Chapter 56: Clashing Part 1

“Y-You want Sister Ran to open another room for you?” Xu Yinian asked, a hint of confusion flickering in her heart. She couldn’t help but remind her, “Sister Ran said she didn’t book in advance because she arrived late. Even with her membership privileges, she could only get that one standard room. It won’t do any good for you to use my phone to call her…”

Xu Yinian’s sheer innocence elicited a light chuckle from Shen Ruoshuang.

The moment Shen Ruoshuang had received the hotel’s address, she knew exactly what Bai Ran’s intentions were in bringing Xu Yinian here. This hotel was under the Bai Family’s name; the rules here were whatever Bai Ran dictated them to be.

Bai Ran must have gone to great lengths just to share a bed with Xu Yinian. She had even resorted to the “no rooms available” excuse—and only someone as naive as Xu Yinian would actually believe it. In a luxury hotel over twenty stories high, it just so happened that only one double-bed room was left?

But Shen Ruoshuang had to thank Bai Ran for her painstaking efforts; the girl had essentially dug her own grave. Now, Shen didn’t even need to think of an excuse herself.

“I have nowhere else to go. Naturally, I’ll be staying with you.”

As she spoke, Shen Ruoshuang’s gaze lifted sharply. Her tone shifted, suddenly laced with a trace of flirtatiousness. When the cold, ethereal voice of the Unreachable Beauty said such things, the line between sincerity and teasing became paper-thin, making one’s head spin even faster.

Whenever Xu Yinian was the sole focus of those Peach Blossom Eyes, she felt her breath hitch and her heart rate skyrocket. Everyone else thought Shen Ruoshuang was cold-hearted and distant, yet Xu Yinian seemed to be the only one repeatedly scorched by a heat she couldn’t escape.

Before, Xu Yinian hadn’t understood the nature of the chaotic mess tangled between them. But after tonight’s confession of “impure motives,” no matter how much she wanted to deny it, she couldn’t ignore the ambiguity anymore. She finally understood Shen Ruoshuang’s intent: she wanted to stay in the same room as her and Bai Ran.

“N-No way!”

The refusal was almost a reflex. Xu Yinian swallowed the second half of her sentence.

There’s only one bed!

For some reason, the “sleeping together” that she hadn’t minded at all with Bai Ran became an absolute, untouchable taboo when it came to Shen Ruoshuang. Xu Yinian hadn’t even fully adjusted to sleeping on the same side of the bunk beds in the dorm; she was always terrified that even the sound of her tossing and turning would be noticed by the other girl.

If they really shared a bed, Xu Yinian couldn’t imagine how much more tangled her relationship would become with a Shen Ruoshuang who had already been labeled with “impure motives.”

“If Bai Ran can do it, why can’t I? Aren’t we both just your roommates?”

Shen Ruoshuang pressed closer, step by step. Xu Yinian felt the other woman’s aura encroaching further, her legs turning slightly weak under the pressure.

Xu Yinian gritted her teeth, a shameful mist of tears involuntarily clouding her clear eyes. Just a few hours ago, this woman had shamelessly admitted to having impure motives… and now she had the nerve to ask, “Aren’t we both just your roommates?”

Both of them knew the truth, but Xu Yinian was far too embarrassed to say it out loud.

“Aren’t there three of us? Your beloved Sister Ran is there, too.”

When Shen Ruoshuang said “beloved Sister Ran,” she practically ground the words out between her teeth. The scent of jealousy was overwhelming. She leaned down slightly, the ends of her long hair falling over Xu Yinian’s neck. Before the girl could shrink away, Shen moved close to her ear, whispering the rest like a secret:

“So, don’t worry. Even if my motives are impure, I can’t exactly do anything.”

Warm breath brushed against the tip of her ear, strands of hair tickled her skin, and that overly suggestive sentence…

Xu Yinian’s brain finally short-circuited completely. Her cheeks and ears turned a deep, blood-red, every inch of her skin becoming sensitized to the extreme.

Looking at Xu Yinian’s reaction, Shen Ruoshuang knew she had made the right gamble. The seed of doubt was growing faster than she had imagined; Xu Yinian could no longer run away or ignore these feelings.

The offensive had only just begun, yet Xu Yinian was already routed, completely unable to hold her ground. Shen Ruoshuang’s pressure was subtle but relentless. By the time Xu Yinian snapped out of it, she was already trapped in the other’s orbit, her body so limp she could hardly move.

Clearly, Shen Ruoshuang was determined to get what she wanted.

Unable to escape, a slowly recovering Xu Yinian could only comfort herself with the thought that Shen Ruoshuang’s words made sense. At least there were three of them; it was no different from the dorm… right?

The scene at the bathroom door was still vivid in her mind—especially that strange way Bai Ran had called her “Niannian” and the glimpse of what she shouldn’t have seen. Xu Yinian had fled in a panic precisely because of that, and right now, she had no idea how to face Bai Ran alone.

If the three of them stayed together, did that mean she could avoid the awkward tension from both sides?

Though she had changed her mind, she remained silent. Suddenly, her hand felt light. She realized the phone she had been clutching had been snatched away by Shen Ruoshuang.

As Shen Ruoshuang easily swiped the screen open, she paused for a moment. “You don’t even have a password?”

Xu Yinian’s phone was an old, second-hand model she’d bought with saved money after falling out with her mother over the summer. The fingerprint sensor had long since become unresponsive, so she had simply disabled the lock function.

Knowing Shen was going to call Bai Ran and having no secrets on her phone anyway, Xu Yinian didn’t try to grab it back. She only muttered in a small, weak, aggrieved voice, “Not everyone… is like you, stealing other people’s phones.”

“Consider this a lesson in what happens when you’re too trusting. Remember to set a password next time.”

Shen Ruoshuang’s brows furrowed slightly as she thought of the “perverts” lurking around Xu Yinian in sheep’s clothing. Had they noticed this long ago? Had they already done something?