Hot water soaked through his hair, droplets sliding down from his collarbone, across his chest, past his abdomen, before finally disappearing along the lines of his V.
Jian Yue gazed at the mirror fogged with steam, a thoughtful expression on his face. Then, in the quiet of the bathroom, he abruptly struck up a conversation with the system in his head.
“System, are you there?”
The system was silent for a long while.
So long that Jian Yue assumed it wasn’t there and was about to give up after one more attempt. But in the end, he finally received the system’s belated response.
【I’m here, Host.】
The voice sounded dry and flat, anyone who didn’t know better would think an AI had wandered out of somewhere.
Jian Yue’s expression turned odd, but the moment the system responded, he did the opposite of what one might expect, reminding it in his mind: ‘I almost thought you weren’t there, I was about to compliment you. Newcomer, my dear little comrade, I need some privacy.’
System: 【…】
Having been called out for no reason, the system, which had hastily switched and minimized its screen out of a sense that there were things one should not see was momentarily ‘stunned’ by its host’s train of thought. But now really wasn’t the time to explain, so the system cut its screen off quickly.
As for Jian Yue, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief inside.
No wonder he’d felt that creeping sensation of being watched, he thought.
No matter how carefree his personality was, he could never get used to having an audience while he showered. Still, since the newbie system didn’t have much awareness about such things, Jian Yue figured he could understand.
Before showering, he had tossed his change of clothes into the washing machine. So once he finished bathing, he used the time while the machine was still running to hand-wash his undergarments.
He planned to take the washed clothes to the paid dryer in the dormitory hallway in a bit.
There were separate dryers for underwear and regular clothes there, cleaned regularly by dedicated staff every day, far more efficient than leaving things to air-dry in the dorm for a whole day.
Granted, this habit was a bit extravagant, but there was simply nowhere in the dorm to hang clothes to dry. Besides, judging from the character he was playing in the script, the role likely had considerable pride. So even if he spent a little extra money on this, it probably wouldn’t be a problem.
As the sound of water in the bathroom faded completely, a faint, almost imperceptible scent of body wash drifted through the dormitory along with the sound of the opening door.
Though this might have been nothing more than an unintentional illusion on the part of someone paying close attention, the sight of that milk-white skin, still dewy with moisture and flushed pink beneath the fairness, made them less certain. Perhaps that fragrance, different from the body wash, was emanating from the person himself?
Thinking this, Mu Yansheng, who had been sitting at his desk all along, watched Jian Yue, who seemed to be preparing to go out, and frowned as he pressed: “Where are you running off to this late at night?”
The young man turned around, his freshly washed clothes draped over his wrist. He gave Mu Yansheng a somewhat puzzled and speechless look, but explained in reasonably good temper: “I’m going to dry my clothes.”
Mu Yansheng frowned.
Those deep black eyes fixed on the lingering flush that had not yet faded from the young man’s cheeks. In the end, he rose from his seat and said to Jian Yue, “I’ll come with you.”
Shen Yu, pulling off his headphones, watched Mu Yansheng get up and walk toward Jian Yue, and shrugged.
Then he softened his expression as he looked in Jian Yue’s direction.
“You’ve actually reminded me of something. In a few days there’s a holiday, and the school is planning to install some more appliances in the student dorms… So I’ll pass along the suggestion about adding a dryer as well.”
The young man standing beside Mu Yansheng, ready to leave, froze slightly at hearing this. He looked toward Shen Yu with what seemed like surprise, his eyes widening a little, meeting the gentle gaze of the man on the bed.
The latter was quite pleased to see that expression on the young man’s face. His caramel-colored, downcast eyes grew even softer, as if the very air had turned sweet. His handsome face wore a mild, warm look, as though he meant to drown someone in that pool of tenderness.
But the young man’s expression vanished in an instant. Shen Yu wasn’t sure whether he’d seen something more in that surprise… something like his heart being moved.
Still, he had enough patience, and enough confidence, to slowly seep into the young man’s life through details like these.
“Let’s go. Don’t just stand there.”
Whether intentionally or not, Mu Yansheng’s reminder from the doorway snapped the young man out of his daze. Before leaving, Jian Yue only glanced hurriedly at Shen Yu before following Mu Yansheng out of the dorm.
‘System, you heard what he just said, right?’
On his way to the dryer with his wet clothes, Jian Yue struck up a conversation with the system in his head.
The system, which had been kept completely in the dark after having its feed cut off and receiving no response from its host, only slowly restored the feed and explained when the host addressed it:
[My apologies, Host. I cut off the screen, so I don’t know what happened outside. You didn’t mention in your inner voice that I could restore it, so I didn’t hear what you’re referring to.]
Jian Yue fell silent for a moment at the system’s honest answer, then relayed what Shen Yu had said to him as he was about to leave.
The system pondered this and offered its analysis: [According to the formula, behavior like remembering details and offering help… is one of the signs of favorability. So, Host, you want to ask whether he actually has those kinds of feelings toward you?]
Jian Yue interrupted the system’s narration, somewhat speechless: ‘No, that’s not what I asked you to analyze.’
‘I mean the holiday. The holiday! There’ll be three days off, and the school is planning to install things or do construction on the dorms… Doesn’t that mean I’ll have to stay somewhere else?’
What a practical worry.
The system was rendered speechless.
But on second thought, the host’s concern did make sense. After all, prices and housing costs in City A were extremely high. If not for the subsidy Jian Yue received from the school, it really would be difficult to survive even three days in a big city like A.
Jian Yue could only cling to one last hope and ask the system: ‘How’s that favorability query request of yours going? Still being reviewed?’
The system checked the request and replied helplessly: [Yes, no results yet.]
Fine.
Given that this mission was doomed to fail anyway, Jian Yue decided that for these three days off, he was done diligently playing his assigned role. He had to find a way to shake off the people at this school, get somewhere without a mission target so the system could grant him a cheat, and exchange some money in this mission world to spend.