The remaining words seemed to get stuck, and the room suddenly fell into silence.
Sang Yan’s eyelashes flickered. From his angle, he could only see Wei Fan’s slightly disheveled hair and her lowered eyelashes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he asked hoarsely, “What are you doing?”
Wen Yifan didn’t answer.
Sang Yan’s hair was still damp.
Water droplets slid from his hair tips down the side of his face, along his jaw, and dripped onto her hair. He stared at them, then slowly and deliberately raised his hand, gently wiping them away with his fingertips.
As if she hadn’t noticed, she showed no reaction.
Wen Yifan wasn’t short, her height reaching about his chin, but her frame was small and thin. Now, her cheek was pressed against his chest, her arms wrapped around his waist with moderate strength.
Yet her presence felt as intense as a drop of scorching lava on his skin.
This lasted for about ten seconds.
“Can you give me a straight answer?” Sang Yan spoke again, with a hint of playfulness, “How much longer do you plan to hug me?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Wen Yifan immediately let go.
She retreated a step back sluggishly, not looking at Sang Yan, and mumbled a few words. The words seemed to roll around in her tongue, sounding very indistinct.
Sang Yan didn’t catch it clearly: “What did you say?”
But Wen Yifan didn’t speak again.
As if she hadn’t done anything, she turned around and slowly walked towards the master bedroom. She looked calm and composed as if suddenly running out to hug him in the middle of the night was an extremely normal and natural thing to do.
Not expecting such a response from her, Sang Yan’s brow twitched, his words tinged with absurdity.
“Wen Yifan?”
At the same time, Wen Yifan had just reached the door of the second bedroom. Her footsteps paused as if she had heard his voice, but her gaze was fixed in the direction of Sang Yan’s room, staying there for a few seconds.
She withdrew her gaze and continued walking forward.
“…”
With the sound of a door closing, they were separated.
Sang Yan was still standing in place: “?”
The scene seemed to freeze.
A few seconds later, the towel slipped from his shoulder, falling to the ground with a soft thud.
Sang Yan snapped back to reality and bent down to pick it up.
The bright white light in the living room was glaring and dizzying. The surroundings were eerily quiet, so quiet that one could hear the air slowly flowing, and Wen Yifan’s briefly present aura seemed to have dissipated because of it.
Like a fleeting dream.
–
The next morning.
Wen Yifan’s bad mood and discomfort had completely disappeared. She felt as if she had been charging all night, waking up fully restored. She sat up, stayed in bed for a while to clear her mind, and thought randomly that sleep was indeed the ultimate weapon.
Just one good sleep could digest all the bad feelings.
Wen Yifan picked up her phone and walked into the bathroom. She habitually scrolled through the news first, then opened WeChat to take a look. Scrolling down, she noticed that Sang Yan had sent her a message around 9 p.m. last night.
Sang Yan: [What’s wrong with you?]
Wen Yifan blinked, not quite sure if she had been asleep at that time. After coming out of the bathroom, she had just laid in bed and started to induce sleep, not looking at her phone again after that.
She put the toothbrush in her mouth and freed her hands to reply: [What?]
The next moment.
Sang Yan replied with a question mark: [?]
“…”
Where did he pick up this habit of throwing question marks at people all the time?
Wen Yifan pondered while brushing her teeth.
At the time Sang Yan sent the WeChat message last night, she wasn’t in the living room and hadn’t made any noise to disturb him. Moreover, when she came home, her attitude while talking to him was quite normal.
After thinking for a while, Wen Yifan replied again: [Did you send it to the wrong person?]
Sang Yan: [?]
A few seconds later, he sent a thumbs-up emoji.
“…”
Wen Yifan was completely baffled, unable to understand his thoughts. But she could tell from his two question marks that this thumbs-up wasn’t meant in a good way. She spat out the toothpaste foam, not knowing how to respond.
It felt like this person’s emotions were constantly fluctuating.
Every day was a bit strange.
Wen Yifan didn’t think too much about it and simply interpreted the thumbs-up as its original meaning, assuming Sang Yan was sending her encouragement early in the morning.
Thinking that this kind of interaction should be reciprocated.
After some consideration, she sent him a thumbs-up in return.
…
It was just past 8 a.m.
Wen Yifan took her jacket, draped it over her arm, and walked out of the room in slippers. Although Sang Yan was already awake, because it was still early, she subconsciously lightened her steps.
She thought Sang Yan hadn’t left his room yet.
To her surprise, as soon as Wen Yifan entered the kitchen, she saw him leaning against the counter drinking ice water.
Sang Yan seemed to particularly prefer dark-colored clothes, even for his casual wear at home. A pure black T-shirt and pants of the same color. His appearance was nonchalant, looking a bit tired as if he hadn’t slept well.
At the moment, he was looking down, fiddling with his phone in one hand.
Noticing her presence, he just lazily lifted his eyelids.
Wen Yifan took a box of yogurt and a pack of toast from the refrigerator. She closed the fridge door, hesitated for a moment, and still brought up his WeChat message: “Did you need something from me in your WeChat message last night?”
Sang Yan raised his eyes, staring straight at her, and suddenly smiled.
“Want to pretend it never happened?”
“…”
If Wen Yifan wasn’t certain that she hadn’t drunk alcohol yesterday, she would have thought she had blacked out and done something.
In a flash, Wen Yifan thought about the time around 9 p.m.
Last night when she got home, she had mentioned to him that she wanted to sleep early today, asking him to turn down the TV before 9 p.m. But before they started living together, her request was not to make too much noise after 10 p.m.
It was an hour earlier.
Wen Yifan didn’t think it was a big deal.
But Sang Yan always made a fuss over small things.
Maybe the more he thought about it, the more he felt that bringing forward the quiet time by an hour made him very unhappy.
“It was a special situation last night,” Wen Yifan explained, “I’m sorry if it affected you, it won’t happen again. And thank you for being willing to accommodate me.”
“…” Sang Yan withdrew his gaze coolly, “Fine.”
Wen Yifan sighed in relief.
“This isn’t a small matter to me,” Sang Yan tilted his head, enunciating each word, “I hope that in the future when you do something like this, you can give me a reasonable explanation.”
“…”
This time, Wen Yifan felt he was petty and unreasonable.
How is this a big deal?
Just asking you to turn down the TV.
Wen Yifan held back and didn’t criticize: “Okay, I will.”
–
When Wen Yifan arrived at the TV station, the office was still empty. She first went to the tea room to make a cup of coffee. When she returned, she saw that Su Tian had also arrived. At the moment, she seemed extremely tired and was napping on the desk.
After greeting her, Wen Yifan asked, “Why are you here so early today?”
“Didn’t go home. Pulled an all-nighter, just got back from the machine room,” Su Tian said groggily, “I’ll sleep for a bit first.”
“Okay,” Wen Yifan said, “Then sleep a bit longer, I’ll call you if anything comes up. But isn’t it uncomfortable to sleep hunched over? Do you want to go sleep on the couch? I have a blanket here.”
“No need,” Su Tian said, “I’ll just sleep for half an hour, and then I need to get up and write the script.”
Wen Yifan didn’t say more but still gave Su Tian the blanket. She opened the document, browsed through the materials, and wrote the interview outline for a while.
After some time, Su Tian from next door suddenly sat up straight, looking dazed from sleep. She turned to look at Wen Yifan, breathing a bit rapidly: “Yifan.”
Hearing her voice, Wen Yifan turned her head: “What’s wrong?”
“I just had a nightmare, it was bizarre,” Su Tian’s forehead was sweating, looking like she hadn’t slept well, “I dreamed that I was sleeping here hunched over, and I could hear you typing on the keyboard, there was also a child crying nearby, and it felt like something was pressing on my back.”
Wen Yifan was stunned: “That sounds so scary.”
“Yeah, I almost suffocated just now.” Su Tian sighed, “I felt like I was conscious, but it was like being wrapped in a layer of cling film, I couldn’t move at all.”
“That should be sleep paralysis, you were sleeping hunched over, maybe the blood circulation wasn’t good,” Wen Yifan comforted her, “You should go sleep on the couch, it probably won’t happen again.”
“Forget it, I’m still shaken,” Su Tian said, “It’s the first time I’ve had such a strange dream.”
Hearing her say this, Wen Yifan also remembered something: “I had a pretty strange dream last night too.”
Su Tian picked up her water cup: “What was it?”
“But it wasn’t a nightmare,” Wen Yifan said seriously, “I dreamed that I went into a deep forest alone, walked around for half a day, and couldn’t find the way out. Later it got dark, I couldn’t see anything, and started to feel very cold.”
“Then what?”
“I suddenly remembered that on my way in, I seemed to have seen the sun,” Wen Yifan said, “So I wanted to go back and find that sun to warm up, walked for a while, and found it.”
Su Tian pointed out her logical problem: “Wasn’t it dark already? Where did the sun come from?”
Wen Yifan smiled: “That’s why it’s a dream.”
“Is that the end? Didn’t you get out of the deep forest?”
“I did, when I saw the sun I got out,” Wen Yifan tried hard to recall, but the memory of the dream was faint, and she couldn’t remember clearly. She felt the scene seemed a bit absurd, “And, when I saw the sun, I seemed to—”
“What?”
“Couldn’t help but hug it.”
…
Wen Yifan came to work early today, and since there wasn’t much going on at the station recently, she got off work on time.
She returned to the apartment complex and coincidentally met Sang Yan in the elevator. He seemed to have just returned as well, probably coming up directly from the underground parking lot and was on the phone.
Wen Yifan nodded at him as a greeting.
Sang Yan only glanced at her once.
After a while.
Sang Yan said lazily: “No need to doubt, she’s just not interested in you.”
“…”
They arrived at the sixteenth floor.
Wen Yifan took out her keys from her pocket and walked out of the elevator.
Sang Yan followed behind her: “Tell me, what ambiguous behavior did she show towards you?”
Wen Yifan opened the door and was about to change into slippers.
Sang Yan behind her blurted out: “She hugged you once?”
“…”
This was accompanied by the sound of the door closing.
At the same time, Sang Yan patted her head: “Hey.”
Wen Yifan turned around.
“You’re both girls, you answer this,” Sang Yan raised his chin, implying something, “This person hugged my friend once, and the next day acted like nothing happened, what does that mean?”
Wen Yifan didn’t react: “Huh?”
Sang Yan: “Can we report this to the police?”
“…” Wen Yifan was startled for a moment and hesitantly said, “Just a hug… doesn’t seem to warrant…”
Noticing Sang Yan’s expression, she added mildly: “It mainly depends on what kind of relationship your friend has with this girl, maybe she was just in a bad mood and needed some comfort or something.”
Sang Yan didn’t say anything.
His demeanor oddly made Wen Yifan feel like she was the villain who had committed such an act, making it difficult for her to speak: “This hug might not have any other meaning, it might just be between friends…”
Being stared at by Sang Yan like this, Wen Yifan couldn’t continue: “But I don’t know the specific situation between your friend and this girl, so what I’m saying doesn’t have much reference value.”
Hearing this, Sang Yan expressionlessly withdrew his gaze and said to the person on the phone: “I’m asking you, what’s your relationship with that person?”
“Are you sick? What do you mean report to the police?!” Qian Fei on the other end, who had been ignored for half the conversation, raised his voice, “What kind of relationship could it be? She’s my goddess! I’ve had a crush on her for a year!”
“…”
Qian Fei: “And what are you saying? Didn’t I tell you? My goddess gave me chocolate on Valentine’s Day! It wasn’t a hug, okay?!”
“Oh, he says it’s someone who,” Sang Yan put down his phone, looking Wen Yifan up and down as if concluding her, “is madly in love with him.”
“…”