Chapter 2

The air was quiet. Shen Ci moved several steps to the side and curled up in the corner of the hot spring, her back pressed against the cool stone wall. The water reached her shoulders, while flower petals drifted gently across the surface. She lowered her gaze, not daring to look at the man only a few steps away. Jiang Duo remained seated in the pool, once again closing his eyes to rest, as though the awkward incident from earlier had never happened. Through the swirling steam, his silhouette looked like a blurred ink painting, indistinct and distant. There were only a few steps between them, yet it felt as though two entire worlds separated them. Strange memories flooded into Shen Ci’s mind. She clenched her fingers beneath the water, her heartbeat racing wildly. She was still trying to process the truth. She had died, only to come back to life in a bizarre “storybook.” There were no Three Bonds and Five Constants here, no strict separation between men and women. Yet there were things like bathing together in hot springs and walking around barely clothed—things she found utterly outrageous. “Boss!” A man’s voice suddenly shattered the silence from somewhere in the distance, carrying a lazy laugh. “We’re one person short for cards! We’re just waiting for you!” Shen Ci’s entire body stiffened. The voice drew closer, accompanied by the sound of approaching footsteps. She instinctively raised her eyes and saw several men walking toward the other end of the hot spring. Her pupils suddenly contracted. Those men… were all improperly dressed! The man in front wore nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist. His chest was completely bare, his abdominal muscles clearly defined, and water still dripped from his wet hair. The second man was even more outrageous. His upper body was completely bare, while his lower half was covered only by a pair of extremely short black briefs that clung tightly to his thighs. No, they weren't even like the undergarments she knew. The material was strange, and the shape was something she had never seen before, making her feel terribly embarrassed just looking at it. Another man wore a loose outer robe with the collar hanging wide open, exposing a large portion of his collarbone and chest. As he walked, he laughed and called out, “Boss, hiding here and enjoying yourself?” In broad daylight, this was utterly shameless! Shen Ci felt her mind buzz as blood rushed straight to her face. She immediately turned her head away and stared fixedly at the stone wall beside her, refusing to look anywhere else, as though the rough rock were some priceless masterpiece. But her ears betrayed her. The tips had turned so red they looked ready to bleed. Like boiled shrimp, or the most delicate blush on a springtime flower branch. Amid the rising steam, the redness spread from her ears down the side of her neck, even tinting her snow-white shoulders with a faint pink hue. “Oh?” A lazy, amused voice sounded. “Miss Shen is here too?” The speaker was Xie Shuheng, Jiang Duo’s childhood friend and the heir to the Xie Group. Shen Ci held her breath, not daring to answer. At that moment, she only wanted to sink beneath the water and disappear into the bottom of the pool. Xie Shuheng’s gaze fell upon her turned face. This was not the first time he had seen Shen Ci. Some time ago, the Jiang family had discovered a traitor within their ranks. Someone had tampered with Jiang Duo’s sports car at an equestrian club outside the city, causing the brakes to fail. He had crashed into a guardrail on a secluded mountain road. Apparently, this young woman had taken him to the hospital and stayed by his side for an entire day and night. Jiang Duo had never liked owing anyone a favor. When he asked her what she wanted in return, he had never expected this seemingly young woman to immediately ask to become his girlfriend. She certainly had ambition… That was what Xie Shuheng had thought at the time. There were far too many women in their circle who tried to throw themselves at Jiang Duo. Shen Ci had simply been lucky. Saving his life and then asking him to repay her by becoming her boyfriend—it was such an old-fashioned cliché. He had seen her several times, and she was indeed beautiful. Almond-shaped eyes, cherry-red lips, skin as fair as snow. Even in the entertainment industry, she would have been considered exceptionally beautiful. But what kind of beauty had Xie Shuheng not seen before? He had long since grown tired of it. Yet now… Xie Shuheng narrowed his eyes. The young woman was curled up beside the stone wall, her face turned away from them. Her eyelashes trembled like a startled butterfly, and her lips were pressed tightly together until they had gone pale. She was drenched from head to toe, her clothes clinging thinly to her body, yet unlike those women who deliberately flaunted their charms, she had instinctively hunched her shoulders inward and crossed her arms over her chest. It was an almost clumsy gesture of self-protection. And most striking of all was that blush. It spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears, vivid and delicate, yet she stubbornly pretended to remain composed, staring intently at the stone wall as though it were engraved with the Four Books and Five Classics. It didn't seem fake. Something stirred inexplicably in Xie Shuheng’s heart. This was not the Shen Ci he had seen before. The previous times she had stood beside Jiang, there had been calculation, flattery, and an unmistakable ambition in her eyes. But now, she looked like a peony drenched by rain—beautiful and fragile, with a shy vulnerability that made him want to protect her in the palm of his hand. For a moment, he couldn't take his eyes off her. “Let’s go.” Jiang Duo suddenly spoke. At some point, he had already stood up. Water droplets slid down his chest as he picked up the robe beside the pool and draped it over himself. He tied the belt slowly, but his gaze fell on Shen Ci. She was still sitting with her face turned away, completely motionless as though someone had sealed her acupoints. “Coming with us, or are you staying a little longer?” he asked. His voice was deep, giving away nothing. Shen Ci lowered her head. Her voice instinctively carried the soft, delicate tone of a Jiangnan woman, with a faint tremble beneath it. “I… I’ll stay a little longer.” She didn't dare look at him. She didn't dare look at anyone. She only wanted them to leave as quickly as possible, to get away from this suffocating place. Jiang Duo’s hand paused as he tied his belt. His eyes lowered slightly, settling on her flushed ears. He remained silent for several seconds. “Don’t stay in too long,” he finally said. When he turned around, his robe stirred the air, sending the steam swirling gently. Before leaving, Xie Shuheng glanced back one last time at the woman in the hot spring. She was still facing away, revealing a slender, fair neck. The blush had already spread from her ears to the back of her neck, like a fallen peach blossom against white snow. The footsteps gradually faded. The water became still. Shen Ci waited for a while longer. Only after confirming that they had truly left did she finally breathe a sigh of relief. Her entire body relaxed against the cold stone wall as she gasped for breath. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest—not because of illness, but because of embarrassment, shock, and everything absurd that had happened in the past few minutes. What kind of world was this? She looked up at the night sky overhead. Even the sky was wrong. There were none of the familiar arrangements of stars she knew. Instead, several strange lights hung high above, shining so brightly that they hurt her eyes. The surrounding stone walls were carved with patterns she did not recognize, while the objects placed beside the pool were all bizarre and unfamiliar. She didn't understand. She understood nothing. But she knew one thing. From this day onward, she was no longer Shen Ci, the frail eldest daughter of the Shen family in Jiangnan. She had entered the world described in a storybook and acquired the healthy body she had longed for in her previous life. She had to survive. She had to live under this new identity and survive in this strange and fantastical world. After calming herself, Shen Ci began sorting through her current situation. According to the original owner's memories, the handsome man she had first seen upon waking was Jiang Duo, the male protagonist of this storybook. Because of the debt of having saved his life, he had temporarily agreed to become the original Shen Ci’s boyfriend. But the supposed life-saving favor had been partly fabricated.