Chapter 19: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (19)
The expression on Yu Xinyu’s face froze.
He had originally intended to complain about Lou Baichuan to Cen Yu so he would be on his guard, but he hadn’t expected the man to react this way.
Yet, hearing Cen Yu say “I don’t like him either” immediately brought a touch of relief to his mind. The gentle smile Cen Yu was so familiar with returned to his face as he said, “I was just worried he might deliberately exclude you…”
It’s fine, I’m going to fake my death eventually anyway.
Cen Yu glanced at Yu Xinyu’s smiling face and pondered over the plot again—
Right now, Lou Baichuan had already met Yu Xinyu and discovered that under this scumbag’s manipulation, the strong little white lotus hand-washed clothes every day, not even daring to turn on the washing machine. On top of that, the heinous scumbag constantly gave him the cold shoulder, relentlessly dampening the little white lotus’s spirits.
As for Gao Lanyuan…
Cen Yu thought it over, feeling that Gao Lanyuan’s attitude was extremely ambiguous.
Did this guy have amnesia, failing to recognize his own senior altogether, or was his acting so good that he hadn’t let it slip?
Why did it feel like he wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he met Yu Xinyu?
Cen Yu decided to probe him tomorrow to gauge his attitude toward Yu Xinyu.
Having figured this out, Cen Yu turned to Yu Xinyu with impatience. “Don’t block my way. I’m going to sleep. If you’re not tired, wash my clothes before you go to bed.”
Yu Xinyu’s gaze lingering for a moment on Cen Yu’s damp hair—
“Little Yu, let me blow-dry your hair for you.”
He looked at Cen Yu with concern. “It’s bad for your health to leave it like this after drinking.”
Cen Yu hesitated for a moment.
“The newly bought hair dryer is in my room,” Yu Xinyu said to Cen Yu gently. “It’ll dry in no time if I blow-dry it for you. Want to come to my room?”
…In the original novel, Cen Yu had never stepped foot inside Yu Xinyu’s room.
His feelings toward Yu Xinyu were very complex.
And in the original book, Yu Xinyu almost never invited Cen Yu into his room either.
Cen Yu was actually quite curious. Was Yu Xinyu really such a romantic fool that even when the scumbag treated him with such harsh, cold words and made things difficult everywhere, he could still pour his heart out to him without ever turning back?
So, after hesitating for merely a couple of seconds, he slowly nodded.
The expression on Yu Xinyu’s face grew even gentler.
Taking Cen Yu by the hand, he slowly led him toward his bedroom—
“Good boy,” he murmured softly under his breath.
“You can try on the new bathrobe I bought, too.”
The moment Cen Yu entered Yu Xinyu’s room, his first impression was—
A dull, gray space.
Quite unlike Yu Xinyu’s gentle exterior and his habit of usually wearing light-colored clothes, the soft furnishings in Yu Xinyu’s room were almost entirely cool-toned: a cement-gray four-piece bedding set and a wardrobe taking up an entire wall… Cen Yu watched as Yu Xinyu opened the closet closest to him and pulled out a black silk bathrobe.
The material was soft and looked very fitted.
Reaching down to his calves, it practically spared him from wearing lounge pants underneath.
Yu Xinyu handed the bathrobe to Cen Yu. “I read online that wearing silk bathrobes like this helps you sleep better.”
He looked at Cen Yu expectantly. “Want to try it on?”
Cen Yu accepted it. The silk bathrobe felt exceptionally soft to the touch, and holding it in his hand, it felt almost weightless. A single touch was enough to tell that it would be extremely comfortable and smooth against the skin.
His towel was still draped over his shoulder. Seeing this, he was just about to set it aside when Yu Xinyu immediately took it from him.
“I’ll hold it for you.”
“…” Cen Yu cleared his throat, feeling a bit unaccustomed to the gesture.
He originally intended to slip it straight on, but perhaps because Yu Xinyu was genuinely looking forward to seeing him in this new bathrobe—staring at him without even blinking—it created an inexplicable sense of pressure.
He wanted to turn his back, but felt that would look too deliberate… Just then, his eyes caught sight of the full-length mirror in Yu Xinyu’s bedroom.
He walked over at once, feeling like he had just been thrown a lifeline.
He looked at his reflection in the full-length mirror.
The waistband of his gray sweatpants happened to cover a section of his snake bone tattoo. Broad shoulders and a narrow waist—his wide, flat shoulders tapered down along his back muscles until reaching his waist, which was covered by the tattoo. Perhaps because his shoulders were wide and flat enough, Cen Yu’s waist appeared strikingly thin.
It made one itch to measure it with both hands.
Once his black hair was wet, it clung to his neck. The stark contrast of black and white gave the cold, indifferent Cen Yu a touch of world-weariness.
After draping the bathrobe over himself, he immediately pulled the sash around his waist tight—
“Not like that.”
Yu Xinyu’s voice suddenly broke the silence.
Looking up, Cen Yu realized that Yu Xinyu had walked up behind him at some point.
The man’s room was covered with a thick, soft carpet that absorbed sound exceptionally well. Coupled with Yu Xinyu’s naturally light footsteps, he barely made a sound when he walked.
Like a ghost, he had appeared behind Cen Yu out of nowhere.
Reaching forward, he caught the loose knot Cen Yu had tied at the front of the bathrobe. With a flick of his finger, he unraveled the flimsy sash. Then, looking at Cen Yu in the mirror, he retied the belt around the bathrobe for him—
“It looks better this way.” Yu Xinyu’s gaze was fixed on Cen Yu in the mirror.
His hands almost encircled Cen Yu’s waist, yet without touching him, merely tying the sash properly around his waist once more. Then, he withdrew his hands and stood behind Cen Yu.
He was taller than Cen Yu to begin with.
When he deliberately refrained from putting on that submissive, “bird leaning against a man” facade, one could notice even more clearly that he was actually taller and larger than Cen Yu.
Perhaps owing to his mixed heritage, his frame was larger. Standing behind Cen Yu, he inexplicably gave off a silent sense of pressure.
Cen Yu looked at the neat knot Yu Xinyu had tied, then at the man’s smiling face in the mirror—
“It suits you so well, Little Yu.”
Yu Xinyu looked at Cen Yu standing in front of him in the mirror.
Water was still dripping from his black hair, soon causing droplets to land on the lapel of the bathrobe—Yu Xinyu reached out and wiped away the water droplets on Cen Yu’s collar. “Shall I blow-dry your hair first?” he asked Cen Yu gently.
His eyes wandered around his bedroom for a moment. “I don’t have chairs here.”
“It’ll be easier if you sit on my bed.”
Cen Yu took a glance at his clean, neatly made bed and didn’t hesitate. Just as he was about to plop down on the edge of the mattress, Yu Xinyu grabbed his arm.
“?” Something up?
Cen Yu shot him a look.
“I just changed the bedsheets.” Yu Xinyu wore a somewhat conflicted expression as he glanced at the gray lounge pants beneath Cen Yu’s bathrobe. “Could you change out of those pants?”
Cen Yu looked down at his pants.
He usually wore these pants while sitting in the living room watching TV or eating in the dining area, so they really weren’t suitable for sitting on bedsheets someone had just freshly changed.
Besides, he was wearing a bathrobe right now anyway. Seeing this, Cen Yu didn’t dwell on it. He tossed his lounge pants straight onto the carpet, stood there in his bathrobe, and said to Yu Xinyu—
“Happy now?”
