Free Web NovelChapter 473: Chapter 266: Blushing Morning
After Max finished speaking, he leaned against the sofa, feeling drained, and didn’t dare to look into Lin Yu’an’s eyes.
She felt as if she had just walked a lap, naked, in front of the person she trusted most. Shame and insecurity surged like a tide.
She even began to regret why she had revealed this secret, one she didn’t dare to write even in her diary.
Just then, Lin Yu’an picked up the bottle of Laphroaig Whiskey, tilted it, and slowly poured the amber liquid into her empty glass, adding some for himself as well.
"Embarrassing?" He finally spoke, his voice calm and gentle, "Why would you feel embarrassed?"
Max suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with confusion.
"Because... it’s not normal." She stammered, "I should be like others, going on dates, falling in love, trying to figure out who I really am..."
"No." Lin Yu’an interrupted her, handing the glass back to her, his gaze clear and firm.
"Max, do you think a scientist who can decode the genetic sequence of a Polar Bear can’t figure out his own orientation?"
This question, like a key, instantly unlocked Max’s chaotic thoughts. She froze, and for the first time, there was a glimmer of light beyond confusion in her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"It means you’re not unclear; you’re just refusing to be defined by those simple labels."
He looked at her eyes, slightly wide with shock, and continued, "This world is always in a hurry to label people as straight, gay, bi..."
"As if everyone must be stuffed into a pre-set box. But you’re not, Max. You’re a scientist; your nature is to explore the unknown, not accept the known."
"The reason you feel confused is not that there’s something wrong with you, but because those ready-made, narrow answers simply don’t do justice to your complexity."
He picked up his own glass, gently swirling it.
"As for being 26 and never having been in love..."
"This isn’t a social disability; your standards are just too high. What you need is not a simple boyfriend or girlfriend, but a partner who can resonate with your soul."
"Someone who can understand your world and explore the unknown with you side by side. Until you find this person, any compromise would be a desecration for you."
He raised his glass to her in a gesture.
"So, this is not an embarrassing secret at all, Max." His voice carried a soothing power that could calm anything.
"On the contrary, it proves that you have an uncompromising, incredibly precious soul."
Max stared blankly at him, her mind going completely blank for a few seconds.
She had imagined all sorts of reactions from Lin Yu’an—comfort, sympathy, even possible alienation.
But she never imagined that he would use such a soul-searching way to interpret her years of confusion and self-doubt as a noble insistence.
He did not judge her, he did not define her, nor did he try to "solve" her problem.
He simply told her that her confusion stems from her excellence.
In that instant, something hard quietly shattered in her heart, and a warmth she had never felt before surged up, causing her eyes to involuntarily heat up.
For the first time, she felt that her sense of not fitting in, her out-of-place loneliness, could indeed be understood and even appreciated.
Max blinked hard to push back the moisture, then she raised the glass, newly refilled, and clinked it hard against Lin Yu’an’s.
This time, she said nothing.
But she knew that from this moment on, this man in front of her was completely different in her heart.
He even gave her the feeling that he understood her.
She didn’t know who was the first to fall asleep, nor who was the last to turn off the dim floor lamp. The aftertaste of Laphroaig was far richer and longer-lasting than its initial smoky taste.
Max was awakened by a ray of morning light piercing through the blinds.
She felt like she was trapped in a warm, solid source of heat.
The first second her consciousness returned, she smelled a faint scent of residual whiskey mixed with something that smelled like clean soap from clothing.
Then she felt an arm draped steadily across her chest, and her cheek was pressed against a chest that rose and fell steadily with each breath.
She and Lin Yu’an, like two animals warming each other in the winter, slept embraced on the carpet in front of the sofa.
Fortunately, both of them were still dressed neatly.
Max dared not move, even holding her breath. She could clearly hear his steady, strong heartbeat, "thump, thump, thump," like the most primal lullaby.
Through the thin fabric, she could feel the amazing warmth from his body.
An unfamiliar emotion, like an electric current, coursed through her entire body. Books said that when you meet someone you like, your heart will race, and you will blush.
Her heart was indeed pounding like a drum, but she was unsure if it was from being startled or something else.
She carefully, as if diffusing a bomb, extricated herself from his arm, then tiptoed into the bathroom.
The woman in the mirror looked as calm as ever, even a bit pale from the hangover. She breathed a sigh of relief, see, it was nothing.
But when she brushed aside the stray hair by her ear, she froze.
