The Jin Yue Jing Yuan Phase One residential complex had decent heating, keeping the indoor temperature at around twenty-four degrees Celsius, so even late at night it wasn't truly cold.
But as Xi Shi stepped out of the steam-filled bathroom and walked to the bed to slip on her nightgown, she already felt a chill seeping through every bone in her body.
Why were Lin Youhe's hands always so warm?
Thinking of Lin Youhe…
Xi Shi actually felt a twinge of regret.
Given how intimately close they had been sitting, Xi Shi could clearly sense every physical change in Lin Youhe's body.
He didn't seem to be trying to hide it either—it was even more obvious when he leaned back.
It sent an electric jolt down her spine.
On a personal level—
Lin Youhe would probably be gentle in that kind of thing. If only she could go along with it, tell a little lie, nod her head, she could have enjoyed a weary but pleasurable night on that leather sofa or the soft double bed.
On a practical level—
Lin Youhe was her only channel to get information about Chen Lintian right now. No matter what, she shouldn't have spoken so coldly and definitively.
But in that moment, neither the personal nor the practical reasoning occurred to Xi Shi. She simply felt she couldn't make such a heavy promise to deceive Lin Youhe.
A stable, developing romantic relationship?
Dating and then marriage?
At the thought, Xi Shi furrowed her brows again.
She lay on her back on the bed, her beautiful wavy hair spread out, staring at the dim light cast on the ceiling from the lamp.
How could she deceive him?
That stubborn Lin Youhe—just because he noticed she didn't like that congee hotpot place, he was willing to spend nearly four thousand yuan on East Star grouper and Australian lobster to cook for her himself…
Xi Shi felt cold. She threw on a robe and, amid the rumbling of the capsule coffee machine, made herself a steaming cup of coffee. She took a few sips and did get some temporary warmth, then suddenly remembered it was the middle of the night…
No chance of sleeping now—her thoughts were growing sharper under the caffeine's influence.
She shouldn't be thinking about Lin Youhe anymore.
Xi Shi began to think about Shen Meiyan and Chen Lintian. If not for them, her grandmother wouldn't have passed away when she was seventeen.
Shen Meiyan owned a clothing company that supplied work uniforms for all seasons and various event attire to several property management companies. There were problems with the company's accounts, and the person responsible for those accounts was Shen Meiyan's financial director, Qiu Nan.
Xi Shi gave up all her dreams, gave everything she had in her senior year of high school, and applied to Qiu Nan's alma mater.
After university started, Xi Shi wore white shirts washed until the cuffs were frayed and faded jeans every day, painstakingly building the image of a poor, diligent student to gradually get close to Qiu Nan's professor. She finally succeeded in becoming the most favored student of that elderly accounting professor.
The day the old professor first invited Xi Shi to her home for dinner, she mentioned Qiu Nan, who had stayed in the city and was doing well at her company.
The professor enthusiastically recommended that Xi Shi meet Qiu Nan and even gave her Qiu Nan's contact information.
Xi Shi smiled obediently at the professor, then lowered her head and seriously typed the letters T-a-r-g-e-t into her phone.
Xi Shi's contacts included various part-time job connections, fifty-two people in total:
Target-1 was the accounting professor.
Target-2 was Shen Meiyan's financial director, Qiu Nan.
During Xi Shi's senior year, Qiu Nan's husband had an affair. Xi Shi seized the opportunity to become Qiu Nan's best confidante and a close friend despite the age gap, even staying briefly at Qiu Nan's home.
Lying in wait for three years, Xi Shi used Qiu Nan's resentment toward Shen Meiyan to extract evidence of the accounting problems in Shen Meiyan's company.
Five months ago, Shen Meiyan was taken away by police at her company.
The paid legal consultant told Xi Shi that Shen Meiyan would definitely hire a lawyer, but it didn't matter. The evidence was conclusive—even if it went through a lengthy process, including interrogation during criminal detention, the procuratorate's approval of arrest, and complex investigation and evidence collection, she would ultimately be sentenced according to law.
The verdict might take a year or more to come down, but Shen Meiyan would definitely receive her Criminal Judgment.
In late summer and early autumn, Xi Shi deleted the contact information of her first two targets and began preparing to retaliate against Chen Lintian.
As for the new Target living across the hall…
Her thoughts circled back to Lin Youhe again.
How could anyone in this day and age be so focused on dating and marriage? Was he that desperate to tie the knot?
Did Lin Youhe have some kind of hidden defect!
Xi Shi didn't sleep. After dawn, she took a car to the countryside south of the city and, as she did every year, stayed the night in the town closest to the cemetery.
Her grandmother used to talk about it often, and Xi Shi knew what her mother liked to eat. She bought some food according to her mother's preferences and a bouquet of elegant white lilies.
There was no photo of Xi Zhen on the headstone.
Xi Shi reached out to touch the roughly carved lettering, not even noticing when her hand was cut and started bleeding.
The warm blood on her fingertips actually cleared Xi Shi's mind. After sweeping the grave, she sat in the freezing cemetery for most of the day, feeling that the world was vast and boundless, and in the end, she was utterly alone.
Dusk fell before Xi Shi finally stood up, her body stiff. "Once they all get what they deserve, Grandma and I will come keep you company."
It was already midnight by the time she returned to Jinyue Jingyuan No. 1.
As Xi Shi scanned the QR code to pay the taxi, she caught a glimpse in her peripheral vision of a car that looked familiar passing by. Her finger paused mid-entry on the payment password, but she didn't turn around.
In the residential complex, only the clack of her high heels against the ground and the wail of the night wind remained.
Xi Shi walked into the building lobby on her heels, and the cold, empty space responded with a harsh white light. When she pressed the elevator button, she noticed the adjacent elevator had just risen to the fifth floor and showed no sign of stopping.
Xi Shi calmly averted her gaze and stepped into the elevator. The sealed metal space reflected her weary figure in black.
Ding-dong—
The elevator arrived at the ninth floor.
Xi Shi glanced at the neighboring elevator, also stopped at the ninth floor, then stepped out of the elevator bank. Unsurprisingly, she saw Lin Youhe's figure.
Lin Youhe must have heard the elevator too. He stood still in front of his security door, tilting his head to look at Xi Shi.
They hadn't seen each other for two days. Standing a few meters apart in silent eye contact, Xi Shi inexplicably recalled the sensation of their hips drawing close.
Xi Shi raised a hand in a feigned casual greeting. "Mr. Lin, back so late? Rehearsal again?"
Lin Youhe's gaze traveled from Xi Shi's pallid face down to the wound on her hand. He frowned slightly and took two steps toward her. "You don't look well…"
Xi Shi made a firm stopping gesture with her arm. "Mr. Lin, I'm very tired. Let's talk another day."
She knew how to get close to a target, and she knew how to push one away. Someone as gentle as Lin Youhe wouldn't force the issue.
Sure enough, Lin Youhe stopped. "Then get some rest."
Xi Shi entered her door code, stepped inside, and closed the security door behind her without looking back.
She stood in the entryway and heard Lin Youhe enter the wrong door code from across the hall—Incorrect password, please try again!
Xi Shi: "…"
Xi Shi thought with complicated feelings, see, this is why you don't mess with honest people.
The black long down jacket Lin Youhe had been wearing was the one Xi Shi had worn the night before last when she went to buy roses.
She'd played a little trick then—pulling a travel-size perfume from her bag and spritzing it on the collar of the jacket.
At the time, Xi Shi thought, when Lin Youhe wears it again, he's bound to catch the perfume's base notes.
She wondered whether Lin Youhe had actually smelled it.
The truth was, as a cold-blooded creature with icy hands and feet and a low body temperature, after a full day out in the world, she desperately wanted to curl up in bed with someone warm-bodied, using them as a human heater.
Unfortunately, her heater-in-training took matters of the heart far too seriously for comfort.
Xi Shi took a hot shower, and under the warm spray of the water, she gradually realized how tricky her situation had become.
In her current state, she couldn't look Lin Youhe in the eye and spin lies. But without deceiving him, she couldn't get news about Chen Lintian.
Chen Lintian deserved to die!
Maybe she should give up on Lin Youhe as a target and find another way…
After stepping out of the bathroom, Xi Shi felt dizzy, the ceiling swaying before her eyes.
She couldn't remember how long she'd slept in the past two days, or what she'd last eaten.
The apartment only had red wine and coffee.
Her fingertips trembling, Xi Shi opened a bottle of red wine, poured it into a thermos, and took two big gulps through a straw.
A knock in the quiet night made Xi Shi jolt. The wine in her mouth went down in a gulp, and when she blinked, the furnishings before her seemed to sway again.
Lin Youhe's voice came through the door—
"Xi Shi."
Xi Shi pressed the electronic peephole and saw Lin Youhe's figure. The dizziness made her restless and irritable.
She thought, is he here looking for a warm bed?
Xi Shi decided to ignore him. But she'd barely taken a few steps before she was too dizzy to stand. Instinctively reaching out for support, she only grabbed the useless floor coat rack in the entryway.
The coat rack fell before she did, the loud crash making her even dizzier.
From outside the door came another call. "Xi Shi!"
Then Xi Shi heard the sound of someone entering the security door code—
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Buzz. Incorrect password.
Xi Shi's palm, pressed against the wall, broke out in cold sweat. Her vision flickered dark.
Then came another series of beeps as the code was entered, and the lock clicked open. Xi Shi's eyes widened involuntarily as she watched Lin Youhe pull open the security door and stride in.
Lin Youhe caught Xi Shi, asking urgently, "Where do you feel unwell?"
Xi Shi, unable to focus on the double image of Lin Youhe before her, said irritably, "Mr. Lin can't remember the password to his own door, but he's quite familiar with someone else's."
Lin Youhe felt Xi Shi's forehead, only finding cold sweat.
He took off his coat and draped it over Xi Shi, speaking gently and calmly. "The ID number was from when you sent it to me for the stage play. Your mother's death anniversary was something you told me the night before last."
"Those are the only two I know."
As he spoke, Lin Youhe reached out, pressing his fingertip against the side of Xi Shi's neck for a moment.
Xi Shi felt the warmth of his touch.
Immediately after, Lin Youhe bent down and, supporting Xi Shi's bottom with one arm, lifted her up.
Xi Shi was dizzy as hell: "What are you doing…"
Lin Youhe said gently, "In your current condition, it's better to keep your head higher than your heart, so I can't carry you horizontally. Hold onto me—I'll take you to the hospital."
The down jacket still carried Lin Youhe's body heat, as well as the scent of Xi Shi's perfume.
Remembering the conversation from two nights ago, she felt a sense of resistance and instinctively tried to struggle.
Lin Youhe's tone suddenly shifted: "Not afraid of death?"
She was afraid…
Xi Shi gasped a couple of times, then finally reached out and weakly gripped Lin Youhe's shoulder and neck: "Take… take me to the hospital. I can't die yet."
Lin Youhe asked, "Which bag is your ID in?"
Xi Shi closed her eyes in discomfort: "The black one."
Lin Youhe carried Xi Shi downstairs, set her down in the passenger seat, and helped her fasten her seatbelt.
As he started the car, he frowned and looked at Xi Shi for a moment, then suddenly raised his hand, pinching her jaw to force her lips apart. He tilted his head and leaned in, sniffing at her lips.
Lin Youhe's voice was low: "You've been drinking?"