It was as if he was afraid that the credit for saving his life might not go to her—this man spared no effort in acknowledging her help and contribution.
Jiang Fuyue smiled slightly. “What, are you hoping I’ll use this as leverage? Like, demanding that you repay me with your body or something?”
She swore to the heavens—it really was just a joke.
But who would’ve thought the man’s expression turned serious?
Jiang Fuyue’s heart skipped a beat. No way… right?
Then Xie Dingyuan said, “I’ve thought about it. It’s not impossible.”
So basically: Repaying with his body wasn’t out of the question!!
Jiang Fuyue stared at him like she’d seen a ghost. “Stop joking…”
“I’m not joking.” He tightened his lips slightly.
“…You’re serious?” The girl frowned, a little more solemn now.
“Of course it’s… fake.” The man suddenly curved his lips, the earlier seriousness replaced with casualness. He shrugged. “Just kidding.”
Jiang Fuyue let out a breath of relief. “I knew it… you scared me just now.”
Xie Dingyuan’s gaze flickered. “That scared you? Then if I really confessed to you one day, would you just faint on the spot?”
“Not that dramatic. I’m not that weak,” she replied.
He smiled at that.
But the next second, he heard her say—
“Good thing the chances of that happening are basically zero. No need to even consider it.”
Basically zero?!
At that moment, Xie Dingyuan felt both sour and annoyed. “Are you questioning my taste, or are you just not confident in your own charm?”
Jiang Fuyue was stunned.
The moment those words came out, the man realized they weren’t quite appropriate. Internally flustered, he kept a calm facade.
After thinking for a moment, he added matter-of-factly, “Any event has a 50% chance of happening or not—basic middle school probability. You shouldn’t make such a rookie mistake.”
Jiang Fuyue twitched the corner of her mouth. Fine, she’d overthought it.
Things like “his taste” and “her charm” probably, in Xie Dingyuan’s mind, were no different than “Element A” and “Element B.”
Genius minds always operated differently. As a fellow genius, Jiang Fuyue understood.
So, under the man’s calm and unreadable gaze, she nodded. “I wasn’t being rigorous enough. I’ll pay more attention next time.”
Xie Dingyuan nearly choked on his own breath and let out a stifled “Mm” through his nose, secretly fuming inside.
He’d set the trap, failed to catch the intended target, and ended up trapping himself instead.
What a miscalculation. A big one.
Even after the two exited the core lab area and came to the outer rooms, he was still sulking silently.
He looked truly ticked off.
Jiang Fuyue didn’t realize anything was wrong. Xie Dingyuan wasn’t exactly talkative to begin with—silence was his norm. If he actually talked a lot, now that would be strange.
In contrast, she was more interested in that mysterious black smoke from earlier. “When will the sampling be done?”
Xie Dingyuan: …I’m trying to flirt here, and all she cares about is the smoke?
“Is that hard to answer?”
“…No.”
“?”
He just didn’t want to answer! He was mad!
But in the end, he muttered, “Should be done by this afternoon.”
“Then…” The girl pursed her lips, peach blossom eyes sparkling with excitement. “Can I observe the analysis process?”
Xie Dingyuan couldn’t refuse. “…Sure.”
In that instant, her smile lit up her entire face. “Thanks!”
You’d think that smoke was her lover or something…
Xie Dingyuan admitted—he wasn’t in the right state of mind. He was practically radiating sourness and frustration.
“Oh right, why were you alone in there? Where’s Old Bai and the others?”
“First stage of the experiment is over, they took the day off. They didn’t come.”
Jiang Fuyue thought for a moment. “Then why didn’t you take the day off too?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Didn’t have anything else to do, figured I’d come in and run the experiment.”
In truth, he’d already used up his time off on opening day. Today, he snuck in to catch up on progress.
“You went in alone, no assistant, no one outside—it’s too risky,” she disapproved.
But Xie Dingyuan just said, “I know what I’m doing.”
Well, Jiang Fuyue didn’t really have grounds to argue further.
Then she heard a soft, low “Thanks for your concern.”
That deep voice, smooth and gentle, had a strangely magnetic pull to it—sultry and seductive.
Jiang Fuyue awkwardly turned her head and instinctively rubbed her earlobe.
Xie Dingyuan had been looking at her face, and when she turned, his gaze landed on her snow-white ear—catching the whole act of her pinching her lobe.
The delicate pink of her ear contrasted against her fair skin, like a shy lotus blooming in midsummer.
Gulp—
He swallowed.
Just then, Jiang Fuyue turned her eyes toward him. “You…”
She trailed off.
“What?” He snapped out of it, eyes darting away like he’d been caught doing something wrong.
“Do you want to go change your clothes?”
Huh?
Only then did Xie Dingyuan realize how disheveled he looked—sweaty, wrinkled shirt, hair like a bird’s nest reflected in the glass.
And he’d been talking about confessing his feelings looking like that?
Even he couldn’t stand to look at himself.
His face went red, and he muttered, “Excuse me, I’ll go to the locker room…” before escaping like the wind.
Jiang Fuyue didn’t waste time either. She opened her laptop and fine-tuned the data model for stage one of the experiment—adjusting some high-dimensional parameters for more precision.
Even though the stage was over and technically she didn’t have to, she did it anyway.
To her, doing something meant doing it right, regardless of whether it would be used.
Like how some people are satisfied with passing scores. But she always aimed for full marks—because that’s how she honored her effort.
Unknowingly, twenty minutes passed.
But Xie Dingyuan still hadn’t emerged from the locker room.
She frowned. Something wrong?
She got up and walked to the door of the men’s locker room. “Xie Dingyuan, are you in there?”
No response.
“Xie Dingyuan?!” she called louder.
Still silence.
Not caring about the rules anymore, she pushed the door open.
Inside were neat rows of lockers, a clean floor, and… nobody.
“Where did he go?”
Just then, footsteps came from the entrance.
Xie Dingyuan had just finished using the restroom. The shower was next door, and he couldn’t bear the sweat, so he took a quick rinse.
The body wash wasn’t his preferred brand, and he hesitated, but eventually used it anyway. But he absolutely refused to touch the communal slippers. He washed the floor and stood barefoot.
Thankfully, the towel was his own—otherwise he might’ve snapped.
All that delayed him quite a bit. What should’ve been a 10-minute shower stretched to 20.
Wrapped in a white towel, barefoot, he walked back to the locker room. As he turned a corner, already untying his towel to change—
He froze.
A small gasp rang out.
Startled, he looked up—
And even someone as composed as Professor Xie was momentarily shaken to his core.
Jiang Fuyue stood there in the center of the room. She’d heard his footsteps and instinctively turned her head—just in time to see… everything.
He quickly yanked the towel back into place, but it was too late.
She’d already seen it all.
Jiang Fuyue froze.
She hadn’t expected that a simple glance would reveal such a… vivid and aesthetic male-out-of-shower moment.
The white towel wrapped around his slim waist, sculpted abs above, long legs below—fair-skinned but not the least bit feminine.
On the contrary, he exuded a refined, scholarly allure.
Even stark naked, he gave off a sense of distance and untouchability.
Her lashes trembled slightly. She calmly averted her gaze.
“Sorry, you were taking so long, and I got worried. I called out at the door—when no one responded, I came in.”
“I… took a shower,” he muttered, voice husky, eyes wandering.
“Um… I’ll just head out now.” Jiang Fuyue started walking away.
As she passed him, she caught a glimpse of his bare feet and, on impulse, said:
“The floor’s cold. Remember to wear slippers.”
Boom—
His already flushed face turned crimson, like it might start dripping blood.
As he got dressed, one question haunted Xie Dingyuan’s mind:
Did… she see?
Watching Xie crumble and be in disarray is hilarious!
“I’m flirting and she’s thinking about the smoke?!” 😂🤣