The villa area was a bit far from where I lived.
The campus streets at night were overly quiet.
Only the buzzing of unseen insects surrounded the streetlights.
Villa Building No. 3.
“I’ll add your fingerprint later.”
Su Liumeng opened the door with her own fingerprint.
“I live on the second floor, left side of the hallway. You can take the right side. Both are master bedrooms, with attached bathrooms—no need to leave the room to wash up.”
“There are two kitchens in total.”
“But you probably don’t need to worry about that,” she added, well aware that I rarely cooked for myself.
As a former foster child of the Su family, I had never been required to cook, no matter what trials I went through.
As for her, Su Liumeng often had to dive into dangerous secret realms.
If she didn’t know how to cook, she’d have been eating raw meat and drinking blood by now.
“I’ll make my own bed.”
I reached out, trying to take my suitcase back.
Su Liumeng pushed me down onto the sofa.
“If I let you do everything, then what am I here for?”
…That line.
Kind of made sense.
But only kind of.
I couldn’t argue with her, so I just turned on the TV and randomly switched to a children’s channel, watching the latest version of some educational cartoon.
Suddenly, a very serious thought crossed my mind.
If I’m watching cartoons right now… does this count as a form of prenatal education?
Fifteen minutes later, Su Liumeng clapped her hands and walked out of the room.
“Mission complete! I’ve made your bed.”
She came over to the sofa, smiling as she spoke.
“Your lady Su is personally here to give you a shoulder massage. Little Yanyan, are you happy?”
“Happy or not, I haven’t really thought that far. Mostly just flustered and nervous—does that count?”
I took a deep breath to calm myself a little and joked along with her.
“I still like it when you argue with me.”
Back then, we used to bicker all the time, quarreling in every possible situation.
In her mind, the image of “us” had finally found a unified version in this moment.
As for Su Liumeng’s behavior—
Sometimes it felt like she didn’t know boundaries at all, and at other times she was strangely proper.
If she said she was going to massage my shoulders, then she’d only massage my shoulders—without a single extra move.
“Have you thought of a name for the baby yet?”
The massage ended quickly, and Su Liumeng naturally sat down beside me.
Boom!
A clap of thunder exploded in the sky.
Summer storms were like that—no pattern, no warning.
They could fall upon the world at any moment.
I looked out into the night as my fingers gently clenched.
This… this really feels like something out of a novel.
My body instinctively curled inward, long legs crossed and drawn up as I shrank into the sofa.
“Still thinking.”
The “cohabitation” I had resisted for so long—
Now that it had actually happened,
I could feel the air slowly heating up with a quiet, ambiguous tension.
“How big is the baby now? Can I touch it?”
Su Liumeng leaned in closer.
Her silky black hair naturally draped over my bare, snow-white skin.
The post-rain air was getting a little too humid.
Following her gaze was the still-flat belly under my thin nightdress.
A delicate pale hand reached out, gently lifting the edge of the fabric.
“Do you want to touch the baby… or someone else?”
I asked dumbly, making Su Liumeng nearly forget to breathe for a moment.
Her reply was dry, but painfully honest:
“Both…”
“No. Neither is allowed!!”
The ghost baby silently gnashed her teeth in protest—but didn’t say it out loud.
“If you want to touch me, we’ll need to have a serious talk first,” I replied in a soft, calm voice.
“As for the baby… she probably won’t agree.”
“How could she not be willing? The baby isn’t even born yet—how could she possibly know she’s unwilling?”
Su Liumeng argued back.
How was I even supposed to respond to that?
“She… doesn’t want to,” I said slowly and firmly, stressing each word with absolute certainty.
Whatever retort Su Liumeng had prepared got stuck in her throat.
“You still don’t know the baby’s gender, right? Let me check your pulse for you.”
She quickly changed the subject.
As she spoke, I offered her my wrist.
Su Liumeng’s long-held wish was finally fulfilled—she looked like an excited cat kneading its paws.
She had always wanted to give me a check-up.
“Alright, let me take a look!”
Her fingers pressed lightly against my pulse.
At first, she seemed cheerful, but the longer she checked, the more her brows furrowed.
A chill ran through me.
Half-joking, I said, “You’re not going to start flipping through ancient medical books, right? Don’t scare me.”
“It’s not that bad.”
Su Liumeng removed her hand.
“It just feels like… you had a serious illness before, something almost incurable. But then, somehow, you recovered—though there are still faint traces of it.”
“Is that… dangerous?”
“Not exactly. You’re just physically weak. And also…”
She paused before adding,
“Uterine cold.”
“I had cancer before. By the time I found out, it was already late-stage. I moved out of the Su household because I wanted to live out my last days in peace.”
I placed my arm back on my lap and didn’t go into too much detail.
“That stroke of fortune I mentioned before—that’s what cured it.”
The “physical weakness” part was easy enough to understand.
But this uterine cold—what kind of condition was that?
“So if someone has uterine cold… what does that mean exactly?”
“Uh…” Su Liumeng hesitated for a second.
“Difficulty conceiving—does that count?”
“Um… I guess that doesn’t count?”
I blinked innocently to match her tone.
“The rest can only be improved slowly, through daily care. I was frowning just now because I was trying to figure out what kinds of nutritional therapy would help, especially since you can’t take random medicine right now.”
Su Liumeng went on explaining.
As one of the future successors of the Su family, she had to learn a little bit of everything—from martial arts to medicine to household management.
But even with all that knowledge, nutritional healing was still a lot to research.
The night deepened.
I sat quietly, eating warm food as the downpour continued outside the window.
The air indoors was warm and gently circulating.
“Wanna play a game?” Su Liumeng asked after finishing the laundry.
She wasn’t the least bit sleepy.
It was a perfectly good night—no way she was going to waste it by going to bed early.
I almost forgot: this girl had a major online gaming addiction.
Staying up until two or three in the morning was totally normal for her.
…Oh wait, I used to be like that too.
Then never mind!
“I’ll pass.”
I glanced at the clock—11:25 PM.
“I shouldn’t sleep too late. Besides, I didn’t sleep well last night either.”
I was just about to head back to my room when Su Liumeng’s sudden words nearly made me lose control of my expression.
“Xiaoyan, was the person arguing with me in the voice chat room… you?”
I instantly recalled all the nonsense I blurted out that day when I went all in—it was mortifying just thinking about it.
So… Su Liumeng had known it was me all along?
I stood frozen in place, feeling a strong urge to run, maybe even dig a hole and disappear into it.
Su Liumeng looked at my shame-filled expression, her eyes curving into a beautiful crescent moon as she smiled.
“Remind me, who was it arguing that Yan God was her husband?”
God knows what was going through my mind back then.
I knew I was Yan God, and yet I still fought tooth and nail with another diehard fan over who his real wife was—like I was actually competing for him.
Humiliating.
Utterly humiliating.
I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.
And the worst part?
Su Liumeng won the argument.
I was the one who had said it—out loud.
After an intense internal struggle, I suddenly turned around, deciding to throw all shame to the wind.
“It was me. I was the one arguing with you.”
I did it—so what? I wasn’t going to deny it.
Su Liumeng had clearly reached her goal.
She gazed at the girl in the white dress standing on the steps and said teasingly, “Since you admit it… then how about calling me hubby once?”
This felt exactly like someone trying to trick their “future wife” into calling them “husband.”
“Keep dreaming. If anything, I’ll call you ‘wifey.’”
“Wifey works too. Same difference,”
Su Liumeng jumped on the opportunity.
Me: “…”
I almost forgot—there’s no winning against a shameless rogue like her.
But I wasn’t just going to lie down and take it.
I’m not great with words—I’m more of a reckless type.
And seeing how everything I said just played into her hands, I lunged at her.
“Su Liumeng! Try teasing me again and I—I’ll fight you!”
So infuriating.
Couldn’t out-talk her, couldn’t beat her either.
But maybe this is why I’m such a sucker for good looks—if it were anyone else doing this to me, I’d have exploded already.
But with that extra filter in place, I somehow found myself… actually enjoying it a little.
“Hey—careful!”
Su Liumeng squeaked as I tackled her.
She hadn’t expected me to lunge at her and didn’t even try to dodge.
I crashed right into her, our long black hair tangling together like falling curtains.
Her arms instinctively wrapped around my slender waist—only to have my small, soft hand wrap gently but firmly around her neck the next moment.
There wasn’t much strength behind it. It felt more like a kitten pawing than an actual threat, and she had no desire to resist.
“Su Liumeng!”
I bit my lips in frustration, eyes glaring furiously at her.
“Do that again, and you’re dead meat.”
Still soft. Still utterly non-threatening.
It wasn’t the first time she realized—Yan God had such an unexpectedly cute side.
After all that commotion, some real emotion finally returned to my face—at the very least, I looked like a proper young person again.
What I didn’t see was Su Liumeng quietly letting out a sigh of relief behind me.
“I was wrong.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, sticking out the tip of her pink tongue playfully.
“Stop choking me, I’m about to die.”
I couldn’t help it—I rolled my eyes dramatically.
“You say sorry, but you’ll still do it again next time, won’t you?”
“I won’t next time.” Su Liumeng raised her fingers, ready to swear.
I suddenly grabbed two of her fingers.
“Forget it. What’s the point of swearing? Everyone says things they don’t mean sometimes. What if the oath really comes true?”
Su Liumeng frowned.
“Weren’t you a materialist before?”
I replied, annoyed, “You said it yourself—before.”
“After everything that’s happened to me, no one could stay a materialist, could they?”
Then, after a brief pause—I suddenly realized…
I was almost completely in Su Liumeng’s arms.
Our pose was unbelievably intimate.
I could clearly see the soft, shallow dimples on her cheeks.
The heat rushing to my face was overwhelming.
For the first time, even my fingertips felt burning hot.
Su Liumeng’s breathing nearly stopped. Her long lashes fluttered under my gaze.
That beautiful face, which had made my heart race countless times, was now silently drawing closer.
She—
What is she trying to do?
My mouth suddenly felt dry.
My small hand instinctively moved from its original spot to clutch her back.
Su Liumeng had never been this forward before.
Her soft, rosy lips were right there, almost touching—making her heartbeat quicken dangerously—
There was a beat of silence—skipped.
In any relationship, one side is destined to be more forward.
And I… just happened to be the more introverted one.
So Su Liumeng was already learning how to be the one who took the initiative.
My featherlight eyelashes cast delicate shadows as they trembled slightly.
Where my gaze landed, the soft blush blooming on the girl’s profile—faint yet intoxicating—made Su Liumeng’s blood boil with heat.
A sudden flush of warmth flared low in her abdomen, followed by a subtle wave of discomfort that made her body stiffen ever so slightly… before she calmly composed herself once more.
Scenes she had dreamed about day and night—
Those increasingly intoxicating, forbidden fantasies—were now playing out on the second-floor hallway of the villa.
Two girls so beautiful it defied reason… closed their eyes at the same time.
There was no gentle hesitance.
Only an intense, conquering hunger.
Su Liumeng was far from satisfied with just that.
When I realized she was trying to part my lips—
It was like I was suddenly yanked out of that dazed state.
I barely managed to wipe the corner of my mouth before shoving the girl in front of me away in a fluster.
“I—”
“I’m going back to bed.”
The sudden absence of that soft, fragrant body left Su Liumeng with a hollow ache in her chest.
Thud—
The door slammed shut with full force.
In that brief instant, all Su Liumeng caught was a glimpse of Si Xinyan’s ears—completely flushed red.
I leaned against the door, and the thin fabric of my nightgown gradually grew damp with cold from the back, grounding me as I gasped for breath, slowly regaining some semblance of rational thought.
Thump thump thump.
My heartbeat was accelerating by the second.
The moment I closed my eyes, all I could see in my mind was that scene—my body pressed tightly against Su Liumeng’s, the softness of our curves pressing together, the electrifying shiver of that contact…
I couldn’t calm down even now.
Damn it.
As a shameless face-con, had I really just been captured by Su Liumeng?
I cursed myself for being so useless, sitting on the edge of the bed with both hands braced behind me, my legs swinging faintly back and forth.
At this moment, the shyness blooming inside me was utterly indescribable.
I suddenly had this urge to bury my entire face under the covers.
A boy, somehow even shyer than a girl.
What the hell was going on with me!!
Just like Su Liumeng once said—I was old-fashioned, and kind of introverted too.
I lay flat on the wide bed, hugging my soft, pale blanket as I tossed and turned restlessly, with no sign of sleep in sight.
Sigh… In the end, I was ruined by beauty.
Staring up with wide, helpless eyes, I let out one last, heartfelt sigh.