Chapter 43

During Lu Yan’s bath, Shen Kuo walked around the room restlessly. She could even clearly hear the sound of his pacing.

“Add more hot water,” he would occasionally come to the door and remind her. “It’s best to use all hot water.”

“It’s already really hot.”

“It can be hotter, it doesn’t matter.”

“Do you want me to turn into a roasted duck?”

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “If you turn into a roasted duck…”

Lu Yan waited for a while, but he didn’t continue, so she asked in a gruff voice, “What if I turn into a roasted duck?”

“I’ll… eat you.”

“Ha.”

He usually spoke in a serious tone, so this kind of joke was rare.

Lu Yan quite liked this relaxed side of him. She wished things could always be this way.

Half an hour later, she turned off the hot water, dried her body with a towel, and asked Shen Kuo, “My clothes are all wet, what should I wear?”

“Wait a moment.”

Shen Kuo went to the room to get clothes and pants, then walked to the door and knocked. “Open the door.”

After a while, the door opened a crack, and Lu Yan slowly extended her damp arm out, releasing a puff of warm mist.

Shen Kuo handed her the clothes, “Wear mine, is that okay?”

“No problem!”

With a quick motion, she pulled her arm back and immediately locked the bathroom door.

He smiled faintly.

The clothes Shen Kuo gave her were soft, plush sleepwear, cottony and warm, with a clean scent of soap powder.

Her small frame made the clothes hang loosely on her. However… she wasn’t wearing a bra. Although the fabric was thick enough to hide it somewhat, it wasn’t completely inconspicuous.

She tugged at the front of the clothes, trying to make them seem even looser.

After adjusting herself, she took a deep breath, mentally preparing for a while before slowly opening the bathroom door and stepping out.

Shen Kuo was in the kitchen making ginger tea. Hearing the sound, he walked out, holding the steaming bowl.

The girl stood awkwardly by the wall in his oversized clothes, her damp black hair falling over her shoulders.

After a bath, the skin always looked especially fair, like a tender bud, clear and dewy.

No wonder some things could only be done after a bath—not just for cleanliness, but because after a bath, whether male or female, everyone appeared especially beautiful.

Lu Yan noticed Shen Kuo staring at her intently and, feeling a little shy, turned her face away, asking, “What are you doing?”

Shen Kuo snapped out of his daze, took a moment to collect himself, then handed her the bowl of soup before pulling her to the couch and using a hairdryer to dry her hair.

Lu Yan took a small sip of the warm ginger tea.

“It’s delicious.”

“Then drink more.”

He had added sugar to the tea, and it was rich and fragrant.

Lu Yan continued drinking the tea.

Shen Kuo stood in front of her, picking up the damp strands of her hair and carefully drying them, one by one.

Lu Yan occasionally looked up at him.

He kept his gaze lowered, looking very serious, yet gentle, as he meticulously tended to her hair.

Lu Yan didn’t dare to look at him for long, her gaze moving downward, now level with his flat abdomen.

She carefully pressed her forehead against his firm stomach, and when she didn’t feel any reaction from him, she relaxed and leaned into him, even wrapping her arms around his waist.

Shen Kuo’s expression softened, and he gave a faint smile. “It seems like you really enjoy taking advantage of me.”

“Is that not allowed?”

“It’s allowed.”

Shen Kuo picked up a strand of her hair at the back of her head and gently pulled her away, saying in a restrained tone, “Not right now.”

In some respects, like all men, he didn’t have strong self-control, especially… when it was a girl he had been thinking about every night.

He was afraid he might lose control and hurt her.

However, Lu Yan didn’t notice at all. Throughout the entire process of drying her hair, the little girl either rubbed against his stomach or touched his waist, making his heart feel all restless.

As always, he patiently dried every strand of her hair.

Outside, the rain was falling in a steady drizzle, accompanied by thunder from the spring sky, showing no sign of stopping.

Lu Yan’s hair was fluffed out and hung over her shoulders. She occasionally glanced anxiously out the window, and the sky had already begun to darken.

“When will the rain stop?”

Seeing Shen Kuo tidying up the room and ignoring her, she asked again, “Will Dad Shen really not come back tonight?”

“No, he won’t.”

She shifted her feet and said, “Then what should we do?”

Shen Kuo didn’t know what to do either, which was why he started tidying up the room.

At least he had to do something with his hands, otherwise, he would… start overthinking.

At first, he really had no particular intention. All he thought about was getting her to take a hot shower and change out of her wet clothes so she wouldn’t catch a cold.

But after she had taken a shower and was wearing his clothes, sitting in front of him, and… not wearing anything underneath, he slowly realized that bringing her home had been a huge mistake.

“What do you want to do?” he asked, turning his back to her, his throat dry and itchy.

Lu Yan didn’t notice his change in mood. She lay down on the sofa, stretched lazily, and yawned.

“I don’t know.”

Shen Kuo returned to the room, grabbed a set of study materials, and tossed them onto her face. “Read your book.”

“As expected of the top student,” Lu Yan commented. “Even on a rainy day, you’re still reading.”

Shen Kuo replied, “Why can’t I read on a rainy day?”

Lu Yan opened the study materials and covered her face with them, breathing in the scent of ink, lazily stretching her legs. “Rainy days are just perfect for lying down.”

Sometimes, Shen Kuo really felt like she was a clingy cat. He liked her calm demeanor and also liked the lazy way she behaved.

This relaxed approach to life was something he had never experienced.

Perhaps life… should be just like her.

Shen Kuo turned on the TV, then pulled out a few DVDs from the cabinet and asked, “Want to watch a movie?”

“Sure!”

He picked a comedy film starring Stephen Chow, popped it into the DVD player, then sat beside her on the sofa, as a way to make up for the movie she had missed earlier that day.

Shen Kuo sat at the other end of the sofa, but soon, Lu Yan slowly moved over to sit beside him, leaning against him. When she saw he didn’t react, she tried resting her head on his shoulder.

The blue light from the TV screen illuminated his soft features. His voice was deep and mellow.

“You really seem to like my body.”

“Uh…”

“This isn’t good,” he said seriously, turning to face her. “You can’t think of me as Lu Zhen.”

“I don’t think of you as him, how could I think of you as him…”

She didn’t know how to explain.

Shen Kuo didn’t know that Lu Yan had been pampered by Lu Zhen since she was a child, growing up without a mother. She would act spoiled whenever she could, and when she couldn’t, she would create opportunities to be spoiled.

A close, intimate relationship gave her psychological satisfaction, which is why she couldn’t help but make affectionate gestures toward him.

“Isn’t this what dating is about?” she said. “Touching each other, liking each other.”

But Shen Kuo seemed to never touch her, and she didn’t know why.

“Don’t you like me?” she asked, her voice tinged with grievance.

Shen Kuo’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. He didn’t dare to answer that question. How could he not like her? But he didn’t dare to like her too much. He was afraid he would lose control and hurt her.

“If you don’t like me, then forget it.”

Lu Yan shifted away from him, no longer leaning against him, her expression still a bit sulky. “I’ll leave when the rain stops.”

“Mm…”

The little girl, upset, raised her leg and kicked him. “Old fossil.”

She really had to constantly remind herself that Shen Kuo was from her father’s generation, a generation of old fossils, and that there was a huge generation gap between them.

Thinking like that was the only way to stop herself from getting too frustrated.

Shen Kuo smiled faintly, stood up, and said, “I’ll go dry your clothes.”

When he was next to her, he casually rubbed the top of her head.

Lu Yan stuck her tongue out at him.

Shen Kuo didn’t bother with her clothes. He went straight to the bathroom, even stumbling a little on the last few steps.

Maybe he was about to burst.

He closed the door, stripped off his clothes, and turned on the shower, letting the water wash over his body.

He was trying to hold himself together.

Lu Yan thought he was taking a shower. Helplessly, she grabbed her wet clothes and hung them on the rack, then started drying them with a hairdryer.

“Shen Kuo, are you still showering?” She called toward the door. “It’s been half an hour, so slow.”

Shen Kuo didn’t answer. His body was tense, and his breathing had become a bit hurried.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Yan put down the clothes in her hand and walked to the bathroom door. “Are you still in there?”

He mumbled a low “Mm.”

Hurry up, hurry up…

Lu Yan didn’t understand. “You’re slower than a girl when it comes to showering.”

“Lu Yan,” he suddenly called out to her. “Stand there.”

“Ah?”

“Don’t move.”

He watched the faint reflection of the girl’s silhouette through the frosted bathroom door, and finally… it felt like the stars in the sky were falling.

He closed his eyes, leaning against the wall, his mind going completely blank for a long, long time.

Indulgence is easy, but restraint is difficult.

If one day, she could bring him such pure, beautiful happiness… just the thought of it…

All the stars in the world would shine for him.

At 9:00, the rain finally stopped, and the clothes Lu Yan had been drying were finally ready to wear.

When Lu Yan returned home, she thought her father, Lu Zhen, would chase after her, asking where she had been. However, to her surprise, the house was quiet. When Lu Zhen saw her, he didn’t say anything. He just poured some water, turned, and went upstairs to his room.

Lu Zhen was a man of few words, his mood was easy to read. Lu Yan immediately noticed that he wasn’t in a good mood.

She caught up with him and asked, “Dad, what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing, just going back to my room to read,” he replied.

He rubbed his eyes, clearly trying to hide something, and Lu Yan pulled his hand away. She was surprised to find a bruise on the corner of his eye.

Fortunately, the mark wasn’t deep, and it wasn’t too obvious unless you looked closely.

“You got into a fight again!”

Lu Yan exclaimed in surprise, and Lu Zhen quickly covered her mouth, glancing warily upstairs. He whispered, “If you don’t want your old man to suffer a second round of injury, keep it down!”

Lu Jian was in the study, and the father-son relationship had just started to improve, so Lu Zhen didn’t want to make things worse.

Lu Yan nodded obediently. “So what happened? Who did you fight with?”

Lu Zhen casually replied, “Shen Kuo did it.”

“Impossible.” Lu Yan immediately dismissed it. “It can’t be Shen Kuo. Who are you biting?”

Lu Zhen looked at her. “What makes you so sure it wasn’t him? Were you with him today?”

“…”

This guy is getting clever!

Lu Zhen glanced at the time and said suspiciously, “It’s almost 10 o’clock, and you’re just coming home. You…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Lu Yan suddenly called out, “Grandpa!”

Lu Zhen quickly covered his face, and Lu Yan took the opportunity to slip away, darting under his arm and running straight to her room, locking the door behind her.

“Little brat, come back! I’m not done with you!”

Just as he was about to chase after her, Lu Jian’s stern voice came from the study. “Who are you calling ‘old man’? Is there no rule in this house?”

Lu Zhen immediately covered his mouth and hurried back to his own room.

Once in her room, Lu Yan called Liang Ting to ask him what was going on.

Liang Ting didn’t hide anything from her. “Your dad’s been chasing a girl lately. That girl… well, let’s just say she has a bit of a temper.”

Lu Yan gasped. “What? You mean the wound on my dad’s face was from a girl beating him?”

Liang Ting wanted to say that it really was your mom, but he held back and simply said, “Yeah, it was the girl’s ‘work’.”

What did your dad expect? Calling her ‘baby’ and ‘wife’ all the time, of course, he was asking for trouble.

“Don’t tell anyone I said this.”

“Okay!”

After hanging up, Lu Yan grabbed the medical kit, went to Lu Zhen’s room, and dragged him out of bed. She took out some bruise ointment and gently applied it to the corner of his forehead.

“Ow, be gentle,” Lu Zhen smacked her hand away. “You’re so clumsy.”

Lu Yan kept a straight face and didn’t say anything. She continued applying the ointment firmly, clearly a little angry.

Lu Zhen winced and pinched her cheek. “You’re getting back at me, huh, you little brat?”

Lu Yan put the cotton swab down and said angrily, “What happened to the promise you made?”

“What promise?”

“You promised me that before you met Mom, you wouldn’t flirt around!”

“I was just…”

“Just what!”

Lu Zhen hesitated, feeling that telling her the truth wasn’t very wise.

Lu Yan had grown up without a mother, and if she saw Jian Yao, she would probably be more excited than he was. If she started calling her ‘mom’ while sobbing, he couldn’t imagine how Jian Yao’s temper would treat his daughter.

It didn’t matter if he took a few punches, but he couldn’t let his daughter put herself in danger.

This matter still needed some time to figure out, at least until Jian Yao fully accepted him…

That way, he would have some face.

Lu Yan looked at Lu Zhen’s face, feeling a bit sorry for him. Her heart softened, and she slowed her movements, gently rubbing the yellow ointment into his skin. “Then we won’t use the gauze, so Grandpa won’t find out.”

“He can’t see it, or he’ll definitely say that I’m not focused on anything and just go out and cause trouble.”

“If you don’t want Grandpa to look down on you, then you better behave yourself.”

Lu Zhen pouted and didn’t say anything further.

The next morning, during breakfast, Lu Zhen asked about his children’s academic progress. He specifically reminded Lu Yan that this was the last semester, and she needed to focus all her energy on her studies. He was waiting for good news from her.

Lu Yan nodded, indicating that everything was fine.

Even if there were problems, she could only pretend there weren’t, considering the big promises she had made.

Shi Xuexian studied Lu Zhen’s face carefully, then smiled and said, “Little Zhen, you’re wearing makeup now?”

Lu Zhen was startled and instinctively covered the corner of his left eye. “Make… makeup? What makeup?”

Lu Yan shot Shi Xuexian a glance. Although she acted surprised, it was clear that she had noticed the foundation covering the faint bruise at the corner of his left eye.

“Look, the skin on the left corner of your eye is noticeably lighter. Isn’t that makeup?”

Lu Jian raised his head and glanced at Lu Zhen, immediately noticing something was off. “What’s wrong with you?”

Lu Zhen silently pleaded for help from his daughter, but she just smiled slightly and then asked, “Yes, Lu Zhen, why is a grown man wearing makeup? Do you want to be a girl too?”

“I… you…!” Lu Zhen was left speechless, pointing at Lu Yan, his face turning red. “It’s not me…”

“I didn’t do anything,” Lu Yan said, raising her hands in innocence. “It wasn’t me!”

“It’s you! You clearly said…”

“I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t do anything. Don’t wrong good people.”

Lu Jian rubbed his forehead, realizing this was just another prank between his children.

These two were always fooling around at home, never quiet. Most likely, Lu Yan had taken advantage of the fact that he was asleep and played a trick on him.

But Lu Jian was an absolute softie when it came to his daughter, so he didn’t scold Lu Yan. He just reminded Lu Zhen, “After breakfast, go wash your face.”

“Okay… fine.”

Lu Zhen didn’t expect to get off so easily. He glanced at Lu Yan, and she winked at him.

He understood. She had deliberately argued back, making Lu Jian think this was just one of her pranks, so he wouldn’t look into it any further.

Shi Xuexian’s face twitched slightly.

She wasn’t happy. After all, the father-son relationship had been improving recently, which was definitely not in her favor. She was now looking for any opportunity to drive a wedge between them.

“It’s not that obvious, right? Lu Zhen, your face…” she started to say.

Before she could finish, Lu Yan, chewing on a steamed bun, casually replied, “Grandma, you should pay more attention to Shi Ya, rather than meddling here.”

Shi Xuexian’s face turned pale as she looked at Lu Yan. “What happened to Yaya?”

“Eh, you don’t even know? Her relationship with Wu Tianhan is the talk of the school.”

“You… What nonsense are you talking about?”

Lu Yan shrugged, staying silent.

This only made Shi Xuexian even more anxious. She asked again, “You mean… with whom?”

“I’m just talking nonsense,” Lu Yan refused to give her a straight answer.

Lu Zhen casually added, “Wu Tianhan, the one ranked last in our school. I heard that last week, during evening self-study, they were kissing in the back of the classroom.”

His tone even carried a bit of a lisp, almost making Lu Yan choke with laughter.

Shi Xuexian was so angry she looked like a boiling kettle. “Are you… telling the truth?”

“Everyone in school knows about it,” Lu Zhen said. “It’s been spreading for a while. Heh, they sure know how to have fun.”

Lu Jian glanced at him. “Fun? Eat your food.”

Shi Xuexian’s hands clenched the bowl tightly, her knuckles turning white. Her face was dark with anger. But Lu Jian didn’t comment on it. He had never cared much about Shi Ya. All his attention and concern were on his own children.

She shot a resentful glance at Lu Yan, feeling deep in her heart that this girl… was really going to drive her mad.

Was it karmic retribution? After the bad things she had done, now she was being punished?

–

In the evening, Lu Yan followed the address Liang Ting had given her and arrived at the Green Vine Bar.

She had heard that the girl her dad had been pursuing was performing there, and she was curious to see what kind of girl had caught his eye this time.

The Green Vine Bar was different from other noisy bars. On the contrary, it was quiet, with customers sitting in their booths, listening to the music in peace. It had a modern, relaxed atmosphere.

As soon as Lu Yan walked into the Green Vine Bar, she immediately spotted the girl sitting on stage, playing the guitar.

She was wearing a light-colored turtleneck sweater with loose jeans. Her long hair cascaded down her back, and her figure was stunning.

The spotlight fell on her face, which was adorned with bold makeup. As Lu Yan saw her sharp, well-defined features, her heart raced with excitement!

When she was young, Lu Yan would sneak into her father’s room countless times. She would take out the small blue box from the first drawer, hidden under everything else. Inside the box were photos of her mother when she was young.

Her dad had kept the photos well. Although they had slightly yellowed over time, her mother’s youthful features were still visible.

In the photos, her mother was lying on Lu Zhen’s back, asking him to carry her. She spread her arms like she was flying, frozen in a smile that was as beautiful as fresh snow.

As a child, she often cried while looking at those photos. She couldn’t understand why everyone else had a mother, but she didn’t.

Lu Zhen rarely spoke about her mother. Jian Yao was the deepest, most painful memory in his heart. It was something he couldn’t, and didn’t dare, to talk about.

The girl on stage seemed to have walked right out of those photos, standing so vividly and lively in front of Lu Yan.

Lu Yan stood in the front row, watching her, her eyes glistening with tears.

Of course, Jian Yao also noticed the girl standing in the audience. She could tell from her gaze that it was filled with deep, complex emotions.

Jian Yao felt a strange discomfort she couldn’t quite describe. It was… a very peculiar feeling. She found herself inexplicably feeling a sense of sympathy for this young girl in front of her.

After the performance, Jian Yao’s band went to the manager’s office to collect their pay. When they came out, they saw the young girl sitting alone in the corner of a booth, wiping her tears.

It seemed like she had been crying.

“The salary has been increased again, Master Jian. Our band depends on you,” Qiao Nan said, walking over with his bass guitar, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “Trust me, one day, you’ll become a star.”

Jian Yao didn’t seem to hear him. She was absentmindedly staring at Lu Yan.

Lu Yan wiped her eye corner, feeling a bit foolish. Maybe it was because of homesickness. She didn’t want to bother Jian Yao like Lu Zhen did. Instead, she turned and left the bar.

“Who are you looking at?”

Qiao Nan followed Jian Yao’s gaze but only saw the slender back of the girl.

Jian Yao didn’t care about anything else. She threw her guitar into her arms and quickly chased after Lu Yan.

Qiao Nan hurriedly hugged the guitar. “Hey, watch it! Be more careful with the instruments! Wait… where are you running off to?”

He had never seen Jian Yao act so impulsively before.

Who was that girl?