After running to the bathroom to splash water on her face, Su Yue calmed down. Even though she’d made a fool of herself, getting 5 favorability points out of it wasn’t bad at all.
She only stayed in the bathroom for a few minutes before coming back out. As a qualified life assistant, now that her boss was hurt, it was time for her to get to work.
She walked to her own break room and boiled a few eggs, she kept a carton of eggs there, bought with her own money. As someone rich and influential, Du Chengfeng didn’t really need this kind of physical treatment, a spray of bruise-relief medicine would do the job. But as a thoughtful life assistant, she had to spare no trouble and put her boss first in everything.
At first he’d refused, but he couldn’t withstand her persistence, and eventually it became routine, every time he finished sparring with someone, she’d boil a few eggs.
By the time she carried the eggs into Du Chengfeng’s break room, he’d just finished showering, shirtless, his hair still dripping wet. Water droplets fell from his hair onto his chest, joining the drops already there, trickling down along the lines of his muscles before disappearing into his waistband.
Every time she saw this, her face turned red, not that she could help it, she’d simply never seen such a tempting sight before, she was still practically a kid, just barely an adult.
She fought to suppress the flush rising on her face, looking at the sky, looking at the ground, anywhere but at Du Chengfeng.
The break room clearly had the air conditioning on, yet she felt unbearably hot. She kept cheering herself on inwardly, calm down, calm down, you must stay calm, the male lead belongs to the female lead.
The self-brainwashing did have some effect, even though her small face was still a little red, her expression had mostly returned to normal.
“My face is hurt, and you’re keeping your head down like that, how are you going to apply the compress?” Du Chengfeng watched Su Yue’s flustered manner and curled the corner of his mouth.
Where had that towel-throwing decisiveness from earlier gone?
Was she that scared of him? Was he going to eat her or something?
“I… I need to get to work.” The blush that had just faded from Su Yue’s face rose again, and she could only force herself to look calm. She wanted to bury herself in work to hide her embarrassment, without realizing that a girl’s shyness was the most captivating thing of all.
Watching her small face flush pink, the smile in Du Chengfeng’s eyes only deepened. He knew very well he had no romantic feelings for her, at most, the kind of indulgence an elder shows a younger person.
His future wife would definitely be a well-matched noble lady from a family of equal standing. Even if the Du family didn’t need a marriage alliance, his standards for a partner were still someone dignified and virtuous.
It wasn’t that his standards were especially high, it was that the future mistress of the Du family would need to manage the household well behind him.
He’d promised his father that once he’d chased his dream, he’d go back and take over the family business. His dream was a youthful indulgence, but as a member of the Du family, he had his responsibilities too.
By the time he came back to his senses, Su Yue was rolling a peeled egg against the corner of his mouth, and from this angle he could clearly see the ache in her eyes.
She felt for him, why would she feel for him?
He was just her boss, wasn’t he? Was she worried that if he got hurt, no one would pay her salary anymore?
Something stirred in that heart of his that had stayed calm for years, and his hand instinctively rose to rest over his chest.
Favorability +3
Su Yue, working away diligently without a single distracting thought, suddenly heard the system’s announcement, her eyes lighting up. She instinctively looked down at Du Chengfeng with a pair of crescent-moon eyes, and found herself staring straight into a pair of deep, dark eyes.
Startled, she flinched, and the egg in her hand slipped away from his face, only to be caught by his hand, her own hand held within his.
Her face started turning red again, this time her ears and neck reddening along with it. She’d never once held hands with a boy before, this was her first time. So this was what holding hands felt like.
It felt shy, his hand was so warm, and this damned heart of hers was beating far too fast, as if it might jump right out of her body.
Also, why was he holding her hand?
There was no way it was because he liked her, the reason was simple, the favorability hadn’t even reached the level of actual liking yet.
She checked, favorability had already reached 53%. Was that maybe the start of a little liking?
Seeing her shy expression, Du Chengfeng suddenly snapped fully back to his senses. He casually took the egg from her hand and said, “I’ll do it myself.”
Since middle school, plenty of girls had written him love letters, later confessing to him in public, and later still, pestering him relentlessly.
He never gave any girl the slightest response. To avoid trouble, and out of respect for them, if he didn’t like someone, he’d reject them openly and honestly, he never played ambiguous games with any girl.
But right now, what was he doing?
Looking at her shy, timid face, he knew very well, he didn’t like her, and yet he’d given her room to imagine otherwise. That wasn’t right of him.
Since when had he stopped rejecting her closeness? Was it because of how attentively she’d been taking care of him all this time?
Once something started off wrong, he should cut his losses right away rather than let it drift, that was the fairest thing he could do for her.
“Go get Zhao Cheng to come in.” His voice was cold, his gaze even colder, as if everything from just now had been nothing but her own imagination.
“Ah… oh…” Her small face, still flushed pink a moment ago, instantly turned a little pale. So heaven and hell really could switch places in an instant.
She didn’t even know how she’d left the break room. All she knew was that her soul seemed to have left her body, drifting in the air, watching coldly as her body walked on.
“Little Yue, what’s wrong with you?” Zhao Cheng looked at the clearly-off Su Yue and asked, worried.
Normally she acted like she didn’t have a care in the world, what had happened to her today?
Like she’d lost her soul.
“Brother Du wants you to come find him in the break room.” It took Su Yue a good while to find her voice again, her answer coming out flat and dry. Her clear eyes had gone dim and lifeless.
“Are you all right?” Zhao Cheng instinctively touched her forehead, not hot, good, no fever.
“I’m not feeling well, could I take half a day off?” Su Yue lowered her head slightly, her voice muffled.
“Not feeling well? Where does it hurt? Should you go to the hospital?” Zhao Cheng was confused, she was usually like a tireless machine, perfectly fine just a moment ago, so how had she suddenly become unwell?
“It’s nothing, just that time of the month for girls.” She didn’t want him to keep pressing, so she grabbed any excuse to make him drop it, only to end up making things awkward for both of them instead.
She walked out of the gym, the scorching sunlight falling over her body, making her feel like her body was coming back to life again.
“Host, are you all right?” The system had something to say, it had told the host to raise the male lead’s favorability, not the other way around. Had the host gotten the roles mixed up somewhere?
But it didn’t dare say it out loud. Even though it was just a piece of code with no human feelings, it could tell that the sadness and hurt the host had just felt were not fake.
This was the host’s first mission, and she was a girl experiencing her first stirrings of romantic feeling. On top of that, the male lead was so outstanding, it was only natural she’d fall for him a little. It understood.
“System, how do you think I performed just now? Will the male lead feel bad enough about it to hand over a bit more favorability?” Su Yue tugged at the corner of her mouth, asking the system in her heart.
System: this host, always determined to appear strong, still putting on a tough front even now. It liked that about her, that strong heart of hers, calmly weathering every storm.