Chapter 18 Bathing Together (Part 2)

"Take off your clothes and come in."

　　When he said this, Huo Yan was facing her sideways, soaking in the round bathtub, the milky white liquid covering his chest, his elbows resting on the edge of the pool, his other hand lazily holding the glass and taking a sip from it. The liquid was swaying slowly under his collarbone, emitting wisps of hot steam.

　　Lan Su didn't move from where he was, with his feet together, swearing that he had not stepped into any area near the edge of the bathtub.

　　He stopped at the door, with no intention of moving forward. Huo Yan took another sip of wine, put the wide-mouthed glass on the tray on the shore, turned around, looked at the motionless man with sharp eyes, and asked:

　　"Any questions?"

　　She wasn't wearing glasses.

　　Without the filter of the lens, the eyes revealed their original sharpness, like white light reflecting ice. For the first time, Lan Su felt the pressure of large facial features. The wet hair stuck to the scalp, the glasses were taken off, and all the cushioning objects disappeared. Only the face was exposed.

Lan Su couldn't resist his curiosity, and after taking a look, his eyes seemed to be sucked up.

　　The deep eye sockets were as deep as caves, and the nose was straight. Although it was not as scary as a vulture, its height and shape were obviously sharper than traditional oriental faces. The eyebrows, lips, teeth, cheeks, and jaws, every inch of bone seemed to be made strictly according to the statues in Greek mythology.

　　The throat rolled and the root of the tongue trembled.

　　Lan Su avoided the sharp gaze and looked at the billowing water vapor rising from the edge of the pool.

"I have a bathroom over there, too."

　　She tried to explain.

　　"Lan Su."

　　Huo Yan called her name, with a warning tone in his voice:

　　"I'm not negotiating with you."

　　Lan Su grabbed her skirt. She felt like she was suddenly back in the Lan family, a time when she became an obedient tool. Just like the meat hanging on the stall, whether to buy it or not is entirely up to the buyer.

　　She didn't know why Huo Yan suddenly had the idea to take a bath with her. But while she was thinking, her body had already reacted.

　　There was no argument or resistance.

　　She walked to the clothes rack, turned her back to Huo Yan, and pulled down the zipper of her dress. The thin fabric was pushed aside on both sides, and the line of her spine was sunken half a finger deep. Her butterfly bones moved with the bending and stretching of her arms, blurred by the mist.

　　Being obedient is what Lan Su has been best at over the past decade.

Being too submissive aroused a sense of guilt in Huo Yan, and the water droplets on her eyelashes shook, reflecting a few rays of light.

　　At that moment, she felt that Lan Su was not the person who saved her that year. Because that person came against the light, with the smell of blood and gunpowder, and even though he was seriously injured and heading for a desperate situation, his eyes were sharper than hooks, as if he would tear off a piece of the other person's flesh even if he died.

　　Unlike Lan Su, she does whatever others tell her to do, like a yes-man hiding in the mud, being swallowed up by this turbid world.

　　The sound of the pool water was heard faintly. Lan Su put one hand around his chest and went into the water facing her sideways. He did not relax his brows until the water level reached above his chest.

　　However, they were sitting at opposite ends of the bathtub, which was too far away.

　　"come over."

　　Huo Yan uttered two words lightly, just like before, without discussing.

If Ai Li was present, he would definitely feel relieved because Huo Yan's tone was much softer than before, and Huo Yan, who had a slight mysophobia, had never let anyone step into her bath.

　　But unfortunately, Lan Su did not know the former Huo Yan, and could not hear the difference between these two words.

　　The body underwater froze for a moment, wavering at its own psychological defense line.

　　Her obedient instinct drove her forward. The hot water rushed through her body, and the forward movement encountered some resistance, which reminded her of the time she fell into a glacier in Russia last year for a Song Dynasty coin. She was also wrapped in the water, but the water at that time was icy, while the water at Huo's was hot.

　　Sitting next to Huo Yan, Lan Su's breathing became cautious.

　　She wasn't afraid that Huo Yan would suddenly attack her, like in the Lan family, where she would be whipped for saying the wrong thing. But she had a hunch that Huo Yan would do something.

Huo Yan picked up the pottery ladle beside her and scooped water to pour over her head. Her hair followed the water flow to her neck, outlining the smooth lines of her head and neck. She raised her hand to wipe her eyes and said:

　　"Come closer. If Jiang Dan comes in later and sees you far away from me, it will be exposed."

　　Lan Su was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at her: "So, that's why you asked me to come in?"

　　They staged a couple bathing scene to conceal the truth.

　　Huo Yan tilted his head and glanced at her with his aloof eyes: "I don't like hanging out with others."

　　Lan Su lowered his eyes: "Me too."

　　I leaned against the wall of the pond again, and suddenly felt a little tired. "We will go back to the Huo family tomorrow and continue acting."

　　"Um."

　　Huo Yan glanced at her and found that although her facial features were delicate, her nose was quite straight, and she exuded a sense of firmness for no reason.

interesting.

　　"Same as today."

　　"How far did it go?"

　　"Let them believe that we have a good relationship. No need to flatter, no need to explain, and don't suddenly take out the marriage certificate."

　　"But the marriage certificate is evidence."

　　Huo Yan was choked by this overly simplistic train of thought, but fortunately it was only for a moment, and he immediately regained his usual wisdom:

　　"Real couples don't carry their marriage certificates around with them."

　　"Seems to be."

　　To be fair, Lan Su was lucky that he didn't show his marriage certificate to Jiang Dan downstairs to prove his innocence.

　　Huo Yan narrowed his eyes, as if he could see through her thoughts, and asked:

　　"Did you show it to Jiang Dan?"

　　"No, I wanted to show it to her. But then she gave me the jade pendant, and I forgot about it."

　　Jade pendant?

　　Huo Yan turned sideways and his eyes fell on her again. Sure enough, the "redemption" around her neck was replaced by a jade pendant

Lan Su couldn't stand such a direct and burning gaze. She felt as if her chest was on fire and blisters appeared all over. She turned her head away and dared only stare at the water surface. She moved away silently.

　　Huo Yan's oppressiveness was extremely strong, as if there was a wild beast with sharp fangs standing behind her. Just by sitting there quietly, the air around her became stagnant.

　　"She belongs to the old house."

　　Lan Su pursed her lips and explained, "I know. But when we met today, I felt that she was a nice person."

　　"Just because she smiles at you, you think she's nice?"

　　"No." Lan Su frankly explained the reason, "She cares about you very much, and is also worried that things won't go smoothly when you return to the old house tomorrow, so she came here today to remind you."

　　At least, they are not like the Lan family, who are full of contempt and abuse under their cold exterior.

　　"Ah..."

　　Huo Yan seemed to have heard a joke, and sneered from the bottom of his throat, asking back:

　　"Do you think she came here today to warn me?"

Lan Suxin said, didn't she just say that she came here today specifically because she was afraid that they would say something wrong when they went back tomorrow, so she came to warn them.

　　But before he could open his mouth, he felt a brief sense of weight dropping from the back of his neck.

　　Huo Yan broke the chain of the jade pendant.

　　"What are you doing!" Lan Su was a little unhappy.

　　Strictly speaking, even if Huo Yan didn't like the jade pendant, it was a gift from Jiang Dan, so she should at least ask for her opinion.

　　Huo Yan did not explain. He played with the pendant with one hand, reached for the shore with his other hand, lifted the wine glass with three fingers, tilted his head back, and slowly drank the liquid in it. A drop of red wine slid down the corner of his lips, passed through his jaw, neck, and collarbone, and fell into the pool

Then, she turned around leisurely, placed the jade pendant on the tray by the pool, raised the wine glass and smashed it hard.

　　boom!

　　A spider-web-like crack appeared on the bottom of the transparent cup, and the jade shattered with the sound of the sound. In the middle of the emerald green jade fragments, a metal particle the size of a grain of rice was particularly dazzling.

　　That's the most popular thing in the past two years, □□.

　　"This is your meeting gift."

　　He pressed the bug with his slender fingers, pushed it along the floor tiles on the shore to Lan Su, and mercifully told her the truth.

　　His eyes fell on Lan Su's profile again. He wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat and stopped abruptly

She saw an expression in Lan Su's eyes, the same expression she had seen in Vietnam that year, the howl from the abyss, as sharp as wolf's fangs, an expression that wanted to tear the enemy into pieces.

　　In a moment, Huo Yan felt that Lan Su did have similarities with that man.