Blinded by Lust chapter 13
Such matters needed mutual consent. Wu Bie had to make the first move. If Zhanyan was forcing him to compromise, it wouldn’t be meaningful.
Seeing that Zhanyan was silent, Wu Bie felt uneasy. He thought he might be a bit ungrateful, as a beautiful person was showing him favor repeatedly, and he was still hesitant. But he couldn’t just take advantage of a beautiful girl. Ah, he was really in a difficult position.
“Are you upset?” Wu Bie tentatively asked, his eyes constantly fixed on Zhanyan’s face, afraid of missing any of her expressions.
Zhanyan wasn’t angry, but when Wu Bie asked this, she naturally had to be a bit pretentious. She took a deep breath, pretending to be hurt.
“I like you. Since you don’t like me, of course I’ll be upset.”
Her assertive tone was clearly accusing him of not appreciating her. Wu Bie was amused by Zhanyan’s behavior. He wanted to take the easy route and agree, but he really wanted Zhanyan to think it through. He was afraid she was just caught up in the moment and might change her mind.
Wu Bie didn’t deliberately steer the conversation back to the previous topic. He asked nonchalantly, “I was just wondering, why is it so dark over there? It’s not dark in the country yet, right?”
Zhanyan was also smart and stopped pursuing Wu Bie relentlessly, wanting to give him some time.
“I was afraid you’d think I look unattractive, so I closed the curtains.”
Wu Bie knew Zhanyan was saying this deliberately. He really wanted to pinch her face, which looked so soft.
“You.”
Zhanyan stopped pressing the issue and mentioned the gloves Wu Bie had bought, “Where are my gloves? I haven’t had a good look at them yet.”
Wu Bie immediately turned the camera towards the gloves. The pink was a black and pink combination. The pink part was actually less than the black, but it was still eye-catching.
Just from the video, Huo Zhanyan thought the gloves seemed a bit small. “They look a bit small.”
“Impossible!” Wu Bie said, wanting to try them on for Zhanyan. He fiddled for a long time, with half of his palm still exposed, but he was adamant, “It’s just that my hands are big. They won’t be small on you.”
Wu Bie thought he was a girl, so it was normal to think so. Huo Zhanyan deliberately played dumb, “How do you know my hands are smaller than yours?”
“Well, I definitely know. You have slender arms and legs…”
Wu Bie stopped midway through his sentence. He remembered the photos Zhanyan had sent him before and looked at the person in the camera now, becoming more convinced that Zhanyan was definitely tall. But even if she was tall, a young girl’s bones wouldn’t be thicker than a grown man’s.
“How big can the hands of a young girl be? Definitely not bigger than mine.”
Zhanyan tilted her head, “That’s not necessarily true.”
The little girl was usually quite well-behaved and had a high-spirited nature. Wu Bie found it amusing. “So, should we compare?”
Suddenly, Zhanyan lifted her wrist and brought her hand close to the camera. Through the phone, it was hard to see the exact size. Zhanyan’s skin was fair and her fingers were slender. Visually, her hand did seem a bit larger than average for a girl, but Wu Bie was confident that it couldn’t possibly be larger than his.
“It doesn’t look that big either.”
Comparing hand sizes was already a bit ambiguous, and Wu Bie struggled to control his urge to be playful. However, Zhanyan wasn’t as reserved and immediately spoke up.
“Wu Ge, with your hand being that big, does it fit just right to hold mine?”
Wu Bie’s smile was about to break, so he rubbed his nose with the back of his hand to hide it. It was tricky to answer—if he responded, he was afraid Zhanyan might get into inappropriate topics. If he didn’t respond, he’d seem too passive in front of Zhanyan.
“Wu Ge, you have calluses on your palm.” Zhanyan’s keen observation caught that detail.
Wu Bie, showing his palm to the camera, explained, “We all started as low-level sailors and did physical labor, so having calluses is normal. It’s nothing compared to your delicate skin.”
“How do you know I have delicate skin? I used to ride a motorcycle and was exposed to the wind and sun.”
That’s not the same. Wu Bie wasn’t underestimating Zhanyan; on the ship, they worked hard with their skin almost fully exposed to the sun. Zhanyan’s motorcycle rides were for fun and surely involved sunscreen, helmets, and full coverage.
Wu Bie followed Zhanyan’s lead. “Then should we compare again?”
He moved his arm below the camera, so the size of his palm wasn’t clear, but the color contrast was quite noticeable. Zhanyan’s skin was several shades whiter than his.
“Do the young girls these days prefer fair-skinned guys?” Nowadays, TV stars are all glossy and made up, indistinguishable in terms of gender. Wu Bie figured young girls liked this type.
Huo Zhanyan indeed found it hard to get tanned; even after summer, he naturally returned to being fair by winter. He couldn’t compare to Wu Bie in this regard.
Zhanyan shook her head innocently. “I don’t know. I don’t like that. I like you, Wu Ge. You have a masculine charm.”
Wu Bie was deeply touched by her praise. To be liked so directly and wholeheartedly was overwhelming.
His thick skin was useless in front of Zhanyan. His smile was frozen, and he couldn’t find words to respond. He then noticed Zhanyan’s clothes. Her white top wasn’t a hospital gown—did she change specifically for the video call?
“Did you change your clothes on purpose?”
Wu Bie asked casually, but Zhanyan honestly admitted, “Yes.”
This straightforward girl was too much for Wu Bie to handle. Why didn’t she even try to be subtle?
“I was afraid you’d think badly of me, so I had a nurse help me change.”
Wu Bie was even more taken aback. Zhanyan, who could only lie in bed and had difficulty with everything, went through the trouble of changing her clothes just for the video call.
Wu Bie looked down at himself. He was wearing a black, old undershirt. Compared to Zhanyan, he looked too casual. “Now I feel like I didn’t take it seriously at all.”
“No, it’s just right. You look good like this.” Zhanyan genuinely complimented him. The black tank top suited Wu Bie perfectly, showing off his shoulder muscles and making his neck veins look particularly attractive.
“Don’t go to so much trouble in the future. You’re already inconvenienced. You look good no matter what you wear. At your age, even in a sack, you’d look good.”
Zhanyan’s hair behind her ear had fallen out of place. “Will we be able to video call in the future?”
Not knowing what to say, Wu Bie was happy at the thought of future video calls with Zhanyan.
“It’s just a video call. It’s not like I’m coming out of the screen. You can find me anytime you want.”
After Wu Bie made such a grand statement, Zhanyan softly asked, “Will you come out of the screen?”
Wu Bie was taken aback. Looking at Zhanyan’s earnest eyes, something suddenly surged in his mind. He didn’t think much and blurted out, “Are you serious?”
Zhanyan, who had always been straightforward, suddenly became hesitant. She lowered her gaze, avoiding Wu Bie’s eyes, and then shook her head.
Wu Bie was stunned. He thought, given Zhanyan’s personality, she would have admitted it directly.
Does she not want to meet me? It made sense, since they weren’t in any kind of relationship yet. Wu Bie was conflicted, but being together and wanting to see Zhanyan didn’t seem to contradict each other.
“You still haven’t sung me the birthday song.” Huo Zhanyan was afraid Wu Bie would ask more questions or might agree to meet him, which he wasn’t ready for yet.
Wu Bie snapped back to reality and said reluctantly, “I’m fine with everything else, but I’m terrible at singing.”
Wu Bie was usually full of confidence, and it was rare for him to be modest. It seemed he really couldn’t carry a tune.
“The birthday song too?”
It was hard to say. Wu Bie didn’t remember whether he was out of tune with the birthday song, but he didn’t want to disappoint Zhanyan.
“I have one song I’m sure I won’t mess up.”
“What song?”
“‘Sailor’! Do you know it?”
Zhanyan wasn’t picky. “Sure.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Wu Bie lifted his chin and sang, “He says, ‘What’s a bit of pain in the wind and rain! Wipe your tears! Don’t ask! Why!'”
He suddenly started and suddenly finished. Zhanyan was caught off guard. She expected Wu Bie to build up to it but he jumped straight into the chorus, and he only knew these two lines.
“How was that?” Wu Bie, having sung with too much force, was slightly out of breath.
Seeing Wu Bie’s confident face, Zhanyan couldn’t help but laugh. “Actually… those two lines are a bit off-key…”
“Really?” Wu Bie was shocked. This was his most confident song, and he thought he sang it well. He tried to explain, “This is my signature song. On our ship, no one can sing it better than me.”
Huo Zhanyan tried to stifle his laughter. When he thought about the rough men on Wu Bie’s ship, asked, “Is the singing on your ship just a competition to see who has the loudest voice?”
Wu Bie felt self-conscious at the comment. “Are you making fun of me?”
Zhanyan shook her head with her eyes closed, but she was smiling so broadly that it was hardly convincing.
Wu Bie wasn’t the type to be petty. As long as Zhanyan was happy, it was fine. “Forget it, just laugh.”
It had been a while since anyone had video-called him like this, and Wu Bie was a bit carried away. He showed off his broken foreign language skills to Zhanyan. “My further responsibility is to assure navigational safety. How’s that?”
“Impressive.” At first, it sounded like a dialect to Zhanyan, but she still praised him sincerely.
Wu Bie chuckled, “Ah, I know, my pronunciation isn’t standard. I only know this one sentence, and I learned it from someone else.”
“That’s still impressive.”
Putting aside other things, Wu Bie’s confidence alone was something most people couldn’t learn.
Whether Zhanyan was genuinely praising him or just teasing for her own amusement, Wu Bie was quite pleased. He made many promises to Zhanyan, boasting about things like bringing back a bottle of sand from the star-shaped beaches in Cherbourg and showing her the beautiful sunrises and sunsets at sea when he got the chance.