After the breakup, I was taken in by a group of trendy young women.

Shen Na placed the hand-drip kettle back on the drip filter, and the last few drops of coffee fell into the sharing pot, filling the living room with the citrus aroma of Yirgacheffe.

She picked up the latte art pitcher and slowly poured the frothed milk into the espresso. With a gentle twist of her wrist, a tulip bloomed on the surface of the coffee, its petals layered upon each other, the milk foam so delicate it looked as if it had been folded from silk.

Shen Qing picked up another latte art pitcher, tilted the cup slightly, and slender swan necks emerged from the milk foam, their wings spreading gracefully.

The two sisters simultaneously put down their latte art pitchers and pushed the two cups of coffee in front of Lin Ye.

The tattooed arm was the first to come over, followed closely by the tattooed leg, who lay on the island counter. Green Hair and Pink Hair bounced over from the sofa, while Qi Liuhai held Wangcai and stood on tiptoe to look.

The blond-haired man moved from the other side of the sofa to the edge of the woods, staring at the tulips and swans for a long while, before speaking in an unusually convincing tone:

"Damn, they really know how to do latte art. Sister Shen Qing, Sister Shen Na, from now on you two will be our coffee department managers."

Wang Xiaoying leaned against the bar, took a sip of a tulip latte—the milk foam was dense, the coffee was rich, and it tasted better than any coffee she could make in this upscale kitchen with the best equipment.

She put down her cup and watched the sisters, Shen Na and Shen Qing, working together to clean the utensils around the island counter. Her expression was complicated.

Her kitchen had never been so lively.

Her coffee machine had never been used so thoroughly before.

Her home had never been filled with so many people before.

Then she turned to look at Lin Ye, her voice soft.

"You can stay here tonight."

Lin Ye was leaning against the island counter, holding his coffee cup and about to drink when he heard Wang Xiaoying's words and turned to look at her.

She paused for a moment after saying that, clearly not expecting the invitation to come out of her mouth.

But the words had already been spoken and couldn't be taken back. She could only pretend to be calm, pick up her coffee cup, and take a sip, a barely perceptible blush rising to her ears.

Lin Ye smiled, placed the coffee cup on the island counter, and said it was fine.

Wang Xiaoying's apartment has two bedrooms and one living room. She usually lives alone. She sleeps in the master bedroom by herself, and the guest bedroom is used as a storage room.

She cleared out the clutter piled up in the guest room—several boxes of out-of-season clothes, a stack of unopened magazines, and a broken dehumidifier—and then took out two spare down comforters from the closet and laid them on the mattress in the guest room.

It was obvious that eight girls couldn't fit in one guest room. The blond-haired guy was the first to peek his head into the master bedroom, followed closely by the tattooed man. He looked at the spacious bed, then turned around and exchanged a glance with the tattooed woman.

The sofa was also requisitioned. Green Hair and Pink Hair each occupied one of the sofa armrests. Bangs put the space capsule cat carrier under the coffee table, and Wangcai jumped out from inside and found his new territory.

Shen Qing and Shen Na slept on the small bed in the guest room, the two sisters squeezed together, in the exact same position as they had been in the shared apartment the night before.

Late at night.

One by one, the lights in the apartment went out, until only the warm yellow floor lamp in the corner remained lit.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, and a faint breeze was blowing from the central air conditioning vents.

Lin Ye lay on the three-seater sofa in the living room, his eyes closed, his breathing steady.

The sofa was very soft, even softer than the new sofa in the shared apartment that cost 12,000 yuan, but he didn't sleep on it.

He was reviewing everything that had happened that day—from being woken up by Wang Xiaoying's phone call in the morning, to cursing her to her face in the mall and actually getting a good time, to the ice cream shop and latte art demonstration, and finally moving into her house with eight girls.

He had never seen this plot development before, even after reading so many books in Rotten Persimmons.

Then he heard footsteps.

My bare feet trod on the wooden floor, very lightly and slowly, as if I were hesitating with each step about whether to continue.

The footsteps started at the master bedroom door, went down the hallway, and stopped next to the sofa in the living room.

Lin Ye did not open his eyes.

He smelled a faint fragrance—not perfume, but the scent of shower gel mixed with body lotion, a gardenia scent, completely different from the cool perfume Wang Xiaoying had smelled when she passed by him in the mall corridor during the day.

Then came her breathing, which became clear at such close proximity to his ear—rapid, uneven, carrying something that had been suppressed for a long time and was finally breaking free.

"Lin Ye, are you asleep?"

Her voice was completely different from her usual dignified tone; it was hoarse, soft, and slightly trembling at the end.

She must have been wearing a silk nightgown, because the hem brushed lightly against the wooden floor when she squatted down.

She didn't wait for Lin Ye's reply, so she slowly leaned close to his ear, her warm breath seeping into his ear canal: "Lin Ye—I'm so hot..."

Lin Ye rolled over, the movement extremely subtle.

The sofa cushion sank into an arc when he turned over, startling Wang Xiaoying, who was squatting beside the sofa.

She instinctively took a half-inch back, but she wasn't quick enough to react.

Lin Ye reached over from the edge of the sofa and grasped her hand.

His fingers were long and strong, and the calluses on his thumb brushed against the soft skin of her palm. Wang Xiaoying was frozen in place by this sudden contact.

Her fingers were slender with distinct knuckles, and her nails were neatly trimmed and coated with a layer of clear nail polish.

This hand, which had been pointing its finger at its subordinates and berating them aggressively during the day, was now trembling slightly in Lin Ye's hand, like a butterfly that had been caught.

"He doesn't even consider the occasion when he's being provocative."

Lin Ye opened his eyes, lay on his side on the sofa, facing Wang Xiaoying who was squatting beside the sofa.

He was holding her hand, and she couldn't pull away.

The living room was dark, with only the faint light from the floor lamp filtering in from the corner of the wall.

In the dim light, he could see clearly the usually capable, sophisticated, and decisive Manager Wang.

The thin straps of her silk nightgown slipped down a bit, her hair was disheveled and draped over her shoulders, her eyes were slightly red, her nose was also slightly red, and the signature mauve lipstick had long since been rubbed off, revealing the original lip color underneath.

Her eyes were full of water, a deeper kind of wetness that she couldn't control.

Wang Xiaoying's lips moved for a long time, but she only managed to squeeze out a very weak, muffled groan from her throat, as if something was blocking it.

She tried to pull her hand back, but Lin Ye wouldn't let go.

She didn't really want to pull away; her fingers subtly curled in his palm, as if responding to his pressure.

She felt herself sinking—to a depth she had never experienced before.

She had always maintained a haughty demeanor, a tense posture, and wrapped herself tightly in authority and perfectionism, but at this moment, all of that failed her.

All that was left was a pitiful woman in a silk nightgown, squatting by the sofa, her hands being squeezed by her subordinate, begging for a lollipop.

Wang Xiaoying's face was already flushed red.

She tried to stand up, but Lin Ye still held her hand.

She could only look into Lin Ye's eyes in the darkness, pleading with him to let go in a whisper that only the two of them could hear—the tone wasn't like a command, but more like a last plea in despair.

Lin Ye let go of his hand.

When Wang Xiaoying stood up, her knee almost hit the corner of the coffee table. She staggered, grabbed the sofa armrest, and turned to walk towards the master bedroom.

The sound of bare feet walking on the wooden floor echoed from the living room all the way to the master bedroom door, followed by the sound of the door closing.