Chapter 419

Following the address sent by Liu Zhimin, Lin Xiuyuan soon drove to the location and, per her instructions, pulled into the underground parking garage.

Once inside, just after turning a corner, he spotted a figure standing by a wall pillar near the elevator entrance from a distance.

Although the person was wearing a black mask that revealed only her eyes, her gaze was constantly scanning the direction of the parking garage entrance, as if she were waiting for someone or confirming something.

She leaned against the wall, her posture appearing casual but actually carrying a hint of imperceptible tension.

And the moment Lin Xiuyuan's car turned in, she recognized it almost immediately.

She then straightened up and took two steps forward.

Seeing this, Lin Xiuyuan slowly brought the car to a stop in front of her; before he could even lower the window to speak, the passenger door was pulled open.

Lin Xiuyuan inside the car quickly unlocked the doors, and as the sound of the locks clicking echoed, Liu Zhimin nimbly opened the door, slipped inside, and pulled it shut behind her, the whole process so fast it was as if she were hiding from something.

Only when the door slammed shut with a "bang" did she visibly let out a sigh of relief.

She pulled her mask down to her chin, revealing her full face, and gave the man in the driver's seat a faint smile: "You got here pretty fast; I thought I'd have to wait a while longer."

Lin Xiuyuan was amused by her appearance: "What's wrong with you? Afraid of being spotted by paparazzi and caught sneaking out to meet a lover?"

"Hey, don't talk nonsense." Liu Zhimin, who had just settled into her seat, was still looking down to fasten her seatbelt, but upon hearing this, she immediately looked up and gave a playful rebuke.

She took the opportunity to pat Lin Xiuyuan on the arm, not very hard: "What 'sneaking out to meet a lover,' that sounds so awful; aren't we a couple?"

"Someone didn't say that before."

"You've already gotten what you should have, so don't say things like that anymore."

Then, with a "click" of the seatbelt fastening, Liu Zhimin placed her bag by her feet and raised her hands to tidy up her hair, which had been flattened by her hat.

Lin Xiuyuan, sitting beside her, smiled and stopped teasing her, instead asking casually with a hint of playfulness: "So where are we going now? We can't be like those seniors of yours and just date inside the car, right?"

As he spoke, he turned the steering wheel slightly, and the car glided out and headed toward the exit.

In the passenger seat, Liu Zhimin was also tickled by this remark and let out a laugh.

She then leaned back and turned her head to look at Lin Xiuyuan: "Xiuyuan, if Senior Yoona or Taeyeon unnie heard you say that, what do you think they'd think? You'd definitely get scolded to death."

She knew Lin Xiuyuan was acquainted with both of them and seemed to have a pretty good relationship with them, so she wasn't sure if this comment was an unconscious tease or a conscious display of jealousy.

As she spoke, she reached out and tapped his shoulder with her index finger, as if listing someone's crimes, her expression even carrying a hint of feigned seriousness.

"Scolded to death" might be an exaggeration, but getting a good lecture and being put through the wringer was definitely inevitable.

Facing Liu Zhimin's remark, Lin Xiuyuan thought this to himself silently but didn't say it out loud.

By this time, the car had already exited the underground garage, and the sunlight poured in all at once, hitting the dashboard and creating a somewhat blinding reflection.

After raising his hand to pull down the sun visor, Lin Xiuyuan brought the topic back: "So, beautiful, where are we actually going? We can't just drive around like headless chickens, although driving around isn't bad either."

This time, Liu Zhimin didn't answer immediately; she sat quietly in the passenger seat, her gaze fixed outside the windshield.

After a few seconds, she slowly turned her head to look at Lin Xiuyuan, her expression complex—it was hard to tell if it was hesitation or something else—and she gently bit her lower lip, her voice unconsciously softening.

"Actually, I don't know where I want to go, I just wanted to see you."

After a brief silence, she added, "How about I take you home?"

"Hmm? Home?"

Lin Xiuyuan was clearly taken aback; he glanced at her, and his speed subconsciously slowed down.

This answer was indeed beyond his expectations; he had originally thought Liu Zhimin would suggest finding a cafe or a quiet place to sit for a while.

But this "home" thing—wasn't it a bit too soon? Were they meeting the parents?

Liu Zhimin seemed to notice his reaction and, guessing that Lin Xiuyuan might have misunderstood, quickly added: "Not the kind you're thinking of, but going to the apartment I bought last year to sit for a while, how about that?"

"It's not far from here, just a ten-minute drive. I don't stay there often; most of the time I'm at the dorm, and I only go there when I want to be alone."

After hearing her explanation, Lin Xiuyuan realized what she meant, and the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily.

He glanced at her and asked back with a mischievous tone: "Are you sure it's just to 'sit'? You don't plan on 'doing' anything?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Zhimin's face turned red in a flash.

That flush spread from her earlobes to her cheeks, almost impossible to hide.

She didn't respond, just reached out and patted his arm again, this time with noticeably more force than before.

Then she quickly turned her head toward the window, pretending she hadn't heard anything.

But the slightly upturned corners of her mouth quietly betrayed her current mood.

……

Not long after, in the bedroom of a high-rise apartment in Seoul, the sounds of "learning Chinese" could be vaguely heard.

"Xiuyuan, are you sure this is learning Chinese?" Liu Zhimin's voice came from the room, the end of her sentence rising slightly with obvious confusion.

"That's right."

Lin Xiuyuan's voice followed immediately, his tone dead serious, as if he were conducting a truly solemn lesson: "Your posture has to be right; you must be on your knees so that your breath can settle and your voice will be stable. Relax your throat, open it up a bit, and the sound will be clearer."

"Ah... ah... ah..."

Following his instructions, Liu Zhimin began to draw out her voice for practice.

After a few sounds, a series of "yue, yue, yue" noises followed, sounding like she was dry-heaving or performing some kind of deep throat training.

Then came a cry of grievance and helplessness: "Xiuyuan, no one teaches like this... you've got the microphone all the way down my throat..."

Her voice was intermittent, as if she were enduring something.

Then came Lin Xiuyuan's patient explanation, his tone steady, as if stating a scientifically proven fact: "This is to get your body used to this vocal mechanism. Vocal training naturally includes opening the throat cavity; I'm just using a more direct way to help you feel that position."

"Really?" Liu Zhimin's voice was skeptical.

"Really." Lin Xiuyuan's tone was very firm.

After a while, having passed the breath training stage, Liu Zhimin successfully moved on to the next part of the lesson.

And this time, the lesson was a Chinese song.

When Lin Xiuyuan heard Liu Zhimin say she wanted to surprise her Chinese fans and learn a Chinese song on her own, he immediately looked at her with surprise.

He had known about this before, but he had originally thought she was just saying it casually; he hadn't expected her to be so serious and actually planning it.

After Liu Zhimin finished speaking, she waited quietly for his reaction, a hint of anticipation in her eyes, as if waiting for a word of praise.

However, what she got in return was not praise, but Lin Xiuyuan looking at her for two seconds before saying, "Since that's the case, then lie down and sing it; I'll teach you."

???

"How do I sing while lying down?" Liu Zhimin's voice rose a little; this time she was truly confused.

"By using the breath from your compressed chest cavity to sing," Lin Xiuyuan's tone remained as matter-of-fact as ever. "Didn't you just learn about breath?"

"I did learn about breath, but that was while kneeling..."

"This is the essence of the Chinese language."

Seeing Liu Zhimin begin to question him, Lin Xiuyuan hurriedly interrupted her, a hint of a smile in his voice. "The same technique, just a different position, makes the feeling completely different. Come, lie down and start singing, 'Baby, I'm a little drunk tonight, don't pay attention to those lies you heard'..."

Facing Lin Xiuyuan's guidance, Liu Zhimin followed with a half-believing "Ah," and then the two words, "Baby."

The sound was squeezed out from her throat, carrying a slight tremor, as if she were struggling to adapt to this method of vocalization driven by force from behind.

And immediately after these two words, she took a deep breath, paused for a moment, and then continued to sing.

The melody in between was intermittent, and the lyrics were stumbling, but she still followed along word by word, no longer complaining, and even intensified her effort during the high notes.

After a good while, the lesson moved on to the next section.

Lin Xiuyuan's voice sounded again, carrying a hint of guidance, "Come, sit on top, look at me face-to-face and sing, 'What crimes have you actually committed.'"

Having just finished a segment, Liu Zhimin's voice was still trembling, and her breath was not yet steady.

So she remained silent for a moment, adjusting her breathing while changing positions.

And this time, once she started singing, she went straight to the end.

Accompanied by the tail note rising high and drawn out long, as if to squeeze all the breath out of her chest, it then fell sharply, and her whole body fell into Lin Xiuyuan's embrace along with that final note.

On the large bed in the bedroom, the curtains were half-drawn, and the afternoon sun shone in from the other half of the window, spreading a patch of warm light over the quilt.

Liu Zhimin was lying in Lin Xiuyuan's arms, her hair scattered on the pillow, her cheeks still flushed from the singing just now.

Her body, lightly panting from having just finished learning the Chinese song, saw her chest rising and falling, her breathing slowly returning to steady from its rapid state.

After a good while, she finally recovered.

She lifted her head, rested her chin on Lin Xiuyuan's chest, and looked at this man shyly, her eyes filled with a hint of reproach and an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

"Xiuyuan, there's no one else who teaches Chinese the way you do."

To this, Lin Xiuyuan looked down at her, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly. "Just tell me, is the impression deep or not? Is it the kind that is directly engraved on your heart, impossible to forget?"

Liu Zhimin opened her mouth, wanting to retort, but the words died on her lips.

Because the impression from just now was truly deep—so deep it went into her stomach and her brain; she couldn't forget it at all.

Those vocal positions, the flow of breath, the sensations of the body—every detail had been personally guided by Lin Xiuyuan and etched into her memory, more direct than any classroom instruction.

Seeing Liu Zhimin silent, Lin Xiuyuan laughed again and answered, tapping her shoulder lightly with his fingers.

"Look, you've tacitly agreed, doesn't that prove my teaching ability is very impressive?"

"Sophistry." Liu Zhimin coquettishly slapped his thigh, her palm landing on his leg with a soft sound.

She then rolled her eyes, though the corners of her mouth were still curled up.

Facing Liu Zhimin's accusation, Lin Xiuyuan replied with an innocent tone, "I'm not talking nonsense."

"Ah... speak properly!"

Liu Zhimin was both angry and amused by his words, and she began to struggle in his arms, twisting and turning like a slippery fish. "Xiuyuan, your mouth is really getting worse and worse; can't you just be normal?"

Regarding this coquettish woman, Lin Xiuyuan hurriedly reached out to hold her, tightening his arms to pin her in his embrace.

Then he burst into laughter, the sound echoing in the room, carrying an undisguised pleasure. "Alright, alright, this time I'm serious; I'll teach you properly, okay?"

Lin Xiuyuan, having reined in his smile, looked down at Liu Zhimin, his expression becoming more serious. "But are you really sure you want to..."

"... sing a Chinese song at your birthday party, and you even want to handwrite the lyrics yourself?"

Liu Zhimin, having calmed down, pressed her face back against his chest, her fingers unconsciously drawing circles on his chest.

"Mm, I have that plan. And there are still a few months left, so I should be able to learn it, right? I don't need to sing it perfectly; as long as I can let my fans feel my sincerity, that's enough."

After speaking, she looked up at Lin Xiuyuan, her eyes bright. "What do you think, Xiuyuan?"

"As long as you are willing to put your heart into it, I guarantee you'll learn it." When Lin Xiuyuan said this, his tone was very serious, not as if he were joking.

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhimin immediately sat up, the quilt sliding off her shoulders, and knelt before him, bare-bodied. "What counts as putting my heart into it?"

Lin Xiuyuan looked at this beautiful sight, the corners of his mouth curling slightly, his gaze moving slowly from her face to her hands resting on the quilt, then back to her eyes.

He was silent for two seconds, then spoke slowly, "Come, let's start by learning to write Chinese."

"How do we learn?" Liu Zhimin blinked, not realizing the "teaching method" that was about to come.

"Lie down."

"???" After being stunned for half a second, the corners of Liu Zhimin's mouth began to curl upward again.

She seemed to have roughly guessed what direction this "teaching" would take, but she still asked cooperatively, "Why do I have to lie down to write Chinese?"

"Because this is the most effective learning posture," Lin Xiuyuan said with a straight face, his expression as serious as a real teacher. "Trust me, characters learned this way will never be forgotten for a lifetime."

Facing this man who was spouting nonsense, Liu Zhimin stared at him for two seconds, then burst into a giggle.

She shook her head, but in the end, she still lay down at the edge of the bed, resting her chin on her crossed arms, then turned her head to look at Lin Xiuyuan, her charming eyes revealing endless seduction.

"Come on then, Teacher Lin, please begin your lesson."