He pondered. “Could it be that this person sat in on my lectures before?”

“Sat in on your lectures?” Hongdou walked to the terrace and closed the French windows properly. “Did he audit classes at Aurora? Or hear you lecture somewhere else?”

“I can’t recall.” He gazed at her lovely figure from behind. “At Aurora, it would only have been a few basic engineering courses. Outside of that, the topics I’ve lectured on have been varied — mysterious buildings of Shanghai, trade, tea, Ming-Qing culture, calligraphy and painting studies — I’ve talked about everything except current affairs.”

Hongdou laughed — the more a person avoided discussing the political situation, the more they were often secretly doing behind the scenes.

She pushed open the door into the washroom, swept her hair to one side over her chest, and began undoing her clothes in front of the large mirror above the basin. “The Yu family’s situation is so transparent — if Yu Rui really had problems, they would have been uncovered long ago.”

He Yunqin nodded. “His grandfather and father are both patriots; his maternal family’s situation is even easier to check into. Yu Rui himself is quite active — though he’s only just entered the school, he’s already organized several demonstrations. He doesn’t seem like someone lacking conviction.”

She’d already removed her outer coat, leaving only the innermost georgette dress. Because the narrow skirt style beneath was unusual, she had to reach behind her waist to undo the buttons. She said, “Since there’s not much of a problem, then why don’t you like him?”

He Yunqin didn’t answer. He admitted to himself that he didn’t much like Yu Rui — the reason, he couldn’t quite say. Ever since learning that Hongdou had praised the man’s fine looks, he’d felt a resistance toward him. He simply wasn’t willing to admit it in front of Hongdou.

The row of buttons at her back were all undone except for the very top one. Hongdou strained to reach it for a while, struggling, and afraid the button might pop off carelessly, she had no choice but to twist around and look at him. “Hey, come help me.”

Only then did he lift his eyes to look at her. He paused, then came up close behind her, lowering his gaze to watch her as he unhurriedly undid the button. “Yu Hongdou, your skirt’s this tight, and you still have the nerve to say you haven’t gained weight?”

She lightly stepped on the top of his foot. “What do you know — I had this style made on purpose, the narrower the better-looking.”

“I don’t know anything.” The button came undone, her round, upturned bottom right beneath his palm. He restrained the urge to press his hand over it at once, one hand steadying her waist, the other slowly helping ease the skirt down. The fabric was thin wool, clinging tightly to the perfect curve of her thighs, coming down inch by inch, with great difficulty. “Fat is fat.”

The garment on her upper body was made extremely thin and soft, her chest full and rounded — through the fabric, the fair, plump curves showed faintly. “Look at yourself — it’s not just the skirt that’s tight, clearly something here has gotten a lot tighter too.”

Hongdou gradually became aware of his very obvious change, and grabbed the hand that was reaching upward, laughing. “You bad man — I only asked you to undo one button, task complete, now go!”

He naturally had no intention of leaving, his gaze growing ever more heated, his voice turning hoarse. “I actually had things to do — meant to let you sleep first. Who knew you couldn’t get your own skirt off, and had to have me help you take it off. Yu Hongdou, tell me you didn’t do that on purpose.”

“Who did it on purpose.” She tried hard to pry his hand away, but it wouldn’t budge at all. Blushing, she laughed. “I’ve never met someone as shameless as you — when did I ever ask you to keep me company — go on and mind your own business.”

His hand exerted slight pressure, and the skirt finally slipped past the narrowest point of her body, dropping suddenly. A cool breeze swept across her calves as the fabric pooled at her ankles. He turned her face toward him and kissed her, reaching back to shut the door with his other hand. “Too late for that now.”