The cramped space was filled with warm steam, and there seemed to be a moment of stillness amidst the crowding.
Xu Shiyue's panic had not yet subsided, and the hand on Lu Shizhen's arm seemed hesitant to support her.
The damp fingers pressed against Lu Shizhen's exposed forearm, the feeling of loose, distant grip was particularly clear.
The small ball, along with the turned-on lights, illuminated the entire space. Her wet long hair clung to Xu Shiyue's face, and her eyelashes, still glistening with a few water droplets, blinked uncontrollably, revealing a vulnerable and wary demeanor.
Lu Shizhen knew that Xu Shiyue did not trust her, so she pretended that she was already too busy to stand up and said, "Hey, hold on tight, the ground is all wet, don't let me fall down with you."
Lu Shizhen's voice contained a hint of complaint, but it was precisely because of this negative emotion that Xu Shiyue felt somewhat relieved.
Since she was too busy to do anything, she wouldn't have any opportunity to make advances on him.
The door had been opened from the outside, and the gradually cooling water slowly eroded the warmth of Xu Shiyue's feet.
Despite her disgust and desire to distance herself, the slippery, waterlogged tile floor and the inability to see her surroundings made Xu Shiyue lower her eyelashes and decide to listen to Lu Shizhen's advice.
It's just a handy tool.
With this thought in mind, the force on Lu Shizhen's arm finally became more substantial, accompanied by the rare warmth of the girl's palm.
Xu Shiyue slowly and carefully tried to regain her balance, while Lu Shizhen quietly supported her from the side, truly like a lifeless guide cane.
A warm breeze lingered between the two slowly moving figures, and a faint scent of roses landed on Xu Shiyue's shoulder, a rare moment of peace.
Perhaps because she had lost her sight, she had become much more sensitive to her other senses, as if she could smell a hint of something else in the quiet scent of roses.
It wasn't very strong; the faint steam enveloped her, yet it happened to land right on the tip of her nose.
It was slightly cool and had a chilly feel to it; it smelled of alcohol, but I wasn't quite sure.
In the quiet, a faint gasp of wind reached Lu Shizhen's ears.
A gentle sniff is like a small animal tentatively exploring; its warm, moist breath tickles the heart.
Lu Shizhen rarely has close contact with people and is somewhat sensitive to everything.
She didn't really like the itchy feeling, and turned her head to check the cause, but her heart skipped a beat unexpectedly.
A light-colored bath towel covered the girl's private parts, and water droplets slowly traced a darker color along the edges of her collarbone.
Xu Shiyue lowered her eyelashes at some point, and her long hair, which could not be held in place by the hair clips, fell loosely and casually on the side of her face.
Her originally pale and bloodless face was flushed by the surrounding heat, and even her shoulder blades and collarbone were tinged with this color.
She calmly and attentively turned her face slightly toward Lu Shizhen, causing the tip of Lu Shizhen's nose to twitch gently.
She herself may not realize it, but others can see it clearly.
Like a cat that acts recklessly without realizing that its behavior is offensive.
It's hard to say whether Xu Shiyue's behavior was too intimate, since Lu Shizhen was being held in her hand as her guide cane, and the distance between the two of them was less than a centimeter.
But it was precisely because of this that the surrounding heat lingered and couldn't dissipate for a long time. As Lu Shizhen watched Xu Shiyue's cat-like movements as she sniffed him, her heartbeat inexplicably quickened.
Lu Shizhen had little experience in interpersonal relationships and could not explain why this was the reason.
Time passed slowly, and the fog cleared from the mirror beside her. Xu Shiyue's calm face gradually revealed a hint of disgust: "Miss Lu, have you been drinking?"
The cool voice drowned out the warm air around her. In an instant, Lu Shizhen's slight itching on her neck and her unbalanced heartbeat all scattered and disappeared without a trace.
The wind seemed to come alive at that moment, falling on Lu Shizhen, and she could smell her own scent without any surprise.
The alcohol, which was originally barely perceptible, became stronger due to the heat. Looking at the expression on Xu Shiyue's face, she instantly realized that Xu Shiyue had misunderstood her.
—She really didn't drink.
I was just thinking about something and got hungry, so I secretly ate an extra serving of sweet fermented rice balls that Aunt Sun made that afternoon...
In fact, Lu Shizhen was able to arrive at the bathroom so quickly and save Xu Shiyue thanks to this bowl of sweet fermented rice balls.
If she hadn't secretly gone downstairs to find food and replenish her energy, the system wouldn't have been able to issue a warning to her so quickly.
It's true that sweet fermented rice balls are both its strength and its weakness.
It felt like a huge "-1" was hanging overhead, so heavy that it was unbearable.
Lu Shizhen seemed to see the label of "underage alcoholic" about to fall on her, so she hurriedly explained like a treasure before Xu Shiyue could label her: "Want to eat sweet fermented rice balls? Osmanthus flavored."
Xu Shiyue paused for a moment, then replied in a barely changing voice, "Thank you, but no need."
"Oh." Lu Shizhen said with some regret.
She also heard Aunt Sun say today that sweet fermented rice balls have the benefits of strengthening the spleen and stomach, and promoting blood circulation.
They didn't speak again for the rest of the way, and the two quickly left the small bathroom.
Lu Shizhen watched as Xu Shiyue put on the shoes she had left outside, and without pausing, she removed the arm that had been protecting Xu Shiyue's waist.
The reassuring support that was right behind us has vanished.
Xu Shiyue paused for a moment for some reason, but returned to normal in less than half a second.
The lights on the dark first floor had been turned on at some point, casting a bright glow that tinted her blurry vision with a faint color.
Along with that person, who at this moment serves only as his guide cane and whose arm he is holding.
For Xu Shiyue, this was the first time in all the time she had known this person that he had ever been truly polite to her.
This is considered very strange.
Xu Shiyue knew better than anyone that the person beside her was the most hypocritical and pretentious of all.
I can't figure it out, and I don't want to waste my energy thinking about these meaningless things.
Xu Shiyue slightly released her grip on Lu Shizhen's arm, put on the bathrobe that was placed outside, and said politely but with a distance, "Then I won't disturb Miss Lu's late-night snack."
The night was deep, and each window was like a canvas painted with thick ink, reflecting the scene inside the room.
The large bathrobe covered Xu Shiyue's entire body, with her slender calves peeking out from under the skirt. Her taut Achilles tendons formed a thin line, which seemed somewhat incongruous with the soft fur.
Light was not an important aid to her, and she continued to walk slowly up the stairs.
Red roses bloomed silently in vases in the corridor. Lu Shizhen had no interest in appreciating them; she only felt that every unsecured vase posed a potential danger to Xu Shiyue.
The original owner's arrangement clearly did not take Xu Shiyue's situation into account, and it may even have been intentional.
Otherwise, how could she find an excuse to ask Xu Shiyue to "compensate" her with something?
Lu Shizhen truly admired the original owner's ruthless methods. Without hesitation, she stepped forward to support Xu Shiyue, saying, "Eating too many sweets at night is not good either."
"No need." Xu Shiyue subconsciously chose to refuse.
As she spoke, she tried to pull her arm out of Lu Shizhen's grasp.
But they still failed.
Lu Shizhen did not let go of Xu Shiyue's hand.
She knew, of course, what kind of person she was in Xu Shiyue's heart, but she also knew that if the vase were broken, the first thing to be cut would be her outstretched hand.
She keeps refusing treatment, and her body will definitely suffer if this drags on.
Lu Shizhen had already thought it through. Since she wanted to regain Xu Shiyue's favor and trust, she would inevitably have to deal with her and lose points.
Just like a cat that is hostile to humans, you can't avoid getting scratched at first, but later, when the cat realizes that you are not hostile or threatening to it, it will expose its belly and lie in your arms and purr.
Lu Shizhen didn't expect Xu Shiyue to snore in her arms; she just hoped that Xu Shiyue would give her more points later when she realized what was happening.
Now, let them deduct points if they want.
Lu Shizhen steeled her resolve and said to Xu Shiyue, "Haven't you heard the saying, 'If you're going to help someone, help them to the very end; if you're going to help someone, help them to the very end'?"
The girl's voice was deliberately tinged with arrogance, but the hand holding Xu Shiyue's wrist was not as obsessively forceful.
Perhaps because of their contact in the bathroom earlier, or the evidence from this morning, Xu Shiyue, unusually, did not refuse this person's help again.
Lu Shizhen was worried that she would say too much and make a mistake, so she didn't try to find topics to talk about with Xu Shiyue along the way. The two of them soon arrived at the door of her room.
After all that fuss, the fatigue that had been dispelled by the bath returned to Xu Shiyue.
She entered the room before Lu Shizhen, but Lu Shizhen did not let go of her arm and even pushed her further inside.
Moonlight streamed into the unlit room, casting a wary glow on the girl's face.
Xu Shiyue sensed the distance between herself and the bed with each step and secretly slipped her hand into her pocket.
Step by step...
Just as Xu Shiyue was about to sit on the bed with Lu Shizhen's help, a hand suddenly protected her knee.
The girl's hand, hidden in her pocket, was about to lash out when she heard a voice beside her ear: "Hey, be careful."
Lu Shizhen placed her hand between the bedside table and Xu Shiyue's legs, picking and choosing with a hint of disdain, and said to Xu Shiyue, "Tsk, this bedside table doesn't match the style of your room."
"Alright, I'm sleepy. I'll ask Aunt Sun to change it for you tomorrow. It's really too ugly."
A rather unrefined yawn reached Xu Shiyue's ears, and the girl paused slightly.
Before she could react, Lu Shizhen swiftly withdrew her hand from beside her knee, along with the hand that had been holding her arm.
In the darkness, a figure seemed to walk towards the door. Xu Shiyue saw a beam of light flash across her vision and then disappear.
The room returned to its original quiet and deathly stillness, but the warmth lingered on my wrists and knees and lingered for a long time.
Xu Shiyue looked toward the door, her eyes, illuminated by the moonlight, swirling with an unsettling emotion.
She would never forget that this bedside table was bought by Lu Shizhen at great expense and with great effort, placed here to please her.
While all of this person's words could be explained as unpredictable, how should we describe the hand that swiftly and precisely positioned between her knee and the bedside table?
The height of this bedside table is not suitable, and the one in the hospital is not suitable either. Xu Shiyue cannot see it and will bump into it if she is not careful.
But whether here or in the hospital, no one has ever paid attention to her problem, even though her knees are occasionally bruised from hitting the sharp corner.
This is the first time someone has stood in her shoes and considered things from her perspective.
But this person was Lu Shizhen.
What exactly does she want to do?
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