Suddenly, she found she could accept being called “Baby.”
“Wife” was fine too.
Just no more strange nicknames.
“Shut up.” An Li made a stop gesture. “Don’t talk anymore.”
Duan Zhuo obediently accompanied her to the suite the club provided and waited for the assistant to deliver the clothes.
But he only lasted five minutes. Leaning casually against the wall with one hand in his pocket, his lazy gaze swept over her flushed face. A sly glint appeared in his eyes. “I haven’t spoken in so long. Aren’t you going to reward me?”
“No.”
“Then my mouth’s on me. I can say whatever I want.”
He might even go out and announce to the world that she was his wife.
An Li had no choice but to coax him. “Then what kind of reward do you want?”
Seeing his mischievous intentions, the rogue-like aura radiated from him, impossible to hide.
She furrowed her brows, warning him in a low voice, “D-don’t go too far. I… I have my period…”
“I know. I’m not that beastly.” He lifted her wrist gently, his voice low and serious. “I don’t want to play alone anymore. You play with me instead.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you have a favorite pet?”
An Li couldn’t understand the logic behind his words. She thought for a moment. “I like dogs.”
“A hundred-pound dog, you like it?”
“……”
She knew he had no good intentions.
She wasn’t interested in this kind of thing.
“When you see a dog you like,” Duan Zhuo’s lazy, teasing voice traced her palm with his fingertip, “wouldn’t you want to pet it?”
An Li nodded.
Of course, she would want to touch a cute dog or cat.
“But we don’t have a dog at home. Your mom is allergic to dog hair,” An Li added.
“The one in front of you isn’t enough?” Duan Zhuo lifted her hand. “Touch all you want.”
The big dog had a great figure.
Chest, abs, biceps—any muscle she could touch.
The assistant delivered the change of clothes.
When An Li went to the bathroom to change, her palm still burned.
Now she even felt a little aversion to dogs, especially their tails.
When she came out, she saw a table full of late-night snacks.
Duan Zhuo had finished in the other bathroom, changed into clean, neat clothes, water dripping from his hair. Under the warm light, the sharp lines of his face softened.
He pulled out a chair boldly. “A bit hungry. Want to have some late-night snacks with me?”
An Li’s cheeks were still warm. She hesitated. “Are we… not going home?”
“After we eat, we can go back.” He glanced at her. “But are you sure you want to go back? You smell of alcohol. If you return this late, Brother Xingning might think you’re with a man.”
She sat across from him.
The snacks were unexpectedly lavish, like a candlelit dinner.
Black truffle cod, Wagyu beef, even crocodile tail, and a bottle of vintage wine.
She was hungry, so she ate slowly, noticing him silently watching her with a smile.
“What are you smiling at?”
Duan Zhuo barely touched the food. “Can’t I smile with such a wife eating with me?”
An Li was perceptive. She didn’t know Duan Zhuo well, but she noticed his smile was different—more genuine than his usual teasing.
She asked, “Are you happy today?”
The question caught him off guard.
He showed a hint of surprise, lips pressed into a slight curve. “It’s the first time someone has spent my birthday with me. Of course I’m happy.”
“Your first birthday?”
“We grew up under the same roof. You really don’t care about your boyfriend at all,” he teased.
An Li didn’t know. She had limited knowledge of the Duan Family, her attention always on Duan Xingning.
Duan Zhuo studied abroad, spent time messing around outside, and they rarely interacted.
Thinking carefully, this was indeed his first birthday.
“Why didn’t you celebrate before?” An Li asked curiously. “I remember your brother often had birthday parties.”
Duan Xingning’s parties weren’t for celebration—they were business tools, networking opportunities, gatherings to curry favor.
“My birthday is close to my brother’s. To save trouble, my mom had us celebrate together,” Duan Zhuo explained. “I didn’t want to, so I said I didn’t like birthdays.”
After that, he never had one.
A birthday meant little to him. If he wanted to celebrate, he could have a big party like tonight.
An Li sipped her juice. “Do you like birthdays?”
“If it’s like today, with you here, then yes, I do.”
“Me?” She paused. “I didn’t really do anything… I just gave you a birthday cake.”
How could he be missing a birthday cake?
Friends casually gifted cars worth tens of millions.
But tonight, all he cared about was the cake.
“One cake is enough.” Duan Zhuo put down his utensils, staring unblinkingly at her innocent, pale face. “You even gave me one before.”
“Me?”
“Don’t you remember? For my sixteenth birthday, you gave me a cake.”
An Li was confused.
Duan Zhuo was sixteen, she was ten. Eight years ago.
Her memory was vague.
Before adulthood, even as the second young master of the Duan Family, his presence was weaker than hers. He often stayed at his grandfather’s house before age ten, then went to study in England, only settling in the Duan Family at sixteen.
But recalling carefully, it seemed true.
“Then I was a good person,” An Li mumbled, touching her nose. “You were touched, right?”
“At first, yes. But later I realized you didn’t give it for my birthday—you just gave it casually.”
That day was ordinary. Duan Zhuo went out as usual, returned to see a cake on the table. Not as pretty as bakery cakes, but clearly made with care.
They weren’t close yet. He didn’t overthink, but she invited him to eat it, giving him the first slice.
The first slice always goes to the birthday person.
Duan Zhuo didn’t like sweets, yet years later, he still remembered the light cream melting on his lips.
As sweet as her innocent smile.
It stirred a different kind of sweetness in him.
That was the first time he truly looked at An Li.
The girl spending her first birthday with him.
The jaded young man’s eyes carried a complexity beyond his years.
Later, she told him she was just learning to make cakes.
That was all.
Not celebrating his birthday.
Was she making cakes for Duan Xingning?
Like everyone else, only caring about her brother?
Why did everyone focus on him? He wasn’t inferior to his brother.
That dark, bone-deep thought wrapped around him like a venomous snake.
From then on, everything Duan Xingning had, Duan Zhuo wanted to take back.
“I don’t remember that well,” An Li apologized sincerely after thinking. “Blame it on me being too young then. I didn’t explain clearly and let you misunderstand.”
She really hadn’t intended to give him false joy.
Duan Zhuo tilted his head. “Since you know it’s your fault, you should give me a gift as compensation.”
“Compensation? …What gift?” An Li hesitated. “Don’t ask for something expensive. I… don’t have much money.”
“I don’t want expensive.” Duan Zhuo said seriously. “Nine ninety-nine is enough.”
“Really?” She relaxed. “Okay, then what do you want me to give you?”
“Give me our marriage certificate.”
“……”
She didn’t expect that’s what the “nine ninety-nine” referred to.
“No.” She rejected decisively. “Change it.”
“Then give me a child of ours.”
“……Can’t you ask for something normal?”
“What’s abnormal about that?” Duan Zhuo lazily dragged the end of his words. “You won’t even grant me such a small request?”
Did he have a problem understanding “small”?