Chapter 11: Jealous? Yeah Right! “He Wanted to Bathe Me”…
The first step to completing the mission was to thaw the icy relationship.
And the first step to thawing the relationship was—scouting the enemy.
The system lay in the crack of the door, looking up at the sneaky person: “Host, there’s no one outside. Is this really necessary?” Talk about asking for trouble.
Lu Xunye pulled his head back and closed the door: “Didn’t you hear there’s a camera? I just said I didn’t see you. What if he sees you coming out of my house?”
Mentioning this made him angry: “What did I tell you yesterday? Didn’t I tell you to infiltrate his home? Why did you follow me back?” And made endless noise while he was sleeping.
The system covered its face with its furry paws, its whole fluffy body lying on the floor, shy and acting affected: “I was shy~ The Protagonist Shou wanted to bathe me last night.”
“…” Lu Xunye’s mouth twitched. “And? So why were you still so dirty?”
It still took him half a day of fully armed effort to wash it clean.
He hadn’t expected this electronic skin to not only be waterproof and shockproof but also quite realistic.
The system was too shy to lift its head: “Then I ran into the bedroom and hid under the bed.”
Lu Xunye scoffed after hearing this, saying nothing.
…
Lu Xunye poked his head out the door, directing a silver-white Munchkin cat to stick to the base of the wall to avoid the camera range.
He made an “OK” gesture: “Go downstairs and hide where I told you. Come out when you see my signal.”
Then Lu Xunye lowered his voice to emphasize: “Be reliable for me, hear that!”
After doing a lot of mental preparation, he finally rang Shen Yunqian’s doorbell.
After half a minute, just as he prepared to ring again, the door opened from the inside.
Seeing the person, Lu Xunye mechanically withdrew his hand.
Shen Yunqian didn’t speak, waiting for him to speak. It had been raining for two consecutive days, and the temperature had dropped as if winter were arriving. There was no heating in the corridor, and he felt a bit cold after just this short while.
He pursed his lips and silently pushed the door completely open, turning his body slightly sideways: “Do you want to… come in and talk.”
“No need.” As Lu Xunye spoke, he keenly observed that Shen Yunqian’s mood seemed off, so he softened his tone. “Um… I was in a bad mood earlier, so my tone wasn’t great. Don’t take it to heart. I was…”
He turned his head to avoid eye contact, stammering, “I saw your transfer and you telling me we were even, so I was a bit angry.”
“Mn.” Shen Yunqian nodded.
Lu Xunye waited for the second half of his sentence. When it didn’t come after a long wait, he got a bit anxious and had to cut straight to the chase.
“Is the cat you mentioned a white Munchkin? Walks slowly and is super fat.”
Shen Yunqian nodded hesitantly at his description, confused. Didn’t he see this cat?
The other’s earlier tone made him suspect if the two time points in the surveillance had merged, and in reality, they had never met.
Could it be that he forgot to close the door when he came home groggy last night, and there was no bizarre incident of a cat opening the door for the other person?
And now hearing Lu Xunye say this, Shen Yunqian found more holes the more he thought about it. He simply stopped thinking about it and asked, “Have you seen this cat?”
His memory of last night wasn’t clear. He seemed to remember this cat lying at his door, pitifully rubbing against his shoes, so he soft-heartedly brought it home.
Regardless, he still wanted to see if this cat was safe, even if it didn’t want to go home with him.
Lu Xunye said calmly, “I was getting some air on the balcony just now and saw a cat downstairs. I thought it might be yours, so I came to ask.”
“Thank you.” Shen Yunqian thought for a moment. “I’ll go find it myself. Sorry to trouble you.”
Hearing that he wasn’t allowed to follow, Lu Xunye wondered how the plan could proceed. He hurriedly said, “It’s no trouble. I need to go down to buy something anyway. Let’s go together?”
The strange feeling in Shen Yunqian’s heart grew stronger. It seemed like he was asking the other person, but also asking himself: “Then I’ll change my clothes first?”
Lu Xunye replied immediately, afraid he would change his mind: “I’ll wait for you.”
“Okay.” Shen Yunqian closed the door before letting out a breath. “Such a moody person.”
Downstairs, the two searched for a while. Shen Yunqian glanced back, saw the figure following behind, released his hand from the bushes, and turned to face him: “Didn’t you say you were going to buy something? I can find it myself.”
The other person doesn’t like cats. Following me down might be because it’s on the way, or more likely out of politeness, Shen Yunqian thought.
“Ah? I’m fine.” Lu Xunye said indifferently. “I suddenly remembered it wasn’t anything important. Doesn’t matter if I buy it or not.”
“Oh.” Shen Yunqian subconsciously rubbed his sore wrist, feeling even weirder inside.
Lu Xunye’s gaze lingered on the fading finger marks on his wrist for a moment, then began asking casually, “Where did you go yesterday? Didn’t you bring an umbrella?”
Hearing his words, Shen Yunqian took a step forward, unconsciously covering his neck.
Lu Xunye thought he hadn’t heard clearly. Just as he followed and hesitated whether to ask again…
Shen Yunqian answered: “Met an… old acquaintance. The rain started suddenly.”
Lu Xunye’s eyes darkened, a glint flashing through them. He pretended to know nothing and said, “I see. Then you’d better check the weather before going out next time.”
“Mn.” Shen Yunqian’s reply was swallowed by the sudden sound of a kitten meowing.
A small tabby cat darted out from the bushes.
It shook the water droplets off its body, deftly jumped over several puddles on the ground, and ran toward Shen Yunqian.
The moment Lu Xunye saw it, he quietly shifted his steps, silently moving behind Shen Yunqian.
Shen Yunqian was unaware of this.
He squatted down and took out the cat treat strip he had prepared in his pocket to lure it over. Tearing open the seal, he remembered there was someone behind him.
He turned his head and looked up at Lu Xunye: “If you’re not buying anything, how about you go back first?”
Lu Xunye was stubborn: “I… won’t go back. I said I’d help you find the cat.”
He choked back a lump in his throat, shook his head, and repeated, “I won’t go back.”
Since he said that, Shen Yunqian couldn’t exactly force him to go back. He stood up and lured the cat to the other side of the road.
Lu Xunye stood on this side of the road, watching the beautiful boy in the beige-grey hoodie happily feeding the cat across from him.
Seemingly infected by this friendly atmosphere, his mood also brightened, and even his dislike for this cat lessened significantly.
Shen Yunqian stroked the tabby’s head and said something to it.
After eating, the kitten tilted its head at him as if it had intelligence, then turned and ran away, as if they shared a secret only known to each other.
Shen Yunqian walked over, passing Lu Xunye to throw the treat wrapper into the recycling bin. Lu Xunye asked in amazement, “What did you say to it?”
Shen Yunqian pondered for a moment: “A small experiment.”
This was the most vivid side of the young man Lu Xunye had seen since meeting him. It made one realize more intuitively for the first time that this was indeed a 21-year-old boy. At this age, he might even still be in school.
Lu Xunye noticed that Shen Yunqian’s complexion wasn’t good, and fine beads of sweat were oozing from his temples.
The temperature had just dropped today, and the young man wasn’t wearing thick clothes. He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he felt the young man was getting weaker and weaker since coming out from upstairs.
He asked hesitantly, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Shen Yunqian shook his head: “I’m just a little cold.”
Does being cold make you sweat?
Before Lu Xunye could speak, the young man walked away. Lu Xunye was stunned and chased after him: “Aren’t you looking for the cat anymore?”
Shen Yunqian: “Not looking for now.”
This isn’t normal, Lu Xunye thought.
He took a step in front of him, blocking Shen Yunqian’s path. Caught off guard, the young man almost crashed into him.
After steadying himself with difficulty, Shen Yunqian was a little angry: “What are you doing?”
“I suddenly remembered I seem to have lost a key under a tree outside the residential complex two days ago.”
Lu Xunye lied without blushing or skipping a beat. “So…”
“Do you want to accompany me there to look for it? Since you’re cold anyway, moving around will help warm up your body. You just lack exercise.”
“…” Shen Yunqian followed the direction he pointed, thinking it must have been that day when Lu Xunye accidentally lost it while fighting Si Jinyan to save him. That indeed had something to do with him.
He quietly lowered his eyes to look at his foot, feeling the position of the cast wrapped inside the long pants.
He moved his ankle slightly. Although it wasn’t flexible, it didn’t hurt intensely, so he agreed.
The two walked and looked along the way. Shen Yunqian observed the lawn by the road, holding a glimmer of hope that they might find it.
Just like that, they arrived at the place where Lu Xunye told the system to hide. He made several hand gestures in a row, but there was no movement in the bushes. Let alone a cat, he didn’t even see a cat hair.
Lu Xunye knew he couldn’t trust this idiot. He turned his back and called out softly a few times.
On second thought, could it have been caught?
His mind was a mess, and he didn’t notice he had fallen behind Shen Yunqian for some distance.
Shen Yunqian was keeping an eye on the roadside when he remembered he forgot to ask a question: “Does your key have any distinguishing features?”
“Hm?”
Receiving no answer, he turned his head and saw Lu Xunye ten meters away, with his hair like a bird’s nest, reaching into a bush to search for something.
“Found it?”
Hearing the voice overhead, Lu Xunye felt inexplicably guilty. His hand shook, pulling off a few leaves. He straightened up and put his hands behind his back: “Found it.”
Are you kidding? The cat is gone, what could I find? It was just to lure the young man here.
Thinking of this, he said, “Let’s go back.”
“Let me see.” Shen Yunqian didn’t believe him.
“What?” Lu Xunye’s eyelid twitched.
Shen Yunqian: “The key.”
He had been watching for a while just now. He clearly saw the other person holding leaves; when did it turn into a key?
Besides, if he really found it, what was he searching around for?
“What are you holding behind your back?”
Lu Xunye froze, realizing belatedly that his hands had somehow ended up behind him.
He looked at the thing in his hand, hurriedly threw it away right under the person’s nose, and smiled awkwardly with pursed lips.
Seeing him like this, what else could Shen Yunqian not understand: “Didn’t find it?”
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