Thirsty Skin - Chapter 16

Chapter 16 -【I Really Want To Hug Him】

The four of them played until after eleven o’clock. Zeng Xubai’s mother called and said that their daughter, Doudou, didn’t sleep and was looking for her father at home. Lin Wan immediately put down the cards and ended the game.

Zeng Xubai didn’t drive either. When asking for the destination, he found out that Zeng Xubai and Lin Wan were going the same way as Zhu Chizhou, so Zhu Chizhou offered to give Zeng Xubai a ride home.

When Lin Wan came out of the bathroom, he saw Zeng Xubai and Zhu Chizhou enthusiastically adding each other as friends.

The night was dark as Zhu Chizhou’s black Maybach GLS drove out from a row of luxury cars at the club entrance. The light reflected on the car body flowed like mercury.

Lin Wan sat in the passenger seat, looking at the bright lights and nightlife on both sides of the road receding, and he felt a little drowsy.

Zeng Xubai, who was sitting in the back row, suddenly reached out his hand, patted Lin Wan and said, “Xu Pingchuan sent me a message, saying he wanted your phone number.”

Lin Wan’s eyes were almost narrowed when he was suddenly disturbed by these words. The slight sleepiness that had just arisen in his mind instantly dissipated.

Zeng Xubai held up the screen of his mobile phone in front of Lin Wan. Lin Wan focused his eyes in the dim light and saw the message Xu Pingchuan sent to Zeng Xubai a few minutes ago: 【I forgot to ask Lin Wan for his contact information just now. We want to cooperate with him on that project. Can you ask him for me and give me his phone number?】

“Well,” Lin Wan didn’t think much about it because it was work, “you can send him my number.”

Zeng Xubai lowered his head to reply to Xu Pingchuan’s message and said to Lin Wan, “Then I’ll send him your WeChat too!”

Lin Wan didn’t say anything, but Zhu Chizhou was the first to express his dissatisfaction, “Hasn’t he already added me? Why does he have to trouble our Director Lin to handle such a small matter personally?”

Zeng Xubai poked Lin Wan’s arm with his cell phone and joked, “Look how nice your assistant is. He cares about you so much. He’s afraid that you’re tired and feels sorry for you.”

Lin Wan said casually, “He is not. He has been too idle recently.”

Zhu Chizhou wanted to say, “Why am I not like that? I don’t care about you, but I sleep with you? I don’t feel sorry for you, but I ran out to drive you in the heavy rain?”

But Zeng Xubai could make such jokes with Lin Wan, but he can’t.

He and Lin Wan were not yet close enough to joke around with each other.

Twenty minutes later, Zeng Xubai arrived home first. With one person missing, no one spoke in the car, and silence lingered between them like a thin mist.

Zhu Chizhou was young and energetic, and he was also very straightforward. He almost lost his temper and confronted Lin Wan. ‘Why are you hiding from me? Why are you afraid to talk to me? And why… why are you worried that you can’t leave me?’

However, in the logical chain of the whole thing, if the link that he could hear Lin Wan’s inner thoughts was missing, many places would be blank.

He wouldn’t know that Lin Wan was avoiding him and was afraid of him, and he shouldn’t know that Lin Wan was worried that he couldn’t leave him.

Zhu Chizhou pondered all the way, and tried to arrange and combine his words countless times, but he still couldn’t find a suitable reason to open this topic.

They arrived at Lin Wan’s residence. Zhu Chizhou had been here once before, when he sent Lin Wan home after a social event in the evening.

But that time he only parked his car at the gate of the community, this time, he drove the car to the entrance of the underground garage.

The car couldn’t enter the community, so the security guard on duty at the booth came to ask for their information. Lin Wan told them which building, unit and house number he lived in.

The car drove in, turned a few corners, and stopped at the entrance of a unit.

Lin Wan opened the car door and said thank you to Zhu Chizhou.

【I can’t stand it anymore. I really want to hug him.】

【I can’t bear it any longer. 】

His heart was in a mess, but he left without any hesitation. After closing the door, he waved to Zhu Chizhou through the window, then turned and left.

Zhu Chizhou was sweating from gripping the steering wheel, but he couldn’t help himself and pressed the P gear with his finger, opened the car window, and shouted to the back of the figure: “Lin Wan!”

Lin Wan stopped, turned around, his eyes as calm as a lake.

【It would be nice if he could stay and sleep with me.】

The thumping of Zhu Chizhou’s heartbeat made his tongue numb. He felt dizzy even though he hadn’t drunk any alcohol. He looked at Lin Wan’s thin figure in the dim light. The impulse in his heart was unable to be vented, so he could only call him and stand there in a daze.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Wan walked back and looked at Zhu Chizhou from a distance.

“I, I want to ask you a question.” Zhu Chizhou said stutteringly.

Lin Wan: “What’s the problem?”

Zhu Chizhou racked his brains and chose a reasonable but not explicit hint: “When we were playing cards just now, there were several times when you could have gone first. Why did you let me go first before you left?”

“Oh, this.” Lin Wan blinked, “Because I want to make sure we get three points. If I run away with first and you don’t, we would only have two points or one point. Since I am sure I can at least get more points, the best way is of course to let you escape first.”

Zhu Chizhou’s enthusiasm was dampened by a bucket of cold water. He paused for a moment, his voice a little hoarse: “Is that the only reason?”

Lin Wan said calmly: “Yes.”

【What if it’s not the same? 】

Zhu Chizhou: “…Oh.”

He should have breathed a sigh of relief, but he felt empty inside.

“Then I’ll go upstairs. You go home and rest early. Good night.”

Lin Wan turned and left again.

The figure entered the unit door, walked around the corner, and was no longer seen.

After a long time, Zhu Chizhou shifted the gear again, released the brake, and slowly drove out of the garage.

It was already early in the morning. Lin Wan entered the room without turning on the lights. He took off his coat and threw it on the sofa. Then, he walked into the bathroom and ran cold water into the bathtub.

He poured the ice in, took off his white cotton briefs, and stepped into the water barefoot.

When his toes touched the icy water, an intense chill spread from the soles of his feet to his entire body, and the icy water pierced into his bones like needles.

Every time an inch of skin was penetrated, his heart beat faster.

His body instinctively needed to take in more oxygen in order to maintain his core temperature, and he breathed in big gulps, like a person dying of suffocation.

He couldn’t help shivering, his teeth chattered uncontrollably, and his skin took on an unhealthy paleness in the water.

His skin became whiter than snow in the physical sense.

The knife-like pain took away every bit of heat from his skin, and also took away the crazy desire that filled his heart.

In this pain that was almost like self-mutilation, desires subsided and the world finally became quiet.

Gradually, his body began to adapt to the extreme temperature.

He closed his eyes and let his body slowly sink until his skin was covered by water. At this time, his heartbeat seemed to be synchronized with the ripples on the water, and each heartbeat was calm and powerful.

This feeling of calm and power lasted until he saw Zhu Chizhou at work the next day.

Because he slept too late last night, Lin Wan was not woken up by the alarm clock in the morning and accidentally overslept, so he didn’t have time to take an ice bath before going out.

The boy was wearing an iron-gray shirt today that showed off his chest muscles. It wasn’t even a question of showing off his chest muscles. The muscles in his upper arms were obviously stretching the fabric tight. The front of the shirt even had a faint crack because it was stretched too tight.

The cuffs of his shirt were rolled up in half, revealing his wheat-colored arms, with slightly bulging veins and full and smooth muscle lines.

Lin Wan needed to work very hard to restrain himself so that he could focus on his work.

But Zhu Chizhou kept hanging around in front of him and going in and out of his office.

Sometimes he asked him to sign documents, sometimes he sent him information, and unprecedentedly he helped him get water from the pantry, which made Lin Wan wonder if the guy had caused some big trouble and he needed to clean up the mess for him.

The two people’s eyes met for the eleventh time. Lin Wan could no longer bear it, so he took his laptop and went to the small meeting room of the investment department to work alone.

When he passed by Zhu Chizhou’s workstation, he thought of a wonderful metaphor:

【It feels like I eat potatoes every day, and suddenly one day I have a feast. After that, braised pork, grilled lamb chops, and lobster are still in front of me every day, but I can only eat potatoes every day!】

【We have no grudges against each other, why are you torturing me like this?!】

Zhu Chizhou looked up and met Lin Wan’s gaze. He was startled by Lin Wan’s cold eyes: ‘What did he mean? Did I make him angry again?’

Zhou Yuang slid his chair over and whispered to Zhu Chizhou, “Did you see that? Xiao Zhao from the HR department has come to our place seven or eight times!”

Zhu Chizhou looked at Lin Wan as he walked into the meeting room before looking away. “Ah? I didn’t notice. What is he doing here?”

“Why do you think he’s here?” Zhou Yuang punched Zhu Chizhou, “He’s here to see you! Why are you dressed so flashy today?”

Zhu Chizhou felt guilty: “Really?” Is it obvious?

In the morning when he had a video call with Ji Xun and asked Ji Xun to help him choose clothes.

Zhou Yuang said sincerely, “You dress like the marginal guy on Xiaohongshu.”

Nie Xiaolan happened to pass by and heard their conversation. She came over and added: “Very good, Xiaozhu, please continue to dress in this way.”

Zhu Chizhou humbly asked for advice: “Sister Lan, do you think I look good?”

Aunt Nie Xiaolan smiled: “Very good.”

“What do you think, Yuang?”

Zhou Yuang had the aesthetic of a straight male and thought that Zhu Chizhou’s outfit was immoral, but he had to admit that he did have a good figure, so he gave him an adjective: “A high-quality borderline man.”

Zhu Chizhou: “…”

But Lin Wan didn’t seem to like it. Not only did he look at himself with cold eyes, he was even thinking about what to eat today.