To Sweep Across Like Wildfire - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The sound of splashing water drifted from the bathroom.

Soon, the water stopped, followed by a faint rustling. With a soft click, the bathroom door was pushed open by a slender arm.

Shen Qingruo was drying her hair with a towel. Her smooth, long hair draped down like silk, with a few damp strands resting on her snowy shoulders. Her loose bath towel slipped down slightly, revealing a patch of translucent, supple skin.

Seemingly oblivious, she continued drying her hair and said, “Your turn. Go take a shower.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, a gust of wind swept past her. A blur of a figure dashed into the bathroom without a word. Shen Qingruo let out a soft chuckle. “No need to rush. We can take our time.”

“…” The person inside the bathroom offered no reply to her teasing.

A moment later, the “click” of the bathroom door being double-locked echoed out.

The moment Meng Chi entered, she was hit by a strong fragrance. Beyond the scent of the body wash, there was a lingering, haunting aroma—the scent that belonged to Shen Qingruo. Her senses were instantly magnified several times over, and her heart couldn’t help but accelerate.

Starting from middle school, Meng Chi had lived in a dormitory with private, spacious bathrooms. Back then, middle schoolers were often like Siamese twins; when they were on good terms, they’d stick together, even playing around in the bathroom while showering.

During the high-pressure periods of middle school, Meng Chi would shower with her roommates to save time. But because of her rigorous personality, her roommates rarely played with her. She herself would remain silent, mentally reciting English vocabulary, mathematical theorems, or physics formulas. She had no other feelings about it; she only thought about utilizing every fragment of time to study.

But now, just standing here made her heart beat uncontrollably.

As Meng Chi reflexively locked the door, a leisurely female voice drifted from outside: “There’s no need to be quite that guarded against me, is there?”

Meng Chi snapped back to reality. She withdrew her hand from the handle and didn’t respond. She quickly scanned her surroundings and soon noticed a small glass bottle tucked in the corner of the vanity shelf.

As she showered, Meng Chi still felt a sense of unreality. Two hours ago, having just been cheated on by her boyfriend, she had pushed open the door to a bar. Moments later, she had found a woman with a beautiful voice. Who could have imagined that two hours later, she would be staying in a hotel room with that very woman?

She looked up, her gaze drifting until it settled on the steamy mirror. She could only see a vague outline of herself. Even if she could see clearly, her face would likely be a mask of bewilderment.

A thought suddenly occurred to Meng Chi, and she nervously bit her lip.

How… do women do it?

Regarding this, she was, quite literally, completely ignorant.

Meng Chi didn’t know how long she stayed in the bathroom, but realizing she couldn’t stall forever, she squeezed her eyes shut, then decisively opened them and turned off the shower.

Before leaving, she hesitated again before picking up the small perfume bottle. It didn’t bear the hotel’s logo; clearly, it didn’t belong to the establishment. In fact, she had noticed it the moment she walked in. She knew it likely belonged to the woman outside—the source of that persistent, elegant scent.

Meng Chi gently uncapped it, carefully dabbed some on her wrist, and lifted her hand to sniff it.

It was indeed that woman’s perfume, but… why did it feel like a different scent when it was on her own skin?

…

Twenty minutes earlier, after blow-drying her hair, Shen Qingruo picked up her wine glass and sat on the edge of the bed. She pulled her phone from her bag, worked on some spreadsheets for a while, and then messaged her friend Xie Zhen: “Having fun?”

Xie Zhen replied almost instantly: “Don’t ask what you already know. Everyone scattered as soon as you left. Didn’t you see? When they heard you were leaving with a ‘little kid,’ they all tried to beg you to stay for two more rounds. I’m never inviting these people again. A perfectly good party turned into a blind-dating mixer; their eyes were glued to you.”

Shen Qingruo didn’t reply.

Xie Zhen was used to this side of her friend and didn’t feel ignored. She asked: “How do you still have time to text? Did the little kid dump you?”

Shen Qingruo leaned against the headboard, her long legs crossed casually. She pressed the voice message button: “Zhen-er, why are you always prying? Are you sleeping alone tonight? After hearing this, will you even be able to sleep? Won’t you feel lonely and miserable?”

Xie Zhen: “…Talk like a human, thanks.”

Shen Qingruo: “She’s still in the shower.”

Xie Zhen: “.”

Xie Zhen: “Bah.”

Xie Zhen: “I suggest you use the time she’s in the shower to look up some technical guides online. You act like an ‘old driver’ all day, but you’re actually a broken bicycle with zero years of experience. Don’t let her find out you actually don’t know anything. Of course, there’s an easier solution: take the ‘No. 11 bus’ (your legs) and run away.”

Shen Qingruo: “.”

Shen Qingruo: “She’s pressed. She’s definitely pressed.”

Xie Zhen: “Get lost.”

…

After a long time, Meng Chi pushed open the door and walked out with trepidation. She never expected to see the scene before her—the woman was lying on her side in bed, her back to her. The blanket draped over her waist rose and fell slightly with her breathing.

She had fallen asleep.

Meng Chi let out a sigh of relief. It felt like being called on by a teacher in class to answer a question she didn’t know, only to have the bell ring for recess. The teacher didn’t keep them late; they just dismissed the class.

While Meng Chi felt relieved, a trace of disappointment surged in her heart. She interpreted it as a reaction to having been tense for too long.

She lingered by the bed for a while before quietly climbing in, lying down at a distance from the woman.

There was no movement beside her. Her stiff limbs gradually relaxed. This was the first time she had ever slept with a stranger. For as long as she could remember, she rarely shared a bed with anyone; she was almost unable to adapt to another person lying next to her.

Her mind was full of cluttered thoughts. Even though it was past her usual bedtime, she wasn’t sleepy at all.

She thought about her own “strange” habits. Aside from not liking to sleep with others, there was also…

Even when she was in a relationship with Song Yuanzhe—and he was a rare, clean-cut guy—she still didn’t like physical contact. They had dated for months without even holding hands, and had only seen a movie once. In those months, the most they did was eat in the cafeteria and study in the library. That was it.

Lying beside Shen Qingruo, Meng Chi didn’t even realize how quickly her body had relaxed. Drowsiness took over, and it wasn’t long before she drifted off.

She slept more deeply than usual, unaware when the person beside her got up to use the bathroom. It was only when the woman returned that Meng Chi stirred awake, hearing a low chuckle: “How can you sleep so soundly?”

The room was pitch black. Meng Chi rubbed her groggy eyes.

“Did I wake you?” the woman whispered.

Meng Chi’s body temperature was naturally low; even in this season, she didn’t usually need the air conditioning. Now, with the AC running, she felt a bit cold. She instinctively moved closer to Shen Qingruo, letting out a soft “Mmm.”

Shen Qingruo hadn’t expected Meng Chi to lean in. Although she frequented the nightlife scene, she wasn’t actually intimate with strangers. As that breath brushed against her and their skin met, her first instinct was actually to push her away—she almost forgot how to react.

Her hand pressed against Meng Chi’s shoulder, but just as she was about to push, the girl whispered: “Cold…”

Shen Qingruo liked the AC at the lowest setting. When she was younger, she’d even have a fan blowing directly at her. Xie Zhen had stayed over once and was so frozen she couldn’t sleep; she ended up going to a nearby hotel in the middle of the night. To this day, Xie Zhen still tells her: “If you don’t raise the temperature in your ‘morgue’ of a house, you’re going to get arthritis.”

Shen Qingruo’s own body temperature wasn’t high—lower than a normal person’s, even—but she just loved the cold.

She glanced at the “20°C” displayed on the AC unit. With a sigh, she bumped it up to “21°C,” making a significant concession. She said, “You’re so young, how can you be so afraid of the cold?”

Dazed, Meng Chi wrapped herself tighter in the blanket and pressed firmly against Shen Qingruo, whispering, “Can you turn the air conditioner off?”

“It’ll be so hot.”

“Oh.” The “good girl” stopped talking, shifted her body, and buried her head directly into Shen Qingruo’s embrace.

Shen Qingruo felt uncomfortable being burrowed into by the “little kid,” so she turned off the AC. At the same time, she pressed a finger against Meng Chi’s forehead. “AC is off. Stop using me for warmth.”

Meng Chi remained motionless.

They were pressed so close together—a first for both of them—and the atmosphere began to turn scorching.

Shen Qingruo whispered, “If you keep pressing against me, don’t blame me if I do something.”

A moment later, Meng Chi spoke: “What are you going to do?”

The drowsiness had vanished from her voice. It was impossible to tell when she had woken up, or whether her clinging to Shen Qingruo was done in a daze or intentionally. Regardless, she remained pressed against her, showing no intention of pulling away.

This was enough to show that she, too, was anticipating the unknown.

Meng Chi’s appearance was deceptive. She looked cold and unapproachable, but Shen Qingruo was beginning to discover that beneath that icy exterior was the same reckless, “newborn calf” energy of any other young person—it was just hidden by her elegant facade.

Shen Qingruo took Meng Chi’s hand, holding it in her own and playing with it. She said slowly, “If you feel uncomfortable at any point, you must tell me. I will stop. You can refuse anything I do to you.”

“I…” Meng Chi said uncertainly, “I already feel a bit uncomfortable.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Your voice keeps circling in my ear, making my head feel dizzy. And the moment you touch me, my body feels hot… I can’t catch my breath…”

Shen Qingruo paused for a moment, then let out a soft laugh. “Do all you young people know how to say sweet things like that?”

She could hear the sincerity in Meng Chi’s words. She said, “If you feel disgusted or want to push me away, that’s a sign of dislike.”

She held Meng Chi’s hand loosely, ensuring she could break away at any time. Sensing no sign of struggle, she guided the girl’s hand downward.

The moment Meng Chi’s fingertips touched that warmth, her hand went numb, as if an electric current had shot straight to her heart.

The voice beside her was soft and light: “Do you feel any rejection in your heart?”

Meng Chi’s heart hammered so loudly she couldn’t hear anything else. She could only hear herself giving a denial.

The woman lowered her head. Her warm lips brushed across Meng Chi’s cheek and pressed against her own.

Not long after, the woman reached for a small box on the nightstand. As she slipped the thin latex material onto Meng Chi’s finger, she murmured vaguely: “We’ll just have to make do with this.”