Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Following the address Lu Yan had given me, I found myself standing in front of a villa.

“This is way too fancy…”

I took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell.

The door opened.

Lu Yan stood inside, his hair half-dry, dressed in a white bathrobe. The glasses he usually wore were gone, making the contours of his brows and eyes look even sharper, his lashes thick and dark.

He looked a little more intense than usual.

I stared, stunned.

He spoke first. “My parents are abroad on an academic visit.”

Me: “…Oh.”

So right now, he was the only one home?

He handed me a pair of fluffy white kitten slippers. They matched the black pair on his own feet, like a couple set.

I was just about to bend down when he crouched first.

“I’ll do it.”

“You don’t have to…”

Before I could finish, his fingers had already deftly undone my shoelaces.

The collar of his robe fell open with the motion, and I accidentally glanced inside, catching a glimpse of a firm, slightly defined chest.

Pink.

I whipped my face away, my ears burning.

After I changed into the slippers, Lu Yan gentlemanly led me inside.

“Can I pet it now?” I was desperate for cat time. “Has it gotten bigger?”

Lu Yan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he gave a low “Mm.”

I could hardly wait.

“Where should I pet it?”

“Where… where do you want to? Anywhere is fine with me.”

“Then the living room sofa.”

I went straight for the point, plopped down, and excitedly rubbed my hands together.

“Take Little Dingding out!”

Lu Yan coughed lightly. The tips of his ears were faintly red, his expression solemn.

“It’s not little.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Was he saying he’d raised Little Dingding really well?

As I was wondering, Lu Yan very seriously used the remote to close all the living room curtains.

??

Then he turned on the dim amber mood lighting.

???

I didn’t understand, but I respected it.

The entire space was enveloped in hazy, ambiguous light and shadow.

He walked over to the sofa.

Taking a deep breath, as if he’d made some kind of enormous decision, he sat down beside me.

The hem of his bathrobe slid open across most of his spread legs.

He leaned back against the sofa, raised one hand, and covered his eyes with the back of it.

A posture that practically said: do with me as you will.

His black hair was still damp, his robe on the verge of coming undone.

In the dim light, he looked restrained, yet wanton.

I froze.

This… this was what he meant by traditional?

After waiting a while with nothing happening, he couldn’t help moving the arm covering his eyes. His gaze looked damp as he turned to me.

“Are you… not going to start?”

I was even more anxious than he was.

“Then take Little Dingding out already! If you don’t take it out, how am I supposed to start?”

The air solidified.

Lu Yan went rigid. Shock, shame, and helplessness flashed through his eyes.

At last, as if making the greatest decision of his life, his trembling fingers moved toward the belt of his robe.

I was so scared I covered my eyes.

“Lu Yan, what are you doing?!”

“Didn’t you want to…”

He could barely get the words out, humiliated and struggling as he continued, “…stroke me?”

Stroke… him?

A flash of white went off in my mind.

I understood. I understood everything.

So all this time, whenever I said I wanted to “pet the cat,” he had understood it as… me wanting to stroke him?

And he had still agreed?

He had even taken a shower, changed into a bathrobe, turned on mood lighting, and lain down waiting for me?

No, seriously, was that kind of ridiculous request something you could just casually agree to?

I took a deep breath, doing my best to keep my voice steady.

“Lu Yan, the thing I’ve wanted to pet, from beginning to end, was the cat.”

The world stopped.

Lu Yan looked like he was about to shatter.

But this mortified, boyish version of him somehow seemed much more alive than his usual old-fashioned self.

I leaned closer to his bright-red face, unable to contain my curiosity.

“Lu Yan… since you misunderstood, why did you still agree?”