“Um… hello…”
Lin Jiaxin looked at his hand.
Clean, slender, with well-defined knuckles, and nails trimmed neatly.
Her hand, on the other hand, had wiped tears and wiped her nose.
It still had bits of tissue and dried traces of unknown liquid left on it.
Can she even shake hands with that…?
Feeling a little embarrassed, Lin Jiaxin stood there, squirming on the spot, unable to offer her hand for the longest time.
Jiang Huaiyan obviously noticed as well.
His hand froze in the air for a second, then naturally shifted to point off to the side instead.
“Want to grab a drink? There’s a place nearby that sells coffee, it’s really good. My treat.”
“No, I want to go to the bathroom to wash up first…”
Lin Jiaxin held out her sticky hands, shaking her head like a rattle.
She was way too much of a mess right now. She desperately needed to clean up and fix herself!
“But there’s no public restroom around here…”
Jiang Huaiyan hesitated for a moment. When he looked back at Lin Jiaxin, his gaze was cautious. “Um, I actually live nearby… If you don’t mind, why don’t you come to my place to wash up?”
“Sure! But won’t that be too much trouble for you?”
Lin Jiaxin’s eyes immediately lit up, but she still took a step back, pretending to be shy.
Why would she mind? Aren’t they just bros?
The top priority right now was fixing her appearance.
If she walked around looking this pathetic, it would be really embarrassing.
Lin Jiaxin knew very well that her Dao Heart was damaged.
So she had to take appropriate measures at all times to guard against any further deterioration!
“Th-then, come with me…”
Jiang Huaiyan turned around, his ears burning hot, and walked forward with stiff steps.
Along the way, he didn’t even dare look back at Lin Jiaxin.
This was the first time a girl had ever come to his place.
And such a pretty girl at that…
Lin Jiaxin followed him for about five minutes.
They finally arrived at the entrance of an old residential complex.
There weren’t many people here—mostly elderly men and women taking advantage of the cool evening air to exercise in the open square by the gate.
“Whack—whack—”
An old man spinning a top spotted Jiang Huaiyan leading Lin Jiaxin into the complex.
He immediately stopped his whip, stomped a foot on the top, and smiled at the two of them in greeting.
“Oh, Xiao Jiang’s back? Brought a classmate over to play?”
Fearing the old man and also worried Lin Jiaxin might misunderstand, Jiang Huaiyan quickly explained, “Hey, Second Grandpa Zhang! This is my friend, she’s just here to grab something.”
“Nice, nice.”
Second Grandpa Zhang looked at Jiang Huaiyan, then gave Lin Jiaxin a once-over.
Finally, he nodded with a grin.
A handsome guy and a pretty girl—they suited each other!
Old folks with nothing to do all day long…
They loved shipping young couples!
Lin Jiaxin didn’t really mind any of that. She was just staring intently at the top under Second Grandpa Zhang’s foot.
Why is that thing… so weird?
Aren’t tops supposed to be gray or wood-colored?
Why is this one red?
And why is it painted to look like a helmet?
Second Grandpa Zhang noticed Lin Jiaxin’s gaze at that moment.
He picked up the top, dusted it off with his hand, and held it out to Lin Jiaxin with a hearty chuckle.
“My grandson made this for me. He said some team called Taobo recently became the Player of the Month or something, so he made me this to spin around for fun.”
“What, little missy interested in tops too? Want to give it a try?”
“I see. Thanks, but I don’t know how to play…”
Lin Jiaxin nodded but didn’t take it.
She was just curious why the top looked so strange.
Besides, her hands were pretty dirty. Better not to show them off…
“Second Grandpa Zhang, take your time spinning your top! I’m heading home first!”
As more and more elderly folks gathered around to watch, Jiang Huaiyan grew anxious. He tossed out that line and, taking advantage of Second Grandpa Zhang looking down at his top, grabbed Lin Jiaxin by the wrist and slipped straight into the stairwell.
He moved so fast that even Lin Jiaxin didn’t react, getting yanked along before she knew it.
By the time Second Grandpa Zhang looked up to chat more, there was only empty air in front of him.
He glanced at the sound-activated light flickering on in the stairwell, crossed his arms, and laughed loudly with the other elderly folks around him.
“Haha! That boy’s gone all shy!”
……..
Jiang Huaiyan tugged Lin Jiaxin by the wrist, climbing up the stairs.
“Um… my hand…”
Lin Jiaxin stumbled along behind him, finally speaking up.
Her wrist was gripped tight, and she felt like a kite being pulled along on a string. She nearly slammed into the wall at the stairwell landing.
Jiang Huaiyan didn’t react, still climbing upward.
His mind was frantically replaying what just happened.
Second Grandpa Zhang was the leader of the Old Men Gang in the complex, and he loved shipping couples more than anything.
By tomorrow, the whole complex might be buzzing with the news that “Jiang Huaiyan brought his girlfriend home”…
Dammit, no explanation would fix that!
And more importantly… it didn’t matter if others misunderstood.
What if Lin Jiaxin got the wrong idea?
Would she think he was deliberately letting the rumors spread?
If that happened… what if she got angry?
Would she hate him? Of course she would! He’d damaged her reputation…
The more Jiang Huaiyan thought, the more muddled his mind became. But his feet never stopped, and his hand unconsciously gripped tighter and tighter.
“My hand! Jiang Huaiyan… hand, hand, hand!”
Lin Jiaxin finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and raised her voice, the sound echoing through the narrow stairwell.
“Huh?”
Jiang Huaiyan snapped back to reality. He looked down and saw his hand tightly gripping Lin Jiaxin’s wrist.
His five fingers were locked around it, his thumb wedged right at her wrist bone.
“S-s-sorry!”
Jiang Huaiyan released his grip as if burned, jumping back a step.
The back of his head immediately smacked against the stair railing with a dull thud.
“CLANG—”
But Jiang Huaiyan didn’t even have time to register the pain. He clutched his head and quickly tried to explain.
“I didn’t mean to! I thought it was—no, I didn’t think that, I just wasn’t paying attention, I thought I was holding—your sleeve! Yeah, I thought I was holding your sleeve!”
But as soon as the incoherent explanation left his mouth, even Jiang Huaiyan fell silent.
The feeling just now was clearly a wrist.
Thin and cool, with a slightly protruding wrist bone—how could anyone mistake that?
Jiang Huaiyan’s face flushed red all the way to his ears.
He hung his head and looked away, his voice muffled and completely deflated.
“I’m sorry… I really didn’t mean to…”
At that moment, the sound-activated light suddenly flicked off, hearing no footsteps.
In the darkness, all that remained was the soft rustling of his hands nervously twisting the fabric of his pants.
Lin Jiaxin suddenly stomped her foot hard.
“THUD—THUD—”
The sound-activated light clicked back on.
Warm yellow light filled the narrow stairwell again.
It illuminated Jiang Huaiyan’s face, which looked like it was about to bury itself in his chest.
And his two hands, unconsciously clutching his pant legs, seemingly trying to ball up the denim fabric.
“Well, you’ve got some guts.”
Lin Jiaxin suddenly spoke up, breaking the dead silence.
“…Huh?”
“I said, you’ve got some guts! My hands are this dirty, and you dragged me along the whole way without minding?”
“…”
Jiang Huaiyan froze. He looked up and found Lin Jiaxin waving her sticky hand right in front of his face.
There wasn’t a trace of anger on her face—if anything, she looked more like she was enjoying the show.
“You’re… not mad?”
Jiang Huaiyan asked cautiously.
“Me? Mad about what?”
“I… I held your hand… and for so long too, and I didn’t even realize…”
Jiang Huaiyan’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
“So what?”
Lin Jiaxin tilted her head, finding him rather strange.
Aren’t we just bros? It’s just holding a wrist, what’s the big deal? It’s not like we were interlocking fingers!
She rolled her eyes internally.
Then she deliberately shoved her sticky hand even closer to Jiang Huaiyan’s face.
“I just wanted to tell you—this stuff sticks to your hand, and it spreads the more you rub it… Do you have enough hand soap at your place? Don’t let me get inside and run out halfway through washing.”
“…”
Jiang Huaiyan was completely stunned.
He’d imagined countless scenarios of being yelled at.
Being called a pervert, a weirdo, or even someone with ill intentions—he’d accept it all…
But Lin Jiaxin didn’t care about any of that…
“E-enough, enough!”
Jiang Huaiyan nodded seriously. “Almost half a bottle, that’s definitely enough… If it’s not, there’s a convenience store downstairs, I can go buy more right now!”
“No need for that. As long as it’s enough, let’s hurry.”
Lin Jiaxin shook her hand and started heading up first.
She couldn’t stand the sticky feeling on her hands any longer!
But just as she reached the corner, Lin Jiaxin noticed Jiang Huaiyan was still standing there.
She stomped her foot again, keeping the fading light alive, and turned back to call out, “What are you staring at? Come on up! I don’t know which floor you live on—if you don’t lead the way, how am I supposed to know?”
“I-I’m coming… we’re almost there!”
Jiang Huaiyan finally snapped out of it and scrambled to catch up, taking the stairs two at a time.
As he moved ahead to lead the way, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She’s such a strange girl. Completely different from ordinary people…
Jiang Huaiyan felt something wonderful from Lin Jiaxin.
That feeling made his mind wander for a moment, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was…
Not nervousness, not fear, and not simple happiness.
It was more like a light… unfamiliar flutter.
Like an invisible force gently plucking at a string inside his heart, producing a low note he himself could barely hear…