The two of them had no choice but to sneak back into Yun Shui's room, lock the door, and turn on the lights.
The lighting inside was soft. It was a one-bedroom layout, but the living room and kitchen were more spacious than the place Yun Shui had rented before. She had applied for a dormitory earlier but hadn't been selected in the lottery. Back then, this building had still been in its raw, unfinished state. Now that the renovation was complete, the capacity of the central district dormitories had surged—it was practically a small residential complex now.
"Sorry, General, I don't have proper slippers for you." Yun Shui found a pair of disposable paper slippers that she'd stuffed into her hiking backpack on some trip long ago. "Will these do for now?"
The Fleet Commander put them on with visible reluctance.
Some of the furniture was standard-issue. The refrigerator was small and squat, with a lidded rattan storage basket sitting on top.
By the window, a soft-looking rug was spread out, with a tiny wooden low table and a miniature tea set placed on it. The ceramic pieces were a brown-tea color, each teacup no bigger than a pinky tip, and the teapot even smaller than a toothpick box—it looked more like a toy set.
The Fleet Commander commented, "So childish."
"It's not," Yun Shui protested weakly. "This is actually really fun—you can really fill it with water and pour tea." She'd bought it last Sunday while browsing a little shop and had been absolutely charmed by it.
Jiang Xie noticed a seamless nail hook mounted on the wall—very new, as if it had just been installed. He turned his head and asked, "What are you going to hang on it?"
Yun Shui had just taken a towel from the wardrobe and handed it to him, and was now rummaging through a drawer for a hairdryer. At his question, she said dejectedly, "My treasure."
The Fleet Commander stiffened, staring at her back with slight shock, the tips of his ears faintly reddening.
Yun Shui said gloomily, "I had a lot of things in my old rental place, and now I can't get them back. I used to have a string of treasure that I really, really loved—it was so beautiful. I was going to hang it there."
The Fleet Commander's expression returned to normal, even turning a bit somber. He asked casually, "What treasure?"
"Kuteng Pods!" Yun Shui couldn't help gesturing. "One strand was this—long! Like a giant version of a pea pod. I bought it when I went to Yun City on a trip a long time ago. It looked like a big caterpillar bread—kind of like a decorative plaything, you know? I picked it out for ages, looking for one without worm damage and with fine, beautiful grain. My pod was especially gorgeous, with a perfect shape. I carried it with me everywhere—didn't let go of it even on the Flyer, all the way here."
But after the earthquake, it was gone now.
Yun Shui handed the hairdryer to the Fleet Commander.
Jiang Xie watched her spirits sink, her whole body seeming to deflate, and couldn't resist pinching her cheek playfully. "Buy another one."
"General!" Yun Shui immediately set down the hairdryer. "You didn't wash your hands, did you? How can you touch me without washing your hands first?"
The Fleet Commander: "…"
Yun Shui pushed him into the bathroom. After washing her own face, she watched him idly squeeze out hand soap. "It's different. If I order pods online here, since it's not the place of origin, it'd be really expensive.
"Besides, it was originally a travel souvenir. If I didn't buy it while traveling, it'd be weird… Like buying fridge magnets on trips—nobody orders a bunch of region-specific fridge magnets online at home."
"Yun Shui," the Fleet Commander said after drying his hands, "I want to take a shower."
Yun Shui: "…"
The Fleet Commander: "?"
Yun Shui stammered, "Th-That's not… appropriate… Why don't you go home and shower?"
The Fleet Commander was dissatisfied: "Why? My clothes are half-dry right now, and I feel uncomfortable all over. I want to take a shower."
He stood there, a large presence that felt somewhat oppressive.
His clothes were completely soaked, even the tips of his hair dripping with water droplets. He pushed his hair back with a hint of disdain. His features, washed clean by the water, revealed a sharpness that was unexpectedly piercing.
Yun Shui gripped the bathroom door: "But, but… Maybe we should forget it. I don't have… any clothes for you to change into."
The Fleet Commander frowned slightly.
Finding an excuse, Yun Shui immediately perked up: "If there are no clothes to change into…"
Jiang Xie seemed completely unconcerned: "I can go without underwear."
"…"
Yun Shui's eyes widened, and she nearly helplessly covered her burning ears: "You, you… What are you saying?!"
The Fleet Commander still stood calmly by the sink, maintaining a very safe distance from her: "If you can't hear clearly, why are you covering your ears? What a strange habit. I said I can go without—"
Yun Shui nearly jumped up and lightly slapped her hand over his mouth, then realizing what she'd done, explained in alarm: "No, that's—I mean, what I meant was, I don't have clothes in your size here."
She opened the door in despair and slowly backed away, "It's just that after you shower, you'd have to put on these sticky, wet clothes again, which would be really uncomfortable, wouldn't it?"
The next moment, her shoulder was easily grasped, and Yun Shui felt her waist tighten as she was lifted onto the bathroom countertop.
He suddenly closed the distance between them, his faintly visible chest and abdominal lines abruptly filling her entire field of vision. Yun Shui froze in place.
Before she could react, the Fleet Commander watched her retreat with a knowing, half-smiling expression, then took a few steps and quickly shut the bathroom door.
She was inside; the Fleet Commander was outside.
Yun Shui scrambled down hastily and chased after him, opening the door: "You're the childish one! What are you doing! You're so annoying!"
The Fleet Commander said, "I don't believe you. I want to check your closet."
Yun Shui sprinted desperately to catch up with him, but the Fleet Commander walked at a leisurely pace. She managed to block the bedroom door first: "You're not allowed in."
Her closet was too messy—she was too embarrassed to show it.
The Fleet Commander looked very serious: "Why can't I go in? What kind of relationship do we have? What's wrong with looking at your closet? Can't I check if there are any other men's clothes in there?"
Yun Shui: "…"
The Fleet Commander was broken. Was there no one to deal with him?
She pushed him with effort: "I said no means no. What, what kind of relationship do we have—reflect on yourself! How can you not listen to me?"
Then she realized that through the thin layer of his shirt, her hand was touching the contours of the Fleet Commander's muscles, and they were rather warm.
Yun Shui couldn't take it anymore and kept pushing. The Fleet Commander snorted: "Guilty conscience, Yun Shui."
But he didn't say anything more and went to get the hairdryer to start drying his hair.
Yun Shui let out a long breath, as if she'd fought a war without gunpowder, collapsing exhausted onto the carpet by the window, thinking: "This can't go on." How could she maintain her composure? One day, she would inevitably lose control and lay a hand on the Fleet Commander!
She pulled a very fluffy towel from her closet and wrapped it around the Fleet Commander, using all her strength to barely cover that disheveled, dripping-wet body of his.
Jiang Xie squeezed her hand, then tugged at the towel, let out a laugh, and wrapped himself up like a "cream towel roll." He then stretched out a long leg to block Yun Shui in place, cranked the hairdryer to high, and commanded, "Stay with me."
Yun Shui sat on the sofa in an awkward position, her calf trapped between his legs.
Amid the humming noise, she couldn't help but let her gaze wander uncontrollably. She spotted a glistening trail of water winding from the hollow of the man's collarbone, trickling all the way down into the crevice between his pectoral muscles, leaving behind a glistening streak of light that invited all sorts of wild thoughts.
Jiang Xie's eyelids twitched. "Where are you looking?"
Flushed red to the ears.
Yun Shui tilted her head at a forty-five-degree angle, staring at the ceiling to prove her innocence.
The Fleet Commander finished drying his hair, hooked a strand of hers with his thumb, and said reluctantly, "I'm leaving."
"Wait a moment," Yun Shui stood up and cleared her throat. "Sit down first. Let me find some cold medicine for you to take, as a precaution."
The Fleet Commander sat down but objected, "I'm not drinking it."
Yun Shui struggled to find the cold medicine.
The Fleet Commander watched her rummage around frantically like a squirrel digging through its hoarded supplies. "Why is everything in a hiking backpack? What is that…"
"Oh," Yun Shui's eyes lit up as she struggled to pull the item out and showed it to him. "A chainsaw."
The Fleet Commander: "…"
Yun Shui carefully put it back. "For escaping. And for fending off creeps."
The Fleet Commander nodded.
Yun Shui went to the kitchen to grab a bowl. "There's no boiled water, so I'll mix it with mineral water."
The Fleet Commander said listlessly, "I'm not taking medicine. I hate taking medicine."
Yun Shui said in confusion, "But you got soaked in the rain, so you could easily catch a cold. Don't you want to take precautions?"
"I'm not drinking it. Take it away." The Fleet Commander said with conviction, "You only take medicine when you're actually sick. This whole 'precaution' thing is nonsense."
"Hm?" Yun Shui had already found the medicine. She rubbed the plastic edge of the cold medicine granules packet, where there was a clear little notch, and her fingers itched—she really wanted to tear it open. "Maybe you've already caught a cold but just haven't noticed yet. Drink it."
The Fleet Commander said expressionlessly, "I'm not drinking it. I saw a post from the Medical Department's science outreach account yesterday saying you shouldn't randomly take medicine in advance."
Yun Shui: "…I don't believe you. Show me."
The Fleet Commander opened his terminal.
Yun Shui tapped it open. The interface was called the Medical Department Science Guide. She insisted on scrolling back for nearly three minutes, and the Fleet Commander's gaze grew increasingly confident, even carrying a hint of triumphant arrogance.
Until Yun Shui, in one determined push, scrolled all the way back to a headline article from this science account a year ago: "Massive Resources Free to Send—Click to Watch the New Year Blockbuster Movie!"
Yun Shui looked closely and saw fine print under the article saying to send a keyword in the backend for the big movie to get free resources. This wasn't an authoritative public account at all—at best, it was a no-name marketing account that had turned over a new leaf halfway through! Yun Shui immediately became smug and exposed the truth to the Fleet Commander.
The Fleet Commander couldn't accept that he'd been deceived.
The two argued for a moment. Yun Shui huffed and opened her laptop. "You want something authoritative? Fine, let's find it." With that, she logged into the "Alliance Knowledge Network" using an internal Fortress personnel account and typed into the search bar: Can cold medicine be taken in advance?
The Fleet Commander: "…"
In the end, they didn't actually find anything.
Clearly, a collection of papers wasn't a search engine, nor did it have encyclopedia functions. The two stared at various experimental reports and incomprehensible medical jargon for a long while, then looked at each other in silence.
It seemed like she shouldn't drink it early, but then again, maybe she could. In any case, different situations called for different handling. Yun Shui awkwardly gave up: "Forget it, I won't drink it then. General, drive carefully." She dejectedly closed the webpage.
Jiang Xie, who had only been making excuses to avoid taking his medicine, tucked a packet of cold granules into his pocket: "I'm leaving now."
Yun Shui saw him to the door.
The Fleet Commander stood outside, complaining lazily: "Can't take a shower either, can't even peek in the wardrobe. How stingy."
Yun Shui stammered, trying to change the subject: "General, thank you for seeing me home today."
Her general stood in the dark hallway, the indoor light casting shadows across his face. His handsome, sharp features seemed distant, yet there was a rare tenderness in his eyes.
In that moment of parting, Yun Shui kept her lips tightly sealed. She felt that she would probably never take the initiative to confess the truth for the rest of her life.
The Fleet Commander went to press the elevator button, but even after walking over, he couldn't help lingering, drifting back to stand by Yun Shui's door and wait.
Jiang Xie watched Yun Shui standing inside the doorway, silhouetted against the light. Her features were soft, and as she tilted her face slightly upward, a faint smile spilled from her eyes like a drop of morning dew landing on the back of one's hand—cool, fresh, and captivating.
She loves me so much.