Yao Meng was just as warm as she’d been during their first meeting.
After greeting Chu Luyu, she held onto her arm without letting go.
“The case came up suddenly today. Normally, there wouldn’t be such a rush to get Xiao Jiang over here, but the colleagues at the precinct said the scene was pretty tricky, so the higher-ups told us to call him in.”
With that, Yao Meng gave Chu Luyu a knowing smile. “But what’s going on with you two today? I’ve never seen Xiao Jiang so clingy before—he brings you along on a case and leaves you in our care. Is he afraid someone’s going to steal you away?”
Chu Luyu felt a bit embarrassed. She also thought the male lead’s behavior was strange, but she couldn’t very well say that outright.
“I was giving a trial class to a kid at my art class today, and I accidentally cut my finger with a paper cutter. I guess he was worried I wouldn’t behave myself at home, so he thought he’d bring me here instead…”
Even as she said it, Chu Luyu felt a bit guilty.
It was just a cut on her finger—why couldn’t she stay home alone!
But aside from that, she really couldn’t think of any other reason!
Fortunately, Yao Meng didn’t tease her further. Instead, upon hearing about the art class, she seemed to remember something and quickly followed up: “Your art class is near Mingguang Middle School, right? Xiao Jiang came to the bureau earlier and handed out flyers for your class—said if any of us had kids in the family who needed painting lessons, we could go find you. I heard a lot of colleagues chatting privately, saying they’re pretty interested. They’re planning to bring their kids for a trial session once you start.”
Chu Luyu was a bit surprised.
She hadn’t expected Jiang Hezhou—who was always so quiet and seemed to show little interest in what she was doing—to have been quietly looking out for her behind the scenes.
Whether Jiang Hezhou had arranged it beforehand or not, Yao Meng didn’t take Chu Luyu to the cafeteria today. Instead, she took her straight to his dormitory.
“Xiao Jiang already told me earlier—I’m supposed to bring your meal back here and try not to have you wandering around.”
For outsiders coming to the bureau, even with registration paperwork done, it was always better to stay put.
Chu Luyu understood this and naturally had no objections.
Jiang Hezhou’s dormitory followed the bureau’s standard specifications—a single room of less than ten square meters, furnished with a single bed and a desk and chair.
There wasn’t much in the room: a neatly folded quilt, a white bedsheet spread without a single crease, a few forensic medicine textbooks and a stack of documents on the desk, and a boxed meal set right in the center.
“Alright, now that I’ve got you settled, I need to head off to work too. I’ve been having back problems lately, so the team doesn’t have the heart to send me out to the scene. But I still need to stay on standby here in case they need coordination on their end. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to my office.”
“Of course, of course! Sister Yao, go ahead and get back to work!”
After Yao Meng left, Chu Luyu stayed behind in Jiang Hezhou’s dormitory. The room was so small that it was inconvenient to do much of anything, so after eating, she just lay on the bed and chatted idly with the system.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, the male lead is probably doing forensic analysis at the scene by now, right? Is this homicide case recorded in the original plot?]
System Cuihua: [Of course it is. And actually, this seems to be where it all starts—the male lead gradually falls into an irreversible shadow in his life. Then, after being severely triggered by his fiancée, he suffers a major blow, completely shuts himself off, and refuses to leave his house. It isn’t until the main plot begins that the female lead shows up at his place to apply as a housekeeper…]
Chu Luyu was startled: [What irreversible shadow? Besides me being a source of trauma, does he have other tragic plot points arranged for him?]
System Cuihua: [Did you not pay attention when you watched the main plot, or what? His gynophobia stemmed from his ex-fiancée—you. But during that period, the reasons that sent him into the abyss weren’t just you alone.]
Chu Luyu had watched the main plot, but she hadn’t been very patient back then. She’d watched almost the entire thing at double speed, and she’d skipped over plenty of scenes that weren’t related to the romance arc.
Now, after hearing what the system said, Chu Luyu sat straight up.
Chu Luyu: [Tell me what happened! I didn’t pay close attention to anything not related to the romance.]
System Cuihua: [It basically starts with this case. A series of serial killings keeps happening afterward. Then, later on, the male lead makes a wrong judgment based on a clue from one of the cases, leading the team to arrest a suspect who seemed plausible. Although that person was never officially convicted, he couldn’t handle the pressure while in custody and committed suicide. Because of this, the male lead is temporarily suspended. Soon after, the original owner delivers another blow, and under that double hit, the male lead starts shutting himself away.]
Chu Luyu was taken aback, her mouth slightly open: [But the male lead is so brilliant—how could he make such a wrong judgment? Arresting the wrong person is no small mistake. That’s… no, wait—this can’t be another plot arrangement for him, can it?!]
System Cuihua: [Exactly. What else could it be? He has to be thoroughly immersed in darkness so that when the female lead shows up, she can heal him like a little ray of sunshine.]
Chu Luyu: [But that’s so cruel… The male lead is clearly serious and meticulous about his work. Under normal circumstances, there’s absolutely no way he’d make such a huge mistake.]
System Cuihua: [That’s the power of the plot. Especially in short-drama worlds—dramatic conflict is way more important than logic. It’s normal.]
Normal? How was that normal? A perfectly good person, because of some so-called plot setting, gets broken down first and then pieced back together… Was that still the same person?
Chu Luyu’s mood suddenly turned heavy.
She waited until around ten at night, but there was still no word from Jiang Hezhou. She decided not to wait any longer and sent him a message saying she was going to sleep first.
Later, she had no idea how much time had passed—she was sleeping groggily when she suddenly heard the system screaming wildly in her head.
System Cuihua: [Wake up! Don’t sleep through it! Wake up! The mission is here!! The mission is here!!]
Chu Luyu woke up in a daze, her mind blank for a moment. As she gradually came to her senses, she realized that someone was lying behind her.
His arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, their bodies pressed close together. She could feel the warmth radiating from his body against her back, and that familiar, intense masculine scent completely enveloped her in the darkness.
It was Jiang Hezhou.
Realizing this, Chu Luyu’s body began to tense up belatedly.
This was the first time they’d slept in the same bed, and so close together. Although several previous tasks had brought them into intimate contact, this was the first time they’d lain together so peacefully and intimately.
Chu Luyu stayed still for a moment, then asked the system: [Cuihua, when did the male lead get back?]
System Cuihua: [How should I know? I was in sleep mode while you were asleep. I just got woken up by the mission alert.]
No sooner had Cuihua finished speaking than a mission notification sounded in Chu Luyu’s mind—
[Ding! New mission! Kiss the male lead for 30 seconds, trace the outline of his lips with the tip of your tongue, and say the key line: “Brother Hezhou, your lips taste so good~”]
Chu Luyu: […] When the writers wrote the main plot, it was all heartwarming and refreshing—so why is it that every villainess mission has to be so cringey?!
System Cuihua: [Because that’s her character setting! Hurry up, while the male lead is asleep—just get the mission done quietly!]
Chu Luyu struggled internally for a moment in the darkness, then gritted her teeth and turned around.
Jiang Hezhou hadn’t woken up. The hazy night outside cast a faint glow on his face through the window.
He looked exhausted—even in his sleep, his brow was slightly furrowed, his expression far from relaxed.
Chu Luyu instinctively raised her hand to smooth the crease between his brows, but halfway there, she was afraid he’d wake up, so she sheepishly pulled her hand back.
The system was still urging her: [What are you doing?! Get started already! If you dawdle any longer, the male lead’s going to wake up!]
Chu Luyu: [I’m building up to it. Stop rushing me…]
Chu Luyu really couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d never done anything like this before—stealing a kiss while someone was asleep, and having to say such suggestive lines…
For her, the challenge was almost as bad as that time she’d had to apply body lotion all over.
After hesitating and agonizing for about two more minutes, Chu Luyu finally made up her mind. She quietly propped herself up and leaned closer to Jiang Hezhou.
Her movements were tiny—barely perceptible. She was so afraid of waking him that she even held her breath as she leaned in.
The man’s lips were indistinct in the darkness, only a vague outline visible. Chu Luyu inched closer bit by bit, and when there was less than half a centimeter left, she paused.
At this moment, they were incredibly close. She could clearly feel the warm breath from his nose.
Chu Luyu gritted her teeth in the dark, steeled herself, and finally pressed her lips to his—
His lips were as beautiful as they always appeared in the daytime—thin and refined, with a lovely color.
Now, as Chu Luyu pressed against them, she immediately felt a cool, soft texture. She didn’t dare think too much—her mind was entirely on the mission requirements. In less than half a second, she reached toward the corner of his mouth.
The mission required her to trace the outline of the male lead’s lips with the tip of her tongue, so starting from one corner of his mouth and moving to the other should be right…
She started from the very bottom of the “M” curve, moving slowly upward along one side until she reached the first peak, then dipped down slightly, paused briefly at the cupid’s bow, and continued upward again.
The process wasn’t actually that slow, but to Chu Luyu, it felt agonizingly long.
After finishing the upper half, she was struggling to hold her breath and wanted to straighten up for a quick gasp of air.
But the moment she lifted her head, she met a pair of deep, dark eyes.
She had no idea how long he’d been awake.
At this moment, moonlight filtered through the half-covered window behind him, casting shadows across his features in varying depths. His lips happened to fall in an area not obscured by shadow—and now, his upper lip glistened with a wet sheen, carrying an unexpected hint of allure that seemed out of place on him.
Chu Luyu was so startled that her heart raced. She opened her mouth instinctively, but before she could utter a single excuse, the mission countdown sounded in her mind again.
[Mission countdown begins: 10, 9, 8…]
Chu Luyu was desperate.
She looked at Jiang Hezhou anxiously, no longer caring about how she’d deal with the aftermath. With a pitiful, aggrieved tone, she said: “Jiang Hezhou, can you close your eyes for a moment? I… I’m not done tracing yet.”
Time seemed to freeze for two seconds. The man seemed to hear her words—or perhaps he didn’t—but he stared straight at her for a long moment. Finally, with 5 seconds left on the countdown, he quietly closed his eyes.
Chu Luyu threw caution to the wind and lunged forward again.
This time, her movements were much faster. Her tongue swept haphazardly across, completing the lower half of the lip line mission.
Now there was only the key line left…
The countdown in her ear continued—4, 3, 2…
She gritted her teeth once more and leaned in close to Jiang Hezhou’s ear—
“Brother Hezhou, your lips taste so good.”
That soft, barely-audible voice sounded by Jiang Hezhou’s ear. As the girl moved, a gentle breeze carried her familiar orange-sweet scent toward him.
Actually, Jiang Hezhou had woken up the moment the little girl turned over.
He was highly alert—even the slightest sound beside him while sleeping would wake him. At first, he hadn’t paid much attention, assuming she was just shifting in her sleep. But then he realized that wasn’t the case.
She was slowly leaning toward him in the dim night, her little head inching closer, her eyes slightly lowered, her lashes casting two small shadows beneath her eyelids.
In that instant, Jiang Hezhou almost immediately guessed what she was about to do. So he closed his eyes again, even deliberately adjusting his breathing to match his usual steady, calm rhythm, afraid of startling her.
No one knew how much he craved her intimacy and closeness.
So when their lips pressed together, his arm resting on the bed trembled involuntarily.
The little girl was very careful, as if afraid of waking him. He could feel the tip of her tongue tracing the outline of his lips meticulously, as if she didn’t want to miss a single spot.
Every inch of him was being tormented into tension. That familiar, tight, burning sensation in a certain place below was coming over him again.
And then, she suddenly stopped.
Jiang Hezhou didn’t know what she was planning. He didn’t know if she was about to give up. He couldn’t hold back even half a second before opening his eyes again.
This time, their gazes met—she finally knew he was awake.
He’d expected her to be shy, at a loss for what to do. But instead, she said something absolutely earth-shattering. Later, when she leaned close to his ear, the words she whispered were just as bold.
Jiang Hezhou took a deep breath—
The person beside him had already fully retreated under the covers, just like every time before—stirring up trouble and running away without a care for the consequences.
Jiang Hezhou glanced down at himself with a resigned look. Fortunately, perhaps because he’d just woken up, today’s reaction wasn’t as intense as usual.
He was about to turn over and pull her back into his arms, to chat with her and ease the awkwardness of her having stolen a kiss.
Just then, the person under the covers stirred. A moment later, a small hand slowly made its way to his waist, traced along his waistline, and slid downward.
In an instant, a flash of white light shot through Jiang Hezhou’s mind—
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