There were very few cars passing nearby, so Meng Shuyao could only hail a ride through an app. She waited by the roadside for more than ten minutes, but no driver accepted the order.
Soon, dense raindrops began to fall, with signs of growing heavier.
She hurriedly found an eave to take shelter under.
The weather changed just like that. In the afternoon, the sky had been clear for miles; now it was pouring.
The curtain of rain obscured her vision, and all that remained in her ears was the pattering rush of rainfall.
Meng Shuyao was trapped there, unable to leave.
It rained for a full hour, with no sign of stopping, and she still couldn’t get a car at all.
Her clothes had been dampened by the torrential rain, and her mood sank to rock bottom.
Her phone was almost out of battery too.
If it got any later, it wouldn’t be safe for her to stay outside alone.
She sent Winnie her location, wanting to ask if she could help call a car to pick her up.
Only after sending it did she realize she had sent it to the wrong person. She had sent it to Mr. Pei.
Winnie had changed her profile picture a few days ago, and it looked very much like Pei Yuzhou’s—both were pitch black. In her anxiety, she hadn’t checked the contact name carefully, and she quickly recalled the message.
A few seconds later, Pei Yuzhou sent over a question mark.
Meng Shuyao explained, “Sorry, I sent it to the wrong person.”
Pei Yuzhou: “You’re outside?”
Meng Shuyao: “Mm. It’s raining really hard. I went out without an umbrella, and I can’t get a car.”
She attached an unlucky expression sticker.
Pei Yuzhou: “Send me your location.”
Meng Shuyao: “Are you in Chicago?”
Pei Yuzhou: “Mm.”
Meng Shuyao immediately sent it again.
Her phone battery was already in the red, so she didn’t dare use it anymore.
After waiting for forty minutes, that familiar Cullinan appeared at the intersection.
The headlights pierced through the strands of rain and fell upon her.
Mark got out of the car with an umbrella and walked toward her. “Miss Meng, let’s go.”
Meng Shuyao stepped under the umbrella. “Thank you.”
That distinguished figure was not in the car.
“Is Mr. Pei not here?”
Mark said, “There’s a dinner gathering that hasn’t ended yet.”
“All right.”
She had thought she would be able to see him.
After getting into the car, Meng Shuyao sneezed twice in a row.
The temperature was low at night, and she was dressed lightly. By now, her nose was already a little blocked.
Mark handed her a clean towel and asked, “Miss Meng, shall I take you to the hotel first so you can change? If you go back to school wet like this, you might catch a cold.”
Meng Shuyao had been about to refuse, but then she heard him say, “Sir is there as well.”
So she nodded. “All right. Sorry to trouble you.”
They arrived at the hotel at eight.
Mark opened another room and asked the front desk staff to help buy a change of clothes from the shopping mall next door.
Meng Shuyao was more or less soaked through. After entering the room, she took a shower and first put on the hotel’s disposable bathrobe.
After she dried her hair, she didn’t wait long before the doorbell rang.
She went over to open the door, and the staff member handed her the shopping bag.
The clothes had been bought according to her size. They were casual in style, and the fabric was very comfortable.
A little later, a restaurant waiter also delivered dinner to her room.
Meng Shuyao changed clothes, filled her stomach, and sent Pei Yuzhou a message: “Mr. Pei, are you done with work?”
His reply was still a cold, indifferent single word: “Mm.”
Meng Shuyao: “Then can I come see you?”
Pei Yuzhou: “What are you looking for me for?”
Meng Shuyao: “Is it not okay that I want to see you?”
After quite a while, he finally replied: “I’m next door to you.”
Meng Shuyao immediately put away her phone and went to find him.
Mark happened to come out of the room, and the door wasn’t closed.
Meng Shuyao walked straight in and saw Pei Yuzhou leaning against the sofa, resting.
Two buttons at the collar of his white shirt were undone, casually loose and slightly open. The lines of his neck extended smoothly, abstinent yet alluring.
The only person who could wear a shirt with such relaxed, noble elegance was probably him.
Meng Shuyao softened her footsteps and spoke. “Mr. Pei.”
The man lazily lifted his eyes, a hazy trace of drunkenness added to their depths.
She walked closer and smelled alcohol on him. “Did you drink a lot?”
Pei Yuzhou sat there with his long legs crossed, leaning back, his left hand against his forehead. Instead of answering, he asked, “What were you doing running so far out by yourself?”
Meng Shuyao sat down on the sofa beside him. “I went to a gallery for a job interview, but it didn’t go very smoothly.”
Who would have known it was that kind of improper place? It had wasted her entire afternoon for nothing.
She thought Pei Yuzhou wouldn’t be interested, but unexpectedly, he continued asking, “How did it not go smoothly?”
A trace of embarrassment flashed across Meng Shuyao’s face. “It was just… different from what I’d imagined. I wouldn’t have been able to learn anything substantial there.”
Pei Yuzhou said nothing more. He turned his head to rest it against the back of the sofa and closed his eyes for a brief rest.
Meng Shuyao asked softly, “Do you want some honey water?”
He didn’t open his eyes. His lips moved slightly. “I’m not drunk.”
His voice after drinking was faintly hoarse, carrying a grainy texture.
“Then do you want to go rest on the bed?”
He didn’t respond.
Meng Shuyao stared at his sleeping face for a while. He seemed to have fallen asleep.
His breathing gradually evened out.
She couldn’t help moving over, leaning close to study that face.
From up close, his eyelashes were thick and long, his brow bones well-defined, his eye sockets deep, his double eyelids broad, his nose bridge high, and his features sharp.
His eyes were the most beautiful—his pupils were like imperial green jade. When he looked at people, they were proud and piercing, as though dismissing everything in the world.
This face could be called a work of art created by Nüwa.
Meng Shuyao bent down and silently reached out. Just as her fingertips touched the stray hair on his forehead, he suddenly opened his eyes.
Their gazes collided.
At that moment, his eyes, infused with drunkenness, were deep and dangerous.
Compared with usual, however, their sharpness had already been restrained.
Meng Shuyao’s heart trembled. “I…”
Pei Yuzhou narrowed his eyes and gripped her wrist. “What bad thing are you doing?”
Meng Shuyao lost her balance. Pulled forward by his strength, she fell straight into his arms, her cheek brushing past his thin lips.
His lips were cold.
The instant they touched, it was as if a faint electric current shot through her, tingling and numbing.
Pei Yuzhou’s breathing hitched, his nostrils filled with the scent of the girl.
The light fragrance of citrus-scented body wash, and her own natural scent.
Her knee pressed beside his leg. Through the thin layer of suit trousers, body heat rose.
Out of an instinctive physical reaction, his lower abdomen tightened.
Meng Shuyao froze all over, her hands braced on his shoulders. Before she could come back to herself, his low voice suddenly sounded by her ear. “Stay away from me.”
She hurriedly stood up and stepped back. “I didn’t do it on purpose. Don’t be angry.”
Pei Yuzhou’s Adam’s apple rolled, his expression indifferent. “Go back to your own room.”
“Mr. Pei, I…”
Before she could finish, he had already gotten up and walked toward the bathroom.
Meng Shuyao stood there at a loss, not knowing how she had provoked him.
Was it because she had accidentally kissed him?
Did he reject it that much?
Again and again, he had refused her. What else could it be besides dislike?
With her clinging to him like this, did he find her very annoying?
Meng Shuyao lowered her eyes, turned, and left the room.
That night, she lay in bed, unable to sleep for half the night, swept up in feelings of defeat and disappointment.
If she had no way to stay by Pei Yuzhou’s side, then she would have to obediently go back and accept the arranged marriage.
That would be the nightmare of her life.
She only slept drowsily for three hours before the alarm woke her at six in the morning.
She had an eight a.m. class today and had to hurry back to school.
Before leaving the hotel, she sent Pei Yuzhou a message: “I’m going back to school. Sorry for troubling you yesterday.”