Chapter 94: The Bracelet Was Quite Beautiful

Lu Qingyue noticed that he, too, had been caught in the rain. Afraid he might catch cold, she hurried him into her bedroom, then ran to the wardrobe, found a clean towel, and handed it to him.

"You should dry off too."

Otherwise, he would end up with a cold after being soaked.

She did not say the rest aloud. She did not want her concern to be too obvious, lest he misunderstand and think she still harbored some lingering feelings for him.

Cheng Xingye gave a quiet reply, took the towel, and roughly wiped away the rainwater on himself.

He stood right by the doorway and did not go in. Without any proper excuse or standing, he was not used to stepping so directly into a girl’s room.

The towel was soft and plush, carrying the faint scent that always lingered on her, like some floral note from body wash, cool and sweet on the breath.

As he idly dried his hair, Cheng Xingye lowered his head as if by accident and, with feigned casualness, glanced at her wrist.

That single glance caught sight of two tiny silver charms there. Whenever she moved, they gave off a delicate ringing, the faint, broken sounds landing in the corridor with unusual clarity.

"It’s pouring outside. If you hadn’t brought him back, he’d probably have been sleeping on the street tonight..."

Lu Qingyue looked out at the window with concern and chattered on and on, with a trace of reproach for Lu Yi.

Drinking that much on such a heavy rainstorm of a night—if Cheng Xingye had not driven him home, there was no way her slight frame could have managed to carry him back.

Midway through speaking, she suddenly stopped, then tucked her hand behind her back for no reason she could explain, and asked in confusion,

"Why do you keep looking at my hand?"

She had noticed it the moment he came in. Cheng Xingye seemed to be glancing everywhere and nowhere, but in truth he had been looking at her hand the whole time.

Could he possibly have developed some very strange new habit, some preference for looking at or smelling girls’ hands?

Wasn’t that perverted beyond reason?

Lu Qingyue knew there were some depraved men in the world who liked to stare at girls’ hands and feet, and so she grew wary at once. Without another word, she hid her hand behind her back and would not let him keep looking.

Cheng Xingye’s attempt to test his suspicion was interrupted. His dark eyes lifted slightly as he looked at her in silence.

A wall lamp was lit in the corridor, and its warm yellow glow fell over him, casting deep and shallow shadows across his sharply defined features.

He looked at the wary little girl before him, smiled soundlessly, and asked with unusual frankness,

"That bracelet on your wrist is very pretty. Could I take a look?"

Lu Qingyue thought: Who are you trying to fool?

You just want to use this as an excuse to touch my hand, don’t you?

She remained guarded, and the hand wearing the bracelet pressed tightly against the small of her back. Feigning calm, she asked,

"You like silver bracelets?"

Cheng Xingye gave a low hum and patiently bargained with her.

"Very much. I’ll only look once. Is that all right?"

But Lu Qingyue tilted her chin and refused at once.

"No way! Even if you like it, I’m not selling it to you!"

She half-believed and half-doubted his words. Before he could say anything, she muttered an added remark,

"I’m an incoming college student, not some silver seller."

So don’t even think of using that flimsy excuse to take advantage of me!

Cheng Xingye: "...."

He was just about to say something when voices suddenly came from the stairway.

"Dot? Who are you talking to?"

Lu Jiacheng and Xi Yu had already gone to bed. In the middle of the night, Lu Jiacheng heard noise downstairs, got up, and came down to check.

Then he saw his daughter standing in the corridor with Lu Yi’s friend, talking about selling something or other.

The old father’s eyes immediately widened, and he was only a step away from going to the kitchen to fetch a knife.

It was one thing for this man to covet his precious daughter, but to sneak all the way into his house? How the hell was that supposed to be tolerated?

Lu Jiacheng came down the stairs with a dark face.

The moment Lu Qingyue saw that murderous expression, she was afraid he might really butcher Cheng Xingye on the spot. At once she dared not play on words anymore. With her hands behind her back, she stood properly and explained in a meek voice,

"My brother drank too much. Xingye brought him back!"

Lu Jiacheng’s expressionless face turned into a perfunctory but still polite smile.

"Oh. Thank you for your trouble."

Of course he knew that after the bridge-fall incident last time, the man before him could be considered, in some measure, a benefactor to his family. But whenever he thought of this fellow sneaking around under his nose in the middle of the night, trying to steal his precious child, he simply could not bring himself to be cordial.

He was just about to order the man to leave when Xi Yu also heard the commotion and came down from upstairs.

Apparently, after hearing up there that Cheng Xingye had brought Lu Yi home, she came down and immediately asked with warm concern,

"You’re a friend of Lu Yi’s? Thank you for bringing him home. It’s raining so hard outside—why don’t you just make do and stay here for the night?"

Cheng Xingye had already thought he ought to leave, but at those words he paused and instinctively glanced at Lu Qingyue.

The little girl still had her hand firmly hidden behind her back, not letting him see even a little.

He would have to find a way to stay in contact if he wanted a chance to get to the bottom of the bracelet.

With that thought, the "no need to trouble you" that had reached his lips took a detour, and when he finally spoke, it came out as:

"Then I’ll be troubling you."

Lu Jiacheng: "...."

Lu Qingyue: "...."

Why are you not the least bit polite?

The impolite Cheng Xingye wore a face of complete sincerity and earnestness, as though he truly had no choice and were being forced to stay the night.

Xi Yu, the only one who had no idea what was going on, did not overthink it at all. Seeing that he was willing to stay, she hurried off to arrange a guest room for him.

Lu Jiacheng, meanwhile, shot his daughter a warning look and said in a low voice,

"Stay in your room tonight and behave. No matter who comes knocking, you are not to open the door. Understand?!"

Lu Qingyue gave a bewildered "ah," and before she could say anything, her father shoved her into the room and slammed the door shut with a bang.

The instant the door closed, a clear and loud thud rang out almost at the same time from inside.

Lu Qingyue, her head having struck the wall: "???"

So the world where only she got hurt had finally been achieved?

.....

The rain fell all night outside.

Lu Yi slept through the whole night, and when he got up at nine the next morning, he was already back to normal.

After washing up, he was preparing to go downstairs for breakfast, only to open his door and, with no warning at all, come face to face with Cheng Xingye, who had just woken up and opened the door opposite him.

Lu Yi did not remember a thing that had happened after he got drunk last night. His face was full of bewilderment.

"Why are you here?"

Wasn’t this his home?

Why was there this kind of dog here in his house?

Cheng Xingye was about to speak when he was abruptly shoved aside.

"Fuck!"

Lu Yi swore, then strode straight into the guest room and yanked the blanket off the bed.

No one was inside.

He turned and jerked open the wardrobe.

Finally, he searched everywhere, top to bottom, not even missing the rug under the bed, and only after confirming that Lu Qingyue was not in his room did he finally breathe a shaky sigh of relief.

Then, thinking better of it, he turned back and stared at Cheng Xingye again, double-checking,

"You didn’t sleep in the same room as Dot last night, did you?"

Cheng Xingye: "...."

He would have liked to, but did he have the nerve?

Last night, when he went to sleep, he had truly tried practicing keeping one eye on guard and the other on watch. He was only afraid the little girl’s old father might sneak over under cover of darkness and knife him at any moment.

Cheng Xingye tilted his head back and sighed helplessly, then gave a brief, cursory explanation.

When Lu Yi heard that Xi Yu had made him stay, he did not say anything more. Yet as they went downstairs, he still seemed uneasy and kept looking back at Cheng Xingye’s lower abdomen, though no one knew what he was thinking.

Cheng Xingye shoved both hands into his pockets and followed behind him. Seeing him keep looking that way, he cut him off in exasperation.

"What are you staring at?"

Were the two siblings of the Lu family perhaps a little too open about this matter?

Why did they keep glancing at him there whenever they had the chance?

Lu Yi, however, was very direct. He casually swept his gaze over it again and admitted with complete candor,

"I’m checking whether the weapon actually fired last night."

Cheng Xingye: "???"

Cheng Xingye: "...."