What a Coincidence

Nighttime downtime—

They were staying at a nearby hotel, and Ye Shuang had a room all to himself.

For whatever reason, Aunt Xian had arranged for him to stay in the presidential suite on the top floor, while Bai Yuyou and the others were a few floors below, two to a room.

"Afraid Yuyou might come running over in the middle of the night?" Ye Shuang wondered, unable to quite figure out Aunt Xian's intentions. Still, since he had plenty of space, he went out to the balcony to handle some work remotely.

"So many documents to review—there's truly no rest at all." Ye Shuang skimmed through file after file of contracts, shaking his head.

"Phew, the weather's pretty nice tonight."

At over thirty floors up in the hotel, even in summer, the evening breeze swept away all the heat clinging to his skin.

Just as Ye Shuang was considering whether to video-call Chen Qin, he noticed a video link had already popped up on his screen—he paused for a moment, glanced at it, and saw it was from Bai Yuyou.

"A video call, huh." Even though he had no idea why Yuyou would suddenly call him, he chose to answer directly.

[Connecting]

With a somewhat shaky picture, Ye Shuang soon saw an adorable face appear on the screen. For some reason, though, the image on the other end looked a bit hazy, as if coated in a layer of mist.

"Yuyou, are you in the bathroom?" Ye Shuang froze for a moment after noticing the glistening water droplets and the flushed glow on her skin.

"Mm, taking a bath with Keke."

The camera switched, seemingly to the front-facing one. In that moment, Tang Keke was also soaking in the bathtub, playing on her phone inside a waterproof pouch.

"Yuyou, don't you dare film me now, okay?" Keke tilted her head back, completely unaware that Yuyou had already switched cameras.

"Mm." Bai Yuyou switched back, then said to Ye Shuang, "So, yeah, that's what it is."

Ye Shuang: "..."

Would Keke beat you to death if she found out?

Rubbing his brow, Ye Shuang could only pretend he hadn't seen the earlier scene and said, "Why not call me after you're done bathing? I'll hang up now, okay?"

"No."

"No?"

"We usually bathe together, so why can't we video call?"

"Uh..." Ye Shuang didn't know what to say for a moment. After all, Tang Keke was right there, so it was awkward however he looked at it. "Keke's there too, let's talk after you're out."

"It's fine, big bro—I'm not in the video anyway," Tang Keke's voice drifted over. After all, she was sitting across from Yuyou, so not even a toe was visible.

"..." Ye Shuang was silent for a few seconds.

"How was today's rehearsal?" Ye Shuang quickly asked, trying to change the subject.

"Mm, no problems."

"Mm..." There was another silence, because Ye Shuang noticed that Bai Yuyou seemed to be holding the phone at an odd angle—so much so that he was, effectively, having a conversation with two water balloons the whole time.

"Got a call coming in; I'll call you back in a bit." Ye Shuang was sitting on the balcony, and with his laptop screen showing a view like that, it felt like he was role-playing some kind of weird scene, so he quickly said.

"Oh, alright."

After the call ended, Ye Shuang finally let out a sigh of relief. Adjusting his posture, he calmed down and planned to get back to reading the contracts—

A little while later, a video call popped up on his computer again. He initially thought Bai Yuyou had called back, only to find it was Chen Qin.

"Babe." Ye Shuang answered, greeting her.

"Honey, are you alone?" The video was pitch black, as if the camera was off. Hearing her question, Ye Shuang replied with a hum.

"I'm in my hotel room—Aunt Xian got me my own suite."

As soon as he said that, the camera came on. Ye Shuang looked up, glanced at the screen, and paused. "You're taking a bath too?"

On the screen, Chen Qin was also soaking in a bathtub. She was already flushed pink, having been in for a while.

"Too?" Chen Qin caught onto his choice of words.

"Ah, nothing—I just had a bath myself too," Ye Shuang said.

"Is that so? Honey, look—being pregnant really does make them bigger," Chen Qin said, showing him. "Didn't they get a lot bigger?"

"I feel like I could hold them up and kiss them right now," Chen Qin said with a laugh.

Ye Shuang's face went dark and he massaged his forehead, but still said, "Babe... since you're pregnant, behave yourself... always so cheeky."

"Oh." Chen Qin stuck out her tongue.

"And pregnant women shouldn't soak in a hot bath—the temperature can have quite an impact," Ye Shuang continued. Since Chen Qin got pregnant, he had done plenty of research. "Also, it's easy to slip. You need to be careful, don't be so careless."

Ye Shuang went on and on like a doctor listing precautions, until Chen Qin couldn't help but scratch her head. "Ah... I didn't know that. Alright, I'll get up then."

Water splashed and sloshed as she moved, and soon Chen Qin's voice rang out again. "Honey, don't worry. My dad was afraid I'd slip in the bathroom, so he installed grab bars everywhere and made the entire floor non-slip."

"Oh, I think I need to go drink some soup again. Talk to you later, honey."

The call ended quickly.

Ye Shuang sat there for a good while before going back to the contracts.

Barely ten-plus minutes later, the familiar window popped up again.

Another video call invitation.

[Fish Tofu]

Ye Shuang sat in silence for a few seconds and quietly checked the almanac on his laptop. What day was it today, and why was everyone calling him on video?

And why all at the same time?

But since it was Anshi Yi calling, Ye Shuang answered without hesitation.

[Hey, hey, hey, can you hear me?] There was that familiar hazy mist on the other end of the video, and Anshi Yi's voice came through. "Big guy, guess what we're doing?"

Looking at the all-too-familiar water vapor on the other side, Ye Shuang said flatly, "You're bathing too? Do you all have the same timezone?"

"Bingo! You guessed it. How did you even guess that?" The camera wobbled, and Anshi Yi's little face appeared on screen. "How did you know we're in the bath?"

Ye Shuang paused for a moment, then said, "Comes from experience."

"What a weird way to put it..." The voice paused, then continued, "Oh, I get it—you must have secretly installed cameras in bathrooms all the time, so you know the look."

"How could that be possible?" Ye Shuang said, exasperated.

"When are you two coming back?" he asked.

"Oh-ho, missing us already?"

"Not really."

"How unromantic—you know why I called you?" Anshi Yi kept babbling on as she shook her head. "That girl over there just said she thinks she's bigger than me now... blub blub blub..."

"Pfft... wah... blub blub blub... how about we compare..."

The camera shook violently, and the owner of the second voice seemed to get dunked underwater.