"I..."
Chen Yansen was stunned by her outburst.
He looked her up and down and saw her shirt and pants were splattered with muddy water. Recalling the puddle he had just driven through, he instantly understood what had happened.
"Do you want me to wash them for you, or should I just pay you?"
Chen Yansen didn't try to argue, his tone direct.
"I... I don't know. What do you think?"
Song Yuncheng's imposing demeanor faltered, and her tone softened. She hadn't expected Chen Yansen, who'd had such a terrible attitude just moments ago, to admit his mistake so readily and act as if he were at her mercy.
Her grip on the brick loosened, and it fell to the ground with a CLANG.
"Okay, how about this? Option one: you take off your dirty clothes, give them to me, and I'll wash them and return them to you. Option two: I'll compensate you three hundred yuan. Pick one."
Chen Yansen said, looking her straight in the eye.
Her outfit was simple—a white T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of canvas shoes. Based on his judgment, the whole getup was worth two hundred yuan at most; the extra hundred could be considered a cleaning fee.
'It was my fault, anyway. No need to bully her,' he thought. 'Besides, she's actually pretty cute.'
Her features were delicate on a classic oval face. Her long eyelashes glistened with mist, her nose was elegantly sloped, and her lips were a rosy red. The top half of her shirt was soaked through, revealing the faint outline of an impressive curve—at least a C-cup, he figured.
"I don't want the money."
Song Yuncheng shook her head, rejecting the second option.
Seeing Chen Yansen's reasonable attitude, most of her anger subsided. Her clothes were cheap items she had picked up at a wholesale market, worth less than a hundred yuan all together. She naturally couldn't accept three hundred yuan in compensation from him.
"There's a hotel up ahead. I'll get you a room so you can change out of those wet clothes,"
Chen Yansen said after a moment's thought, pointing to a hotel in the distance.
"N-No, that's okay."
Song Yuncheng waved her hands frantically. She didn't want to go to a hotel with two strange men.
"What, you'd rather strip right here and give them to me?"
Chen Yansen sighed helplessly and teased her with a smile before adding, "Don't worry, we're both students at Xucheng Academy."
"Oh, all right then."
Hearing this, many of Song Yuncheng's worries instantly vanished. After a moment's hesitation, she had no choice but to nod in agreement.
The hotel was only forty or fifty meters away. Chen Yansen started the car again and pulled up to the entrance.
Hearing the commotion, the receptionist looked up and saw two men and one woman walk in.
"Give me three of your most expensive rooms."
Chen Yansen said to the manager, pulling out his wallet with a flourish.
He had always lived by the principle that money was meant to be spent and you should never shortchange yourself. The fact that he was renting a luxury car was a perfect example.
As for why he didn't just buy a car? That should be obvious!
'His entire net worth was less than two hundred thousand yuan. Could he really show his face driving a car he could afford with that kind of money?'
"Uh... we only have one room left today. It's the start of the semester, so we have a lot of new students and their parents staying,"
the manager explained patiently, a little taken aback.
"There's another hotel up ahead,"
Song Yuncheng reminded them in a small voice, standing behind the two with her head lowered.
"Oh, that one? You definitely wouldn't be comfortable there."
The manager glanced at the Mercedes E300 parked out front, then smiled confidently.
'There was indeed another hotel up ahead,' he thought, 'but its decor was five or six years old, and the rooms were shabby, small, and dirty. Poor students might tolerate it, but he was sure these three, arriving in a Mercedes, would turn right back around and return.'
"Is the one you have left a single or a double?"
Chen Yansen understood the implication. 'Just my luck,' he cursed inwardly, then asked.
"It's a double. But, I have to be clear upfront: the maximum occupancy for this room is two people."
The manager said, narrowing his eyes, his tone surprisingly stern.
"I... I'm not staying."
Song Yuncheng quickly tried to explain. She couldn't very well say she was just going up to change her clothes; although it was the truth, it was bound to be misunderstood.
"I'll need an ID, a two-hundred-yuan deposit, and any visitors will have to be registered as well."
Seeing they had made their decision, the manager began the check-in process for all three of them.
「Three minutes later.」
The trio—two men and one woman—headed up the stairs in single file.
As Song Yuncheng watched the two men's backs, she couldn't help but feel a growing sense of unease. 'He claimed they were students at Xucheng Academy, but I haven't even seen their student IDs,' she thought suddenly.
'Besides, what kind of college student can afford a Mercedes?'
In that instant, she had the urge to turn around and run!
'It feels like if I take one more step, I'll fall into a bottomless abyss!'
"Hey! What are you spacing out for? Oh, is your suitcase too heavy?"
Chen Yansen turned around and saw her standing rooted to the spot in a daze. He grabbed her suitcase and continued up the stairs. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
"Give me back my suitcase!"
A look of panic crossed Song Yuncheng's face. Gritting her teeth, she chased after him angrily.
"This suitcase isn't even heavy. All right, all right, here you go."
Seeing her look so distraught and on the verge of tears, Chen Yansen's heart softened. He spoke gently.
Song Yuncheng snatched her suitcase back and stared intently at Chen Yansen, a hint of curiosity mingling with the fear in her eyes.
"Take a good look. Do I look like a bad guy? What cop show has a villain as handsome as me?"
Chen Yansen gave a helpless laugh, then leaned his face in closer, determined to let her get a good look.
Song Yuncheng blinked, her gaze fixed on Chen Yansen.
He had a tall, straight posture and seemed even taller than the tallest boy in her class. He had neat, short hair, sharp, blade-like eyebrows, and a pair of bright, attractive eyes. A playful, roguish smile hung on the corner of his lips.
'He was handsome, just like he said, but he didn't exactly look like an upstanding citizen either,' she thought.
"You... you don't look like a bad guy."
Song Yuncheng stammered, lying through her teeth.
"Hah!"
Chen Yansen saw right through her insincerity. He scoffed, turned his head, and walked toward the room, ignoring her.
Song Yuncheng hesitated for a dozen seconds before finally following him.
BEEP BEEP BEEP—
Chen Yansen opened the door with the key card. A translucent, frosted glass panel immediately came into view—clearly the bathroom door.
"Here's the key. Get changed and come out. We'll be waiting for you by the door."
Chen Yansen pushed the key card into her hand and gestured for Wang Zihao to head out with him.
Before Song Yuncheng could even react, the two of them had closed the door and left.
Song Yuncheng's head was spinning. Too much had happened in the past ten-odd minutes for her to process.
'That guy with the devil-may-care smile... he's probably not a bad person.'
Song Yuncheng gave a small smile, then laid her suitcase down, took out a clean set of clothes, and walked into the bathroom.
Her damp clothes clung uncomfortably to her skin, making them especially difficult to peel off. As the layers of clothing came away, they revealed fair, rosy skin.
Song Yuncheng spared a quick glance at herself in the mirror before lowering her head and slipping into the bathroom.
Standing by the door, Chen Yansen leaned against the wall, his fingers tapping away on his phone. TAP. TAP. TAP.
"Brother Sen, that girl is pretty cute. Probably an upperclassman at our school,"
Wang Zihao, who had been bursting to say something, nudged Chen Yansen's arm and said with a grin.
"Mm, maybe."
Chen Yansen sent a text back to Meng Jie, then put down his phone and said to Wang Zihao, "Our school's location might be a little lackluster, but it makes up for it with the quality of the girls. We've got the 'well-developed' ones and the 'petite' ones. Just depends on your type."
"Brother Sen, you know me. I've always liked them big,"
the outwardly reserved Wang Zihao replied with a bashful, lecherous grin.