Warm breath brushed against the back of my ear, so hot it burned my skin and sent electric tingles down my scalp.
I instinctively shrank back but quickly realized I couldn’t move my body was locked tightly in someone’s arms.
Under my palm, I could feel the smooth, firm surface of muscle.
My limbs might have still been heavy like stone from sleep, but my brain was wide awake now.
I snapped my eyes open, and yep I’d sleepwalked again.
Worse yet, I’d climbed into Zhou Yichen’s bed once more.
His broad and scorching hand was resting firmly on my waist, radiating heat like a furnace. Even through layers of fabric, his roughened calluses were impossible to ignore.
Yichen was an athlete the kind who’d been playing basketball and running since high school. His daily training had sculpted his body into something lean and powerful, but it also kept his temperature blazing warm, like a walking campfire.
Meanwhile, I , Li Ansheng was the exact opposite. Ever since I was a kid, my constitution was weak and sensitive, an anemic “medicine jar” kind of body. My fingers ran cold even in summer, and every winter I was guaranteed to collapse into fever.
So honestly? Hugging Zhou Yichen at night was addictive. It was like curling up with a personal heater that smelled faintly of soap and cedarwood.
No wonder my sleepwalking self always dragged me up here. There was just no resisting that kind of warmth.
Especially in the middle of December, with temperatures outside hitting negative ten who in their right mind wouldn’t want to sneak into his bed?
The only downside? Two college-aged guys squeezed into one narrow twin mattress meant constant body contact and sometimes, things happened in the mornings that were awkward, to say the least.
Feeling the growing tension behind me, my ears flamed scarlet.
And then Zhou Yichen, completely oblivious, pressed a hand over my forehead.
His voice, groggy and low, rubbed like gravel against my spine:
"Why’s your face so red? You sick?"
"N-no. Just.... too hot," I stammered, cheeks burning.
Like always, I quickly rattled off my little mantra:
"Sorry again, Yichen. I sleepwalked."
He gave a short laugh through his nose and gently pushed back the damp strands of my hair, wiping the cold sweat off my temples with those too-hot fingers, eyes burning a little too intensely for comfort.
I ducked my head, fiddling nervously with the blanket.
People always said Zhou Yichen was handsome, arrogant, and had clinical-grade OCD.
He was the type no one dared approach exclusive, aloof, someone who lived in his own world.
And I used to believe every word of it.
But after half a month of climbing into his bed every night, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Behind his chilly exterior, there was a surprising gentleness.
From the very first night I’d sleepwalked into his bed, he hadn’t screamed, cursed, or shoved me off. Instead, he’d asked me what was wrong with this calm patience I’d never seen in him before. When he learned my condition wasn’t just a quirk but an actual hereditary disorder, he’d simply accepted it.
Not just accepted it he’d looked after me.
He started pulling me into his blankets every night to keep me from catching cold in my sleepwalking daze. And as a result? For the first winter in my life, not a single fever. That was practically a miracle.
In just two weeks, our relationship had skyrocketed from pure nodding acquaintances to sharing a bed every night. Brothers-in-arms, literally under the same covers.
The sheer speed of it was staggering.
And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it.
"Like a puppy," Zhou Yichen murmured suddenly, fingertips pinching lightly at the back of my neck. The touch was strangely soft, sending goosebumps racing down my skin.
"Huh?" I blinked up at him, confused, still half-asleep. "Wait.....did I bite you again?"
His face annoyingly perfect, like it had been personally designed by some genetic lottery loomed closer when I tilted my head.
And then I saw it.
His lips.
Normally pale and sharply defined, they were now swollen and faintly red scratched with tiny breaks in the skin.
My heart flatlined.
Oh, god.
Not only had I crawled into his bed again, now I’d managed to chew on his mouth like some feral toddler.
To him, I had to look like a complete creep. Worse than a creep. A serial offender.
My palms went cold. What if he thought I was some kind of pervert who preyed on roommates in the night?
Chapter 01
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