Accident

Chapter 174

Ten minutes later, the battle ended.

"I lost! Are you a demon?!"

Pei Susu slammed her cards onto the coffee table and slumped back onto the sofa, completely abandoning her image, looking as limp as a boneless fish.

Her usually radiant eyes were now filled with despair as she glared at the man opposite her, who was wearing a dangerously sweet smile.

"Good game, Ms. Pei."

Gu Ran unhurriedly tapped the bamboo drawing tube and pushed it in front of Pei Susu.

"Accept your defeat and draw. Stop struggling, it's the last shred of dignity for a carbon-based lifeform."

Pei Susu reached out through gritted teeth, her movements as stiff as if she were defusing a bomb.

The moment her fingertips touched the bamboo stick, her heart skipped a beat, and a strong sense of impending doom welled up inside her.

On the card, a line of bold black text was particularly glaring:

Dare: Lock eyes affectionately with a person of the opposite sex in the room for 30 seconds. Rules: Distance must be less than 20cm. No laughing, no blinking, no looking away.

"..."

The air suddenly froze. The living room became so quiet that the humming of the refrigerator's compressor could be heard.

Pei Susu's hand, holding the card, trembled slightly. She mechanically turned her neck, locking her gaze onto Ye Jinliang beside her, who was holding half a can of cola with a "who am I and where am I" expression on his face.

"Pfft—"

Gu Ran couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking like a leaf.

He casually speared a piece of cantaloupe from the fruit platter, popped it into his mouth, and mumbled a finishing blow:

"Brilliant. What goes around comes around. This boomerang hit with pinpoint accuracy."

Beside them, Ye Zhenzhen covered her mouth, her peach-blossom eyes curving into crescents. Her shoulders bobbed up and down like a little hamster that had just stolen a treat.

Only Ye Jinliang was still completely out of the loop.

He blinked his rather small eyes in confusion, squeezing the cola can until it crackled. "Wha... what's wrong? You guys are laughing so much it's giving me the creeps. Should I leave...?"

"Don't you go anywhere." Gu Ran, always eager for more drama, pointed at Pei Susu. "Sit tight, don't move, and prepare to receive Ms. Pei's 'affectionate baptism'."

"Come on, Susu." Ye Zhenzhen immediately transformed into a ruthless timekeeping machine, staring at the wall clock ready to start. "The rules of the game are ironclad! Those were your exact words just a moment ago~"

Pei Susu took a deep breath and viciously glared at her best friend who was siding against her. "Ye Zhenzhen, you boy-crazy traitor!"

"I am not, no I'm not, stop talking nonsense..." Ye Zhenzhen muttered softly, her face reddening, but her determination to keep time remained unwavering. "Ready—"

Pei Susu accepted her fate.

She spun around suddenly, planted her hands on the edge of the sofa, and leaned her upper body right in, forcefully closing the distance between them to a dangerous sub-twenty centimeters.

"Look at me!"

This low shout carried a certain desperate, nothing-left-to-lose resolve.

Ye Jinliang jumped in fright, nearly spilling his cola.

He hurriedly slammed the can onto the coffee table and pressed his hands firmly against his knees, sitting as upright as an elementary school student receiving a scolding from the principal.

"L-look where?" he stammered, his eyes darting around wildly, completely afraid to focus.

"My eyes! Look at my eyes! Stop looking around!"

"Begin!" Gu Ran ordered.

The countdown started.

The air in the living room seemed to be instantly sucked dry, leaving only their two intertwined gazes.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

At first, Pei Susu looked at him with a "screw it, let's just get this awkward punishment over with" mentality.

Her gaze was fierce, carrying an intensity that looked ready to bore a hole straight through Ye Jinliang.

But as time ticked by, this intensity slowly began to crumble, replaced by a subtle, unprecedented panic.

It was too close.

So close that she could clearly see her own slightly bewildered reflection in Ye Jinliang's pupils.

Actually... looking closely, this chubby guy's features weren't ugly at all.

His skin was surprisingly good, fair and tender, flushed with a charmingly naive rosiness. His eyelashes were actually longer than many girls', fluttering gently with his breathing like two little brushes.

As for Ye Jinliang, he felt like his brain capacity was overloading; his mind was blaring with warning sirens.

Pei Susu's eyes were so big and sparkling, with curled lashes and a tiny bit of leftover glitter at the corners of her eyes, looking like stars that had fallen into a lake.

That faint citrus scent, mixed with her unique girlish fragrance, aggressively invaded his nose and rushed straight to the top of his skull through his bloodstream.

A wave of heat shot up from the base of Ye Jinliang's neck, instantly burning his entire face bright red. Even the tips of his ears were so red they looked like they might bleed.

He held his breath, his gaze starting to drift. He wanted to hide but didn't dare to move, looking as if his whole body was practically steaming.

"Don't move!"

Pei Susu seemed to notice his retreat and subconsciously snapped at him.

But her voice was soft and lacked any real threat; instead, it carried a hint of coquettishness that even she didn't realize.

To Ye Jinliang's ears, this voice was nothing short of a death warrant.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest like a beating drum, vibrating so hard his eardrums were buzzing.

"Why... why are you blushing?" Pei Susu looked at the large face in front of her that was as red as a baboon's butt. Her heart inexplicably softened a bit, and to cover up her own fluster, she deliberately mocked him, "It's only been fifteen seconds, can't you show a little spine?"

Prompted by this question, the string in Ye Jinliang's mind that had been stretched to its absolute limit finally snapped.

Extreme nervousness left his mind completely blank. His legs, which had been crossed on the sofa, were suddenly hit by an intense wave of numbness due to prolonged tension and accelerated blood circulation, feeling as if countless ants were gnawing at them.

"I... I'm not..."

He subconsciously tried to adjust his posture to relieve the numbness in his legs.

However, Murphy's Law exerted its most ruthless effect at this very moment.

The numbness made his lower half completely unresponsive, and combined with the softness of the sofa, Ye Jinliang lost his center of gravity. His upper body suddenly pitched forward.

"Holy shit!"

Accompanied by a cry of alarm, Ye Jinliang's nearly 160-pound frame plunged straight forward under the call of gravity.

Pei Susu's pupils quaked.

Given her usual temper, when faced with this kind of sudden "attack," her body's defense mechanism would normally be: lift leg, bend knee, knee to the groin—a silky smooth combo that would send the guy straight to meet his maker.

But at this moment, watching that flushed, terrified large face closing in, her defense system bizarrely... lagged.

Her brain straight up threw a 404 error.

There was no nutcracker kick, nor was there a shoulder throw.

Pei Susu subconsciously reached out both hands, not to push him away, but instinctively catching Ye Jinliang.

"Thud!"

A muffled thud echoed.

What was supposed to be a "car crash scene" froze into an incredibly ambiguous pose.

To avoid crushing Pei Susu, Ye Jinliang unleashed a staggering will to survive at the very last second. He planted one hand firmly against the back of the sofa right beside her, the veins on his arm bulging as he forcefully supported his own weight.

His entire body formed a textbook pinning-against-the-sofa pose.

Pei Susu, having absorbed part of the impact, was forced to lean her upper body back, sinking deeply into the soft cushion.

Their faces were barely two inches apart.

Their breaths mingled, the tips of their noses almost touching.

At that moment, time seemed to stand still.

Pei Susu could even make out the fine fuzz on his face, along with the cold sweat of lingering shock.

His burning breath washed over her face unreservedly, so hot it made her heart flutter.

Ye Jinliang's entire body went rigid. His eyes darted around wildly, but he absolutely dared not focus on the pretty face that was right in front of him.

If this were a comic book, steam would be sizzling out of the top of his head right now, complete with the whistling sound of a boiling kettle.

"..."