After Becoming Roommates with My Flirty Ex-Girlfriend - Chapter 44

Even an iron man couldn’t function properly on just three hours of sleep.

At seven in the morning, with the sky already bright, Zheng Yun’s alarm clock rang first.

Groping for her phone in a daze, she was so groggy she could barely think straight. She planned to call in sick.

But after fumbling around for a while, she realized this wasn’t her familiar bedside table. She couldn’t find her phone until a raspy voice broke through her fog. Zheng Yun finally realized she wasn’t in her own room.

“Can you turn that off?” Yu Xia mumbled, still half-asleep and unable to even open her eyes.

They’d both slept only two or three hours before, but today felt different. Yu Xia was unusually drowsy, a rare wave of fatigue washing over her. She didn’t want to go to work.

Zheng Yun finally remembered where she was, snapping awake by half. She hurriedly tried to roll over and grab her phone, but her wrist tugged as she moved. She glanced back and met Yu Xia’s sleepy gaze.

Their eyes simultaneously drifted downward, settling on their intertwined hands. In the morning light, their pale hands looked like those of jewelry models in an advertisement—specifically, a commercial for couple’s rings.

It was a pity that Yu Xia and Zheng Yun weren’t lovers.

They were resentful partners.

Zheng Yun woke up first. Instinctively, she tried to withdraw her hand, but after holding the same position all night, her fingers were stiff. She tugged forcefully, but it wouldn’t budge, only shifting slightly.

Like a kitten scratching at her heart, her fingers curled gently in Yu Xia’s palm.

Zheng Yun was now mostly awake. She pursed her lips, trying to make her expression seem less awkward, hoping Yu Xia wouldn’t notice anything amiss.

Yu Xia’s eyes were half-closed, clearly not fully awake. She turned over, pulling her arm with her, and her hand naturally moved away from where it had rested all night.

In her peripheral vision, Zheng Yun glimpsed Yu Xia’s back, stiff and straight as a solitary bamboo stalk, aloof and rejecting the world—and her.

Zheng Yun rubbed her temples and reached over to turn off the alarm. The earlier incident had completely banished her drowsiness, and she decided to get up and make breakfast.

“Xiaxia,” Zheng Yun asked softly, “what do you want to eat?”

“The bread from the bakery downstairs,” Yu Xia replied, her voice flat. “Go back to sleep. We have an early meeting today.”

Zheng Yun was torn between two choices: defying Yu Xia’s wishes by getting up to make breakfast and win her favor, or obeying her and staying in bed for a little longer. After a fierce internal struggle, she ultimately decided to lie back down.

Breakfast can wait until tomorrow, she reasoned. Opportunities to sleep with Yu Xia are rare.

No sooner had she settled back down than a new alarm blared.

Yu Xia, lying on her side, startled at the sudden noise, even momentarily mistaking it for Zheng Yun having failed to turn off the previous one.

Zheng Yun frantically silenced all five alarms in a row, apologizing, “I’m sorry, I have trouble waking up in the morning, so I set multiple alarms.”

Yu Xia didn’t reply, simply burrowing her head deeper under the covers.

Unable to see Yu Xia’s expression, Zheng Yun nervously lay back down, her heart pounding, all sleepiness vanished.

“We still have an hour to sleep,” Yu Xia finally emerged from under the covers, her tone tinged with resignation. “Go back to sleep.”

Hearing Yu Xia’s words, Zheng Yun felt as if the morning had started with a grand flourish, only to be abruptly derailed by a blob of shapeless slime that had suddenly sprung from the midst of the splendor and splattered onto her face.

It was a truly anticlimactic, disastrous ending.

Yu Xia woke up too.

The lingering warmth on her fingers, a warmth that didn’t belong to her, slowly retreated beneath the covers as she tried to let her own body temperature dispel the lingering heat.

But the sensation clung to her like adhesive tape, persisting even after several minutes.

Just like Zheng Yun herself—like a bee circling a fresh flower, unable to extract its nectar yet impossible to drive away.

For the final half-hour, the two drifted in and out of sleep. When Yu Xia’s phone alarm finally rang, there was movement outside the door as well.

In contrast to Zheng Yun and Yu Xia, the resentful lovers who had spent most of the night locked in fierce conflict, Chen Zhu and Qi Shu, the young couple basking in the glow of new love, had enjoyed a peaceful slumber and awakened to a bright morning.

“Aren’t they supposed to be at work today?” Chen Zhu yawned, her head still throbbing from the lingering effects of last night’s drinking. She rubbed her temples, trying to shake off the headache.

“We should get up soon,” Qi Shu replied. “I think I heard an alarm.”

Their conversation continued until Zheng Yun and Yu Xia emerged from their rooms one after the other.

Zheng Yun went to wash up, but Yu Xia, unwilling to share the same space with her, turned back to her room, intending to strip the sheets and change them.

Chen Zhu slipped into the room after Yu Xia.

“Hey,” Chen Zhu entered, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Why the sudden urgency to change the sheets?”

“I’m a bit of a neat freak,” Yu Xia replied without looking up.

“Oh—” Chen Zhu drawled, her tone dripping with meaning. “I thought something might have happened.”

Yu Xia’s hands froze mid-tug on the duvet cover. She suddenly remembered Zheng Yun’s trembling voice and feverish breath from the previous night.

“Keep your ridiculous imagination to yourself,” Yu Xia warned, her tone sharp.

“Don’t be like that, Xiaxia,” Chen Zhu leaned closer, her bright eyes full of curiosity. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she asked, “With such a stunning roommate, you really haven’t felt even a flicker of attraction?”

“I’d rather not answer pointless questions,” Yu Xia finally yanked the duvet cover free and tossed it to the floor before starting on the pillowcase.

“Xiaxia,” Chen Zhu raised an eyebrow, teasing, “The way you look at her definitely isn’t how you’d look at an ordinary roommate.”

Yu Xia finally paused her movements, turned to face Chen Zhu, and asked, each word deliberate, “Then tell me, how does the way I’m looking at you right now seem?”

Chen Zhu ducked her head and stuck out her tongue playfully. “Just a random question,” she said.

She retreated stealthily, moving backward like a cat, taking two steps to establish a safe distance before pressing further. “So… how did Zheng Yun’s lip get cut?”

Chen Zhu asked with a barely suppressed smile, “You’re not going to tell me you two snuck out at midnight to buy two pounds of pineapple, are you?”

Back in college, Chen Zhu had been a glutton. One afternoon, she devoured two whole pineapples in one sitting. By the time the pain kicked in, her lips were already covered in cuts.

During class that afternoon, her dormmates teased her, asking if she was in love. Chen Zhu was beyond tears. After class, she clung to Yu Xia, sobbing that her first kiss had been stolen by a pineapple.

Yu Xia was about to retort when Zheng Yun emerged from the bathroom, passing by the room and calling out softly, “I’m done. You can go wash up now.”

With Chen Zhu’s words still ringing in her ears, Yu Xia instinctively glanced at Zheng Yun’s lips.

Having slept poorly the night before, Zheng Yun’s eyes carried a faint weariness. Her freshly washed face glowed with a delicate dampness, her wet lashes accentuating the languidness in her gaze. Several cuts, ranging from shallow to deep, marred her rosy lips, the most severe one at the corner of her mouth still oozing bright red bl00d.

Yu Xia’s eyelid twitched a few times as she averted her gaze.

“Roommate,” Chen Zhu said sweetly, “what happened to your lip?”

As she spoke, Chen Zhu edged toward the door, darting behind Qi Shu when she saw her, her expression a mix of petty triumph and genuine fear.

“Was the food too salty last night?” Yu Xia asked, picking up the bedsheet from the floor and cutting off Zheng Yun’s hesitant reply.

“Huh?” Chen Zhu peeked out cautiously. “It wasn’t salty at all.”

“You seem bored,” Yu Xia said, walking away without looking back. “Drink some hot water to flush it out.”

She skirted past the trio and headed to the utility balcony behind the kitchen, tossing the bedsheet into the laundry basket.

The three in the hallway exchanged bewildered glances.

Qi Shu broke the silence first. “How did that happen?” Her tone was neutral, devoid of mockery.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Zheng Yun said, lowering her gaze. “I just started picking at my lip out of boredom.”

“How childlike of you,” Qi Shu remarked, her lips twitching slightly. It was impossible to tell if she believed the explanation. “You two should head to work. We’ll hang your laundry out to dry when we leave later.”

Zheng Yun murmured her thanks.

Holding the freshly removed bedsheets Qi Shu had just taken off, Yu Xia headed toward the utility balcony. She happened to come out just as Yu Xia was entering, and the two women passed each other at the doorway.

Yu Xia didn’t spare her a second glance, her gaze fixed straight ahead as she walked away.

Zheng Yun called out to her and repeated what Qi Shu had just said.

“Okay,” Yu Xia replied after listening, intending to turn back and start the washing machine.

“Can we wash them together?” Zheng Yun asked.

Yu Xia paused for a moment. “You go ahead. I’ll do mine when I get back from work.”

She stopped emptying the laundry basket, making room for Zheng Yun.

Zheng Yun was like the relentless humidity that seeps into every crevice during the southern China’s rainy season, invading the safe space Yu Xia had painstakingly built. The entire room felt damp, saturated with Zheng Yun’s scent.

It was just washing bedsheets together. If it were Chen Zhu, she would have silently agreed. But this was Zheng Yun.

Three years ago, they had shared a bed, used the same shampoo and body wash, their scents mingling until they were indistinguishable.

Now they were just ordinary colleagues, roommates. Yu Xia wanted no further connections with Zheng Yun.

“I’m going to wash up,” Yu Xia said, taking a step back and leaving without looking back.

After finishing her morning routine, Yu Xia greeted Chen Zhu and went straight to work. After the previous day’s ordeal, she was particularly eager to avoid Zheng Yun.

But whether as roommates or colleagues under the same roof, hiding was no escape.

During the morning meeting, Zheng Yun sat beside Yu Xia. When Yu Xia glanced up at the projection screen, she couldn’t help but notice Zheng Yun’s profile in her peripheral vision—her long lashes fluttering occasionally, her expression focused and serious.

At lunchtime, Xiao Zhou and Cen Xue insisted on dragging the two of them to try the newly opened Chinese restaurant downstairs. Yu Xia couldn’t find a reason to refuse. Xiao Zhou and Cen Xue naturally sat together, leaving Yu Xia no choice but to let Zheng Yun settle into the chair beside her.

At the table, Cen Xue and Xiao Zhou chatted about the new movie premiering this weekend. Zheng Yun occasionally chimed in, leaving Yu Xia wondering how she knew about the film, considering they’d spent the entire weekend together. The table was small, and Zheng Yun’s skirt brushed against Yu Xia’s calf from time to time. Yu Xia swallowed her food and silently shifted her leg away.

In the afternoon, feeling a bit tired, Yu Xia went to the break room to make tea. As she entered, she caught sight of Zheng Yun’s back. Zheng Yun had her hair pulled up, her neck slightly bowed, looking so frail that the shape of her collarbones was visible—as if a single hand could encircle her neck.

Yu Xia averted her gaze, preparing to retreat and return later, when Zheng Yun turned her head.

“Come in? Want some tea?” Zheng Yun asked softly.

Just then, a colleague entered the office. If Yu Xia retreated now, it would look like she was trying to hide something, and rumors might spread through the company tomorrow. She nodded, stepped inside, stood beside Zheng Yun, took out a tea bag, tore it open, and poured hot water into the glass.

The scalding water gurgled into the transparent glass, the tea bag bobbed up and down, and the fragrance of tea drifted out, yet it couldn’t compete with the familiar scent beside her.

The citrusy aroma was faintly sweet, like the scent that had filled her nostrils on a past morning when Zheng Yun, meticulously dressed, had flung open her bedroom door and leaped into Yu Xia’s arms. It was also like the scent she had caught last night, nuzzling against Zheng Yun’s ear.

A finger hooked around the one Yu Xia had pressed against the button, and steam billowed up, scalding her slightly. Yu Xia frowned and snapped back to attention.

The hot water in the glass was nearly overflowing. If Zheng Yun hadn’t reacted quickly, the scalding liquid would have spilled onto Yu Xia’s hand.

Zheng Yun’s index finger remained hooked around Yu Xia’s, like holding hands. Yu Xia instinctively glanced at Zheng Yun, who was turned sideways. Backlit, Zheng Yun’s features were softened by a hazy glow as she asked softly, “Are you very tired?”

Yu Xia pressed her lips together, offering no reply.

The colleague chimed in, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

Zheng Yun pressed further, her tone teasingly knowing, “What were you up to last night?”

Yu Xia glared at Zheng Yun, annoyed, and yanked her finger back.

The very person who kept me up all night has the nerve to ask me this first? What’s the difference between this and a criminal returning to the crime scene to admire their work?

A colleague entered, grabbed some fruit from the refrigerator, and paused beside Zheng Yun, staring at her for a few seconds before asking, “What’s with all the cuts on your lips?”

Before Zheng Yun could answer, Yu Xia chimed in with a half-mocking tone, “What were you up to last night?”

Zheng Yun froze for a moment, then lowered her gaze, replying with a smile, “I was eating too fast.”

The colleague shook her head, pressed two cherries into each of their hands before leaving, and cautioned, “Young people shouldn’t work themselves too hard. Get enough rest, and don’t rush your meals—there’s plenty of time.”

Yu Xia snapped the lid onto her water cup and headed out.

Zheng Yun called after her, “Xia… Teacher Yu, if you’re so tired, why not leave early today?”

Yu Xia didn’t even turn around.

I’m tired because Zheng Yun clung to me half the night. I’m distracted because she kept leaning against me, her cloying perfume suffocating me. And now she’s telling me to go home early?

What’s the difference between this and the Feast at Hong Gate?

Yu Xia fumed inwardly, but she clocked out promptly at six o’clock.

I’ve been exhausted all day. Time to go home and get some sleep.