439: Chapter 439 Rainy Night

Fine, silvery moonlight flowed over Ruan Xingyu's curled eyelashes, teetering on the tip of her nose.

The moonlight continued to flow.

It slid down her shoulders and neck, pooling in the hollows of her collarbones, swaying with the rise and fall of her breath.

On the snow-white sheets, Ruan Xingyu turned over, her waist dipping into the shadows where the moonlight could no longer find her.

Lin Chuyan watched, mesmerized, seeing her slender waist like a snake in the dark night, suddenly winding its way up.

"Are you tired?"

"Tired? Are you kidding me? Don't you know I work out every day? Don't you know I train my legs every day just for this moment?"

"...Thank you for your hard work!" Ruan Xingyu didn't know what else to say, so it ultimately boiled down to this one sentence.

Lin Chuyan said cheekily, "As long as you're satisfied, you're welcome to come again next time."

"Satisfied, very satisfied." Ruan Xingyu subconsciously traced the Arabic numeral "10" on his chest with her finger.

How could she not be satisfied? She was practically falling apart.

Ruan Xingyu changed the subject: "After finishing this film, are you going to shoot la la land?"

"Yeah, I estimate it'll take at least two months. Remember to have Wen Qi arrange the schedule."

"Hee hee hee." Ruan Xingyu couldn't help but be happy.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Doesn't that mean we can stay together for the two months we're filming la la land?"

"Yeah. Together in a legitimate, open, above-board, and entirely official—yet self-serving—way."

"You're making it sound worse and worse. That last idiom really exposed your true intentions."

"I have even worse ones if you want to hear them?"

"Go ahead!"

"Hey, we're the real 'on-set couple,' aren't we? All those others are just... cheating on set?"

"You know quite a lot, don't you, Lin Chuyan!"

Lin Chuyan didn't hesitate to throw his brother under the bus: "I've been in the industry for so long, after all. Though, of course, most of it was told to me by that kid, Su Su."

Ever since the knockout, Su He had been flooded with acting offers. Lin Chuyan had originally planned to arrange a villain role for him in new police story, but it turned out he had no availability at all.

"What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

Ruan Xingyu buried her face against his neck and rubbed the fresh stubble on his chin, asking softly.

"I'll have Xia Zhi book an afternoon ticket so I can spend a little more time with you."

"Haven't you been with me every day these past few days?"

That was true. What young couple in their twenties, after being in a long-distance relationship, wouldn't be inseparable once they met? Especially when the girlfriend was such a great beauty.

While career was important, love couldn't be left behind. These past few days, the two of them had been inseparable, like glue and lacquer.

Because they were coming and going together, they had already been snapped by the paparazzi several times.

Lin Chuyan didn't care; he had an excuse anyway.

He claimed that Ah Lai's hairstyle in the mission was too short, so he stayed in Beijing and didn't go anywhere, calling it "growing out his hair," living as happily as an immortal.

Squeezing Ruan Xingyu's arm, he sighed softly: "I can never spend enough time with you. Every time like this, I really resonate with certain sayings."

"What?"

"'A hero struggles to pass the beauty's gate,' 'a crown of fury for the sake of a beauty,' 'the land of gentleness is the hero's grave,' 'from then on, the monarch no longer attends morning court...'"

Ruan Xingyu laughed and chided him: "Look at you!"

Lin Chuyan continued to lament: "I used to wonder, how beautiful must these women be to make men act like this? Later, I figured it out..."

Seeing him being mysterious, Ruan Xingyu shook him: "Figured out what?"

Lin Chuyan tightened his hold on her body, not letting her squirm: "This is love!"

"It is love, sure... but don't you need to exercise some restraint?"

Even the woman felt he should exercise some restraint... just imagine how intense Yanzi had been these past few days.

Lin Chuyan squinted at her, his eyes drifting downward: "With you looking like this right now, how can I exercise restraint?"

A voice in his head kept telling him he should exercise some restraint, but another voice was saying that in his twenties, he was at his most energetic—not enjoying it properly would be total nonsense.

He felt the latter voice was right.

Besides, wasn't there Brother Yue's recipe? Lin Chuyan planned to buy some Codonopsis and Polygonatum to soak in water and drink in a few days.

"Is it my fault?" Ruan Xingyu struggled to get up from him. "Then I'm leaving."

Lin Chuyan held her tighter: "Where are you going?"

Ruan Xingyu rolled her eyes at him: "To drink water, my throat is a bit dry."

Reasonable.

Lin Chuyan loosened his grip.

But watching Ruan Xingyu leap lightly off the bed, gathering her hair while swaying as she walked out of the bedroom... he was getting restless again.

It was a rare rainy night in Beijing. Lin Chuyan felt empty in his arms, so he climbed up as well, listened to the sound of the rain and the movements in the living room, then followed his girlfriend out.

A change of scenery would be nice.

...

The bedroom door seemed to have a problem; it would occasionally let out a slight, sluggish groan when pulled open.

Ruan Xingyu was looking for water to drink.

She reached up to grab the lemonade on the table, then dug some ice cubes from the depths of the fridge. The ice cubes landed in the glass, clinking with intervals that grew shorter and shorter.

A stirrer reached in, slowly swirling the ice cubes.

The ice slowly melted into the water, the two gradually becoming one.

There was a temperature difference between the ice water and the summer night; the outside of the glass quickly became covered in beads of water. The water trails flowed down the side of the glass, dripping onto the floor, forming winding streams on the wooden floorboards.

Hot, so hot.

Beads of sweat appeared on the back of her neck, then crawled toward her back, like snails dragging silver threads as they slowly slid from her shoulder blades toward her waist.

Some of Ruan Xingyu's hair stuck to her back, yet it inexplicably had a sticky, seductive beauty.

On this sweltering summer night, a glass of ice water was exactly what was needed.

Finally.

Water entered her throat.

Her overheated body felt instantly comfortable.

A muffled rumble of thunder came from the distance, and the summer night rain grew heavier.

Raindrops hit the window, one after another, beginning to fall rapidly.

Ruan Xingyu was barefoot, her body swaying slightly. She accidentally stepped across the floor, leaving half a damp footprint.

The two of them swayed toward the window. Ruan Xingyu secretly lifted the curtain, revealing only a sliver to peek outside.

Outside the window, the rain was pouring down, and the ground in the distance had long since become muddy and wretched.

Looking closely, a bicycle on the side of the road was struggling to stay upright, crooked and slanted, before finally falling to the ground, as if it had been knocked apart by some unknown, strange force.

Another car drove past the fallen bicycle, its two headlights flashing on and off. Occasionally, when it encountered a pedestrian quickly crossing the road, it couldn't help but let out a sharp, long honk.

Ruan Xingyu's gaze was somewhat dazed. On the balcony of the building opposite, a small camisole skirt was still hanging out to dry. In such a rainy night, it had long since been blown to the ground by the wind; raindrops pelted it, revealing mottled stains of varying depths.

By the thirteenth minute of the downpour, there was more and more moisture outside the window, and the uneven ground was already filled with standing water.

The thunder in the distance was no longer muffled; it began to roar right by Ruan Xingyu's ears.

One clap after another, it seemed as if it were going to completely overturn this world.