The young man’s voice was low, unhurried, and if you listened carefully, the trailing syllables seemed to carry a slight, listless helplessness.

As if he truly did not want to say it — yet for some reason, he forced himself to say it anyway.

Lin Tao hadn’t expected him to suddenly bring this up; for a long stretch of time she remained in a state of pure bewilderment, not quite understanding.

Doesn’t like guys.

So what did he like? Did he like girls? What kind of girl did he like? Did he already have someone he liked?

……

One question after another exploded like a string of firecrackers inside Lin Tao’s head, scattering all her composure and ability to think.

She didn’t even know what she was supposed to say.

Congratulations — your sexual orientation is the same as most people’s?

Lin Tao was fairly certain that if she actually said that aloud, the person in front of her would be smothering her with the towel in the very next second.

“……”

He didn’t wait for her answer; he hadn’t expected one.

After speaking those words, Jiang Yan didn’t open his mouth again. He simply raised a hand, shifted her foot slightly to the side, turned the tap back on, rinsed the remaining dirt from his hands, then carried her back out.

The atmosphere between them became briefly, indescribably strange.

Lin Tao sat on the sofa wrapped in the bath towel, watching Jiang Yan rummage through a drawer and pull out a first-aid kit. He sat casually on the floor, head bowed, tending to her wound.

The injury was below her big toe — she had apparently stepped on the sharp edge of a broken shell fragment, leaving a very small cut. There was still sand around it that hadn’t been cleaned away. Jiang Yan took a cotton swab, dipped it in medicinal alcohol, and gently wiped away the sand around the wound, his movements slow and light.

Lin Tao wasn’t sure if she was in too much pain, or if her pain receptors had simply gone offline — either way, even being touched directly on the wound now produced barely any reaction.

She sat with her head down, hugging her other knee, watching him work.

After a while, the young man stopped, tossed the used cotton swab into the trash, then stood up — and Lin Tao watched him take the gauze and medical tape he’d just laid out on the table and put them all back.

“……Did something happen? Is my wound actually that serious?”

Lin Tao couldn’t quite believe it. What on earth had she stepped on? Did she need to go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot??

Jiang Yan finished tidying up, then crouched back down on the floor. His eyes curved gently; he looked up and met her gaze, and said with perfect seriousness: “Quite serious indeed.”

“……?”

Jiang Yan looked away, lifted her foot and rested it on his knee, peeled open the bandage he’d just taken out, and pressed it over her toe. The pads of his fingers touched against the cool skin of her foot, his voice carrying a smile. “So serious that if we’d waited any longer, the wound might have healed on its own.”

“……”

Lin Tao’s face burned. She raised both hands, pulled the bath towel up over her head, and buried herself completely inside it.

How was she supposed to know that what had bled so much and looked so vividly alarming was, in the end, nothing more than a little scraped skin?

And she had screamed so loudly.

This was genuinely, absolutely mortifying.

Jiang Yan looked at the person who had practically mummified herself in the towel, reached over and gave it a tug — it didn’t budge. His smile became even more obvious. “Go shower. We’re going out to eat soon.”

“……Mm.”

Lin Tao slowly, slowly pulled the bath towel down from over her head. Her delicate features emerged — beautifully arched brows, bright eyes, radiant smile. The fair, smooth face that was usually so pale was now faintly flushed, and along with it, her translucent white ears and her slender neck were all tinged pink.

Her whole person looked like it had been wrapped in a soft pastel blush-pink cover.

Pink everywhere — utterly adorable.

Jiang Yan turned away. The corners of his eyes, tilted up slightly at the outer edge, carried a quiet smile. He said no more, stood up, walked into the bathroom, and pulled the door shut behind him.

The bathroom door was frosted glass. You couldn’t see clearly through it — but you could still make out the silhouette.

The young man’s tall, lean figure was cast against it, every movement enlarged before her eyes: raising a hand, lifting the hem of his shirt, bending over……

“………!!!”

Lin Tao snapped her gaze away violently.

What on earth was she looking at……

After berating herself, she turned to berate the innocent party as well.

Why was this person starting to undress right there at the door?

Was he really in that much of a hurry?

After scolding him in her head, Lin Tao thought back to earlier at the beach — the image of that young man, completely drenched.

The vaguely visible, lean torso. The rise and fall of his chest.

“……”

Good grief.

Lin Tao didn’t dare let herself think further. She tossed aside the bath towel, jumped down from the sofa, and limped out of the room in rapid retreat.

She felt like a complete delinquent woman right now.

When she actually examined her recent behavior, she was operating squarely on the front lines of something thoroughly indescribable.

A head full of scandalous nonsense.

She was done for.

Sooner or later, she was done for.

Back in the bathroom.

Jiang Yan listened to the sound of the girl’s hurried, flustered footsteps. He leaned back, his back pressing against the glass — his clothes still perfectly intact.

He lowered his gaze, eyes falling to the floor. Then his head dropped forward, and he laughed quietly to himself.

In the empty, silent bathroom, bright with light, the young man’s quiet laughter slowly filled the space.

After a few seconds, Jiang Yan raised a hand, pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside, turned the showerhead on. Water cascaded down, soaking his dark hair.

He reached up and raked a hand through it.

The warm water rained down over him. As his body began to relax, Jiang Yan found his thoughts drifting back over the events of the day — from morning onward, retracing moment by moment, until they snagged on a particular point.

He stopped.

A certain image he had been deliberately avoiding flashed before him again.

A few seconds passed.

“……Damn.”

The young man’s voice was slightly low and rough, edged with helplessness. His knuckle-sharp fingers reached out and turned the showerhead’s handle to the right.

The warm water abruptly went cold.

Ice-cold water poured down over him.

Dousing the wave after wave of restlessness rising inside him.

Lin Tao and Meng Xin shared a room. When she got back, Meng Xin had just finished showering and was wrapped in a bath towel, two slender pale legs on full display. Her features, compared to Lin Tao’s refined elegance, had a touch more cuteness to them.

“How’d you take that long to treat a cut?” Meng Xin glanced at her foot and her surprise deepened. “……And all you ended up with is a single bandage?”

Mentioning it made Lin Tao cringe. “I thought, given the amount of blood, at minimum my entire foot would need to be wrapped in gauze.”

“……”

Lin Tao didn’t linger with Meng Xin; she slipped quickly into the bathroom, showered, and came out to find that the bandage on her foot had gotten wet. She blow-dried her hair, then dug a fresh one out of the drawer and replaced it.

“Where are we eating?” Lin Tao rummaged through her suitcase and pulled out a camisole in roughly the same style as the one she’d worn earlier.

She was about to go change into it when something occurred to her — she put the camisole back and took out a white T-shirt instead.

“Guan Che and the others said there’s a music bar restaurant nearby. Probably there.” Meng Xin had already finished getting dressed — a sleeveless black crop top, frayed denim shorts. Her slim arms and long bare legs were fully exposed, and as she moved her waist peeked out, looking incredibly good.

She looked up at Lin Tao’s outfit and broke into a grin, leaning over. “We’re going to a bar, okay? There are gonna be lots of cute guys there — and you’re wearing that?”

Lin Tao glanced down at her T-shirt and shorts, pulled her hair up, and said lightly, “What’s the problem? A good-looking person will meet cute guys even if she wears a dishrag.”

“……”

The two of them were still chatting in the room when Hu Hanghang came knocking. “Ladies, we’re heading out — are you two ready?”

“Ready!” Lin Tao called back. “Coming in a second.”

“Great, we’ll wait downstairs.” After a moment, Lin Tao heard him talking to Jiang Yan through the wall next door.

She and Meng Xin didn’t dawdle long; they headed downstairs quickly.

Living room downstairs.

The four boys had all freshly showered, looking clean and refreshed, dressed in matching short-sleeved T-shirts, black board shorts, and white sneakers on their feet. It looked like a factory production line — apart from their faces and the colors of their shirts, everything else was identical.

Jiang Yan came down last.

“Yan-ge’s here, let’s go!” Xu Yichuan, who’d been sitting on the sofa, spotted him first and bounced straight up. “Come on, come on — I’m literally starving.”

By the time he’d said it, Jiang Yan had already walked into the living room, dressed in the same white top and black pants as before, his hair still half-damp and falling over his forehead.

Lin Tao swept a glance around and noticed that only she and Jiang Yan were in white — everyone else was in black, grey, or one particularly bold shade of yellow.

No one else seemed to have noticed.

The seven of them headed out one after another.

Lin Tao and Meng Xin walked ahead; the boys followed behind. Jiang Yan glanced up at Lin Tao’s white T-shirt and, imperceptibly, curled the corner of his mouth.

She’s not entirely without understanding after all.

The bar Guan Che had in mind wasn’t far from the villa complex. This resort area was surrounded by food, drink, and entertainment on all sides.

It was the evening rush hour; the bar was packed inside and out. Fortunately, Guan Che had reserved a table online in advance, so the group didn’t have to wait — they were seated directly.

The bar was one floor but had a large footprint. The interior was arranged in booth-style seating, relatively quiet; the main action was outside in an open-air plaza, where a stage had been set up in the center.

There was someone performing on it right now.

A soft, unhurried love song drifted from the high-quality speakers nearby.

Guan Che had reserved a spot right in the middle of the outdoor plaza, not far from the stage — good sightlines, the music at just the right volume: a perfect spot.

The seven of them had barely settled in when a server in full beach-style attire came over, all smiles. “What can I get for you?”

The server had good looks — like Guan Che, he had peach-blossom eyes, the outer corners wide and open, giving him a luminous look when he smiled. Five or six glittering ear studs ran up his left ear.

Lin Tao had barely glanced at his ear when he noticed, and gave her a deliberate wink — playful and mischievous.

“……”

She quickly looked away and found her gaze landing on Jiang Yan sitting across from her. For some inexplicable reason she felt a twinge of guilt, and to cover it she reached for her water glass and took a sip.

After she put the glass down, Lin Tao caught herself.

Why should she feel guilty? She hadn’t done anything wrong by him.

With that thought, her composure actually settled. She turned sideways and looked at the ear-stud server again, curious. “Don’t all those ear studs hurt?”

“Hmm? These?” The server touched his ear, then unclipped the topmost one, leaned in close, and held it out. “This one’s not a stud — it’s a clip-on.”

Then, in one practiced motion, the server suddenly raised his hand and fastened the ear clip to Lin Tao’s ear. “This one’s a Lucky Star I put on today — consider it a gift.”

The unexpected contact from a stranger made Lin Tao stiffen momentarily, but she recovered quickly, reached up to feel her ear, and smiled politely. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Across the table, Jiang Yan: “……”

What the hell.

This absolute idiot.

Does he have no common sense whatsoever?

Can you not see that this guy is obviously hitting on you?

But that’s not even the worst part.

The worst part is that you actually smiled.

Jiang Yan felt that if he could get through this dinner tonight, he would have truly achieved enlightenment.

Still — mercifully — Guan Che and the others had already rattled through their orders at high speed, and the server left with the menu, interrupting Jiang Yan’s impulse to flip the table and walk out.

Not even a minute of peace.

The server was back with the menu again. “Oh, and what drinks would you like?”

He made a point of addressing Lin Tao specifically. “Would you like to try our bar’s new Lucky Star cocktail? It’s in the same series as your ear clip.”

Lin Tao had only heard the word “alcohol” and instinctively refused before he’d finished. “I won’t drink.”

At the same moment, two other voices chimed in together.

“She doesn’t drink.”

“She doesn’t drink!”

It was Jiang Yan and Guan Che.

Guan Che had deep feelings about the topic of Lin Tao and alcohol. The last time — it was because he’d let her have a sip of beer that Jiang Yan had given him the cold shoulder for days. Now, the mere mention of giving Lin Tao something to drink made his whole body recoil. “She can’t drink at all — not a drop. Just give her some juice. Actually, you know what, juice for everyone.”

“……”

In the end, everyone got a freshly cracked green coconut.

The scene was honestly a bit absurd.

The atmosphere that night was electric.

The resident performer had switched styles — from the gentle love songs at the start to heavy metal. The stage was surrounded by flashing, dazzling lights, and the music threatened to blast through the sky.

The outdoor seating area was spacious but crowded with tables, leaving only narrow lanes to move through.

Jiang Yan had originally been sitting across from Lin Tao, but after blocking the chair of a guest behind him, he moved to her right side.

The distance between them suddenly shrank.

Jiang Yan only had to glance slightly sideways to see the ear clip on her ear — the one that just looked thoroughly ugly.

Damn it.

He held himself back for a few seconds. Then couldn’t. He reached over and took it off, placing it on the table.

Lin Tao was in the middle of peeling shrimp; his sudden movement startled her and she lost her grip. The shrimp slipped off the table and fell into the sand below.

She pulled off her gloves and turned to meet his casual gaze. “What was that for?”

Jiang Yan leaned back in his chair, his arm resting across the back of hers. He gave a slow, light sound of acknowledgment, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the table in time with the music. “Looked ugly.”

“……” Lin Tao could barely believe what she was hearing. She reached over and picked up the ear clip. “You, with your straight-man taste — and you can tell something’s ugly?”

She finished speaking and moved to put the ear clip back on.

Jiang Yan raised a hand to stop her. “Don’t.”

His hand didn’t stop moving once it reached out. His warm fingertips found the spot where the ear clip had been sitting and gave it a light, gentle pinch.

“It’s all red here.”

Author’s note: — Tao-mei: Congratulations — your sexual orientation is the same as most people’s — Yan-ge: …… — Tao-mei, thus ended — The End, bad ending.