YJDNY - 39

It was already late at night. The car door was open, and the light from the streetlamp poured in, faintly illuminating her thin eyelids.

Xiang Ge frowned slightly and even shrank back further into the shadows.

Still half-asleep, she lazily extended her arm forward without opening her eyes and repeated, “You go ahead, don’t worry about me.”

Zhou Xingyan smirked faintly.

He gave a low hum of acknowledgment. “Alright, I’ll head up then. I won’t close the car door for you—it’ll ventilate.”

His voice was calm. “Wouldn’t want you to feel stifled while sleeping.”

With that, Zhou Xingyan fell silent.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Slow footsteps began to echo, growing fainter as they moved farther away. Finally, the sound of a lock clicking and the heavy thud of a door closing marked the end.

The world returned to silence.

Xiang Ge: ????

Did he really just leave?

Her eyes snapped open in disbelief, and she scrambled upright, twisting her head to look outside.

Zhou Xingyan was leaning casually against the car door, watching her with an amused expression.

“…”

Xiang Ge froze, slowly sinking back into her seat without a word. She blinked. “I just had a dream.”

Zhou Xingyan raised an eyebrow. “What did you dream about? Did I go upstairs by myself?”

“…”

Reluctantly, Xiang Ge crawled out of the car. Zhou Xingyan followed behind with two suitcases in hand. They went upstairs and entered the apartment. Xiang Ge kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the sofa.

After a long pause, she shifted her body to sit up, resting her feet on the edge of the sofa. She grabbed a cushion and hugged it to her chest. “Wait, something’s wrong. How did you trick me into coming to your place again?”

Zhou Xingyan pushed the suitcases aside, not even looking up. “The middle drawer of the TV cabinet.”

Xiang Ge sat cross-legged on the sofa, leaning her upper body forward slightly. “What?”

“The property deed is in the middle drawer of the TV cabinet. You can turn this place into your home.” He paused, thinking. “Consider this part of the deposit.”

It took Xiang Ge over ten seconds to process this before finally nodding calmly. She extended her long arm toward him, palm up. “Give me the keys. You have three days to move all your stuff out. I don’t want to share this weird house where only the master bedroom has a bathroom.”

Zhou Xingyan: “….”

Xiang Ge’s suitcase was still at Xia Wei’s place, along with all her pajamas. The hotel in Japan had provided yukatas, but it wasn’t until after her shower that Xiang Ge realized she had nothing to sleep in.

The bathroom was designed with separate wet and dry areas. Still dripping wet, she stepped out onto the white towel by the bathroom door. After a moment of hesitation, she walked barefoot to the closed door of the other bathroom and knocked.

From the bedroom outside, Zhou Xingyan’s muffled voice came through. “What is it?”

Xiang Ge quickly grabbed a large bath towel from the nearby rack and wrapped herself in it. “My pajamas… they’re all at Xia Wei’s place…”

There was silence from outside for a while.

A few minutes later, another knock sounded at the door.

Xiang Ge pulled the bath towel tighter around her, unlocked the door, and cracked it open slightly. Hiding behind the door, she peeked her head out.

Zhou Xingyan held out a piece of clothing with his index finger.

It was black, made of satin with lace trim.

“…”

“Do you have anything else?” Xiang Ge hesitated, struggling to ask.

“No, I only packed this,” Zhou Xingyan replied expressionlessly.

Why did you only pack this? What kind of intentions do you have?

Xiang Ge’s eyes were full of hesitation. She let out a long sigh and extended her arm, ready to take it.

Her forearm was porcelain-white and delicate, still glistening with droplets of water, emanating warmth.

Before she could grab it, Zhou Xingyan suddenly pulled his hand back.

Xiang Ge looked up.

The man pursed his lips, turned around, and casually tossed the black fabric onto the bed. He walked over to the wardrobe and opened it. “It’s a bit cold to wear that now. Let me find something else for you.”

“…”

Xiang Ge was the type of person who became braver the more the other side retreated.

For instance, at this moment, her initial discomfort vanished the instant she saw that Zhou Xingyan seemed even more uneasy than her.

She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow, and leaned against the bathroom doorframe. “It’s not cold. Can I just wear that?”

Zhou Xingyan glanced at her sideways, pulled out a set of clothes from the wardrobe, and handed them to her.

They were white, made of very soft material with light floral patterns—his pajamas.

Xiang Ge reached out to take them, her body frozen for a moment. With a straight face, she said, “Actually, the other one would’ve been fine too.”

Zhou Xingyan hissed softly, using the tip of his index finger to push her forehead back inside. “Hurry up and change.”

Zhou Xingyan’s pajamas were huge on her. The pants and sleeves were far too long. Even though Xiang Ge considered herself tall, she had to roll the pant legs several times to avoid stepping on them.

The sleeves were even longer, bunching up awkwardly when rolled. Finding it uncomfortable, she decided to leave them alone and emerged dramatically, flapping the oversized sleeves like an actor on stage.

After her hot shower, Xiang Ge emerged feeling refreshed. Zhou Xingyan wasn’t in the bedroom.

She padded out in slippers and saw him standing in front of the kitchen counter. A glass of milk sat on the counter. Seeing her, he raised his hand slightly. “Come here.”

Xiang Ge walked over and noticed something cooking in his pot.

Zhou Xingyan pushed the milk toward her. Xiang Ge picked it up, sipped it twice, and tilted her head forward. “Are you hungry?”

Zhou Xingyan didn’t answer.

Xiang Ge carried the glass of milk into the kitchen and peeked over. Inside the stainless steel pot, ginger water was boiling, the slices of ginger bubbling up.

Xiang Ge stepped back, her face wary as she turned her head to the side.

Zhou Xingyan chuckled and walked over to turn off the heat. “It’s not for you to drink.”

Xiang Ge frowned. “Are you drinking it yourself?”

“You only think about yourself. You don’t genuinely care about me.”

“…”

Zhou Xingyan looked at her questioningly.

She leisurely finished the glass of milk while Zhou Xingyan let the pot cool for a while. Xiang Ge washed the glass, placed it upside down to dry, rinsed her mouth, and prepared to go back to sleep.

Just then, she saw Zhou Xingyan emerge from the bathroom carrying a basin. He poured the freshly boiled ginger water into it.

Xiang Ge didn’t quite understand this operation and stood there, somewhat stunned. “Are you drinking it out of the basin?”

Zhou Xingyan seemed reluctant to answer her question. Holding the basin of ginger water, he simply said, “Go inside.”

Xiang Ge went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, watching as Zhou Xingyan followed her in. He placed the basin by the bed and tilted his chin upward. “Twenty minutes.”

“Huh?” She didn’t react immediately.

“Soaking your feet in warm ginger water helps with sleep, warms the kidneys, and dispels cold. You’re too cold.”

Xiang Ge blinked, kicked off her shoes, and cautiously dipped her toes in.

The water had cooled for a while, so the temperature was tolerable.

She slowly adjusted to the warmth, gradually immersing her feet. Suddenly, his previous restrictions on her eating ice cream and crab seemed oddly endearing.

Whether it was the soothing effect of the ginger water or sheer exhaustion, Xiang Ge slept soundly through the night, waking up directly at dawn. She vaguely remembered dreaming but couldn’t recall it by morning.

It had been a long time since she’d had such good sleep. The next day, she surprisingly woke up early, feeling refreshed. Zhou Xingyan hadn’t even come to wake her yet.

Xiang Ge opened the door and stepped out. The kitchen was quiet, with breakfast neatly arranged on the dining table. Zhou Xingyan sat in the living room by the large floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the balcony, reading the newspaper. A pair of glasses rested on his high nose bridge, giving him an air of refined elegance with a hint of mischief.

Seeing her emerge, he looked up, slightly surprised. “You woke up on your own today?”

Xiang Ge had never seen him wearing glasses before. Leaning against the wall, she studied him carefully for a while. Her fingertips peeked out from the long sleeves, and her expression seemed nostalgic. “The way you read the morning paper is exactly like my grandfather.”

Zhou Xingyan pushed his glasses up slightly. “If you’re awake, go wash up, then come eat.”

Today, Zhou Xingyan had bought shrimp sausages and a few small pastries. After breakfast, he went to work. Xiang Ge nibbled on a shrimp sausage while playing on her phone. But as soon as she opened Weibo, she was bombarded.

Countless retweets, private messages, notifications, and likes flooded in. Her followers had surged from 60,000 to 400,000.

After processing this for over ten seconds, Xiang Ge scrolled through the comments one by one. After reading for a while, she exited and called Gong Mo.

After three rings, Gong Mo answered, pretending to be formal. “Hello?”

Xiang Ge didn’t play along and cut straight to the chase. “While I was away, did Putin confess to me?”

“Z family’s young master, Fu Rongsen.”

“Hmm?”

“That Russian Putin hasn’t made it yet, but Z family’s ‘Putin’ did confess to you.”

Xiang Ge: “…?”

During the week-plus that Xiang Ge was in Japan, Z family’s endorsement campaign had launched.

Unlike SINGO , a fashion magazine known only within the industry, the Z family had occupied the top tier of high-end brands for years and enjoyed some recognition among ordinary people—even though they never advertised on television.

Especially after Fu Rongsen, the Z family’s young master, took over as the director of the Asian market. He introduced a new series catering to white-collar women, focusing heavily on new media development.

Three days ago, the official Weibo account for Z family’s Fall/Winter collection preview, titled Fervor , featuring Xiang Ge as the model, released its images.

Fu Rongsen was the first to repost and confess: [Of all the series so far, this is my favorite model. Completely satisfying, even astonishing. I want to pursue her to be my girlfriend.]

Not forgetting to tag her, he @mentioned her to make sure everyone knew who it was.

“…”

Thinking of the shiny leather shoes and the overly fragrant cologne of that man, Xiang Ge felt strangely unsurprised.

Calmly holding her phone, she asked, “What did President Song say?”

Gong Mo: “President Song said to tell you the moment we got in touch with you. Then you should bring your own head to see him.”

Xiang Ge let out an “Ah.”

Her phone had been off for a while during this period.

Xiang Ge rested her chin on her hand, dryly replying, “If I carry my own head, I won’t be able to roll over to see him.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a distant roar of anger echoed through the phone from Gong Mo’s side. It was thunderous, familiar, and overwhelming, as if spittle were crawling through the phone line: “Xiang Ge! You rotten brat! Get your ass over here right now!!!”

“…”