Chapter 13

The purple irises on the flower rack swayed in the rain and wind behind Shen Yu, and his smile emerged under the string of glowing light bulbs.

Shen Yu released his hand and asked with concern, “The rain’s too heavy. Did I grab you too hard?”

The downpour outside showed no signs of letting up; instead, it grew heavier. Cool rain threads were swept inside, and the delicate, beautiful flowers lifted their faces, joyfully facing this sudden heavy rain.

People bustled along the street, various noisy sounds mixing together. Under the string of glowing light bulbs, Zhou Jinsheng looked at Shen Yu’s face, which carried its usual smile.

That smiling face seemed to possess a magical charm that made people want to draw close and trust him.

Zhou Jinsheng looked away and shook his head.

A few rain threads were blown onto his exposed finger skin by the night wind.

The sensation was not particularly cold.

Shen Yu leaned in uncertainly and pressed, “Really didn’t hurt?”

Zhou Jinsheng glanced disdainfully at Shen Yu. “With your strength, you could hurt someone?”

Shen Yu caught the unconscious disdain in Zhou Jinsheng’s words and immediately feigned indignation. “Don’t underestimate me. My strength is pretty good.”

Their school uniforms were soaked by the rain, the fabric clinging wetly to their skin. They had run over to shelter from the rain, and the dampness of the rainwater mixed with the heat from their exertion, turning sticky and muggy.

Shen Yu tugged at his collar, fanning it to let in some air.

His distinctively jointed fingers pulled at the school uniform tie, and the two long triangular shirt collars parted slightly along his neckline, revealing a stretch of shoulder and neck that looked even colder and more delicate, dyed pale by the water.

Zhou Jinsheng’s gaze followed those fingers to that forbidden patch of skin.

Shockingly white. It was cold rain, yet it seemed steamed by heat, like soft grease melting wetly in a scalding porcelain bowl.

The wind chimes overhead jingled crisply in the breeze.

Tinkling sounds, like a cascade of notes rippling from under his fingers.

The light bulbs flickered on the swaying string. Amid the thick, mixed fragrance of flowers, Zhou Jinsheng smelled the familiar scent of Shen Yu’s body wash, wafting in this narrow space.

Rainwater mixed with dust and microbes in the air, bringing waves of damp smells. The soaked clothes stuck to their skin, making them irritable.

Zhou Jinsheng grabbed his tie and yanked it open. Wet strands of hair fell over his forehead to his eye corner, accentuating the deep, icy chill of his narrow eyes.

His expression looked very cold.

Shen Yu sensed that the atmosphere had turned a bit off.

He leaned forward, blinking, his long, thick lashes fluttering like little brushes. “What’s wrong? Don’t like rainy days? Bad mood?”

“Not really like or dislike.”

Zhou Jinsheng paused in yanking his tie, frowning. “Also? You don’t like rainy days?”

Shangjing had abundant rain, fostering lush growth and blooming flowers and trees. It had long been known as the rain city.

Rain pooled on the ground. Flashing brilliant neon lights and vibrant colorful flowers reflected in the same puddles, their dreamy, hazy watercolors shattered by the footsteps of passersby dodging the rain.

Nearby vendors seized the opportunity, wheeling out carts to sell umbrellas as usual, quickly forming long lines.

“Rainy days are too sad.” Shen Yu seemed to think of something and sighed with a smile. “Sunny days, sunlight, flowers—how wonderful.”

His gaze shifted, and he pointed at the flowers drinking their fill of rainwater. “But these flowers look like they love rainy days. They’re all drinking their fill.”

Zhou Jinsheng followed his gesture, still sharp-tongued. “Are you a flower? How do you speak for them?”

Shen Yu said angrily, “Why so aggressive? And how am I not a flower?”

“What flower?”

Zhou Jinsheng raised a brow, looking at him with a half-smile, as if saying, “Let’s see how you make that up.”

Shen Yu’s eyes darted, and he struck a orchid finger pose, his ending tone winding playfully. “The school flower~”

Zhou Jinsheng paused, a curve of laughter forming at his lips. Then the smile grew wider until he couldn’t hold back and burst into loud laughter, doubling over, his whole person coming alive vibrantly.

One remark had nearly earned Shen Yu a lifetime of shyness in exchange. Shen Yu’s mouth twitched. He had just been high-EQ humor, but he didn’t know what hit Zhou Jinsheng’s funny bone to make him laugh like this.

Whether in his previous life or this one, he had never seen Zhou Jinsheng laugh like that. He felt a bit novel.

Shen Yu grew embarrassed from the laughter, his face flushing slightly. In annoyed embarrassment, he balled his fist to punch Zhou Jinsheng. “Zhou Jinsheng, can you stop laughing? What’s so funny!”

Zhou Jinsheng dodged. “School flower, hahahaha.”

Shen Yu pretended to be serious and protested loudly. “Fuck, stop laughing!”

“No way, hahahaha—”

In the end, Shen Yu caught his laughter and started laughing too.

“Achoo—”

The chill seeped into his bones, and Shen Yu couldn’t hold back a sneeze.

Once the laughter tired out, Zhou Jinsheng returned to his usual aloof, overlooking-everyone demeanor, as if the idiot-like laughter from moments ago hadn’t been him.

Such a pretender, Shen Yu grumbled inwardly.

Zhou Jinsheng straightened his cuffs and saw Shen Yu’s pale lips. He suggested, “I have a small villa nearby. Want to go there first, take a hot shower, and change clothes?”

Shen Yu’s rented apartment was about an hour’s drive away. Going back soaked like this, even if he didn’t catch a cold, he’d still get chilled.

Shen Yu pushed him urgingly. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? Hurry, hurry.”

Soon, a driver arrived to pick them up.

The driver uncle was nearly forty, with a square face, sharp eagle-like eyes, and a sturdy, burly build that looked intimidating.

After getting out, he respectfully opened the car door, held an umbrella, and bowed at the waist to escort them inside.

The car had strong air conditioning on, warm and blowing gently.

“Achoo—”

Suddenly encountering the warmth, Shen Yu sneezed again, his eyes misting with physiological tears, like cleaned gray glass beads.

Zhou Jinsheng heard the sneeze, opened the storage compartment, took out a wool blanket, and tossed it onto Shen Yu.

Shen Yu’s entire head was instantly covered by the blanket. He poked his head out, hair a mess, his brows and eyes rendered strikingly vivid and beautiful by his emotions. “Zhou Jinsheng, you trying to kill me?!”

“Aren’t you a flower?”

Shen Yu: “?”

Zhou Jinsheng crossed his arms, perfectly composed. “This is me killing a flower.”

Shen Yu rolled his eyes and draped the blanket over himself. The blanket was thick and heavy, made of wool, warm and substantial as it dispelled the chill from his body.

Old Li, watching everything through the rearview mirror, felt a storm surge in his heart. Unable to curb his curiosity, he subtly glanced at Shen Yu.

Old Li was a former special forces soldier who had made a mistake in the unit. After retiring, he struggled to find reliable work until three years ago, when Zhou Jinsheng spotted him at an underground black fist match and he ended up following him just like that.

In three years, he knew well his employer’s cold, violent, and impersonal nature. Seeing Zhou Jinsheng like this today, even with his usual lack of curiosity, sparked some interest in the boy.

The boy was very handsome, but not the delicately carved feminine beauty—more like possessing a sense of beauty.

A hot, mysterious aura.

Especially now, with no expression on Shen Yu’s face. When not smiling, it was even harder to pinpoint. In Old Li’s limited vocabulary, it was like—

Sunlight without warmth.

What a strange kid.

Zhou Jinsheng noticed Old Li’s gaze and raised a brow slightly. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Old Li shook his head hurriedly, withdrawing his gaze. For some reason, he felt a strange sensation in his heart.

Outside the car window, heavy rain poured, linking heaven and earth into a flowing curtain of rain.

Shangjing’s high-rises stood amid layers of misty rain clouds.

In just over ten minutes, the car arrived at a villa district.

The “small villa” Zhou Jinsheng mentioned was indeed nearby. In this inch-of-land-gold commercial area of dense buildings, this low-density villa district was jaw-dropping and hardly qualified as “small.”

The villa had complete furniture, but sparsely placed, with few signs of habitation. Clearly, no one truly lived here; it served only as a temporary stop for emergencies.

Each bedroom had an attached shower.

With a hiss, hot water sprayed down. Shen Yu stripped off his wet clothes and took a comfortable hot shower in the guest room, thoroughly dispelling the chill from his body. He immediately felt refreshed and lighter.

Halfway through, there were two knocks. Zhou Jinsheng’s magnetic voice sounded outside the door.

“Found a new set of clothes. Left them on the bed for you.”

Through the frosted glass door, he vaguely saw Zhou Jinsheng’s figure. Shen Yu paused in applying body wash and replied, “Okay, thanks.”

Zhou Jinsheng’s figure lingered on the frosted glass door for a moment before vanishing.

Shen Yu finished showering and slowly dried his body.

He had a beautiful lean musculature, snow-white and fine muscles tinged pink in the steam, narrow and powerful waist, water droplets sliding along the sleek mermaid lines.

Every movement tensed the muscles, highly aesthetic.

Shen Yu gripped the shower door handle, about to open it, when 007 said: 【There are cameras.】

Shen Yu’s twist of the handle halted abruptly. He slowly typed out a question mark: 【What the hell?】

007: 【Every room in the villa except the shower has cameras.】

Shen Yu: 【……】

Fuck—

Such strong vigilance?

Midway, Zhou Jinsheng remembered something and returned with the clothes from the bed. The “whooshing” water sounds and steaming heat billowed from the shower.

Zhou Jinsheng’s gaze suddenly paused.

Opposite the frosted shower glass door was a mirror, where the hazy dark silhouette played like a shadow puppet on its surface.

Zhou Jinsheng hung the clothes over his arm and leaned lazily against the wall by the shower, casually appreciating the boy’s showering figure.

Shen Yu excelled in PE, clearly working out privately too. He looked slim clothed, but shirtless, he was quite packed.

His tall, athletic silhouette flickered in and out, water streams flowing over his body like rivers over terrain, undulating at the edges, solid powerful abs with blurred muscle ridges rising and falling, legs below straight and long.

Zhou Jinsheng idly thought that Shen Yu’s skin was so fair; it was easy to imagine how good those legs looked—pale, straight, long, muscles taut, perfect for—

As his thoughts slid toward more obscure, stickier directions, Zhou Jinsheng snapped back.

He suddenly narrowed his long, narrow eyes.

The body wash scent clung to slick skin, wafting from inside out. Zhou Jinsheng keenly sensed something off.

In his circle, young masters and misses lacked for nothing, with all sorts of people, playthings regardless of gender—just about playing.

But mostly in private, not openly.

“Mm—”

Hot water whooshed, and a comfortable moan came from inside the shower door, like a sultry sticky rainy night, room filled with rising heat and fragrance, withered trees swaying outside the window, fever burning delirium, body covered in sticky hot sweat, a low, unbearable gasp, so—

Erotic.

Zhou Jinsheng narrowed his eyes.

The figure in the mirror turned sideways, raising an arm, fingers raking into wet hair to slick it back from his forehead.

Plump water beads rolled down his snow-white shoulder and neck, tracing wet trails across his chest.

The trails followed the sleek mermaid line down, along faint blue veins on his abdomen, plunging suddenly into the white misty fog.

Water sounds alternated with breaths, as if one could feel the hot steamy spray.

The breaths hit his eardrums, each clearer than the last.

The shower sounds stopped, and there was no movement inside for a long time.

It was the age of surging blood anyway—

Zhou Jinsheng furrowed his brows tightly, lash shadows falling over his eyes like thick predatory clouds.

Fuck.

He rarely wanted to curse.

“Need help?”

A low, hoarse voice came from outside the door.

Shen Yu, who had been bantering with the system, froze. “Zhou Jinsheng? You didn’t leave?”

Zhou Jinsheng was concise. “Just got here.”

With his words, the figure reappeared on the frosted glass door.

It seemed like one-way glass; only visible from inside.

Shen Yu curled his pale, pruned fingers and knocked on the shadow of Zhou Jinsheng’s head with his knuckles, grinning as he said, “You came at the perfect time. I really need your help, so could I trouble classmate Zhou Jinsheng to grab some clothes for me?”

As he spoke, Shen Yu twisted open the shower door handle and stretched his arm out, waving it in front of Zhou Jinsheng a couple of times by way of indication. Zhou Jinsheng handed over the clothes.

A simple white T-shirt and black shorts, plus a pair of underwear—none of them had the tags removed, and the fabric felt different from the stuff available on the market.

Though unworn, they were clearly bought to Zhou Jinsheng’s own measurements: the underwear fit perfectly, while the T-shirt and shorts were quite loose.

Zhou Jinsheng’s muscles were indeed well-trained; he needed to ask him for some tips when he had the chance.

Shen Yu slipped on the clothes and twisted the door handle to step out.

Zhou Jinsheng wore a black bathrobe, arms crossed as he leaned lazily against the door.

The glossy light from overhead scattered down, illuminating them both.

The tall youth’s black hair was slightly damp—he had clearly just showered too—and a thin layer of steam rose from his body. He had shed his usual unapproachable aloofness; the black bathrobe hung loosely over the contours of his rippling muscles, their lines faintly visible. At that moment, his muscles were relaxed, coiled in a state ready to strike, exuding a casual, lazy sexiness.

Seeing him emerge, Zhou Jinsheng lifted his thin eyelids, his gaze quickly and heavily sweeping over Shen Yu.

Zhou Jinsheng slightly raised his chin, tongue pressing against his teeth, and ordered, “Go downstairs first.”

The villa’s first-floor living room featured enormous floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. Outside, the night was thick as ink, a murky darkness, with only the buried garden lights still glowing tirelessly. The tempered glass surfaces were muddied by the rushing rainwater.

The rain grew heavier, winds howling, the storm raging; everything began to tremble and sway in the storm, teetering on the brink of collapse, awaiting utter destruction.

Zhou Jinsheng irritably picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

The news reporter on screen, clad in a raincoat, stood in a flooded plaza, her voice coming through clearly via the microphone.

“Recently, Shangjing City has experienced continuous rainfall not seen in a decade. The duration is unstable and the volume heavy. Citizens, please carry rain gear when heading out…”

Shen Yu draped a dry towel over his head and slowly rubbed his damp hair with his hand. Without any sense of being a guest, he wandered into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and peered inside. The white freezer shelves were empty, save for the egg tray packed full of eggs.

Not even a cup of water.

Disappointed, Shen Yu emerged from the kitchen. Zhou Jinsheng sat on the sofa with his back to him, one muscular arm draped solidly over the sofa back, the other holding his phone as he looked down at it.

Much of the moisture had been washed away during the shower, so Shen Yu licked his dry lips and raised his voice. “Zhou Jinsheng, I’m so thirsty. How come you don’t even have a bottle of water here?”

Zhou Jinsheng didn’t lift his head and directed, “There’s a mini fridge next to the bar counter.”

With the clue in hand, Shen Yu followed the bar counter until he found it.

The mini fridge came up to Shen Yu’s thigh and was packed full of drinks in various colors, all frozen solid. Shen Yu opened the door and bent down to grab a bottle of iced water from the bottom shelf.

“Shen Yu—”

Zhou Jinsheng looked up from his phone and suddenly paused.

As the youth bent over, the loose white T-shirt slid up to his waist, like the peeled skin of a lychee, revealing a section of snow-white, supple lower back.

If he kept peeling away that lychee skin—

A terrifying surge of violent desire crashed into Zhou Jinsheng like a scorching meteor.

He narrowed his eyes, staring at the dip of Shen Yu’s waistline.

His gaze drifted lower.