CHAPTER 239: 227 HE

Night, study room.

The screenplay for Lushan Love was almost completed. On the last page, with the final word written, Tian Sangsang rubbed her tired eyes. This screenplay needed to be sent to Zhao Chun. She wrote down Zhao Chun’s school as the address. She couldn’t send too much at once, so she’d start with one fifth of it to test Zhao Chun’s reaction. As for her own address, she decided to use "Ya Dan" as the sender’s name and came up with a clever address to match. However, going to the post office to send mail would inevitably be seen by others, and so would retrieving mail later on. This was a bit of a predicament. Was she seriously going to need some kind of disguise?

Additionally, she had previously finished a thick stack of Grave of the Fireflies—or rather, her novel titled Goodbye, Firefly. Whether this would outshine Li Yibai was still unknown. Perhaps her goal wasn’t actually to outshine Li Yibai—after all, _The Legend of the Condor Heroes_ was genuinely good. Her real aim might just be to irritate Li Yibai. And there were plenty of ways to irritate him. She’d have to give it some more thought.

Before she could figure it out, Jiang Jinghuai pushed the door open and came in.

Tian Sangsang looked over, her eyes suddenly fixed straight ahead. Shocked, she turned her head away and muttered under her breath, "You you you..."

"You what?" Jiang Jinghuai gave her a faint glance, walked calmly to the bookshelf, picked up his usual go-to, the thread-bound history book The History of Ming, and then sat across from her.

"Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?"

Clearly, he had just taken a shower. His entire body still carried the refreshing scent of soap, mingled with a trace of tobacco, probably from smoking a cigarette afterward. To be honest, Jiang Jinghuai smoked a lot. Tian Sangsang had observed this before—he couldn’t fall asleep without at least one cigarette a day. It was a habit too ingrained to change.

He was only wearing a pair of army-green shorts, leaving his upper body bare in the open air. His muscular, bronzed chest and arms were fully exposed, his black hair still damp. His deep-set eyes, sharp and glimmering, radiated an undeniable allure.

"There’s no one else at home," Jiang Jinghuai flipped open the yellowed pages of his book and lowered his dark lashes to read.

"Am I not someone?" Tian Sangsang timidly asked.

"Are you?"

Tian Sangsang’s cheeks flushed bright red. "Could you at least try to be more civilized?" Don’t you realize your blatant display of raw masculinity is practically a crime of temptation?

"Who said being shirtless isn’t civilized?" Jiang Jinghuai raised his eyes and said in a low voice, "It’s too hot."

"If you’re hot, why don’t you go to your bedroom and turn on the fan?"

"Yanyan’s asleep. I don’t want to disturb her."

"I want to read for a while," Jiang Jinghuai added casually, "in the study."

Yeah, sure, you can read, but you’re making it impossible for someone else to focus! She can’t even write because of you! "But..." Tian Sangsang bit her lip and said uncomfortably, "You really shouldn’t just strut around half-naked in front of a married woman. Especially when this married woman is still practically a virgin! You can’t just blatantly seduce her like this! How is she supposed to get married in the future..." Ugh, crap. Tian Sangsang instinctively grabbed her notebook to cover her face. Why couldn’t her mouth filter her words first? It had completely lost all coherence and sense!

Jiang Jinghuai’s dark eyes swept over her, the corners of his lips curving slightly. "You could just not look, like you’re doing now."

Then he shook his head, amused, and clearly enunciated two words: "Pervert."

What?! Tian Sangsang immediately pulled down the notebook covering her face and glared at him. "You’re the pervert! Your whole family is perverted!"

Ah, the outburst of someone angry from embarrassment.

Jiang Jinghuai, utterly unfazed, lowered his head again and continued reading.

The thing was, it really was hot. In the dim yellow light, a few drops of sweat slid down Jiang Jinghuai’s temples. As for her, she had been fanning herself every now and then while writing, wearing a DIY set of short-sleeve tops and shorts. For someone from the 21st century who practically lived in shorts every summer, wearing them now didn’t feel particularly embarrassing.

Unwilling to admit defeat, Tian Sangsang said, "Have you ever heard the saying, ’When a man and a woman are in the same room, whether or not there’s anything romantic between them, the atmosphere inevitably changes’? I’m not being a pervert—I’m just observing natural laws. Hah, so you think your self-control is strong, huh? I don’t believe it. If I took off my shirt and sat across from you reading, there’s no way you wouldn’t blink an eye!"

Jiang Jinghuai’s long fingers paused as he flipped through the book. His casual gaze swept over her, subtly lingering on a specific area for a brief moment. His pupils darkened slightly, then his eyebrows arched ever so slightly. "Go ahead," he said in an unhurried tone, "take off your shirt, sit across from me, and read. Let’s see if I blink even once."

So calm! So collected! Is it just because he’s a soldier? Does that automatically mean top-level self-control? Tian Sangsang admitted her defeat and slumped back into her chair. Of course, she knew someone like Jiang Jinghuai, with his ironclad self-discipline, wouldn’t even blink if she sat there completely naked. Why humiliate herself like that?

The room suddenly grew quiet—so quiet that only the sound of her pen scratching against paper and the soft rustle of turning pages could be heard.

Tian Sangsang’s heart was still racing uncontrollably. She glanced up secretly at him. Under the warm light, his profile as he read seemed gentler than usual. She couldn’t help but lightly slap herself on the face. What kind of nonsense was she thinking? Keep it together, Tian Sangsang. She didn’t realize, as she lowered her head, that Jiang Jinghuai had also glanced deeply at her.

But soon enough, Tian Sangsang’s thoughts returned to her writing. She reviewed Goodbye, Firefly again. It was a good thing she did—because she immediately spotted a glaring bug. Although she’d set the story in an alternate world, changed the names of people, places, and various unique terms, she aimed to tell a compelling, fantastical story that resonated with readers’ innermost feelings.

Yet she couldn’t help but wonder: Do the events in this story feel relatable? Can readers truly empathize with them? Maybe... probably... perhaps not...

Maybe she should find a history book to consult. After all, this alternate timeline diverged significantly from the Republic era onward. Tian Sangsang walked to the bookshelf. The shelves were sparsely populated with books and looked a bit lonely.

"Hey, you with the last name Jiang..." Tian Sangsang called softly.

Jiang didn’t seem to hear her and didn’t react.

"Hey—Jiang—!" Tian Sangsang shouted.

Jiang Jinghuai frowned slightly and raised his eyes, looking at her with mild interest.

Tian Sangsang put on a smile. "Can I borrow one of your books?"

He nodded slowly.

"Thanks."

"You’re welcome."

Tian Sangsang quickly skimmed through the books and felt a bit disappointed—they weren’t history books. Unwilling to give up, she opened each one, flipping through its pages, only to confirm they were mostly Western classics. Who would’ve thought Jiang Jinghuai, a soldier, had a literary side?

"Don’t you have any history books?" Tian Sangsang turned to ask him.

"History?"

"Uh, yeah, something about the Republic era or around that time."

Jiang Jinghuai replied in a low voice, "Above your head."

Above her head? Tian Sangsang looked up and saw a row of books on the highest shelf. Seriously, why put books so high up? What about people who aren’t tall? How are they supposed to reach them?