That was the first time—between the two of them, with nothing in the way—spirit and desire went straight to the deepest place in each other.

Meng Yanxi was crazy.

But compared to his all-or-nothing madness, his wish to die together with her, Jin Zhao was still relatively rational. She held his shoulders, her fingers restlessly clawing at the taut muscles of his back, and reminded him by his ear that the soundproofing wasn’t good. He forcefully covered her mouth, saying indistinctly, “The road’s been sealed.”

The road was sealed—tourists couldn’t get in, and most of the hotel rooms were vacant. What’s more, this hotel wasn’t in the central scenic area. When Jin Zhao booked it, she’d valued the hotel’s own environment; it was just that the location wasn’t particularly advantageous, so the value for money was high.

Later, Meng Yanxi directly switched to a suite, and Jin Zhao had nothing more to say.

The torrential rain lasted three days and three nights, and the little lovebirds also stayed in the hotel for three days and three nights.

Every corner was developed by Meng Yanxi.

The suite was on the top floor, with a terrace; beyond the terrace was mountain forest.

The mountains were covered in lush vegetation—pine woods, green bamboo, and unknown green plants… all swaying under the onslaught of fierce wind and rain. The sound of bamboo leaves was the most distinct, the slender leaves being struck and rustling loudly.

Meng Yanxi liked best to be in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows by the terrace, using every kind of position.

He didn’t count; anyway, it should have been everything he could think of.

Jin Zhao’s body was very soft; the pity was just that her stamina wasn’t good. They said three days and three nights, but he suspected most of the time she slept through it. What he himself tasted of sweetness was actually just so-so.

There were still tears in Jin Zhao’s eyes as she accused him of having no conscience.

Guiltily, he touched his nose.

While Jin Zhao was sleeping, he handled some matters again.

Such a great grievance suffered by his wife couldn’t be for nothing.

Just as he finished making arrangements, a call came in from Meng Shijin, saying that Suiyi was hit by torrential rain, the city was flooded, and no one knew where his sister had gone—her phone couldn’t get through—and telling him to hurry and go pick his sister up and take her home.

Meng Yanxi’s gaze went to the open bedroom door. In the dim light, he could vaguely see his girlfriend on the bed, utterly exhausted and fallen asleep. He suddenly really wanted to beat up Meng Zhuxi, who was running around causing trouble.

He called Meng Zhuxi; sure enough, there was no answer. He knew perfectly well—recently that girl had set her sights on Zhou Huaichen, making a fuss and clinging to him.

Meng Yanxi directly called Zhou Huaichen; sure enough, she was at Zhou Huaichen’s place.

What kind of person Zhou Huaichen was, Meng Yanxi knew best. With that girl at Zhou Huaichen’s, he wasn’t worried at all. If he had to say he was worried, it was Zhou Huaichen he worried about. Still, he said in a tea-scented, affectatious tone, “With rain this heavy, it’s not convenient for her to be at your place. How about I come over now to pick her up?”

The truth was, he was currently sunk deep in a gentle haven. Once his girlfriend woke up, he still wanted to continue; he couldn’t pick anyone up at all.

Zhou Huaichen, as expected, said frankly, “Don’t come over. The whole city is flooded now; the police are still on duty outside in the middle of the night. Give people some peace of mind. If you get stuck in the car, there won’t be enough people to rescue you.”

Good. Meng Yanxi wanted to hang up the phone right now.

But he still absent-mindedly added a polite line: “Then I’ll trouble you. It’s not impossible for me to drive out in a higher vehicle.”

Zhou Huaichen: “Tsk, President Meng, what car don’t you have? You could even drive a big truck over right now. But your sister can’t. The girl was sick to begin with; right now she’s sleeping all delicately. I’m supposed to wake her up and have her follow you back through wind and rain? There’s no being a brother like that.”

Meng Yanxi’s eyes were glued to the bed in the bedroom, his heart having already drifted in. He only wanted to hang up as soon as possible—but hearing that Meng Zhuxi was sick, a big brother’s conscience immediately surfaced.

“Fell sick? What happened?” His brows knit slightly, his expression turning serious.

Zhou Huaichen said, “Nothing serious, just a cold, a bit of a low fever. As for how she caught it? Ask her. She set the air conditioner to eighteen degrees and let it blow right at her—if she didn’t catch a cold, the AC itself should be written up for a major demerit.”

Meng Yanxi: “?”

Eighteen degrees?

That girl was afraid of the cold. From childhood to now, she had never set the air conditioner below twenty-six degrees.

Meng Yanxi felt like he’d seen through some secret.

Fine then. No need to look for their biological parents anymore—they really were blood siblings.

Back then, he’d used allergies as an excuse, pretended to be dizzy, pretended to be so weak he couldn’t take care of himself, shamelessly clinging on to stay the night at his girlfriend’s place; over here, Meng Zhuxi had directly blown herself into catching a cold.

Zhou Huaichen said, “Perfect timing—your sister’s awake. Let her talk to you herself.”

As the phone was handed to Meng Zhuxi, Meng Yanxi asked meaningfully, “What’s with the air conditioner at eighteen degrees?”

Meng Zhuxi felt guilty and answered irrelevantly, putting on an act there: “Your car has low ground clearance. Afraid it’ll float up in the water, so you can’t come pick me up? Then hurry up and go buy a truck and drive it over.”

Meng Yanxi slowly raised an eyebrow. “Meng Zhuxi, you dare block my words?”

Meng Zhuxi wasn’t afraid of him at all. Without changing expression, she continued to block him: “By the time you buy a truck, even if the rain stops it’s fine—you can still use it next time. A truck isn’t a one-time purchase, but a little sister is your sister for life, you know.”

The quilt on the bed shifted, in the dim light like an ambiguous wave.

Meng Zhuxi had ulterior motives; Meng Yanxi’s heart was burning even hotter. He had no patience to play along with her act here at all. With a “click,” he hung up the phone and got up, walking toward the big bed.

On the other side, Meng Zhuxi had no idea how happy her brother was right now. Hearing the “beep beep beep” of the busy tone, she thought he was throwing a tantrum. The innocent Meng Zhuxi blinked, handed the phone back to Zhou Huaichen, and casually tattled, “My brother hung up on me.”

Zhou Huaichen reached out to take the phone, snorted with a laugh, and replied, “Serves you right. If I were your brother, I’d hang up on you too. In the middle of the night with wind and rain like this, where am I supposed to go buy you a truck?”

Meng Yanxi: couldn’t buy a truck at all.

His girlfriend had woken up—right now he only wanted to drive.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

It wasn’t until the rain in Jinjue Town stopped that the two of them returned to Suiyi.

Seeing Zhuang Yu waiting downstairs, Jin Zhao’s face heated up uncomfortably.

Meng Yanxi hadn’t stepped out of the hotel room for three days and three nights—what that meant was all too obvious.

Jin Zhao had thin skin; Meng Yanxi’s was thick. Acting like nothing was wrong, all proper and decent, he even instructed Zhuang Yu, “Next time you head back first. I’ll drive back myself.”

Jin Zhao: “?” You still want there to be a next time?

Zhuang Yu: “Alright, President Meng.”

Inner thoughts: You think I don’t want to? With rain this heavy, were you expecting me to swim back?

The fact that he’d had the sense to not stay at the same hotel as his boss was already the greatest sincerity a worker earning a six-figure monthly salary could offer.

But someone who could stay by Meng Yanxi’s side had more than sincerity—they had brains. Once in the car, he very casually asked, “President Meng, are there mosquitoes over there?”

What kind of person was Meng Yanxi? He was only ever more shrewd than Zhuang Yu. He glanced at Jin Zhao and immediately chimed in like banter in a cross-talk routine: “You didn’t stay over there?”

Jin Zhao’s face had already been burning badly; at his words, she immediately lifted her eyes.

Zhuang Yu scratched his neck and said, “Yeah, I didn’t stay here. I wanted to go check out the scenic area, so I stayed in the central district. But it rained so hard these past few days, I didn’t get to see anything.”

Meng Yanxi: “Mm.”

The salary wasn’t paid for nothing—this was exactly the line he’d been waiting for.

Jin Zhao quietly let out a breath.

Though she didn’t even know what she was feeling embarrassed about. They were boyfriend and girlfriend to begin with.

She even added, as if to cover it up, “You can come again next time.”

It was only when she scrolled through her phone on the road that she learned it wasn’t just Jinjue Town and Suiyi that had been hit by torrential rain. In fact, they were relatively lucky. This once-in-fifty-years extreme downpour had hit Jiangcheng the hardest; Suiyi’s armed police and special police had already rushed out overnight to provide support.

Suiyi was affected as well, with a certain degree of urban waterlogging, but evacuation had been timely and there were no major disasters. By the time they headed back, the rain had already stopped.

Jin Zhao’s phone had been soaked in water and was completely ruined. The two of them first went to buy a new phone.

Jin Zhao had always been very clear-cut with Meng Yanxi when it came to money and insisted on paying herself. In the past, Meng Yanxi always indulged her. But this time, knowing she’d just paid back the Jin family, he worried his girlfriend would be stubborn and refuse to ask him for help, truly ending up living a hard life—so he didn’t give in.