A faint rustling sound broke the silence.
There was no furious outburst as expected.
Confused, Shen Li straightened up.
Ning Zhiyuan was curled up in the back seat, her little face scrunched together as she scratched at her neck and arms.
“So itchy.”
The moment Shen Li looked closely, his expression changed dramatically.
The fair skin exposed outside her clothing was covered in mosquito bites.
Her skin had always been unusually delicate.
Even a light scratch from her fingernails left vivid red marks behind.
It looked alarming.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
“No.”
Ever since she learned that her mother had died during childbirth in a hospital, Ning Zhiyuan had developed an inexplicable fear of hospitals.
Growing up, she refused to go no matter how sick she was. The family doctor always came to the house instead, and the servants took care of her there.
That was also one of the reasons she had never visited Shen Li when he was hospitalized with his leg injury.
After being reborn, that fear had only deepened.
Shen Li shut the car door and returned to the driver’s seat.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Ning Zhiyuan leaned forward from the back seat and grabbed his clothes.
“I’m not going. I don’t want to go.”
Shen Li pulled his wrinkled shirt free.
The girl behind him had curled herself into a ball as though she had just remembered something terrifying, shaking her head over and over.
Unable to force her, Shen Li carried her back into the villa.
By the time Assistant Qi arrived with the family doctor, the scene in the living room looked rather ambiguous.
The man was restraining the girl’s slender wrists.
Her eyes were misty with tears, making her look pitiful beyond words.
The doctor awkwardly glanced at Assistant Qi.
This really didn’t seem like a situation they should be interrupting.
Assistant Qi braced himself and spoke softly.
“Boss, the doctor is here.”
“Mm.”
Shen Li had no choice.
The mosquito bites extended up Ning Zhiyuan’s legs, and the skirt she had been wearing barely covered the tops of her thighs after being pushed up earlier.
He was worried she would scratch her skin raw and do something even more reckless, so he had restrained her hands.
Besides, with outsiders present, Zhiyuan certainly wouldn’t want anyone seeing them being too intimate.
The moment he loosened his grip, she immediately started scratching again.
The doctor hurried over. Upon seeing the swollen red bites on her skin, he exclaimed,
“You can’t let her scratch them. They’ll leave marks.”
Without hesitation, Shen Li seized her delicate wrist again.
After a thorough examination, the doctor finally concluded,
“It’s just mosquito bites. Nothing serious. Apply some ointment and she’ll be fine.”
Shen Li accepted the tube of ointment and carefully memorized every precaution the doctor mentioned.
Assistant Qi casually asked,
“The garden has people specifically responsible for pest control. How did mosquitoes still get to her?”
The doctor closed his medical bag and shot him a speechless look.
“Bright yellow attracts insects very easily, especially on summer nights. There are always bugs around. It’s impossible to get rid of every single one.”
Listening to their conversation, Ning Zhiyuan felt a wave of frustration.
Who was she supposed to complain to?
She had finally decided to try a different style for once, only to become a mosquito buffet.
After the doctor and Assistant Qi left, Shen Li disappeared somewhere.
Ning Zhiyuan picked up the ointment. Just as she unscrewed the cap and was about to apply it herself—
The tube suddenly vanished from her hand.
It had somehow ended up in Shen Li’s.
The man sat down beside her.
He seemed to have just washed his hands. She could smell the clean scent of hand soap lingering on him.
“The nanny has the day off today. The doctor said hands need to be clean when applying medicine. I just washed mine.”
“They’re clean.”
“Excuse me.”
He didn’t ask for permission.
He simply left her with no alternative.
His fingers were long and elegant, every joint sharply defined and pale.
The white ointment felt cool against her skin.
His fingertips, however, were warm.
His expression was so focused that he seemed completely absorbed in the task.
Ning Zhiyuan found herself staring at his eyelashes.
Each lash was distinct, like the delicate feathers of a small fan.
Beautiful.
Her arms were the easiest areas to treat.
Then came her neck.
When it was time for her legs, however, Shen Li’s movements became noticeably more awkward.
One knee bent as he half-knelt before her.
A faint crease appeared between his brows as he hesitated over whether to continue.
Ning Zhiyuan, meanwhile, was surprisingly generous.
She simply lifted her skirt higher.
Shen Li instantly looked like a boiled shrimp.
The tube of ointment suddenly seemed scorching hot in his hand.
He applied the medicine as quickly as possible.
His usually pale complexion flushed pink, and even the tips of his ears had turned red.
Perhaps because he had knelt too long, or perhaps because his injured leg had never fully recovered, he stiffened briefly when he stood up.
After tossing the ointment aside, he fled.
“I’ll go wash my hands.”
The ointment worked quickly.
The itching gradually faded.
Only then did Ning Zhiyuan slowly replay the scene in her mind.
Shen Li kneeling on one knee before her.
His jade-like fingers brushing against her skin.
The warmth of his touch.
She pressed a hand against her wildly beating heart and fanned her cheeks.
It felt a little hot.
Twenty minutes later.
When Shen Li returned, he had already changed out of his loungewear.
“I need to leave on a business trip soon. I won’t be staying here.”
“You don’t need to worry. I’ve already asked the nanny to come take care of you.”
“I should get going.”
Now dressed in a tailored suit, he looked much more convincing.
Ning Zhiyuan frowned.
“How long will you be gone?”
Shen Li draped his jacket over one arm and headed toward the entrance.
“I’m not sure.”
What a coincidence.
The very day she moved in, he suddenly had a business trip.
And “not sure”?
More like the trip would conveniently end whenever she decided to leave.
If Shen Li left, then what was the point of her moving here?
How was she supposed to keep him from running away?
Just as he reached the door, Shen Li turned back, still worried.
“I already spoke to the nanny about your medicine.”
“You’ll need to avoid certain foods for the next few days and keep your diet light.”
Diet.
Something flashed through her mind.
Ning Zhiyuan immediately clutched her stomach.
“Shen Li, I’m hungry.”
And so—
The man who had supposedly been rushing off to the company.
The man who urgently needed to leave for a business trip.
Was now standing in the kitchen wearing an apron, cooking dinner.
Resting her chin in one hand, Ning Zhiyuan watched him through the glass partition.
His figure moved back and forth amid the kitchen lights.
Her thoughts drifted elsewhere.
They hadn’t always been distant.
When she was little, this older brother who was three years older than her always saved the best food and toys for her.
And Shen Li was handsome.
There was no reason she shouldn’t have liked him.
So when had things changed?
Probably when she was ten years old.
The broken vase.
Back then, she and Bai Xiaoxiao had been visiting the Shen family estate.
While fooling around together, they accidentally knocked over a vase.
Old Master Shen treasured that antique as if it were his life.
Bai Xiaoxiao’s face turned pale from fright.
The old man was famously strict and intimidating.
Both girls were terrified of him.
Ning Zhiyuan still remembered what Bai Cuilan used to say:
Xiaoxiao was frail and needed protection.
Filled with righteous determination, Ning Zhiyuan patted her chest and declared,
“Xiaoxiao, I’ll tell Grandpa Shen that I broke it. Whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility.”
Bai Xiaoxiao immediately suggested another idea.
“Zhiyuan, why don’t you ask Shen Li for help?”
“Wouldn’t that be bad…”
“Shen Li is Grandpa Shen’s biological grandson. He’s family. Surely his words carry more weight than ours. Maybe Grandpa won’t punish him.”
Ning Zhiyuan was convinced.
So she took a lollipop and went looking for Shen Li.
Afterward, she heard that Shen Li had been beaten so badly by his grandfather that he ended up hospitalized.
She used her allowance to buy piles of nutritional supplements.
But she was too afraid of hospitals to deliver them herself.
Bai Xiaoxiao volunteered to help.
She went several times.
Each time, she returned with the gifts untouched.
In the end, she brought back a note.
A note supposedly written by Shen Li.
A declaration that he wanted nothing more to do with her.
Ning Zhiyuan hadn’t believed it at first.
There was no way Shen Li could be that heartless.
Yet after he left the hospital, his attitude toward her changed completely.
He became cold and distant.
Little by little, she started believing the note was real.
As Shen Li grew more and more outstanding, everyone around them inevitably compared the two.
Over time, she found herself disliking him more and more.
Then, years later, Shen Li tried to approach her again.
But by then…
Ning Zhiyuan already hated him.