That night, Hua Rui slept exceptionally soundly. Having changed environments, she had thought she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep!
She gave the bedroom’s decor a score of 70 out of 100. The minimalist and elegant style was to her liking, but the overly conventional design was not—it was too cartoonish!
All those pink and adorable dolls of various kinds…
Did Uncle think she was still that eight-year-old child?
Many of them were things she had liked before the age of ten ^_^
In the morning of Perfume Country, sunlight filtered through the curtains in dappled patterns, tracing beautiful silhouettes of light and shadow.
The room was filled with a faint, delicate fragrance of roses.
Hua Rui rubbed her eyes, her deer-like eyes sparkling. After a night of restful sleep, her skin looked as if it had drunk its fill of moisture—fair, tender, and dewy.
She immediately spotted the source of the fragrance: a bouquet of pink roses arranged in a porcelain-white vase, still beaded with dew, clearly freshly picked.
Could it be that Uncle brought them?
The young girl’s face flushed with a rosy hue.
She quietly burrowed under the covers, grabbed her phone, found Lu Jianshen’s chat window, and sent a voice message:
“Uncle!”
Lu Jianshen had just finished his shower.
He enjoyed morning exercise, rain or shine, all year round.
After running several kilometers, he was drenched in sweat. The exhilaration of exercise left him feeling refreshed and energized. Following it up with a comfortable hot shower left him invigorated.
At that moment, he had changed into comfortable cotton loungewear pants and a white T-shirt. His exposed slender arms showed defined muscles, lean and sturdy.
His phone rang. Picking it up, he saw the incoming message, and a faint smile suddenly appeared on his stern face.
It was from the little one he had saved in his contacts as “Princess Ruirui.”
Opening the voice message, he heard a soft and sweet “Uncle,” both charming and endearing.
He also opened the chat window: “Princess Ruirui, awake now? Can Uncle come up to see you?”
Soon, he was refused. The reply came: “No! Come up in half an hour.”
Half an hour? Probably… she needs to shower…
Lu Jianshen’s heart inexplicably skipped a few beats.
He stared at his phone screen, where the wallpaper was already a picture of the radiant and cheerful Princess Hua Rui, smiling sweetly.
His pale, slender fingers gently brushed over her face as he replied, “I’ll wait for you in the first-floor dining room!”
After speaking, a sudden tenderness appeared in his hawk-like eyes. His thin lips moved slightly, and his fingers gently traced her brow, her dimples, and her lips!
By the time Hua Rui dawdled her way downstairs, an hour had already passed.
She saw Lu Jianshen in the dining room.
The man sat there, his expression cool and composed as usual, yet he also seemed a bit angry.
She tried to check the time but realized there were no clocks hanging or placed anywhere in sight.
The man suddenly spoke: “I am the time. Right now, it’s exactly ten in the morning!”
Hua Rui lowered her brows and softly uttered an “Oh.”
She wanted to step forward but felt that the man’s aura was overwhelmingly strong, the icy chill radiating from him making her afraid to approach.
“Come here!” His voice was not loud, but it brooked no refusal.
Hua Rui frowned. “Uncle, are you angry? I don’t dare to come over!”
Lu Jianshen let out a soft sigh.
It was exactly ten in the morning, and he hadn’t had breakfast yet. In twenty-five years, this was the first time!
Such inefficiency was a fatal waste for a man as extremely disciplined and time-conscious as him.
He was a man of decisive action.
In other words, if such behavior occurred among employees, there would be no room for negotiation—they would be fired outright!
“Come here, Rui Rui, I’m not angry!”
He softened his tone and asked the kitchen to prepare a fresh breakfast.
“But you looked at me with such eyes—not at all like the gentle Uncle from last night!”
Hua Rui walked slowly, hesitating whether to sit in the spot the man had indicated.
That spot was right beside him.
Lu Jianshen curled the corner of his lips: “So you know to be afraid? Then tell me, if I were angry, what would be the reason?”
Hua Rui sat down and looked into his beautiful amber eyes:
“I wasn’t on time today because I got homesick while showering and secretly cried.”
Only when she drew closer did he notice the lingering redness at the corners of Hua Rui’s beautiful, doe-like eyes.
As she spoke, her cherry-pink lips pouted slightly, still carrying a hint of lingering grievance.
Lu Jianshen gently stroked her smooth, long hair, doing his best to soothe her emotions:
“It was my fault for not noticing Rui Rui’s feelings in time! Next time you miss home, don’t cry alone in secret. Talk to Uncle, and I’ll accompany you for a video call with your family, okay?”
“Okay!” the little princess replied sweetly and softly.
“Skipping breakfast isn’t allowed. If breakfast is eaten at ten o’clock or later, can it still be called breakfast?”
Hua Rui blinked her eyes: “No, it would probably be called a mid-morning snack or tea time!”
“Rui Rui is so clever!” Lu Jianshen’s timely praise brought a smile to the young girl’s face.
“Promise me that from now on, we’ll have breakfast before nine o’clock, okay?”
“Okay!” Hua Rui nodded obediently.
Her fair little face, delicate and smooth, was indescribably beautiful.
Lu Jianshen couldn’t resist the urge to pinch her adorable little nose, but Hua Rui deftly dodged him.
“Uncle, have you framed the Ten-Chapter Agreement yet?”
Lu Jianshen chuckled: “Not yet. Before hanging it up, can I break a rule?”
“No, you’re being dishonest!” Hua Rui lifted her little face, looking quite imperious.
“Then holding hands should be fine, right? That’s not in the Ten-Chapter Agreement.”
Those perfect, artistic hands gently clasped Hua Rui’s delicate little hand.
The once imperious young girl immediately wilted, lowering her head and eyebrows, visibly shy.
Lu Jianshen looked at her: “Little Rui Rui, there’s one more thing—you must keep your promises from now on. For example, today’s half-hour rule: once you’ve said it, you must follow through!”
“What if I don’t?”
“Uncle has plenty of ways to make you follow through!”
The man’s grip gradually tightened. Hua Rui tried to pull her hand back, but he held it firmly.
“It hurts! Uncle, you’re not going to hit me, are you?”
Lu Jianshen was speechless: “I would never hit a woman!”
The man’s eyes darkened. He didn’t say the next sentence—it was too teasing.
He wanted to say: “But if my little darling misbehaves, I might pinch her little ears!”
He finally realized that he was, in fact, a man full of desire.
All his previous asceticism was simply because he hadn’t met a woman who stirred his desires.
Now, the woman who stirred every fiber of his desire had come of age!
He had waited for her for 85 years!
He could now say with absolute certainty that from the day after she was born, when he personally selected the diamond heart-shaped locket for her, he had already placed her in his heart.
From the day of his 85th birthday celebration, when he saw that 8-year-old little pink Hua Rui, his eyes could no longer see any other woman!
The rare pink diamond he meticulously selected for her—was it not because that shade of pink, when he first saw her at age eight, had forcefully and dominantly filled his heart!
The wolfish nature beneath his gentlemanly exterior belonged solely to that little princess named Hua Rui, and to her alone!
…