Under the cold, work-appropriate lighting in the back seat of the luxury car, his long fingers wrapped around her soft hand.
“Yes,” he asked, “why?”
This wasn’t a reflexive grip in a moment of urgency, but an intentional one, holding her hand simply for the sake of holding it.
Song Shuangzhi felt her pulse racing wildly, her throat a little dry.
“Because…” Like a piece of sweet rice cake made from glutinous rice, her voice trembled slightly with nervousness.
“Chief Judge Tan, my hands are very cold.”
【Ahhh! Zhibao, why is your voice so soft and delicate! It’s too sweet!】
【My ears feel like they’re tingling!】
In her mind, the countdown for the hand-holding task ticked away second by second.
Tan Siyan held the documents in one hand and her hand in the other.
He was someone who could skim ten lines at a glance, able to read over a dozen pages in a minute.
Yet until the countdown in Song Shuangzhi’s mind ended, the page in his hand…never turned…
【Task completed! Reward: all the assets of the third male lead!】
Song Shuangzhi frowned. “I don’t want the third male lead to go bankrupt overnight…”
“What’s wrong?”
His gaze was still fixed on the documents.
“Huh?” Song Shuangzhi didn’t understand what he meant.
System: 【He’s asking why you let go of his hand!】
【Ahhh! Holding his wife’s soft, fragrant hand so nicely, and suddenly it slipped away!!】
【Why are her hands so soft? So smooth? Like a swimming fish, slipping away so easily?】
【Wuwuwu, I want to cry! I want to squat under the car and cry!】
“Nothing.”
His gaze fell on her light bud-yellow dress, a strand of long hair resting against her collarbone, her delicate collarbones like fluttering butterflies.
Tan Siyan looked for a few seconds, then pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up for the third time.
The luxury car returned to Litchi Bay, their marital home.
Song Shuangzhi had no idea what she had done to complete so many tasks.
She now possessed the life of the second male lead, the wealth of the third male lead, a pile of completely useless rewards.
Even the task she most resisted, 【Make him slam the door and sever ties with the Tan family for you】, now showed: In progress, with remarkable results.
Song Shuangzhi wasn’t his destined heroine. She was only temporarily holding the position of “Mrs. Tan” for the heroine.
Like a goalkeeper, waiting to be substituted after three months, then she would quietly step down.
If she were truly in love, truly his wife, being protected like this would feel wonderful, but she wasn’t.
It felt like stealing, shamelessly taking something that wasn’t hers…
“Tongbao, why did he defend me earlier?”
【Zhibao, you’re so pretty, who wouldn’t love you? Who would bear to see a clueless, silly little robot like you get bullied?】
“Huh? But shouldn’t he dislike me? I’m the clingy supporting female character, interfering with his work, annoying him…”
【Heh, you don’t understand. When he defended you in front of his mother, it wasn’t for your sake at all!】
【He’s the proud son of heaven, while you’re a daughter-in-law with a sensitive background. By speaking up for you, doesn’t that make your mother-in-law hate you even more?】
【This move is called killing with a borrowed knife. He plays the good guy while making your mother-in-law see you as a thorn in her side!】
Song Shuangzhi glared at him angrily. “Tongbao, you really have sharp insight, the most brilliant system ever! If I didn’t have you, I…”
She paused. “I would’ve been fooled!”
【And holding your hand, do you think it’s because he actually likes you?】
【Heh, it’s because the driver was there! He couldn’t act too cold, or people would gossip!】
Right now, Song Shuangzhi really wanted to complete the 【Step on him】 task!
“I even felt a little touched! I even thought he was handsome…”
【Men are all pigs! CEOs in modern romances are all scumbags!】
“Exactly!”
While she chatted heatedly with the system in her mind, Tan Siyan opened the villa door.
They had married during his overseas assignment. He had only taken one day off to register the marriage, and had never even come to this marital home.
But he remembered the design, a minimalist office-style show house.
Tan Siyin had come once, taken a look, and immediately left, saying:
“It smells more like an office than my actual office.”
The door opened.
On the wall of the three-story living room was an entire display of plush toy dolls.
Fluffy, colorful, countless, with wide mouths and rather ugly expressions.
Like grinning little monsters.
Packed so densely it could trigger trypophobia.
If he remembered correctly, that wall had originally been an abstract painting.
The wooden floors in the design had been covered with soft carpets, and on the table were gently swaying lisianthus and vibrant sunflowers.
The night breeze was soft, and the shell wind chimes by the window rang with a clear, melodic sound.
There was no trace left of the black-and-white minimalist decor he had chosen.
On the large bed in the bedroom, a pink goose-down quilt lay soft and fluffy.
It hadn’t been folded.
【We’re doomed! Is the plot advancing ahead of schedule?】
The system clutched its head and wailed!
【He’s going to discover you’re lazy and messy, completely incompatible with his aesthetic, and he’s allergic to plush toys! He’ll definitely hate you!】
【Future tasks will be a hundred times harder!】
Song Shuangzhi hurried toward the bedroom, at least wanting to fold the quilt…
Tan Siyan felt a faint fragrant breeze rush past him, like a tiny sprite.
By the time Song Shuangzhi reached the bed, the man had already lifted the quilt—
“Meow~” Four little kittens lay underneath, covered by the pink quilt, their tiny paws tucked beside their faces, eight bright eyes blinking up at him.
Tan Siyan’s breath caught.
“Don’t you feel like dying?” Song Shuangzhi grinned.
“Mm.” He was allergic to cat fur.
She picked up a pure white kitten and held it in front of him. “Overwhelmed by cuteness, right~”
Tan Siyan stepped back half a pace, tapping the tip of his nose as he tried to suppress a sneeze.
“Mm.”
Song Shuangzhi asked the system softly, “He doesn’t seem that angry…”
【He’s too deep for you to read so easily. Look, isn’t he about to walk out of your room?】
【He’ll rush to the bathroom, wash his hands like crazy, take a shower, and scrub away all the laziness and mess you brought into this villa!】
“Ah…” Song Shuangzhi sat down helplessly on the bed. The four kittens climbed out of the quilt, some sitting on her head, some on her shoulders.
She looked like a little tree growing four kittens.
The ever-excitable system suddenly shouted again:
【Right! You still have a deadly task unfinished!】
【Step on him!】
【Perfect timing! He’s already taken off all his clothes, go rush into the bathroom now!】
Song Shuangzhi frowned. “I don’t want to. That’s very disrespectful…”
【You’re married! He’s your husband! Tonight you’re supposed to be in bed, thick milk, pan-fried buns, navel oranges!】
Song Shuangzhi didn’t understand at all. “I don’t like eating in bed…”
The system calmed down slightly.
【Oh, right. He won’t. He’ll preserve his chastity for the heroine.】
【So aren’t you, the goalkeeper, wrong? Don’t you want to step on him to vent your anger?】
“Thinking about how much money I’ll have after the divorce…”
【Go now!!!】