What she never expected was that her boyfriend wouldn’t take it well. After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked, “At the New Year’s activities, are there young male teachers?”

Then, in a sour tone, he added, “That director of yours—she seems to really like introducing people to you. You should be more careful yourself, guard against it.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

She didn’t remember New York’s specialty being aged vinegar!

But she was really just talking. For collective activities like that, she rarely participated. Spring and summer were a bit better; in winter, she basically didn’t go. It was just too cold.

On December 31st, she still had classes. Early in the morning, the teachers were already complaining in the small group chat. The most dreaded thing was having classes right before a holiday—more than half the students asked for leave. In classes with lax counselors, a stack of leave slips would be handed in; in classes with strict counselors, even if students insisted on running off, they couldn’t be stopped, and even arranging substitute classes meant having to run around.

In fact, teachers could tell at a glance who was a substitute lecturer, and it was quite awkward deciding whether or not to expose it.

Fortunately, Jin Zhao’s class ended in the morning, so it wasn’t too disastrous.

In the afternoon, she went back to the dorm and took a nap. When she woke up, it was already five in the evening. Lying on the bed, she was hesitating over whether to go to the cafeteria to eat or skip it, when she suddenly noticed a brown line seeping out on the snow-white ceiling.

It seemed the water pipe upstairs was leaking.

Jin Zhao immediately took a photo and sent it to the dorm group chat, @-ing the building manager.

The building manager replied quickly, saying he had already reported the repair in the system for her, and the logistics staff would contact the teacher upstairs to fix it.

Jin Zhao still got up and went to eat dinner.

Whether the logistics staff contacted the upstairs teacher or not, she didn’t know. She only knew that by the time she finished dinner, wandered around the campus for a bit, and returned to the dorm, the sky had fallen.

On the last day of the year, the water pipe in the upstairs dorm burst, and the water flooded her dorm.

Jin Zhao: “……”

Her vision went black.

The only stroke of luck was that the hardest-hit area was the bed and the sofa, while the corner where the desk was located escaped disaster.

Jin Zhao rushed in to salvage her thesis materials and electronic devices.

By the time she came back out, she was as bedraggled as her dorm.

The building manager apologized repeatedly. Because it was New Year’s Eve, the logistics workers had gotten off work on time, so they hadn’t been able to come fix it promptly. He asked whether she wanted him to contact the Asset Management Office to arrange another dorm room.

Jin Zhao couldn’t blame her bad luck on anyone else, and she figured the teachers at the Asset Management Office were probably off work too. Even if another dorm were arranged for her, her quilt had been soaked, and she wouldn’t be able to move in anytime soon.

Jin Zhao took her work-related things to the college office, then left the campus, planning to stay at a hotel for the night.

The budget hotel outside the south gate was the closest. She had stayed there last time too; the environment was decent. But tonight, because of the New Year’s countdown, it was fully booked. Several nearby budget hotels were also fully booked.

Luxury hotels still had rooms, but at over a thousand yuan a night, she felt reluctant.

She wondered whether she should ask the building manager if hotel expenses could be reimbursed tonight.

After thinking about it, she decided against it. Most likely it wouldn’t be reimbursed, and it would also expose her poverty.

Actually, she hadn’t originally been this poor. The last time she went to a neighboring city, Zhao Xu had told her the money could be given to Grandpa and Grandma first. After she came back, she went to visit them and gave the ten thousand yuan to them.

Naturally, it wasn’t Meng Yanxi’s ten thousand—it was her own.

In the end, to save money, Jin Zhao chose a small inn near the school.

It wasn’t expensive, and not a chain hotel, but it looked okay—at least the room was quite clean. She decided to stay here for one night first, and go buy bedding tomorrow.

When Meng Yanxi landed, he didn’t contact Jin Zhao. Whether he was really jealous or wanted to give her a surprise, after getting off the plane he rushed straight to the bottom of Jin Zhao’s dorm building, and only called her once he arrived.

At that moment, Jin Zhao had just finished showering. When she saw Meng Yanxi’s video call, an indescribable surge of happiness rose instantly in her heart.

She quickly glanced around the cramped room, finally choosing a white wall as the background. But the next second, she realized that this background had been chosen in vain.

Meng Yanxi said, “Come downstairs. I’m downstairs at your building.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Jin Zhao went downstairs to meet Meng Yanxi—not the dorm building, but the small inn’s building.

The crowd at the small inn was mixed, and the corridor was very narrow. Walking side by side, they had to separate whenever someone came from the opposite direction to let them pass.

Meng Yanxi’s expression wasn’t very good. He didn’t say a word.

Jin Zhao felt a little guilty and asked softly, “Didn’t you say you’d come back in a couple of days?”

Meng Yanxi shot her a glance. At this moment, he didn’t feel like being polite even to his girlfriend. “I heard your dorm’s water pipe burst, so I flew back overnight to see the excitement.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Jin Zhao coaxingly hooked his finger.

The man hesitated for a second, then still clasped her hand in return.

Jin Zhao led him back to the room.

The room was fairly tidy and clean, just small. When the two of them passed by each other, their bodies inevitably brushed.

Meng Yanxi didn’t want his girlfriend staying in a place like this, but thinking of the ten thousand yuan Jin Zhao had returned to him, he instinctively became cautious, not daring to make decisions for her lightly anymore, much less deny her choices.

But that caution only lasted a few seconds. Very soon, he heard a kind of indescribable sound, passing through the poorly soundproofed walls of the small inn, echoing in his ears in surround sound.

A man’s panting, a woman’s moans, mixed into the unrestrained sounds of bodies colliding and slapping together.

At the same time, Jin Zhao heard it too.

Her reaction was a beat slower. She even pricked up her ears and listened for a moment before realizing what the room next door was doing. In an instant, her entire face flushed red.

She lifted her eyes innocently to look at Meng Yanxi, subconsciously explaining, “Just now there wasn’t—”

As soon as she opened her mouth, her face grew even redder.

She had no idea what she was even explaining.

“I’ll go ask the front desk to change rooms.” She lowered her head quickly and fled toward the door.

As she passed by Meng Yanxi, because the corridor only allowed one person to pass, her body inevitably rubbed against his.

She hadn’t felt awkward before, but with this primitive background noise, it was like being burned. She instinctively wanted to avoid him, shrinking back, trying not to press against him.

At that moment, the man’s hand suddenly grasped hers.

The warmth of his palm was scorching.

Jin Zhao instinctively retreated further back. As a result, she lost her footing and fell onto the bed behind her.

Pulled by her, Meng Yanxi followed and fell onto her.

His reaction was quick enough. His hand immediately braced against the large bed beneath her, steadying himself, not fully pressing down on her. Even so, it was intimate enough.

The bed was too soft. His palm sank into it. He wasn’t exerting force, yet his body still pressed tightly against hers.

The heat of their bodies passed through their clothes into each other.

Next door, the little pair enjoying their union soon reached a peak. The man excitedly shouted crude words, the woman’s moans turning into screams.

Outside in the corridor, there was suddenly the sound of a door opening. Immediately after, a curse rang out: “What are you yelling for! Is it really that good?”

Jin Zhao lay beneath him. Their eyes met—his were dark as ink, fixed on her, so deep it was as if he wanted to swallow her whole.

Her face flushed as if it might bleed.

“I…” to go find the front desk to change rooms.

She avoided his wolfish gaze and was just about to find an excuse when, in the next instant, Meng Yanxi pulled her up.

With one hand holding hers and the other carrying her bag, he led her through the cramped corridor, the shabby lobby, out the door, and into the car.

Meng Yanxi drove her to Luxi.

Meng Yanxi had a top-floor suite at Luxi, exclusively his. He brought Jin Zhao there.

The surround sound from the small inn earlier had been far too shocking; Jin Zhao still hadn’t quite recovered.

Suddenly finding herself in a luxurious penthouse suite, with floor-to-ceiling windows facing Suiyi’s central lake—over the lake, fireworks were being set off at that very moment. Bursts of brilliant light washed over them, illuminating their faces again and again.

She looked at Meng Yanxi in a daze.

Meng Yanxi lowered his gaze to her, his expression restrained. “It’s fine if you don’t want to stay at my place. At least stay here tonight for now. Don’t worry, I won’t be here. I’ll go home to sleep.”

Meng Yanxi placed the room key card into her hand, then left without lingering.

Only when Meng Yanxi turned decisively and neatly away did Jin Zhao realize that he was angry.

She didn’t know what he was angry about—whether it was because of that inn, or because she would rather choose to stay at an inn than go to his place.

Outside, the New Year’s fireworks burst into the sky, and also burst into Jin Zhao’s heart.

The illusory light of the fireworks fell on his gradually receding back. Watching him, there was only one thought in her mind.

She wanted to keep him.

Even if this moment was illusory.

She chased after him and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.

“It’s not that I’m unwilling. It was just too sudden, I didn’t think of it right away.” Her face pressed against his back as she patiently explained to him.

Meng Yanxi lowered his head to glance at the hands around his waist and asked in a low voice, “Unwilling to what?”

Jin Zhao didn’t speak for a moment, only held him quietly.

After a while, she gently yet firmly pulled him back to face her.

Their eyes met. Jin Zhao’s fingers moved lightly, her fingertips coming to rest on his belt.