Take her as my wife

After returning to her room, Jiang Ni did not change her clothes. Instead, she leaned against the door, clutched her chest, and took a few deep breaths. She felt her heart beating faster and the heat traveled from her cheeks to her ears—she had just had a thought she had never had before.

She wanted to take the initiative to ask Tan Wen.

She had once kissed Tan Yan "on her own initiative," but she knew that it was an action done out of a sense of "compensation."

At that time, Tan Yan always indulged her and made concessions for her. She listened to Liu Jiaren's advice and "took the initiative" to kiss him as a necessary means to maintain their relationship.

But just now, she was certain that she had only felt "desire" from the bottom of her heart because of the attraction of hormones.

It's all his fault... why didn't he change his clothes before coming over?

She was unusually "unreasonable" and shifted all the blame onto Tan Wen.

She walked to the dressing table and sat down, her face still noticeably red. She dared not go out like that, so she could only sit and wait for the blush to fade.

This gave Tan Wen time to do bad things.

Tan Wen picked out the garment with the least amount of fabric—and coincidentally, he recognized it as the white one with a small bow that Jiang Ni had worn when he helped her last time.

That's certainly a lot of stimulation.

Whether it's sensory or psychological.

He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and parted his thin lips slightly.

His prominent Adam's apple slid restlessly.

"Hmm..."

At the critical moment, he raised his free hand and turned on the shower.

The pattering sound of water drowned out the last, frantic yet suppressed roar.

Jiang Ni was sitting in her room, lost in thought, when she suddenly heard Tan Wen's voice outside the door: "Sister, I'm sorry, I accidentally turned on the shower and got your clothes wet."

"It's okay, I was going to shower anyway," Jiang Ni replied, quickly getting up to go to the dressing room to find clothes to change into. She also found an excuse for why she hadn't gone out for so long: "I'll put on some light makeup, wait for me a little longer."

"No rush, take your time, sister."

Taking advantage of this break, Tan Wen went back to the bathroom and carefully checked his "crime scene" again—his pants were washed clean, the floor was rinsed, and his other clothes were wet, making the disguise perfect.

He felt refreshed and returned to the living room to wait for Jiang Ni.

A few minutes later, Jiang Ni came out wearing a dress. She likes to wear dresses, and on non-working days, she usually wears dresses.

Tan Wen also liked seeing her in dresses. The first time he saw her, in a dirty and messy alley, she was wearing a light purple chiffon dress and looked as beautiful as a heroine who had stepped out of an oil painting.

Just before leaving, Jiang Ni remembered something else: "I almost forgot, the bathtub and showerhead in my bathroom aren't working. I don't know what's wrong. Tan asked if you know how to fix these things?"

In her mind, Tan Wen was somewhat of an "all-rounder," and coincidentally, Tan Wen actually knew a thing or two: "Let me see."

"Your pipe is probably broken. Contact the brand's after-sales service and have them send someone to replace it with a new one."

"Okay."

The renovation materials for Jiang Ni's house were not cheap. Buying ordinary pipes from outside to replace them would actually affect the performance. Otherwise, Tan Wen would have just replaced them for her.

He thought for a moment, but was still worried: "Sister, just make do for a few days and take a shower in the public bathroom. You can call them again when Aunt Zhou comes back or when I come over next weekend."

"Why?" Jiang Ni didn't quite understand his intention.

They changed their shoes and went out. Tan asked, "What about safety? I ran into my senior colleague at dinner today, and he was saying that they received a case a few days ago where a girl living alone met with an accident at home."

He didn't go into details, but in reality, the nature of this case was extremely serious.

The victim was not only sexually assaulted, but also had her tongue cut out and her eyes gouged out. The perpetrator was extremely cruel and possessed exceptional counter-investigation skills. To date, the police have not found much useful information, allowing him to remain at large. Furthermore, the likelihood of this type of depraved killer committing another crime is extremely high.

Tan Wen emphasized, "Sister, you must be careful recently. Don't open the door to strangers and be vigilant."

Jiang Ni nodded in agreement: "Understood."

When they arrived at the hot pot restaurant, there was already a line of people. Fortunately, Tan Wen had made a reservation in advance, so they didn't have to wait.

They sat by the window again, and Tan Wen took charge of ordering the food; he knew exactly what Jiang Ni liked to eat. During the meal, Jiang Ni was still curious about the case he had mentioned before leaving, so she eventually learned the details of the case from Tan Wen.

Jiang Ni frowned as she listened, and it took her a while to recover. She only hoped that the police could bring the murderer to justice as soon as possible.

As the hot pot meal drew to a close, Tan Wen handed her a wet wipe: "Sister, wipe your hands. I'll go pay the bill."

There was still a queue to pay, so Jiang Ni took the opportunity to stop a waiter: "Hello, I'm the lucky customer who won a necklace here last Valentine's Day, but I had an allergic reaction after wearing it. I'd like to talk to your manager or boss."

Upon hearing this, the waiter assumed she was there to demand compensation from the hot pot restaurant and quickly distanced herself: "Miss, to be honest with you, the necklace you lost wasn't bought from our store at all. Your boyfriend bought it and specially asked us to surprise you this way—your allergy has absolutely nothing to do with us."

Neither she nor Tan Wen had an average appearance, so the waiter naturally remembered them.

Jiang Ni got the answer she wanted and apologized to the waiter, "I'm sorry, I understand, thank you."

Seeing that she wasn't being unreasonable, the waiter breathed a sigh of relief and quickly left.

—It really was Tan Wen.

Jiang Ni wasn't too surprised because she had suspected this beforehand.

She just had one question.

What kind of business did Tan Wen do to make so much money? He lent Tan Yan 200,000 yuan for his wedding without hesitation, and now he buys a necklace worth over 100,000 yuan without a second thought.

She knew he was very capable, but he was only in his early twenties, and there was no one in his family who could support him. Such wealth accumulation was really illogical.

Jiang Ni was worried that he would repeat his mistakes and go astray.

She planned to ask these questions all at once when the time was right.

It was almost eight o'clock when they left the hot pot restaurant. Tan Wen still had to go back to school, but he didn't tell Jiang Ni that he had a time limit. Instead, he took her home first.

"Sister, I'm leaving now. See you next week."

It's only been a week, but for some reason, hearing him say it now makes Jiang Ni feel like it's been a long time.

"Okay, see you next week—wait, take these oranges back to your dorm and share them with your roommates, otherwise it'll be a waste if I leave them at home and can't finish them all."

As Jiang Ni spoke, she put all the oranges from the fruit plate into a bag and handed it to him.

The bag's handle was so thin that when Tan Wen took it, their hands inevitably touched.

His hands were so big that they enveloped both the bag handle and her hand in his palms.

Jiang Ni's expression remained unchanged, as if she didn't realize that such a touch was ambiguous.

Tan Wen didn't dare to push her luck and quickly held the bag steady: "Thank you, sister."

Jiang Ni watched him enter the elevator before closing the door.

She glanced at her hands and thought of the first strategy in the "Ten Strategies for Pursuing a Man" that Liu Jiaren had sent her a couple of days ago: increase physical contact with the other person.

She opened her phone and made a note next to this message:

[On September 6, after getting close to Tan Wen, I tried to kiss him, and we touched hands briefly, about two seconds.]

She wasn't satisfied with the result of this experiment, so she added an "x" after it.