The two hands on the dial of the watch, the minute stem and the hour hand are close together at the position of the number 1.

It's been more than one o'clock.

Yang Yiming thought about it, put down his wrist wearing his watch, paid the taxi price plus a five-dollar tip, and got out of the car.

The iron door in front of him was pitch black, shrouded in the shadow of the leafy trees on the wall, and when the evening breeze blew, the shadow on the iron door danced with the sound of the branches, which looked particularly eerie and ghostly. Yang Yiming shuddered, he hurriedly took out his mobile phone from his pocket and swiped it on the sensor panel at the door with Bluetooth, but the indicator light did not turn from red to green as usual.

He brushed it again. The result is still the same. He tried to push the iron door, but unsurprisingly, the door was locked. He walked back to the sensor and tried his phone again, and the red light was still on.

Is this access control broken? Yang Yiming couldn't believe that his luck would be so bad. But he still had to go home, he didn't dare to use the intercom function on the access control to call the housekeeper Penelope to open the door, so after thinking about it, he had to wake up his roommate Yu Xiaochun to help. Yang Yiming made two calls in a row, and each ring took half a minute, but no one answered on the other end of the phone. He was hesitating to try his other roommate, Nina, when the iron door slowly opened from the inside.

Standing in the door was none other than the butler, half of their landlord, who never smiled, the last thing he wanted to disturb at the moment—Penelope.

With his hands on his chest, before Yang Yiming could come up with an excuse for returning late, Penelope had already taken the lead:

"I just came back! What time is it?! ”

With the help of the street lamp in the lane inside the iron gate, Yang Yiming raised his wrist and looked at the time again: "I'm really sorry, Miss Penelope, it's already a little bit." ”

"A little?! It's 115 o'clock! ”

"Yes, yes, I didn't see it clearly." In fact, Yang Yiming saw it very clearly, and the exact time should be 1:08 in the morning. But he didn't dare to say anything, so he could only continue to apologize according to Penelope's meaning: "I'm really sorry, it's me who came back late, and the door is broken and can't be opened, so I have to trouble you to open the door for me..."

"The curfew isn't broken, I set a curfew for you."

"Curfew?! When did it start and how did I not know? ”

"Don't you know that?" Penelope pressed a button on his phone, and the gate began to slowly close again, and Yang Yiming hurriedly took advantage of the fact that the door was not completely closed, and flashed into the courtyard.

"The curfew is 1 a.m., and after 1 a.m., the authorization on your phone can't be opened."

"1 o'clock?!"

"yes, 1 o'clock, what's wrong?"

Originally, the two of them were walking along the driveway to the depths of the mansion one after the other, and when Penelope replied at 1 o'clock, he turned around suddenly, and Yang Yiming almost crashed into it.

"Ah, it's nothing..."Yang Yiming quickly stopped his steps and looked down at her without emotion. The curfew is nothing for a player like him who grew up in a centralized training environment in China, but it is not very convenient, and he can't help but fight for it after almost half a year of freedom in the United States. So Yang Yiming casually found a reason and said: "However, sometimes if the game ends, it will end very late, and I am worried that I won't be able to come back before 1 o'clock..."

"That's okay, you can ask Mr. Yu to sync your schedule to me, and if there is a game arrangement, I will remotely modify your access time accordingly."

This mansion estate is not only large in size, luxuriously decorated and equipped with the most modern facilities. For example, the access control system is realized by the mobile phone APP, Yang Yiming can use the mobile phone Bluetooth to swipe open the gate and the allowed area of the manor, and Penelope can modify these authorizations remotely in the background. From a technical point of view, Penelope's proposal is entirely achievable.

"But..."

"But what?"

"But..."

With a few simple words, Penelope and Yang Yiming began to move deeper again. Two shadows, one long and one short, were quietly dragged on the driveway, Yang Yiming felt like a schoolboy who had done something wrong, and silently followed for a long time before he mustered all the courage to protest: "But... Why did you suddenly remember to set a curfew? What do you think was wrong with us? ”

"Where did you go at night?" Penelope's voice was cold, completely ignoring Yang Yiming's question.

"Oh, we went to the movies..."

"Which movie?"

"Black Panther."

"Oh... Is it good-looking? ”

"It's okay... I didn't think it looked as good as the reviews said. Yang Yiming hesitated for a moment, remembering the discussion they had after watching the movie, and remembering Penelope's Mexican identity, and chose the answer "politically incorrect".

"Well, I heard too."

"Hmm..."

Yang Yiming looked at Penelope's back. He had almost forgotten who she was Mexican, and it was supposed that she had a strong Latin flair, long curly hair like wheat waves, lined with ripe wheat field-colored skin, and lips thick and full, filled with a fragrance that was almost like food. But a man like Penelope, whose beauty transcends her skin color and ethnicity, is as if she were a work of art that all humanity can admire. Probably this is the reason why Yang Yiming often forgets the identity of the other party.

The two reached the end of the road, and the main building of the mansion stood in front of them. Suddenly, Yang Yiming forgot about what he had just discussed, and just stood behind Penelope in a daze, as if he didn't dare to leave without her orders.

"Your roommate is back a long time ago."

"Huh?" Yang Yiming was puzzled by what he said.

"I said..."Penelope turned around—Yang Yiming saw through the light of the main building that she was wearing only a thin light gauze pajamas, with unrestrained curves looming, and a short black down jacket on her shoulders to keep out the cold—she finally had a little patience and explained, "I said, it's the same to go to the movies, but your roommates Yu Xiaochun and Nina came back much earlier than you." You're four of you going to see it together, and you guys and your girlfriend, the team's Meritis? ”

Yang Yiming could only nod.

"So you're going to come back later than they both... I also understand this, after all, with a girlfriend, sending someone home is a basic gentleman's rule, and it is normal for people to be alone for a while. But I still don't want you to come back too late. It's okay for couples to make out, but..."

Yang Yiming's face blushed to the base of his neck.

"Just think it's a safety concern. Safety—"

Yang Yiming didn't know whether Penelope's "security" was talking about the safety of the mansion defense or the safety of the relationship between men and women, but he didn't have the courage to ask clearly.

"So, that's the curfew. At 1 a.m., I had to go home. If there is a temporary situation, you can ask Mr. Yu to contact me in advance. ”

"Yu Xiaochun, does he have your contact information?"

"Hmm." This answer was unexpected by Yang Yiming, this beautiful housekeeper has always given them both an unapproachable cold image. While he was pondering the reason, Penelope took out an envelope from the lining pocket of the short down jacket, handed it to Yang Yiming, and said, "By the way, someone asked me to bring you a letter, you can take it back and read it." ”

A beige envelope with no writing on the front and a germanium-red hot stamping on the back seal.

"I'm back to rest, good night—"

Before Yang Yiming's good night could be spoken, Penelope had disappeared into the porch of the main building.

It's still the same old way...

Yang Yiming shook his head helplessly, and paced in the direction of his guest room under the starry night.