Yu Wan’s bath took quite some time. The young lady had always been meticulous from head to toe, never skipping a single step in her skincare routine.
When the bathroom door opened, Yu Wan looked up and immediately met the man’s gaze.
Xie Mingyan sat quietly, his eyes completely still.
The person before him wore a silk robe. Due to its owner’s pickiness, the fabric was of exceptional quality.
Her beautiful peach blossom eyes carried a hint of mistiness. Whether due to the hot water or not, the corners of her eyes were pink, her lips were pink, and even her skin glowed with a rosy hue.
The atmosphere grew peculiar again.
Seeing Xie Mingyan sitting motionless in the same spot, his gaze fixed on her, Yu Wan felt strange – an illusion of being targeted by something.
The next second, she shook her head vigorously. That dream had really gotten to her, making her paranoid.
“What are you staring at?” Yu Wan said while drying her hair. “I’m warning you, my room can’t tolerate dirty things. Go take a bath now.”
She rubbed her arms as she spoke. His constant staring was just weird.
Xie Mingyan offered no rebuttal to Yu Wan’s words. After a long moment, he shifted his gaze away from her and entered the bathroom.
The bathroom air still carried the scent she’d left after her bath – slightly sweet, enveloping everything seamlessly.
Xie Mingyan had severe mysophobia. Every item he used had to be repeatedly cleaned, let alone people – no one could truly touch him.
That physiological disgust made him extremely irritable, so he had never attempted to touch anyone else.
Not even when that person was Yu Wan.
But now there seemed to be an exception.
As Xie Mingyan’s fingers brushed against her items on the counter, no disgust rose in his heart. Instead…
“Heh…” A soft sound echoed in the bathroom, filled with intense interest, then quickly faded.
He was growing increasingly curious about what his young lady would do next.
Outside, Yu Wan meticulously completed her entire skincare routine without skipping a single step. Looking at her carefully nurtured face, she felt utterly satisfied.
Who wanted to revolve around men like in that stupid dream plot? She was her own center.
Just as she finished the final step of her skincare, she heard the bathroom door open. Without even turning her head, she spoke authoritatively to the person behind her: “Come here and blow-dry my hair.”
She’d been so focused on skincare that she hadn’t dried her hair. Perfect timing – there was a ready-made helper here, might as well use him.
Xie Mingyan walked over and stood behind Yu Wan, his tall frame completely enveloping her, instantly surrounding her with an overwhelming sense of pressure.
As the hairdryer hummed to life, smooth strands of hair slipped through his fingertips one by one, and the man’s eyes gradually darkened.
The combination of the hairdryer’s breeze and the sensation of his fingertips created a tingling, peculiar feeling that crept into Yu Wan’s heart.
She had only thought his mysophobia was troublesome and wanted to see how much he could tolerate, planning to gradually correct it later. She never expected she would be the first to reach her limit.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough.” Yu Wan pulled her hair back from Xie Mingyan’s grasp, uttered “time for bed,” quickly climbed onto the bed and wrapped herself in the covers.
The strands were gone from his fingertips, but their texture and fragrance seemed to linger. Xie Mingyan’s fingers trembled slightly.
Damn, wanting to hold more than just her hair…
“Come to bed.”
.
The lights in the room had been completely turned off, darkness enveloping the entire space.
Yu Wan lay on the bed with her eyes open. This space that had always belonged solely to her now held another person.
Though he remained silent, even sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor, his presence was intensely palpable.
The room was unusually quiet, so silent that even the sound of breathing could be clearly heard.
After a long while, rustling sounds emerged as Yu Wan shifted from the center of the bed to the edge. A voice broke through the darkness.
“Hey, Xie Mingyan, Xie Shiyuan said you’re sick today. What illness do you have?”
What illness?
In the darkness, Xie Mingyan’s gaze turned toward Yu Wan’s direction. You wouldn’t want to know.
Beneath the skin hunger lay an extreme desire for destruction and possession, all his obsessions and darkness concealed beneath a mask of normalcy.
“Obsessive cleanliness,” Xie Mingyan spoke into the silence.
“I knew it,” Yu Wan muttered. In her impression, this was his only flaw.
She didn’t recall him having any other illnesses in the dream’s plot either, though his methods did turn particularly ruthless in the later stages.
But she didn’t need to last until then – once the countdown ended, she’d swiftly divorce and make her elegant exit.
“Perfect timing,” Yu Wan sat up in bed, propping herself on her arms to look at the man on the floor, though she could see nothing in the dark. “I’m planning to cure your finicky cleanliness.”
“How?”
Yu Wan cleared her throat lightly. “This young lady can condescend to be your desensitization subject, permitting you to hold my hand while sleeping every night.”
This way, the countdown increased by physical contact during nighttime would be guaranteed.
A little more each night, accumulating over time, small amounts adding up.
This would also eliminate her constant worry about him straying beyond the countdown’s range.
Though she’d initially insisted Xie Mingyan follow her everywhere, today’s practice proved this too difficult to implement.
So Yu Wan came up with this solution – simply have him move into her room.
Between nighttime increases and daily contact, she refused to believe she couldn’t conquer this countdown.
It was absolutely the perfect plan.
She was even kindly helping with Xie Mingyan’s cleanliness desensitization, albeit incidentally.
“Well?” Yu Wan asked. “Isn’t my method brilliant? Consider it my great mercy.”
Ordinary people wouldn’t get such privilege to hold her hand.
“Miss Yu.”
“Hmm?”
“Aren’t you supposed to hate me?”
Xie Mingyan’s soft voice carried through the darkness, his shadowed gaze fixed unblinkingly on the figure in bed.
Yu Wan: “…”
“None of your business!” Yu Wan snapped, flushed with embarrassment and anger. “I want to hold your hand right now. Do you dare refuse?”
“Even if you’re unwilling, bear with it!” Yu Wan declared with utter tyranny.
As if this young lady enjoys pressing her warm face against your cold rear.
If I just waved my hand, countless people would be lining up waiting.
If not for this damned countdown, I wouldn’t touch you even if you knelt begging.
“From now on, shut up,” Yu Wan commanded. “Give me your hand.”
She’d been overthinking it with excuses – should have just forced it from the start. What grounds did Xie Mingyan have to refuse her now?
Without waiting for any response from Xie Mingyan, she groped through the darkness, found his hand, gave a firm tug, and clasped it tightly.
“Do not let go!” he commanded.
Then, holding hands, he lay back down and closed his eyes.
“Go to sleep!”