The Lighter and Princess Gown

Overgrown Grassland

29. Chapter 29

When they separated that evening, Zhu Yun handed Wang Yuxuan a small notebook. “Those are some travel itineraries and shops that I recommend. If you run into any problems tomorrow, give me a call.”

Wang Yuxuan scoffed, clearly unhappy.

Zhu Yun spoke up, “About that…”

“Mmh?”

“I really do have work. Don’t be angry.”

Wang Yuxuan looked to her, but Zhu Yun was feeling guilty so she didn’t dare look him in the eyes. He said, “Zhu mei treated me to a nearly four figure dinner. Would I dare be angry?”

“……”

“Ah.” Wang Yuxuan feigned grief, “Like the saying goes, when you eat food from others, your mouth becomes soft. It’s true.”

Zhu Yun immediately raised her head. “Then, if my mom calls to ask about things, you’d better not reveal anything.”

“Don’t try to take a foot after winning an inch!”

Zhu Yun pat Wang Yuxuan’s shoulder. With a smile, she said, “Cooperate, won’t you. I’ll treat you next time.” Then she turned and headed back to the school campus.

Wang Yuxuan touched the spot where she’d hit him and muttered, “How half-hearted.” He opened the small notebook and saw the detailed commentary. Seeing that she’d been conscientious enough, Wang Yuxuan let out a small sigh.

Zhu Yun returned to her dorm room. After showering and changing her clothes, she put her things away. Sitting in her chair, she spun in circles a bit, before finally stopping to look at the box on her desk. Compared to a box for clothes, a box for a lighter was much smaller, indeed.

Would she lose out on grandeur?

In the quiet night, Zhu Yun’s thoughts flit about.

How should she give it to him? She didn’t want to be too casual and not give it the proper amount of respect. But she didn’t want to give it too much importance, lest she end up putting herself in a disadvantageous spot.

How could she skillfully recreate an atmosphere similar to ‘It’s only right for a princess to have a gown.’ For whatever reason, this small matter had her mind working so hard that it nearly bled.

The next day, she headed over to the project base with dark circles around her eyes. Li Xun had already split up the roles for their new project. He put all of Zhu Yun’s responsibilities into a document and sent it to her.

A few hours later, Li Xun came by to check on her progress. “The size of the page is wrong. What are you thinking about?”

Zhu Yun replied, “I’m not done with it yet.”

“Your skills turned into this after celebrating the new year?”

“……” She was just a bit distracted, is all.

The lighter was in her pocket.

Zhu Yun looked over by Li Xun’s hand. Next to his computer, there was already a lighter.

No chance…

Li Xun said, “Forget it. If you’re going to be absent-minded, it’s better not to work. Let’s go eat. You can pick the place.” Boss Li was being quite magnanimous today as well. He got up to get his coat, and then Zhu Yun followed suit.

As the light flickered, a thought crossed Zhu Yun’s mind. She glanced over at Li Xun, and then, at the speed of lightening, she snatched the lighter on the desk and hit it behind the computer tower. Her move had been quick and smooth, and when Li Xun turned around after putting on his jacket, he didn’t notice a thing.

“Let’s go.”

“Mmh.” Zhu Yun nodded, her face even and calm. “Let’s go.”

They headed to the plaza just off campus. Since school hadn’t started yet, many shops weren’t open. They passed by a cosmetics store, and Li Xun stopped in front of the wall mirror by the door.

Zhu Yun watched him ruffle his hair in the mirror.

To what extent does your narcissism go…

“Come here,” Boss Li ordered.

Zhu Yun walked over.

Li Xun said, “Look.”

Look at what…?

It wasn’t a slimming mirror like they had in fitting rooms, nor was there any atmospheric lighting, so your flaws were made very obvious. The dazzling lights inside the store, coupled with the ceramic floor tiles, truly revealed a person’s true appearance.

His looks really withstood the test…

Then, what did she look like today? Zhu Yun quietly looked at her own reflection. Haggard…

It was all that lighter’s fault.

Zhu Yun’s thoughts ran wild. She didn’t dare look at Li Xun, afraid that he’d see her shortcomings. She kept moving around, so that he wouldn’t be able to catch a still image of her.

“Is it getting too long?” Li Xun asked.

“What?”

He frowned and grabbed at his hair. “I can see the black.”

Zhu Yun just realized that Li Xun’s hair had grown out a bit. When he ruffled his hair, the black roots were visible.

“So fucking annoying.”

Then why do you insist on dying your hair blond?

Li Xun muttered under his breath, and then he pushed open the door to the cosmetics shop. Zhu Yun followed him inside and watched as he familiarly walked over to a shelf and pick up a box of hair dye.

It was an imported item, and the box had a Chinese translation slapped onto it. Zhu Yun could only see the bottom row in large print: Natural, permanent look; no stiffness!

She had no words.

After buying the hair dye, the two of them headed to find a place to eat.

“Why don’t you go to the shop to dye your hair?” Zhu Yun asked.

“Nowhere’s open. Downtown is too far of a walk. Not worth it.”

Zhu Yun nodded. And then she realized that Li Xun was looking at her.

“You pick the place. My treat.”

You’ve already said that.

“Then when we get back, you can help me dye my hair.”

“…………”

That condition hadn’t been in place earlier!

“I don’t know how.”

“That’s okay.”

“I really can’t.”

“Just read the directions and you’ll get it.”

“I’ve never dyed hair before…” There was no one around her who dyed their hair; he was the first.

Li Xun finally lost his patience. “You can’t even do that, how can you be a woman?”

“……”

Does a woman have to know how to dye hair?!

Zhu Yun really wanted to talk back, but after seeing Boss Li’s expression, she decided against it. To relieve her resentment, she purposefully chose an expensive Japanese restaurant. Without another word, Li Xun yawned and walked inside.

While they ate, Zhu Yun couldn’t help glancing over at Li Xun’s hair.

“What do you keep looking at? Eat your food.”

Across from her, he took a bite of his sushi roll. With a strange pressure pushing down on her, Zhu Yun ate without tasting a thing, wasting the exquisite food in front of her.

When they left the restaurant, Zhu Yun watched the direction that Li Xun was walking and asked, “Are you going to Ren Di’s studio?”

“Mmh.”

“Is Ren Di back too?”

“No. They’ll be back when school starts.”

“Oh.”

Zhu Yun looked around.

Since everyone was on vacation, the atmosphere around campus couldn’t help feeling a bit chilly. She recalled her experience last night in the dorm. The campus was quiet, large and open.

There was just the two of them. Two dots joined by a line.

The studio had been emptied out quite a bit, probably because the musicians had taken away their instruments. There was a full-length mirror on the south wall. When Li Xun walked in, he immediately pulled a chair over in front of the mirror. Then he pushed the hair dye he’d just bought into Zhu Yun’s arms.

“Study this a bit.”

Zhu Yun opened the box and pulled out the instruction pamphlet. The process was simple. After Zhu Yun read the instructions, her confidence doubled.

“Okay, I’ll start dying…” If I mess up, don’t blame me. Zhu Yun pulled on a pair of plastic gloves.

The sky was overcast, and though it was still early, the room was rather dark. Not to the extent that they had to turn on the lights though.

Zhu Yun thoroughly mixed together the two tubes of dye. Since there was no space to put the container down, she handed the mixed contents to Li Xun. “Hold this for me.”

Li Xun lazily accepted it.

Things often look easy, but in reality are hard to do.

It was Zhu Yun’s first time dying hair, and she was indeed not proficient at it. She was worried the hair dye would get something dirty or end up where it shouldn’t be, so she worked very carefully. So carefully that she still hadn’t finished after a long while.

“Are you still hungry or something?”

Zhu Yun lifted her eyes and happened to catch Li Xun’s gaze head on.

With his hair was wet, the shape of his face became more distinct.

Zhu Yun replied, “I’m full.”

“If you’re full, why are you so weak?”

Zhu Yun cleared her throat. Then she added a bit of strength. Through the thin layer of plastic, the temperature and feel of his head clearly passed onto her fingertips to her nerves.

Quiet.

The open space and the cold, concrete walls made the scene more stark.

“Get me a smoke,” he said quietly.

Zhu Yun took off her gloves and grabbed the box of cigarettes from his coat. She pulled one out and Li Xun lowered his head and opened his mouth. She looked at his back, his neck, shoulders, over to the collar of his dark shirt. Dark, like a riddle.

When she put the cigarette into his mouth, she suddenly realized something.

Fire…

Where there is a cigarette, there must be a source of fire.

Fire…

My fucking chance!!!

God has opened his eyes. The question she’d been thinking about all night—how to skillfully create the same atmosphere as ‘It’s only right for a princess to have a gown’—finally had an answer.

“Light. What are you thinking about?” he asked, the cigarette in his mouth.

Zhu Yun suppressed the sputtering volcano inside of her. “Mmh,” she replied quietly, and then grabbed the lighter from her pocket. His expression immediately stiffened. It was indeed an eye-catching lighter. Wrapped in a golden snowflake pattern, it shined brilliantly and looked extremely beautiful.

With a press of her finger, fire leapt up smoothly. Fortunately, she’d prepared the lighter earlier. It’s lighting mechanism was a bit different from ordinary lighters, and so required a bit of skill.

He was quiet for a moment. When he turned his head, his expression softened, he narrowed his eyes, and dipped his head to light his cigarette. His wet hair and slender neck looked like a slow-motion shot in a movie. The light reflecting on his face gave off an indescribable sexiness.

After exhaling a mouth of smoke, he looked at the lighter again. “Not bad.”

Zhu Yun’s hand trembled a bit. Several responses tumbled around in her head, but in the end she just ended up saying, “If it’s not bad, then I’ll leave it with you.”

Eh? That wasn’t too bad.

Li Xun lowered his head and his shoulders shook.

He was laughing…

What was so funny…

At first, Li Xun laughed just a bit, but then, he started laughing loudly, as if he could no longer hold back. He raised his head up and cracked up with laughter. His clear and bright laugh echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls and into her heart.

Goosebumps covered Zhu Yun’s body. She couldn’t stand it anymore, and she really wanted to find a crack to crawl into.

Just as Zhu Yun was about to break, Li Xun finally stopped. The continuous laughter had turned his face a bit red. Eyes curved, he said, “Alright, leave it with me. Help me put it away.”

Success. No matter what he says, her plan was a success.

Zhu Yun turned around and put the lighter into his coat.

“What are you doing?”

?

Zhu Yun turned back and looked at Li Xun leaning back in his chair. A smile still on his face, the cigarette hanging from his mouth, he narrowed his eyes and looked down. “Put it away here.”

Zhu Yun looked down and saw that he’d stretched out his right leg.

A pocket on his black pants.

Hell…

Fucking hell, I underestimated Top Score Li again!

Zhu Yun looked at his calm, composed expression. She refused to lose. She walked over and put the lighter into his pants’ pocket.

He was sitting, and his pants were tight, especially at the thighs. There looked to be something in his pocket. Money, or keys? His legs looked very solid. Although he didn’t have a muscular build, he looked slender and flexible.

This was Li Xun’s body…

When she recalled that, Zhu Yun’s legs turned to jelly.

She lowered her head, as if doing something, but actually just trying to hide her face. It was definitely completely red. Definitely.

Li Xun was very near, and the air was filled with cigarette smoke.

Zhu Yun finally stuffed the lighter into his pocket, and then she stood up. Their faces touched. Compared to her burning hot face, Li Xun’s face was cold, like a piece of silk. Zhu Yun’s courage had been broken, and Li Xun was still smiling.

“…I need to use the washroom.” Zhu Yun didn’t dare look up at the mirror as she mumbled a few words, turning to leave. She headed straight into the washroom, locked the door, and leaned with her back against it.

She clenched her hands into fists, pressing, pressing. Inside of her, she screamed to the heavens.

Pull yourself together!

Fortunately, Zhu Yun had a strong mentality. After a short while, she washed her hands and calmly stepped out of the bathroom.

With the lighter episode behind them, and Li Xun’s hair-dying completed, after returning to the project base, Zhu Yun was finally able to concentrate on her project.

After that incident, the two of them acted the same as before, as if nothing had happened between them at all.

Several days later, Gao Jianhong returned. He happened to see Li Xun’s new lighter and curiously asked, “Ay, what good taste. Where’d you get it? Let me see.”

“Get away.” Li Xun put away the lighter. “Hurry up and start working with the princess on the project. We have other things to do, so we need to finish this before school starts.”