Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1191: Slippery slope

"I’m not escaping from anything," Lin slowly frowned.

"You will understand it soon enough," Nian smirked. "For now, we just want to have fun."

He said sternly. "Making Miss. Han uncomfortable is not fun."

"Booooo you are not fun at all!"

"I’m back!"

By then Shui returned and found the twins booing. "What are you booing at?"

"Shuiiiiiiii!"

The twins jumped from the couch and squished her from both sides.

"Ugh, what is happening here? Tell me the truth! Did you break something else?"

"We didn’t! We just want to see you super happy!" They pressed their cheeks hard against hers.

"...What suddenly got into you two?"

Jian cried. "I’m sorry that we couldn’t become your brother-in-laws but we swear that we will choose the finest man for you!"

Nian exclaimed. "He will bake lots of sweets for you! I will thoroughly train him under my wing~"

"And under me as the chef!"

Where is this suddenly going...? She was dumbfounded.

Nevertheless, she felt warmed by their concern. She knew it was tough for them to talk to her ever since Jin and Alix got together. Maybe, crashing here was just a chance to reconnect with the sister they had always thought would become their sister-in-law one day.

"Hmph. I get why sis Leina and Xing Bi fell for you. You are too cute." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

They beamed. "We know, right? Who can possibly resist our charm~? So Shui, please don’t say that you love me. It-It will be very hard to reject you," Nian sniffled.

She rolled her eyes.

"Drama queens."

The torrent of the twins finally left as soon as they had arrived. After the broken glass was cleaned off, Shui crashed on the couch.

"I am sorry they abruptly came in. I wasn’t expecting them today..." she awkwardly said.

"I didn’t mind. I had come unannounced myself. It’s evident that they care about you a lot."

Though the twins’ parting thoughts remained in his mind and he felt uneasy.

"That’s true...oh I forgot. They had wanted to see the painting, right? I was going to give them a sneak peek. Guess they forgot..."

Shui looked left and right and then asked, "Do you...want to take a look?"

He blinked, surprised. "Is it okay? If you want to reveal it on the exhibition day, that’s also fine by me."

"No, no, it’s really not such a big deal. Plus, you have helped me a lot to nail the concept so you can definitely see it!"

Within the office was a large art room where Shui painted. It was where she had cooped up for the last few days, devoting her heart and soul to her painting that would hopefully save Blooming.

"It’s a mess actually, but ignore it..." she coughed, cursing herself for all the pages scattered around like heaps of trash and her walls looking like colorful rainbows.

Shui took him to the center where the main art meant for Zhong Sihan was laid neatly on a canvas.

Lin’s eyes slowly widened and his lips parted, stunned.

"H-How is it?" Shui asked nervously. "Do you think he would like it?"

"Yes...It’s beautiful..."

Based on everything that he had heard about his brother from Zhong Sihan, he had a good feeling that the latter would be definitely moved.

Shui felt a burden release from her tense shoulders.

"Great! If he likes this, then he would definitely like my other paintings too haha!"

Lin glanced at her. "Other paintings."

She put her hands on her waist, proud. "Why should I just stop with one painting? I want to give him a once in a lifetime experience now that he has challenged me."

"I see," he slowly nodded. "It’s not wise to challenge you."

"Bwahahaha! Also, he will have a special surprise coming so Zhong Sihan better get ready. There is no way Blooming would be sold!" Her eyes lit up with fiery spirit.

He smiled, enjoying her enthusiasm. As he looked around, his gaze fell on a paintbrush that laid at the bottom of the canvas’s slit.

"That’s the brush..."

Shui followed his gaze and her eyes widened. Though it wasn’t wrong to use the gift she has received, she still felt a little odd to see that Lin knew.

"Y-Yeah, it’s the paint brush which you gave me as a gift..." she bravely attempted to mask her embarrassment. "Of course I will use it. Since this is a special challenge, I decided to use the special brush, hah!"

"Special brush...?"

Ugh...Did it sound even more weird?

Her heart jumped in her chest. "I-I mean you gave such a good quality brush, I wanted to try using it and check how it worked..! As expected, the brush is great! I loved the pretty strokes it drew on canvas. Wait, I will show you!"

Shui wanted to ease the awkward atmosphere as soon as possible, so she grabbed the paint brush and hastily walked toward another canvas, only to slip on the oil paint splashed against the floor.

"Miss. Han!"

Lin instinctively took a step forward and grabbed her arm, pushing her toward him but slipped on the same blotch of oil paint and both fell backward. They landed on his back but he had firmly caught her waist that made her fall on top of him.

"Are you okay...?" He asked breathlessly, still taken aback by the turn of events.

She bit her lip hard. "I am so sorry...It’s because the room is so messy..."

She clutched onto his shoulders and took their support to push herself up but soon realized the bare distance that remained between their faces.

When a few locks of her hair fell across his cheeks and nose, the earlier shock quickly dissipated and he stopped breathing - or that was how he felt in his throat as he gazed into her eyes, her soft hair gently swaying between them.

He wanted to speak, but words failed him. He wanted to move, but his arms betrayed him.

He wanted to look away, but his gaze remained where it was... peering right into her glistening black orbs.