Chapter 8

Lu Jiyu turned on the flashlight on his phone and scanned the crimson security door in front of him. "Are you sure this is your bedroom door?"

Who would install such an indestructible security door in their bedroom?

Forget it, why don’t you just stop making so much trouble and just come to my house and sleep for one night.

"Which decoration company taught you to install it like this?" Lu Jiyu put one hand in his pocket and gritted his teeth. It was the first time in his eighteen years of life that he felt speechless about a door.

"No." Jiang Wan tried to explain: "This is what happened."

Well, start your quibbling.

Lu Jiyu leaned his shoulder against the wall beside the door, his arms folded loosely, his eyelids half-lidded, as if eager to hear more. The studio lights were off, his face shrouded in darkness, his expression indistinct. The double glass doors at the entrance stood wide open, the shadow of the camphor tree swaying on the steps. The night breeze rushed into the studio, rustling the papers on the drawing board.

At the same time, even people's hearts were in turmoil.

Jiang Wan's pajamas were short on top and long on the bottom. The early morning breeze was chilly, and she subconsciously touched the goose bumps on her arms. She raised her hand and pointed to a French window in the studio. "My dad calculated the cost. He thought that the money for installing a security rolling shutter on that single glass window would be enough to buy three such security doors. The security in this area is actually quite good, and there's nothing valuable in the studio except me. So in the end, my dad decided to install a security door in my bedroom. It's safer and saves money."

It was the first time that Lu Jiyu heard someone praise his worth.

He straightened up from the wall, opened his phone, and fiddled with it silently for a while. Just as he was about to look up, a faint fragrance reached his nose. A furry head appeared within his sight. The girl's long eyelashes trembled slightly in the fluorescent light of the phone, creating an indescribable feeling of coldness and fragmentation. Lu Jiyu pressed his thumb against the control button on the outside of the phone, the lingering feeling in his heart infinitely magnified. With a push of his fingertips, the screen, which was about to go black, suddenly lit up again.

"Sorry." Jiang Wan yawned as soon as she opened her mouth. She covered her mouth with her hand and mumbled, "Can you help me find a 24-hour locksmith phone number nearby?"

Lu Jiyu sighed inwardly.

Am I not helping you check?

Otherwise, do you think I have nothing to do in the middle of the night and am playing with my phone in front of you?

Lu Jiyu lowered his head and didn't speak for a while. Jiang Wan realized later that he was angry. In fact, because his expression was always quite cold, Jiang Wan was not familiar with him and was really unsure. He could only ask tentatively: "Are you angry?"

The night was very quiet, and every breath a person took was infinitely magnified. Lu Jiyu tilted his head back, carelessly avoiding the fragrance on her body. His foot moved, as if he stepped on something. "If I hadn't moved in, who would you have asked for help?"

Jiang Wan shook his head: "I don't know. I guess I'll take a taxi and go home directly."

Lu Jiyu curled the corners of his mouth slightly, bent down and picked up the thing he had just stepped on, which was a paintbrush: "Why, you don't have any relatives or friends who can help you?" Or do you think I was born with a face that likes to help others and be kind?

Jiang Wan thought he was genuinely curious: "My dad is traveling out of town, and my mom—she's out of town too. And I saw the light in your bedroom was on, so—"

"Well, what about your friends?" Lu Jiyu interrupted her. Don't you know Chen Wulin? Didn't he ask you if you were going home? Lu Jiyu's fingers slid across the screen quickly and finally stopped at a message. With his other hand, he held the paintbrush and silently twirled it around his fingertips: "Lock unlocking in the same city, the fastest arrival is one hour." He handed the phone to Jiang Wan to see. Jiang Wan didn't take it, but leaned over to take a look. The bright white light from the phone screen shone on her face. Her skin was delicate and fair, with a hazy luster. Her eyes were big and bright, like a lost deer in the forest.

His hand that was spinning the pen paused for a moment, then resumed its rotation.

"Do you mean just a friend or a boyfriend?" Jiang Wan just glanced at the price. It was three hundred. He was now regretting why he had gotten up out of the bedroom to find a Coke. He could have taken a bath with Coke.

"I don't have a boyfriend."

"My ordinary friends live far away from here, so it's not convenient to have them come over in the middle of the night."

…

Lu Jiyu wondered from which of my words did you hear that I was asking about your boyfriend.

He took back his phone, his eyebrows were stern, and there was a hint of vigilance in his eyes. He hummed coldly and didn't respond to her question: "You just looked at it and thought there was no problem, so I contacted him." He was also a little sleepy. The collar of his T-shirt was pulled down, revealing the boy's bony collarbone, which made his expressionless face look a little impatient.

Jiang Wan remembered that he had been busy sending WeChat messages at the door just now, and he was wearing glasses when he came out to open the door. If all these things were added together, and a high school senior could stay up late at night and indulge in sending WeChat messages, then it could only be -

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Jiang Wan felt that her question was a bit inappropriate. She coughed twice and met his gaze: "What I mean is, did I interrupt your conversation with your girlfriend? If she is angry with you because of this, I can apologize to her."

Um--

Why does this sound a bit sarcastic?

If Chen Meiyu had said it, she would have said, "Sister, don't blame Giegie. It's all your fault. Giegie just meant well." Which girlfriend can stand that?

"Forget it." Jiang Wan immediately regretted it: "If your girlfriend is really upset, just say you are helping to take an old lady home who got lost in the middle of the night."

"Not only will she understand you, but she'll also see you as caring and responsible. It kills two birds with one stone."

Lu Jiyu snorted coldly, "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night, out there looking for old men and women who need help?"

After hearing this, Jiang Wan thought that this reason was indeed quite lame.

After Lu Jiyu placed the order, he handed the phone to Jiang Wan and took a look: "This is his work number. It will arrive in about half an hour. Just wait here."

It was obvious from his words that he was going to leave and go to sleep.

Jiang Wan felt that he had troubled him too much today, so when he heard that he was about to leave, he did not dare to keep him at all. He was considerate and attentive and walked him all the way to the door of the studio.

"Thank you for today. I'll treat you to a meal some other day."

The studio door faced a gray wall, and behind it was a small courtyard shared by several families. There were people cooking, washing dishes, and gardening. Several small advertisements were spray-painted in bright red on the dark blue walls. Lu Jiyu stared at the unfamiliar string of numbers, repeating them silently a few times until he had memorized them.

He put the phone back into his pocket and replied calmly: "No need."

Before he left, he glanced back at the darkness in the room and asked, "Why aren't the lights in the studio on?"

"The switch is a little loose. I've already notified the technician to come and fix it." Jiang Wan was about to turn back to the studio when Lu Jiyu asked her. She stopped again, half her body behind the glass door. The wind blew into her loose pajamas, and her hair bounced up and stuck to her face. Jiang Wan stepped back to avoid the wind: "You should go upstairs and rest early."

"Thank you," she said again.

Dawn is approaching, but the night is far from over.

A few minutes later.

The man carrying a blanket downstairs saw the girl squatting at the door with her legs folded before he took two steps. The girl's fingertips were burning with a little scarlet. She heard the sound of the door opening and closing, stood up and turned to look in the direction of the second floor. Their eyes met in the night, and under the sticky night, they were slightly stuck for a few seconds. Jiang Wan watched him go downstairs and wondered: "Did you forget something?"

Lu Jiyu walked over and handed her his phone. “The platform just called me to ask for the verification code.”

"Please write down the verification code and give it to the master when the time comes."

"And this." He stretched out his hand, revealing a thin gray and white blanket draped loosely in his arm, which surprisingly matched the pair of panda-colored soft-soled slippers on Jiang Wan's feet.

Jiang Wan took the blanket from his hand and was stunned for a moment. Seeing that he was about to leave, she realized, "Can you stay a little longer? I'm actually very sleepy now. I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on until the master arrives and fall asleep. It might be better if there's someone to talk to for a while."

She wasn't actually being coquettish, she was just feeling sleepy, and her tone was a bit lazier. Lu Jiyu was a man who was very good at rejecting people. He didn't have many excuses, he was just direct. No matter what your purpose was, if he wasn't interested, he would just say "I'm busy."

"Are you free now?" Jiang Wan asked again while holding the blanket in his hand.

Lu Jiyu bit the candy in his mouth, his eyes half-curled, and his voice was calm: "Why? Now you are not afraid that my girlfriend will misunderstand you?"

The words were not nice, but unexpectedly the momentum faded a lot.

Jiang Wan paused: "I thought she was asleep by now."

So you're coming on as a substitute in the second half?

Lu Jiyu raised an eyebrow, truly speechless. Seeing his hesitation, Jiang Wan decided to appeal to his emotions and reason with him: "By the way, have you been following social news recently?"

?

No.

But Lu Jiyu thought that the fact that she installed a security door in her bedroom was worthy of a page in the social news.

"Just a while ago." Jiang Wan spoke slowly. Her speaking rhythm has always been slow but uneven, with a distinct and unobtrusive sense of rhythm. A friend once commented that Jiang Wan's voice was naturally suitable for telling bedtime stories.

"A girl in Dongcheng District had a power outage at home and called an electrician to fix it. Seeing that she lived alone, the electrician, seduced by her beauty, raped her and then killed her. Afterward, fearing his actions would be exposed, he dismembered the girl's body."

"It's really scary."

After she said this, Lu Jiyu vaguely remembered that it seemed to be true, and it was Zhou Zifang who told him.

But what Lu Jiyu didn't understand was: "Didn't you just tell me to go to bed early?"

Seeing that he seemed to be wavering, Jiang Wan cleared his throat and said, "In fact, I regretted it as soon as you left."

"So." Lu Jiyu's eyes fell on the light pool of cigarette ash at her feet.

Jiang Wan followed his gaze and looked down, giving an explanation that wasn't quite an explanation: "I smoked because I was too sleepy, not because I was scared. I was just planning to finish this cigarette and then go find you. But then—"

I didn't expect that it would be delivered to your door automatically five minutes later, right?

The locksmith arrived sooner than expected.

But this mouth was unexpectedly broken.

Jiang Wan leaned against the door, holding the tools the master needed. Lu Jiyu stood behind him, his back against the wall, playing Candy Crush on his phone.

The master, estimated to be in his fifties or sixties, was not very tall, his eyes narrowed in a smile that, though friendly, was filled with fatigue. He moved slowly and methodically. Seeing Jiang Wan busying around him, and Lu Jiyu engrossed in playing games like a sage, he couldn't help but think of his own daughter.

"I have a daughter too, about your age."

"She's an average student, but she's pretty. She takes after her mother. But I never praise her because I'm afraid she'll become proud."

Jiang Wan smiled cooperatively: "You have to praise her. The more you praise a girl, the prettier she becomes."

The master laughed heartily, his hand shaking and the tool falling to the ground. Jiang Wan bent down to pick it up and continued, "My girl said the same thing. She's been vain since she was a child. I don't really have any expectations for her. My family was given several houses after the demolition and is not short of money, so I don't expect her to become rich. I just hope that when she looks for a boyfriend in the future, she will be discerning and not be fooled by appearances. She must find someone who is truly good to her."

"Hey, you little girls." The master sighed. "When you're looking for a partner, you only care about looks. What's the use of looks? If you don't care about others, everything else is useless. When you're together, you'll do all the work, and he'll just lie on the sofa like a big boss, eating, drinking, defecating, and playing games."

The technician slowly removed the door lock's outer casing, glanced at someone with a pointed look, and continued, "So I told my daughter, don't date a man who's addicted to games. He doesn't even recognize his mother when he's playing games."

After laying the groundwork for so long, it turned out to be this. Jiang Wan reacted: "Master, he is not——"

Someone addicted to gaming reached up and tugged at the blanket she was wearing. Jiang Wan instinctively reached forward and pulled it back. She turned her head, a look of confusion in her eyes. Lu Jiyu handed her the phone. "You've cleared this level for me." She rubbed the back of her neck, took the tools from Jiang Wan's hand, and stood up to walk over to the master.

"Wow." The master smiled proudly at this and said, "You are quite smart, young man."

Lu Jiyu, still lazily leaning against the wall, held the flashlight in his hand. He smiled, his smile relaxed and submissive: "Of course not, it's all thanks to your guidance." He was practically servile. Jiang Wan kept playing games with his head down, sighing, he was really flexible.

The master felt in his pocket and pulled out an empty cigarette box. He turned around and asked Lu Jiyu, "Do you have any cigarettes, little brother? I can't stand working in the middle of the night without a cigarette."

Lu Jiyu thought that he didn't have it, but someone else did. Sure enough, when Jiang Wan heard what his master said, he turned around silently, went to the corner of the studio, got something, and then came back to hand it to him.

The master didn't suspect anything. He took the cigarette and looked at it under the light in Lu Jiyu's hand. The brand was quite good. "You're so young, and you're already smoking such good cigarettes?"

Lu Jiyu stood behind the light source, adjusted his glasses with one hand, and looked down at the girl standing beside him: I’m asking you, how come you can smoke such good cigarettes at such a young age?

"You are young and ignorant. You like to show off." His usual cold words sounded a bit sarcastic to Jiang Wan.

All her friends knew something about Jiang Wan smoking, and she didn't think it was a fact that needed to be denied.

"As someone who's been through this, I'm giving you some advice: smoking is boring, a waste of money, and harmful to your health. You'd better spend that money on buying your girlfriend some skincare products. I only smoke a few cigarettes to stay focused on work. If you could quit, you would have done it long ago."

Although this uncle meant well, Jiang Wan was a little worried that if he kept nagging like this, the cool boy would quit. "No. Actually, this cigarette is mine."

"Ah?" The master was stunned, holding the cigarette Lu Jiyu had just lit for him. His worldview instantly collapsed. "Sister, your cigarette?"

She looks serious, well-behaved and gentle, how could this happen?

Lu Jiyu raised his hand and flicked the stainless steel lighter in his hand. The orange flame disappeared into the night. He put the lighter into his pocket naturally and glanced at the person next to him: "Well, she means that she bought these cigarettes."

In just a few words, he completely reconstructed Jiang Wan's meaning.

"Oh, you spoil him like this!" The master laughed.

"Men can't be spoiled." He patted Lu Jiyu's shoulder, and Lu Jiyu nodded in agreement.

"That makes sense."

Only Jiang Wan was secretly admiring him, thinking that he was simply the best actor.