A thousand possibilities flashed through Xu Yinian’s mind. Perhaps Shen Ruoshuang didn’t like ginger either. Perhaps she thought ginger was a common dislike and played it safe…
But the coincidences were stacking up too perfectly, combined with that half-remembered image of those fingers.
Xu Yinian, who usually excelled at talking herself out of suspicion, felt her heart race. Her mind was a mess.
Just then, a voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Why aren’t you drinking it? Is it not to your taste? Ah—the Brown Sugar Longan from that brand… I don’t like the ginger taste in that one either.”
It was Bai Ran.
While Xu Yinian had been resting, Ji Yan and Bai Ran had stayed quiet. Bai Ran had been looking at files on her laptop, while Ji Yan was drawing on her iPad. The scent must have drifted over, prompting Bai Ran to look up.
Hearing Bai Ran’s casual remark, Xu Yinian’s suspicions were suddenly validated. Right, lots of people don’t like ginger juice. It’s not weird that Shen Ruoshuang would order it that way…
The smile in Bai Ran’s eyes deepened. She knew Xu Yinian’s lifelong habit of avoiding ginger. It seemed Shen Ruoshuang had made a “mistake,” leading to Xu Yinian’s hesitation.
Using that logic to suppress the strangeness in her heart, Xu Yinian opened WeChat and sent Shen Ruoshuang a transfer of 19 yuan.
A distinct WeChat notification pinged from Shen Ruoshuang’s phone.
In the silent dorm, it felt strangely like she was contacting Shen Ruoshuang in secret. Even the dense Xu Yinian could sense a hint of suggestive tension. Naturally, the others noticed the “clandestine” nature of the private message.
Shen Ruoshuang cradled the hot water bottle in her arm and opened WeChat, deliberately leaving the notification sound on.
To her disappointment, it was just a transfer.
Shen Ruoshuang had expected as much. She didn’t accept it, replying instead:
[I bought this without your consent. There’s no reason for you to pay. If you feel bad about it, just don’t let it go to waste.]
Xu Yinian looked at the message helplessly. Shen Ruoshuang had already walked out of the bathroom, yet she insisted on using WeChat…
As she handed over the hot water bottle, her gaze clearly brushed past the phone screen. The strange feeling intensified, and Xu Yinian’s cheeks began to flush.
If she spoke to Shen Ruoshuang aloud now, wouldn’t her disjointed words prove they had been chatting privately? But if she replied on WeChat, Shen Ruoshuang’s notification would just go off again.
“Thank you…”
Leaving it at that, Xu Yinian hurriedly placed the hot water bottle and the tea on the shelf next to her top bunk. Between the cramps and her sprained ankle, she scrambled up the ladder and hid behind her bed curtains to escape the world.
The hot water bottle was old, and the fill port was slightly warped from the heat. Usually, Xu Yinian would get the cover wet whenever she filled it. But in Shen Ruoshuang’s hands, it was perfectly dry and flawless. She didn’t know how the girl had managed it.
As expected of someone who does everything to perfection…
Pressing the hot water bottle against her pajamas, the warmth seemed to soothe her pain through sheer psychological effect. Her eyes moved to the tea. Thinking of Shen Ruoshuang’s words, she finally unwrapped the straw.
She tried to move quietly, but in the oppressive silence of the room, every sound felt amplified. Xu Yinian curled into a ball, sipping in small, shameful gulps, terrified of being heard by Shen Ruoshuang.
The warm sweetness enveloped her the moment it touched her tongue.
Down below, the expressions of Shen Ruoshuang and Bai Ran shifted in response to the sound.
The look in Shen Ruoshuang’s Peach Blossom Eyes softened instantly. Her aegyo-sal became prominent, and her usual high-and-mighty coldness melted away.
Finally…
It felt like she was making up for a past regret. This time, she had made the right choice. She could almost imagine it—those lips pressed against the straw, swallowing in small, docile gulps.
Beside her, Bai Ran’s reaction was the polar opposite. Clearly, Xu Yinian’s decision to drink it was outside her expectations and control. And the catalyst for that change seemed to be that abrupt notification from Shen Ruoshuang’s phone.
They must have said something privately.
What should have been a day where she held all the cards was now shrouded in a dark cloud. Bai Ran stared intently into a mirror she had positioned at a specific angle, catching the reflection of Xu Yinian’s desk and the slight sway of her bed curtains.
She couldn’t see anything…
As her morbid obsession flared, she felt like a fish out of water. Every moment she couldn’t see Xu Yinian felt like she was drying up, suffocating. The sound of those small sips was the only way she could perceive her. Bai Ran’s shallow breaths began to sync with the frequency of Xu Yinian’s swallowing.
And that brown sugar tea belonged to another woman.
Her breathing became increasingly difficult to suppress. Finally, Bai Ran lunged out of bed and hurried toward the bathroom.
She moved so quickly that no one caught the sickly, feverish flush staining her otherwise paper-white face.
After retreating behind her bed curtains, Xu Yinian pretended to fall asleep immediately. She didn’t say another word to her three roommates.
When she woke the next morning, her abdominal pain had subsided significantly. Though a faint ache remained, it was nowhere near as agonizing as the day before.
However, the moment she pulled back her duvet, she froze.
Why was the hot water bottle back on her stomach? And why was it still radiating a lingering warmth?
She remembered quite clearly that when she woke up in the middle of the night, the bottle had already gone cold. Too tired to climb down from her top bunk, she had set it on the shelf beside her before drifting back to sleep.
Even if her memory was fuzzy, there was no way the bottle could have stayed warm all night. Someone had clearly refilled it.
Someone had gotten up in the middle of the night, changed the water, and tucked it back under her covers!
Ji Yan hadn’t stayed the night. Even though she had been extremely quiet when she left, Xu Yinian hadn’t been fully asleep yet and had heard her depart.
That left only Shen Ruoshuang and Bai Ran.
If Shen Ruoshuang hadn’t made that sudden, uncharacteristic effort to take care of her yesterday, Xu Yinian would have assumed it was the gentle and considerate Bai Ran.
But now, she wasn’t so sure.
The thought of it being Shen Ruoshuang brought a wave of inexplicable awkwardness and shame. Yet, if it were Bai Ran, that discomfort vanished; it simply felt like being looked after by an older sister.
Xu Yinian chalked the difference up to her previous friction with Shen Ruoshuang.
That’s right… It wasn’t just the intimacy of someone reaching into her bed; even if Shen had handed it to her directly, she would have felt unsettled.
While brainwashing herself with these excuses, Xu Yinian climbed out of bed, her face still slightly flushed.
Her medical leave for her sprained ankle had ended. Today, she had to report to the Injury Company.
The dormitory was deathly quiet in the early morning. Shen Ruoshuang was already gone, likely having left quite early.
Bai Ran wasn’t there either—
Just as the thought crossed her mind, she nearly collided with Bai Ran at the bathroom door. The sudden shock made her completely forget about the hot water bottle.
Bai Ran looked terrible. Her skin was as pale as parchment, yet her cheeks and the corners of her eyes bore an unnatural, feverish red. Faint dark circles shadowed her beautiful eyes.
Rarely silent, she stood there with her hands still wet from being washed, water dripping onto the floor.
Xu Yinian stared, her eyes instantly filling with concern.
“Sister… Sister Ran, do you… do you have a fever? Is it because… because you used cold water for the laundry yesterday?”
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