Chapter 176: Give Me the Water
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The room upstairs had its lights on, and there was a crack between the door and door frame. Lin Nuan stopped when she reached the last step of the stairs.
Her sight fell on exercise equipment, and the man’s taut muscles.
Fu Huai’an’s hand was grabbing onto the horizontal bar, and his arm was exerting force. Following his upward movement, the line troughs of his back muscles grew deeper, and drops of sweat flowed down following the muscles, disappearing along the line of his narrow waist.
Lin Nuan’s hand clenched tighter around the gla.s.s bottle of mineral water, her heart uncontrollably beating faster once more.
Fu Huai’an felt no desire to sleep at all that night. Ever since he returned from Iraq, Fu Huai’an started having insomnia, and his smoking addiction had also spiraled out of control from that time onward.
Every night when he closed his eyes, his mind would immediately flash to when Lu Xiangsi and Jiang Ming’an pa.s.sed away.
Especially the “Brother” Jiang Ming’an called out right before he died when he shouted out that he would send the group of terrorists to see The True G.o.d Allah—his voice would shake Fu Huai’an awake from the suffocating pain.
As time pa.s.sed, Fu Huai’an slept less and less, and he could only barely get some sleep when he worked himself beyond exhaustion.
Fu Huai’an came down from the exercise equipment panting heavily, his perfect honey-skin-toned back muscles full of perspiration.
Under the bright light, the sweat trickled down Fu Huai’an’s outstanding face and toward his neck and chest, further highlighting the s.e.xiness of his body line.
He picked up the lighter and box of cigarettes on the equipment to place one cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He blocked the wind with one hand as he lit his cigarette.
As though he sensed her presence, Fu Huai’an’s deep gaze looked towards the door.
Due to his exhaustion, the wrinkles on his face were especially deep, his gaze looking extra dark.
Fu Huai’an was slightly surprised upon seeing Lin Nuan standing there. He moved the cigarette away from his lips and tapped it against the ashtray as he spoke in his thick and slightly hoa.r.s.e voice, “You can’t fall asleep in a foreign bed?”
She shook her head and raised the bottle of mineral water in her hand, replying, “I’m up to drink some water, and I heard some noises upstairs…”
She paused hesitantly—she couldn’t possibly say she thought wrong upon hearing his low panting, so she was there to discourage him.
Her ears flushed red from the roots to the tips.
Lin Nuan eyed the sweat on his firm chest, which dripped along the fine lines of his tight muscles and attractive V line before disappearing into the dark blue checkered sweatpants he wore. She turned away panicking, her heart beating rapidly.
But the old scars of varying sizes on Fu Huai’an’s body and his strong and healthy physique seemed to carve themselves into her brain. Even if she looked away, they still appeared in clear detail in her mind.
Seeing Lin Nuan suddenly blush in the middle of her sentence, Fu Huai’an squinted and tugged the black V-collared t-s.h.i.+rt hung on the exercise equipment over his head. Biting onto his cigarette, he finally wore the s.h.i.+rt properly.
Fu Huai’an removed the cigarette from between his lips, and white smoke seeped out from the corner of his mouth. His deep voice had a hint of laughter in it as he said, “Just speak normally, why are you blus.h.i.+ng again?”
“I’ll… Go downstairs first.”
“Give me the water.”
Before Lin Nuan could turn around, Fu Huai’an’s thick voice stopped her in her tracks.
Lin Nuan wanted to say that she had already drunk from the bottle of water, but she felt that it sounded too corny. Fu Huai’an didn’t even say anything when they kissed, so he probably wouldn’t mind water she had already drunk from.
Without acting embarra.s.sed, she pa.s.sed the water to Fu Huai’an.
The man stood firmly at the same spot with one hand in his pocket, sweat dripping from his chin.