Tang Man wanted to get off the bed, but found that she wasn’t wearing slippers when she jumped onto Xie Li. They were left in the living room. So she didn’t move, waiting for Xie Li to come out. She wanted to reach out and take the hairdryer, letting him go out and get her slippers.

But Xie Li didn’t move. Instead, he held the hairdryer, bent down to plug it in, and stood beside Tang Man, telling her to turn around. “I’ll blow your hair dry before going to get your slippers.”

Tang Man could only make an “oh” sound, then turned around with her back to Xie Li, lowering her head to look at her phone screen.

Both Si Jiahe and Du Henian had blow-dried her hair for her before. Tang Man was no stranger to this set of actions. But thinking Xie Li’s movements might be clumsy, she still said, “Start blowing from the top of my head.”

She didn’t like completely dry hair. She usually blow-dried it half-dry and let it air-dry naturally. If it was blow-dried too dry, the hair would also be very dry, and she didn’t really like using hair oil.

Xie Li’s hand paused for a moment before he made an affirmative sound. He lowered his eyelids, felt the temperature of the hairdryer’s air outlet, then placed it at a suitable distance and started blow-drying Tang Man’s hair. For a time, only the whirring sound of the hairdryer could be heard in the room.

After about a minute of blow-drying, Tang Man touched the ends of her hair, feeling it was enough. She raised her head and touched Xie Li’s wrist. “Okay, that’s good. If it’s too dry, my hair will be too dry.”

She turned around and sat on the bed. After she said it was fine, Xie Li turned off the hairdryer switch. When he bent down to unplug it, he found Tang Man looking at him from the side. He averted his gaze slightly and immediately noticed a box placed in front of the bedside table. It was already open.

Inside were a bunch of condoms.

His movements paused for a moment. He glanced at Tang Man, then impassively tidied up the hairdryer as if he hadn’t seen it, putting it back in the bathroom. He even said, “I’ll go to the living room to get your slippers.”

Tang Man, lying on the bed, made an affirmative sound.

After Xie Li left, Tang Man, still lying on the bed, couldn’t help laughing. However, she hadn’t been happy for long when she received a message from Bella, asking why Si Jiahe didn’t go to this meeting and that she couldn’t get in touch with him either.

The smile on Tang Man’s face faded a bit. She frowned slightly, about to reply to the message when Xie Li already walked in carrying a pair of slippers, placing them at Tang Man’s feet.

Tang Man sat up. The phone was thrown on the bed. She instantly forgot about the message Bella had just sent. She hugged Xie Li and kissed the corner of his mouth, saying a word of thanks. When Xie Li hugged her back, she couldn’t help laughing. “No, you have to go wash your hands in the bathroom first.”

Xie Li laughed at this. “You’re even disgusted by yourself?”

Tang Man said, “I have a psychological barrier.”

Simply put, it was a double standard. One could always be lenient with oneself, but it was difficult to be the same with others, even if that person was one’s partner, family, or friend.

Xie Li laughed. He went to the sink in the bathroom to wash his hands. After wiping them dry with a paper towel, he walked out the door and saw Tang Man sitting cross-legged on the bed, taking out a bunch of condoms from that box and placing them on the bed. Seeing Xie Li, she beckoned him over.

Like a boss selling condoms, she said, “What size are you? I’m not too sure, so I bought a few kinds. You pick for yourself.”

Xie Li almost wanted to facepalm. No matter if it was the first time Tang Man did this kind of thing, she was always so unperturbed, so unperturbed that he couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed.

In the past, he always had a sense of being restrained and confined when it came to sex. He wouldn’t openly talk about sex and rarely thought about such things. But after being with Tang Man, he found that his heart seemed unable to calm down recently, and his past state seemed to have been completely shattered.

“Tang Man, I’m not ready yet.” He walked up, hesitated for a moment, but still prepared to put away all these products spread out on the bed, put them back in that box, and then said this sentence.

Tang Man tilted her head and glanced at Xie Li. A few seconds later, she found he really thought this way. She wanted to sigh but didn’t want to give up. In fact, she was already prepared.

So she said half-jokingly, “What’s there to prepare for this?”

“Xie Li, if you keep preparing, I’ll really become a living widow.”

Thinking about it, she hadn’t had sex for several months. Being in such a long dry spell was almost impossible in the past.

Xie Li looked at her. His tidying movements stopped. Tang Man noticed the man’s change. She sat up straight, got close to him, and hugged Xie Li, her cheek pressed against the side of his neck.

She seemed to gradually come to like this kind of intimacy too. The joy it brought mentally could surpass physical pleasure.

Xie Li’s body stiffened for a moment. She heard his breathing had also noticeably changed. Just as she was about to make a move, Xie Li took the initiative, hugging her and changing positions. He sat on the bed, holding Tang Man like a child.

Stroking the still slightly damp tips of her hair at her temples, he said, “Next time, let me buy these things.”

Tang Man didn’t understand why he said this. In her view, it was the same no matter who bought them. But she still nodded.

The room’s lights were dimmed a bit. Tang Man liked this kind of lighting. White lights were prone to being glaring. She liked the sense of shadows under the interplay of light and dark. There was an indescribable beauty in the changes between brightness and dimness. Most importantly, under this kind of lighting, it was conducive to her sleep.

However, it was Xie Li’s first time. Some of his movements were still a bit inexperienced. They actually hadn’t kissed much before. Thinking about it, the most frequent was the number of hugs. Xie Li seemed to really like hugging her. This intimacy seemed to have a different meaning in his eyes.

But as the light gradually dimmed, almost extinguished, another kind of light suddenly lit up in the room, a glaring white light, coming from under Tang Man’s pillow, still vibrating incessantly.

Tang Man held back the urge to curse. Now that things had reached the point of no return, at this critical juncture, this phone call was simply fatal.

The air conditioning in the room was still on, but a thin layer of sweat had appeared on their bodies. Tang Man still didn’t want to answer that call. After waiting for a bit, before she could hang up, the vibrating sound had already stopped. Her muddled brain also didn’t have the time or space to think about who would be calling her so late. She said to Xie Li, “Come in. I think it’s okay now.”

Xie Li pursed his lips, about to speak. One of his hands was still around the back of Tang Man’s neck. At this moment, the phone under the pillow vibrated again, the light illuminating the expressions on both their faces, leaving nothing concealed.

Xie Li stroked Tang Man’s face and said in a low voice, still carrying a meaningfully ambiguous panting sound, “Calling at this hour, it should be something urgent. You answer the phone first and ask what it is.”

Tang Man made an affirmative sound. Her somewhat muddled mind had actually regained reason the moment the phone vibrated the second time. She fumbled for the phone from beside the pillow, closed her eyes for a moment to adjust to the phone’s light, then looked at the phone screen. But her movements suddenly stopped.

She couldn’t help glancing at Xie Li.

The caller ID displayed Si Jiahe.

In her hand, the phone was still vibrating nonstop, as if it wouldn’t rest until its goal was achieved, continuing to vibrate like this.

And at this time, Xie Li noticed Tang Man’s gaze. He glanced at the lit-up phone screen. For a moment, he seemed to not even react to what those three characters on the screen represented, or rather, who.

A few seconds later, much of the ease and casualness on his face dissipated. The light at the head of the bed was turned on, instantly illuminating the two of them. The bit of light from the phone also became faint.