“Baby, didn’t we agree I’d buy a new mattress as soon as I got paid tomorrow…?”
“Baby, are you feeling unwell? Let me take a look…”
Huo Yan’s voice was exceptionally gentle as his fingertips brushed the stray hairs from Jiang Li’s face.
The desire still roiling in his eyes had yet to fade, and he could only force it down.
This was exactly how Huo Yan had treated the original host in the novel.
He indulged her in everything, as if he would gladly tear out his heart and give it to her.
“I don’t need you to look. I said I’m not in the mood. Can’t you understand?” Jiang Li could feel his frantic heartbeat beneath her hand.
“…All right. We won’t do it. I’ll go heat some water for your bath.” He swung his legs out of bed and stepped barefoot onto the concrete floor.
He bent down, picked up the tank top he’d just tossed aside, and slipped it on.
At this reaction, Jiang Li couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him.
What kind of public image had the original host cultivated?
She was vain, materialistic, fond of good food, and lazy. She’d dated Huo Yan purely because he was handsome and could make her look good in front of her girlfriends.
In the original novel, she was nothing more than a cannon-fodder character.
If she was leaving with a rich second-generation heir today, she must have already packed her things.
Jiang Li surveyed the room.
The bedroom was barely over ten square meters, and the double bed took up almost half of it.
Cosmetics were piled on the bedside table, all cheap, no-name brands.
Most of the bottles and jars were nearly empty.
An old suitcase sat open in the corner, with a few dresses stuffed inside.
A well-thumbed fashion magazine lay beside the bed.
By the time Huo Yan returned with a glass of water, Jiang Li had looked away from the suitcase.
“Baby, have some water first.” He held the glass out to her.
Condensation on the glass trickled down onto the back of Jiang Li’s hand.
Huo Yan stood by the bed, his body blocking most of the light.
He bent down and laid his fingertip against the back of her hand, slowly wiping away the drop.
His gaze didn’t linger on Jiang Li’s face.
Following his eyes, she saw what he was looking at.
The suitcase.
“Baby, where are you planning to go? Are you getting ready to leave me?”
Huo Yan spoke very slowly.
Then his gaze returned to Jiang Li’s face.
“Where would I go? Where else could I go? Huo Yan, are you blind? Look at those awful clothes—they’re completely out of style!”
Jiang Li kicked him in the leg.
“The fabric is scratchy, too. That dress I wore today rubbed my back raw.”
Huo Yan didn’t dodge. He took the kick full on.
“Really?” Huo Yan asked, sounding disbelieving.
“Of course! I was planning to throw them all out tomorrow. Just looking at them annoys me. Huo Yan, did you think I was going to run off with this pile of junk?” Jiang Li rolled her eyes and pointed at the suitcase.
Huo Yan said nothing. He turned and walked over to the corner.
Crouching in front of the suitcase, he pulled out the red dress.
The fabric was cheap, and the stitching was rough.
“What about these lipsticks? You don’t want them either?” Huo Yan asked with his back to her.
“I don’t! Those colors are horribly tacky. My girlfriends would laugh at me if I wore them out.”
Jiang Li leaned against the headboard, arms crossed, putting on a show of absolute confidence.
“I don’t care. You’re getting paid tomorrow, so you have to take me shopping for new ones.”
Huo Yan turned his head. “Baby, I might not have that much…”
The rental apartment was dim, and half his face was hidden in shadow.
“What’s wrong? If you can’t even afford to buy me a few clothes, what are you doing dating me?”
Jiang Li gave a cold snort and irritably clawed at the pillow.
“Huo Yan, if you can’t afford it, just say so. Plenty of people are lined up to buy things for me.”
Huo Yan stood up and tossed the red dress back into the suitcase.
“Baby, I’m sorry. I’ll buy them for you… After work tomorrow, I’ll go deliver takeout…”
Huo Yan returned to the bedside, crouched down, and stared at Jiang Li.
Who could withstand that?
“…What are you looking at?”
Jiang Li pulled the quilt over herself, covering half her face and leaving only her eyes visible.
“Baby, you said your back was rubbed raw. Let me see.”
Huo Yan raised a hand, hooked his index finger around the one she had curled into the edge of the quilt, and gently tugged.
“Don’t look!”
“I’ll only take one look. I’m worried it still hurts…”
Huo Yan’s voice remained as gentle as ever. His hand, holding hers, was already sliding up along the quilt.
The rough calluses from his manual labor grazed her wrist, hot and ticklish.
“Huo Yan, what’s wrong with you? I said I’m fine. Why do you have to look? Do you think I’m not ugly enough already?”
Jiang Li slapped the back of his hand with her other hand.
After Huo Yan was slapped, he let out a low laugh instead.
There was something in it that Jiang Li couldn’t understand.
“…Ugly?”
He repeated the word, let go of her wrist, and stretched his long arm out to brace it against the wall above the head of the bed.
Jiang Li was trapped between the wall and his chest, with nowhere to retreat.
“There isn’t an ugly part on your body, Baby… I told you that last time I put ointment on that spot.”
As he said it, his breath brushed over her face.
What did he mean?
What did he mean?
What kind of outrageous thing was that to say?
The original novel hadn’t mentioned anything like this…
Jiang Li’s ears began to burn.
Huo Yan was still looking at her, his gaze moving from her brow to the bridge of her nose, then to her lips, before finally settling on her slightly open neckline.
The pitiful scrap of fabric there barely covered anything.
Streetlight shone in through the window, making the line of her collarbones especially clear.
His gaze made Jiang Li feel uncomfortable all over. She instinctively tried to pull the quilt up.
But he had it pinned down, and she couldn’t pull it free.
“…Have you looked enough? Huo Yan, if you’re worked up, go take a few more cold showers!”
Jiang Li tipped up her chin, playing the original host’s sharp-tongued, mean-spirited act to perfection.
As soon as she finished speaking, the phone under the pillow rang.
A shrill pop song blared through the room.
Huo Yan looked toward the sound.
“Baby, answer it.”
Jiang Li pulled the phone out from under the pillow and checked the name on the screen.
The rich guy had certainly called at the right time.
Should she answer or not?
If she didn’t, she’d look guilty.
But if she did, what if that rich guy started spewing garbage…
“Who’s calling you this late?” Huo Yan asked, looking at the name on the screen.
He already knew.
“So annoying!” Jiang Li swiped her finger and answered, switching on speakerphone as she did.
Whatever. If she was going down, she was going down.
“Hey, baby, how’s the packing going?”
“Your big brother’s about to drive his Maybach to that urban village to pick you up. Hurry up and dump that poor construction worker, then come with me. I’ll make sure you live the high life.”
An oily voice came through the phone.
“A Maybach? You rented it, didn’t you?” Jiang Li sneered at the phone.
“Baby, what did you say?” The caller fell silent in surprise.
“I said you’re poor, so quit pretending to be rich. With what little money you have, how many limited-edition handbags could you buy me? How many cosmetic procedures could I afford? And you think I’m going to live the high life with you?”
“Last week, when you took me out for Western food, you wouldn’t even pay the service charge. You’re that stingy, and you think you can keep me? Who do you think you are?!”
Jiang Li launched straight into a tirade.
“Hmph, you called my boyfriend poor? He may be poor, but he’s handsome! He has an eight-pack. Do you?”
“What do you have besides that one lump of fat on your belly? And you think you can keep me? You disgust me!”
“Get lost, and stay away from me! If you dare keep pestering me, I’ll have my boyfriend beat your dog’s head in!”
Jiang Li hung up without hesitation, blocked the number, and deleted it.
She tossed the phone onto the bed, pointed at Huo Yan, and started yelling.
“Hmph! If you weren’t so useless, would I have to put up with a toad like that bothering me?”