Back in the room, neither spoke. Standing face to face, they had no idea what to say, and the awkwardness hung in the air, thick and suffocating.
Huo Xuan’s heart was pounding wildly. He felt so flustered he did not even know how to stand properly, and he dared not lift his eyes to look at Xie Mingzhu.
Xie Mingzhu had also felt a little uneasy at first, but seeing him this way, she could not help but let out a soft laugh.
Huo Xuan turned his head toward her. “What are you laughing at?”
Pressing her lips together, Xie Mingzhu shook her head and pointed to one end of the bed. “I’ll sleep here. You take the other end.”
This room used to house several people, with more than one bed. But after everyone else had left, Xie Mingzhu had asked the team leader to have the extra beds removed, wanting more space. Now only this single bed remained.
Fortunately, it was quite large—otherwise, a standard single bed barely three feet wide would never have held both of them.
Huo Xuan shook his head. “You go ahead and sleep. I’ll just make do with the chair for the night.”
There were several chairs in the room; if pushed together, they would serve as a makeshift bed.
As he spoke, he dragged the chairs together and arranged them side by side.
Seeing this, Xie Mingzhu said nothing more. She handed him her pillow and a wool blanket, then climbed back onto the bed.
“You get to sleep first. I’ll blow out the lamp,” Huo Xuan said.
Xie Mingzhu nodded. She had intended to lie on her stomach, but thinking it looked improper, turned over to lie on her back instead.
Huo Xuan kept his gaze fixed straight ahead. Only when he heard her say it was fine to turn off the light did he lean over and blow out the flame.
The room plunged instantly into darkness. Outside, the night was pitch black, and not a glimmer of light remained inside.
Xie Mingzhu felt as though she could hear every breath Huo Xuan took. She had expected that having someone else in the room would keep her awake, but to her surprise, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep almost immediately.
Meanwhile, Huo Xuan’s heart was hammering against his ribs, beating so hard it felt as though it might leap right out of his chest. He pressed a hand over his heart and rubbed it gently, trying to calm its frantic rhythm.
With his eyes closed, all he could hear was the sound of his own breathing and the thunderous beating of his pulse.
Lying on the narrow makeshift bed of chairs was terribly uncomfortable, and since he was far from sleepy, he tossed and turned, moving as little as possible so as not to disturb her.
For him, this night felt like an eternity of torture.
Glancing back, he saw that Xie Mingzhu had gone perfectly still; she was clearly fast asleep.
This girl really had nerves of steel, he thought. With a man sleeping in the same room, she could still rest so soundly.
Huo Xuan shook his head slightly, unsure whether he should feel pleased at how much she trusted him or laugh bitterly at the possibility that he did not appeal to her at all.
He sighed softly and turned over again. Only after shifting positions countless times did he finally slip into a fitful doze.
In the middle of the night, Huo Xuan woke up shivering. It had not felt cold when he first lay down, but as the night deepened, the temperature outside dropped sharply, and the room grew chilly. With only one thin blanket, no mattress beneath him, and lying right next to the window, it was no wonder he felt frozen.
He turned over, intending to stretch his stiff limbs, when he heard Xie Mingzhu’s voice. “Huo Xuan, are you awake?”
He froze instantly, then turned his head toward her. “Did I wake you?”
She did not answer right away. After a short pause, she murmured, “I’m feeling cold…”
Xie Mingzhu had always disliked the cold far more than the heat. Normally, if she were alone, that thin blanket would have been enough. But with the temperature plummeting so suddenly, it was only natural she would feel the chill.
Her other bedding had been stored in the room next door, which had now collapsed in the rain—most likely soaked through and useless.
The moment he heard her words, Huo Xuan spoke quickly. “I happen to be feeling a bit warm. Here, take this blanket.”
He stood up, felt his way across the dark room to the bed, and tucked the blanket over her. Since he was already restless, he decided he might as well stay awake.
He had just finished adjusting the cover when her voice came again, barely louder than a whisper. “You can come up here too.”
It was so faint that if Huo Xuan’s hearing had not been sharp, he would never have caught it.
His self-control nearly shattered completely at those words. Clenching his fists tightly, he took two deep breaths before forcing a light tone. “I’m not very sleepy anyway. You go back to sleep. I’ll step outside for a moment and be right back.”
“Huo Xuan,” she said, her voice lifting slightly, “if your heart is truly free of improper thoughts, what are you afraid of?”
His expression froze. In the darkness, his eyes seemed to gleam faintly.
Precisely because his heart was not free of thoughts—that was why he was afraid!
If he had truly been pure and uncomplicated, he would have climbed onto the bed without hesitation the first time she invited him.
“Stop dawdling and get up here,” she ordered, putting on a gruff tone. “I’m only asking you to warm the bed—you act as if it’s the end of the world!”
She meant it as a joke, but the words still sent heat rushing to Huo Xuan’s ears.
After two seconds of hesitation, he threw caution to the wind. Before she could say anything more, he quickly slipped under the covers at the far end of the bed.
As she had said, the sheets were hardly warmer than the air outside, and her own body felt ice-cold.
Huo Xuan turned his back to her, keeping his distance.
In truth, Xie Mingzhu’s heart was racing just as fast. Even though she had lived a second life, deep down she still held to traditional values, far less open-minded than women of later generations.
“Put your feet against my back,” Huo Xuan said, his voice low and husky. In the dim, intimate quiet of the night, it sounded strangely seductive.
Right now, he was using every ounce of his will to keep his voice steady and suppress the intense longing surging inside him.
The sound of his husky voice drifted to Xie Mingzhu’s ears, soft as a feather brushing against her skin, sending tiny tingles through her body. At the same time, it felt like fine sand being rubbed gently over her heart, stirring an ache that was both pleasant and unsettling.
Obeying him without hesitation, she stretched out her legs and slid her feet right up under the hem of his shirt, pressing them firmly against his warm skin.
The sudden icy touch made Huo Xuan’s entire back stiffen instantly.
Feeling him tense up, Xie Mingzhu instinctively tried to pull her feet back. But before she could withdraw them, a pair of warm, strong hands closed firmly around her ankles.
Before she could pull away, he turned over and lifted her cold feet to rest them against his own stomach.
Heat radiated from his skin, traveling quickly up her legs, spreading through her whole body until it reached the very top of her head. She felt instantly wrapped in warmth, and little by little, her own body began to grow warm, then flushed and burning.