Wei Zhi cupped her face, smacking her lips as she finished the last White Rabbit milk candy with a numb expression. Somehow, she couldn’t taste the candy’s flavor anymore. Her mouth and nose were filled with her boyfriend’s scent—fragrant and enticing.
Even more appealing than the White Rabbit candy.
As noon approached, the gym grew busier, with one or two people at each piece of equipment. Some were focused on lifting weights, while some young women’s gazes darted around as bees attracted to honey, sneaking glances in this direction between each lift—
As if looking this way was a natural part of their exercise routine.
But Wei Zhi understood them.
At this moment, Shan Chong had removed his shirt, his bare upper body on display. Sunlight streamed in from outside as if to highlight how sweat droplets rolled over his swollen, blood-filled pectoral muscles…
The surgical scar on the man’s back, accentuated by his muscles and sweat, suddenly transformed from melodramatic to edgy. The end of the scar disappeared into his pants, and countless gazes followed the glistening beads of sweat as they rolled over the scar and vanished into the waistband—
The key to maintaining the excitement in a relationship isn’t money.
Luxury goods are endless, and diamonds and gold can’t be eaten. From age ten to eighty, a woman’s girlish heart can beat forever…
It only beats tirelessly and wildly for a beautiful man.
Wei Zhi sat nearby, resting her chin on one hand, watching as the man finished a set of leg exercises. He stepped off the machine, his long legs hitting the ground with a soft thud. He stood up and walked towards her.
Wei Zhi reached for the mineral water bottle beside her and handed it to him. Under the surprised and envious gazes of those around them, the man naturally took the water and drank half the bottle in one go.
“Slow down,” she said. “Don’t choke.”
The gazes directed at her were as scorching as X-rays, but she felt that even walking the opening of a Victoria’s Secret fashion show with a Hermès Himalaya Birkin couldn’t compare to this moment…
In school, when the girlfriend of the most popular boy handed him a towel at the sports meet, making everyone jealous—seven or eight years later, she was living that moment.
And she suddenly understood that girl’s feelings—
It was, of course, exhilarating.
The corners of her lips curled up slightly, but she remained silent.
At this moment, the sweat-drenched man squatted down next to her, his hands naturally resting on his knees. Water dripped from his fingertips… From a position slightly lower than hers, he tilted his head up to look at her and asked, “Should I put my shirt back on?”
“Why?” she asked.
“You’ve been sitting in that chair, your eyes darting around, making eye contact with how many people who’ve been checking out your boyfriend?” Shan Chong looked at her, his tone hinting at amusement. “I’m worried you might get jealous later and use this as an excuse to give me trouble.”
“Am I that kind of person?”
To demonstrate her tolerance and generosity, the young girl even took the initiative to wipe his face with his towel. “If they want to look, let them look—”
He raised an eyebrow.
“They can look all they want, but they can’t touch.”
She finished her sentence unhurriedly, poking the bulging muscles of his arm and saying in an adorably domineering voice, “This is mine.”
She then pointed at his abs. “These are mine too.”
Her fingertip hesitated for a few seconds, probably considering which part to claim next. But before she could finish, the man’s warm palm caught her finger…
He tugged at her hand, pressing her finger to point below his abs. “Why the hesitation? Don’t you want this too?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
The man brought her fingertip to his lips, placing a rough kiss on her fingernail. In a husky voice, he said slowly, “You have to take it even if you don’t want it. It likes you very much.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Shan Chong: “It’s all yours, I promise.”
With that, he stood up.
His body, previously shorter than hers as he squatted, suddenly towered over her, his shadow enveloping her. His warm breath surrounded her, overwhelming her senses.
The man lowered his head and asked why she wasn’t saying anything.
Wei Zhi’s mind was filled with “Ahhhhhhh, damn,” unable to form words. Should she ask what strange medicine he had taken today?
Seeing her bewildered expression, her eyes just blinking at him without speaking, Shan Chong curled his lips into a smile. He gently flicked her nose with his finger and said softly, “Let’s go back.”
Wei Zhi looked up at the clock. It was noon, and they had been at the gym for almost three hours… So the claim that skiing helps you lose weight must be a lie. She had said she didn’t lose a single pound despite skiing from dawn to dusk every day in Chongli and Xinjiang, yet these people all had great physiques. Turns out they were putting in extra hours at the gym.
Wasn’t that cheating?
As she pondered this, Shan Chong bent down to pick up the water bottle. After a moment’s thought, he straightened up and half-turned his head to look at her. “I’m all sweaty. I’ll go take a shower. Will you wait for me here?”
Wei Zhi let out an “Oh” without sensing anything amiss. She obediently said, “Hurry up then, I’m hungry.”
The man nodded and good-naturedly said “Okay” before turning and entering the locker room.
After Shan Chong left, Wei Zhi sat on the nearby chair, swinging her legs. As she swung, she suddenly kicked something. She let out an “Oh” and leaned forward to look, seeing Shan Chong’s t-shirt by her feet…
The T-shirt was clean; he had taken it off as soon as he started sweating.
It must have fallen under the chair at some point.
How could he be so careless?
She looked around the gym. There weren’t many men left; it was mostly women now. She wasn’t sure if there was anyone in the men’s locker room behind her. She hesitated for three seconds, holding the shirt.
At that moment, a cleaning lady passed by and, seeing Wei Zhi standing at the door, asked what was wrong. The young girl awkwardly said, “My boyfriend left his clothes outside… Um, can I go in?”
“I just finished cleaning, and there’s no one inside. The male members usually come after work in the afternoon. In the morning, it’s mostly young ladies like you,” the cleaning lady said matter-of-factly. “Go ahead and enter.”
With permission granted, Wei Zhi turned and went in.
The locker room was quite large and indeed empty. She looked around for a while and found Shan Chong’s water bottle, jacket, and sweatpants casually thrown on a chair.
Following the sound of running water, she found the last cubicle. Standing outside the steamy shower stall, she looked up at the water vapor and called out in a cat-like voice, “Chong-ge.” The water stopped, and he asked, “Why did you come in?”
“Your t-shirt was left outside. I thought you might need it later.”
“I do need it. Hang it on the doorknob.”
Wei Zhi did as told, then stared at the completely blurred silhouette behind the frosted glass door. “I’ll head out then. It’s too hot in here.”
The person inside was silent for a moment before saying, “Wait.”
Wei Zhi stopped in her tracks.
Shan Chong: “Since you’re here, hand me the towel I left on the chair.”
Wei Zhi looked back and indeed saw the towel he had used to wipe his sweat earlier next to the water bottle. She walked over and pinched it with two fingers, demonstrating a clear double standard—
Sweat on her boyfriend’s body was sexy.
But on a towel? Not so much.
Pinching the towel, she returned to the bathroom door and knocked. “Here it is.”
Accompanied by a burst of steam, the bathroom door opened.
The man, dripping wet, leaned out halfway. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and his hair was also wet. The black hair falling due to the moisture made him look much more docile than usual…
Fresh from his workout, his muscles hadn’t fully relaxed, leaving his Adonis belt visible.
He reached for a towel but missed as the young woman lifted her hand at that moment, causing the towel’s edge to slip past his fingertips.
Shan Chong raised an eyebrow slightly.
Standing outside the bathroom door, holding his towel, the young woman blinked like a small animal just waking up. Her dark almond eyes were filled with suspicion. “Did you do that on purpose?”
He glanced at her nonchalantly. “Do what on purpose?”
Wei Zhi lifted the towel in her hand, pondered for a moment as if deciding where to begin, and then pointed to the t-shirt outside. “That. You deliberately left it out there.”
“…”
“…”
In the reflection of her dark pupils, the man flashed her a smile.
…
Wei Zhi wasn’t sure how things had escalated to this point.
She recalled the female protagonist accidentally seeing the male lead showering after his morning exercise, but she had only glanced briefly before leaving, without barging in or doing anything uncouth…
So why was she, the author, facing karmic retribution?
Steam from the bathroom hadn’t fully dissipated.
It condensed on her eyelashes, leaving them damp. Whether from the heat or something else, the young woman’s cheeks were flushed, her lips the color of a fully bloomed rose with a hint of moisture.
She panted unevenly.
Like a fish struggling restlessly in the man’s arms, yet afraid to make too much noise and attract attention, she tried to break free from his control. Her hand grasped the shower stall door handle. “I’m leaving.”
Before her hand could warm the handle, the man pulled it away. “Leave? Why?”
His tone was so matter-of-fact that Wei Zhi was stunned.
At that moment, squeezed into the small shower stall, the slightest movement would cause her nose to brush against his chest—
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Damn it.
Wei Zhi never imagined her life would have such a heart-stopping moment. Internally, she felt like clawing through the gym’s ceiling. Wooden-faced, she lowered her head, watching as the man placed her hand on his waist.
Her gaze moved upward, past his chest, his clearly defined jaw, his high nose bridge, and looked at him in confusion.
The man rewarded her with a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Fulfilling a promise. You came to Guangzhou, how could you just touch my abs once?”
“…” Wei Zhi paused. “I could.”
“You can’t.”
“Just that one time is enough.”
“It’s not.”
His tone grew increasingly indifferent.
Wei Zhi’s hair was practically standing on end. She pursed her lips, looking at him a bit pitifully as if to say, “How are you so hard to please? I already said I won’t touch!”
Her eyes were dark and heavy like a kitten forced by its owner to stay by the food bowl after it was full, wanting to scratch but not daring to, wanting to leave but unable to.
The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Having just lifted weights, his muscle memory was still active. He effortlessly picked her up, holding her like a child, letting her sit on his arm with her back against the bathroom wall.
Water droplets from the wall soaked Wei Zhi’s clothes.
He expressionlessly reached out, moved the showerhead to face the door, and turned on the water—mist immediately filled the air, the sound of water hitting the bathroom door obscuring all sight and sound from outside.
Wei Zhi marveled at his resourcefulness.
He unfastened the first button of her collar with his fingertip. Her heart tightened instantly. She placed her hands on his shoulders, lowered her head to look at him nervously, and let out an anxious whimper.
He looked up, and kissed her reddened eye corner, his voice firm and merciless: “Let me teach you a lesson. When you want a man to stop—”
He captured her lips, “Don’t look at him with eyes like that.”
…
The temperature in the shower stall seemed to be constantly rising. The steam made it feel as if one’s brain was boiling along with it, lowering its boiling point.
The sound of running water masked everything.
Someone walked in, their footsteps scattered. They chatted casually, discussing which equipment the gym had acquired this month, how the neighboring gym had gone bankrupt, and how they could get some cheap rowing machines from there…
They were probably gym staff.
“These days, the gym business isn’t easy—”
“Tell me which business is easy? Several buildings next door have been sold, and worse, some are up for auction… Oh my.”
“Yes, there aren’t many gyms that can properly take over that batch of rowing machines. Go ask if they can negotiate the price… Where’s that water sound coming from?”
Wei Zhi sat on the small step in the bathroom, originally meant for placing clothes baskets and toiletries, which were now scattered on the floor.
She bit her hand hard, not letting a single sound escape.
When she heard the conversation outside, she was terrified. Her already reddened eyes now formed a bright red ring, whether from steam or tears blurring her vision—
Fortunately, the sound of the shower concealed everything.
“Someone’s showering this early?”
“Maybe they came to shower.”
“Hahaha!”
The two outside, discussing how to take advantage of the neighboring gym’s situation and unnecessarily concerning themselves with why a member would come to exercise so early, finally left after what seemed like an eternity of conversation.
The previously tense person finally relaxed. She raised her hand and tugged at the man’s hair as if venting her frustration.
The latter, feeling the pain from the pull, unhurriedly raised his head. That face, usually cold, still showed little expression…
He looked as lofty as if standing next to the Big Air jump, hands behind his back, asking the hesitant person below, “So, are you going up or not?”
His tongue quickly pressed against the moisture on his lips.
“Hmm?”
The man’s voice was low, emitting a questioning sound from his throat.
The young woman, pinned against the wall by him, whimpered and buried her burning face in the crook of his neck.
He chuckled, unhurriedly removed the small piece of fabric hanging around her ankle, and casually placed it with his change of clothes.
Then he reached out and turned off the showerhead.
Finally, with one swift motion, he easily lifted her from the ledge and set her on the ground.
The man bent down with unprecedented patience to adjust her skirt, his long fingers smoothing out the wrinkles and flicking off water droplets.
Wei Zhi remembered their squabble at the ski resort over whether ski pants should cover ski boots or not, which ended with the man exasperatedly bending down to pull the trouser legs out of her ski boots, covering them—
Just like now.
She wiggled her foot.
The man gripped her wrist and leaned in to kiss her.
She made a muffled sound and turned her head to avoid it. He paused, not angry at all, just looking at her amusedly, pinching her cheek. “Why dodge? It’s your own.”
Wei Zhi glared at him, summoning unprecedented courage to push him away and walk out herself.
This time, the man didn’t stop her. He leaned against the doorframe, watching her leave. She pulled out some tissues from her pocket to wipe the mist from her face and the water droplets from her body and back.
As she wiped, she suddenly turned to look at him.
Shan Chong didn’t move.
The young woman threw away the tissue, paused, then said, “I’m hungry. Can you hurry up?”
…It was as if she was forcibly rewinding time to twenty minutes ago, when she stood outside the bathroom door with the towel as if she had never entered, as if nothing had happened just now.
Shan Chong snickered.
Her face quickly flushed red. She stamped her foot. “I’m leaving!”
After a moment’s thought, as if remembering something, she stretched out her hand towards him: “My… my… that thing! Give it back!”
“No,” the man lazily glanced at her. “I’ll keep it as a souvenir.”
As her eyes widened in disbelief, he unhesitatingly closed the bathroom door. The shower was turned on again, this time he was going to take a shower.