As she spoke, she quickly lowered her head, trying to find her lost phone through the glistening water surface.
"Found it." Zhang Jingxu submerged into the hot spring water, and when he surfaced again, he was holding Yu Wanwan's phone that had fallen to the bottom.
Fortunately, the phone was waterproof, and it was even still recording.
Zhang Jingxu was about to return the phone to her when he suddenly heard a WeChat notification sound. He inexplicably opened it and saw a two-dimensional image of a man without a shirt cooking in the kitchen.
Before he could see the details, Yu Wanwan, who caught a glimpse of it from the corner of her eye, quickly snatched the phone from his hand.
Although the character was animated, the environmental details in the picture were unmistakably Zhang Jingxu's kitchen. Realizing this, Yu Wanwan clumsily tried to cover it up, stammering, "Uh, that... that's a character my friend drew for her new comic. She shared it with me... Anyway, it has nothing to do with you."
"...Oh." Zhang Jingxu responded indifferently, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.
He hadn't even said that the picture had anything to do with him.
Yu Wanwan was about to exit WeChat, but perhaps because the phone had been briefly submerged, the screen touch was a bit unresponsive. She accidentally swiped and ended up tapping the voice message Gu Enzhun had sent her: "How about my drawing of your husband..."
Before the voice message finished playing, Yu Wanwan, startled, threw the phone back into the pool and let out a hoarse scream like a duck.
The next second, she quickly covered Zhang Jingxu's ears with both hands and pushed him hard against the hot spring pool wall, effectively trapping him there.
Yu Wanwan cursed inwardly: Damn best friend, why did she have to be so efficient!
Zhang Jingxu was still in a dazed state. A lot of hot spring water had gotten into his ears, making a rumbling sound that completely isolated him from the outside world. But based on Yu Wanwan's lip movements, he could tell she seemed to be saying, "You didn't hear anything."
So what did the voice message say? He really hadn't heard it clearly.
And why was this girl so jumpy today?
Feeling the warmth of her palm on his ear, Zhang Jingxu looked at the panicked Yu Wanwan before him. His eyes gradually darkened, and his adrenaline began to surge uncontrollably. He slowly raised one hand and involuntarily grabbed her wrist.
Startled by his movement, Yu Wanwan quickly withdrew her hand.
By the pool, the soothing and somewhat ambiguous song Yu Wanwan had carefully chosen played, blending with the rising steam from the hot spring, heating the atmosphere almost to the point of losing control.
Both were aware of this. Yu Wanwan quickly turned around and slowly walked to the edge of the pool, then said, "Um... let's go change clothes in the room first."
Zhang Jingxu followed her two steps toward the edge but suddenly stopped. He then slowly submerged into the water to retrieve her phone again.
Back in the bathroom, Yu Wanwan immediately placed her hand over her heart, trying to calm the wild pounding.
After calming down in front of the mirror for a long time, she changed into the beige halter neck one-piece swimsuit she had prepared in advance, which had enough fabric.
When she came out of the bathroom, Zhang Jingxu had just taken off his wet shirt, revealing the smooth lines of his back.
Yu Wanwan couldn't help biting her finger as she watched for a moment, then retreated back into the bathroom, grabbed a bathrobe from above, and put it on. Satisfied with her fully covered reflection in the mirror, she came out again.
Fifteen minutes later, Yu Wanwan lit the exquisite incense gifted by the hotel by the hot spring pool, then sat by the pool to film a short clip of herself playing in the water.
Zhang Jingxu also stood by the pool in a bathrobe, watching Yu Wanwan sit by the edge and splash water with her feet. Both seemed a bit reserved.
Yu Wanwan looked up at him. Perhaps to ease the atmosphere, she spoke first: "Are you here to soak in the hot spring or to wash clothes? Why are you wearing so much?"
Having said that, she pouted and quickly turned her head away.
After all, it was hot in summer. Who was he trying to hide from?
Hearing this, Zhang Jingxu looked down at himself, then looked up, his gaze landing on the equally tightly wrapped woman. His voice was slightly teasing: "You seem to be wearing even more than I am."
"I..." Yu Wanwan looked down. To get him to undress and for the sake of looking good on camera, she gritted her teeth and directly took off her cumbersome bathrobe.
"Off." She threw the half-soaked bathrobe aside, said lightly, then slowly slid into the warm water.
It was a low-temperature hot spring perfect for long soaks. As her entire body was fully immersed in the warm water, Yu Wanwan instantly felt an unprecedented sense of relaxation and pleasure.
Zhang Jingxu still stood on the shore. Since she had taken off her robe, there was no reason for him to be awkward.
Without further ado, he took off his bathrobe and placed it on the lounge chair, revealing the black shorts underneath.
Then he slowly stepped into the pool, the hot spring water gradually covering his body. His hair, still wet from the earlier fall, was slicked back as he casually ran his hand through it, creating a perfect slicked-back look.
Now, the two occupied opposite corners of the hot spring, as far apart as if separated by a wide river.
Around them, only the sound of raindrops pattering on the roof and the occasional rustling of bamboo in the wind could be heard. Yu Wanwan suddenly felt awkward.
Damn man, couldn't he say something to break the silence? She always had to speak first. He really had no emotional intelligence.
No wonder he had no girlfriend!
Complaining inwardly, Yu Wanwan picked up her phone, opened the camera, and started making cute faces and peace signs, pretending to take selfies. But she was actually aiming the camera at the man who seemed a world away.
She zoomed in, unabashedly admiring his face and body from an angle.
Making various selfie poses, she secretly snapped several photos of him under the guise of taking selfies, then savored them in her gallery.
Not only were his abs pleasing to the eye, but his collarbones were pretty sexy too.
When she adjusted the phone angle again to secretly photograph him, Yu Wanwan suddenly noticed that Zhang Jingxu's gaze had been fixed on her through the lens.
Thinking it was an illusion, she discreetly looked away from the phone and met Zhang Jingxu's entirely naked eyes.
Yu Wanwan's heart tightened, feeling as if it missed a beat. Guiltily, she put down the phone.
Could he tell she was taking pictures of him?
After five minutes of silence, Zhang Jingxu finally spoke: "Why do you always like to soak your phone in water?"
"Huh?" Yu Wanwan looked down and realized she had been so flustered that she had submerged her phone in the water.