That blinding beam of light was like a sharp blade, stabbing through the dim room without warning.
Jiang Li’s heart leapt straight into her throat.
She clamped a hand over her mouth, not daring to breathe.
Her body instinctively shrank toward the innermost side of the bed, wishing she could wedge herself into the cracks of the wall.
Outside the window, rain continued to pound violently against the glass, crackling sharply.
The shadow pressed against the windowpane and lingered for two seconds.
Jiang Li could even make out the outline of a peaked cap.
“Who’s over there?”
A low shout came from outside, followed by the sound of boots splashing through pooled rainwater.
“There’s no one there—your eyes playing tricks on you?”
Another voice spoke up. “Alright, in weather like this, even ghosts wouldn’t come out. Hurry up, we still have posts to check ahead.”
The flashlight beam wavered twice, then finally moved away.
Footsteps splashed through the mud, fading farther and farther into the distance.
Only when all sound completely disappeared did Jiang Li collapse bonelessly onto the bed, as if her spine had been pulled out.
Cold sweat mixed with rainwater, soaking her back through.
That was close.
She had almost been discovered.
If that patrol soldier had looked one more second—or swept the flashlight into the room—there would have been nowhere for this startled bird to hide.
Once the danger passed, her senses slowly returned.
Cold.
Bone-chilling cold.
The bright red bridal gown she was wearing had absorbed so much water that it hung heavy, like a layer of icy, wet snakeskin tightly binding every inch of her body.
The fabric clung to her skin, the damp chill drilling through her pores straight into her bones.
Jiang Li shuddered, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
She couldn’t keep wearing these wet clothes.
If she did, she wouldn’t have to wait until morning—she’d freeze to death tonight.
She glanced at the tightly shut door, then at the pitch-black, rain-soaked night outside the window.
That man named Huo Yan had gone out, saying he needed to verify something. He wouldn’t be back anytime soon.
Jiang Li clenched her teeth and, with trembling hands, undid the knotted buttons at her waist.
The soaked fabric was difficult to remove.
Especially an old-style bridal dress like this—its many fastenings and water-logged cloth had gone stiff and rough.
She struggled for quite a while before finally peeling off the heavy red gown.
As the wet clothes fell to the floor, the girl’s slender body was exposed to the cool air.
Her skin raised fine goosebumps from the cold, pale almost to the point of dazzling.
She didn’t dare linger for even a second—there was no time to feel shy. She quickly burrowed into the neatly folded, tofu-block-perfect army-green blanket.
The bed wasn’t warm at first, carrying a faint chill.
But it was soon heated by her body temperature.
More importantly, it was filled with that man’s scent.
That sharp, cool tobacco smell, mixed with clean soap and an indescribable masculine hormone, instantly wrapped around her airtight.
Jiang Li buried her face into the pillow and took a deep breath.
The smell wasn’t unpleasant.
It even made her constantly taut nerves inexplicably settle a little.
She was too tired.
Ever since she fled the forced marriage, she’d spent a full day and night struggling on the edge of life and death. Both her body and mind were utterly exhausted.
Now, surrounded by this forceful yet oddly secure presence, drowsiness surged over her like a tide.
Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Her consciousness gradually blurred.
…
She didn’t know how much time had passed.
“Click.”
The sound of a lock turning was unusually clear in the dead of night.
Jiang Li was sleeping deeply and didn’t hear it at all.
When Huo Yan pushed the door open, he still carried the cold dampness of the outdoors.
He’d gone to handle an emergency military matter.
The torrential rain had caused a collapse in an air-raid shelter on the back mountain. No one was injured, but emergency reinforcement was required overnight.
He’d been soaking in mud and water for two hours, and the training uniform he’d just changed out of was drenched again.
Now thoroughly exhausted, all he wanted was to fall into bed and sleep.
Huo Yan casually hung the dripping raincoat on the rack behind the door and reached out to flip the wall switch.
Click.
The incandescent light flared on.
Huo Yan narrowed his eyes, adjusting to the sudden brightness.
The next second— his gaze froze.
Draped over the wooden chair in the center of the room was a glaringly red bridal gown.
Still dripping wet.
A puddle of red water had gathered on the floor beneath it, looking like blood.
Huo Yan’s brows instantly twisted into a deep frown.
Damn it.
He’d forgotten there was still a troublesome person hiding in the room.
His eyes followed the gown to his bed.
The sheets, once flat and crisp like steel plating, were now a mess.
The army-green blanket bulged into a small mound, rising and falling gently with breathing.
Where was she?
Smothered to death?
Huo Yan strode over, carrying a chill and a surge of irritation.
He was a clean freak.
Especially when it came to his private territory—it was an absolute no-go zone.
Now someone had not only broken in, but taken over his bed.
The feeling was like that of a male lion whose territory had been violated—so furious he wanted to kill.
Without hesitation, Huo Yan reached the bedside, grabbed the corner of the blanket, and yanked it back hard.
“Get up! Who told you to sleep—”
The furious shout cut off abruptly the instant he saw what lay beneath.
As if someone had suddenly grabbed him by the throat.
All sound jammed in his chest.
Under the blanket—
Jiang Li lay curled on her side, like a completely defenseless kitten.
She… wasn’t wearing any clothes.
The visual impact of that moment was at least ten thousand times stronger than the cave-in earlier.
Under the light, the girl’s back formed smooth, graceful lines. Her shoulder blades slightly protruded, so fragile they seemed ready to snap.
Her skin glowed white, fine and delicate like a freshly peeled egg.
Especially that waist— slender to a shocking degree.
Lower down… some details were best left unsaid.
In this cold, steel-hard military dormitory, on a narrow cot meant for rough men, that patch of white was nothing short of a nuclear weapon capable of annihilating reason.
Huo Yan’s pupils constricted violently.
His breathing stalled.
His heart felt like it had been smashed by a heavy hammer, skipping several beats.
A scorching heat surged up along his spine straight to the crown of his head, then rapidly pooled downward.
It was the most primitive, instinctive physiological reaction of a normal man.
Completely uncontrollable.
Jiang Li was jolted awake by the sudden chill.
Dazed, she opened her eyes. Before she could even process what was happening, she felt cold air all over her body.
She instinctively turned her head— and met Huo Yan’s eyes, blazing like fire and ready to devour her.
Their gazes collided in midair.
The air seemed to freeze.
For a full three seconds.
“Ah—!”
The scream had barely left her throat when a rough, calloused hand clamped firmly over her mouth.
“Shut up!”
Huo Yan ground out through clenched teeth, veins bulging at his temples.
In a flurry, he yanked the blanket back over her, covering her up with rough, frantic movements—as if trying to conceal evidence of a crime.
“Trying to call the wolves over here?!”
His voice was hoarse, as if filled with gravel.
His palm was huge. The thick calluses rubbed painfully against Jiang Li’s lips.
Jiang Li was terrified out of her mind.
Tears burst forth instantly. She stared at him wide-eyed in fear, shaking her head desperately.
Huo Yan took a deep breath, forcing himself to look away.
But the scene from moments ago burned into his mind like a branding iron.
Impossible to erase.
The moment he closed his eyes, all he saw was that shocking whiteness.
And that milky sweetness rushing at him, mixed with the warmth of the bedding, making his head throb.
“Damn it.”
Huo Yan cursed under his breath and released his hand.
He turned around abruptly, not daring to look at the mound on the bed again.
His body was taut as stone, every muscle screaming with an unspeakable desire.
Damn it.
Absolutely damn it.
He, Huo Yan, had never blinked in the face of bullets on the battlefield—yet tonight, he’d nearly stumbled because of a barely grown girl.
“Where are your clothes?”
Huo Yan asked with his back to her, his voice cold as ice, trying to hide his loss of control.
Jiang Li shrank under the blanket, only a pair of reddened eyes visible. Her voice trembled with tears.“Wet… they’re wet…”
Huo Yan glanced at the red bridal gown still dripping water on the chair.
That thing truly couldn’t be worn anymore.
But this was a single-man dorm—where would women’s clothes come from?
He couldn’t let her stay naked like this.
If someone else saw—
Just the thought of another man seeing that scene from earlier made the nameless fire in Huo Yan’s chest burn even hotter.
No.
Absolutely not.
Huo Yan strode to the wardrobe and pulled it open.
After rummaging through the neatly arranged uniforms, he finally yanked out a white shirt.
It was something he usually wore under his uniform.
“Catch.”
Without turning around, he tossed the shirt back toward the bed.
It fluttered down lightly onto the blanket, carrying a pleasant soap scent.
“Put it on.”
Huo Yan walked to the window with his back still to her and yanked it open.
Cold wind mixed with rain swept in, slightly cooling the heat in his body.
He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out, and clenched it between his teeth—without lighting it.
He bit down hard on the filter, using the pain to suppress the turmoil raging inside him.
“So filthy. Don’t dirty my bedsheets.”
His tone was full of disdain and irritation, as if Jiang Li were something unclean.
But only he himself knew— how much self-control it had taken, just moments ago, to keep from doing something worse than a beast.
Soft rustling sounds came from behind him.
The sound of fabric brushing against skin.
In the quiet room, it was amplified infinitely, like a feather teasing Huo Yan’s already taut nerves.
Irritated, he pulled the cigarette from his mouth and crushed it between his fingers.
“O-okay…”
A mosquito-soft voice came from behind.
Huo Yan turned around.
His breath caught again.
Jiang Li was already wearing his white shirt.
Huo Yan was over 1.9 meters tall, broad-boned.
His shirt on the petite Jiang Li looked just like a long dress.
The hem fell straight to the tops of her thighs, revealing only a length of pale calves.
The sleeves were absurdly long, completely swallowing her hands, with only the tips of her fingers peeking out.
The neckline hung loose and sloppy, revealing a large expanse of delicate collarbones—and… faint, suggestive curves rising and falling beneath the fabric.
She stood timidly by the bed, both hands clutching the hem of the shirt, like a child who had secretly put on an adult’s clothes.
Yet that extreme sense of contrast—
A broad, stiff men’s shirt, wrapping around the soft, delicate body of a young girl.
Not only did it fail to hide her beauty, it instead gave off an even more lethal kind of allure.
Restrained.
Yet undeniably sensual.
Huo Yan felt his throat grow even drier.
He stared fixedly at Jiang Li, his gaze seeming as if it could burn straight through the shirt.
Jiang Li felt chills all over under his stare.
Uneasy, she shifted her toes, her round, adorable toes curling up against the floorboards.
“I… I didn’t mean to…”
She thought Huo Yan was still angry that she had dirtied the bedsheets.
Huo Yan said nothing.
Only the darkness in his eyes deepened, like the sea before a storm—suppressing violent, churning waves beneath the surface.
In that suffocating silence—
“Gurgle—”
An extremely ill-timed sound broke the deadlock.
It came from Jiang Li’s stomach.
The noise was loud, echoing clearly through the quiet room.
Jiang Li’s face instantly flushed crimson, and she wished she could crawl into a crack in the floor.
So embarrassing.
Truly, unbearably embarrassing.
She clutched her stomach, head hanging low, the tips of her ears burning red.
Huo Yan froze for a moment.
Then the expression on his cold, sharp features turned a little strange.
He stared at Jiang Li’s ears, red as if they might drip blood, and the restless heat and hostility in his chest inexplicably dissipated quite a bit.
Replacing it was a trace of… helplessness?
This girl.
Not only was she a walking source of trouble—
She was also clearly starving to death.
Huo Yan snorted coldly and tossed the crushed tobacco in his hand into the trash.
He turned and walked to the desk, pulled open a drawer, and took out an army-green metal tin.
“Come here.”
He set the metal box down on the desk with a loud clang.
Jiang Li jumped in fright, having no idea what he was about to do.
But faced with the man’s unquestionable gaze, she could only brace herself, dragging along the oversized slippers that didn’t quite fit, and slowly shuffle toward him step by step.