Chapter 5: Guan Yizhou Is Here!
What's it like to have a sex dream about your almost-ex-husband?
Thanks for asking. Equal parts horrifying and worth savoring.
Sui Mi propped her chin on one hand, squishing her cheek into soft little mounds. On the surface, she was staring at the professor lecturing on Western art history, but her mind had drifted clear off to the horizon.
The—the horizon… hmm, that white cloud over there kind of looked like Xi Jianbai's abs.
She'd never seen his skin back when he was young.
But she had touched her almost-ex-husband's skin.
The man was a machine—always running at full charge.
His schedule was packed so tight that his assistants needed three people rotating shifts just to keep pace.
And still Xi Jianbai kept that calm, unhurried air about him. Even after finishing work, he never skipped his daily workout.
Every time Sui Mi woke up from sleeping in, Xi Jianbai had either already left for work, or come back from exercising, made breakfast, and was already handling more work.
Say what you would—muscles built under a professional trainer really were a fine thing to look at and touch.
Xi Jianbai had that cold, pale skin, as if he'd been born short a little melanin. Light brown irises, faint lip color, even his chest a pale pink.
Full pecs, sharply cut abs.
When he wasn't flexing, they felt warm and firm-soft under the fingers.
Slide your fingertips from his chest down to his waist, trace the ridges and dips real gentle—
The muscle would snap taut on the spot, hard and lean.
Though Sui Mi hadn't touched them many times.
Right after they got married, she'd worked up some courage, cheeks pink, stammering that she wanted to feel.
Xi Jianbai lowered his eyes at her for a few beats, said nothing, and started unbuttoning his pajama top.
Sui Mi shifted up on her knees and, bold as anything, reached out.
A poke here, a prod there—barely a few touches.
Then she saw Xi Jianbai's brows furrow deep and the veins stand out along his restraint.
His features were sharp; with no expression he looked cold and severe, and once he frowned, the pressure went way, way up.
Sui Mi chickened out and pulled her hand back, mumbling that she was done.
Xi Jianbai turned at once, one veined hand snatching up his pajamas and pulling them back on.
Like he couldn't get away fast enough.
With aversion that obvious, Sui Mi certainly wasn't about to go against a decent man's wishes. After that, she appreciated with her eyes only and kept her hands to herself.
—Wait. Hold on!
Sui Mi jolted.
Why was she thinking about Xi Jianbai again!
Sui Mi dropped her head with a thunk, rubbing both hands over her cheeks, trying to scrub away the faint pink rising there.
Thin skin was such a hassle.
The slightest spike of emotion and her face went red beyond her control.
She'd only thought about it a little—slightly, vaguely, roughly—and already her ears were burning.
Sui Mi puffed out her cheeks and decided to pin the blame squarely on Xi Jianbai.
All his fault!
The phone on her desk lit up.
Sui Mi glanced over and saw a group chat notification.
Her dorm group.
In the seat to her left, her roommate Qin Shuangshuang winked and pursed her lips at her, silently but strenuously signaling toward the phone.
Sui Mi curved her lips and picked up the phone, just as asked.
【This school makes me wanna (4)】
【Qin Shuangshuang: Girls, lunch at the new dry pot chicken place in Cafeteria One!】
【Qin Shuangshuang: Their portions are huge. We can order two pots and share—tasty and cheap~】
【Wen Tian: 1.】
【Yu Qingxian: Sure.】
【Qin Shuangshuang: Great, then it's just Manman left.】
【Qin Shuangshuang: What's that girl doing? She's been staring out the window forever.】
【"Qin Shuangshuang" patted "Shi Mi Bu Shi Mi"】
Manman was Sui Mi's childhood name.
Mi carried the sense of fullness.
When her parents named her Sui Mi, they'd hoped she'd live a life happy and complete.
Sui Mi curved her lips and sent a little cat-nodding sticker to the group.
With dry pot chicken settled for after class, Qin Shuangshuang kept dreaming aloud: 【After we eat, we can grab a box of cut fruit from the shop by the gate too. Their fruit's always fresh—perfect to cleanse the palate.】
【Qin Shuangshuang: Watermelon crisp and sweet, peaches all juicy and soft, honeydew and mango in big pure-sweet chunks, not a hint of sour.】
【Qin Shuangshuang: Nope, I've made myself hungry. Just waiting for class to end so I can wave the white flag to the Galaxy Stomach Defense Squad [white flag]】
【Yu Qingxian: Now I'm hungry too…】
【Wen Tian: 1.】
Sui Mi wasn't really hungry.
She'd gotten back to the dorm yesterday evening, and as a low-energy person running on her last bar of battery, she'd skipped dinner entirely and crashed straight into sleep. This morning she'd gone to the cafeteria and demolished a whole steamer of soup dumplings.
Reborn, and what did she bring back with her? Of all things, that awful deadline-week schedule—forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep, then sleeping like the dead and eating like a wolf once it was over.
Sui Mi offered a token second of repentance, then sent an excited sticker to the group.
Up at the podium, the professor suddenly switched tack. "I'll call on someone to answer this one."
The whole room rustled—phones away, heads down.
Thankfully there were always the eager ones, hands shooting up, sparing everyone else the heart-stopping dread of being named.
As Sui Mi put her phone away, her fingertip dragged across the screen.
By the time the roll-call scare had passed and she pulled it out again, WeChat had already dropped back to the home chat list.
Below the dorm group they'd just been chatting in, that snowfield avatar sat quietly in the list, shoved all the way to the bottom of the screen by WeChat Pay, WeRun, and the other official accounts.
Only a line of small gray text showed—
The sole content of their chat box was still the system-generated friend-request greeting.
"…"
—"Why'd you add my WeChat if you're not gonna message me?"
—"Baby's a bad baby."
It was as if that hoarse breath, that low accusation, brushed past Sui Mi's ear again.
As if possessed, Sui Mi's fingertip moved and tapped open the chat with Xi Jianbai.
She swore.
She'd just been thinking about the dream, about those two lines, and clicked in on impulse.
Her fingertip had barely landed on that snowfield avatar—she wanted to open the full image for one more look—
When Qin Shuangshuang suddenly smacked her arm, swallowing a gasp, and whispered, "Manman, something big—cops went into the Admin Building! Comments are saying they went up to our college's floor!"
Sui Mi glanced at the photo on her friend's phone.
It was a post on the campus forum—several shots of police cars parked outside the Admin Building, officers walking in.
Speculation ran wild in the replies.
Sui Mi could roughly guess what it was about.
"It's fine," she said, unruffled. "Even if the sky falls, what's it got to do with ordinary students like us?"
Qin Shuangshuang scrolled the forum furiously behind the cover of her textbook. "Fair enough…"
Sui Mi looked away.
Glanced down.
"…"
There on her screen, plain as day, was a system notification.
【You patted "X."】
Damn pat feature.
Who even invented double-tap-to-pat? Did anyone stop to think about people with slippery fingers?
Sui Mi was about to undo it.
【X.: ?】
Sui Mi: "…"
How was he that fast? Did he live inside his phone?
Sui Mi pressed her lips together. Thinking of her plan to keep things friendly between them, she hesitated, then just sent the message.
【Shi Mi Bu Shi Mi: Thanks for backing me up yesterday. Let me treat you to a meal [kitten peeking out]】
Xi Jianbai replied fast.
【X.: Mm.】
【Shi Mi Bu Shi Mi: Any restaurant you like?】
【X.: Up to you.】
【Shi Mi Bu Shi Mi: Then when are you free?】
【X.: Anytime.】
Sui Mi: "…"
See!
Dreams were just! Dreams!
In reality, Xi Jianbai was a cold-faced, stiff old stick-in-the-mud!
Sui Mi typed viciously.
【Shi Mi Bu Shi Mi: Tonight at six, then. The Cantonese place off campus. See you there [kitten nodding]】
The "typing…" bubble above jumped several times.
Only then did Xi Jianbai reply, with great reserve, a single word.
【X.: Okay.】