The study door was left ajar.
Chu Yanyan pushed it open gently and stepped inside.
Bai Zhiyuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to her.
He had just showered, wearing a dark gray bathrobe with the belt hanging loosely at his waist, outlining broad shoulders and a narrow waist.
The tips of his hair were slightly damp, a few loose strands falling over his forehead, water droplets sliding down his neck and disappearing into the collar of his robe.
A faint scent of body wash lingered in the air—crisp and gentle, like a forest after rain.
Chu Yanyan stood at the door, her head starting to spin.
Damn.
A body that good? This was pure seduction.
Bai Zhiyuan turned around, saw her, and with an unchanged expression pulled out a chair beside the desk.
“Come in. Sit.”
Chu Yanyan obediently walked over and sat down, her gaze landing on the large mahogany desk.
Several neat stacks of books sat on it, each stack thick as a brick.
The spines were printed with all kinds of specialized subject names—some familiar, some not.
“These are the courses you’re failing. I’ll help you review them one by one.”
Her mouth fell slightly open. She pointed at the stacks of books and asked in disbelief, “That many subjects—you know all of them?”
Bai Zhiyuan sat down across from her, his slender fingers flipping open the cover of the topmost book.
“In school, I got full marks in every subject. Even if it’s not my major, a few days of reading is enough to ace it.”
Chu Yanyan’s eyes went wide.
Holy crap.
This was the ultimate daddy-tier academic god.
Rich, handsome, brilliant, mature, emotionally stable.
No wonder she used to be so hopelessly obsessed with him.
She took a deep breath and dragged the chemistry textbook in front of her toward herself.
Flipping it open to the first page with a flourish, she declared with conviction, “Then let’s get started! I can definitely learn this!”
Bai Zhiyuan glanced at her and said nothing.
He got up, took a notebook and a few pens from the bookshelf, and set them beside her hand.
“Start from Chapter One. Read the definitions first, then do the worked examples.”
“Okay!”
Chu Yanyan lowered her head, staring at the dense formulas and symbols on the page, her eyes sweeping from left to right, then right to left.
Five minutes passed.
Her eyes began to glaze over, her pupils losing focus.
Without her noticing, her gaze drifted up from the textbook and landed on the man across from her.
Bai Zhiyuan had his head slightly lowered, explaining the problem earnestly, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with each subtle swallow.
So big.
So prominent.
So sexy.
Her gaze stuck to that Adam’s apple, unable to peel away.
The words from her diary began surfacing in her mind, uncontrollably.
I want to plant a hundred hickeys on his Adam’s apple.
His secondary characteristics are that impressive…
His primary ones must be pretty great too.
Once she actually won him over, she wondered if she could even handle it.
At that thought, she pressed her lips together and snickered.
Two patches of red bloomed on her cheeks, her eyes hazy and dreamy, her thoughts drifting off to who-knows-where.
Smack.
A pen tapped her on the head—not too hard, not too soft.
Bai Zhiyuan’s face was right in front of her, brows slightly furrowed, his expression as stern as a middle school dean’s.
“Focus.”
Chu Yanyan winced at the sting, covering the spot with both hands, her mouth drooping into an expression of utter grievance.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to focus—she genuinely couldn’t understand it!
Those formulas and symbols looked like gibberish to her. She recognized every character, but strung together, she had no idea what they meant.
She had no idea how that rotten past-Yanyan had ever built her foundations.
With foundations this bad, did you learn with your feet?
Bai Zhiyuan looked at her expression and fell silent for two seconds.
Her eyes were brimming with grievance and confusion, her lips slightly pouting.
He set down his pen, his slender fingers closing the book in front of him, and softened his tone.
“Never mind. Let’s take a break.”
Chu Yanyan’s eyes lit up instantly.
“Yay!”
The little face that had been so aggrieved just moments ago bloomed into a smile.
She leaned back against the chair, her two dangling feet swinging happily in the air.
Bai Zhiyuan glanced at her, said nothing, and rose to leave the study.
He came to the garden.
Standing beside the rose bushes, he lit a cigarette.
The flame flickered in the darkness of night. He tilted his head back slightly and exhaled a thin wisp of smoke.
The evening breeze blew past, scattering the smoke and drying the last traces of moisture from the tips of his hair.
He leaned against a corridor pillar, slender fingers holding the cigarette.
His gaze rested on the dark skyline in the distance, lost in thought.
When the cigarette burned out, he didn’t go back inside right away.
He pulled a small bottle of odor-removing spray from his pocket and spritzed it a few times on the front of his clothes and his sleeves.
Then he lowered his head and sniffed, confirming there was no smell of smoke, before turning and walking back into the house.
He couldn’t let the smell reach Yanyan.
He pushed open the study door. Chu Yanyan was slumped over the desk, fast asleep.
The chemistry textbook still lay open in front of her at some page.
Her face was pillowed on her folded arms, half of it buried in the crook of her elbow, her mouth slightly open, her breathing even and long.
Bai Zhiyuan stepped closer, his gaze falling on that utterly unguarded sleeping face.
There was a glistening bit of drool at the corner of her mouth, trickling down toward her chin.
She was drooling.
Bai Zhiyuan froze for a moment.
A smile spread across his lips.
On that face that was always cold and restrained, the hard lines suddenly softened.
He watched her for a few seconds, then bent down, slipping one arm under the backs of her knees and supporting her back with the other, carefully lifting her from the chair.
Her head naturally nestled into the hollow of his shoulder, her weight feather-light.
She mumbled something indistinct and burrowed a little deeper into his arms.
Bai Zhiyuan carried her into the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed, the back of her head sinking into the soft pillow.
The covers were turned back; he pulled them over her and tucked in the edges.
She slept deeply, her lashes like two little fans resting quietly beneath her eyes.
Faint red marks from pressing against the desk still lingered on her cheek.
Bai Zhiyuan stood by the bed, looking down at her.
His left hand lifted slightly, fingertips almost touching the stray lock of hair that had fallen across her face.
He stopped.
His fingers hung in midair, just centimeters from her face.
The air was so quiet that only her soft breathing could be heard.
A few seconds later, he withdrew his hand, slipping it into the pocket of his bathrobe, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment.
Then he turned and gently closed the door.