After Uncle He left, Pei Yanzhou walked over to her side, took the kraft paper bag from her hands, and fixed his dark eyes on her. “Has your injury improved?”
“Mm,” Jian Jinci replied softly, pressing her lips together. “Thank you.”
When she looked up at Pei Yanzhou, she noticed a faint curve lifting the corner of his mouth.
He was smiling?!
Jian Jinci found it unbelievable. Her gaze remained fixed on him—this man actually knew how to smile.
She glanced up at the sky. The sun hadn’t risen from the west, so what on earth had gotten into him?
When her eyes returned to his face, the curve at the corner of his mouth had already faded, replaced by his usual expression, as if those few seconds had been nothing but her imagination.
Pei Yanzhou lowered his gaze to look at her. “Come inside.”
“Huh?” Jian Jinci didn’t react immediately. It took her a couple of seconds to understand. “No, I’ve delivered the clothes. I should be going.”
Pei Yanzhou’s thin lips parted slightly. “Afraid of me?”
Hah, who wouldn’t be afraid of such a dangerous person by their side?
He paused briefly before speaking again. “Then suit yourself, Miss Jian.”
Jian Jinci opened her mouth slightly, catching a fleeting glimpse of gloom in his eyes. Was he angry?
Suddenly, she felt a pang of guilt. Her aloofness had been too obvious. Even if the man before her was dangerous, he had genuinely helped her many times. She shouldn’t have acted this way.
A sense of remorse washed over her. Right now, she felt like an ungrateful wretch.
Pei Yanzhou didn’t look at her again. He strode toward the courtyard, the kraft paper bag in his left hand, his tall figure casting a long shadow.
Watching his retreating back, Jian Jinci wrestled with her thoughts for a moment before following him.
She trailed behind him with her head lowered. When Pei Yanzhou suddenly stopped, she wasn’t paying attention and bumped right into a solid wall of muscle.
Looking up, she found Pei Yanzhou glancing back at her. She averted her eyes and stammered, “What… is it?”
“Didn’t you say you should be leaving?” Pei Yanzhou’s tone was indifferent.
“Oh,” Jian Jinci replied. “Just think of me as a country bumpkin who’s never seen such an impressive villa before, coming in to broaden my horizons.”
She made up an excuse on the spot. She couldn’t very well say she came in because he seemed upset.
Pei Yanzhou pressed his lips together and said nothing, clearly not buying her explanation.
Feeling awkward, Jian Jinci tried to make conversation. “How much does this villa cost? Do you think I could ever afford to live in a place like this in my lifetime?”
“You could,” Pei Yanzhou said.
“Hah~” Jian Jinci pursed her lips. “You’re just teasing me because I seem naive.”
A villa like this was beyond her reach, and she hadn’t really dreamed of living in one. But she had long held a dream: to earn a lot of money and have a small home of her own with Jian Xu. They didn’t need to be wealthy, but they couldn’t be without money either.
Following Pei Yanzhou to the entrance, he handed her a pair of women’s slippers.
She stared at the slippers on the floor, then looked up at Pei Yanzhou. “These shoes…”
Finding women’s slippers in a man’s home was definitely a red flag. Who knew when a dramatic showdown between the wife and the mistress might erupt?
Pei Yanzhou had already changed into his own slippers and glanced at her. “They belong to a family member.”
Jian Jinci gave a half-believing “oh” and slipped on the slippers.
Entering the living room, Jian Jinci considered herself someone who had seen a thing or two, but the sheer size of the space left her slightly agape.
“Do you smell that?” she asked.
“The air is thick with the scent of money. That’s how the world is—some are parched dry, others are drowning in excess. Heaven isn’t fair.”
The decor was modern in style, with a monochromatic color scheme. The interior lacked excessive ornamentation, appearing simple yet not devoid of substance.
“Pei Yanzhou, hurry up and tell me how much this villa costs, so I can give up on it.”
This was a mansion villa, more expensive than an ordinary one.
She was fully prepared for Pei Yanzhou to deliver a crushing blow, but he leisurely uttered two words: “Boring.”
Pei Yanzhou poured her a glass of water, told her to make herself at home, and went upstairs. Three minutes later, when he came back down, he had changed out of his suit and was wearing dark-colored casual loungewear. Without the suit, he seemed less sharp and more relaxed.
Jian Jinci stared straight at him—this man looked good in anything… really good.
So, she couldn’t be blamed for mistaking him for the cream of the crop among male escorts during their first meeting. If anything, it was his fault for having such a handsome face.
Jian Jinci remarked, “Without the suit, you seem much more normal.”
Actually, he wasn’t abnormal in a suit either—it just gave off an unapproachable, hard-to-get-along-with vibe.
With such a good-looking face, it was a shame he didn’t smile more often.
Pei Yanzhou asked, “Want to take a look around?”
“Look around?” How big did a villa have to be to warrant using the phrase “look around”? She nodded. “Sure.”
As Jian Jinci followed Pei Yanzhou outside, they ran into Uncle He at the door.
Pei Yanzhou glanced at Jian Jinci. “Go ahead and look around first.”
She guessed Pei Yanzhou probably had something to discuss with Uncle He, so she nodded and headed into the courtyard first.
Once outside, she didn’t wander around aimlessly. Instead, she sat on a stone bench in the pavilion in the main courtyard. Next to the pavilion was a fish pond, and she leaned against the railing, observing the fish in the water.
On the table in the center of the pavilion was some fish food. She picked it up and tossed a little into the pond. The fish scrambled to eat it, but she didn’t dare give them too much, unsure if they had already been fed and afraid they might overeat.
She was so focused on watching the fish that she didn’t notice the person approaching behind her.
“Give them a little more.”
Hearing the voice, Jian Jinci turned to look at him. “A little more?”
Pei Yanzhou gave a faint “Mm” in response. Jian Jinci, like a child who had found something amusing, smiled and tossed a bit more fish food into the pond. The fish swarmed over, competing for the food.
Meanwhile, Pei Yanzhou’s gaze was fixed on this girl who resembled a child.
If given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be a child—loved and cared for by parents, cherished by others?
She, too, didn’t want to be constantly on edge, like a hedgehog, pointing her quills at everyone else.
Jian Jinci felt his gaze on her, and her smile stiffened for a moment before fading. She finally realized that she might have been overly relaxed in front of Pei Yanzhou.
She wasn’t usually like this, except around Yan Xi and Jian Xu.
It felt like she hadn’t smiled like this in a long time.
Lost in her thoughts, a red carp suddenly leaped out of the water and onto the ground, its tail slapping against the surface.
Jian Jinci looked at the fish lying on the ground and laughed. “What a silly fish.”
She had noticed this fish earlier—it had been aggressively competing for food. This time, it must have jumped onto the ground in its eagerness.
She walked around the pavilion and crouched beside the red carp. Without hesitation, she reached out to grab it. The red carp wasn’t particularly large, about the size of an adult’s palm.
The fish was too slippery. As soon as she grabbed it, it wriggled and fell back onto the ground.
It took her quite some effort to pick it up again, and Pei Yanzhou’s dark eyes filled with amusement.
Jian Jinci said to the fish, “You little troublemaker.”
She turned to look at Pei Yanzhou, and the moment she did, the amusement in his eyes vanished.
Jian Jinci grinned mischievously. “Mr. Pei, whether it’s steamed or braised, I’ll love it either way.”
“Then let’s catch another one—one steamed, one braised,” Pei Yanzhou said.
Jian Jinci: “…”
Was he serious? She had only been joking, but he sounded completely earnest, not at all like he was kidding.
Jian Jinci tossed the fish back into the pond and stood up.