Chapter Thirty-Nine: Teaching Step by Step

“Fine, since I have something on you now, you can’t run away even if you want to. You don’t have your phone, you can’t leave the resort, so be good and wait until the show ends. Then transfer a hundred thousand to me, or you know what will happen if you don’t.” With that threat, Zhou Xiancheng walked away.

Jian An’an clutched her aching hand, stomping her foot hard in anger—only to hurt her foot in the process. Her eyes burned with frustration, and at last she couldn’t help but curse. “Damn it! Why am I so unlucky? Everything used to go so smoothly, so why am I always the one getting hurt now?”

She thought of how easy it had been to fool Song Wannning before, but ever since Song Wannning started rejecting her, she noticed her own luck seemed to have turned for the worse as well. Jian An’an couldn’t find the reason, so she hurried back, afraid Jin Jianyi would notice her absence.

Little did she know, not long after she’d left, Jin Jianyi went to look for her and found she wasn’t there. He was about to go out and search when he saw Jian An’an returning, covered in mud, her hand apparently bleeding. His brows furrowed in concern, and he wanted to go to her immediately. But then he remembered her undisguised smile whenever he ignored her, and how she always snuck out behind his back to do things, clearly not wanting him to know.

His hand tightened on the doorknob, then fell uselessly to his side. Jin Jianyi didn’t realize that right then, Jian An’an was standing outside his bedroom door, pressed up against it, eavesdropping for any movement inside. Hearing nothing, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She’d just seen the lights in his room were off—he must have gone to bed.

…

Meanwhile, after showering, Song Wannning, true to her word, went to knock on Wen Jingxing’s door. At that moment, Wen Jingxing had just finished his own shower, changing into a smooth, sapphire-blue shirt. Both of them had washed quickly—after soaking so long in the hot spring, they just needed to rinse off the dust.

“What do you want to see?” Wen Jingxing was the first to speak. It was a perfectly normal question, yet Song Wannning felt something was off about it.

“Um… your phone, I guess.” Song Wannning, having just arrived in this world, was particularly curious about electronic devices. She’d barely had time or opportunity to figure out how to use them, and then her phone was confiscated. No matter how curious she was, she couldn’t solve the mystery of these novel gadgets.

But Wen Jingxing refused flatly. “No.”

Song Wannning was obviously taken aback. “If it’s inconvenient, never mind.” She’d have plenty of time to research after the show anyway.

But Wen Jingxing refused again. “No.”

Song Wannning: “? Then why…”

“My phone is needed for work right now. You can use my laptop.” Wen Jingxing gestured toward the computer charging on the table.

Song Wannning had wanted to borrow the phone and go study it in the lounge, but that was clearly not happening. The phone was small enough, but the laptop was tethered by wires she didn’t recognize, and unplugging it seemed unwise.

She pointed inside. “May I come in?”

This time, Wen Jingxing finally nodded. “You may.”

He merely stepped aside to let her enter. “I’m coming in, then…” Song Wannning hesitated inwardly, debating whether to refuse. But her body betrayed her, moving steadily through the door.

Once she entered, Wen Jingxing closed the door behind her. Song Wannning glanced back; there were only two of them in the small house—why did he need to close the door? Well, he didn’t seem like he was about to do anything improper.

After all, in the novel, Wen Jingxing’s fate was to grow old alone, never loving or touching anyone. So Song Wannning felt absolutely at ease; a man like this, even if they were in a room together, would never do anything inappropriate.

She had no idea how quickly fate would slap her in the face.

Song Wannning sat down in front of the laptop, only to discover she had no idea how to turn it on. Why was it so different from a phone? She regretted not having studied the computer as well. The book’s plot never bothered to describe computers in detail, leaving her clueless.

She stretched out her hands, not knowing what to do with them.

Wen Jingxing, thinking she was just shy about borrowing it, came over and turned on the laptop for her. Song Wannning glanced at the screen—a plain black wallpaper. She frowned slightly; why did Wen Jingxing like something so somber? But when she looked at the desktop icons, she felt a little relieved; using a computer didn’t seem all that different from a phone.

Yet after searching around, she couldn’t find the familiar Weibo icon. There were only a handful of icons on the desktop.

“You don’t have Weibo on your laptop?” she finally asked.

Wen Jingxing had been looking down at his phone, apparently typing away. Hearing her, he suddenly realized that apart from work programs, his computer had nothing else installed.

“I don’t have those apps. If you want to use one, you can just download it yourself.”

Download it? What on earth does that mean?

She gave up pretending. “I don’t know how.”

Wen Jingxing’s brows relaxed and his expression lightened, as if he found her amusing. “You’ve never used a computer?”

“No,” Song Wannning glared at him. Was he doing this on purpose? She’d just said she didn’t know, and he still asked, just to tease her?

Wen Jingxing laughed softly, his voice a low, magnetic rumble that seemed to echo in his chest, full of allure.

“What’s so funny? It’s normal not to know everything…” Song Wannning pouted a little, embarrassed by his laughter.

Then Wen Jingxing suddenly stood up and walked over, stopping behind her. She barely had time to register a large shadow falling across her.

The next moment, his warm, broad hand covered hers, and his deep, slightly hoarse voice sounded by her ear. “If you don’t know, I’ll teach you step by step.”

He placed her hand on the mouse, showing her which program to use to download things, how to download, how to install. By the time he’d gone through the entire process, Song Wannning had a fair grasp of how to use the computer—at least enough so she wouldn’t run into trouble while playing around.

But… if he was going to teach her, did he really have to stand so close, guiding her hand with his own? His breath was warm against the back of her neck when he spoke.

It felt almost as if Wen Jingxing was watching her, not the computer.

Song Wannning didn’t dare look back to check, so she forced herself to maintain that posture with him until Weibo finished downloading and opened up.

Instantly, she felt a great weight lift from her heart. At last! It was finally over!

Wen Jingxing really was watching Song Wannning the whole time, only glancing at the computer occasionally. He was so familiar with the process that he didn’t even need to look at the screen.