Chapter 49 : Developing Superfluous Emotions

Lin Yanqiu’s voice was as calm as if she were stating something completely ordinary.

However, when these few words fell into Hua Qi’an’s ears, they were no less shocking than a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky, leaving her mind buzzing blankly.

Those dark eyes, misted over from exhaustion and the cold, were filled with utter astonishment and confusion.

She even began to doubt whether she was having auditory hallucinations due to physical exhaustion.

Go… go to her house and sleep?

This suggestion was, in itself, filled with an indescribable strangeness.

Their relationship was nowhere near the stage of sharing a bed.

No, not even sharing a bed… Even being called out at such a late hour, only to be told to spend the night at the other’s house, was absurd to the extreme.

Hua Qi’an’s mind whirled as she tried to read even the slightest hint of real intention from Lin Yanqiu’s cold face.

Was it because she’d gone to the police station today, and Lin Yanqiu had somehow discovered her whereabouts after all?

Or was there… some other reason she didn’t know?

Countless thoughts spun around in her head…

But she decided to just ask directly.

“…Why?”

Her voice was soft, carrying a tremor she herself hadn’t noticed.

Lin Yanqiu’s gaze didn’t evade her in the slightest; she calmly met Hua Qi’an’s probing eyes.

In those sharp eyes, there was a depth of meaning that Hua Qi’an couldn’t quite fathom.

The reason she gave sounded impeccable, every word filled with an irrefutable “reasonableness.”

“I made an appointment for you with a doctor tomorrow morning for a follow-up examination.”

Lin Yanqiu’s voice was still cold.

“The hospital is close to my place. If you sleep at my house, it’ll be convenient to go over in the morning.”

A follow-up?

Hua Qi’an froze.

That reason did sound perfectly reasonable, full of an “older sister’s” concern for her “younger sister’s” health.

But it was precisely this reasonableness that made it all the more off.

After all, with Lin Yanqiu’s personality, if she truly had this in mind, she should have messaged her earlier…

Not picked this time in the evening, which wasn’t particularly ample…

It really felt like a last-minute decision.

This wasn’t like Lin Yanqiu at all.

She always had clear motives in what she did.

This sudden “thoughtfulness” made Hua Qi’an instinctively uneasy.

But what could she say?

Refuse?

On what grounds?

Say she was perfectly fine and didn’t need a follow-up?

Or say she’d rather get up at five the next morning to rush from the dorm to the hospital, rather than go to Lin Yanqiu’s place?

Any rebuttal, in the face of Lin Yanqiu’s irrefutable aura, seemed so weak and powerless, even like an ungrateful provocation.

She lowered her eyelids, her long lashes casting a small shadow beneath her eyes, hiding her complicated emotions.

In the end, she could only nod lightly, forcing out a single word from her throat:

“…Okay.”

She got into the familiar sports car, sitting in the passenger seat as the soft leather wrapped around her body.

Lin Yanqiu walked around the front of the car, got into the driver’s seat, and as the door closed, all the noise of the world was shut out.

The space inside the car was small, yet it was filled with Lin Yanqiu’s cool scent, mixed with high-end perfume and a faint trace of tobacco.

Wrapped in this scent, Hua Qi’an unconsciously tensed up, even her breathing becoming cautious.

Lin Yanqiu didn’t start the car right away.

She turned her head, looked at Hua Qi’an, and then casually tossed the ladies’ cigarette she’d held between her fingers into the trash can outside the car window.

Hua Qi’an had actually been paying attention to this since earlier.

She hadn’t expected Lin Yanqiu to smoke.

This realization surprised her a bit.

Smoking, with its undertones of decadence and indulgence, seemed completely at odds with Lin Yanqiu’s image.

A faint, spicy smell of tobacco tickled her nose.

Hua Qi’an didn’t like the scent and instinctively frowned slightly.

But she didn’t say anything, just quietly concealed the gesture.

Yet Lin Yanqiu seemed to have seen right through her thoughts, her cool voice sounding in the confined space: “I don’t smoke.”

Hua Qi’an was startled, looking at her in confusion.

She saw Lin Yanqiu staring ahead, her slender fingers resting on the steering wheel, explaining lightly: “I just use it to keep time.”

As she spoke, she picked up a bottle of high-end perfume from the car and gave it a casual spray.

The already faint smell of tobacco was quickly masked.

She paused, as if recalling something distant, or perhaps simply explaining for Hua Qi’an’s sake: “From lighting it to it burning out, a cigarette is just a unit of time for me.”

“I don’t actually smoke.”

She added again, as if worried about being misunderstood.

This explanation was so unexpected, filled with a strange, almost old-fashioned quirkiness, that Hua Qi’an was momentarily at a loss for words.

Using cigarettes as a way to keep time?

That sounded even stranger than actually smoking.

It seemed her understanding of Lin Yanqiu was not as thorough as she’d thought.

Or perhaps, they’d just spent time together, but she’d never truly understood her.

The car started smoothly, merging into the city traffic.

The neon lights outside flashed past, casting flickering shadows across Lin Yanqiu’s sharply contoured profile.

Lin Yanqiu’s gaze swept over Hua Qi’an’s neck and wrist, her eyes suddenly narrowing as her brows drew together in a slight frown.

Hua Qi’an sharply sensed the change.

She followed Lin Yanqiu’s gaze and looked down, seeing the lightning-struck wood amulet hanging at her neck, as well as the already somewhat faded Buddhist bead bracelet on her wrist.

What was it?

Why did Lin Yanqiu suddenly have that expression?

But Lin Yanqiu’s gaze had become complicated—not angry, but rather a deeper, almost bone-deep sense of aversion and dislike.

“You believe in those things?”

The chilly voice came.

Hua Qi’an’s heart skipped a beat.

This was bad.

After all, Lin Yanqiu was a medical professor who had received the highest scientific education.

A person who valued logic and evidence in everything—how could she possibly like things with no scientific basis?

“It’s just that things haven’t been going well lately.”

Hua Qi’an mumbled an explanation, turning to look out her own window at the rapidly passing scenery, a little embarrassed.

Hearing this, Lin Yanqiu sighed helplessly, realizing that her reaction just now had probably been too harsh, and her expression softened slightly.

“Sorry, I just… don’t like superstitious things.”

It was rare for Lin Yanqiu to apologize, which actually surprised Hua Qi’an, making her glance in Lin Yanqiu’s direction.

Her expression seemed a bit tired, with a trace of bewilderment between her brows and eyes.

Hua Qi’an vaguely sensed that behind Lin Yanqiu’s reaction, there might be a deeper reason…

Perhaps a past experience she didn’t want to mention, something unpleasant related to this.

This realization weighed down Hua Qi’an’s heart.

She wisely chose not to discuss the topic further.

The car’s atmosphere fell into silence.

Hua Qi’an just silently watched the city streets flash by outside the window.

What she didn’t know was that beside her, Lin Yanqiu’s heart was far from calm.

Lin Yanqiu’s gaze seemed fixed on the road ahead, but the corner of her eye, uncontrollably, glanced at Hua Qi’an’s figure over and over again.

She truly didn’t like all those supernatural things, but what was really making her restless now was Hua Qi’an’s ridiculous pajamas with the cartoon puppies.

She’d draped her own coat over Hua Qi’an partly to keep her warm, but also because she didn’t want anyone to notice those pajamas…

Last night, the photo Hua Qi’an sent had been like a stone cast into the heart of a lake, sending monstrous waves through the calm waters that had lain undisturbed for years.

In the photo, the girl wore these pajamas, probably just after showering, her hair still damp and falling loosely over her shoulders.

She seemed to be expressing thanks, offering a shy and gentle smile toward the camera.

The background showed a balcony, with a corner of the dorm room visible.

It was that smile, and the pajamas—so completely at odds with her cool temperament—that were like a spell, instantly captivating all of Lin Yanqiu’s attention.

So much so that the entire day, she had been distracted.

During meetings, she hadn’t heard a single word from the director; her mind was filled only with the dazzling brightness of Hua Qi’an’s eyes under the light.

While walking or doing anything, she couldn’t stop thinking about the delicate collarbone peeking from under the pajama collar, the faintly revealed curve half-concealed.

Even during that boring elective class she taught in the afternoon, her gaze kept drifting unconsciously toward the center of the classroom…

But she was teaching another class’s elective, so naturally the person she wanted to see wasn’t there.

She felt she was on the verge of madness.

This was the first time she’d ever felt such emotions.

This unfamiliar, nearly overwhelming feeling made her anxious, and yet…

Excited.

Finally, when replying to messages, she remembered she had Hua Qi’an’s contact info.

She’d almost instantly come up with the flimsy “follow-up” excuse, without a trace of hesitation.

And called a doctor she knew, turning the excuse into reality.

She just wanted to see her.

That reason, Lin Yanqiu would never say out loud.

She hadn’t expected, though, that Hua Qi’an would actually show up in those pajamas.

It caught her completely off guard.

The car turned a corner, and the scenery outside grew familiar.

Lin Yanqiu’s home was in an upscale residential area, with tight security and a quiet environment.

When the car slowly drove into the underground garage and parked in her designated spot…

Only then did Hua Qi’an realize—

She was really going to spend the night here.