Tang Yushen remained motionless as if he hadn’t heard anything.
Xia Qiaoxi sat up, pulling her dress to cover her bent legs. “Just one more kiss, this time… on the lips.”
He had only kissed her neck earlier.
Tang Yushen knew he shouldn’t remember, but he couldn’t control himself.
He had missed her for a hundred years!
She had no idea how he had lived through those hundred years.
Every single day, he was tormented by longing to the point of near death, yet he bore the heavy responsibility of family and country on his shoulders. When she passed away, she had told him to live well, not to lose hope, that she would be watching over him from heaven.
He thought Xia Qiaoxi was lying.
Xia Qiaoxi was a liar.
Xia Qiaoxi wasn’t watching over him from heaven at all.
Otherwise, why was he the only one who remembered their past life? Why didn’t she remember?
She remembered nothing!
Xia Qiaoxi was frightened by Tang Yushen’s intense, profound, and ambiguous gaze.
Her instinct was to escape.
But this was his home – there was nowhere to run.
Her body stiffened, her hands still pressed against her beautiful dress, red lips slightly parted as if she had been badly bullied, the corners of her eyes moist.
Tang Yushen clenched his hands into fists, restraining himself from pinning her down again. “Do I seem like a pervert?”
“Ah?” Xia Qiaoxi tilted her head. “Is there such a handsome pervert?”
“Probably.” Tang Yushen smiled self-deprecatingly. “I’m just too impatient.”
He had left her with a bad impression.
But his legs felt as if filled with lead, unable to move an inch.
If it were a hundred years ago, when he sat like this in anger, Xia Qiaoxi would hug him from behind, wrap her arms around his waist, cover his neck with delicate kisses, and tease him by pulling at his shirt.
She knew him best – no matter how angry he was with her, with enough kisses and intimacy, all his anger would dissipate.
“You are a bit impatient…” Xia Qiaoxi tried to think from his perspective.
If it were her, and her white moonlight had disappeared, upon meeting someone who looked similar, she would inevitably project onto them, transferring her longing for another person onto the substitute.
His affection was overwhelming.
But the person he liked wasn’t her.
Xia Qiaoxi wanted to comfort him, but she didn’t want to sacrifice her body to do so.
They both needed to remain pure, preserving themselves for their true loves.
Tang Yushen was both angered and amused by her honest response. He heavily supported his forehead with his hand. “I want to take it slow too, but I can’t. With you, I’m too eager for quick results.”
It was driving him crazy.
“Then you should leave quickly…” Xia Qiaoxi began to shoo him away.
Tang Yushen’s eyes grew even darker. “Can I stay?”
“No, you reek of alcohol and smoke, it’s disgusting…” Xia Qiaoxi said bluntly. “Get out! I need to shower and sleep too.”
“I’ll come back after I’ve cleaned up.” Tang Yushen suddenly leaned in, placing his hands on either side of her. “Okay?”
“Cleaned up and come back to do… do what?” Xia Qiaoxi nervously leaned her head back.
That wasn’t what she meant!
Did Tang Yushen misunderstand?
“To sleep with you…”
“I don’t need that! I prefer sleeping alone.” Xia Qiaoxi bit her lip.
She didn’t need it.
She was used to sleeping alone.
In her memory, the only times she had slept with someone seemed to be after meeting him.
When he would sneak into her room, climb into her bed, wrap his arms around her waist, and cling to her.
“I don’t like it! I hate sleeping alone, I want to sleep with you!” Tang Yushen wrapped his arms around her waist. “Xixi, I promise I won’t move. Without your permission, I’ll sleep obediently just like before, only holding you.Although Xia Qiaoxi had never slept with another man before, she knew some basic common sense.
A man and a woman alone in a room was extremely dangerous, especially in the morning.
That was uncontrollable.
Given Tang Yushen’s current agitated state, being driven by desire and nearly losing control, she didn’t dare take the risk.
If it came to that, she wouldn’t be able to fight him off and would only end up being pressed against the bed, completely at his mercy.
Xia Qiaoxi shook her head in silent refusal.
Tang Yushen felt utterly exhausted. If not for the doctor’s words, he would have resorted to coercive love just to sleep with her tonight.
The doctor’s words acted like a protective shield, a safety card that prevented him from following his desires and made him care for her.
He wanted Little Xixi to be happy and joyful, to keep mild depression and neurasthenia far away from her.
The current Little Xixi was like a fragile porcelain doll that could only be held in the palm of his hand, carefully protected.
The slightest carelessness would shatter her.
Tang Yushen couldn’t bear to see her like that – she should be sunny, radiant, blooming like a flower, full of vitality, dazzlingly brilliant.
She shouldn’t be broken.
“Don’t forget to bring me lunch tomorrow.” Tang Yushen gently stroked her hair. “Good night.”
Xia Qiaoxi stared blankly as Tang Yushen left. After the door closed, the entire bedroom fell silent.
Her high heels lay fallen on the carpet beside the sofa, his dark tie hanging halfway down, just a finger’s width away from the high heels.
The scene looked rather ambiguous.
High heels and a tie.
One was hers.
One was Tang Yushen’s.
She crawled over, picked up Tang Yushen’s tie, slowly wrapped it around her wrist, and inexplicably brought it close to her nose to smell.
The scent of alcohol.
A very faint smell of smoke.
Did Tang Yushen smoke?
It seemed he did.
That night when she went up to the rooftop, he seemed to be holding a cigarette.
But he never seemed to smoke in front of her.
Xia Qiaoxi felt she was going mad, actually playing with a man’s tie.
She pulled off the tie, casually threw it on the coffee table, picked up the high heels from the floor, and clip-clopped her way to the bathroom.
In the end, Tang Yushen hadn’t taken the kiss she offered.
She kept thinking about this even while showering.
Perhaps at that moment, Tang Yushen had thought of his white moonlight and forcefully stopped himself.
Her heart actually felt somewhat twitchy, sour, with an inexplicable sense of loss.
They had only known each other for a few days – could she already be developing feelings for him?
She mustn’t like Tang Yushen.
He didn’t belong to her.
She needed to leave quickly.
Xia Qiaoxi’s eyes darkened. Leaving would be for the best.
As for everything else, she shouldn’t think about it.
The next day at noon, Xia Qiaoxi went to Tang Song Building. Chen Bai met her in the basement and took her up via the president’s private elevator.
“The boss has been talking about Miss Xia since morning! I wonder when I’ll get to taste Miss Xia’s cooking too!” Chen Bai grinned at the lunchbox in her hand. “Sis-in-law…”
Xia Qiaoxi’s pupils dilated at his sudden address. “What did you call me?”
“Madam.” Chen Bai smoothly changed his address. “We’ve been following the boss for quite some time. Since he’s this serious about you, you’ll definitely become our young madam sooner or later.”
“There’s no such thing as too early or too late,” Xia Qiaoxi murmured under her breath.
“What?” Chen Bai didn’t catch what she said.
Her voice had been too soft just now.
“I said I’ll make more tomorrow,” Xia Qiaoxi replied with a gentle smile.
“Then you’ll have to do it quietly. Give it to me before we go in – we can’t let the boss know, or he’ll get jealous!” Chen Bai scratched his head sheepishly. “I’ve never seen the boss jealous before!”
Judging by how Tang Yushen looked when he was angry, the boss definitely wouldn’t be very pleasant when jealous.
It would probably be devastating, with destructive power off the charts.
He couldn’t handle the boss’s wrath.
“Alright,” Xia Qiaoxi answered gently.
“The boss must have accumulated some incredible karma to meet someone as gentle as you, Miss Xia. But our boss isn’t bad either – just look at him! He’s crazy handsome! Explosively good-looking! You won’t regret being with him!” Chen Bai was worrying himself sick over the development of Tang Yushen and Xia Qiaoxi’s relationship.
During the elevator ride up, he kept talking nonstop about how amazing Tang Yushen was.
Even when the elevator doors opened, he was still chattering away.
Standing at the elevator entrance, Tang Yushen looked at him with a cold, stern face. “What the hell are you blabbering about?”