Zhang Shutong always felt that he and Miss Gu were from two different worlds. This feeling intensified when he walked into her bathroom.
Why would someone's bathroom be bigger than his own bedroom?
The villa was in a Western style from the inside out, and the bathroom was also decorated like a palace, with oil paintings even hanging on the walls. He turned on the crystal chandelier above his head. The soft light passed through the petal-like lampshade and scattered brokenly on the floor. It wasn't dazzling; it just made you want to yawn.
The towel racks and faucets were all made of brass, with not a single water stain on them. It seemed like they were well-maintained.
The first thing that came into view was a built-in bathtub, right next to the window. Her villa was built on a high place, so you could probably enjoy the view of the lake below while taking a bath.
Zhang Shutong, of course, wasn't planning on taking a bath. He walked into the shower stall next to it. The hot water was gas-powered and came quickly, unlike the solar-powered one at his house, where he always had to hold the showerhead and hide on the side for a while.
The glass was frosted, and water droplets didn't stick to it much. Zhang Shutong liked frosted glass. It had the lightness of glass without losing a sense of security. He closed his eyes in this small, misty, and warm space, and the hot water flowed over his entire body like a stream.
His body finally warmed up a bit. It seemed to be telling him that the cold, rainy night was a thing of the past. His body was relaxed, but his mind was not.
For example, after he finished his shower, he walked to the mirror in front of the sink and picked up the hair dryer next to it, against his will. He usually used this thing to blow-dry keyboards that had water in them or clothes that hadn't dried, but he rarely used it to blow-dry his hair.
After a shower, he always just wiped his hair until it was half-dry, and then let it air-dry. But this was in a palace-like building, and he would be meeting the princess of the palace later. Zhang Shutong felt that it was better not to have his hair dripping with water with every step he took.
When his body warmed up, his stomach started to get hungry. So the next thing was to sit at the counter to eat. The reason he said "counter" instead of "dining table" was that in Gu Qiumian's house, they were really two different things. He was now sitting at the L-shaped counter of the open kitchen, with a row of hanging lights above his head, illuminating the bowl of soup noodles in front of him.
Song Nanshan had also finished his shower and was sitting on the sofa in the center of the living room watching TV, also holding a bowl of noodles. He wasn't constrained at all. The sound of him slurping his noodles could sometimes overpower the sound of the TV. A ball game was on, and he had no idea how Teacher Song had found it.
If the conditions allowed, Zhang Shutong had no doubt that he would open a can of beer.
Their arrival made the empty villa a little more lively. The sound of fine rain came from the darkness outside the window. The interior was warm, and the lights were bright only where they needed to be... It had a kind of cozy feeling.
—Zhang Shutong was startled when he had this thought.
He didn't know how he could feel a sense of warmth in such a solemn, palace-like place, but it was true. Which was better, this place or the one with only Detective Conan playing? He couldn't even say himself.
Although Teacher Song was really loud and would yell "good!" when he got excited, it was still better than the screams of a woman seeing a murder case in Detective Conan. Although the improvement was limited.
So Zhang Shutong stopped worrying about this issue. He lowered his head and took a sip of the soup. It seemed to be a rich broth, like it was made from an old duck. But where could they find duck soup in the middle of the night? Do rich families always have this on hand?
In short, it was very delicious.
After a thrilling night of action, being able to calmly enjoy a bowl of delicious soup noodles was a luxury. The noodles didn't matter, and the rich broth didn't matter. It wasn't about the extravagance or simplicity of the food, but about being able to sit here quietly. The surroundings were warm, and the happiness in his heart was like the oil slicks floating in the noodle soup—tiny, yet endless.
The only problem was that someone always wanted to disturb Zhang Shutong's enjoyment of this bowl of happiness. But that person was the owner of this villa, and he couldn't politely ask her to leave.
Gu Qiumian was sitting across from him. The girl was wrapped in a wine-red velvet robe. Her skin was made even fairer, and he could faintly see her delicate collarbones. She had also just finished showering. Her black hair was misty with water vapor and also with a fragrant scent. Every movement she made unintentionally revealed a charming allure. She was a girl who was starting to mature.
Gu Qiumian casually tucked her medium-length hair to one side and also tucked her bangs up, revealing a smooth forehead. She was holding her face and scrolling on her phone, as if this counter was the place with the best signal in the entire villa.
If she was just scrolling on her phone, Zhang Shutong could still tolerate it, but she would occasionally look up from the screen and glance over here, sometimes curling the corners of her lips, as if his eating looked ugly. She might have thought she was hiding it well, but Zhang Shutong had noticed everything.
It made him feel very uncomfortable.
But asking "why are you sitting here" in someone else's house would seem heartless. So Zhang Shutong simply pretended not to see her and buried his head in his noodles.
But while he didn't want to cause trouble, Miss Gu wanted to find fault. When Zhang Shutong picked up the bowl to drink the soup, he saw that she finally couldn't hold back. She slapped her phone down. The glass back of the iPhone made a crisp sound as it hit the marble counter, and the girl glared: "Do you just know how to eat noodles?"
Zhang Shutong glanced at the TV, "I don't watch ball games." If Teacher Song had put on something else, he would have gone over to watch it.
As he spoke, he picked up the fried egg that was on top of the noodles. He took a bite, and it was still runny, showing how skilled Gu Qiumian's nanny was.
Zhang Shutong looked from the fried egg to Gu Qiumian, and found that Gu Qiumian was also looking at the fried egg. She pouted. Because one hand was holding her face, her small lips were also squeezed crookedly: "Don't you have anything to say?"
"The noodles are delicious. Thanks."
"...Don't thank me, thank Aunt Wu!"
Even though she said that, her eyes became fiercer. She spoke word by word, her voice like big raindrops hitting the ground.
Zhang Shutong knew she was a little tsundere, just saying "no need to thank me," so he very cleverly said, "No, I still have to thank you."
Who knew that when Gu Qiumian heard this, she would blink her thick eyelashes and suddenly plop onto the table as if she had given up, muttering: "Oh, are you a person who has been in the rain too much..."
"What?"
"You were already stupid, but I think you're even more stupid after being in the rain."
Zhang Shutong pursed his lips when he heard this. This person actually thought he was stupid. Then who was the one who rushed into the rain in slippers and pajamas just now?
They looked at each other and blinked, and the more they looked, the more they felt the other person was the real idiot.
"How did you know someone came to the house?" Gu Qiumian asked again.
Zhang Shutong then briefly shared his deduction with her. If Qingyi were here, he would definitely be listening with sparkling eyes, but Miss Gu was clearly not a fan of mystery. She listened very seriously and occasionally interjected with questions, but when Zhang Shutong finished the most exciting part, she pouted and asked, "And then?" Zhang Shutong said, "And then I sat here and ate noodles." Gu Qiumian rolled her eyes, as if she wanted to hear more than just that.
But there was nothing he could do. Real-life deductions are never as exciting as they are on TV, and he wasn't a professional detective. So Zhang Shutong tactfully shut up and asked a different question: "You always have rich broth prepared at home?"
"Do you think these noodles are very delicious?"
"The soup is good."
"Aunt Wu's cooking is very good. This duck has been stewing since the afternoon."
"Wait, was this soup from your dinner?"
"Yeah." She said, "What else? Of course, it's leftover from dinner."
Gu Qiumian explained in a good mood: "I didn't finish the bowl, and I was going to pour it out, but you came, so it didn't go to waste."
Zhang Shutong stopped drinking the soup. She then huffed and said, "See, I told you you're stupid. You fell for it. Who uses the little bit of soup in a bowl for noodles? There's a big pot of it."
"Don't forget to take cold medicine later," she added.
"I don't need to."
"No, if I say you have to, you have to."
Zhang Shutong nodded. He never argued about these small things.
This was also good. He didn't ask Gu Qiumian, "You've been through so much tonight, how are you feeling?" Gu Qiumian also never brought it up, saying whether she was in a good or bad mood.
But as they chatted, Gu Qiumian suddenly stood up, leaned her head close to his and sniffed. Zhang Shutong was caught off guard, but she had already sat back down, laughing like a delicate flower: "I knew it. It looked like you didn't wash your hair. Did you use conditioner by mistake?"
"The red bottle?"
"Yeah, that's conditioner. The blue bottle is shampoo, you idiot."
"..."
"Your hair is so greasy now." Her body shook with laughter.
It was as if she had seen something hilarious. Maybe in a Pokémon trainer's eyes, it was a Squirtle putting on sunglasses.
Zhang Shutong wanted to say that there were five or six bottles in her bathroom, and he couldn't read the brand names. Were they in French or something? He was too lazy to figure out which was which, so he just grabbed one that looked similar.
He rubbed his hair speechlessly and decisively changed the topic. Fortunately, Gu Qiumian was a good listener. As long as he spoke, no matter what he said, she would always listen and nod.
At this time, the nanny had already gone back to her room. The man not far away was focused on the ball game, although he was secretly perking up his ears. The boy was eating noodles, sometimes putting down his chopsticks. After swallowing the food in his mouth, he would say a few short sentences.
The girl held her face in her hands, her legs swinging under the counter. One of her slippers fell off, revealing her foot.
Zhang Shutong felt that this bowl of noodles was really big. It wasn't a very large bowl, but it gave him the feeling that he couldn't finish it.
Just as he finished the last bit of soup, he saw Teacher Song suddenly stand up, turn off the TV, and shout to the two of them: "I'm going to sleep now. Don't stay up too late chatting. We'll leave together tomorrow."
Zhang Shutong and Gu Qiumian both turned their heads at the same time and watched as the man padded his way back to his bedroom.
There were two guest rooms on the first floor. One was for the nanny, and Teacher Song was sleeping in the other.
So Zhang Shutong had to sleep on the second floor. That was Miss Gu's territory.
Fate was strange. They sat together in class, and now they were sleeping on the same floor.