After dinner, Lu Muqian was handling work in his study. He usually left the office on time, and even when there was extra work, he would have his assistant deliver it to Cloudcrest Villa, where he would handle it in his study.
This way, he could avoid paying excessive attention to An Yin while still sharing the same roof with her—something that satisfied him greatly.
By ten o’clock, An Yin had been waiting in bed for Lu Muqian for a long time, but he still hadn’t returned. In another hour and a half, she would want to sleep.
However, without Lu Muqian there, she might not be able to fall asleep. So, An Yin went to the study to find him.
An Yin knew that explaining things to Lu Muqian now might not necessarily make him believe her, but she clearly sensed that he listened to her. So, she decided to take advantage of this favoritism and simply treat him well.
Knock knock…
Without waiting for Lu Muqian to respond, An Yin twisted the doorknob and entered.
Ignoring what Lu Muqian was doing, she took his hand and pulled him out, using a domineering tone, “Come on, let’s go back to sleep.”
Lu Muqian looked bewildered but obediently followed An Yin.
“Here, your clothes. Go take a shower. I’ll wait for you to come out before I sleep.”
An Yin had long since dug out the matching couple’s pajamas that Lu Muqian had hidden in the most inconspicuous part of the wardrobe. She handed them to the man and commanded him to go shower.
Lu Muqian was completely managed by An Yin. He didn’t argue and simply did as he was told.
An Yin waited for him on the bed, rolling around on the vast white sheets. She needed to ask Lu Muqian to take her to the hospital for a check-up.
In her previous life, she and Lu Muqian had divorced less than two years after getting married. Not even a year later, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Now, calculating the time, if she went to the hospital for a check-up, it should be detectable, and it would likely still be benign.
There was a sound from the bathroom door. An Yin snapped out of her thoughts and looked in the direction of the noise.
The man’s hair was wet and dripping with water. Seeing this, An Yin immediately jumped off the bed to look for the hairdryer. After searching around without finding it, she asked, “Lu Muqian, where’s the hairdryer?”
The man silently went to retrieve the hairdryer and handed it to An Yin before turning to leave.
If Yinyin didn’t want him to dry his hair, then he wouldn’t.
“Lu Muqian, come here.”
An Yin found an outlet by the bed, plugged in the hairdryer, and noticed that Lu Muqian was still sitting blankly on the sofa. She called him over.
The man lowered his gaze and obediently walked over, stopping in front of An Yin without making any further moves.
“Silly, sit down.”
Lu Muqian didn’t dare to reply and obediently sat on the edge of the bed.
Then, An Yin turned on the hairdryer, her soft fingers threading through his hair as the whirring sound filled the air—she was drying his hair.
The man’s short hair, unlike a woman’s long hair, didn’t take much time to dry and was soon done.
“All done.”
An Yin padded over in her slippers to put the hairdryer back in its place, then padded back again. Lu Muqian watched her, worried she might trip at any moment.
But she didn’t. When getting into bed, An Yin still chose to jump in.
“Lu Muqian, time to sleep.” An Yin had realized that Lu Muqian was a fool who prioritized her words above all else. Even though she was already lying in bed, he remained seated on the edge. Helpless, she called out to him again.
Now that An Yin knew who she truly needed to love in this life, she became very proactive. Apart from the final step, there was nothing she held back from.
Lu Muqian had just lain down when she nestled close to him, burrowing into the man’s embrace. She draped her calf over his waist, gently turned his face toward hers, and began stroking his cheek with her fingers as if caressing a cherished possession.
An Yin’s sudden intimacy left the man rigid with tension. He dared not move recklessly—this was the first time they had been so physically close since their marriage.
His heart fluttered anxiously, yet he couldn’t resist being drawn to the faint scent of gardenia emanating from An Yin.
She smiled at him, a delicate curve of her lips that plucked at his heartstrings. “Lu Muqian, do you want to hear what your father-in-law and mother-in-law said to me when I visited home today?”
He wanted to know, but was it really alright to ask?
“Nod if you want me to tell you, okay?”
“Mm.”
An Yin deliberately teased him, “What does ‘mm’ mean?”
“It means I want to hear.”
“Alright, then I’ll tell you.”
An Yin began recounting the cheerful scenes from her meal at the An family home, mentioning Lu Muqian frequently throughout:
“This afternoon, Father wasn’t home—only Mother and Brother were there. I had lunch with Mother, and she asked me, ‘Yinyin, how are you and Muqian getting along? Why have you lost so much weight? Has he been mistreating you?'”
Lu Muqian hadn’t mistreated her—how could he bear to? She was someone he wanted to cherish in the palm of his hand. Anxiously, he interjected, “You know I haven’t.”
“Of course I know you haven’t. It’s my own issue, so I explained to Mother. She also said you’re a good man, and they feel at ease entrusting me to your care.”
“When Father returned in the evening, he asked why you didn’t come back with me, whether we’d been arguing, and how our relationship was progressing.”
“Don’t you think you should come with me next time?”
“Yinyin…”
“Hm?”
“May I call you that now?” He longed to use her pet name like her close family and friends did, but An Yin had once told him he wasn’t worthy of addressing her so intimately.
“Of course, you can call me anything you like.”
“Then will you take me with you next time, Yinyin?”
“Gladly!”
“Lu Muqian, don’t worry—I’ll stay by your side always. I know you love me deeply, and I’m gradually learning to accept you.”
Unconsciously, she was offering him reassurance and promises, letting him know she was slowly moving toward him too.
“Don’t doubt that my sudden kindness has an ulterior motive. In love, both parties are equal. You’ve already taken 99 steps toward me in the first half—let me take the final step to you, alright?”
“Alright.”
What Lu Muqian truly wanted to say was that it didn’t matter. Yinyin didn’t need to take a single step—she could just stand where she was, only needing to turn around. Just turn around and see him there.
“Well then… Lu Muqian, goodnight!” After speaking, An Yin wrapped her arms around Lu Muqian’s neck, pressing her cheek against his as they drifted off to sleep.
“Goodnight, Yinyin.”
That night, Lu Muqian didn’t suffer from insomnia. Normally, he wouldn’t fall asleep until two or three in the morning and would wake before seven to prepare breakfast for An Yin. But this night, he unexpectedly fell asleep before midnight and, the next day, failed to wake up in time to make her breakfast.
The next day, An Yin woke up earlier than him. Just as Lu Muqian was gently trying to remove the paw she had draped over him, An Yin pretended to be half-asleep and pulled him even closer.
“Don’t get up so early. Aunt Lan will make breakfast.”
She had already instructed Aunt Lan the previous evening that from now on, breakfast would be prepared by her. She didn’t want Lu Muqian sacrificing his precious sleep time for her anymore.
“Stay with me a little longer, and we’ll go down together for breakfast later, okay?”
“Okay.”