The Engineer Falls for His Sweet-Scented Maid - Chapter 26: You're Only Eighteen. What's the Hurry?

Chapter 26: You’re Only Eighteen. What’s the Hurry?

“I only held on to you because I was afraid I’d fall.”

After Nianhe Su said it, her face burned fiercely. Her fingers gripped the strap of her old canvas bag, creasing it deeply beneath them.

Huai Shen sat astride the front of the bicycle and did not answer at once.

The streetlamp at the mouth of the alley had long fallen into disrepair. Its light washed over his shoulders and back. The night breeze pressed his white shirt against his spine, where the wrinkles left by her collision had yet to smooth away.

The longer Nianhe waited, the more anxious she became. Afraid he would think her shameless—and equally afraid he would find her troublesome—she edged farther back and added quietly, “That pothole was so deep, and I lost my balance. I truly didn’t do it on purpose.”

Huai gripped the handlebars, the tendons standing out sharply along the back of his hand.

He wanted to lecture her, to tell her not to embrace men so carelessly again, but the words caught in his throat.

If she had not held on to him, was she supposed to fall to the ground for the sake of propriety?

Yet the instant she had wrapped herself around him, he had lost his composure, and it still had not returned.

Huai straightened the front wheel. His voice was lower than before. “I didn’t say you did.”

Nianhe released half a breath, then asked cautiously, “Why did you stop, then?”

Huai turned his face slightly. He did not look at her, directing his words instead at the excessively tight dress before him. “If you go into the compound looking like that and someone sees you, they’ll start gossiping again tomorrow.”

Only then did Nianhe realize. She hurriedly lowered her gaze and covered her neckline.

The jolt had pulled the dress askew, and the two buttons across her chest strained precariously. She pressed a hand over them, her blush spreading down her neck.

“I didn’t want to wear it either.”

She rushed to explain, her voice soft and fragmented. “Sister-in-law Wang said I’d disgrace the Shen family if I wore my old jackets. If I refused, she would certainly be angry. I thought I’d only sit there for a little while before coming back. I didn’t know there would be so many people.”

At the mention of Liping Wang, Huai’s thin lips compressed into a line.

Afraid he would blame her, Nianhe hurried on. “I didn’t behave improperly. Brother Lu only asked me for one dance. He was very respectful and didn’t touch me.”

“Brother Lu?”

Huai pronounced the words slowly. His thumb brushed the bicycle bell, producing a short, crisp ring.

Hearing something wrong in his voice, Nianhe corrected herself at once. “Comrade Lu.”

Huai lowered his hand and tapped his fingertips against the handlebar. “You’ve known him half an evening, and already you address him so affectionately.”

Embarrassment swept over Nianhe, along with a trace of hurt.

She had gone there to look for a potential husband in the first place. Yi was proper and warmhearted, and addressing him as an elder brother would have been entirely ordinary in the countryside. How had Huai made it sound like something she had no right to do?

But she did not dare argue. She only hugged the canvas bag to her chest and said quietly, “I won’t call him that again.”

Her obedient answer left Huai with nothing more to say.

His behavior tonight was absurd.

A stack of blueprints at the factory still awaited his review. Yet the moment he heard that she had gone to a matchmaking event, he had left without giving his family a complete explanation and raced there on his bicycle.

When he reached the club and saw her beside another man at the edge of the dance floor, he had forgotten even the most basic restraint.

Now she sat timidly on the rear rack, offering one nervous explanation, and he was quibbling over the way she addressed someone.

He had always despised such loss of control.

But whenever the matter involved Nianhe, every one of his rules fell apart.

When he remained silent, anxiety churned inside her. She could not resist looking up at his profile.

The streetlamp cast a dim yellow glow. All she could see was his tight jaw and the movement of his throat. He stood beside the bicycle as though about to speak, yet swallowed every word instead.

“Engineer Shen.”

She called to him softly. “Why don’t you go home first? I can take this little lane. No one will see me.”

Huai came back to himself, his tone darkening. “You intend to walk alone at night dressed like that?”

Nianhe had no answer.

She wanted to insist that she could manage. Then she remembered Qiang Zhao in the alley not long ago, and the words died in her throat as a chill spread across her back.

Huai noticed her silence and pushed the bicycle two steps into the alley. “Get down.”

Nianhe blinked. “What?”

“Get down.”

Huai stopped the bicycle beside the wall and turned to face her. “I’ll walk you to the compound’s back gate. We’ll push the bicycle.”

That way, she would not have to ride, and her body would not press against his back again.

Understanding, Nianhe relaxed a little. She steadied herself against the seat and slowly climbed down.

Her skirt was narrow. The moment her foot touched the ground, she nearly tripped. Huai caught her by the elbow, then quickly released her.

He pulled his white shirttails from his waistband, removed the shirt, and held it out to her.

Nianhe recoiled in shock. “I can’t take that!”

Huai wore a white athletic undershirt beneath it. His shoulders were broad, the muscles of his arms solidly defined, making his presence even more imposing in the darkness than when he wore the shirt.

Nianhe dared not look. Flustered, she turned her face away.

Huai thrust the shirt into her arms. “Put it on.”

“If someone sees me wearing your shirt, it’ll be even harder to explain.”

“It’s dark. No one will recognize it.”

“But Auntie Liu will ask why you came home like this.”

“I’ll say I got hot riding the bicycle.”

“No one gets so hot riding a bicycle that he gives his shirt to someone else.”

Nianhe regretted the words the instant they left her mouth. Her courage had clearly gone too far if she dared talk back to him now.

But Huai did not become angry. He merely unfolded the shirt, moved behind her, and draped it over her shoulders while keeping a measured distance.

It carried his body heat and the clean scent of soapberry. As it settled around her, it concealed the straining neckline completely.

Nianhe clutched its front, her heart in chaos.

“Thank you.”

Huai began pushing the bicycle. Its tires crackled softly over the gravel. “Did you go to the mixer today because you want to find someone?”

Walking beside him, Nianhe slowed.

The question was too direct, and she did not know how to answer.

Huai did not press. After a few steps, he asked, “Did Liping Wang force you to go?”

“Not entirely.”

Nianhe bit her lip and lowered her voice. “Lianhua also said I could meet factory workers there.”

Huai stopped. “You want to marry a worker?”

Nianhe drew the shirt more tightly around herself. Her fingertips found a button at the cuff, its hard edge pressing painfully into them.

She wanted to say yes.

If she married into the city, she would not have to return to Liuhe Village. Her own father could not sell her to that cripple, and she would no longer live in fear that the Shens might throw her out one day.

Yet when she tried to voice it, her throat went dry.

“I want to stay in the city.”

She chose the simplest truth. “I don’t want to return to the village.”

Huai’s hand went still on the handlebar.

Afraid he would think her greedy for urban household registration, Nianhe hurried to explain. “I know I’m not worthy of a formal worker. I’m not looking for someone exceptional. As long as he’s honest, doesn’t beat me, doesn’t despise me for coming from the countryside, and lets me live in peace, that’s enough.”

The bleakness of her words lodged like a weight in Huai’s chest.

She valued herself so little. All she asked was not to be beaten. Anyone who offered her one steady meal could have her whole life in exchange.

Huai thought of Yi at the club.

A foundry worker, the son of veteran workers, with a good wage and a fairly upright character.

By Nianhe’s standards, Yi truly was suitable.

The instant that thought appeared, irritation seized Huai. A pebble beneath his shoe shot toward the base of the wall.

“You’re only eighteen. What’s the hurry?”

Nianhe stared at him. “In the village, girls my age already have babies in their arms.”

Huai turned to her. “This isn’t Liuhe Village.”

The words made Nianhe’s nose sting.

Of course she knew this was not Liuhe Village.

But she was not a city resident here either.

She was the maid hired by the Shen family. To the old women in the compound, she was an indecent village girl. To Liping, she was a problem to be pushed into the arms of any potential husband.

She had no home and no retreat.

Nianhe lowered her head. Her voice was nearly drowned by the bicycle wheels. “You don’t understand, Engineer Shen.”

Huai stopped pushing.

“What don’t I understand?”

Nianhe clutched the front of his shirt. Now that she had begun speaking, rare stubbornness stirred within her. “You have a home and a job. Mayor Shen and Auntie Liu stand behind you. You don’t have to go anywhere you dislike or meet anyone you don’t wish to see. I don’t have that choice.”

Afraid that more would only irritate him, she stopped and swallowed the rest.

Huai stood in the alley for a long time without speaking.

Thinking he was angry, Nianhe hurriedly softened her voice. “I’m not blaming you. I know you meant well by coming for me tonight.”

Huai propped the bicycle on its stand and turned to face her.

There were many things he might have said.

That the Shen family would not cast her out lightly. That she did not have to listen to Liping. That Yi might not be right for her.

But on his tongue, every one of those answers became weightless.

She did not need a few words of comfort.

She needed somewhere she could belong, a legitimate bond that would shield her from Dahe Su, and enough standing that no one could bully her on a whim again.

Huai’s silence stretched so long that Nianhe grew even more uneasy. She hurriedly slipped the shirt from her shoulders. “You should take this back. We’re almost at the compound.”