Yan Ming continued his work in the afternoon. After Song Chunxiang woke from her short nap, Yu Tian reheated the food and gave it to her newly awakened mother.

Xiao Ling also got to eat the “imperial feast” that Chen Xi had brought, and was very happy.

The previously empty bed in the three-person ward was soon occupied by another patient – a girl about Xiao Ling’s age who was surrounded by her parents and other family members when she arrived. She was clearly the apple of everyone’s eye. Before the child even had surgery, her parents were already heartbroken with worry, practically ready to move the entire house there. They brought all kinds of snacks and various toys.

From the conversations between the family members and doctors, Yu Tian learned that the little girl was scheduled for pediatric strabismus surgery – not a very major or difficult procedure, but the surgery required general anesthesia for the child, so parental concern and worry were normal.

Xiao Ling’s parents were probably busy with work. Yu Tian hadn’t seen them come to visit all day. The usually lively Xiao Ling repeatedly cast envious glances at the other little girl, probably missing her mom and dad. Throughout the afternoon, she seemed rather listless.

Yu Tian had a sudden inspiration: “Xiao Ling, isn’t your birthday coming up soon? Is there anything special you want? Sister will give it to you as a birthday present!”

Unfortunately, Xiao Ling very considerately refused Yu Tian: “No need, sister. You don’t have to spend money on me.”

Speaking of birthday presents, she finally perked up a bit, shyly explaining: “I don’t want birthday presents. I just hope I can have a birthday party with a really big birthday cake, invite lots of people, and have Wonder Woman come too. I love Wonder Woman the most. I want to blow out the candles myself, then cut the cake and share it with everyone!”

Yu Tian couldn’t help but ruffle the child’s hair.

Children were children.

Even with one eyeball removed, Xiao Ling was still radiantly adorable when she smiled, full of vibrant life and possessing a strong vitality that inspired people not to give up.

Song Chunxiang was recovering well, but since she still needed to stay in the hospital for observation for a few days, Yu Tian waited until she felt sleepy after eating, then returned to Yan Ming’s house.

However, before going home, she first went to her rented studio to collect some work materials, then pulled out several dresses and retrieved a makeup bag she rarely used.

After careful selection, she chose a sapphire blue velvet dress.

Although velvet fabric was heavier than other materials and somewhat restrictive to wear, it was very flattering to the figure. The neckline wasn’t the common V-shaped design, but rather a square, court-style neckline that looked restrained and proper. However, the square neckline left just the right amount of space to the neck, perfectly suggestive without being revealing. It made the chest’s curves undulating, maintaining both sensuality and restraint with dignity.

The legs featured a slit design that would reveal glimpses of leg skin and curves while walking.

Yu Tian knew her legs were very white and very beautiful – the slit hem was perfectly designed to showcase her strengths.

The dress’s greatest design element was the back, with draped cross-chain necklaces in the same sapphire blue with metallic accents. It played up the backless design completely, avoiding the emptiness that large areas of exposed skin could create while playfully and elegantly highlighting all the back details.

This dress was originally bought by Yu Tian for a graduation ceremony ball. The effect when worn was excellent, but precisely because the effect was so good, Yu Tian ultimately didn’t have the courage to wear it out.

It attracted too much attention and was overly high-profile.

But tonight, Yu Tian gritted her teeth and decided to put on this dress.

She paired it with thin high heels, applied red lip color, and curled her hair into soft waves with a curling iron.

Tonight, Yan Ming’s house would be the battlefield!

Although she had no experience pursuing someone, Yu Tian found a well-regarded “Romance Manual” online and frantically crammed some emergency knowledge.

The manual said that pursuing someone could start with subtle flirtation – don’t be too direct, but seduce the other person into pursuing you.

The first move was to make the other person feel that you needed him, arousing his protective instincts by approaching your “prey” in a delicate form with gorgeous “outer packaging.”

Yu Tian thought this theory was quite sound.

After all, Yan Ming seemed very susceptible to acting cute. Chen Xi had managed to get him to agree to let her stay at his house without question just by speaking in a sweet voice.

But how could she naturally act cute while also demonstrating her delicacy and need for protection?

Fortunately, the manual had already written a recommended plan – watching horror movies together.

Yu Tian decided to do exactly that, immediately downloading a horror ghost film set in an abandoned hospital.

Since Yan Ming had been working from last night until today, he came home early to catch up on sleep.

By the time Yu Tian had everything ready and the atmosphere set, Yan Ming happened to wake up, ate something simple, and sat down at the table across from Yu Tian.

Yu Tian guessed that Chen Xi had probably gone home to pack clothes, so she hadn’t returned yet.

Only Yan Ming and Yu Tian were in the house at that moment.

Heaven was truly helping her!

As soon as Yan Ming sat on the sofa, Yu Tian gracefully glided over with affected elegance, sat down next to him, then tried hard to strike a very beautiful and alluring pose, striving to showcase all the advantages of the sapphire blue velvet dress. Then she cast the horror movie on the TV screen.

“Brother Yan Ming, could you please watch a movie with me?”

Yu Tian’s voice was soft, and she secretly leaned closer to Yan Ming.

As a result, Yan Ming also shifted aside.

“…”

Yu Tian could only subtly lean closer again.

This time Yan Ming didn’t move away. He looked at Yu Tian with a somewhat amused smile: “There’s still so much space on that side of the sofa.”

Yan Ming smiled again: “Move over there a bit.”

“…”

How unromantic!

He had been so receptive when she fed him food!

Yu Tian reluctantly moved aside.

The horror movie was playing the opening credits with the main cast and crew names. Yan Ming turned his head to look at Yu Tian again.

Feeling his gaze, Yu Tian sat up straighter, carefully pushed out her chest, and arranged her legs in the most beautiful and elongated position.

“You dress like this at home?”

It was a bit too formal, wasn’t it?

Yu Tian felt embarrassed, but Yan Ming was really like casting pearls before swine! This dress was specifically worn for him, yet he looked completely oblivious, just calmly watching Yu Tian as if he hadn’t noticed at all how the dress enhanced her beauty and charm.

Yu Tian couldn’t help but feel a bit spiteful: “I’m going out later!”

I’d rather show it to someone else than show it to you!

What a waste of all that effort getting ready.

Yu Tian felt extremely wronged, feeling like she was truly a pearl covered in dust.

When Chen Xi spoke sweetly, Yan Ming seemed able to quickly understand the subtext in her words. But when it came to herself, he was inconsistent at best.

And most of the time, he was obtuse.

The few times he was perceptive were always when he shouldn’t be.

Thinking about how she had spent an entire afternoon feeding Yan Ming vegetables and enduring so many probing gazes, Yu Tian felt furious.

Fortunately, the horror movie soon entered the main feature, and Yu Tian was drawn into the movie content, no longer distracted by her anger.

This horror film was actually a highly recommended recent release, famous for its atmosphere and soundtrack. The director was very particular about camera work, creating excellent horror atmosphere.

At the beginning, a group of fearless young people came to this abandoned haunted hospital for a live streaming challenge. Yu Tian was quickly drawn into the first-person perspective, her heart in her throat.

While watching, Yu Tian secretly glanced at Yan Ming beside her with her peripheral vision.

He watched the screen with a calm expression.

Yu Tian quietly began moving toward Yan Ming’s side. She felt it was about time to prepare, looking at the plot development, one of the death-seeking supporting characters was about to meet his end.

And when this supporting character met his bloody end would be the crucial moment for Yu Tian to display her acting skills, collapse into Yan Ming’s arms, and demonstrate her delicacy!

Soon, the supporting character did meet his end, stabbed in the abdomen by a panicked companion who was scared out of his wits.

But…

Yu Tian was puzzled and couldn’t help but say: “That’s not right. The position where he stabbed wouldn’t injure organs. How did internal organs and intestines all spill out when the knife was pulled out?”

“The emergency treatment is also wrong. The abdominal knife shouldn’t have been pulled out at all. They should have kept it in place and called for emergency help to wait for professional rescue. This supporting character didn’t need to die! This plot is just forcing him to die for the sake of killing him! These companions of his should be charged with intentional murder!”

As the plot progressed, Yu Tian became increasingly restless.

“This reaction is also wrong. The victim was hit on the head – why did he suddenly vomit blood?”

“The angle of the finger bending after being stepped on is also wrong…”

“This kind of wound bleeding should be spurting, not trickling out like this.”

Regarding Yu Tian’s questions, Yan Ming shared similar views—

“Indeed, this type of knife wound shouldn’t look like this.”

“The blood bag color is also wrong – too dark.”

A perfectly good horror movie had turned into a medical student exchange meeting.

It was still quite scary, though, mainly because Yan Ming would occasionally bring up professional questions about the plot, and Yu Tian was terrified of not being able to answer. She was extremely nervous throughout, which made the atmosphere feel incredibly terrifying.

Only when the movie finally ended did Yu Tian realize she had completely wasted an excellent opportunity to play delicately!

She had spent the entire time discussing the condition of these people’s wounds and how to provide emergency treatment or surgical plans with Yan Ming. Later it even evolved into a quiz mode where Yan Ming asked questions and Yu Tian answered. As a result, Yu Tian’s originally seductive sitting pose had unconsciously transformed into an elementary school student sitting on a bench with straight back, ready to answer questions at any moment…

Yu Tian was completely numb.

Compared to her despair, Yan Ming, who had used the horror movie as a sample to evaluate Yu Tian’s knowledge, seemed to be in a very good mood. He walked into the kitchen with a smile.

Regardless, Chen Xi hadn’t returned yet – there was still a chance!

Yu Tian cheered herself up mentally, then quickly got up and followed him into the kitchen.

Yan Ming was drinking water. Yu Tian had a sudden inspiration and immediately stepped forward to pour herself a cup of hot water too.

While Yan Ming wasn’t paying attention, Yu Tian pretended to be burned by the hot water and feigned pain with an “ah” sound.

Then she pinched her thigh hard, producing some physiological tears, and looked pitifully at Yan Ming: “Brother Yan Ming, I got burned. It hurts so much. Could you blow on it for me?”

Yan Ming’s gaze turned to Yu Tian. His face showed amusement, handsome as always, still like the moon breaking through fog in the dark night. Unfortunately, his words were not at all pleasing.

“Yu Tian, you’re a medical student. How should minor burns be treated immediately?”

Even in casual clothes, Yan Ming was far too serious and imposing.

Yu Tian almost instinctively answered—

“Immediately rinse with cold water.”

“Is blowing useful?”

“Not really!”

Yan Ming smiled and gestured toward the faucet: “So, rinse away.”

“…”

Yu Tian was furious.

Plan one – playing delicate to evoke sympathy – appeared to be completely dead.

But fortunately, there was still a second move!

Yu Tian went into the bathroom to fix her appearance and touch up her makeup, then pulled the velvet dress neckline down a bit and raised the slit hem a little higher.

If being delicate didn’t work, then she could only win through sexiness.

Looking at her radiant face in the mirror, Yu Tian felt confident about this aspect at least.

Sure enough, this time when she emerged from the bathroom and stood next to Yan Ming in the living room, his gaze immediately fell on her.

But there was no infatuation in his eyes. This man seemed to practice self-restraint and propriety, as if preserving heavenly principles while eliminating human desires.

His voice was calm and steady: “The dress neckline is open too wide.”

Yu Tian secretly rejoiced – he couldn’t help but pay attention after all.

The more it was time to reel in the net, the more composed she needed to be. So Yu Tian pretended to be innocent and explained: “I can’t help it. It’s so hot today, my chest feels so stuffy…”

Before she could finish, she saw Yan Ming get up and walk directly to the nearby air conditioning panel, then adjust the room temperature from 25 degrees to 20 degrees.

The central air conditioning in his house was very powerful. Before long, Yu Tian not only felt cold in her heart, but was also physically cold and nearly shivering.

She realized that plan two had also died before achieving success.

Yan Ming seemed determined to make things difficult for her, casually flipping through a newspaper while saying coolly: “Still hot?”

Yu Tian was furious.

“Hot! Still very hot!” she said, pulling her neckline down even more.

Yan Ming instinctively looked up, his gaze landing on Yu Tian’s snow-white neckline. However, this time he finally lost his previous composure. His eyes almost immediately looked away in panic and haste upon contact with Yu Tian’s neckline.

Then Yan Ming quickly got up and left the living room.

Yu Tian felt like cursing.

She was freezing to death, but because she had stubbornly claimed to be hot, even though she was shivering, she could only tough it out sitting on the sofa.

Just as she was internally cursing Yan Ming for the thirty-eighth time, a blanket fell from above.

In her confusion, Yu Tian was enveloped by the warm scent of sunshine and laundry.

Then came Yan Ming’s voice—

“Put it on.”

His tone seemed somewhat helpless: “Stop fooling around.”

Yan Ming patted Yu Tian’s head through the blanket: “Behave yourself.”

After a brief moment of confusion, Yu Tian’s heart practically exploded like electricity.

He knew!

He knew everything!

This man had known exactly what she was scheming from the very beginning!

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand – he was simply unmoved!

Yu Tian felt like a freshly inflated balloon that was leaking somewhere. She was fine when untouched, but the slightest contact, even the gentlest pat, would expose her true form.

From a distance, she looked like a properly inflated ball, but just one touch would reveal that she was a deflated, broken ball that couldn’t hurt anyone, no matter who she was thrown at.

Because at the slightest touch, she would deflate completely.

Yu Tian felt like Yan Ming had pressed her button, and all her earlier bravado dissipated.

She blushed, maintaining her position covered by the blanket, feeling both warm and safe.

It seemed like hiding was the right thing to do.

She suddenly felt a bit like a clown, performing what she thought was a sophisticated drama, but the plot was so old that the only audience member had long ago silently figured out all the developments. He was just restraining himself out of politeness or observation, but she had mistaken this for investment.

So embarrassing…

Fortunately, Yan Ming saw through her without exposing her, avoiding further awkwardness.

However, Yu Tian had completely given up.

She maintained her position with the blanket covering her head and floated back to the guest room like a ghost with weak legs.

When she emerged from the room again, Yu Tian had changed out of her “man-killer” velvet dress into plain pajamas. Her carefully styled hair was also messy from being covered by the blanket, and Yu Tian was too lazy to fix it.

But as soon as she sat down on the sofa, Yan Ming’s wicked voice rang out.

“Didn’t you say you were going out earlier? How did you change into pajamas?”

Asking when he already knew the answer.

Bringing up whatever shouldn’t be mentioned.

Yu Tian huffed angrily: “Not going anymore. No point. The dress doesn’t look good – pajamas are better.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a cup of steaming milk was placed on the coffee table in front of Yu Tian.

“Drink it,” Yan Ming said concisely. “Go to sleep after drinking.”

He smiled at Yu Tian: “Stop thinking about nonsense all the time. More sleep is good for your physical and mental health.”

This man seemed to be in an extremely good mood, patting Yu Tian’s head again like coaxing a child.

Yu Tian stared at the hot milk in front of her with complex feelings.

Was he treating her like a child?

Or had calling him “Brother Yan Ming” so much made him think of her as a sister?

Honestly, Yu Tian hadn’t been able to rest properly these past few days either. Her mother’s hospitalization and surgery had made her worried and emotionally tense. Now that the surgery had ended successfully and everything was gradually getting back on track, she was indeed feeling somewhat sleepy as she relaxed.

But…

Chen Xi hadn’t returned yet!

If she went to sleep early now, wouldn’t that be handing Chen Xi an easy victory?

People were always more emotionally vulnerable when tired late at night, more sentimental, more likely to open their hearts and be taken advantage of.

After working diligently all evening and greatly wearing down Yan Ming’s energy, if she went to sleep now and left Chen Xi to come back and have alone time with Yan Ming, wouldn’t she be handing over the fruits of victory? Letting Chen Xi benefit from her hard work?

This absolutely couldn’t happen!

Yu Tian shook her head, forced her drooping eyes wide open, stared at the milk cup, and began to tough it out.

She looked at her watch and couldn’t help complaining: “Why isn’t Chen Xi back yet?”

It was already this late! Even when staying at someone else’s house, there should be basic courtesy! This wasn’t a hotel!

After waiting another ten minutes or so, Yu Tian began to feel drowsy.

Unfortunately, Chen Xi seemed determined not to let her have peace.

Yan Ming, who was sitting on the other side of the sofa reading medical literature, said casually: “She might be a while longer.”

It was almost ten o’clock!

Yu Tian was quite annoyed: “Why is she so late?”

Yan Ming looked up at Yu Tian.

Yu Tian cleared her throat and beautified her motives: “I’m just thinking, didn’t she just encounter someone following her a few days ago? Coming back so late, isn’t she worried about her safety?”

Yan Ming closed his literature with a thoughtful expression: “You make a good point. Maybe I should go pick her up. A girl alone late at night isn’t safe.”

That wouldn’t do!!!

Yu Tian almost instinctively grabbed Yan Ming’s sleeve: “Then I want to go with you!”

Under Yan Ming’s amused gaze, Yu Tian could only bite the bullet and act: “It’s just… she’s a girl, and I’m a girl too. Why can’t she be alone late at night, but I can? I’m scared too. We just watched a horror movie. Brother Yan Ming, I don’t want to be alone.”

Soon, Yu Tian mastered the rhythm of acting cute. She looked up at Yan Ming pitifully, using her teary eyes from yawning to look at him: “I want to be with you.”

Yan Ming had seemed to be in a very good mood all evening, looking like he had everything under control. However, this simple bit of acting cute from Yu Tian seemed to press some special button. His ears turned red, and his expression was no longer completely composed.

He slightly looked away, but didn’t shake off Yu Tian’s hand or leave.

Yu Tian felt the sofa beside her sink slightly as Yan Ming sat down next to her, very close – even closer than when they were watching the horror movie.

“If you don’t want me to leave, then I won’t leave.”