Chapter 29
At one o'clock in the morning, only the blue light of the screen was flashing in the monitoring center.
Pei Yanxi, in a morbid manner, switched all twelve public surveillance cameras of Mingyue Villa to the main screen. Everyone around had left, and only a cold white overhead light remained in the monitoring room. The light from the screen was like shards of ice piled on Pei Yanxi's face.
The twelve screens in front of her lit up simultaneously. The one in the upper left corner could just reach the hot spring room of Mingyue Villa, but she could only see a small corner of it.
"I must be crazy... to dare to check the surveillance footage around Mingyue Manor all by myself..."
Pei Yanxi raised her hand to cover her forehead; she had just seen Yun Zhan wearing a bathrobe.
The steam rose in the air, and the grapefruit lamp cast a warm orange glow in the darkness, deliberately poking into her chest.
Pei Yanxi's knuckles remained on the keyboard, the backs of her fingers stretched white.
She typed the permission code very slowly, each keystroke like pushing the tip of a knife half an inch into her palm.
She couldn't help but zoom in on the surveillance camera in the upper left corner. The pixels were rough, and the light from above created a blurry effect, but she still recognized Yun Zhan's silhouette at a glance: his tall figure, superior shoulder and back lines, and his habit of walking slightly to the left.
In the scene, Yun Zhan strolls along the pebble path, slowly leaving the pond where the lights shimmer.
The moonlight fell on her shoulders, like a thin silver veil draped over her. Zooming in a little more, you could see Yun Zhan raising her hand to brush away the misty water droplets that had somehow gotten stuck to the ends of her hair, her fair arm swaying in the night sky.
Pei Yanxi's breath hitched in mid-air, her fingertips hovering over the zoom button, hesitant to press it, afraid that any movement would startle away this blurry, tender moment.
Reason screamed in my ears: hacking into the home's live feed is against the rules.
But her emotions, like an avalanche, overwhelmed Pei Yanxi's rationality; this was the first time she had ever harbored a glimmer of hope...
A flood of images kept popping into my head.
Yun Zhan sat on the edge of the hot spring pool, the water level just covering his lower back.
The old scars on my arms turned red from the steam, like whip marks that refused to fade.
She raised her hand and wiped her face, water droplets rolling down her collarbone—
That single, transparent drop was magnified infinitely in Pei Yanxi's eyes, so intense it made her eyelashes tremble violently.
"...Yun Zhan".
She murmured, her voice so low that only she could hear it.
"Miss, why don't you let me guard it?"
The Pei family's staff brought a cup of hot coffee to the table; the young lady had been sitting there for three hours.
Pei Yanxi kept staring at the monitor, as if Yun Zhan would pass by the same spotlight again in the next second.
Her eyes were sore, and she blinked hard. The staff member reminded her again, "Miss, it's your shift time, go back and rest."
Pei Yanxi didn't turn around, her voice so low it was almost inaudible: "Stay for another hour."
A glass of ice water finally stopped the creeping delusions.
Pei Yanxi forced herself to calm down.
Why is she spying on Yun Zhan like this? Why is she so concerned?
What gives Shi Mingyue the right to sign the council's transfer order?
Each barb of the vine hooks the same message:
"What exactly does Yun Zhan want to do? What is her relationship with Shi Mingyue? And... is she still cold? Have her old wounds reopened?"
Pei Yanxi stared at the blurry surveillance footage, her knuckles unconsciously tapping on the table.
78, 79, 80...
Each blow felt like a stake being driven into her nerves:
Yun Zhan seems to be someone she can never control.
She suddenly reached out and turned the volume down to the lowest setting.
Beside the hot spring pool, Shi Mingyue's voice drifted out—
A muffled, soft, slightly coquettish ending tone:
"Yun Zhan, let's sleep together tonight, okay?"
Pei Yanxi's breath hitched.
She abruptly pressed the mute button, as if that one sentence could shatter the ice in her chest.
Outside the monitoring room, the footsteps of the night patrol guards grew louder as they approached.
Pei Yanxi quickly switched screens, shrinking the display to its smallest size and hiding it in the system background.
She sat up straight, her hands clasped on her knees, the backs of her fingers turning blue from the effort.
The screen finally focused on Yun Zhan's back view—
Her fingertip hovered over the "close" button, but she hesitated to press it.
...
Having already had his upper body seen by Shi Mingyue, how could Yun Zhan possibly sleep in the same room with her again?
It was late at night, and only Yun Zhan and 21 were left in the room. She put her phone in the living room to charge, to avoid the possibility that Pei Yanxi might eavesdrop on her next conversation.
“I plan to go to the archives again tomorrow night. Pei Yanxi should be focusing all her attention on me now, so the archives might be less vigilant at this time, which is a good opportunity.” Yun Zhan took out the blueprints from her pocket. After her last visit to the archives, she had already familiarized herself with the layout.
"You really dare to go against the grain? Pei Yanxi is listening to you. Why don't you wait until things calm down before you go?" 21 had always admired Yun Zhan's courage. It had seen the gun belt on Pei Yanxi's waist before: "What if Pei Yanxi accidentally shoots you?"
"She wouldn't do that to me... um... I think she's been pretty good to me."
Yun Zhan stroked her chin, pondering for a moment. If Pei Yanxi wanted to kill her, she could have done so the moment she was caught entering the records room...
But Pei Yanxi did not; instead, she shielded her from the falling books.
Yun Zhan paused for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the scarf Pei Yanxi had given her, which lay on the corner of the table...
"You still know that people are good to you." 21 couldn't help but kiss Yun Zhan.
It's not just Pei Yanxi who's good to you; all three female leads are incredibly kind to you!
“So she won’t kill me, at most she’ll imprison me. High risk comes with high reward, I think I can take the gamble.” Yun Zhan made his decision.
...
At midnight on the second day, the lights in Mingyue Villa were turned off one by one, leaving only the landscape lights under the eaves with a soft white glow.
Yun Zhan suppressed his breathing and slid down the stairs silently like a cat.
To avoid making a sound, she walked on the teak floor wearing only socks.
During the day, Yun Zhan stood at the door of the dressing room, twirling the switched-off phone between his fingers; the metal casing gleamed coldly white under the light.
Yun Zhan explained his purpose in a low voice: "I should have Pei Yanxi's location on my phone. Would you be willing to save it for me temporarily?"
Leave the chip in the safest place to evade tracking.
Shi Mingyue didn't ask any more questions, only gave a soft "hmm", and then took off her cashmere coat and handed it to her.
"Put it here." Shi Mingyue tapped the inner pocket with her fingertip, her voice as soft as snowflakes falling at night. "Actually, I can help you get rid of the surveillance..."
"No need now, Pei Yanxi is really keeping a close eye on things."
Yun Zhan placed his phone inside the lining of Shi Mingyue's white cashmere coat, pushing it in along the seam. The phone rubbed against the fabric, making a barely audible "whoosh" sound.
Yun Zhan looked up and saw his small reflection in Shi Mingyue's eyes, clean and resolute.
She held her breath, pressed her phone into the interlayer, and accidentally her fingertip touched Shi Mingyue's fingertip, causing both of them to tremble at the same time.
After finishing, Yun Zhan lowered his head and hugged Shi Mingyue, as if apologizing, or as if saying goodbye.
"I'm sorry... I need you to cover for me."
It was 1:20 a.m., at the old ventilation shaft outside the archives room.
Wearing disposable finger cots, Yun Zhan tapped out a familiar rhythm on the cold steel. The green light on the electronic lock flashed, and she squeezed into the darkness. Her heart pounded so loudly it seemed to shake off the dust; each step felt like walking on a drum.
Fifteen minutes later, Yun Zhan came out with a notebook slightly larger than an A4 sheet of paper in his arms.
She found this thing in a hidden compartment with 21's help. She flipped through a couple of pages and saw that it contained the names of some powerful and wealthy people, as well as handwritten records of some huge transactions.
She stuffed the notebook into her inner pocket, and as she closed the zipper, cold sweat trickled down her temples and into her collar.
The night was so quiet that you could hear your blood surging in your eardrums.
Yun Zhan went around to the back alley, changed his clothes in a place where there were no surveillance cameras, and nervously reached for his cigarette case with trembling hands, only to find that he didn't have a single cigarette left.
"...I remember clearly having some, ugh, let's go buy a new pack first." Yun Zhan wiped the sweat from his forehead, staggered to the entrance of the tobacco and alcohol store, and bought a pack of cigarettes.
"Why are you smoking again?" 21 shook its body, remembering that Yun Zhan hadn't smoked for a while.
"I'm under a lot of pressure, I'm too nervous..." The lighter flickered, illuminating the tiny scratches on Yun Zhan's knuckles.
The first puff of smoke stung my lungs, like a knife scraping my throat, yet I couldn't suppress the tremor that rose from my very bones.
Yun Zhan leaned against the lamppost, tilting his head back and exhaling a puff of pale mist—
Before the fog had lifted, a figure emerged from the shadows of the opposite sidewalk.
Wen Sixue.
She was still wearing that black hoodie, the hood pulled low, and carrying a convenience store plastic bag with half a bottle of hot milk sticking out of the bag.
She didn't speak, but stood three steps away, her gaze like the surface of a lake at night, reflecting Yun Zhan's rather disheveled figure.
Yun Zhan's cigarette lingered in mid-air, its sparks flickering in the wind.
What are you doing here?
Her voice was hoarse, unlike her usual self.
Wen Sixue looked up, her eyelashes still damp with the night mist: "I saw you go in to buy cigarettes, so I'll wait for you here."
Wen Sixue paused, then lowered her voice, "...I just wanted to see if you were alright."
The cigarette ash fell, breaking into a grayish-white fragment at my feet.
Yun Zhan stubbed out his cigarette, brushed the back of his finger across his nose, and exhaled steam mixed with the cold air.
Yun Zhan suddenly reached out and pulled down the hood of Wen Sixue's sweatshirt: "You're wearing so little. You'll catch a cold if you only wear this little."
My fingertips touched her cold earlobe, like touching a snowflake.
The night wind, carrying snowflakes, made the streetlights sway.
Yun Zhan finished one cigarette and wanted to smoke a second one. The smoke shimmered like shards of glass under the streetlights. Just as Yun Zhan brought the cigarette to his lips, before he could even exhale the first puff of white smoke, a series of low, hoarse coughs rolled out of his chest.
The sound was short but muffled, like a blunt hammer striking Wen Sixue's eardrums. She had been standing obediently in front of Yun Zhan, but suddenly took a step forward, the leaves crunching softly under her boots.
Wen Sixue reached out, palm up, and gently covered the cigarette box.
"Don't smoke."
His voice was low, yet it carried an unyielding stubbornness.
"Yun Zhan, please stop smoking... okay?"
Her voice trembled, and the last syllable was almost blown away by the wind.
Yun Zhan looked up, but before he could speak, he coughed even more violently, his shoulders and back arching, and his knuckles bent slightly from gripping the cigarette tightly.
The sparks trembled in the night, reflecting Wen Sixue's instantly reddened eyes, as if it was she, not Yun Zhan, who had been choked.
Wen Sixue rushed to Yun Zhan in two steps and reached out to snatch the cigarette.
When her fingertips touched the back of Yun Zhan's fingers, the icy coldness and the scalding heat collided, and she trembled even more violently.
The cigarette was taken away, and she clutched it in her palm, the filter deformed from being squeezed, burning her skin until it turned red, but she seemed not to feel the pain.
"Your lungs are already bad, and you're still smoking?"
As she spoke, Wen Sixue's eyes were already misty with tears. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and tears rolled down her cheeks, drawing glistening lines in the cold air.
Yun Zhan coughed incessantly and could only raise his hand to wipe her throat, but she dodged him.
She looked up, her eyelashes still covered with fine snowflakes, like a layer of frost. "Last time you were smoking in the theater, I saw you cough."
Yun Zhan paused for a moment, and the spark in the lighter lit up briefly before going out.
She looked down at Wen Sixue—her hand was red from the cold, but her fingertips were stubbornly gripping the edge of the cigarette box, trembling slightly.
Yun Zhan suddenly remembered that half a month ago, Wen Sixue secretly handed her a bottle of loquat syrup at the end of the corridor and whispered, "Remember to take it on time."
At the time, she didn't know why Wen Sixue was giving her this.
Wen Sixue lowered her head, took out the bottle of hot milk from the plastic bag, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Yun Zhan's lips: "Use this to press it down."
The steam from the milk wafted towards Yun Zhan's nose, carrying a sweet and warm vanilla scent, as if gradually driving away the chill of the snowy night.
Yun Zhan didn't take it, but coughed softly, his voice hoarse: "Just one more cigarette."
Not even one.
Wen Sixue pushed the bottle opening forward another half inch, almost touching Yun Zhan's lower lip, "If you cough, I..."
She stopped mid-sentence, her ear tips turning red, as if burned by her own heartache.
Yun Zhan looked at her, took the milk, tilted his head back and took a small sip. The warmth rolled down his throat into his chest, suppressing the itch of his nicotine craving.
Wen Sixue breathed a sigh of relief, but her fingers were still clutching the empty cigarette pack. She needed to think of a way to get Yun Zhan to quit smoking.
The streetlights cast long shadows of the two people, one end overlapping under the light, the other end swallowed by darkness.
Pei Yanxi stood not far away. She had originally intended to go out for a stroll, but she unexpectedly witnessed this scene. In her line of sight, Yun Zhan, under the streetlight, had just finished coughing and was raising his hand to touch the top of Wen Sixue's head.
With her fingertips hovering in mid-air, Wen Sixue grabbed Yun Zhan's wrist first, her palm pressed against his wrist bone, her movements light yet stubborn.
In that instant, Pei Yanxi's knuckles silently tightened around the chain of her bag at her waist, the thin metal making a very subtle "creak".
She could hear her heart pounding so hard it felt like it could shake the branches off a withered tree.
She was a bit far away, but she could still see it clearly.
Wen Sixue stuffed the crushed cigarette into her pocket, leaving a red mark as her sleeve brushed against Yun Zhan's hand.
That splash of color was like a spark that flew into Pei Yanxi's eyes, burning her and making her gasp for breath.
She instinctively tried to move closer, but then felt a sudden dizziness, her legs suddenly went weak, and the image from before magnified and blurred in an instant.
Their vision blurred into a gray-white expanse of snow, swallowing their silhouettes until only overlapping shadows remained.
She stared intently, as if looking for even a second longer would be enough to rip the hand that was resting on Yun Zhan's wrist.
The rustling of falling leaves filled my ears—
As soon as Wen Sixue said in a nasal tone, "Come back with me, I'll make you some loquat water," Pei Yanxi's throat suddenly twitched, feeling as cold and suffocating as if she had swallowed a piece of ice.
Author's Note:
I've already figured out the main storylines for the three female leads.
There is no such thing as anyone being eliminated.
Everyone has their own strengths.
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