Chun Chang responded quickly, almost instantly: What’s wrong?

Cen Jin took a long breath, choosing her words carefully: I think I just saw that kind of young, fresh, beautiful, and clean body you mentioned before.

Chun Chang instantly perked up: !!!!!!

Chun Chang: Little brother Li Wu?

Cen Jin: Mm.

Chun Chang never hid her thirsty nature: How much did you see?? Did you take pictures?? Share with your bestie!

Cen Jin: Take pictures of what, just the upper body.

Chun Chang: Aaaaaaaaaaah what did he look like tell me tell me.

Cen Jin recalled, her cheeks inexplicably heating up, and threw out three words: Pretty well-built.

Chun Chang: Is this the expression ability of a copywriter?

Cen Jin: Then how should I say it?

Chun Chang: Was it seductive? Did it make you melt instantly?

Cen Jin:? Not really.

Cen Jin reviewed those lines in the light, inexplicably filled with restraint and control, like a cheetah tensing before the hunt, and admitted: Objectively speaking, there was some sensuality. What surprises me is how young guys nowadays all have such good bodies.

Chun Chang: What surprises me is how you got to see it.

Cen Jin: He brought the wrong clothes into the shower, and I happened to be working in the living room, so I saw.

Chun Chang: Damn this is like some romance novel plot.

Cen Jin: ???

Chun Chang criticized despairingly: How can you be so restrained, I’ll call you Endurance Jin from now on.

Cen Jin: What am I enduring?

Chun Chang: Such a perfect combination of looks, talent, and body in an obedient little brother, don’t you want something to happen? Especially during this special period, a man and woman under one roof hehe.

Cen Jin asked: Would you think about “something happening” with your cousin?

Chun Chang, always without limits in her banter: …No need, my cousin is too ugly. Looks determine my principles.

Just as Cen Jin was about to spit at her, a shadow loomed over her. Without looking, she knew who it was. Cen Jin hurriedly switched out of the chat interface and pretended to be composed as she looked up.

Li Wu had put on a white T-shirt and was looking down at her, holding out the black headphones.

His face seemed to still retain some warmth, showing a faint blush, his eyes consistently bright and watery.

Cen Jin took them, examining them while clearing her throat: “Have you been using these headphones for your online classes these past few days?”

Li Wu: “Mm.”

Perhaps because of the earlier incident’s major impact, Cen Jin was still a bit dazed, turning them over: “Haven’t used them in so long, I can’t remember which side the Bluetooth button is on.”

He bent down to show her: “Bottom left.”

This motion brought the young man suddenly close, and Cen Jin, glancing up slightly, could see the skin and collarbone visible at his shirt collar.

The flesh-colored scene from a few minutes ago seemed branded in her mind, replaying repeatedly.

She grew irritated, wanting to drive away both the image and the person in it: “Got it, you can go about your business.”

“Mm.” Li Wu stood to leave.

Cen Jin called after him, offering indirect advice: “Better wear more layers.”

Li Wu: “…”

Cen Jin made up an excuse: “After all, it’s not spring or summer yet, catching a cold during this period would be quite troublesome to deal with.”

But Li Wu understood perfectly well, embarrassed to the point of speechlessness, only managing to respond “Okay.”

His earlier appearance charging through the house’s public areas was indeed somewhat offensive to Cen Jin.

Cen Jin had thought this episode would be fleeting as clouds, but unexpectedly, over the next few days, the house gained an Eskimo.

In the constant 27-degree floor heating, Li Wu lived as if in an outdoor polar survival situation. The youth wrapped himself up very thoroughly, layer upon layer, leaving nothing exposed, making Cen Jin feel groundlessly insulted as if she was being assumed to have potential fetishes.

A week later at the dinner table, Cen Jin couldn’t bear it anymore and put down her soup spoon to ask Li Wu: “Aren’t you hot?”

The youth’s chopsticks paused, stopping his rice-scooping hand: “Hot.”

“So what’s with these past few days?”

“Afraid of catching cold.” He used her previous excuse.

“You’re more likely to catch a cold this way,” Cen Jin decided to be frank: “I didn’t take that incident to heart, what’s the big deal about a boy being shirtless?”

“Mm.” Li Wu responded softly, but his ears gradually changed color.

Cen Jin glanced at him again, commanding: “Take off the cotton jacket.”

“Oh.” Li Wu immediately stood up, removed his outer layer, and hung it on the chair’s back.

The big bear transformed back into a white poplar, finally looking more pleasing to the eye. Only then was Cen Jin satisfied, picking up her soup spoon to continue eating.

During this time, Li Wu had been cooking and cleaning, and Cen Jin couldn’t possibly take this for granted and enjoyed these days with a clear conscience.

She had initially thought to use this to offset the money spent taking Li Wu out in Sheng Zhou last year, but after careful consideration, she felt it was too vulgar and might hurt his self-esteem, so she chose another way to achieve inner balance – taking this opportunity to buy Li Wu all sorts of things online: clothes, shoes, a mouse, models, three years of high school exams and five years of mock tests (…) … things that a male high school academic star definitely wouldn’t dislike. Of course, it was always Li Wu who carried the deliveries, packages big and small, stacking up almost higher than his head.

After unboxing, Cen Jin would always require Li Wu to try things on for her. Dressing him up had become one of Cen Jin’s few leisure activities while working from home. Each time she examined the renewed youth from head to toe, Cen Jin would sincerely marvel at how fun the real-life version of Miracle Wu Wu was.

Li Wu wasn’t having such a good time. Looking at the increasingly full wardrobe in the guest room, he only felt more and more indebted, his debt doubled.

As insects stirred with the warm spring, all things bloomed. In these days of staying indoors, the spirit of the season quietly descended.

Outside the window, grass grew and swallows returned, crab apple trees began to bud. The warm breeze blew into the house, drawing more people out. The streets regained some vitality, the flowing crowds still wore masks, carefully probing and adapting to this familiar yet strange world.

BN’s Bluetooth earphone advertisement was successfully placed as a top view (super premium position) on a short video app, bringing impressive sales from millions of clicks, with a notable increase in the proportion of female buyers.

The creative for the short video came from Cen Jin’s Ao Xing team. In just one minute, they presented a rich and vivid visual feast.

It opened with a cold, dark, empty street, the world in black and white.

A small woman with short hair stood in the center, back turned. She wore a beanie, and bulky clothes, unremarkable.

After a brief pause, she took out pink earphones from her pocket, put them on, and began jogging.

Music began, accompanied by first-person long shots and dynamic rhythmic movement. The entire scene gradually became brilliant and alive – tall buildings transformed into up-and-down jumping frequencies, flowering branches dropped musical notes, the sidewalk became jumping piano keys, bridge railings vibrated like guitar strings, arrows on prohibited signs jumped out of red slashes, wall graffiti danced in groups… she seemed to be the world’s ruler.

At the end of the video, the woman was stopped by a collision with a gray passerby. She removed one earphone, the surroundings muted, the environment returning to normal.

She caught her breath briefly, put the earphones back on, and as the music played again, she turned to look at the sky. Surprisingly, the woman’s smiling face was lined with wrinkles – she was a radiant little old lady.

The slogan followed: BNXT20, Listen to Your Heart, Move Without Limits.

This placement brought returns far exceeding expectations for both the client and the company. Teddy praised everyone in the group chat, especially Cen Jin, with the boss personally singling her out for commendation.

Cen Jin wasn’t particularly excited, feeling more relieved. Her team felt the same way – from creative to shooting, to editing and special effects, they had revised the video several times over. Who could imagine how a mere sixty-second video had made them rack their brains to the point of nearly coughing blood?

Closing the group chat, Cen Jin sprawled into her soft bed, finally getting her first worry-free sleep since the holiday began.

It was noon when a sliver of sunlight through the curtain gap tickled her awake.

After washing up, she put on a cashmere cardigan and walked out of her bedroom, looking for the house’s other occupant, only to find he wasn’t there.

Just as she was about to message asking his whereabouts, she saw he had sent a message ten minutes ago.

Li Wu: Went out to print test papers, and will be back home soon.

Cen Jin raised an eyebrow, replying: What test papers?

Li Wu: Science comprehensive, having an exam this afternoon.

Cen Jin: Taking it at home?

Li Wu replied: Yes.

Cen Jin: We have a printer at home.

Li Wu: …

Cen Jin: Letting benefits flow to outsiders.

Li Wu: …

Cen Jin dropped the matter, returning to the exam topic: Aren’t your teachers worried students will just look up the answers?

Li Wu replied: The teacher said parents need to proctor.

Cen Jin:?

Li Wu: I don’t need supervision.

Cen Jin: I know you’re very self-disciplined.

Though she said this, after lunch, Cen Jin still came to the study room early, taking her position nearby, feeling perfectly justified.

She had finished her work and had rare free time. But unfortunately, she developed a stress response to this idle state, compulsively wanting to insert herself into where she might be needed.

For instance, serving as Li Wu’s temporary proctor.

The youth was clearly surprised by her arrival, but he didn’t ask much, just took out his pen and patiently waited for the test time.

The room was quiet, light wandering across the spines of books filling the shelves.

Li Wu reviewed questions early, casually spinning his pen, occasionally changing up the tricks. The black gel pen rotated smoothly between his slender fingers, moving freely yet never dropping.

Cen Jin noticed and hummed: “You’re quite good at pen spinning?”

At her words, that willful pen stopped abruptly, its owner properly gripping it again and placing it neatly in the center of the test paper.

Li Wu slightly raised his eyelids, sheepishly: “Just playing around.”

Cen Jin also felt playful, her gaze falling on his black pencil case as she reached to pull it in front of her: “Lend me one, I want to try too.”

Li Wu was as if struck by lightning, nearly standing up, his head buzzing intensely.

The woman had already lowered her head, seriously rummaging through his pencil case, comparing weights, and soon pulling out several pens.

Li Wu watched her actions without daring to blink, his throat tight, heart rate nearly fatal.

Fortunately, Cen Jin didn’t conduct a deeper search when she couldn’t find what she wanted, instead setting aside the pencil case to focus on the pens in front of her. She tried each one, feeling unsatisfied, and looked up to ask: “No other pens?”

Li Wu was extremely flustered, his tone somewhat rushed: “No more!”

“Why so fierce?” Cen Jin was startled by his loud voice, quite puzzled.

He softened: “The exam’s about to start…” while taking back his pencil case, pretending: “I need to get my eraser, give me the pencil too.”

Only when his secret base returned to his control did Li Wu feel his soul return to his body.

Unable to find a pen that felt right, Cen Jin inevitably lost interest, picking up the pencil to hand over. Suddenly feeling mischievous, she put the 2B pencil back on the flat table, formed a circle with her thumb and index finger, took aim, and flicked it toward Li Wu.

The pencil hit the young man’s knuckles with a sharp pain, and he looked up at her in confusion.

But the woman had already propped her chin up, looking out the window, acting “I don’t know anything, I wasn’t here.”

Li Wu curled his lips, and rubbed his hands, lowering his eyes to hide his growing smile.

At two o’clock, the test began.

Li Wu clicked out his pen tip like a sword being drawn, immediately entering battle mode.

Cen Jin started playing with her phone. The company’s main group was discussing return-to-work timing, and soliciting everyone’s opinions. People all had their views, chat records nearly flooding the screen, too fast to follow. Soon enough, the boss grew tired of it and directly launched a group voice chat for discussion.

Cen Jin symbolically joined, glanced at Li Wu’s furrowed brow as he concentrated on the test, and muted the interface.

After a while, the Deputy Director called her out by name in the group: @Gin, why aren’t you speaking, just hanging there?

Cen Jin: … One moment.

She stood up and walked to the balcony, Li Wu noting her movement, his eyes following her path.

Cen Jin held the phone to her ear, turned back, and watched the room’s situation through the window.

Their eyes met, and she made a two-finger poking motion across the distance, first at herself, then at Li Wu, quite fiercely.

Li Wu froze as if stabbed, lowering his head, actually pressing his lips together to suppress a smile. Who could resist such a cute double attack?

Li Wu multitasked, eavesdropping on Cen Jin’s conversation while smoothly calculating on his draft paper as if from muscle memory, finally filling in the correct options in the brackets.

Unfortunately, her voice wasn’t loud, and she had closed the door, so he couldn’t hear clearly.

A moment later, presumably, when familiar colleagues were taking her to task, Cen Jin’s voice suddenly rose: “My student is taking an exam, shut up!”

The pen tip paused, and the youth began writing furiously again on the draft paper.

His handwriting took flight, nearly wild cursive as if venting – venting the extreme pride and extreme joy that sentence, that prefix, had brought him.