Chapter 55: Niannian Part 2

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The bathroom and the bedroom were separated only by a wall of frosted glass. With the bright lights on inside the bathroom, a graceful, blurred silhouette was clearly visible.

The moment she saw it, Xu Yinian’s face turned bright red. She spun around immediately, suddenly realizing that when it was her turn to use the bathroom…

In Dorm 503, all three girls were conservative. They either changed behind their bed curtains or in the bathroom. Xu Yinian, in particular, was easily embarrassed. Regardless of sexual orientation, she had never been this exposed before another person. Even a blurry shadow was enough to make her imagination run wild.

But she dismissed the thought immediately. She had been running around all day—the sweat from yoga class, the clay from the pottery studio, and the smell of antiseptic from when she helped Ji Yan. She was too dirty to stand herself, let alone sleep in the same bed as Bai Ran.

Perhaps it was because the room was so quiet, but even though Xu Yinian had retreated to the window with her back to the bathroom, she could still hear the distinct rustle of clothes being removed.

Bare feet stepping on the floor, the sound of water starting low and then growing into a steady stream…

Xu Yinian couldn’t pull her attention away from the sounds of Bai Ran showering. It had never been like this in the dorm. Was it because of the semi-transparent glass?

Just then, her phone—still on silent—lit up.

She grabbed it like a lifeline, but her heart sank when she saw the caller: Shen Ruoshuang.

Xu Yinian’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively looked back toward the bathroom, then caught herself and jerked her head back, remembering the frosted glass.

Gritting her teeth, she finally answered the call, feeling an inexplicable sense of “infidelity.”

“Speak… speak quickly. Bai Ran is in the shower right now… you don’t want her to find out.”

Xu Yinian whispered urgently, her eyes darting toward the bathroom. Earlier, she had been agonizing over how long the shower would take; now, she desperately hoped Bai Ran would stay in there as long as possible.

“I’m downstairs at the hotel. I have something to discuss with you. Can you come down?” Shen Ruoshuang’s voice had returned to its usual calm, self-possessed state. It was an absolute, cold rationality that made refusal feel impossible.

“What is it that you can’t say over the phone?”

“I need your cooperation. After all,” Shen Ruoshuang paused, “you have to take responsibility for me today, Xu Yinian.”

Her voice was cool as she spoke of “taking responsibility,” but the dominant, chilly tone transmitted through the phone pressed against Yinian’s ear was enough to make her entire side go numb.

Xu Yinian’s ears were burning. She bit her lip, but she was powerless; she couldn’t find the words to refuse. Shen Ruoshuang had not only been searching for her all night but was now effectively homeless because of it. And Yinian had ignored her the entire time…

Point by point, the guilt and the softness in her heart won out.

She had to admit that ever since that mention of “impure motives,” Shen Ruoshuang had become distinct from everyone else in her mind. Xu Yinian couldn’t stop herself from caring about what the other girl did for her.

Avoidance and attention—the two were contradictory, yet they were becoming hopelessly intertwined.

Xu Yinian gave a low murmur of agreement, the same submissive reaction she’d had when giving up the hotel address. She was being played perfectly by Shen Ruoshuang.

The sound of the shower was at its peak, a loud rhythmic drumming. Xu Yinian grabbed her room card and began to tiptoe toward the door.

As she passed the bathroom, the sounds became even louder. But just then, a strange noise drifted out, mingling with the water before vanishing.

It sounded pained, yet laced with an even greater sense of pleasure—a strange, damp, trembling tone.

Xu Yinian instinctively looked toward the bathroom door and finally realized why the sounds were so much louder than they were at the dorm.

Bai Ran had forgotten to close the door all the way. The sounds were drifting through a narrow crack, tugging at the heartstrings of anyone listening.

And it wasn’t just the sound!

The moment Xu Yinian caught a glimpse of that pale flash of skin, she recoiled as if she’d been hit by a jolt of electricity. Her hesitation vanished instantly, replaced by a desperate urge to bolt through the door.

By the time she reached the ground floor, the crimson flush on her cheeks hadn’t faded in the slightest. She looked exactly like a boiled lobster. It felt as though she had carried that strange, cloying steam from the bathroom down with her, the air around her still thick with that unsettling intimacy.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to purge her mind of her suspicions and that accidental glimpse of Bai Ran’s silhouette, but the images only grew more vivid against the back of her eyelids.

Lost in her own head, she stumbled toward the main entrance, only to have her arm caught in a firm grip.

Shen Ruoshuang seemed to have just stepped in from outside. She carried the biting chill of a late autumn night, an aura that made her presence feel even more frigid and imposing than usual.

“What happened to you?”

Shen Ruoshuang didn’t let go. Her eyes, already bordering on a loss of control, descended into utter obsession. She scrutinized Xu Yinian from head to toe, searching for any sign that she had been mistreated or broken.

It was only after she confirmed that Xu Yinian’s conservative outfit was still perfectly intact—exactly as it had been when she arrived—that Shen Ruoshuang finally relaxed her white-knuckled grip.

“I… I was just nervous about sneaking out without Bai Ran noticing, that’s all…”

Xu Yinian was too busy trying to cover up the awkwardness of what had happened upstairs to notice Shen Ruoshuang’s lapse in composure. She forced herself to sound calm.

“Let’s get to the point. What did you need my help with?”

“Just having you down here, by my side, is enough.”

Though she answered the question, Shen Ruoshuang’s eyes remained fixed on Xu Yinian’s pinkish cheeks and her guilty, darting gaze. She was hunting for the slightest trace of evidence that Bai Ran had crossed the line.

Shen Ruoshuang would never allow Bai Ran to spend the night alone with Xu Yinian. By luring Xu Yinian to her side, she had regained the initiative.

If she could, Shen Ruoshuang would have simply whisked Xu Yinian away. She had her own apartment on campus, or failing that, she could take her back to the Shen family villa. However, since Xu Yinian had already committed to staying at the hotel with Bai Ran, she knew the girl wouldn’t easily go back on her word to choose her instead.

But even so, Shen Ruoshuang had to force her way in. She had to keep a close watch on Bai Ran’s every move. She couldn’t leave someone as defenseless and unresisting as Xu Yinian alone with a deviant like Bai Ran.

“Use your phone to call Bai Ran,” Shen Ruoshuang commanded. “With you here as my leverage, I won’t need to ask her for anything.”