It’s not me, I didn’t do anything, stop making things up!

Jiang Xiaoyi felt deeply wronged: “This aromatherapy sachet really was given to me by someone on the street… The little flyers handed out on the street these days have no shame to begin with—don’t they also hand out ones for painless abortions and laser hemorrhoid treatments…”

Unfortunately, no matter how Jiang Xiaoyi explained, Ye Zhen’s face remained full of “I don’t believe you” and “you won’t succeed” resolve.

The phone had long since died, its light gone. Having let Jiang Xiaoyi see the evidence clearly by candlelight, Ye Zhen immediately blew out the incense, then took a step back away from Jiang Xiaoyi: “Alright, you’d better not try anything else…”

But before Ye Zhen could finish his sentence, Jiang Xiaoyi was startled by the sudden darkness and almost instinctively moved toward the sound of his voice, instinctively wanting to grab Ye Zhen’s sleeve as if seeking rescue. But because of the darkness, she misjudged the distance, and just as one of the cats darted past underfoot, Jiang Xiaoyi, unable to avoid it in time and losing her balance, fell right toward Ye Zhen.

Ye Zhen seemed to freeze for a moment, but still caught her. He hadn’t been prepared either, and with Jiang Xiaoyi falling on him like this in the dark, he simply let himself fall backward along with her, and fortunately, the sofa was right behind them both.

Jiang Xiaoyi was a little flustered, and to avoid awkwardness, spoke up first: “I told you I’m afraid of the dark! And you blew out the light!”

In the darkness, Jiang Xiaoyi’s voice sounded aggrieved—clearly wanting to lose her temper but not daring to break things off with Ye Zhen entirely because of her fear of the dark, so she could only hold in her resentment, feeling rather stifled.

Ye Zhen’s voice, on the other hand, was much more gritted with anger. The man said, word by word: “Get. Up.”

Only then did Jiang Xiaoyi realize that, from falling onto the sofa together with Ye Zhen, she was now in a rather suggestive position—lying right on top of him.

Ye Zhen’s body temperature was higher than Jiang Xiaoyi’s. Even though there was clothing between them, whether it was just her imagination or not, Jiang Xiaoyi felt the spot where their bodies touched growing subtly hotter.

Jiang Xiaoyi’s night blindness meant she couldn’t make out the shape of the person beneath her even in the dark. She groped around blindly trying to find something to push off of to sit up, but unexpectedly ended up touching Ye Zhen’s body instead.

She wasn’t sure what part she’d touched, but Ye Zhen’s voice, right beside her ear, sounded even more strained with suppressed anger—

“Jiang! Xiao! Yi!”

“What are you touching!”

“Stop touching!”

In the darkness and quiet, Jiang Xiaoyi could hear Ye Zhen’s faint, ragged breathing. Even though she couldn’t see anything, for some reason, that sound alone was enough to make her feel a little tense.

The candlelit incense had already gone out, but the residual scent still lingered faintly in the air. Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t know much about scents, only vaguely making out something like citrus and rose along with some other indescribable fragrance, carrying a hint of sweetness, a hint of dizziness, mixed with a faint, ambiguous undertone.

Jiang Xiaoyi originally hadn’t had any particular reaction to the aromatherapy, but now, somehow, her face suddenly started feeling hot and flushed.

She scrambled off Ye Zhen with clumsy, uncoordinated movements, then groped her way to the other end of the sofa.

Thankfully, without light, the darkness could cover up all the awkwardness and subtlety.

Only the occasional flash of lightning splitting the night sky let Jiang Xiaoyi catch a glimpse of Ye Zhen’s face across from her—

He looked somewhat disheveled, his usually calm and composed expression finally showing cracks, breathing faintly, his eyes tinged red, as though biting down on his lip while trying very hard to hold something back. His handsome face carried a hint of being at a loss, looking somewhat dazed.

Jiang Xiaoyi looked over, and after a brief exchange of glances with Ye Zhen, the man flustered and looked away. He seemed to not want to breathe in the scent lingering in the air, forcefully holding his breath until his face flushed slightly red. Probably because of being affected by the aromatherapy, he looked somewhat irritated, but more than that, helpless and harmlessly annoyed.

In Jiang Xiaoyi’s eyes, Ye Zhen had always been the difficult-to-please, hard-to-get-along-with boss type—this was the first time she’d seen him in this state, like a tiger stranded in shallow water being bullied by dogs. Seeing Ye Zhen like this, Jiang Xiaoyi thought…

Thought he was actually a little cute?

Jiang Xiaoyi could hear her own heart pounding violently, and felt genuinely shocked at her own inexplicable feelings.

It seemed like a strong person caught in a moment of weakness, in an ironic reversal, really did have a certain draw.

She’d never understood the appeal of forcing oneself on a man before, but in this moment, she suddenly, inexplicably, got it.

At this point, the rain outside was gradually letting up, the clouds dispersing, and the moon reappeared.

Under the faint moonlight, Ye Zhen’s side profile, with its beautiful, calm lines, was illuminated.

Usually too busy silently complaining about his awful personality, Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t help but admit, at this moment, that Ye Zhen really was extremely handsome—the kind of handsome that made people want to keep looking, easy to fall for at a glance.

Jiang Xiaoyi was no exception, and couldn’t help but look a couple more times too.

But right at this moment, before Jiang Xiaoyi had time to compose her feelings, the lights suddenly came back on—

Perhaps the power outage caused by the typhoon had been repaired.

Jiang Xiaoyi liked keeping lots of lights on, so this sudden restoration of power left her with nowhere to hide, completely exposed under the brightness.

Thankfully, Ye Zhen didn’t look much better off.

He sat sprawled at the other end of the sofa, his face slightly flushed, even his eyes a little red, staring straight at Jiang Xiaoyi.

Ye Zhen still looked overall composed, only his long legs were bent in a deliberately awkward posture, clearly trying to conceal some kind of reaction. He glared at Jiang Xiaoyi again.

Jiang Xiaoyi shifted slightly, and Ye Zhen immediately looked at her warily,

“You, get down from there quickly.”

Jiang Xiaoyi was nervous to death, her heart feeling like it was about to leap out of her chest, and instinctively obeyed Ye Zhen’s order, scrambling clumsily off the sofa, then standing at a distance from him.

She probably should have said something to explain herself, but her tongue felt as though it had been locked up by her emotions, and she had no idea what to say.

Faced with this situation, even the usually composed Ye Zhen seemed to have no idea what he should do, only staring at Jiang Xiaoyi with slightly reddened eyes.

The two of them remained in silence, the atmosphere subtle and strange.

Until—

Until the sound of the cats broke this tense stillness, and then made the two of them even more embarrassed.

Jiang Xiaoyi followed the sound of the cats and looked over, and nearly choked on her own breath at the sight—

The chinchilla was lying on top of the little orange cat, apparently attempting something indecent!

Ye Zhen’s face instantly darkened: “Little brother! Stop it right now!”

As if using this to calm down his own emotions, he stood up, and decisively separated the little orange cat and the chinchilla.

Having taken the chinchilla back into his own arms, Ye Zhen then glared at Jiang Xiaoyi: “Look what you’ve done.”

“?”

Ye Zhen hugged the chinchilla tightly, accusing her: “Your aromatherapy affected my little brother. Fortunately, my own self-control is good, so I wasn’t affected.”

Having said this, Ye Zhen glanced down at the innocent little orange cat on the floor, then looked out the window.

Jiang Xiaoyi followed his gaze and only then noticed that the rain outside had stopped.

“This cat needs to…”

Just as Ye Zhen opened his mouth to shout for it to be chased away, the disobedient chinchilla in his arms wriggled free and jumped down, meowing ingratiatingly as it went straight for the little orange cat. Wherever the orange cat went, the chinchilla followed close behind, quite the picture of a devoted husband following his wife’s every move. Probably worried Ye Zhen would chase the little orange cat away, the chinchilla even meowed at Ye Zhen in a rather placating manner…

Ye Zhen nearly coughed up blood from anger.

Seeing this, Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t help but start laughing: “Heaven’s going to rain and mother’s going to remarry—there’s nothing you can do about it. Your little brother has grown up and wants a wife now—he doesn’t want you, his freeloading big brother, anymore. Want to chase the little orange cat away? I don’t think you have that chance anymore, or you might just cause a family rift and your little brother might elope with her.”

“…”

Although what Jiang Xiaoyi said made perfect sense, Ye Zhen was still stubborn about it, refusing to admit defeat: “If it stays, it stays. I was planning to let this cat stay anyway.”

“Weren’t you just saying you’d chase it out once the rain stopped…”

Ye Zhen argued, putting up a brave front: “That’s a separate matter. Because our family values taking responsibility, since my little brother has done something like this, of course we have to see it through to the end. Besides, we have plenty of cat food at home—one more cat won’t be a problem. I’ll reluctantly let it stay.”

He said stubbornly: “Besides, now that the lights are on, I can see this cat, though a stray, actually looks decent enough. Its background may be lacking, but its looks make up for it. And it kept rubbing against me just now, which shows it knows how to please the one with the strongest presence in the room—it has some sense, not entirely hopeless. I’m an understanding person, and I think maybe it’s fate. If it stays, it stays.”

“…”

Having said this, Ye Zhen raised an eyebrow: “What, do you have an objection?”

The flush on the man’s face had faded by now, the aftereffects of the aromatherapy gone, and it all seemed like a dream—Ye Zhen had returned to his usual composure.

Jiang Xiaoyi had no objection whatsoever—the kitten looked quite pitiful, and if Ye Zhen changed his mind and let it stay, that was exactly what she wanted.

“Then I’ll take her to get some cat food! Open up a can!”

Jiang Xiaoyi said this and had already picked up the little orange cat and was about to leave, but Ye Zhen called out to stop her.

“I’m hungry.”

“So?”

Ye Zhen’s voice sounded a bit unnatural. He glanced at Jiang Xiaoyi, then looked away, and, resuming his usual air of self-righteousness, added: “Even stray cats get fed. I should eat too.”

As though fearing Jiang Xiaoyi might refuse, he added: “Aren’t you supposed to be good at cooking? Didn’t you say your cooking is amazing? I still haven’t tried your cooking—make me a meal, let me learn a thing or two.”

Only, though his expression stayed dignified, his stomach’s growling at that moment betrayed him.

The quiet of the night made the sound even more conspicuous.

It was an unexpected night with the power outage and cat-rescuing, and Jiang Xiaoyi was a bit hungry too. She didn’t press Ye Zhen further and simply nodded: “Since you’re hungry, then let me cook a bowl of noodles.”

But once she’d agreed, Ye Zhen grabbed her again.

Jiang Xiaoyi looked puzzled: “What now? Don’t you want noodles?”

“That’s not it.” Ye Zhen pressed his lips together. “That noise just now—that was the cat.”

“…”

As though having convinced himself, he continued in a tone meant to be persuasive: “That’s right, it was the cat.”

But his own stomach was rather ungracious—the moment Ye Zhen finished speaking, his stomach growled again.

Ye Zhen, apparently flushed with anger at himself, said somewhat exasperated: “The cat again. Darn cat.”

Seeing him like this, Jiang Xiaoyi suddenly felt like laughing.

Fine… if you say it’s the cat, then it’s the cat…

This Ye Zhen, honestly, was quite childish too.

She smiled a little and didn’t say anything more, turning and heading into the kitchen. She first opened a can of food for the kitten, then made two bowls of noodles with baby greens and poached eggs, one for each of them.

When she brought his bowl over to Ye Zhen and picked up her own chopsticks, she saw that despite his stomach growling from hunger just now, Ye Zhen remained perfectly still.

“You’re not eating?”

Ye Zhen stiffened his neck: “Actually I’m not that hungry. You eat first. As for the cat, it was crying so hard just now, it must be starving.”

Truly, he was so vain he’d rather suffer than admit it.

Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t bother urging Ye Zhen and ate her noodles by herself, drinking the warm broth, feeling revitalized all over.

She put her bowl and chopsticks in the sink, remembering the phone with its dead battery still left in the living room, and, after petting the kitten’s head, turned to head back to the living room.

Unexpectedly, in the living room, Ye Zhen appeared to be on the phone, or talking to someone.

But it didn’t take long for Jiang Xiaoyi to figure out what he was actually doing—

The man was hatefully patting the chinchilla’s head, scolding it: “You little brat, blind, aren’t you! Can’t control yourself! Look at the mess you’ve made now! Been taken advantage of! Why can’t you learn from me and stay clean and self-disciplined! Even when there are traps out there, stay unmoved! Look at Jiang Xiaoyi—what can she do to me? Wasn’t I able to overpower her completely?”

Ye Zhen’s speech, so grand and impassioned at the start, gradually grew mumbled and indistinct by the end.

He’d started eating the noodles.

“Not bad, this noodle dish of Jiang Xiaoyi’s…”

Jiang Xiaoyi listened as Ye Zhen ate his noodles hastily while still lecturing the chinchilla: “You’re a male cat after all, technically also of the male gender—we males mustn’t be like you! We have to have some backbone!”

“Mn, the noodles are good, the poached egg is just right, I was starving, this is actually pretty tasty…”

The man, probably full and satisfied, went on to lecture pompously, patting the cat’s head again: “In this society where gender treatment has been turned on its head, you have to work even harder to protect your own chastity! Don’t fall for these women’s tricks!”

….

Listening to this speech, Ye Zhen really was quite the man of principle.

It would’ve been even more convincing if this principled man hadn’t been slurping down the soup so enthusiastically.

Don’t fall for a woman’s tricks, but do drink the soup a woman made.

Truly, an outstanding man of principle.