1:00 AM.
In a private room at the Royal Water Club, the air conditioning was humming, fruit sat on a platter, and a masseuse was at work.
Lin Chu was looking at cars.
'Women really are a strange species. When you show you want to sleep with them, they act reserved and subtly resistant. But when you show no interest at all, they might even get angry and do something completely irrational.'
On the bed next to his.
Chen Jinyu was also getting a massage.
It was a room for two.
When he had gotten out of the car, she had said, half-pouting and half-joking, that she wanted to come too.
Naturally, Lin Chu didn't refuse her request. He even goaded her a little, and so she actually came along.
'In the end, she's just a woman who doesn't want to go home.'
Lin Chu could pretty much guess the kind of night she was after. Two people, snuggled up together watching a movie, sipping wine, gazing at the stars and the Moon, talking about everything from poetry to the philosophy of life. If the mood struck, they might even share a dance, spinning around the living room, embracing, kissing, and then falling asleep in each other's arms. As for whether they'd just sleep or do something more, that all depended on the atmosphere and how far the mood had been set.
It was a wonderful scenario, of course.
'But our "intimacy level" isn't there yet. She needs time. Anyway, there's no way I'm getting into her house tonight.'
'She's just lonely, not horny.'
Lin Chu had no idea if the Royal Water Club was an above-board establishment or not; he'd honestly never been before.
But at 688 yuan for a session, with the price clearly listed, it was most likely legit.
Of course, under the circumstances, the masseuses would just assume they were a couple. Even if "extra services" were available, they wouldn't breathe a word of it.
The massage techniques were strictly by-the-book, to the point of cutting corners.
They wouldn't even go near the groin area.
'Unbelievable.'
...
Chen Jinyu was starting to regret this.
What she'd done tonight was truly insane—staying up this late, coming to a water club for the first time in her life, and with a man, no less.
'When you get swept up in your emotions, it's just so frustrating.'
She thought of Ah Cheng's *Love and Chemistry*. The book's core argument was that love is just a secretion of chemicals in the human body, whether it's dopamine or hormones. People are just being controlled. 'Can a person ever completely control who they like or dislike? Of course not.'
'You can't even control whether you're happy or sad.'
'When you're unhappy and want to cheer up, you usually need some external stimulus, like shopping, going for a fast drive, cooking, eating delicious food, drinking a Coke... and so on.'
She had a nagging feeling that the beds and sheets here weren't clean. They were pure white, and she could faintly smell sunshine and laundry detergent, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that they were dirty.
As the masseuse worked on her, she felt an intense ticklishness. As a Michelin-star chef, her senses were sharper than most—a talent she had always been proud of. Right now, however, it felt like a mild form of torture. But with Lin Chu right there, she was too embarrassed to make a sound.
She was suddenly reminded of a scene from *Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*, where Zhao Min is in the secret chamber beneath Green Willow Villa, having the soles of her feet tickled by Zhang Wuji.
"Stop... Please stop for a moment."
"Lin Chu, I want to go home."
She stopped the masseuse and spoke softly, her voice strained. The ticklish sensation hadn't faded, and she could even feel her body growing slightly moist.
"Suit yourself. Your legs are your own."
"Hey, you," he called to the other masseuse. "Come on over. You two can work on me together."
Lin Chu acted as if this was the best thing that could have happened, even calling her masseuse over. To be fair, her masseuse was quite a bit better-looking than his own.
'I was careless earlier, letting her pick first. I got here too late, so I didn't have much of a choice.'
'You've got to get here early if you want to pick a good masseuse!'
Chen Jinyu: ...
A wave of resentment washed over her. Her nose began to sting as she fought to suppress the storm of emotions.
Lin Chu glanced at her. "Seriously, aren't you exhausted? All this conflict, struggle, anxiety, and insecurity... this detachment, questioning, push-and-pull, and scrutiny. You're dazed, filled with desire, yet you watch from afar with this air of divinity, all while being terrified of being alone. It's too many emotions. Rein it in."
His frankness was a form of violence.
It was a violence that stung her, yet she also found it powerful.
This way of describing things by piling on adjectives struck her as brilliant, like Dou Wei's song, "High-Level Animals."
She lay stunned on the bed.
"If you can't handle it, just treat me like an asshole. Delete my contact information, stop overthinking everything, and go home to get a good night's sleep."
"Or, just think of us as partners in crime, getting a massage together... Hey, masseuse," he called out, "do you have any male masseurs here? Get her a handsome one—someone better-looking than me, with an eight-pack. If one's not enough, two will do."
Lin Chu added. 'So fucking annoying,' he thought. 'Why can't people just be more decisive?'
'I've achieved total clarity now, anyway.'
'A man is at his most confident and charming when his mind can control his body.'
The masseuse couldn't help but laugh. "Sir, we definitely don't have that. We're a legitimate massage parlor."
Chen Jinyu silently got up.
'Asshole!'
'A complete and utter asshole!'
She went to the changing room, changed her clothes, and walked silently toward the exit. At the doorway, she couldn't help but glance back one last time. She saw Lin Chu, still on his phone, with the two masseuses—one on his left, one on his right—massaging his legs.
"You're really not going to walk out with me?"
The words slipped out, her emotions overriding her reason.
"Nah, not going. Too lazy to move."
A profound sense of defeat washed over her. 'Am I really less appealing than two masseuses?' she thought. 'I've already compromised this much—I'm practically inviting you to my place—and you still act like this?'
She felt like she was at her breaking point.
Just then, however, she heard the second half of his sentence, delivered with a grin, "...unless you pay the bill."
Her: ...
'I can never keep up with his train of thought.'
...
She paid the bill. They left, got in the car, and he followed her home. It was a standalone villa, but it was dark, clearly indicating she lived alone.
They parked outside. Beside the house was a lawn and a garden.
Looking at the rather luxurious three-story house before him, Lin Chu screamed internally, 'Holy shit!'
'At that moment, I felt like a true player who had successfully gamed a genuine rich beauty.'
'A normal guy's mentality when hitting on a girl is: What if I do something that makes her unhappy?'
'A player's mentality is: Here's a gorgeous girl, I should try to run some game on her. What if it actually works?'
'And... holy fuck, sometimes it *does* work.'
'As long as you've got the balls...'
The motion-activated lights in the yard flickered on, casting an orange glow. Chen Jinyu could feel her body trembling slightly. She was a bundle of nerves, excitement, terror, and exhilaration. She had never done anything this outrageous in her entire life, but somehow, step by step, she had ended up here.
They went inside.
She had just flicked on the lights.
But then, with a flick of his wrist, Lin Chu turned them off again, plunging the entire first-floor living area back into darkness.
The next second, Lin Chu pinned her against the door.
...
...