“Huh?” Song Shuangzhi froze.
Tan Siyan reached out his hand.
With a whoosh, Song Shuangzhi dropped into a crouch, clutching her head, her whole body trembling.
“Sorry, I’m sorry, Chief Judge, I… I’m blind…”
Tan Siyan: …
System: 【The male lead doesn’t seem to be trying to hit you, he just wanted to brush the hair away from the corner of your mouth…】
【Oh! Despair, you actually missed a chance for intimate interaction!】
Song Shuangzhi looked up in surprise, but Tan Siyan had already withdrawn his hand. “Come to my office.”
Dejected, Song Shuangzhi followed behind him.
The colleagues around her, along with the classmates who had come to intern together, all seemed to carry a kind of silent, mournful air… as if they were seeing her off.
【Tongbao, have you ever attended your own farewell ceremony?】
System: 【Zhibao, it’s fine! Trust me, even if the male lead is cold and inhuman, he absolutely won’t break the law, so he definitely won’t do something like killing you!】
A faint sense of impending doom spread through Song Shuangzhi’s chest.
A domineering CEO usually comes with half a criminal code, doesn’t he? And now she was relying on the male lead’s moral bottom line just to stay alive…
“Sit.”
Tan Siyan gestured toward the chair beside him.
Song Shuangzhi didn’t dare.
“Song Shuangzhi, sit down.” He crossed his long legs. “I don’t like talking to people while looking up.”
“Oh…”
Tan Siyan’s deep gaze swept over the top of her head as he stood and rummaged through the cabinet.
Aside from files and coffee, there was nothing inside. He lowered his head and sent a message to his assistant before sitting down again.
“Before and after our marriage, I hardly showed up. I’m sorry, that was my fault.”
“But the International Court has been very busy lately. You know many countries aren’t very peaceful right now, and we deal with too many matters every day.”
“There’s a seven-hour time difference between The Hague and here. By the time I finish my work, you’re probably already asleep, so I didn’t disturb you.”
Song Shuangzhi was stunned. He was…
System: 【Zhibao! Zhibao! The male lead is explaining things to you! He thinks you stepping on him was you throwing a tantrum and expressing dissatisfaction!】
【He’s reflecting on himself! He thinks you’re upset because he doesn’t come home enough and hasn’t cared about you!】
【Ahhh! I told you I’m a sweet romance system! I’m shipping this!!!】
Song Shuangzhi was completely dazed by the system’s chatter.
Tan Siyan was the youngest genius in the legal world. He had earned his doctorate at twenty-five and become a high-ranking judge. This year, he was directly assigned abroad, becoming the only force from China in the International Court.
Stationed in The Hague, Netherlands, for a nine-year term. This month was his annual leave, and after the New Year, he would have to hurry back.
“Mm…” Song Shuangzhi’s silence and dazed expression left him somewhat at a loss. He had always been sparing with words.
“I… haven’t done enough. Don’t be angry. In the future, if there’s anything you think I can do to make you happier, just tell me.”
Song Shuangzhi frowned. Since when were high-ranking judges this easy to talk to?
System: 【✿✿ヽ(°▽°)ノ✿ He loves you! This is his reserved, unspoken love!】
Song Shuangzhi quickly shook her head. She didn’t dare make any demands. She only hoped to finish her role as “his wife” and, with luck, close her eyes and open them again back in her own world.
“Then I’ll go first…” Song Shuangzhi stood up. As long as he was around, the air felt suffocating.
“Wait a little longer.” Tan Siyan glanced at his watch.
Song Shuangzhi didn’t dare disobey. Whatever he said, she followed obediently. “Oh.”
“If you’re bored, read a book.” Tan Siyan tossed her a copy of the Constitution.
“Okay.”
“Do you… want something to drink?”
He looked rather tired. He wasn’t good at interacting with women, nor at showing attentiveness, yet for some reason, he didn’t seem to want her to leave…
The system rolled around wildly in her mind:
【He’s fallen for you! He can’t bear to let you go! He wants to extend every moment with you infinitely! Zhibao!!! I knew it, with your soft and cute looks, how could you just be a brainless supporting female character!】
Song Shuangzhi was practically immune to the system by now.
Tan Siyan’s calm voice sounded again. “What do you like to drink?”
【Thick milk! Thick milk! I love thick milk! I also want biscuits!】
In Song Shuangzhi’s mind, the glowing task—
【Thick Milk (Incomplete)】—sparkled brightly.
Her brain short-circuited. “Thick milk…”
Standing before his cabinet, looking at the countless folders, Tan Siyan pushed up his glasses with one hand.
Song Shuangzhi glanced at the cabinet. There was only a bag of coffee beans.
“Oh, it’s fine, I’m not thirsty.”
Tan Siyan placed a cup under the coffee machine.
Afraid of troubling him, Song Shuangzhi hurried to refuse, like a child visiting unfamiliar relatives during the New Year.
“I don’t like black coffee, it’s sour and bitter… you really don’t have to trouble yourself…” She stood up and stopped the grinding mode on the coffee machine.
“I’m thirsty.” His voice was light, emotionless.
Song Shuangzhi wished she could dig a hole and crawl into it.
【Thirsty? Does he want to drink his wife?】
【Zhibao, ask him if he wants your water!】
【Feed him!】
【Sit on his nose and slide down!】
The system’s self-amusement was mistaken by Song Shuangzhi as a task, and this one actually sounded quite proper.
Much easier than stepping on him!
And getting him to drink coconut milk or eat pan-fried buns sounded simple enough too!
She cleared her throat, tilted her head, and asked seriously,
“Chief Judge Tan, do you want to drink my water?”
System: 【Ahhhhh ε＝ε＝ε＝(#＞д＜)ﾉ】 screaming wildly!
Tan Siyan lowered his gaze. Her fair, delicate little face, those moist, deer-like eyes, her features vivid and soft like a kitten.
She looked completely earnest, as if her fluffy hair hid a pair of soft little ears.
When she asked questions, those ears seemed to droop.
When she was called “Song Shuangzhi,” they seemed to perk up.
He hadn’t been very thirsty.
But now, he did want to drink…
Her water.
“Mm.”
“I’ll go get it!” Song Shuangzhi bounced back to her workstation, grabbed her pink water bottle, and rushed back!
“Tan—”
His office was already empty.
“Oh, Director Liang called Chief Judge Tan away for something,” his assistant stood at the door, holding three large bags of snacks—cookies, gummy candies, konjac snacks, little cakes…
“Here.”
“Huh?”
The assistant said, “Chief Judge Tan asked me to buy snacks that kids like. Did the orphanage director come? Help me deliver these to the children.”
“Oh, okay.”
The assistant smiled and rubbed her head.
“Why are you so well-behaved? Like a little robot.”
“I’m not…”
The assistant left as well.
After Song Shuangzhi delivered the snacks to the orphanage, her best friend Tan Siyin dragged her away.
“Zhibao, I just remembered! It’s my mom’s birthday today, hurry and help me pick a gift!”
“Here.”
Song Shuangzhi directly took out a gift box from her pocket.
“You prepared it in advance? And even helped me prepare one!!!”
“You’re always careless, of course you’d forget,” she said. “I attend Auntie’s birthday every year, I won’t forget.”
“Ah, Zhibao, you’re the best! Love you!” Tan Siyin pulled her along. “Come on, let’s go home together!”
Both girls were law students in their third year, interning at the Supreme Procuratorate.
As they stepped out of the main gate, the smile on Tan Siyin’s face faded.
“What bad luck, running into my inhuman older brother the moment we step out!”
Tan Siyan stood by a luxury car in the parking lot, wearing a coat. Beside him was Dr. Chuchu, the doctor who had been kidnapped by a murderer.
Tan Siyin’s phone rang, and she stepped aside to take the call.
Song Shuangzhi looked at the man and woman in the parking lot, feeling a surge of excitement.
“Tongbao, the heroine is here?”
“The days where I split half his fortune, wore ten diamond rings, and spent nights crying with eighteen male models…”
“Finally here!”