Chapter 98 - 28: Everyone Is Misunderstanding Me

Chapter 98: Chapter 28: Everyone Is Misunderstanding Me

Stepping into the room, Wu Shi looked around but didn’t see Louise. He had no choice but to ask, "Caroline, where’s Louise?"

"Her? Is she shy? Or scared?" Caroline laughed. ’Watching the young lady’s shy expression is so amusing,’ she thought.

"My apologies, I hope Louise hasn’t been too much trouble," Wu Shi said.

"It’s no problem. I was just out with Ophelia anyway, so I brought her along. You have no idea, she was talking about you non-stop the whole way here. I remember yesterday..."

"No, no, no! Caroline! Don’t say another word!" Louise cried, running out from the bathroom.

"Haha, and there she is!" Caroline laughed, clearly amused.

Louise’s normally pale face was now flushed as red as an apple.

Seeing Louise, Wu Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Thank you, Caroline. And thank you, Ophelia."

He knew Ophelia had absolutely no interest in racing, so her being here was almost certainly Louise’s idea.

’This little schemer... what a handful!’

"Wu, being too polite can create distance sometimes, you know," Caroline said.

Wu Shi scratched the back of his head and nodded. "I was just so worried, thinking Louise might have come here all by herself. So when I saw she was with you, I felt I had to thank you properly."

"Hmph! I’m not a little kid anymore!" Louise insisted from the side.

"Right, right, Louise is all grown up," Wu Shi said, his eyes subconsciously drifting downward for a moment.

Louise might not be the most perceptive person, but she was extremely sensitive to Wu Shi’s every move. Instantly realizing what he’d done, she covered her chest, her face turning an even deeper shade of red.

"You...! I...!"

"Hahaha!"

Caroline roared with laughter at the scene. Even the female mechanic, whose main job was to ensure Wu Shi’s safety, couldn’t help but turn her head away.

’She never would have thought that Wu Shi, who was usually either on the track or reading books about racing, had such a cute little girlfriend.’

"Alright, alright. You didn’t rush all the way over here just to crack a few jokes, did you?" Caroline said with a wink.

’Yep, Caroline definitely misunderstood him, too!’

"I’m just relieved to know Louise is safe," Wu Shi said. "The team gave me my own place to stay. It’s up to Louise, though. If she wants to stay here, I’ll have to trouble you to look after her, Caroline. But if she wants to come over to my place, that’s fine too. The team leader already approved it."

Caroline turned and gave Louise a wink as well.

"I... I’ll go with him." Louise, no longer shy, managed to say, speaking her mind in an instant even though her voice was barely a whisper.

She had been avoiding Wu Shi, worried he would scold her the same way her mother would. Instead, she found he was only worried about her.

....

Back in his room with Louise, he saw that her luggage was simple—just a single 20-inch suitcase.

"Don’t go running off by yourself without an adult next time," Wu Shi said.

"Mm, you’re such a nag... you sound just like my mom," Louise mumbled.

"Because the only people who will nag you to be safe are the ones who worry about you." Wu Shi turned his head. He was a little taller than her now, giving him a perfect view of her profile.

"..." Louise lowered her head and said no more.

"You take the bed. I’ll be fine on the sofa," Wu Shi said, setting down Louise’s suitcase.

"Huh?" Louise looked at him in surprise.

"?"

’Wait, seriously? Don’t tell me *you* also think I brought you over here to... do it.’

’Why does everyone misunderstand me?’

"Ahem." Louise snapped out of it and said, "No way. You have a race tomorrow. You have to sleep in the bed."

"Oh," Wu Shi replied simply. He glanced at the sofa. "You probably can’t sleep on the sofa, right? So you’d have to come to the bed eventually anyway?"

"..." Louise’s face flushed. ’This wasn’t what Ophelia said would happen at all!’

Ophelia had told her that if she made that kind of offer to a guy, none of them would be able to refuse. She said that’s what happened with several of their classmates.

Wu Shi pressed his forehead. ’The cultural differences seem to be a bit extreme, creating a gap in certain areas.’

He wasn’t one to preach his values, though; he simply acted on his own principles. So, without further ado, he said, "Then we’ll both sleep on the bed. Just like when we were kids."

"Okay!" Louise agreed in a flash.

"..."

Wu Shi felt like he’d somehow gotten the short end of the stick. "But don’t move around too much," he said. "Otherwise I won’t be able to sleep, and it’ll affect my race tomorrow."

"Mm-hm." Louise smiled, pressing her lips together and nodding obediently.

"I’m going to shower first," Wu Shi said before grabbing his clothes and heading for the shower.

Louise quickly pulled out her phone and sent a text to Ophelia.

[We’re sleeping in the same bed, but he told me not to move around or he won’t be able to sleep. Does that mean he doesn’t like me?]

When Ophelia received the text, she almost fainted from exasperation. ’Her grades are so good, so how can she be this dense when it comes to boys?’

’He tells you not to fidget, so you just... don’t fidget?’

’Some guys just say that to be polite.’

However, Ophelia’s theoretical knowledge in this department was quite extensive. After some critical analysis, she decided Wu Shi probably wasn’t that type of guy.

So before replying to Louise, she did a search on sites like Quora and Reddit. She found that people from Hua Country were said to be very conservative at first, but that most of them started fooling around after a few years abroad.

How long had Wu Shi been in Italy?

She still remembered the first time she saw him. He had been so small and looked different from the other boys.

After long consideration, she felt she had already helped Louise speed things up enough. Sometimes, it was better to play it safe. She replied:

[He definitely likes you, otherwise he would’ve just made you sleep on the sofa! But he cares about you too much, so he doesn’t want to sleep with you while you’re still so young.]

After all, every year at their school, girls would have to buy abortion pills. Ophelia despised men like that—the ones who only cared about their own pleasure and forced women to bear all the risks and consequences.

Louise hugged her knees, burying her face in them. ’If what Ophelia said was true...!’

’Then she was the happiest girl in the world!’

CLICK!

Wu Shi pushed the door open and walked out in his pajamas, his hair still damp.

Louise immediately shot to her feet. She walked over, stood on her tiptoes, and ran a hand through his hair. "Why didn’t you dry your hair?!"

"It’s short, it’ll dry in a minute." Wu Shi’s hair was never very long. After all, he had to wear a balaclava and helmet all day, and long hair was just a hassle.

"No! You’ll get headaches later if you do that. Sit down. I’ll go blow-dry it for you!"

Louise pushed him down onto the sofa, pulled a hair dryer from her suitcase, plugged it in, and started drying his hair from behind.

With the back of the sofa between them, things were a bit awkward.

So Louise came around to the front and continued to dry his hair.

Wu Shi felt his gaze lock onto something, and a hot flush rushed through him.

’Damn it! This teenage body is useless! Always getting worked up over this stupid stuff!’

It wasn’t that he wanted to be a saint, but now really wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

’Damn it! How has Louise been using the same perfume for seven years?!’

Wu Shi’s hair really was short and dried quickly. It didn’t take long for Louise to decide it was done. Looking down, she saw that Wu Shi’s eyes were closed.

"Hey, what’s wrong? Are you sleepy?"

"I guess I am a little," Wu Shi said, looking up at Louise’s adorable face.

"Then you should get some rest~"

Louise said with a smile, then skipped over to the bed and spread out the covers.

"I’m going to take a shower now~" she said, grabbing her clothes and dashing off.

Wu Shi lay down on the bed. It was, as he’d expected, difficult to fall asleep. ’This was a mistake,’ he thought. ’I should have let her stay with them.’

As this thought replayed in his mind, the sound of the running water stopped. A long time passed with no further sound from Louise, and he began to drowse off.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he felt something warm and soft press up against him.