First, then, love.

"Your shampoo lathers up pretty quickly."

Shu Yao stared at him, her eyes wide open, her breathing rapid, and her chest heaving violently.

The champagne-colored silk nightgown was stretched taut.

She looked down at the shriveled white tube in her hand.

She looked up again and glanced at He Zheng's short hair, which was clean and still dripping wet.

The rich scent of roses in the air became the most direct physical evidence at that moment.

"Shampoo?" Shu Yao's voice trembled as she squeezed out the three words through clenched teeth.

He Zheng nodded, "It removes oil well, and it leaves my skin feeling quite refreshed after washing."

Shu Yao's fingers tightened suddenly, her nails digging into the plastic casing of the tube.

"He Zheng." She called him by his full name, her voice rising an octave, filled with barely suppressed despair.

"Do you know what this is?!"

He Zheng's gaze fell on the hose, which was covered in crooked French characters that he didn't recognize.

"It's either shampoo or shower gel, anything that lathers." He said matter-of-factly.

Shu Yao was so angry that her vision blurred, she stumbled and bumped her back against the sink.

"This is facial cleanser, for washing your face, it costs 2,800 yuan a tube!"

She held the shriveled tube up to his eyes, her hands trembling.

"Two thousand eight hundred yuan! It's full of imported rose essential oil extracted by hand. I only use a tiny bit, about the size of a soybean, when I wash my face, and you're using it to wash off all your sweat!"

He Zheng paused in wiping his hair when he heard the number.

Two thousand eight.

A face wash that costs 2,800?

His thick, dark eyebrows were furrowed tightly as he looked down at the tube in Shu Yao's hand.

"Two thousand eight?" he asked rhetorically, his tone clearly questioning.

"Yes, two thousand eight!" Shu Yao was almost crying with anger. "I just opened the bottle less than a week ago, and you took a shower and squeezed out half a tube, and fourteen thousand is gone!"

"..."

He Zheng remained silent for two seconds.

In his mind, a bar of sulfur soap costs 2.5 yuan, lasts for a month, and is excellent at removing dirt and killing bacteria.

A facial cleanser costs 2,800 yuan, and a hair wash costs 1,400 yuan.

This is outrageous!

"My soap fell on the floor and the dog chewed it." He said casually, trying to explain, "Nothing else, I just grabbed it."

"Why didn't you take something else? There are so many face washes over there that cost tens of yuan, why did you have to take the most expensive one!" Shu Yao said hysterically.

My nose feels sore.

want to cry.

He Zheng looked at her reddened eyes, threw the towel on the sink, and turned to walk out.

"Alright, stop yelling. Tomorrow, take my card and buy ten bottles. You can wash them slowly."

He went to the bedroom and opened the wardrobe to look for clothes.

Shu Yao followed her out and stood on the bedroom carpet.

"Is this about money? This is about your complete disrespect for my lifestyle, you uncouth barbarian!"

She got angrier and angrier as she talked, and her temper finally exploded.

She strode to the bedside, grabbed her silk pillow, hugged it to her chest, and turned to leave.

"You can sleep alone, in a separate room!"

He Zheng had just put on a black short-sleeved shirt when he turned around.

I saw her back as she angrily hugged her pillow.

"Where are you going?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Guest rooms!"

"Bang!"

The guest room door was slammed shut, the sound of the lock clicking particularly jarring in the quiet corridor.

He Zheng stood in the master bedroom.

Looking at the empty right half of the bed.

A deep frown formed between his brows.

This woman has a temper worse than a dog's.

wrong.

His dog has no temper.

He Zheng walked out of the master bedroom and into the living room.

On the sofa, the princess was awakened by the sound of the door slamming and looked at him with her ears perked up.

In the corner, the God of War lay on the mat, his tail nervously sweeping the floor, looking timid.

He Zheng walked to the balcony and opened the glass door.

The late autumn night wind blew in directly, cold, hard, and biting.

He was only wearing a thin short-sleeved shirt. His skin, which had just taken a hot shower, was open and pores were open. When the cold wind blew, he shivered and instinctively reached into his pocket.

No cigarettes.

Oh, I forgot, he plans to quit smoking completely during this period.

Frustrated, he grabbed a handful of hair and pulled out a tin of mints from another pocket.

I poured out two pills and popped them into my mouth.

The strong minty scent hit him right in the head, mixed with the expensive rose fragrance on his body.

He Zheng thought the taste was really weird.

He took out his phone, and the screen lit up.

Unlock and open WeChat.

I found the picture of the deputy captain, Lao Li.

At this hour, Lao Li is leading the night shift and definitely hasn't slept.

He Zheng's fingers tapped rapidly on the screen.

HZ: Are you asleep?

The other party replied instantly.

Old Li: No, Captain, I'm watching the monitor. What's wrong? It's the middle of the night, did your wife kick you out of bed?

Old Li has a sharp tongue; he got kicked during the day, but he still dares to act up at night.

But by sheer luck, he was right.

He Zheng ignored his teasing.

HZ: I have a question for you.

Old Li: Captain, you speak.

HZ: What's the difference between a 2,000 yuan facial cleanser and a 20 yuan Safeguard?

In the monitoring room, Old Li was drinking goji berry water from a thermos.

Upon seeing this message, I spat out a mouthful of water onto my keyboard.

He frantically grabbed tissues to wipe the water, staring at his phone screen in shock.

Old Li: Holy crap, Captain, what did you do? You didn't use your wife's two thousand yuan face wash as soap, did you?

"..."

6

You were right again.

HZ: Yeah, it lathers up pretty quickly when washing hair and body, and it's good at removing oil.

Old Li was convinced, completely convinced.

He pressed the voice button directly, lowering his voice to a very low hue, panting as he tried to suppress his laughter.

"Captain, you're really my brother. That thing is only for a small area like the palm of your face. You used it to wash a person who's 1.88 meters tall, and half a tube would be gone. Your wife didn't kill you with a knife, she's good-natured."

He Zheng leaned against the balcony railing, listening to the voice message.

HZ: They're all stain removers, so what's the difference? They all look the same after washing.

Old Li typed a reply quickly.

Old Li: How can they be the same? They're full of La Mer, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, and rose extract. Those are a woman's lifeblood. You use a 20-yuan Safeguard soap and your skin is dry after washing, while someone else uses a 2,000-yuan one and your skin is smooth. Don't you feel that your skin is especially tender now?

He Zheng looked down at his forearm.

His skin was bronze, his muscles were bulging, and there were old scars from training exercises, as hard as tree bark.

Tender? Bullshit.

HZ: I didn't notice, it's so slippery it's like it wasn't washed properly.

Old Li sent a laughing emoji.

Old Li: Alright, Captain, let's just let this go. My wife once bought a 500-yuan face cream, and I squeezed out a bit of it thinking it was hand cream. She chased me for three blocks with a broom. This is 2,800 yuan. You'd better buy a new one to make amends, or you'll be sleeping on the sofa for the next two weeks.

He Zheng looked at the words on the screen.

Lock the screen and put the phone back in my pocket.

The night breeze grew cooler.

He raised his wrist and smelled it.

It smells like roses, and it's so girly.

Two thousand eight hundred for a face wash. Women are truly incomprehensible creatures.

He Zheng turned around, opened the glass door, and walked back to the living room.

*

At this moment, in the guest room.

Shu Yao lay on the single bed.

The room was dark, with the lights off.

The guest rooms are usually unoccupied. Although the sheets and blankets are clean, the room has a desolate feel, as if it has never seen sunlight.

Shu Yao curled up in the blanket, her arms crossed over her chest, her knees pressed against her stomach, looking like a shrimp.

it's too cold.

Yesterday it rained all day, and the temperature dropped sharply. The large apartment had a lot of space, so all the cold air was trapped inside.

She was only wearing a thin silk slip dress. The smooth fabric clung to her skin, but instead of keeping her warm, it gave off a slightly chilly feeling.

The comforter in the guest room was a regular down comforter, not as heavy as the thick silk comforter in the master bedroom. It felt light and airy, not snug enough, and there was always some wind leaking in through the gaps.

Shu Yao's toes were so cold they were stiff, like two ice cubes.

She rubbed her feet vigorously, the backs of her feet rubbing against the soles, but her skin was dry and couldn't get warm at all.

Achoo!

She shivered and pulled the blanket up to cover half her head.

My mind is still on that deflated tube of face wash, and my heart aches with heartache.

Barbarian, roughneck, has no common sense whatsoever.

She gritted her teeth and cursed him silently in her heart.