48: Chapter 48 He came carrying a blanket.

The hallway was empty.

The central air conditioning in the Burj Al Arab hummed, the cold air hitting his back and raising goosebumps.

Li Li stretched his neck, his bones clicking twice, and turned to walk toward the elevator.

Passing the public lounge on the 20th floor, he saw Shen Jue sitting cross-legged on the carpet, hugging a cushion and staring blankly.

There was a bruise on his forehead, and bits of broken rubber were stuck in his hair.

Seeing Li Li, he stood up abruptly.

"Brother Li! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Where is Jiang Rumu?"

"She got a few stitches, nothing serious."

Shen Jue scratched the back of his head vigorously and handed over his phone.

"Brother Li, look at this. The whole world has exploded."

Li Li took the phone and glanced at it.

On the trending page of the international version of TikTok, the top video had already surpassed 200 million views.

The footage was the last five seconds before the attack on Water World—Cen Ye looking up at the sky, saying, "To think there'd be a meteor in broad daylight," and the next frame shook violently before going black.

The comment section was filled with English, Arabic, and French, but they all translated to the same meaning: Israel bombed civilians, they're animals.

He scrolled down.

Media bloggers from various countries were carrying phones to film the wreckage of the Rose Palace in Tehran and the craters at mosques in Riyadh, but the quality was all pixelated.

Only the Dubai Water World—the full-angle high-definition live stream clips from ten camera positions of the Dating Reality Show—were every frame clear to the point of cruelty.

He switched to domestic Weibo.

The top five trending searches were all marked with a red "Explosive."

#Live Footage of the Entire Attack on Dubai Water World#

#CNN Has Yet to Report on the Dubai Attack#

#BBC Deletes Water World Related Posts#

A top-liked comment read— "CNN didn't report it, BBC deleted the posts, FOX is airing a talk show. Traditional global media is playing dead in perfect unison. But overseas TikTok is full of live footage, with hundreds of millions of likes. This is the coffin lid of traditional media—social media nailed it shut with its own hands."

Li Li returned the phone to Shen Jue.

"Alright, stop scrolling. The more you scroll, the more anxious you'll get. Go to sleep."

Shen Jue took the phone and scratched his head again.

He looked down at the cushion.

"Brother Li, when you pulled us out of the water today... I was so stunned by the split, I didn't help at all."

Li Li patted his shoulder.

"Go to sleep."

Shen Jue hugged the cushion and walked toward his room.

He turned back at the corner.

"Brother Li."

"Yeah."

"You're truly a beast."

He ran off after saying that.

Li Li rotated his left wrist.

He walked to the door of room 2005.

He knocked.

"Jiang Rumu."

There was no movement inside.

He knocked twice more.

The door opened.

Jiang Rumu stood behind the door; the bandage on her right shoulder had been changed, and the edges of the gauze were stained with pale pink seepage.

She was wrapped entirely in his blood-stained white T-shirt, her hair still wet, draped over her shoulders.

"Why didn't you dry your hair? The wound can't get wet."

"I can't lift the hair dryer."

She shook her right arm; the movement didn't exceed five centimeters, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

Li Li stood at the doorway.

"I'll come in and dry it for you."

Jiang Rumu stepped aside.

Li Li walked in and grabbed the hair dryer from the bathroom.

"Sit."

Jiang Rumu sat on the edge of the bed.

Li Li stood behind her, his left hand brushing aside the stray hairs on the back of her neck, his right hand holding the hair dryer.

Warm air passed through his fingers.

Neither of them spoke.

The only sound in the room was the hum of the hair dryer.

Three minutes.

Her hair was dry.

Li Li turned off the hair dryer and put it back on the bathroom counter.

He walked to the door.

"Did you take your painkillers?"

"Not yet."

"Where are they?"

"Nightstand, white bag."

Li Li turned back, fished two painkillers out of the medicine bag, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it to her.

Jiang Rumu tilted her head back and swallowed the medicine.

She set the glass back on the nightstand with a sharp clink.

Li Li walked to the door again.

His hand rested on the doorknob.

"Then I—"

"Li Li."

He stopped.

Jiang Rumu sat on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling, her bare feet pressing into the carpet.

She stared at her toes for two seconds.

"I'm... a little scared being alone."

Her voice was very soft.

So soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of the air conditioning.

Li Li's fingers paused on the doorknob for three seconds.

He turned around.

Jiang Rumu didn't look up.

The tips of her ears turned red.

"Can you... stay and keep me company?"

After she finished the sentence, her toes curled abruptly, digging into the carpet fibers.

Li Li rotated his left wrist.

"Fine."

No extra nonsense.

He pushed the door open and walked out.

Half a minute later.

He returned, carrying the quilt and pillow from his own room.

Jiang Rumu looked at the bulky bundle of bedding in his arms and was stunned.

"You..."

"You sleep in the bed, I'll sleep on the sofa."

Li Li walked to the large three-seater leather sofa by the window, shook the quilt out with one hand, and spread it open.

He placed the pillow on the armrest.

The whole process took three seconds, clean and efficient.

Jiang Rumu opened her mouth.

"Won't the sofa be too short?"

"I'm 1.83 meters, the sofa is 2.2 meters. More than enough."

"You measured it?"

"Eyeballed it, occupational hazard."

Jiang Rumu didn't say anything more and slowly lay back on the bed.

With her right shoulder facing up, she found a position that didn't press on the wound.

The room darkened.

Only a bit of the city's ambient light filtered in from the direction of the Persian Gulf.

Silence.

"Li Li."

"Yeah."

"Today's incident... I keep thinking... if you hadn't pulled me into the water the first second..."

"Don't think about it."

"But—"

"Stop thinking about it. What you need right now is for the painkillers to take effect, and then to fall asleep. Not to rehash what happened today."

Jiang Rumu closed her mouth.

Another ten seconds passed.

"Li Li."

"Yeah."

"Your lips really do taste like mud."

A muffled sound came from the sofa.

It was the sound of the pillow being flipped over.

"Sleep."

Jiang Rumu buried her face in the quilt, the curve of her lips completely hidden by the duvet.

Fifteen minutes later, her breathing became even.

Li Li lay on his side on the sofa, the blue text still hanging on his left wrist.

[Main Mission: Lead all members of the Production Team to attend the Abu Dhabi royal banquet.]

He pulled his sleeve down and turned over.

There was no moon over the Persian Gulf outside the window.

On the distant sea, the lights of the type 055 destroyer were pinned against the black skyline.

He closed his eyes.

Thirty seconds later, he was asleep too.

---

When he woke up again, the sun was already hanging high.

Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a golden bar across the carpet.

Li Li checked his phone.

1:17 PM.

He had slept for nearly twelve hours.

Every muscle in his body was protesting.

The aftereffects of pushing that several-hundred-pound slide wreckage underwater yesterday had all caught up with him.

He sat up from the sofa, his neck cracking three times.

He rubbed his face and turned to look at the bed—his movements froze.

Jiang Rumu was sleeping in an extremely wild posture.

The quilt had been kicked to the foot of the bed at some point, with only one corner resting on her lower legs.

His white T-shirt had been twisted into a pretzel while she slept, rolled up to her ribs, revealing a large expanse of her waistline.

Her right leg was bent, her left leg stretched straight out, her whole body forming a standard "4" shape.

Her left hand was across the top of the pillow, her right hand stuck stiffly to her side due to the shoulder injury, one corner of the medical tape on the bandage peeling up.

Her long black hair was spread all over the pillow, a few strands resting on her neck.

Li Li's gaze slid from her collarbone over her waistline and settled on the sliver of abdomen revealed by the twisted T-shirt.

Her skin was very fair.

Her dimples of Venus were clear.

His Adam's apple bobbed.

His nasal cavity felt hot.

Li Li abruptly raised his hand to cover his nose.

His other hand flew to grab a tissue from the coffee table.

It didn't bleed.

Just barely.

Just by a hair's breadth.

He closed his eyes and stood up silently.

He bent over and gently pulled the quilt up, covering her waist.

When he pulled his hand back, the back of his fingers brushed against her arm.

Jiang Rumu didn't move.

Her breathing remained even.

Li Li picked up the pillow and quilt, tiptoeing toward the door.

His sneakers made no sound on the carpet.

He placed his hand on the doorknob.

Pressed it down gently.

Slipped out sideways, and closed the door behind him.

Click.

The door lock engaged.

In the hallway, Li Li leaned against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose.

His phone vibrated.

Director Pei Zhao sent a message in the Production Team group— "Everyone, given the security situation, today's filming schedule is completely canceled. Everyone stay in the hotel and do not go out. Wait for notification regarding specific arrangements."

Below, Cen Ye replied with an emoji.

A cat hugging a can of fish, with the caption "Lying flat."

Han Xubai immediately followed up with a voice message: "According to the force majeure clause, I suggest the Production Team purchase war zone accident insurance for every guest, with an uncapped policy limit—"

Shen Jue replied, "Lawyer Bai, can you not solicit business in the group chat."

Li Li locked his screen and carried the quilt and pillow back to his own room.

---

In room 2005.

After the click of the door lock closing, the whole room was quiet for three seconds.

Jiang Rumu opened her eyes.

Her eyelashes fluttered twice first, then she slowly lifted them.

Her gaze fell toward the door.

It was empty.

She looked down at herself—the quilt had been pulled up at some point, tucked in neatly, right to her waistline.

She remembered the quilt was still there before she fell asleep.

Whether she kicked it off after falling asleep, she wasn't sure.

But she was very clear about one thing.

She hadn't been fast asleep just now.

She had woken up when Li Li sat up from the sofa.

Then she heard his movements stop.

Paused for about three seconds.

Then the sound of a tissue being pulled out.

Then, the quilt being pulled up gently.

The temperature of his fingers brushing against her arm.

Finally, the sound of his tiptoeing footsteps as he exited.

He hadn't made a single sound the whole time.

It was deathly quiet.

Jiang Rumu buried her face in the pillow.

The pillow had the scent of disinfectant, and a little bit—very faint—of the lingering scent from his T-shirt.

She muffled a laugh into the pillow.

Then she covered her head with the quilt and curled up.

She couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from turning up.

The phone on the nightstand lit up.

She reached out and grabbed it.

Fahd joined the group chat.

Fahd sent a message in the Production Team's public group, in both Arabic and Chinese— "The Abu Dhabi royal banquet will be held as scheduled tomorrow night, with the scale expanded fivefold. All members of the Production Team are on the invitation list."

Below it followed a private message @ing her separately.

"Ms. Jiang, in the seating arrangements for the banquet, you and Li Li have been placed at the royal core seats. I want to let my uncle and father also taste the charm of Hotpot!"