Chapter 67

What did she think?

Jiang Chao was clutching the small bag in her arms when she quietly stepped back. In just one step, her back hit something soft.

“!” Her heart lurched so hard it nearly jumped out of her chest. Jiang Chao turned, only to crash straight into Sheng Huaixi’s chin. She gasped at the pain, and tears sprang to her eyes.

“Why do you walk so quietly?” Jiang Chao murmured weakly, rubbing her forehead.

She had no idea when Sheng Huaixi had come up right behind her. The shock of turning around had sent her straight into Sheng Huaixi’s chin.

“Because I was waiting here to catch someone,” Sheng Huaixi said. She reached out, gently pulling Jiang Chao’s hand away from her own forehead, and lowered her gaze to the spot in front of her.

Jiang Chao’s fair skin was far too soft and delicate; even a light bump against Sheng Huaixi’s chin had already left a faint red mark. It was like diluted flower juice—press it too hard, and it would run down between pale fingers.

Sheng Huaixi’s fingertips brushed over it, rubbing lightly and soothingly over the flushed patch.

Their lowered gazes met. Jiang Chao’s eyes were misted with moisture; she really did seem to be hurting from the collision. Sheng Huaixi curved her lips and rubbed the spot a little harder.

“See? Caught you red-handed.”

There was a smile in her voice. Jiang Chao could catch a faint trace of teasing. She lifted her eyes and met a pair of dark, ink-black irises; when Sheng Huaixi looked back, they curved slightly.

Those gently arched brows and eyes stripped away the coolness from her face. The pale, snow-white surface before her seemed to melt quietly. The smile she wore was obvious, nothing like her usual self at all.

She looked beautiful when she smiled.

Jiang Chao dug her fingers into her palm. The moment her heartbeat shot skyward, she quickly took several steps back; the wooden floor thudded in the room’s silence.

The person who had just been rubbing her retreated again and again, leaving only one wrist, pale enough to gleam, suspended in midair.

Sheng Huaixi’s brows drew together slightly. Her eyes darkened; she leaned forward and tapped Jiang Chao lightly in the center of the forehead with bent fingers.

“Running from me?”

She hadn’t even done anything yet, and Jiang Chao was already hiding from her.

Fingers curled into her palm, Sheng Huaixi lowered her gaze and glanced at the distance between them. Jiang Chao was standing with her toes turned inward, swaying a little, wanting to move but not daring to.

“Come on. Let’s tidy up and go soak in the private bath.”

As Sheng Huaixi walked past her, her ears twitched. Hearing the hesitant footsteps behind her after a stunned pause, she slowly led the way with obedient little steps, the corners of her eyes and brows tightening into a silent smile.

That long, drawn-out smile rubbed away every trace of cool indifference from her face. Under the light, the depths of her black pupils seemed to sharpen into something dangerous, tempting people to fall straight into them.

Obsession and delight appeared on the same face at once.

Jiang Chao, completely unaware, followed behind her. After a few steps, the weight of the small bag in her hand became impossible to ignore, and her foggy mind finally cleared.

Wait? Wasn’t she supposed to tell Sheng Huaixi about the room not being what it was advertised to be; about the so-called two-bed suite turning into a parent-child suite?

How had they skipped that entire argument and gone straight to getting ready for a soak?

“Sheng Huaixi, how are we supposed to sleep tonight?”

Jiang Chao hurried forward a few steps until she was beside Sheng Huaixi. She widened her eyes into a round, earnest look and lifted her face to Sheng Huaixi, waiting for a satisfactory answer.

Though Jiang Chao herself couldn’t imagine any answer besides sharing a bed.

“The big bed and the crib. What do you think?”

Sheng Huaixi half-leaned over and bent down to take out the things they would need later from the suitcase; items on the table gradually piled up.

Jiang Chao walked around the big bed once. The white bed was right there in front of her; the pale pillow surface glimmered faintly under her gaze, looking soft and inviting.

After three seconds of silence, Jiang Chao turned without hesitation to look at the crib not far away.

She bent down and sat on it, one calf lifted onto the edge; a stretch of off-white sock slipped past the boundary and hung in the air, swaying as her center of gravity shifted.

A very obvious snort of laughter came from behind her.

Jiang Chao’s ears went red. She turned to glare at Sheng Huaixi, the strands of hair over her shoulder tumbling down her back. Her cheeks puffed up in irritation as she snapped, “What?”

“Mm. I think you’re very cute.”

Sheng Huaixi covered the corner of her mouth with a fist, her smile spreading across both her face and her eyes. Her gaze stayed fixed on Jiang Chao, unblinking.

The room was lit with warm yellow light. Beneath the pale coat, Jiang Chao’s bright eyes rippled with emotion, making her look like a lively little figurine.

The small person sat on the small bed; the little deer hairpin pinned into her hair swayed with the movement of her head, making her look even cuter.

Sheng Huaixi shifted her feet, the urge to walk over and touch Jiang Chao’s head growing stronger and stronger.

Jiang Chao flicked her gaze over, and despite the warmth already creeping into her ears and cheeks from the compliment, her pupils contracted. She decisively called a halt.

“You stay there. Don’t come over.”

Sheng Huaixi stopped. Looking at the wariness on Jiang Chao’s face, she let out a soft sigh.

“I’m kind of regretting the agreement we made before. It’s really not fair to me.”

At the mention of the agreement, the vigilance in Jiang Chao’s eyes deepened. She crossed her wrists in front of her and said sternly, “You agreed to it. It was the result of both of us discussing it.”

It was an agreement that put pressure on both of them; what each side wanted was laid out plainly, making it a fair negotiation in a certain sense.

Jiang Chao had proposed it; the two of them had discussed it; Sheng Huaixi had agreed.

Sheng Huaixi nodded, not denying that she had agreed before.

“I’m only saying I regret it a little. I’m not planning to go back on it.” Sheng Huaixi pinched her fingers together to show just how small that little bit was, her eyes narrowing slightly.

As if she already knew what Jiang Chao would ask next, Sheng Huaixi continued, looking at her with a dark, moody stare. The grievance in her eyes was almost spilling over.

“Because right now you’re treating me like some horrible flood or beast, when all I wanted just now was to walk over and touch your head.”

“How am I...”

Jiang Chao opened her mouth at once to argue, even lifting her arms in a flustered rush. Halfway up, she met Sheng Huaixi’s gaze; it was dark and deep, the resentment in it almost solid.

The rest of her words got stuck in her throat. As if someone had pinched her shut, Jiang Chao quietly pulled her hand back and avoided Sheng Huaixi’s eyes as she stood up.

Her arms hung straight at her sides; even her fingertips were stiff with tension. Jiang Chao lowered her head.

She looked exactly like she’d been made to stand at attention.

Her phone buzzed lightly inside her coat. Sheng Huaixi’s eyes narrowed; her lashes lowered as she glanced at the pocket, and the pleasure in her heart slowly ebbed away.

Taking out her phone, Sheng Huaixi tapped the screen a few times, then lifted her eyes to look at Jiang Chao, who was still standing there as if she were being punished. Her fingers rapped lightly against the back of the phone.

“Do you want to go to the front desk and pick up the wine I had shipped here earlier?”

Jiang Chao looked up at once, her eyes bright. “Okay!”

As if afraid Sheng Huaixi might change her mind, Jiang Chao agreed and, the very next second, dashed straight for the door, disappearing with startling speed.

“Ran off so fast...” Sheng Huaixi watched her back vanish and murmured softly, her voice drifting lightly through the room.

She stood there for a long while. Then Sheng Huaixi lowered her gaze, and a faint, eerie light flashed at the bottom of her eyes as the darkness spread deeper and deeper into her pupils.

Her tongue swept across the roof of her mouth. Thinking about what might happen later, Sheng Huaixi’s breath trembled with excitement; hot air slipped out between her lips.

She placed a call, and Sheng Huaixi’s low voice rang coldly through the room.

“She’s gone out. Get ready. Tell her what I told you before.”

“Remember, the parts marked in red—say them a little more pitifully.”

Her poor little side of the story. Jiang Chao needed to know it.