Are You Allergic To Romance? - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Good Night, Shy One

After eating a big bowl of noodles at that hour, she felt overheated. She wasn’t sure if it was from the hot noodles or the recent embarrassing experience.

The thought of Jing Yuan’s knowing gaze only made her feel more depressed.

Ugh, what was that supposed to mean?

Xie Mianzhi took a deep breath, looked up, and saw Jing Yuan go upstairs, enter a room, and close the door, leaving her alone in the now-clean dining room.

“This person trusts me that much…”

Xie Mianzhi scoffed, raising an eyebrow. She looked around. Although there weren’t any priceless items in the house, leaving an outsider like her alone here was incredibly trusting. This seaside resident was truly guileless.

She was completely unguarded toward her.

What if she were a bad woman?

Xie Mianzhi shook her head, hung her shawl on the rack, and pulled out her phone from her wallet. She checked it, but it remained stubbornly off.

She’d need to borrow Jing Yuan’s phone to contact those incompetent subordinates to tow her car tomorrow.

“Sigh…” Xie Mianzhi sighed softly. If her car hadn’t broken down, she would be annoyed just looking at her phone. The only electronic means of contact, yet it was filled with messages that irritated her—business, family, and so on. She was suffocated by these social demands every day. “Tch.”

After resting on the sofa for ten minutes, she didn’t see any sign of the owner coming out of the room upstairs. Xie Mianzhi quietly went upstairs, about to raise her hand to knock on the door.

Suddenly, the door opened.

“Hi, I was just about to look for you.” Xie Mianzhi was only surprised for a moment, then leaned against the door, tired but smiling naturally as a greeting.

Jing Yuan had been alerted by the movement outside the door and opened it quickly. But she was confronted with Xie Mianzhi in that state and was momentarily speechless.

“…Your clothes.” Jing Yuan instinctively turned her face away, blinking rapidly, her gaze fixed on the floor.

Xie Mianzhi looked down at her slip dress. She must have stretched too hard, causing the dress to slip down a bit. She nonchalantly gave the center of the dress a tug, not realizing the gravity of the situation. “Is something wrong with my clothes?”

Jing Yuan could only shake her head silently, her eyes still glued to the floor.

Before, Miss Xie had a thin shawl covering her upper body. Now, leaning against the door in a satin gown, the straps were low, and the neckline dipped so far that it revealed an indescribable outline, constantly shifting. It was too much of a visual shock for her.

She didn’t dare look.

Xie Mianzhi found it strange. Why was this person suddenly avoiding her gaze? Was she still thinking about the embarrassing moment with the noodles? There were definitely no cursed diced carrots on her face now.

Xie Mianzhi took a step forward, and her pale chest immediately came into Jing Yuan’s view. The homeowner instantly stepped back.

“Is there something you need?” Jing Yuan asked promptly, only the shimmering floor reflected in her golden eyes.

Xie Mianzhi didn’t notice the other’s awkwardness and stated her purpose first: “I need to borrow your phone. Mine is useless.”

“One moment.” Jing Yuan responded immediately, the meaning clearly being that Miss Xie should stay put and not enter the room or come any closer.

Xie Mianzhi gave the oddly reacting person a strange look. This must be her study, right? She could only stand at the doorway and glance inside.

Soon, Jing Yuan returned with her phone and handed it to Xie Mianzhi.

“Thanks,” Xie Mianzhi took the phone. It was an old model. When the screen lit up, it was a photo of Jindou and Yuanbao together.

However—

“It needs a password.” Xie Mianzhi spoke tentatively. She hesitated and handed the phone back, as a password was so private…

“1028.” Jing Yuan blurted it out directly.

Xie Mianzhi paused, surprised that the other woman gave it to her so easily. She pressed her lips together to suppress a smile and entered the numbers. Unsurprisingly, it was likely her birthday.

“Would calling a subordinate this late make me seem like a heartless boss?” Xie Mianzhi saw that it was past midnight on the screen and stopped before dialing her assistant’s number.

To be precise, as soon as she dialed, her anger would become evident. She didn’t want to lose her temper in front of this person late at night.

“Twelve o’clock is indeed the time humans should be sleeping,” Jing Yuan said from the side.

Xie Mianzhi twitched her mouth. Was Jing Yuan implying she wasn’t human?

“Uh… well, never mind. Anyway, I’m not that urgent. They’re all just some crap—” She didn’t want to say the word ‘crap’ in front of this person. She needed to maintain a good image. “Simple matters. I’ll call tomorrow.”

Jing Yuan nodded again in response. However, she remained rigidly looking at the floor, avoiding Xie Mianzhi’s gaze.

“Alright then. I won’t bother you. Here’s your phone. I’ll contact them tomorrow, and when I do, I’ll add all the expenses for inconveniencing you today and pay you double,” Xie Mianzhi promised solemnly.

“Okay.” Jing Yuan replied without hesitation. She only felt Xie Mianzhi’s fragrance lingering around her, making her feel a little hot and a little hungry.

Xie Mianzhi was slightly annoyed that the other woman hadn’t made eye contact with her the entire time.

What? Was she that ugly?

Leaving the study doorway, Xie Mianzhi had descended half the stairs but couldn’t help herself and asked: “Um, Jing Yuan, is there still something on my face?”

Just as Jing Yuan was closing the door, she heard the question from downstairs and instinctively looked at Xie Mianzhi. What she saw was the woman’s dress, which could be easily slipped off with a single tug. The tips of her ears quickly turned red at a visible speed, fortunately concealed by the darkness behind the door.

Her voice remained calm: “No.”

Xie Mianzhi breathed a sigh of relief but was still confused: “Then why were you looking at the floor the whole time?”

Jing Yuan pondered for a moment, choosing not to explain. “It’s late. You should rest.”

This politely ended the conversation, and she quickly closed the door.

Xie Mianzhi looked at the tightly shut door and gave up, walking downstairs with a slight displeasure, tugging at one side of her skirt.

She went to the washroom and meticulously stared at her delicate face. She really couldn’t understand why the other woman had stopped looking at her ever since the embarrassing incident with the carrot on her lip while eating noodles. The way her eyes darted away made it seem like she was avoiding a plague.

“‘It’s late, you should rest’? She’s the one with the dark circles. Little brat…”

That brat with the heavy dark circles has the nerve to talk to her. Her speech was rigid and overly mature. Despite her height, she probably had a very weak physique.

Xie Mianzhi passionately muttered to herself, grabbing the brand-new, conservative blue pajamas that the “weak, dark-circled brat” had thoughtfully provided her before stepping into the washroom.

She didn’t realize the thoughtfulness of her little savior/very “weak,” dark-circled brat until she put on the conservative blue pajamas after showering.

Xie Mianzhi scrutinized herself in the mirror. The pajamas completely hid her good figure and were completely devoid of fashion sense. However, the quality was nice. She touched it with her hand and noticed embroidery on it.

She focused her eyes. It was a little whale wearing a flower on its head.

It was actually quite cute.

Xie Mianzhi paused when she passed Jing Yuan’s study. A sliver of light showed that the homeowner was still awake.

“Thank you for the pajamas. They’re very comfortable to wear. Good night, okay.”

She spoke softly and lingered at the study door for a few seconds. Assuming there would be no reply, she was about to leave when a note slowly slid out from under the door—

‘Good Night’

What Xie Mianzhi didn’t know was that the Jing Yuan inside the door had already transformed into a slightly unnatural state, with patterns spreading across her pale neck and eye sockets, and her flushed ear tips betraying her inner turmoil. The “Good Night” card was secretly slipped out by a part of her skin that had peeled away from her body.

Because the owner was a shy one who hesitated after writing the card.