Chapter Forty-Eight: The Hangover
After a hangover, Lin Yu fell into an unusually deep sleep, free from nightmares, enveloped only by a thick, warm darkness, as if sinking into the deepest sea. It wasn't until the blinding sunlight pierced through the gaps in the curtains that she was fully awakened from her drowsiness.
The moment she regained consciousness, a headache struck like a tsunami. Her body felt as if it had been completely dismantled the night before and then haphazardly pieced back together.
Every joint felt stiff and unresponsive, completely disconnected from my dazed mind. Every nerve seemed to be misaligned, not coexisting well with my stiff neck.
She remained in the position of someone who had just woken up, afraid to move, lest even the slightest movement cause her dislocated body to fall apart completely.
The moment she closed her eyes, the scenes from last night uncontrollably resurfaced. The dim light, the intertwined, burning breaths, the absurd and out-of-control touches—all the sensory memories instantly returned, backlash against her crumbling sense of shame.
She mustered her courage and slowly opened her eyes. Sure enough, the familiar chandelier and the familiar room came into view. Only this time, the disheveled creases on the bed and the lingering warmth proclaimed that last night was different from the last.
Overwhelmed with shame, she buried her burning face in the pillow, letting out a frustrated and stifled sob, and slammed her fist on the soft bedding.
Lin Yuping lay there for a while, then reached out and touched the neatly folded clothes beside her pillow, as if carefully cleaning up after something. This unconsciously reminded her of the chaotic and out-of-control scenes from last night, and her cheeks flushed red once more.
She put on her shirt with a gloomy expression, deliberately taking an extremely slow time to button it up, in order to delay facing reality.
Lin Yu got dressed, pushed open the door, and went out. The living room was empty. The morning light shone on the spotless floor tiles, and even the little bit of cream that he had spilled on the sofa during his passionate encounter last night had disappeared without a trace.
It was as if all those alluring entanglements were absurd hallucinations conjured up by her drunken mind. But the distinct soreness in her waist and groin was undeniably real, ruthlessly shattering Lin Yu's attempt to deceive herself.
She dragged her aching and uncomfortable body to the counter and poured herself a glass of warm water. Just as she was biting the rim of the glass, lost in thought, the electronic lock suddenly beeped, and the door was abruptly pulled open from the outside.
Lin Yu turned around in a panic, and the warm water choked her, causing her to hunch over and cough violently.
Jiang Chuan, who was carrying breakfast into the room, saw this and threw the things in his hand on the entryway cabinet. He walked over to Lin Yu in a few steps, placed his palm on her back, which was heaving violently due to coughing, and gently patted it until her coughing gradually subsided, leaving only faint gasps.
A sudden silence fell, a suffocating stillness filling the air.
Lin Yu ran her fingers along a small water stain that had spilled into the glass, and suddenly realized that this was probably the most absurd and awkward morning she had ever experienced in her twenty-six years, sharing an unspoken understanding with a man who was neither a complete stranger nor a very familiar person.
Lin Yu was troubled by this complicated and tricky situation. His mind was filled with all sorts of chaotic thoughts, and he couldn't make sense of them at all.
"The water tank is fixed, I should go back now." She finally found her voice and uttered these words dryly, trying to distance herself from Jiang Chuan.
Jiang Chuan paused, his hand on her back still. "I'll take you home after breakfast." His voice sounded calm, almost too calm.
His Adam's apple bobbed, his gaze falling on her lowered, slightly trembling eyelashes. He hesitated before adding, "It's the weekend today, or... you can rest here for a while..." His words carried a subtle hint of probing and a plea for her to stay.
Lin Yu cleared her throat. The sunlight suddenly became exceptionally dazzling, instantly illuminating all the ambiguous meaning behind the word "rest," leaving her absurd behavior nowhere to hide. She dared not look at Jiang Chuan's expression at this moment, and could only awkwardly turn her face away, interrupting him abruptly.
"No."
Last night's tenderness receded like a tsunami, leaving only a scene of devastation on the shore. She said in an almost deliberate calm tone, "It's my fault for drinking too much yesterday. It was just an accident, just pretend...nothing ever happened."
"What if I don't want to?" Jiang Chuan's voice deepened. He felt as if Lin Yu was treating him like an object that could be discarded at will, or a mistake that desperately needed to be erased completely.
This deliberate alienation and denial confused him, and he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. His face turned as cold as the dead of winter, and his tone became hard.
“You should know that photographic memory is a basic skill for lawyers.” He took a step closer, his figure looming over her. He gently cupped the back of her neck, the force gentle yet irresistible, forcing her to look up at the open collar of her shirt.
A dark red mark on his collarbone stood out starkly against his pale skin. "Besides..." His fingertips lightly brushed against the mark. "This will take a long time to fade."
Scenes from last night flashed uncontrollably through Lin Yu's mind, and her ears suddenly burned. She hurriedly picked up her water glass and buried her head in it, but she couldn't suppress the surging heat and panic in her heart.
Lin Yu hated the feeling of being thrown off balance by Jiang Chuan's few words. She just wanted to get back to her comfort zone as soon as possible. Before she could completely sort out the messy relationship between the two of them, she had to at least hold onto this last line of defense.
Breakfast ended hastily in a suffocating silence, a stark contrast to the passionate and frenzied entanglement of the previous night.
Lin Yu ultimately couldn't refuse Jiang Chuan's offer to take her home, perhaps because she was really unwell, or perhaps for some other reason she didn't want to delve into.
The silence in the car made every second seem exceptionally long. When the car finally stopped in front of her rented apartment building, Lin Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly reached for the doorknob.
"Wait a minute." Jiang Chuan suddenly spoke, his first words since getting into the car. He turned to the side, took out a small, exquisite velvet box from the inside pocket of his coat, and handed it to Lin Yu expressionlessly.
"I saw it at the morning market." He said indifferently, handing it over with a cold expression. "It should suit you perfectly."
Lin Yu was taken aback for a moment, subconsciously thinking that the trinkets she had bought at the morning market wouldn't be too valuable. Moreover, looking at Jiang Chuan's gloomy face, she didn't dare to say anything more. After hesitating for a moment, she took the box without thinking.
Opening the box, a cat hair clip made of acetate lay quietly on a black velvet cushion. The hair clip was a deep, dark green with delicate texture, like the unfathomable yet turbulent gaze Jiang Chuan gave him when he looked at him in the darkness.
The winter sun shone through the car's windshield, landing on the cat's adorable pose as it stretched and yawned, casting a bright, lively light on its small, amber eyes.
Lin Yu took it out of the box, held it in her palm, and ran her fingertips over its cool, delicate texture. It was exquisite, even somewhat cute, and perfectly matched her aesthetic sense.
Lin Yu was pleased, but the persistently low pressure emanating from Jiang Chuan made her joy seem particularly abrupt and inappropriate at this moment, so she had to restrain her emotions.
"Thank you," she said awkwardly, her voice a little strained.
Just as he was about to push open the door and get out of the car, he heard Jiang Chuan's deep voice behind him. "Won't you give it a try?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Yu turned around and met Jiang Chuan's resentful gaze, which seemed to accuse her of being heartless and ungrateful.
She was the one who was being teased and thrown into a state of confusion, so why did he put on a wronged and neglected act first, and even use his eyes to coerce Lin Yu into patiently coaxing him?
The absurd contrast left her speechless for a moment. Inexplicably, she handed the hairpin back, looked at him helplessly, and softened her tone.
"I can't do it right, can you put it on for me?"
At that moment, she clearly saw the coldness in Jiang Chuan's eyes melt away instantly, and a triumphant glint flashed in his eyes, so fast that she thought it was her imagination.
He took the hair clip, leaned slightly to the side, and gently ran his fingers through her loose hair, finding a suitable spot near her ear to carefully fasten the clip.
Lin Yu raised her hand to open the mirror on the sun visor and tilted her head to look at herself. The dark green cat lay lazily among her chestnut hair, its unique and lively pose surprisingly harmonious and beautiful.
"nice!"
She couldn't help but sigh softly, and looking at herself in the mirror, she gave her first genuine smile of the morning, temporarily forgetting the awkwardness and entanglement between the two of them.
Jiang Chuan looked at her and sighed softly, as if in a helpless compromise. Suddenly, he unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned closer to Lin Yu without warning, grabbing the handle above her head with one hand and her slender wrist with the other. The force wasn't strong, but it was enough to make it difficult for her to break free.
“You know…” His gaze was fixed on her, his eyes deep, his tone low and earnest. “What I want isn’t just a thank you.”
What do you want? Do you want a formal title?
Lin Yu instinctively tried to play dumb and evade the question, but he retreated step by step under the other person's intense gaze, his back slamming against the car door in a panic. His heart pounded like a drum, and he desperately tried to stall for time.
"Can you...can you give me a few days to think about it? My mind is a bit of a mess right now, really..."
But Jiang Chuan wasn't about to let her off so easily. His lawyer's instincts kicked in, and he seized on the key information in her words, pressing her relentlessly. "How many days exactly?" His gaze was sharp, as if he could see through all the hastily constructed pretense she had put up.
"After the New Year..." Lin Yu was forced into a corner, and his voice unconsciously carried a hint of aggrieved pleading, half sincere and half deceitful.
"I'm going back to my hometown in a few days. Let's have a proper New Year celebration first, okay?"
"Then it's the tenth." Jiang Chuan looked at her flustered and helpless appearance, his thumb unconsciously rubbing the pulse beating on her wrist, making a firm decision on the boundary she was trying to blur and retreat from.
Lin Yu's ears burned and her mind buzzed from his pressure. She had long lost the strength to argue or think calmly; all she wanted was to open the door, get out of the car, and escape this cramped space that he controlled. She didn't delve into the meaning behind the specific date, but simply nodded hastily in agreement.
A sly smile flashed across Jiang Chuan's eyes. In the instant she relaxed her guard, he suddenly leaned in without warning and placed a light kiss on her slightly flushed cheek.
"Deposit!"
The central locking system clicked open. Jiang Chuan chuckled, watching Lin Yu cover his bright red cheeks and angrily push open the car door and escape.
The dark green cat hair clip shimmered in her hair, like a secret contract seal he had placed on Lin Yu.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
