Chapter 44: Ultimate Temptation

Jiang Yang had no choice but to drive barefoot to take Yang Xiaoran back home. Upon arriving at the building, he carried her on his back into the residential compound.

"Hey, walking around barefoot in the middle of the night carrying me like this, don't you look just like Zhu Bajie carrying his bride?" Yang Xiaoran teased him deliberately.

"I wish I was Zhu Bajie. I kept wondering why you looked so slender, yet you're so heavy to carry?" Jiang Yang deflected, avoiding the real issue.

Yang Xiaoran raised an eyebrow. "That just means the flesh is right where it's supposed to be."

Feeling the two soft mounds pressed against his back, along with the firm touch of his hands supporting her buttocks, Jiang Yang knew that the places where she was supposed to have flesh definitely did not lack anything.

The mere mention of this easily set his imagination wandering, and he quickly changed the subject. "Get some rest once we go up, and I'll head back first."

"How can you even have the face to go back?" Yang Xiaoran murmured softly by his ear.

"I... didn't I just bring you back?"

"Look at me, I can't even walk right now. What if I fall over inside the room later?"

A trace of cold sweat beaded on Jiang Yang's forehead. "So you're asking me to stay the night here?"

Yang Xiaoran let out a soft giggle. "I didn't say that, but if you want to stay the night, you're welcome to."

Jiang Yang's mouth twitched. Why did it feel like he was being scammed? Saying more would only lead to mistakes, so he simply shut his mouth, determined to get her inside first.

So he carried her into the elevator barefoot, under the strange stares of the lobby security guard.

When the apartment door opened, Jiang Yang's eyes lit up. She lived in a large flat-style apartment of over one hundred and fifty square meters, with the living room alone spanning more than thirty square meters.

Jiang Yang set her down on the sofa. "Dr. Yang, your living room is huge. Even talking has an echo."

"Yeah, with a place this big, I've always thought about keeping a small animal or maybe a big one. But I'm usually busy, and there's no one to help me take care of it." As she spoke, her gaze shifted, landing once again on Jiang Yang.

The atmosphere seemed to be heading in a strange direction once more, and Jiang Yang quickly dragged the topic back. "Dr. Yang, your clothes got soaked by the seawater. Shouldn't you wipe yourself down or something?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt something was amiss. What if Dr. Yang asked him to help her take a bath?

Fortunately, Yang Xiaoran didn't make any such demand. She said, "Well, help me move a chair into the bathroom, and bring my clothes. You can just wait outside the bathroom, I can manage by myself."

Jiang Yang breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he had been overthinking.

He carried the change of clothes and the chair into the bathroom, then helped Yang Xiaoran inside before sitting down alone to wait by the doorway.

Through the frosted glass, he could see her graceful figure slowly shedding her clothes, revealing her alluring body.

This hazy view stirred up endless fantasies, and he felt his heartbeat skip a beat. Continuing to look like this was a bad idea, so he hurriedly averted his gaze, refusing to look toward the bathroom.

As the sound of running water began, water streaks covered the frosted glass, making the scene inside even more dreamlike, which once again drew Jiang Yang's eyes irresistibly toward it.

For a moment, he felt somewhat dazed. Somehow, the image of another woman surfaced in his mind at that very moment.

Just a dozen days ago, when he and Ruolan were vacationing on a small island country, she had taken a bath while he similarly admired her body from outside the glass.

That scene had been so mesmerizing, so full of anticipation.

So much so that he couldn't help waiting impatiently by the bathroom door, only to scoop her up in her bath towel the moment she stepped out, toss her onto the bed, and launch into a passionate battle.

Pity that was all in the past.

A woman who had deceived his feelings and possessed a warped psyche—he could no longer stay with her and had to forget her as quickly as possible.

Just as he was still lost in memories, a sudden exclamation from Yang Xiaoran snapped him back to reality. "Oh!"

Jiang Yang strode quickly to the bathroom door. With his hand on the knob, ready to push it open and rush right in, he managed to pause and asked, "Dr. Yang, what's wrong?"

"I slipped and fell. Come in and help me."

Through the glass, she appeared to be kneeling on the floor, her body already wrapped in a white bath towel.

Hesitating no longer, Jiang Yang pressed down the handle and pushed the door open.

A wave of mist rushed out, and before he could clearly see the situation inside, a white figure had already thrown herself into his arms.

Along with it came the delicate touch of smooth skin and a lingering feminine fragrance that drifted straight into his nose.

Wrapped in a bath towel, her shoulders bare and her entire body damp, Yang Xiaoran hugged him tightly. "I slipped and fell just now. I don't know if the wound tore open. It hurts so much..."

"Then let me help you sit on the sofa first."

"No, I'm afraid walking will tear the wound open. Carry me to the bed instead."

"Carry you to the bed?" Jiang Yang repeated her words, his eyes involuntarily glancing at the deep cleavage exposed at her chest.

Just that single glance was almost more than he could handle.

Yang Xiaoran covered her chest with one hand while wrapping the other tightly around his neck, feigning annoyance. "What? Are you having other thoughts?"

Jiang Yang quickly cast his gaze aside. "No, no, we're just good friends. Can you please not use this to test the revolutionary friendship between us?"

Seeing his blushing face, Yang Xiaoran felt a secret thrill of satisfaction, yet she tapped him on the head with her fingertip. "Who's testing you? Look at me, injured like this, and you're still letting your lower half do the thinking. Are you even human?"

Her push-and-pull attitude was truly agonizing. Clearly, she was putting all her best scenery on display for him in turns, yet she kept emphasizing that they were friends and that he should not gaze upon impropriety.

He had to admit, she was quite the tease.

Jiang Yang bent down and scooped her up. A faint smile curved the corners of her mouth as her legs, white as mutton-fat jade, gently swayed in the air.

At that moment, her appearance overlapped with Ruolan's, making it hard for him to tell which woman was truly before his eyes.

The two entered the bedroom, where a two-meter-wide bed awaited with a comfortable mattress and pristine white sheets, instantly sparking a desire to tumble across it several times.

Jiang Yang thought to himself: Didn't I resolve to forget that woman Ruolan? Should I or should not have a thrilling, passionate encounter with Dr. Yang instead?

As long as someone could fill the emptiness in his heart, wouldn't that completely erase Ruolan from his mind?

Just then, Yang Xiaoran tapped his chest lightly with her fingertip. "What are you daydreaming for? Aren't you going to put me down?"

Jiang Yang leaned over and laid her onto the bed. As she lay there looking up at him with a smile, her body wrapped in the bath towel resembled a ripened fruit—all he had to do was pull the towel away, and he could indulge in a hearty feast.