Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1205: Digging one’s own grave

It wasn’t like Lin was made of stone, unaffected by his surroundings. But he had surely underestimated the consequences of giving the tutorial lesson. He had held pure intentions to correct Shui’s bowling form. No harm, no foul.

The dynamics changed when he stood behind her and his arm hovered hers. It was quite a delicate arm, he had noticed. Obviously, it was a woman’s arm, but he didn’t know why he came to that undebatable conclusion nevertheless. Her head barely reached the top of his chest. Her skin as he touched her wrist felt smooth and soft. Another conclusion he arrived at was that she took great care of herself.

Lin didn’t understand why he was thinking about such pointless things he already knew of. Being a woman, she was naturally smaller than him. Being a woman also meant that she held some basic beauty standards. But the realizations were specifically coming to him with a reason he couldn’t decipher.

Lin nodded. "Mm."

Shui whirled around. "No, not ’mm.’ I really did it! I hit all the pins!"

The rhythm of his heart felt strange seeing her eyes shine with poor joy. His lips held the faintest, faintest curve, not smug or teasing but something that felt warmer.

"Should I give it another shot? Let me do it by myself this time."

Lin took a step back and the floor was of Shui’s to play with. Shui held the ball, mimicking the wrist movements that he taught her just now. Somehow she couldn’t focus.

Ugh, why am I thinking about his palm and fingers? He was just correcting my form, that’s all.

She looked away for a moment.

Who am I giving excuses to?

She forced that notion to take a backseat and spun the ball into the lane. It hit nine balls.

"So close!"

Lin grabbed another ball and handed it to Shui. This time, he hesitated for a moment before reaching out but eventually he took her wrist in hers.

"You are still exerting a little pressure. It should be lighter than this when you spin it."

Her focus landed on his palm and fingers again which held her hand delicately but also firmly.

How can both be possible?

Shui’s attention was then caught by a particular detail. The tips of his fingers looked darker than the rest of his skin. With her left hand, she reached out to brush past his fingertips.

Lin stared at her, touching and studying his fingers with great focus, though his chest jumped at the former action more than the latter part. He breathed in and breathed out, trying not to think about her fingers grazing and tickling against his like soft ripples in the pond.

"Why are your fingers darker here?"

"...What?"

"Your fingers," she pressed them as if making a point.

His brow twitched, something electric-like jolting from within his fingertips.

"Coffee...I work with grounding different coffee beans quite a lot. Probably that’s why."

"Oh, no wonder I was smelling something else in your cologne. So that was coffee."

Shui froze at her own words that definitely sounded too misleading. She looked up at Lin, who was blinking at her with a strange expression.

"...It’s not like that. I wasn’t sniffing you or anything. I don’t do things like that. It’s just that I felt the coffee a little stronger than last time."

"Last time?"

"..."

Last time was at Shui’s office when he had held her princess style after spraining her ankle.

Why can’t I just shut my mouth at the right time! Why do I always have to dig my own grave?

To her relief, the focus shifted from the embarrassing conversation when the game plaza’s lights went off. The entire building fell dark and silent.

"Ah? What happened?"

It took some while for her eyesight to adjust to the sudden darkness. She heard some noises of complaints from far away.

Lin glanced outside. "It’s dark outside too. Probably some electrical failure. We should wait here."

"Isn’t it too quiet down here?"

It was then they realized that they were the only ones present at the bowling area. It had already gotten quite late in the night and any other customers still in the plaza were on the other side playing arcade games.

Shui cleared her throat, a strange feeling of consciousness setting in, especially when Lin’s figure before her looked taller and broader than before. Was it the darkness playing tricks on her? She couldn’t be too sure.

"Le-let’s sit at the back..."

She turned hastily, her foot bumping against the shelf containing the bowling balls. Lin caught her arm before she fell and pulled her against him.

"Why are you always in such a hurry, Miss. Han? Outside the hospital that day or at your office or now - you always tend to hurry when you walk."

She bit her lip, feeling as if she had completely lost her face.

"You shouldn’t hurry too much, or you are bound to get hurt."

She lifted her gaze slowly, peering into his eyes. The left profile of his face was mildly illuminated by the faint light outside. Coupled with the darkness surrounding him, his gaze seemed to look darker and more piercing than usual.

"You did sprain your ankle. Do you want to get hurt again?"

It wasn’t solely his eyes. His voice sounded deeper and huskier. The silence around them seemed to magnify the tone of his voice into something that couldn’t quite allow her to focus.

"I...Y-Yeah I am a little careless..." she held her breath.

Lin lowered his gaze to where he was holding her arm. He released his grip, yet loosely kept his fingers hovering over her elbow. He slid down ever so slowly until they found her wrist and gently wrapped them around it.

"Walk with me."

His fingers grazing over her arm had her almost lose her mind now that his voice ringing so close to her was taking out the last bit of her sanity.

"I-I will be fine..."

"I don’t think I can trust you to walk carefully."

Her brow twitched.

How insulting...

They stirred when an announcement came from the speakers.

"Dear customers, I’m the plaza’s manager. I’m afraid I have some bad news for everyone. The power failure has turned out to be quite severe and there could become a hazardous danger of fire outside so until it gets safely resolved, the authorities have advised us all to stay inside. I request everyone to please co-operate."