Luo Huai went up to the second floor, paused for a moment at the top of the stairs, and then naturally turned toward the master bedroom.
He specifically headed to the bathroom in the master bedroom. Anyway, if Pei Jiheng asked, he would just say he was familiar with it. Besides, he had only been in there this morning, so this excuse was completely solid.
The bathroom lights were sensor-activated. As he pushed the door open, warm yellow light strips lit up along the edges of the ceiling, making the entire space look transparent and soft.
Luo Huai took off his soaked clothes, stuffed them into the dryer, set the timer, and then glanced at himself in the mirror. The tip of his nose was a little red from the cold.
He honestly took a hot shower.
He adjusted the water temperature to be a bit higher than usual. As the hot water poured down from head to toe, Luo Huai stood beneath the showerhead and squeezed some of Pei Jiheng’s body wash from the shelf. The faint fragrance gathered in his palm, and his flush deepened a fraction.
After washing up, Luo Huai wrapped himself in a bath towel and blew-dried his hair until it stopped dripping. He glanced at the dryer, the machine was still running, the drum humming as it turned, and the clothes inside would need a few more minutes to dry.
He looked back at the bathroom door, then walked out wrapped in the towel. Scanning the room, his gaze settled on the wardrobe.
Luo Huai stood before the wardrobe, hesitating for a moment.
Humph, I will let you glare at me. Let us see what kind of reaction you have later.
Then, making up his mind like a thief, he pulled a white shirt out from inside.
The fabric was top-quality Egyptian cotton, soft and delicate to the touch, carrying the faint scent of residual detergent, the exact same scent on Pei Jiheng.
Luo Huai sneaked a glance at the doorway, gritted his teeth, and slipped the shirt on.
Unsurprisingly, the clothes were far too large.
The shoulder seams slumped down to his upper arms, the collar hung loosely below his collarbone, and the hem barely covered the tops of his thighs.
He lowered his head to look at his appearance. The tips of his ears felt a little hot, but he still bit the bullet and buttoned up a few buttons, leaving the very top one undone to reveal his collarbone and the hollow of his neck.
When he lowered his arms, the sleeves extended past his wrists, covering half of his fingers. Finding it troublesome, Luo Huai very naturally rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, exposing his forearms.
Just as he was rolling them up, he suddenly heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
Luo Huai’s movements froze. He looked down at his half-rolled sleeves and quickly reacted, rolling the sleeves back down to restore them to the state where they extended past his fingers.
Well, this look is still much softer and cuter.
Adjusting his expression, he retreated to the foot of the bed and waited.
The door was pushed open promptly.
Pei Jiheng stood in the doorway, one hand still resting on the doorknob while the other was tucked into his trouser pocket. He had already taken off his trench coat, underneath was a black shirt, the exact same style as the one Luo Huai was currently wearing.
Seeing Luo Huai’s appearance, his face did not show a very surprised expression, but his pupils contracted slightly.
His gaze swept downward from Luo Huai’s innocent face, grazing past his neck and collarbone, and finally landing on the obviously oversized white shirt.
Then, it landed on the bare legs beneath the shirt.
To be fair, Luo Huai’s legs were indeed well-formed, straight, naturally fair-skinned, and flushed pink at the knees from the hot shower. Muscle lines were faintly visible along the sides of his thighs and calves, possessing a youthful beauty without losing that certain edge.
Pei Jiheng’s Adam’s apple ultimately rolled heavily without warning.
Luo Huai blinked his eyes, his voice soft and sweet: “Uncle, your clothes are so big.”
His complexion was steamed rosy by the heat, and though his hair was blown dry, it still retained a trace of moisture, making him look very soft. That was secondary, however, primarily, this outfit was simply.
Pei Jiheng withdrew his roaming gaze and raised an eyebrow.
“Who told you to wear it?” His voice was even lower than it had been downstairs, resembling a cello and causing Luo Huai’s brain to feel a sort of reverberation, unconsciously making him feel a bit floaty.
Luo Huai steadied his composure.
I am the master teasing him, I must not let the roles reverse!
Luo Huai blinked innocently: “The dryer is not done yet, I was cold, so I just put it on for a bit. Is that not allowed?”
As his voice trailed off, Pei Jiheng let out a nasal hum.
A hum that made Luo Huai’s heart itch with unease.
The next second, Pei Jiheng stepped into the room and began walking toward him.
His pace was not fast, but Luo Huai felt an invisible pressure closing in, as if even though the man was still by the door, that oppressive aura had already arrived ahead of him.
Luo Huai suddenly felt like he had played this trick a bit too far, and he instinctively took a step back.
Yet Pei Jiheng did not stop, continuing his advance.
Luo Huai took another step back.
Pei Jiheng kept walking.
The back of Luo Huai’s knees hit the edge of the bed. He tilted backward, falling onto the soft mattress, and immediately propped himself up with his elbows. However, the hem of the shirt inevitably rode up, exposing his fair upper thighs, and the edge of Luo Huai’s white briefs was completely impossible to hide anymore.
Pei Jiheng came to a halt right in front of him, looking down at him from above.
“There are three bedrooms on the second floor, each with its own independent bathroom, and besides those, there is a guest bathroom right when you come upstairs. How is it that our little Huai so precisely walked into my bedroom, hmm?”
Luo Huai was beginning to notice a pattern, whenever this guy used this tone of speech, he would deliberately slow down his speech rate, as if he were genuinely expressing confusion in his words. In reality, oh, he looked ready to push a person into a corner with no retreat left.
“I…”
Before Luo Huai could pull out that absurd, entirely unconvincing excuse, a hand suddenly pressed onto the bedsheet beside him, cutting off his words.
A surge of heat approached him with unexpected momentum, and Pei Jiheng had already leaned in slightly.
The distance between the two of them instantly became very close.
So close that Luo Huai could clearly see his own reflection in the lenses of Pei Jiheng’s glasses, causing his breathing to skip a beat.
Luo Huai couldn’t say anything, so he shrank back as much as possible, supporting himself with his hands behind him as he leaned back against the bed, raising his chin slightly to expose that large expanse of empty skin between his collarbone and the collar of the white shirt.
“Un, Uncle…” His voice drifted a bit. “I just borrowed a shirt to wear, you, you do not have to be like this, right?”
Pei Jiheng looked at him with dark eyes, refusing to speak.
His gaze was intensely close, locked firmly onto Luo Huai’s eyes, and then he reached out.
Thinking he was about to hit him, Luo Huai shrank his neck back.
However, Pei Jiheng’s fingers merely brushed along Luo Huai’s jawline, grazed past his collarbone, and lingered all the way to the shirt originally belonging to him, hooking onto the unbuttoned button.
His fingertips were slightly cool, yet the places they touched grew burning hot.
Luo Huai looked down and felt a wave of shame as he realized the most private part of his chest was already half-exposed to view. He didn’t know if Pei Jiheng could see that hint of pink, but he could see it clearly! So, his heart was left hanging in the balance.
Pei Jiheng pinched that button between his fingertips, neither fastening it nor letting go, just playing with it.
Luo Huai’s breathing was completely disrupted.
He could feel very clearly that the patch of skin on his collarbone was heating up at an abnormal rate, burning him until his entire body began to grow weak.
Deciding to plead for mercy, Luo Huai put on a wronged expression as moisture began to gather in the corners of his eyes.
Though not entirely an act, he admitted he was genuinely panicking.
“Uncle…”