Chapter 26: Flirtation

"Where do you think you're touching?" The man's voice was cold as ice, sending a shiver down Xu Yu's spine.

She froze for a moment before realizing her face was pressed between his knees.

Her hand recoiled as if scalded by a hot iron.

"Why are you lying here?" she demanded, turning over to sit at his side, fumbling for her phone to switch on the flashlight.

Shen Liangyan lay on a blanket, wearing pajamas without even a quilt to cover him. His complexion was sickly pale.

With his distinct, angular hand shielding his eyes, he snatched her phone away with a harsh motion. "I booked this suite. I'll sleep wherever I want."

Her vision blurred as he moved. Xu Yu followed after him.

"Shen Liangyan, you don't look well."

"My stomach hurts. I was afraid I might die, so I laid down beside you. Does that explanation satisfy you?" He poured himself a glass of cold water.

Before he could drink it, Xu Yu snatched it away.

The lights remained off; the phone lay face down on the marble counter, its beam refracted, shining intermittently on both their faces.

In that fleeting second, Xu Yu seemed to glimpse his vulnerability and endurance. She caught his hand. "Come on, let's go to the hospital."

He had long suffered from stomach problems, but every time it flared up, he kept it from her.

"No need. Medicine will do."

Shen Liangyan turned his grip, their palms damp with sweat, his voice weaker than before.

"You have medicine?"

"No."

"Shen Liangyan, if you die, I'm not going to take responsibility for cleaning up your corpse."

Xu Yu's tone was icy, but her dark, bright eyes locked with Shen Liangyan's cool, sharp gaze, sparks flying between them.

"Then let me die at your side. I'll leave you a lifetime of nightmares."

He hoisted her into the bedroom, holding her so tightly his palm pressed firmly against her lower back.

Before long, her abdomen grew hot with his warmth, and she drifted back into a hazy slumber.

Half-dreaming, she thought, since he was keeping her warm, even if he died beside her, she could tolerate it.

But at dawn, Xu Yu was woken by Shen Liangyan's voice as he spoke on the phone.

She covered her ears, but his incessant chatter and a woman's syrupy voice alternated, drilling into her mind.

"I miss you too, but I really can't get away today. Just focus on your work for now."

"Which hospital are you at? I'll come by after my shoot."

"I'll be discharged this afternoon. You won't catch me here."

Xu Yu listened with contempt as he wove his lies.

A cough escaped her dry throat, instantly picked up by Wen Han on the other end of the line.

"What was that noise?"

"The doctor's cough," Shen Liangyan replied.

"That sounded like a woman doctor?"

"Are you jealous of a woman doctor too?"

Wen Han gave a coquettish hum. "Of course not. I'm hanging up."

As Xu Yu tried to get up, she was abruptly pulled into Shen Liangyan's arms.

Lying across his lap, her sleepy eyes met his blade-sharp gaze, sending a chill up her spine. "Let go of me!"

His lips and tongue captured hers, giving her no chance to resist.

She meant to kick him away, but glimpsed the scabbed wound on his neck, and her heart softened involuntarily—she began to respond.

When he reached for her waistband, Xu Yu kicked him. "Don't push your luck."

"Then use something else," Shen Liangyan shamelessly suggested.

Washing her hands thoroughly with soap, Xu Yu concluded in her heart that he was utterly incorrigible.

The two went their separate ways. Shen Liangyan refused to let her share a ride, as if wanting to avoid suspicion.

Downstairs in the hotel lobby, Xu Yu ran into Shen Yue and a friend she’d seen last night at the hotpot restaurant.

"Xiao Yu, what are you doing here? I called you last night but you didn't answer."