From the moment she kidnapped Erii, she became a roadblock.

The chewing motion suddenly slowed down.

It wasn't that it didn't taste good, Erii paused for a moment.

The pause was very short, as if confirming what the taste in his mouth was.

Then Erii looked up.

Guan Luo was turning his face toward the window, the outline of his profile outlined in a warm yellow by the light of the chandelier.

I couldn't see anything outside the window, only rain and fog.

Erii placed the chopsticks horizontally on the edge of the bowl.

She took the small notebook out of her coat pocket, opened it, and picked up a pen.

The pen tip touched the paper, the soft scratching sound mingling with the rain outside the window.

It was written with great effort.

The handwriting was crooked and uneven, but not a single stroke was cut short.

After she finished writing, she turned the notebook around and pushed it to Guan Luo's side.

"Ding!"

The chopsticks lightly touched the rim of the bowl, making a crisp sound.

Guan Luo turned his gaze away from the window.

He looked down at the notebook.

"tasty."

She drew a crooked smiley face after that line of text, with two dots for the eyes and an upward-curving mouth.

The curves weren't perfectly round, but that's precisely why they looked so meticulously drawn.

Guan Luo stared at the two words and the smiling face for a while.

He picked up his pen and wrote in his notebook:

"You're welcome."

After finishing writing, the pen tip hovered on the paper for two seconds.

The rain outside the window suddenly intensified, and the sound of rain poured down throughout the kitchen.

He wrote another sentence.

"I'll cook something different next time."

Push it back.

Erii took the notebook and looked down at it.

Erii's eyelashes trembled slightly when she saw the second sentence.

Then a faint smile appeared in his eyes, and a glimmer of light was ignited within them.

Erii closed the notebook.

My finger lightly touched the line "Next time I'll cook something else," and my fingertip slowly traced the words.

This guy is a glutton!

Then he put the notebook back into his coat pocket.

Guan Luo looked away and lowered his head to eat his bowl of noodles.

The noodles were already a bit soggy, but Guan Luo didn't notice.

Erii also picked up her chopsticks again.

Guan Luo subconsciously reached up and touched the back of his neck.

The kitchen was quiet.

The sound of chopsticks hitting bowls, the sound of rain hitting glass, and the occasional hissing of the residual steam in the pot on the stove.

Guan Luo lowered his head to eat noodles, his peripheral vision falling on the red head opposite him, who was also looking down and blowing air into his mouth.

Her red hair still clung to her cheeks and neck in strands, with tiny water droplets clinging to the ends. Erii hadn't wiped it off, probably because she couldn't find the hairdryer.

Her wet hair clung to the neckline of her nightgown, the white cotton fabric stained with a small patch of dark water.

Seeing that Erii had almost finished eating, Guan Luo moved her bowl away a little and gestured to her with his eyes not to move.

Then he turned and walked out of the kitchen.

When he returned, he had a dry towel and a hairdryer in his hands. The hairdryer cord was a bit short, so he bent down to plug it into the socket next to the dining table, pulled up a chair next to the socket, and patted the chair surface.

Erii got off the chair and sat down in it.

As soon as my bare feet touched the floor, my toes curled up; the floor was a little cold.

Guan Luo noticed that he had kicked his slippers to her feet.

Erii looked down at the slippers, then looked up at him, and then stepped into the large slippers.

The heels are left wide open, like two small boats.

Turn on the hair dryer.

With a hum, hot air rushed out of the vent.

Erii's shoulders trembled slightly; it was warm.

Erii's hair, which hadn't been dried properly after her shower, was sticking to her scalp. The cold air had taken away her body heat, and she had been feeling cold for a while.

The sudden gust of hot air gave her goosebumps on the back of her neck, which then slowly subsided.

Guan Luo stood behind her, his fingers running through her wet hair, gently brushing aside a strand of hair that clung to her neck.

Erii's hair is very fine, and when it gets wet, the color deepens, turning from its usual light red to a deep red, like maple leaves falling into the water in autumn.

When my fingertips touched the back of her neck, her neck twitched slightly.

Guan Luo used his fingers to part her hair in the middle, trying to divide it into two halves, but the parting was not very even, with more hair on the left and less on the right.

He looked at it, felt something was wrong, and then used his fingers to separate it again.

It was still not quite even. On the third time, Erii tilted her head slightly, whether she was annoyed that he was doing it too many times or she was cooperating with his movements.

Guan Luo gave up on pursuing evenness, spread his five fingers, inserted them into the roots of her hair at the back of her head, and gently lifted them up, letting the hot air pass through the gaps between his fingers.

He remembered this technique from watching others blow-dry their hair at the barbershop, but he didn't know that he should blow-dry from the roots to the ends. He blew it from the bottom up, and Erii's hair stood up completely, like a cat with its fur standing on end.

Guan Luo's hand stopped.

He looked at his spiky red hair in the mirror and his lips twitched.

Then I quickly pressed my hair back with my fingers and combed it down a couple of times.

Erii felt her hair being pulled down, which tickled her a little, and she shrank her shoulders slightly.

Guan Luo's fingers slowly slid from the roots of her hair to the ends, the movement was very slow, not intentionally slow, mainly because he was unsure of the amount of force.

He remembered that he had used too much force when cutting the tomato, so he deliberately relaxed the joints of each finger, making the pressure of his fingertips just light enough to pass through his hair, light enough not to break a single hair.

In fact, Guan Luo felt that Erii's hair resilience was far beyond that of ordinary people; this was what a super mixed-race person was like.

My hair is almost dry, but the ends are still a little damp.

Guan Luo pinched a small tuft of hair and held it under the vent, but because it was too close, the hot air made the tuft of hair curl slightly.

Quickly moving the wind away, Guan Luo looked at that small tuft of curly hair again, feeling a little unsure.

The ends of my hair have become a bit frizzy, with a few strands splitting and sticking up.

Guan Luo stared at the few strands of hair that were sticking up, dipped his finger in a little water, and tried to smooth them back down.

It's useless, it's still perky.

Finally, Guan Luo carefully hid those few stray hairs among the rest of her hair.

After you're done drying, turn off the hair dryer.

The kitchen suddenly fell silent, with only the rain still falling outside the window.

Guan Luo looked down at Erii.

My hair was dry, fluffy and soft, and the light red strands had a faint halo around them under the chandelier.

There was a tuft of hair sticking up on the top of his head. It wasn't that he didn't blow on it; Guan Luo felt that the tuft of hair was supposed to be like that.

Guan Luo stared at the tuft of hair for a moment, then stretched out his index finger and pressed it down.

Press down, it bounces back up.

Press it down, and it bounces back up.

Guan Luo gave up.

Erii raised her hand and touched her hair.

She ran her fingers from the top of her head to the ends of her hair, then turned her head and looked up at him with her face slightly tilted back.

It was already late at night, but Erii still dragged Guanluo along to play a few rounds of Street Fighter before going to sleep.

It has to be said that Erii is quite addicted to the internet.

It was late at night, and Guan Luo cleaned up the dishes.

Then he took a quilt from the closet and spread it on the floor of the next room.

The duvet cover is plain and very clean.

He fluffed up the pillow and placed it against the wall.

Erii stood at the doorway, holding her backpack, her bare feet on the wooden floor of the hallway.

Guan Luo turned around, pointed to the made-up bedding, then to her. Then he pointed to the room across the corridor, and then to himself.

Erii looked in the direction he was pointing, then looked at him.

She took a small notebook out of her pocket and started writing. When she finished, she held it up.

"And you."

Guan Luo took the notebook and wrote: "Next door".

Erii looked at it, put the notebook away, and didn't write anything more. She went into the room, knelt down beside the bedding, and put her backpack in the corner.

Guan Luo walked to the door, put his hand on the doorknob, and looked back.

Erii was taking an old doll out of her suitcase and placing it next to her pillow.

The doll was a faded rabbit with droopy ears. Erii straightened the rabbit's ears and made it rest properly on the pillow.

Then she looked up and found Guan Luo looking at her.

Erii met his gaze, did not look away, and blinked quietly.

Guan Luo gently closed the door, leaving it ajar.

The corridor light was still on, and a thin beam of light leaked through the crack in the door, falling on the corner of the bedding.

Guan Luo went into the next room, but the door was open.

The room was quiet, with only the faint sound of rain outside the window. Guan Luo lay down on the bedding and stared at the ceiling.

A very soft sound came from next door: first the sound of a blanket being lifted, then the sound of bare feet walking on the wooden floor.