Fang Yu had boarded the train at the crack of dawn, and after hours of jostling travel in the overcrowded carriage, he was already coated in a stale, sticky sweat. To make matters worse, Uncle Li's surprise ambush halfway through his journey had left him drenched in perspiration from the brutal scuffle. Even now, his skin still crawled with the clammy, sticky film clinging to it. And so, he grabbed his newly bought clothes and made a beeline for the bathroom, ready to scrub himself clean from head to toe.
He paid no mind to whether the water streaming from the showerhead was hot or cold. In the blink of an eye, he'd stripped off every last stitch of clothing, tossed it carelessly to the side, and stepped under the running water.
Upstairs, in one of the bedrooms, Yan Ting was rolling back and forth on her bed, her face twisted with bitter hurt. As she replayed the day's events in her mind, tears came flooding down her cheeks like water bursting through a collapsed dam.
"Hmph. How could Daddy do this to me?" Yan Ting mumbled to herself, her voice thick with misery. "It's bad enough he's shacked up with some woman I can't stand, but now he's gone and hired this tasteless hick to be my bodyguard? How am I ever supposed to show my face in public with him trailing after me?"
"Well, well. Who's gone and made our dear Miss Yan cry?" A teasing, giggling voice drifted through the bedroom door at that very moment, and in stepped a young woman, a playful grin on her face.
"Who else? I'm absolutely furious." Seeing that it was her best friend, Lin Ruofei, Yan Ting hastily wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Daddy's hired some country bumpkin to be my bodyguard. He's grubby, he's got zero fashion sense, and I'm never going to be able to show my face anywhere again with him around."
At that, Lin Ruofei burst into a fit of giggles, watching her friend's pitiable, pouting face with amusement. "It's not like he's your boyfriend. Why do you care so much about what he looks like?"
"Oh, shut up. You have no idea. Just looking at him makes me want to punch him, I swear I don't know what it is about him." At her best friend's teasing, a wicked grin spread across Yan Ting's face, and she reached out and gave Lin Ruofei's full, ample breast a sharp squeeze.
"Hey! Cut that out!" Lin Ruofei shrieked with laughter, tears nearly streaming down her face from the tickling sensation. "That tickles so bad!"
"Keep talking, I dare you. I'll squeeze them until they pop." Yan Ting snickered, even as a faint twinge of envy pricked at her as she felt the soft, full weight in her hand. Why was it, she wondered, that they were both women, yet her best friend's bust was so much larger than her own?
"Alright, alright, stop it! So what if my bra size is one up from yours? Do you really have to squeeze that hard?" Lin Ruofei rolled her eyes, then suddenly pushed herself to her feet and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Yan Ting asked, watching her friend head out of the bedroom.
"To pee." Lin Ruofei took the stairs three at a time, hurrying down to the first floor.
"You can use the bathroom upstairs! The one downstairs is—" Yan Ting's words were cut off before she could finish, Lin Ruofei's figure already vanishing from her sight.
"I'm doomed." Yan Ting's face turned a sickly shade of green. That man was showering in the downstairs bathroom right now. If Lin Ruofei burst through the door without looking… the thought alone made her stomach flip.
Her cheeks flushed bright red at the very mental image.
"No! I have to get down there and stop her! If I don't, Lin Niu's reputation will be ruined forever by that bastard!" With that, Yan Ting shot to her feet and sprinted for the stairs. But before she'd even taken two steps, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the floor below.