This was Lu Yan’s first time formally stepping inside Xia Miao’s room. It felt vastly different from pressing against her window every night to spy on her from the outside. The place was saturated with her scent—how strange, when she hadn’t even done a thing. Just standing in this tiny space made him completely lose control over his own body temperature.
Noticing him standing foolishly in place without moving, Xia Miao reached out to tug him down onto a chair. She fetched a dry towel and returned to stand right in front of him, slipping off his hoodie’s hood. His mop of black hair sprang out, and his signature cowlick gave a gentle little wobble.
Xia Miao slammed the towel straight over his head and began rubbing away. The motion wasn’t particularly gentle, but she certainly hadn’t used much force either, as he didn’t feel a hint of pain.
Catching a strand of his hair, she stroked the split ends and remarked:
“It’s a little yellowish.”
Lu Yan inexplicably felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him. Snatching that lock of hair right back into his hand, he hung his head slightly, his eyes darting back and forth. After a long moment, he mumbled softly:
“I’ve always been this ugly anyway, so you can laugh all you want.”
The cowlick on top of his head flopped flat, looking just as dejected and lifeless as he did.
Forcing his chin up, Xia Miao’s expression turned stern and displeased.
“Who told you that you’re ugly? Don’t forget, you’re the very first guy I’ve ever allowed to court me! In the entire world, you’re the only one with this kind of privilege. If you were really that hideous, I never would have fallen for you at first sight!”
Stiffening from head to toe, Lu Yan’s deadpan eyes morphed into round, black bean-like pupils. Staring blankly, he looked completely foolish and a little bit dopey.
“F—F—First sight? Are you serious?!”
“Of course I’m serious!”
His Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, Lu Yan felt the surrounding air suddenly turn scorching and stifling, leaving his mouth bone-dry.
She had blurted out that crazy “love at first sight” line before, but he had assumed she was just deliberately playing with him. The first time she said it, he took it for a joke; but now that she was saying it a second time, he couldn’t help naively wondering if maybe—just maybe—what she said was a tiny little bit… true.
The cowlick on his head perked right back up, twitching and swaying with vibrant energy.
Perhaps it wasn’t just Xia Miao’s imagination, but this big, goofy lout suddenly looked utterly bashful. Slouching his shoulders, he kept twisting his hands against his hemline, his dark eyes sneaking glances at her face every now and then, only to snap his gaze right back down to the floor the moment she caught him, pretending nothing had happened.
Lu Yan’s hair texture wasn’t exactly stellar—it was frizzy, a bit dry, and tinged with a yellowish hue, almost like he was suffering from malnutrition. He had never paid any attention to such trivial matters before; whether his hair looked good or not didn’t affect his blade-swinging speed in the slightest. But right now, things somehow felt different.
He suddenly found himself feeling mortified that his hair looked so messy, yet at the same time, a few casual words from Xia Miao made his spirits soar.
Noticing something on the desk, Lu Yan’s gaze drifted over.
That bouquet of claw-like white flowers still maintained its eternal, unfading posture, while the pine cones and other little trinkets clustered around them served as dainty, charming accents.
For reasons unknown, Lu Yan felt a sudden softness welling up in his chest. Fixing his eyes on Xia Miao’s face, a slow, muffled hee-hee chuckle bubbled up from his throat. Reaching out a pale hand, he snagged a strand of Xia Miao’s long black hair, wrapping it around his fingertip like he had just discovered a fascinating new toy.
The room’s lights flickered erratically. Outside the window, wind and rain lashed against the panes. Accompanied by his eerie, chilling chuckles, the horror-movie atmosphere grew thicker by the second. Amidst the dimming and brightening lights, the setting was practically optimal for shooting a slasher flick.
With a sharp bang, Xia Miao’s fist connected squarely with his cheek.
“Stop messing around!”
The hee-hee-hee laughter cut off instantly, and the room’s lighting stabilized into a bright, steady glow. The boy looked up with a grievance-laden, pitiful expression, yet he didn’t dare utter a single word of complaint.
In truth, he could have easily used his body heat to bake his wet clothes and hair dry in a matter of seconds. But seeing Xia Miao bustling around taking care of him, he intentionally refrained from doing so, choosing instead to keep up his soggy, drenched appearance just so Xia Miao would spend a long, lingering while drying his hair for him.
The rain outside the window showed no signs of stopping, and the night grew deeper by the hour.
Once Lu Yan was completely warm and dry, Xia Miao cupped her chin and stared at him intently for quite a while.
The boy sat with immaculate obedience, his hair fluffy, his white bandages pristine and spotless, while his round pupils tracked her every movement back and forth.
Out of nowhere, Xia Miao announced:
“Why don’t you stay here and rest for the night?”
Startled out of his wits, Lu Yan leaped straight to his feet.
“Stay here… and rest?!”
“Because it’s still raining outside,” Xia Miao said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes with a hint of scrutiny. “I just don’t want you walking back in the rain and getting sick. I’m purely letting you stay here to rest, and you are not allowed to do anything else!”
Lu Yan’s face flushed a blazing crimson.
“A—Anything else?”
If she hadn’t brought it up, it would have been fine, but the moment she mentioned it, his brain suddenly conjured up a flurry of R-rated images.
Unexplainedly, Xia Miao’s own face grew hot as well.
“Don’t forget, you haven’t reached one hundred points yet! Those other kinds of things… definitely cannot happen!”
Stiffening his neck, Lu Yan retorted,
“Of course I know that before hitting a hundred points, those kinds of things… can’t happen!”
In the dead of night—perhaps due to the sheer ferocity of the downpour—the dormitory building suffered a sudden power outage, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness.
The young man and woman lay side by side on a relatively small bed, inevitably pressed closely together.
Lu Yan’s limbs were stiff as boards, not daring to move even an inch.
Finding his jacket dirty, Xia Miao had forced him to take it off. Fortunately, ever since the time she had wormed her way inside his clothes, he had grown cautious and wrapped his upper body in bandages, ensuring she wouldn’t take advantage of him or steal any more free touches.
After a very, very long silence, Lu Yan whispered softly:
“Hey, are you asleep?”
“I’m asleep.”
“Oh, I’m asleep too.”
Opening their eyes in the pitch black, they both stared toward each other, feeling rather speechless. While Xia Miao couldn’t see a thing in the absolute dark, Lu Yan could see everything crystal clear.
Her hair was pitch black, though her irises didn’t look quite dark, carrying a faint brownish tint instead. Her skin was remarkably fair, and he knew from experience that touching it must feel incredibly soft. And then there was that mouth of hers that never stopped chattering—its lips were red and… quite pretty.
Under the covers, Lu Yan’s hand crept out, cautiously feeling around until he hooked his pinky finger tentatively around hers.
Swallowing hard, he asked in a soft murmur:
“So, how far off am I from a hundred points?”
Back when he was still human, he seemed to have skipped right past the awkward phase of adolescence. But at this very moment, he could inhale the pleasant scent radiating from her skin, listen to the sweet rhythm of her breathing, and feel her comforting warmth. Everything was conspiring to make his heart hammer erratically out of control.
He had turned into a restless, hot-blooded youth, harboring a slightly wicked yearning to squeeze a little extra “comfort” out of the girl who had stolen his heart.
Xia Miao muttered softly:
“Lu Yan, are you really this much of a dummy? Don’t tell me you don’t even remember how many points you have right now?”
“Of course I remember!” In truth, Lu Yan didn’t actually remember at all, but refusing to look like a complete fool in front of Xia Miao, he instinctively denied it with a guilty conscience.
Xia Miao challenged:
“Then let’s test you. What’s your score?”
Cold sweat beaded on Lu Yan’s forehead, only to be instantly vaporized by his body heat.
“F—Fifty-six points?”
He was just throwing out a random guess.
Xia Miao declared:
“Spot on, exactly fifty-six points!”
She answered a bit too quickly, prompting Lu Yan’s sluggish brain to start churning again.
“Are you also n—”
Cupping his face in her hands, Xia Miao planted a heavy, resounding kiss right on his cheek.
“Be a good boy and let’s get some sleep.”
Face burning bright red, Lu Yan completely forgot what he was about to say.