Qin Fanjing carried Yu Xi into the car, but she remained deeply unsettled. Still trapped in a state of shock, she kept burrowing into his arms, seeking comfort and a place of refuge.
Yu Xi clung to him, even straddling his lap, refusing to budge no matter how hard he tried to push her away.
Qin Fanjing had no choice but to lower the partition screen in the back seat. Giving up his resistance, he let her collapse against his chest.
If she had only been lying there, it would have been fine, but Yu Xi’s tears wouldn't stop, soaking his shirt. Qin Fanjing endured it until he could no longer hold back. "Stop crying."
"Waaaah, you’re yelling at me! Qin Fanjing, you’re yelling at me!"
"Shut up."
"Waaaah, I’m already having such a miserable time, and you’re still yelling at me."
The noise made the veins in Qin Fanjing’s forehead throb. "If you don’t shut up, I’m going to throw you out."
In response, Yu Xi sank her teeth into his shoulder.
"Let go!"
Qin Fanjing gripped her jaw to force her to release him, but Yu Xi refused, grabbing his wrists and struggling with all her might.
The car, which had been moving smoothly, suddenly braked hard. The inertia sent Yu Xi recoiling, and Qin Fanjing instinctively reached out to wrap an arm around her waist. His grip on her jaw slackened, and as she broke free, she lunged and bit down on his lips.
It wasn’t a heavy bite, but it sent a jolt through his senses. His body stiffened abruptly, and his breathing grew heavy.
The perpetrator, however, seemed entirely oblivious, even brimming with curiosity. "So soft. Qin Fanjing, did you bring soft candy with you? It tastes so good."
"I never had candy when I was a child. Every time I saw someone else with candy, I felt so envious."
"You know? When I first found you, I really wanted to claim you as my own."
"You are truly beautiful," Yu Xi murmured, pulling away from his lips to trace his features with her hand. "I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you."
"I want so much to eat you up, so that you would belong to me."
"But you rescued me from those mountains."
"I can’t bear to eat you.""You were the piece of candy I wanted when I was a child."
"I can't help liking you, I can't help wanting to be close to you."
"How can you be so soft?"
"Are you an immortal who descended from the heavens?"
"Their hands were so filthy when they grabbed me, please purify me, my immortal..."
As she babbled on with increasingly outrageous nonsense, Qin Fanjing's face remained frosty. He pulled down the hands that were wreaking havoc on his face, wrapped one arm around her waist, and pressed her firmly into his embrace, exasperated yet helpless. "Don't move."
[Ding, male lead's romantic roots progress at 30%.]
The prompt chimed. Yu Xi had also grown tired of acting up; her struggles subsided, and she nestled quietly in Qin Fanjing's arms, closing her eyes.
...
Sleeping until the sun was high in the sky, Yu Xi finally opened her eyes.
It was an unfamiliar room, simply and understatedly decorated, dominated by dark tones.
Rubbing her still somewhat dazed head, Yu Xi pushed back the blanket and got out of bed.
Although she hadn't been completely drunk yesterday, she had consumed a lot of alcohol, and the lingering fatigue of a hangover still weighed on her body.
Opening the bedroom door, Yu Xi instantly spotted Qin Fanjing sitting on the sofa working.
Unlike his usual tailored suits, Qin Fanjing was wearing a grey-and-white casual outfit, and his black hair wasn't styled back, falling softly across his forehead.
"You're awake?"
Yu Xi nodded, sitting sideways beside Qin Fanjing with her arm resting on the back of the sofa. "Is this your place?"
"Mm."
"Why am I here?"
Qin Fanjing shot her a side-long glance, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. "You picked my lock in the middle of the night."
"?"
"And crawled into my bed."
"?"
"And kissed me."
Yu Xi felt this conversation sounded vaguely familiar, but she truly never expected these words to come out of the mouth of Qin Fanjing—the man whose life seemed to depend on sparing extra words. "Did someone take over your body?"
"Not planning to take responsibility?""I must still be drunk." Yu Xi rubbed her face, trying to shake off the haze. "How could I dream of the God of Wealth?"
Qin Fanjing laughed in annoyance.
His smile was captivating enough to dazzle Yu Xi.
He slowly raised his hand and beckoned with a hooked finger. "Come here."
Yu Xi leaned forward obediently, resting her chin in his palm and nuzzling against it like a well-behaved cat.
"Yu Xi."
"Hmm?"
"What do you want?"
Confused, Yu Xi tentatively replied, "Money?"
"Anything else?"
"Money."
"Besides money."
"A young, handsome man?"
Qin Fanjing watched her, his deep eyes like a pool of still water, concealing every ripple, his expression unreadable.
Yu Xi swallowed hard. "God of Wealth, I heard you have a fiancée."
"Hmm?" Qin Fanjing extended his thumb to stroke her chin, as if touching a piece of fine jade.
"You have a fiancée—isn't this inappropriate?"
"Yu Xi, you were the one who provoked me first."
"I did no such thing, I didn't!" Yu Xi suddenly straightened up and held up three fingers. "The God of Wealth is my bread and butter, my benefactor in life. I hold only reverence for you, absolutely no intention of desecrating our relationship."
Qin Fanjing looked at the three fingers she held up—fair and slender—the same fingers that had behaved so wantonly on his face. She was the one who caused the trouble, and now she was the one trying to deny it.
"I heard you took money from Li Zhi yesterday."
"I did. He asked me to accompany him to a dinner party."
"And if I hadn't appeared yesterday?"
Yu Xi blinked in surprise. "You were there yesterday?"
"..."
"So you were there, and when you ran into me, you brought me back?"
"..."
"So I didn't pick the lock or crawl into your bed—you brought me back yourself! God of Wealth, you're not being honest. You're lying."
Yu Xi laughed as she analyzed the situation, her face beaming with the smugness of having uncovered the truth, completely unaware of Qin Fanjing’s darkening expression and the rhythmic cracking of his knuckles.
In the end, she even asked, "God of Wealth, did you see Li Zhi yesterday? He still owes me money. Do you have his contact information?"
"Ha."
Only then did Yu Xi realize that Qin Fanjing’s face looked terrible. "God of Wealth, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
She reached out to touch his forehead, checking his temperature with a serious expression.
Qin Fanjing pushed her hand away, closed the laptop on his lap, and stood up abruptly. He feared that if he looked at her for another second, he wouldn't be able to resist the urge to throttle her.
The reason Li Zhi had taken her to that dinner party was because of him—Qin Fanjing. The people at that table were all companies competing for the Qin family’s West City project, and Li Zhi’s Chenjie Enterprise was among them.
Having keenly sensed his interest in Yu Xi, Li Zhi had used her to bait the other companies into offending him. With the competition eliminated, Chenjie Enterprise would be able to secure the project easily.
He had indeed rejected the other companies, and not just that—he had no intention of letting any of those on the list off the hook.
And here she was, heartless and oblivious.
As the study door slammed shut, Yu Xi’s smile faded, and she fell into thought.
[Host, is the male lead intending to make things official?]
Yu Xi: Perhaps he really does want to keep a canary.
[Then why didn't you agree to him?]
Yu Xi: With only a 30% affection rating, he at most finds me a bit more interesting than others. I have to wait until it reaches 50% at least.
[The host is truly a master of strategy.]
Yu Xi: Give me Li Zhi’s contact information.
That’s eighty thousand yuan we’re talking about.