【凯源】Mountains and Rivers [GCA2019X]

第四章 // Chapter 4

"Dragonflies linger on a bamboo fence

A tiny forest is seen inside the glass bottle

Shades of light refract through the glass

Like your troubled facial expression

And you, bending your head downwards to open the letter, would like to know how I am now."

The danger was over -- for now. Wang Yuan swiped the back of his hand over his lips before continuing to pick the lock on the drawer, ignoring Junkai.

The latter gazed at the fallen guards, marvelling how Yuan had used the phrase “two birds with one stone” so literally. Or, maybe, two guards with one hairpin.

“Ms Wang really is very unpredictable. How did you manage to move so fast?”

“You really do talk nonsense.” Wang Yuan said rather amiably, unlocking the drawer with a flourish.

“It’s open.”

Wang Yuan ran towards the desk, delving into the messy stack of papers and more papers. Mr Huang didn’t have a very fit body, and it was a surprise that he managed to get to this important a post because he wasn’t neat, didn’t have very good manners towards his staff and was the unofficial public enemy number 15. Wang Yuan very smoothly reached for the shipping documents in the messy stack of papers, seemingly recognising its unassuming similarity to the dozens of other papers in that drawer.

He raised his head to look at the clock. It had been twenty minutes since the guards had just came, and maybe ten minutes after he had knocked them out. It would probably take another ten minutes for the two unlucky guards to be found.

But ten minutes was already enough, the gown and high heels really were inconveniencing him, the heavy makeup on his face (to disguise his male features) was also making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Wang Yuan took off his wig and was about to change back into his old clothes before remembering that there was another person in the room. He was too focused on the task at hand before that he had completely forgotten that there was another living man here.

Junkai was standing silently at a side, watching with slight fascination how Wang Yuan meticulously sorted through the papers after he found his task’s objective. A mark of an OCD person, a mark Junkai could understand. It became a habit, after too many break-ins. Always make it neat and seem that nobody had touched anything -- only that someone had, but that was for later.

Wang Yuan turned and their eyes met, only to be followed by a bang as the bathroom door closed.

Somewhat five minutes later, Junkai heard a sound of restlessness from downstairs, and when he pressed his ear to the door, he heard the muffled sound of boots walking on polished wood, heading for his door.

There won’t be enough time, he thought. Returning to the bathroom door, he shouted, “Someone’s coming up now!”

No one replied him. Junkai breathed in deeply, letting the warm air fill him before kicking open the door.

Wang Yuan was standing in front of the basin, seemingly washing off his makeup. His whole face was covered with water droplets, and red and black colours mixed with the water, slowly traveling down his face. When he heard the door open with a small clash of wood meeting porcelain, he ran a hand down his face to wipe away the rest of the makeup before turning over, revealing a clean, delicate and (pretty?) face.

Junkai was stunned for a moment when he saw Wang Yuan’s true face. He didn’t expect that when he opened the door he would see such a familiar yet unknown face.

Wang Yuan had changed into a plain white shirt with a Sherlock-like overcoat and long black pants. The darkness of the night combining with the poor lighting once again shadowed his face from distinct sight but it illuminated his tall, lean body figure. He had a good posture, straight and tall, no slouching. His face was pretty but abstinent, and standing there made him quite enchanting fascinating. Junkai couldn’t help but look at him for longer than supposed to.

Wang Yuan took a towel and rubbed away the excess water on his face. “Someone’s here? Then it’s my turn to leave.” He passed Junkai as he exited the bathroom, and under the better lighting (and close proximity, but Junkai refused to believe that) he discovered something interesting.

“Huh? You seem to be around my height.”

Wang Yuan turned around and patted his shoulder, shooting him a smile. “I just reduced my bone⁴

.”

The way he smiled made his eyes turn into crescent moons, two inverted smiles, naive and innocent, at least about five years younger.

Junkai was rendered speechless by this new revelation. Wang Yuan was two different person when he was smiling and when he was not. He felt in his heart that this was a bit different than most, and it took him half a day to realise that this was the first time he had seen Wang Yuan smile so freely.

He had actually never seen him smile before.

“Yuan. It was nice to meet you.”

Wang Yuan opened the window and lightly jumped down to the ground, disappearing instantly.

Junkai stood at the window looking for a good while before suddenly putting a hand into his suit’s inner pocket. It was empty. He had originally wished for, when Yuan was escaping, to swipe the file out of his hands. He was so distracted as to overlook two important details when Yuan came out of the washroom: one, he had most probably kept the file in his coat pocket. Two…

See, his smile really was meant to distract him, it had an agenda behind it. He was merely over-thinking.

Junkai wasn’t particularly fond of why he felt a shred of disappointment by it.