Chapter 5
Chapter 5
At eight o’clock that night, I stood outside Room 6007, so nervous my palms were sweating.
A faint, warm light seeped out from under the door. I could vaguely hear rustling sounds inside.
What was Xi Sheng doing?
He wasn’t seriously about to pull some casting-couch crap, was he?
I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The lights were off inside. Candles covered the floor, their flames flickering.
They illuminated a chaotic sprawl of props:
Handcuffs, a leather whip, a collar…
And a black ribbon, tossed in a crumpled heap by the bed.
My scalp went numb.
Xi Sheng looked like such a pure, wholesome, premium idol on the surface, but behind the scenes he played this wild?
I immediately took out my phone and aimed it at the “evidence” on the floor, snapping photos like crazy.
Preserve the evidence.
“Baby, you’re here?”
A greasy male voice sounded from behind me.
I whipped around.
A muscular hunk of a guy came out happily wrapped in a bath towel. The second he saw me, his expression changed.
…
I looked at the room number.
Shit!
Wrong room!
When the guy saw me holding up my phone, he flew into a rage.
“You sick freak! Taking sneaky photos, huh?!”
He swung his arm out to snatch my phone.
I turned and ran, only to crash headfirst into someone’s chest.
“Teacher Ji?”
Xi Sheng’s voice came from above my head, tinged with confusion.
I looked up and met his slightly raised brow.
“Why are you running?”
I had no time to explain. The guy was already charging at us, murder in his eyes.
“Are you two together?!”
Xi Sheng reacted unbelievably fast. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me into a run.
His fingers were long and strong, his palm scalding hot. He held me so tightly my bones ached.
We sprinted all the way to the hotel terrace before he finally let go.
The night wind howled. I panted, my heart racing.
The guy was wearing a bath towel, which limited his movement, so he couldn’t outrun us.
He probably wouldn’t keep chasing us.
On the terrace, the night air was cool and refreshing.
Xi Sheng leaned against the railing, his shirt billowing in the wind. His collar hung loose, revealing the faint outline of his collarbones.
He wasn’t wearing makeup. His hair was a mess, his jeans were cuffed at the hems, and his white sneakers had just been dirtied where I’d stepped on them.
He looked like a senior from college sneaking out of class-roguish, fresh, and clean.
A world away from the top-tier idol who was always exquisite down to the last strand of hair in front of the cameras.
For some reason, he felt much more alive.
“What were you taking pictures of just now?” he suddenly asked.
I choked.
It wasn’t like I could say, “I thought you were going to sleep with me, so I gathered evidence in advance,” could I?
He gave a low laugh and leaned closer.
“Teacher Ji, you couldn’t be… guarding against me, could you?”
His breath brushed past my ear, tickling me so badly my whole body stiffened.
He was too close.
So close that I could see the small patch of skin beneath his collar. The red marks from before had faded until they were almost invisible.
I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “The hickeys on your neck are gone.”
Xi Sheng froze for a second, then realized what I meant.
“They were a rash.”
He hooked a finger into his collar and tugged it down.
His cool, pale skin was clean, with only a few faint red marks left.
“A rash from being allergic to banana milk.”
“You drank it when you’re allergic?!” My voice shot up so suddenly even I startled myself.
In the night wind, his eyes curved like crescent moons.
“You looked so happy drinking it. I couldn’t help myself.”
Just that one sentence.
I deflated like a punctured balloon, all the air whooshing out of me.
All my anger from before turned into a sour tightness, lodged in my throat, impossible to swallow.
Guilt came crashing down on me.
I really deserved to die.
He’d posted on Weibo to defend me, and I’d thought he was some bastard with a messy private life.
I even suspected he wanted to pull casting-couch tricks on me.
But in the end, he had simply… wanted to drink the same bottle of milk as me?
The night wind made my face burn.
I secretly glanced at him.
He was looking up into the distance, his profile bathed in moonlight, so clean it was almost unreal.
I seemed to have… misunderstood a good person.