Xu Chengyi smiled lightly. “Thank you for your concern, Little Uncle. I’ve fully recovered.”
Song Zhiyu clicked his tongue. “I’m just trying to chat with you. Why so formal?”
Xu Chengyi felt that this Little Uncle was full of schemes and didn’t want to stay around him any longer, so she said, “I’ll head upstairs first.”
Going upstairs, she took off her dress and underwear, kicked off her shoes, and flopped comfortably onto the bed.
“I’m exhausted. When will these damn lady training classes ever end?”
Suddenly, the door twisted open and Song Wenzhou stepped in, greeted by a sight that made his heart race and his face flush.
Xu Chengyi heard the noise and turned her head. She froze for a moment, the heat in her face rising steadily.
Song Wenzhou averted his gaze and turned around.
Xu Chengyi quickly got up, picked up her dress and slipped it on, saying in embarrassment and indignation, “Why didn’t you knock…”
Even though they were already married, being so exposed in broad daylight—anyone would want to crawl into a hole in the ground.
Song Wenzhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, his voice slightly hoarse. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were…” not wearing clothes.
Xu Chengyi’s face was red enough to drip blood. “I just didn’t want to get the bed dirty with my clothes, and I was too lazy to change into clean ones…”
“Mm.”
She picked up her underwear and went into the bathroom.
Song Wenzhou heard her flustered footsteps and slowly turned around.
On the previously neat bed, there was a depression, as if the outline of a human figure still remained.
His throat felt dry. He went downstairs, grabbed a bottle of ice water, and kept gulping it down.
Turning his head, he saw Song Zhiyu lazily leaning against the refrigerator, raising an eyebrow with a meaningful look. “Careful, you’ll ruin your stomach drinking like that.”
Song Wenzhou silently tossed the bottle into the trash can.
Song Zhiyu squinted with a smile, glanced toward the kitchen, and added, “Dinner’s still early.”
Song Wenzhou ignored him and walked out.
The smile at the corner of Song Zhiyu’s eyes lingered. Then he turned and saw the Old Master return, and the smile at his eyes vanished.
“You come back and don’t even greet me.” The Old Master’s tone carried a hint of reproach.
Song Zhiyu let out a light laugh. “You’re always telling me to come back. Now that I’m here, you’re unhappy. Should I leave then?”
The maid, Aunt Wang, walked over. “Elder Song, Seventh Master, dinner is ready.”
The Old Master waved his hand and said to Song Zhiyu, “What’s there to leave for? Is having dinner with me that hard?”
As they spoke, Ling Zhu came down from upstairs, walking toward the Old Master with a beaming smile. “You’re back.”
The three of them walked to the dining room and sat down.
The Old Master took the head seat, with his son and his mistress on either side.
Once the dishes were served, Xu Chengyi and Song Wenzhou also took their seats.
Xu Chengyi was genuinely hungry. Seeing the Old Master pick up his chopsticks, she dug in with gusto.
The Old Master glanced at Song Zhiyu and asked, “I heard you’ve been getting pretty close to that young lady from the Li family lately.”
Song Zhiyu said flatly, “Mm. She’s very obedient.”
“You should settle down too. Once you’ve made up your mind, go propose early.”
Song Zhiyu lazily lifted his eyelids and curled his lips into a smile. “Sure.”
Suddenly, the ceramic spoon in Ling Zhu’s hand fell to the ground with a crisp sound, shattering into pieces.
The Old Master turned to glance at her. She flashed a charming smile. “The Madams Sun and the others have been dragging me to play mahjong lately. My hands are sore from shuffling. Sorry about that.”
As she spoke, she bent down to pick up the fragments, but the maid quickly came over. “Miss Ling Zhu, please be careful not to cut yourself. We’ll handle it.”
Xu Chengyi heard the form of address and finally pulled herself away from her meal, glancing at Ling Zhu before continuing to eat.
At this meal, the four of them each harbored their own thoughts—and one person focused entirely on her food.
After dinner, Xu Chengyi went upstairs, fully satisfied.
Late at night, she lay in bed scrolling through her phone. She came across milk tea and fried chicken advertised as “all-natural, zero additives,” and gleefully opened the food delivery app.
Not in the delivery range.
She helplessly exited the app.
But the more she scrolled, the hungrier she got.
So she threw off the covers, draped a thin jacket over herself, and crept quietly downstairs.
At midnight, the household staff were all resting. She didn’t want to wake them, so she turned on her phone’s flashlight and walked into the kitchen.
Usually, she was waited on hand and foot. This was her first time in the kitchen, and because she wasn’t familiar with it, she moved like a thief, holding up her phone to search for food.
Opening the refrigerator, she found a small cake.
She immediately set down her phone, took out the cake, found a spoon from somewhere, and, using the fridge light, devoured it with gusto.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded from outside. Her hand froze, a nervous feeling washing over her like she’d broken into someone’s house to steal food.
There was more than one set of footsteps.
One set was heavy, one set was light—like a man and a woman.
The man spoke, his tone as languid as ever. “If it’s inconvenient for you, then don’t call me back. I’m getting sleepy waiting.”
The woman grabbed his arm. “Are you really going to marry that young lady from the Li family?”
The man scoffed lightly in return. “If I don’t marry her, should I marry you?”
The woman’s tone carried the humility of someone in a lower position. “But you said…”
The man couldn’t be bothered to listen and cut off the topic. “Don’t call me back unless it’s important. I’m busy.”
…
Xu Chengyi, who was sneaking food in the kitchen, couldn’t hear clearly. She groped her way out in the dark.
Suddenly, her body bumped into the kitchen island in the middle. She let out an “Ah!”—startling the people outside.
Ignoring the pain, she only wanted to find a place to hide.
With a “click,” the light overhead switched on, exposing her awkward state of eavesdropping and snacking with nowhere to hide.
The man leaned against the doorframe, casually sizing her up, a smirk curling at his lips as he teased, “Oh, I thought we had a cat in the house.”
Xu Chengyi began to play dumb, “Where is this? How did I get here? Little uncle, why are you here too…”
Looking up, she saw Song Wenzhou appear at the kitchen doorway. She clutched her head and stumbled toward him, “Honey, I think I was sleepwalking, my head is so dizzy…”
Song Wenzhou caught her steadily.
“Honey, let’s go back…”
Song Zhiyu watched their retreating figures, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he let out a quiet chuckle, then leisurely strolled away.
Back in the room, Xu Chengyi realized she had forgotten her phone, so she went downstairs again, grabbing her phone and the cake from the kitchen.
The moment she switched off the kitchen light, an unexpected clap of thunder struck, making her heart leap with fright.
Trembling, she crouched down, pressing her phone against her ears.
Soon after, the sound of a sports car engine started up, gradually fading into the distance, and silence returned all around.
She quickly got up, clutching the cake and phone as she scurried upstairs, slamming the door shut with a “bang” just as torrential rain poured down outside the window.
“Scared me to death.” She patted her racing heart.
Song Wenzhou, seeing her still shaken, asked, “What did you go downstairs for?”
She pointed at the small cake in her hand, smiling, “I got hungry. I tried to be quiet, but I still woke you up. Go back to sleep—I’ll eat in the study.”
“Mm.”