“Baby, are you worried about me?” Huo Yan’s voice rose slightly.
“Worried about you?” Miss Jiang turned around and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m worried you won’t be able to work tomorrow. If you can’t get paid, who’s going to buy me skirts and a mattress?”
Huo Yan stood in the bathroom doorway. The dim yellow light from the hallway fell behind him, blurring his expression.
“I’ll put some medicine on it myself in a bit,” he said.
“Forget it. Stop fussing and come here.”
Miss Jiang went to the bed and opened a drawer.
Povidone-iodine, cotton swabs, burn ointment—all neatly arranged.
She picked up the ointment and looked it over. It was unopened, and the expiration date was still a long way off.
“When did you buy this?” Miss Jiang asked.
“Last month.” Huo Yan walked over. “I passed a pharmacy and thought you might burn yourself cooking, Baby, so I got some to keep on hand.”
Miss Jiang tossed him the ointment. “Put it on yourself.”
Huo Yan caught it neatly, but didn’t move.
“Go on,” Miss Jiang said, sitting on the bed and watching him.
“I can’t reach my back.” As soon as he said it, Huo Yan started pulling off his undershirt.
The cheap cotton fabric slid off his shoulders, exposing his entire back.
Was it really that bad?
From his shoulder blades to his waist, his skin was an alarming red and swollen, with blisters already rising in several places.
Miss Jiang could hardly imagine how much it must hurt.
“Huo Yan, are you stupid?” Miss Jiang stood up. “You didn’t know to get out of the way when the water was scalding hot?”
“If I’d moved, it would’ve splashed you.” Huo Yan had his back to her.
Miss Jiang opened her mouth, but for a long moment, no words came out.
If this had happened to anyone else, the pain would’ve sent them straight to the emergency room.
But he’d stood there for so long as if nothing had happened.
“Give me the ointment.” Miss Jiang held out her hand.
Huo Yan turned around and handed it to her, his gaze settling on her face.
“Turn around.” Miss Jiang unscrewed the cap.
Huo Yan obediently did as she asked.
Miss Jiang squeezed a dollop of ointment onto her fingertip. She stared at the blisters, some of them looking ready to burst, and hesitated to touch them.
“It’ll hurt,” she said.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Huo Yan replied without hesitation.
Miss Jiang applied the ointment as gently as she could.
His skin was frighteningly hot beneath her fingertips.
The muscles in Huo Yan’s back instantly tensed. The outline of his spine stood out clearly, but he didn’t make a sound.
After she finished applying ointment to his shoulder blades, Miss Jiang moved down along his spine toward his waist. Then her hand stopped.
There was an old scar on his lower back.
It was round, about the size of a fingernail, with an uneven edge.
“What’s this?” Jiang Li lightly brushed the scar with her fingertip.
“Got burned by a cigarette,” Huo Yan said.
The original novel had mentioned that Huo Yan’s birth mother suffered from severe bipolar disorder.
Before he turned seven, there was hardly a patch of uninjured skin on his body.
But the book had glossed over it in just a few sentences.
Now, Jiang Li could see that Huo Yan’s childhood before the age of seven must have been unbearably hard.
Before Jiang Li transmigrated into the novel, she’d thought it was just the author giving the male lead a tragic backstory.
Seeing it with her own eyes, she finally understood that those words had really been etched into someone’s body.
How had he even grown up?
She wanted to ask.
But the question reached her lips, and she swallowed it back.
The original host wouldn’t ask something like that.
Jiang Li withdrew her hand and tossed the ointment onto the bedside table.
The plastic container tapped softly against the wood.
“That scar is hideous. I’d just started getting interested in your abs, and then you turned around and ruined the view.” She folded her arms.
Huo Yan turned his head to look at her.
“Baby doesn’t like it?”
“Who would? Don’t show your back again.” Jiang Li sat back down on the edge of the bed.
“Okay.”
He answered far too quickly.
Jiang Li had only said it to save face.
But he treated every word she said like a rule.
Huo Yan picked up his undershirt and started to pull it on.
Jiang Li saw the fresh blisters on his shoulders and back, and her expression darkened again.
“Stop.”
He froze.
“I haven’t finished putting on the ointment.”
“Wasn’t Baby disgusted by it?”
Jiang Li picked up the ointment again. “I may not like it, but if something happens to you, who’ll earn money for me? Who’ll buy me new skirts?”
At that, Huo Yan let out a low laugh.
“Baby, I knew you cared about me.” He turned to look at Jiang Li.
Why was he standing so close? Who was he trying to seduce?
Shameless.
Jiang Li was twisting the ointment cap back on when her hand slipped, and the cap fell onto the bedsheet.
“Who cares about you? I care about my money.”
She turned sideways to pick it up.
Huo Yan was quicker. He reached across her shoulder and pressed his palm over the back of her hand.
Their hands overlapped, the cap trapped beneath their palms.
“Baby, I’ll make a lot of money someday,” he murmured right beside her ear.
His breath brushed the side of Jiang Li’s neck.
“Enough that you can buy whatever you want, go wherever you want, and do whatever you want.”
They were far too close.
She could smell the mixture of scents on him: sweat, burn ointment, and the faint smell of cheap soap.
And somehow, that cheap combination made her cheeks flush and her heart race.
“Huo Yan, get away from me.” Jiang Li pulled her hand free and shoved hard against his chest.
“Baby doesn’t like me getting close?”
Huo Yan didn’t move. Instead, he caught the hand she’d used to push him and pressed it back against his chest.
“Then why were you holding me so tightly in the bathroom just now?”
“Who was holding you?!” Jiang Li bristled. “You’re the one who forced me into your arms!”
“Is that so?” Huo Yan tilted his head, his gaze falling on the tips of her red ears. “But I remember Baby’s hands were gripping my waist.”
“I was afraid I’d fall!”
“Oh, afraid you’d fall.” Huo Yan’s voice lifted. “Are you still afraid now?”
Jiang Li looked up and met his eyes.
Her reflection filled them.
She couldn’t let him keep flirting with her.
“Go to sleep already!” Jiang Li shoved him away.
This time, Huo Yan didn’t resist. He let her push him back.
His fingers curled around her palm once before he let go.
“Okay, I’ll listen to Baby.” He picked up the undershirt from the floor.
He pulled it on slowly.
So slowly, it seemed deliberate.
Jiang Li watched him tug it down and, for some reason, felt relieved.
“I’ll sleep in the living room,” Huo Yan said, turning to leave.
“Stop.” Jiang Li called after him.
Huo Yan looked back.
“This bed is big enough. You can sleep on the other side.” Jiang Li moved farther over. “That way, you won’t hurt your back tomorrow and be unable to work.”
“What are you staring at? I’m just worried you won’t be able to get up tomorrow and make me lose money.”
Jiang Li felt uncomfortable under his gaze.
“Okay.” Huo Yan returned to the bed, lifted the covers, and lay down.
With her back to him, Jiang Li wrapped herself tightly in the blanket.
The mattress dipped slightly behind her. She could feel Huo Yan lying down too.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep.
Don’t think about anything. And, above all, don’t move.
Even if the guy really was tempting.
The mattress dipped again behind her.
Something was wrong.
The dip was too close to the middle.
Jiang Li’s eyes flew open. Before she could turn around, a scorching wall pressed against her back.
Huo Yan had moved right up behind her.
“Huo Yan, what are you doing?!” Jiang Li edged toward the corner.
“Baby, my back hurts.” His voice was muffled, with a hint of grievance. “It feels better leaning against you.”
Jiang Li could feel his knee pressed against her calf.
Was this guy an octopus or something?
“If you come any closer, I’ll kick you out of bed,” Jiang Li warned.
“Baby, I’m only leaning on you for a bit… I promise I won’t do anything…”