Seven minutes later, the hallway alarm blared, the piercing ringing accompanied by the continuous slamming of doors, jolting the entire building from its peaceful slumber.
Voices of residents echoed through the corridor: "Is there a fire? Where is it?"
"Run downstairs, don't take the elevator!"
"Use the emergency exit, this way!"
The emergency stairwell erupted with chaotic footsteps.
In the entire building, the only person not moving was Ruan Yu, standing on the dining table in her living room, holding a pot billowing thick smoke toward the smoke detector while coughing and tearing up behind her hand.
One minute later, the intercom at her door, unit 1201, buzzed.
Ruan Yu's heart pounded wildly. She glanced toward the intercom, silently counting in her mind.
She couldn't let the alarm keep ringing for too long. If this escalated, fire trucks might come. Disturbing the neighbors' rest was one thing, but wasting firefighting resources with a false alarm would be unforgivable.
After counting to thirty in her head, she was about to cover the pot and extinguish the scalding smoke when the sprinkler system suddenly activated above her, drenching her with water.
Caught off guard by the deluge, Ruan Yu froze for a few seconds before jumping off the table and rushing to answer the intercom.
A rapid male voice came through: "This is the fire control room! Is there a fire on your floor?"
Ruan Yu coughed so hard she could barely speak, hoarsely mumbling, "I burned my food..."
The person on the other end seemed relieved, turning to someone else and saying, "Turn off the alarm! Notify the residents! The sprinklers in unit 1201 are activated—shut the manual valve quickly!"
The building instantly returned to silence, except for the still-active sprinklers in Ruan Yu's living room, which had already flooded the area in less than a minute.
The sprinkler system couldn't be turned off that quickly. After rescuing her laptop, Ruan Yu, now completely drenched, heard her front door being knocked on.
Or rather, pounded.
She splashed through the water to open it, assuming it was property management, and quickly blurted, "I'm so sorry—"
Only to find Xu Huaisong standing at her doorstep.
His shirt was missing two buttons, his forehead hair completely matted together. Seeing her unharmed, he closed his eyes briefly, then braced one hand against the doorframe, gripping the edge as he caught his breath.
Ruan Yu's heart jolted, momentarily robbed of speech.
Before they could exchange a word, two property staff arrived. One entered her apartment to deal with the sprinklers while the other questioned her at the door.
Ruan Yu anxiously asked, "Were all the residents evacuated downstairs?"
The staff member nodded solemnly. "Ms. Ruan, please explain the situation. We need to give the residents downstairs a proper explanation."
Nervous, she stammered, "I'm sorry, I was cooking, and my pot caught fire..."
The staff peered inside and asked skeptically, "Smoke from cooking can trigger the smoke detector, but the sprinklers only activate under high temperatures. Are you sure it was just cooking?"
Ruan Yu wiped water from her face. "I brought the burning pot into the living room, so..." She bowed deeply to the staff. "I truly apologize. I'll take full responsibility—I'll go downstairs to apologize and compensate everyone if necessary."
Xu Huaisong frowned, stepping protectively in front of her. "Go dry off, put on some clothes, and stay here. I'll handle this." With that, he turned and followed the staff downstairs.Ten minutes later, the property management urgently repaired the sprinkler system and left after scheduling a follow-up maintenance appointment with Ruan Yu.
Seeing that Xu Huaisong hadn't returned yet, she took her automatically shut-off phone into the dry bedroom to charge it, intending to contact him. But when she dialed his number, she found his phone was also dead. So she threw on some clothes, locked the door, and went out.
At the doorway, she happened to run into the landlord's family from next door coming up in the elevator.
The kind-faced landlady approached with a smile and said, "Luckily it wasn't a fire. Don't worry, the building alarm has gone off like this before. Everyone just treats it as exercise—a fire drill. If there really were an emergency, wouldn't we be more familiar with the escape routes and get out faster?"
Knowing this was meant to comfort her, Ruan Yu nodded gratefully. "I'm sorry for the trouble."
The landlady shook her head to indicate it was nothing and asked, "Was that your boyfriend downstairs?"
"Yes."
"He's a fine young man," she said with a smile. "When we were evacuating, he was the only one running against the crowd, refusing to be stopped. He just kept saying—'My girlfriend is still up there.'"
Ruan Yu's nose stung, and her eyes, already red from the smoke, grew even wetter.
After the landlord's family returned to their apartment, she walked to the corridor window and looked down. She could vaguely make out a few remaining residents below, probably unwilling to let the matter go and demanding explanations from the property management.
Under the streetlights, Xu Huaisong seemed to be apologizing to them, bowing deeply at a ninety-degree angle to each person.
Ruan Yu turned and ran into the elevator. As soon as she reached the first floor, she saw Xu Huaisong coming back from outside.
Without caring that it was a public space, she immediately hugged him, burying her face in his chest. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
Xu Huaisong stroked the back of her head and smiled down at her. "What's there to be sorry about? It wasn't a real fire, and I got the chance to apologize. Isn't that good?"
Ruan Yu sniffled and hugged him tighter.
Suddenly, a woman's voice came from behind him. "I'm sorry..."
It was Sun Miaohan's voice.
Ruan Yu quickly let go of Xu Huaisong and turned to look at her. Sun Miaohan's eyes were red, and her hair was disheveled. Ruan Yu stepped forward and asked, "Are you okay?"
Sun Miaohan shook her head, tears beginning to fall in big drops.
Ruan Yu patted her shoulder in comfort and asked, "Where is he?"
"He's gone..." Sun Miaohan answered between sobs. "When the alarm went off, I took the chance to run downstairs with the neighbors and saw him drive away."
Ruan Yu gave a quiet "Mm," then turned to Xu Huaisong and said, "I'll take her upstairs first."
Considering it might be awkward for Sun Miaohan to share details with a man present, Ruan Yu waited until they were inside Sun Miaohan's apartment before asking, "What exactly happened?"
As soon as she asked, she saw the living room in complete disarray—a toppled floor lamp, shattered glass, a torn pillow with its stuffing scattered...
This wasn't just some shady deal.
This was straight-up attempted rape.
Ruan Yu felt a moment of suffocation, her chest tightening.
She didn't even have the courage to ask for the full story.
Sun Miaohan wiped her tears and said, "He's a high-ranking executive at Huanshi. He saw my performance before and said he admired my acting, that he wanted to promote me as the lead actress. Tonight, he took me to dinner with a director. After it ended, he said he'd take me home..."
"I was so stupid—I didn't even understand what that meant. I thought 'take me home' just meant taking me home. But once we were in the elevator, he started groping me, and I..."She stopped there, perhaps unwilling to recall or too embarrassed to continue. Lowering her eyes, she bent down to pick up the broom and began sweeping the broken glass.
Ruan Yu crouched down beside her, helping to prop up the fallen floor lamp, and asked, "You managed to avoid it tonight, but what are you going to do next?"
Xu Huaisong also started cleaning as soon as he entered the house.
The living room was flooded, with most of the furniture soaked. Drying everything would be a huge task.
He was wiping the sofa with an absorbent towel when he suddenly heard a vibration from the bedroom. Going in, he saw it was Ruan Yu’s phone, plugged in and charging, ringing with Li Shican’s name flashing on the screen.
He hesitated for a moment but didn’t answer. Soon, however, the phone rang again.
After three consecutive calls, he had no choice but to pick up. The moment he lifted the phone, he heard Li Shican panting heavily on the other end, "Finally! You scared me half to death—"
Xu Huaisong’s greeting stuck in his throat.
Hearing no response, Li Shican urgently asked, "What’s the situation there? I’m downstairs at your place now."
Xu Huaisong finally replied, "She’s fine now."
Dead silence fell on the other end of the line.
A full ten seconds later, Li Shican, standing in front of the elevator on the first floor, forced a dry laugh and confirmed, "Lawyer Xu?"
"Mm."
"Good that she’s okay. She called me earlier, but the call cut off mid-conversation. I was worried, so—"
"Mm."
"I’ll head back then."
"Mm."
The call ended, and Xu Huaisong gently set the phone down.
There was no need to check the call log or ask further questions.
When the incident happened, Ruan Yu’s phone had been low on battery. The last call she made wasn’t to him—it was to Li Shican.
Xu Huaisong glanced at the seventeen missed calls displayed on the screen, his mind replaying the scene of Li Shican bursting into the breakroom that day, thinking something had happened to her.
For a full ten minutes, he stood motionless in the dimly lit bedroom.
Until the sound of the front door clicking open broke the silence, and Ruan Yu called from the living room, "Huaisong?"
He opened his mouth but couldn’t produce a sound.
"Are you in the room?" Ruan Yu slipped on her slippers and stepped cautiously through the puddles, pushing open the bedroom door. Before she could make out anything in the darkness, a strong force pulled her in, her back hitting the wall.
In the dim light, the familiar masculine presence enveloped her as Xu Huaisong’s lips descended.
Startled, she wanted to ask, "What’s wrong?" but the moment she parted her lips, he misunderstood her intention.
Xu Huaisong tangled with her—fierce, direct, leaving no room, as if he wanted to devour her whole.
He pressed her firmly against the wall, their bodies tightly sealed without a sliver of space between them.
Ruan Yu passively accepted the kiss, waves of dizziness crashing over her. In her daze, she felt him trembling.
Amid such an aggressive assault, he was trembling.
Though the aggressor, he seemed to be terrified of something, as if seeking a signal of safety through this intimacy.
Gradually, Ruan Yu found it hard to breathe and raised her hands to push him away.
But this time, Xu Huaisong didn’t stop.
He consumed her, his scorching palm roaming over the small of her back, searching for an outlet but failing to find one.
He released her lips, trailing kisses down to the spot behind her ear. At the same time, his right hand slipped under her clothes, moving upward.
Ruan Yu shuddered. "Huaisong, Huaisong, what’s wrong with you...?"Xu Huaisong stubbornly persisted until the obstinate button finally surrendered. Ruan Yu was startled and reached out to grab his hand.
He froze mid-motion, instantly still as a statue.
Author's note: Wuwu, our poor injured Huaisong.
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