhe lift his head to meet Lin Sangyu’s gaze. His narrow, jet-black eyes seemed to possess a mesmerizing power that could easily draw one in, and he had a hoarse voice: “When I was at the mall today, I saw a bracelet. I thought it would suit you, so I bought it for you.”
Unable to hold his gaze any longer, Lin Sangyu hurriedly lowered her eyes to look at the bracelet. It was a simple yet elegant piece, perfectly in line with Jiang Wenzhe’s taste—adorned with a fishtail motif, its scales shimmering with a lustrous sheen as the light danced around her wrist.
“It’s really beautiful. I’ll wear it all the time,” Lin Sangyu said from the bottom of her heart as her fingertips traced the fishtail.
“If you like the bracelet, you can go shopping at the mall in the future and buy whatever you like—you don’t have to wear just this one all the time,” Jiang Wenze said. “But make sure to bring a bodyguard with you; don’t wander off on your own.”
“No need. I just like this one,” Lin Sangyu suddenly leaned back, her other hand immediately shielding the bracelet, as if Jiang Wenzhe were about to snatch it from her.
“Well, it’s up to you,” Jiang Wenzhe stood up and ruffled Lin Sangyu’s hair. “There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” Lin Sangyu looked up at him.
“I’m going on a business trip the day after tomorrow—to another place—and I won’t be coming home after that,” he said, enunciating each word clearly, his gaze fixed intently on Lin Sangyu’s face without giving anything away.
“What?!” A look of panic flashed across Lin Sangyu’s face as she asked, her voice trembling slightly, “How… how long will you be gone?”
Jiang Wenzhe took another big step back, looking as if he were about to leave, and left her with a casual remark: “I’m not sure—maybe half a month.”
“Half a month—that’s fifteen days, isn’t it?”
Fifteen days—doesn’t that mean 360 hours without seeing Jiang Wenzhe?
A wave of deep anxiety and despair crept up Lin Sangyu’s spine; she felt as if the air were filled with invisible spiderwebs.
It felt as though she were about to be murdered this summer.
Why did he have to leave her behind just to go on a business trip?
Her emotions were teetering on the brink of collapse. In a pleading tone, she said to Jiang Wenzhe, “Can’t you not go?”
“Please.”
“I have to go this time,” Jiang Wenze said, watching her anxious and flustered expression. The corners of his eyes turned up slightly, and a fierce determination churned in his gaze. “The new project is launching, and there are many events where I need to make an appearance.”
“Then can you take me with you? I’ll even fit in your suitcase.”
Jiang Wenzhe felt a sudden tightness in his chest as perverse, twisted, and repressed delusions filled his chest, while an obsessive longing raged wildly in his mind, nearly grinding his sanity to dust.
Lin Sangyu wrapped her arms around his waist, anxiously inhaling his scent, and said with a choked voice, “I won’t bother you.”
“Why do you want to come on this business trip with me?” Jiang Wenzhe raised his hand slightly and pinched her earlobe—round and petite—then flashed a smile that was almost eerie as he asked seductively.
The words “we’re about to part” that were on Jiang Wenzhe’s lips filled Lin Sangyu’s entire mind. Her chest ached as if it were being torn apart, and feelings of anxiety and fear tugged at her relentlessly. Before she even had time to think, she blurted out, “Because I don’t want to be apart from you.”
“Why don’t you want to be apart from me?” Jiang Wenzhe’s eyes darkened as he pressed further, determined to get to the bottom of it.
Why don’t I want to be apart from you?
Lin Sangyu froze, her lips parting in a daze. After a long moment, she finally replied, “I… I don’t know. I just feel like I need to be by your side.”
Jiang Wenzhe’s finger slid down from her earlobe; his long, slender hand rested lightly on Lin Sangyu’s delicate neck in a choking grip.
Lin Sangyu was forced to tilt her head back and look up at him.
The white light cast by the emotionless incandescent bulb made her face look deathly pale.
He could feel the pulse racing beneath her thin skin—a pulse driven by him.
Pathological attachment.
He had succeeded in creating it.[1]poor thing just got schemed against jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3193951_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3193951_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
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