A sudden downpour, coupled with some ill-conceived urban planning, nearly caused a drowning tragedy on Jiangzhou City’s busiest thoroughfare.

An academic once said that one judges a city's progress not by the height of its skyscrapers, but by its ability to minimize losses when natural disasters strike.

Fire suppression systems and drainage infrastructure are paramount among these considerations.

Jiangzhou was developing too rapidly; city plans were finalized one day only to be scrapped the next. Roads were ripped open every few dozen blocks to bury new cables and pipelines, and towering structures worth hundreds of millions, barely a few years old, were being demolished to accommodate the latest revisions.

Wang Zhuo shifted his focus to this sudden rain disaster, pulling his attention away from the beautiful Qin Siqing in the bathroom. He pushed open the window, letting the fine, cool mist carried by the morning breeze drift into the room, taking a deep breath of the fresh air.

Perhaps only when it rains does Jiangzhou ever have air this clean.

Ding-dong—

The doorbell rang again. Wang Zhuo was surprised. What was going on this morning? Who could it be?

As was his custom, he activated his X-ray vision to look outside. It was Siyuan, who had been playing truant lately. She wore a knee-length gauze skirt, the hem already damp from the rain, vaguely outlining the shape of her two pink legs beneath.

The girl had a neat, bowl-cut hairstyle. Her palm-sized, doll-like face wore black-rimmed student glasses, lending her an air of quiet studiousness. Her cherry-red lips seemed to be coated with a clear lip gloss, making them look even more dewy and delicate.

Seeing the breakfast she was carrying, Wang Zhuo suddenly understood—the girl had come to bring him food early because of the heavy rain outside.

Wang Zhuo truly had no effective countermeasures for this whimsical girl. She made no effort to hide her affection for him and often found excuses to tease him. Wang Zhuo desperately wanted to tell her, You'll grow up one day, and you’ll fall for some handsome young man who will adore you. By then, you’ll forget all about me, so let's just keep things as they are. But such lines felt too cliché, ripped straight from a TV drama, and the thought alone made his skin crawl. So, he could only resort to coaching her to be more demure and reserved, suggesting that such behavior was more appealing.

Seeing Siyuan’s attire today, Wang Zhuo felt genuinely pleased. This look actually bordered on ladylike; his previous instructions seemed to have been quite successful.

“Director Wang, I’ve brought your breakfast!”

The moment the door opened, Siyuan grinned, handing over her umbrella and the bag of breakfast.

Wang Zhuo smiled, nodded, accepted them, and took a step back, leaving space for her to remove her shoes.

Siyuan stepped inside and bent down to take off her shoes, only to notice a pair of women's sandals, still beaded with water droplets, on the shoe rack. She asked with surprise, “Do you have a guest?”

She kept meticulous track of the comings and goings of the women around Wang Zhuo. She had assumed Wang Zhuo was alone, but it seemed she had miscalculated.

Wang Zhuo hummed in affirmation. “Yes, there is one. I’ll introduce you in a moment.”

After changing her shoes, Siyuan rushed over, snatched the breakfast bag from Wang Zhuo’s hand, and began setting out the dishes herself. Meanwhile, her curiosity was boiling over. From the sound of it, the other woman was taking a shower in Director Wang’s home—that was highly irregular.

Wang Zhuo also found the situation amusing. The two girls were close in age and both exceptionally intelligent. He looked forward to seeing how they would interact once acquainted.

He walked over and knocked gently on the bathroom door. “Siqing, have you eaten this morning?”

Qin Siqing had also heard another girl arrive at Wang Zhuo’s place. She had quickened her pace and called out clearly, “Not yet! I’m coming out right now!”

Wang Zhuo replied with an “Oh,” and returned to the living room to find Siyuan emerging from the bedroom, holding her damp skirt. She was wearing one of Wang Zhuo’s short-sleeved shirts. The oversized garment swallowed her frame; the hem covered her underwear, and the cuffs reached her elbows. At a glance, it looked as if she were wearing nothing underneath but the man’s shirt, paired with a pair of slippers.

“My clothes got wet. Can I borrow something to wear?” Siyuan lifted her damp skirt, chuckled, and headed toward the balcony.

Wang Zhuo wryly pursed his lips, half-amused, half-exasperated. “Silly girl, you used an umbrella and still soaked your clothes.”

She twisted around, stuck out her tongue, and made a face. “It’s all because I was rushing to bring you breakfast!”

Wang Zhuo thought it was a pity he had already eaten; this breakfast would likely have to go to Miss Qin.

The sliding door to the bathroom hissed open. Qin Siqing appeared, wearing the pullover Wang Zhuo had lent her. Just like Siyuan, she was draped in an oversized piece of men's clothing over her slender figure, revealing two stretches of fair, enticing leg below. The wide neckline of the top left her graceful collarbones and a sweep of her chest completely exposed, a perfect display.

She tilted her head, pressing a towel to her soaking hair. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat, her skin plumped with moisture, radiating a vibrant allure.

The girl, freshly out of the bath, carried a hint of the flushed, languid aftermath of intimacy—though what covered her wasn't sweat, and her expression was one of perfect serenity.

Wang Zhuo’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly averted his gaze, pretending to straighten the breakfast laid out on the table. Simultaneously, he frantically recited nonsensical phrases from the Tao Te Ching like, "The highest excellence is like water," and "To know the way is to seem ignorant," reminding himself of the imperative: Look, but do not lust.

Just then, Siyuan returned from the balcony. The two genius girls, both intellectually sharp, met for the first time in Wang Zhuo’s living room. Both froze momentarily, stunned by the other’s revealing attire, unsure whether to offer a greeting or say anything at all. They stood rooted at opposite ends of the room, simply staring at each other.

Wang Zhuo sensed the strange tension and cleared his throat to break the ice. “Let me introduce you.”

He extended his right hand toward Qin Siqing. “Siyuan, this is Siqing, she’s from my hometown and was my university classmate. She ran into a minor car accident outside the complex just now, so she stopped by to take a quick shower.”

Then he extended his left hand toward Siyuan. “And this is Siyuan, a friend’s younger sister. She often stops by to hang out. She brought me breakfast this morning.”

Strictly speaking, Wang Zhuo only needed to state their names and relationship status; the conversation could have flowed naturally from there. However, the coincidence of two girls dressed so suggestively appearing in his home at the same time was too pronounced, so he felt compelled to offer an explanation.

“You two…” Wang Zhuo paused, then smiled. “Your names sound similar. Siqing must be the elder one.”

After the introductions, both girls politely nodded to each other with small smiles. There was no handshake, no easy chatter or warm exchange of words as Wang Zhuo had half-expected.

Siyuan suddenly clapped her hands together in mock dismay. “Oh dear! I didn’t know Sister Siqing was here. I only bought enough breakfast for two people!”

She assumed the other girl would politely dismiss it, saying it was fine, she was leaving soon. But Qin Siqing merely shook her head and smiled sweetly. “It’s no trouble. I can just cook myself a bowl of instant noodles.”

This enemy looked hard to handle. Siyuan uttered a soft “Oh,” but then heard Wang Zhuo chuckle heartily. “Actually, I already ate. Siyuan, buying two portions of breakfast was surprisingly farsighted of you.”

Siyuan chirped an enthusiastic “Yes!” but inwardly blamed the awful weather; if the traffic hadn't been so bad, she could have arrived a full half hour earlier.

And so, the two girls sat down to eat, facing each other across the square dining table, with Wang Zhuo situated between them. He kept glancing left and right, secretly hoping for some dramatic development to unfold.

Siyuan broke the silence first. “Sister Siqing, you’re about my age, how are you Director Wang’s classmate?”

“I had excellent grades, so I skipped several grades,” Qin Siqing replied with a gentle smile.

Pretty and smart... Siyuan glanced at Wang Zhuo, thinking that Director Wang truly deserved his reputation as a man among men; every woman around him was outstanding.

“By the way, my surname is Qin. Siyuan, what is yours?” Qin Siqing asked.

“I don’t have a surname,” Siyuan laughed breezily. “Sister Siqing, you can just call me Xiao San’r. I’m the third child at home, and everyone calls me that.”

What an odd nickname... Qin Siqing said alright, though she was a bit confused about Siyuan’s comment regarding not having a surname.

“He leans on my shoulder, breathing loud beside my ear; the heat has bred lust; a gentleman fans the smoke that won't banish the warmth, she seals it with her mouth to hone me...” Just then, Wang Zhuo’s phone rang, the ringtone being Jacky Cheung’s The Wolf Legend.

Wang Zhuo quickly stood up and walked to the sofa to grab his phone. “Damn it, which bastard is calling now…”

Siyuan smiled and explained, “His classmates signed him up for a custom caller ID ringtone service. Last time I heard Angel Number Thirteen.”

Qin Siqing didn't know the song Angel Number Thirteen, but she guessed it wasn't a wholesome tune. That snippet of The Wolf Legend had already been scandalous enough. What exactly did “she seals it with her mouth to hone me” mean? It was aggressively explicit.

The call was from Cheng Gang. Since he had secured the massive Shengshi Wangchao contract, Cheng Gang had been thriving within the 'Five Mao Gang' and was earning substantial income. Now financially flush, he had managed to hook up with the department beauty at school, and the two of them were inseparable all summer, staying home instead of going back to their families.

“Director Wang, are you home? If so, I’ll swing by for a visit.”

As if! If Cheng Gang saw the current situation, gossip about Wang Zhuo flying underage girls would spread by tomorrow. Wang Zhuo immediately lied through his teeth. “What bad timing, I’m at the office.”

Unexpectedly, Cheng Gang immediately replied with a sleazy grin, “It’s fine if you’re not there, it won’t even delay my own good fortune. I still have a key to your place anyway.”

“Someone is already conducting sensitive business at my place,” Wang Zhuo snapped back, annoyed. “If your wife doesn’t mind performing in front of a stranger, then feel free to come over.”

Cheng Gang retreated. Wang Zhuo tossed the phone back onto the sofa, feeling that his refusal had been profoundly wise. If anyone else had walked in on him having breakfast with two girls dressed so ambiguously, any observer would inevitably speculate about what exactly had transpired the night before.