A chill spread through Jiang Nuan’s entire body. Someone she didn’t know was watching her from behind the scenes, and the ordinary conversations and casual interactions she’d shared with her friends had been turned into weapons aimed at them.
That realization suffocated her even more than the thought that someone wanted to kill her.
The warm yellow light made the room feel unnaturally quiet. Jiang Nuan sat on the sofa with her head lowered, saying nothing.
Shen Wu stood up.
She instinctively raised her head, thinking he was finally going to leave.
But Shen Wu stopped in front of her.
He simply stood there, looking down at her.
Jiang Nuan tilted her head back to meet his eyes, then quickly looked away.
“You’re still thinking about it,” Shen Wu said. “You’re blaming yourself, thinking this was your fault.”
Jiang Nuan didn’t deny it.
“It was that lunatic’s fault, not yours,” he said. “Jiang Ce already told you that.”
“I know,” Jiang Nuan replied.
“But you can’t stop blaming yourself.”
Jiang Nuan nodded silently.
Knowing something was one thing. Actually doing it was another.
Especially when it came to forcing her mind to stop thinking about it. That was practically impossible.
Shen Wu looked at her and remained silent for two seconds.
During those two seconds, his gaze slid from her eyes to her tightly interlaced fingers, then returned to her face.
Then he reached out.
Jiang Nuan’s back stiffened for a moment.
Before she had time to react, his arm tightened around her waist.
His other hand supported the backs of her knees, and he lifted her from the sofa with ease.
She instinctively grabbed his clothes.
Her feet left the floor for an instant, then touched the edge of the narrow table beside them.
He set her down on it. His fingers moved away from the crook of her knees, but his palm remained against her waist.
The tabletop was cool, and the chill seeped through Jiang Nuan’s clothes into her skin.
Sitting on the edge of the table, she was suddenly much higher up, yet she still had to tilt her head slightly to meet Shen Wu’s eyes as he stood before her.
Her hand was still clutching a small fold of fabric over his chest.
He stood directly in front of her, so close that she could feel his breath stir the hair above her forehead.
“There are some things,” he said, “that can temporarily clear all that out of your head.”
His palm rubbed lightly against the small of Jiang Nuan’s back.
“Want to try?”
Jiang Nuan held her breath. “…What are you talking about?”
“You understood me.” Shen Wu tilted his head slightly. Up close, his eyes no longer held their usual careless detachment.
Instead, they were intensely focused, as though he didn’t want to miss the slightest change in her expression. “You’re just not sure whether you should respond.”
Jiang Nuan’s fingers loosened, then tightened again.
She had understood him.
And she did want an escape—a moment when she didn’t have to think about anything at all.
Shen Wu raised a hand and pressed his thumb against her chin, gently tilting it upward until her lowered eyes met his again.
“Jiang Nuan.”
He murmured her name once, his breath reaching her before his lips did.
The kiss was gentler than she had imagined. His lips first brushed the corner of her mouth and paused for a second before covering hers.
Then the pressure deepened.
He caught her lower lip between his, and when the tip of his tongue pressed inside, there was a restrained kind of aggression that left her unable to breathe.
Jiang Nuan’s fingers released his clothes and slid around the back of his neck instead.
With that movement, Shen Wu’s restraint seemed to disappear.
His knee pressed between hers.
Her knees, which had been held tightly together, parted to either side. Sitting on the edge of the table left her with almost nothing to brace against, and when he pushed in, her body naturally leaned backward. Her back met the cold wall.
He pressed his entire body against hers, so close that she could feel the beating of his heart inside his chest.
Its rhythm was far too fast, utterly at odds with the calm, indifferent expression on his face.
The kiss paused for a moment.
Shen Wu rested his forehead against hers, the tip of his nose brushing hers, his breath warming her lips.
“Still thinking about it?” he asked.
Jiang Nuan’s mind had gone completely blank.
Su Yang, the car accident, mind control, the line-drawing pen—everything that had been circling through her head all night was gone.
All that remained was his breathing, the palm pressed against her waist, and the knee wedged between her thighs.
She honestly shook her head.
There was no point in lying to Shen Wu.
He kissed her again, and this time there was no gentleness left.
His fingers tightened around her waist, pulling her forward an inch until their bodies were pressed even more closely together.
At some point, her ankle had hooked around his leg. The hem of her clothes had ridden up during their movements, and when his fingertips touched that small patch of exposed skin, she gave an unmistakable shudder and pressed a hand against his chest.
Shen Wu stopped there.
Their lips and teeth parted, and he lowered his eyes to study her reaction.
“There are people outside,” Jiang Nuan said, her voice slightly hoarse.
“Mm.” Shen Wu acknowledged it. His fingers stroked the exposed skin at her waist one last time, then pulled her hem back into place.
He took half a step away, giving her room to breathe.
When Jiang Nuan slid off the table, her legs briefly went weak. Only when her feet touched the floor did she recover a sense of reality.
She straightened her clothes, not daring to look up at him.
She walked toward the door, then turned back after two steps.
Shen Wu had already leaned back into his chair again, his long legs crossed, his gaze fixed on her without wavering.
“…Good night,” she said hurriedly before turning around and pushing the door open.
Shen Wu’s lazy voice followed her out, carrying a hint of amusement.
“Good night, Jiang Nuan.”
After a pause, he added, “Sweet dreams.”
The door closed.
The apartment was silent, with only the sound of her own footsteps remaining.
Jiang Nuan touched her lips. They still carried a trace of someone else’s warmth.
Her mind really had gone blank.
But something else had filled that empty space.
*
Jiang Nuan had been planning to choose any empty room to sleep in, but then she remembered what Ye Que had said: the room at the very end had a north-facing window and was quiet.
He was the apartment’s permanent resident, so his recommendation should have been reliable.
Jiang Nuan started walking toward the door at the far end of the corridor.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t choose that room.”
Shen Wu’s voice drifted over from behind her.
Jiang Nuan stopped and turned to look at him. “Why?”
Shen Wu merely lifted his eyelids. “Instinct.”
…
She was full of questions.
But Shen Wu’s instincts were usually worth trusting.
In the end, Jiang Nuan turned around and chose a bedroom toward the inner side of the second floor instead. She closed the door and quickly took a shower.
Far too much had happened that day.
She fell onto the bed and went straight to sleep.
She slept fairly soundly.
Until a scream in the middle of the night startled her awake.
Jiang Nuan wasn’t fully conscious yet, but her hand had already moved. She pulled the gun from beneath her pillow and sat up, turning over.
Cleaners?
Could they really have broken in?
She stepped onto the floor with bare feet. The chill shot straight through the soles of her feet and up to the crown of her head, clearing most of the fog from her mind.
Keeping close to the wall, she pulled the door open a crack and peered through the gap.
Jiang Ce had already emerged into the corridor.
The two of them exchanged a glance. Jiang Ce’s brows were furrowed, a translucent phantom shield hovering before one hand while the other rested behind his waist. His entire posture was tense and wary.
Ye Que silently crept over from the other end of the corridor. His hair was slightly disheveled, with one lock sticking straight up from the crown of his head.
Paired with that expressionless face of his, it looked decidedly out of place.
Jiang Nuan almost took a second look, but quickly caught herself and turned away.
The three of them tiptoed toward the source of the noise on the first floor.
The light in the room was on.
Shen Wu was leaning against the pillows, looking toward the edge of the bed as if nothing had happened.
Qinian stood in front of him.
His breathing had not yet settled. He instinctively took half a step back, his face plainly showing the look of someone who had just returned from the gates of hell.
The air fell silent for two seconds.
“I…” Qinian cleared his throat and forced himself to remain calm. “I came to the wrong room.”
Shen Wu withdrew his gaze from Qinian’s face. “The last room on the second floor.”
Qinian didn’t understand. “What?”
“The person you’re looking for,” Shen Wu said calmly, “is in the last room on the second floor.”
He paused.
“But she’s here now, too.”
Qinian turned around.
Jiang Nuan stood barefoot in the doorway, still holding a gun. One of the little buns she had tied up before bed had come loose, and strands of hair clung to her cheek.
The two of them stared at each other for several seconds.
Qinian: “…”
Jiang Nuan: “…”
Beside them, Jiang Ce pressed the back of his hand to his mouth and turned his head away, his shoulders trembling slightly.
Ye Que had already turned to leave. Just before he went, he let out a tsk. The tuft of hair sticking up on his head disappeared down the hallway along with him.
“I just couldn’t sleep, so I got up to walk around!” Qinian finally managed to say, his voice carrying an indistinguishable mixture of indignation and guilt.
“You walked all the way onto someone else’s bed?”
“I didn’t know this was Shen Wu’s room!” Qinian broke down for a moment. “Didn’t Ye Que say this room was for you to sleep in?!”
“I switched rooms.” Jiang Nuan now understood what had happened and couldn’t help rolling her eyes at Qinian.
“You—” Qinian paused. “You switched? Why?!”
Jiang Nuan instinctively glanced toward Shen Wu.
The corners of Shen Wu’s lips curved into the faintest hint of a smile. He lowered his head without saying anything.
Jiang Nuan slowly turned her gaze back and looked at Qinian with perfect composure. “A hunch.”
Qinian: “???”
Jiang Ce finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. He turned his back and muffled a laugh, forcing out, “As long as nothing happened. Get some sleep,” before hurrying away. Before his footsteps had even faded down the hall, another laugh escaped him.
Qinian was still standing there, his expression complicated.
Jiang Nuan turned around, went back to her room, and closed the door behind her. She pulled back the covers and lay down.
Shen Wu had told her not to choose that room, so she had casually switched to this one on the second floor.
That left the last vacant room to Shen Wu as a matter of course—and Shen Wu had probably known from the start that Qinian planned to sneak into her bed tonight.
So he had claimed that room in advance.
She stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Now she understood exactly what Shen Wu had meant by “a hunch.”
When it came to sabotaging his teammates, this man really could do it without making a sound.
Jiang Nuan pulled the covers higher, buried her head in the pillow, and fell completely asleep.
