The night was quiet.
The flip flop sounds of the slippers were made one after another as they went up the stairs. Each sound had knocked on Xiang Wan's heart.
Bai Muchuan's cold back view was in front of her while Bai Musi's icy glare followed behind her.
She felt like she was stepping on the tip of the knife. Her heart clasped tightly.
She had gotten the compensation and the criminal case almost drew to a close.
And once she left in the morning, she might not see Detective Bai anymore?
Bai Muchuan already reached the entrance of his bedroom. He pulled the doorknob and turned to Xiang Wan.
"Rest early. Goodnight."
Xiang Wan bit her lips and stopped him when he was about to enter his bedroom.
"Wait a moment."
Bai Muchuan's eyes seemed to turn darker than the night.
The lights along the corridor were of a warm hue that brought out her mood.
Her heart was pounding, her throat felt itchy, and she had so many words to say.
However, in the end, she heard herself saying, "I have no change of clothes."
…
It was the truth.
She was not someone who liked to trouble others, but it was only for a night anyway.
It became the best excuse for a conversation.
"Hey, don't you look at me like that?"
Xiang Wan lowered her gaze and brushed her hair in embarrassment, her cheeks were of a shade of pink. Bai Muchuan's gaze was too deep, too tall; when he stood there motionless, there was an invisible pressure that made her hate herself as this was nothing to be shy about.
"What? Is it weird to not have any change of clothes?"
"So…" Bai Muchuan nodded his head, "you need to wear clothes too."
It was back to the topic of clothes again—Xiang Wan felt her cheeks hotter than before.
Under his gaze, she felt ill at ease as if she really wasn't wearing anything. Her mind was so disturbed that she couldn't look at him directly.
"I'm not an animal. Of course, I need to wear clothes."
Her words were contradictory.
Yet she did not notice it.
Bai Muchuan's lips curved upward at the ends, but he did not expose her. As if he did not notice her embarrassed state, he opened the door fully and invited her in a lazy tone, "Come in."
That was his bedroom.
Xiang Wan had been staying there for a few days, but she had never entered it before.
Actually, she was a little curious as to what kind of room would a man like him, have?
Hence, the space beyond the door was as if it was full of temptation, seducing her every footstep forward.
…
Dazzling, distant, apathetic.
That was her initial impression of Bai Muchuan.
Upon entering his bedroom, she seemed to understand a few more things about him.
Clean, neat, manly… as well as melancholic.
Ever since Xiang Wan started to write novels, she had developed a bad habit of analyzing and studying people.
From the entrance to the interior of the room, she noticed that in this manly space, there was as if a feeling of melancholiness that was in the air, which she sniffed out with her sixth sense.
"Come over here!"
Bai Muchuan frowned slightly as he scrutinized her.
"Eh? Oh!"
Xiang Wan felt slightly awkward for being in a daze.
Without hesitation, she followed.
His bedroom was very spacious, and there was even a walk-in closet.
Bai Muchuan was standing at the walk-in closet, calling her.
As she approached, he was still standing, not moving.
"Take your pick, just take the one you like."
"…"
Xiang Wan looked at the neat and organized walk-in closet, her face flushed red, warmer than before.
Poverty indeed limited people's imagination. She had no idea that a man like Bai Muchuan would have so many clothes—oh, there were also shoes, bags and other sundries. Just the leather belts alone, Xiang Wan could make out a shocking quantity of around a 100 of them.
His coats were mostly dark-colored tones, whereas his shirts came in all kinds of colors.
There were even flashy colors like pink, orange, and red.
Although she had never seen Bai Muchuan wearing those colors, she was still stupefied.
"You're a man, why do you own so many clothes?"
She knew it would be inappropriate of her to ask such a question, but the words were at the tip of her tongue, if she didn't say it, she felt that she might be suffocated to death.
However, Bai Muchuan's face did not change.
"Choose quickly!"
His tone was full of impatience.
What the heck! Xiang Wan felt stuffy inside her heart.
We'll be bidding farewell tomorrow, and he has nothing else to say?
That thought had just popped inside her head, and she was frightened by herself.
"If anything is fine, then—shirts, is it convenient?"
"Not convenient." Bai Muchuan pointed to the left corner of the closet. "There are pajamas over there. "
Not convenient, yet earlier he told her to take her pick?
Oh my goodness, this tsundere Young Master!
Xiang Wan suddenly felt like laughing.
Yes, she felt like laughing for the chameleon-like Bai Muchuan.
He was probably really worn out and sleepy as his eyes were red and seem a little grouchy. After shredding off the seriousness and aloofness he portrayed during the day, the current him inside his bedroom was not the Captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit, but more of a handsome big boy where young hormones were scattered over his unsympathetic face, which filled her heart with overflowing emotions…
She was actually wondering what he would look like when on the bed?
"Do you actually need it or not?"
Bai Muchuan's attitude started to get worse.
Seeing his furrowed eyebrows that made three visible lines on his forehead like that Chinese character "chuan", Xiang Wan knew that this guy had hit his maximum level of tolerance.
"Oh. I need it a lot."
She said it with a mocking smile.
After saying this, she noticed that Bai Muchuan suddenly narrowed his eyes. When a strange light appeared in his eyes, she realized that she might have a slip of the tongue…
"I mean that I need pajamas."
This explanation…
Xiang Wan was full of regret.
Never try to prove what nobody doubted—if she didn't need pajamas, what else would she need?
Need someone with a young and delicious body?
Cough! Cough! In order to get out of the awkward situation, as well as to let Detective Bai who had been working on the case day and night to get his rest sooner, she dashed over to grab just a set of pajamas, with a face so red like a fool and wanted to leave the room.
However, her wrist got seized by Bai Muchuan when she passed by him.
Oh no, I'm finished!
Xiang Wan got startled, her body almost went numb.
"What's up?" She turned back to look at him, her face was hot and her heart, racing. She could smell his light and pleasant scent. She could feel her heart was pounding furiously, almost out of control.
"Teacher Xiang." He addressed her like that again.
Serious, solemn with a faint distant feeling as well as exhaustion.
She could feel that his palm felt like fire from her wrist, but the next second, she got frozen by his voice.
"You took my pajamas."
"Eh?"
Doesn't the whole section of pajamas here belong to him?
She came here to borrow pajamas. If all these did not belong to him, who else would they belong to?
With a bemused expression coupled with her face that was in a red hue, she looked just like an attractive cherry tempting one to pick it, as if one could smell the sweet smell of fruit through her fair skin with a pink glow.
"I mean…" Bai Muchuan took the pajamas from her hand and said, "This, is what I'm going to wear tonight."
"…"
Xiang Wan felt like cussing him.
There were so many other pajamas, yet he had to snatch that with her?
She took a glance over at the walk-in closet and frowned.
"You have so many…"
"I only like this one."
"…"
Why was this man so unreasonable?
"I can't sleep without wearing this!"
When he said this, he looked at her face.
That laid-back, focused gaze made Xiang Wan's hair stood on end. The irritation and shame she felt with his "snatching" of the pajamas were gone. Instead, she was seized by a sudden impulse to loosen her grip of the pajamas.
"Okay, okay, fine. Then I'll choose another!"
"Hm?" He carried the pajamas and leaned on the door frame idly. "So obedient?"
She said, "When one is under another's eaves…"
He chimed in, "Sleep earlier and reborn earlier."
Huh? Xiang Wan turned back and saw that he frowned again.
"I said I'm sleepy, just take something and go quickly!"
What the heck! Xiang Wan felt her heart aching from burning anger.
So was he implying that she didn't want to take the pajamas and go?
He had told her to just take her pick, but in the end, nothing was right…
"Detective Bai," she raised her eyebrows suspiciously, "are you having some ulterior motives, that you don't want me to go, right?"
"What are you dreaming of?" Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes while looking at her.
Xiang Wan took a few steps toward him then slightly lifted her chin. "What do you say?"
Bai Muchuan raised his eyebrows and took a peek at her advancing feet. "I've said I'm really tired. Teacher Xiang, can you please let me have a good sleep?"
"…"