Shen Qi lowered her head and met He Yining's deep, phoenix-like eyes.
He Yining's face revealed no expression.
Shen Qi's hand trembled, and she instinctively let go.
The moment she released her grip, Shen Qi fell backward.
In that instant, He Yining suddenly reached out, wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her firmly back against his chest.
Feeling the warmth and strength at her waist, Shen Qi was utterly terrified.
"S-sorry... I didn't mean to..." Shen Qi blinked, unsure how to explain.
Damn it, she wanted to explain, but how could she?
"Not ready to get down yet?" He Yining's phoenix eyes grew even deeper, though his tone remained light. "How long do you plan to stay on me?"
Shen Qi snapped back to reality, quickly released her legs, and landed on the ground.
The moment her feet touched the ground, her legs went weak.
Oh my god, what had she done today...
Just then, Mo Ge laughed, wiping tears from his eyes, and said, "Yining, your wife here is really something to behold..."
Shen Qi was so embarrassed she wished she could crawl into a hole.
Great, she had made a complete fool of herself today.
"I'm sorry, I've never seen a goose lay an egg before. I watched it struggle for so long without success, so I thought I'd help it out." Shen Qi's explanation only made things worse, and Mo Ge doubled over with laughter again.
Shen Qi regretted it even more, wishing she could just disappear.
He Yining suppressed a smile and said, "Alright, this is the egg you risked your life to get. Take good care of it."
He placed the egg, still warm from his body, back into Shen Qi's hands and turned to leave.
Shen Qi opened her mouth, glanced at the people around her still laughing, then lowered her head, clutched the egg, and slunk back into the house.
For the rest of the afternoon, Shen Qi refused to go out. She sat on the balcony with a cushion, gazing at the mountain scenery.
Listening to music through her earphones, holding a tablet to browse the internet, and letting the mountain breeze blow over her—if she could just forget her earlier embarrassment, it would have been a lovely experience.
Shen Qi had no intention of asking or knowing why He Yining had come today.
So hiding here was the most comfortable option.
Her brother's computer skills were getting better and better. Every time Shen Qi checked her email, she found a little video he had recorded for her.
Shen Qi also recorded a video of herself on her tablet and sent it to Shen Lu.
The moment the email was sent, Shen Lu immediately replied with a string of code.
Shen Qi rubbed her temples in frustration. Ever since her brother had read Zhan Bo's hacking books, he seemed obsessed with code.
Shen Qi sent another video, telling Shen Lu to reply in Chinese characters, not code.
So Shen Lu obediently wrote a string of Chinese characters as she requested.
Just then, Xiao Chun came over to greet her: "Miss Shen, the CEO requests your presence."
Shen Qi nodded at Xiao Chun. "Alright, I'll be right there."
After quickly reassuring Shen Lu, she closed her email and went to find He Yining.
What could he want? To style her now? That didn't seem necessary, did it?
Shen Qi raised her hand to knock. He Yining, without looking up, said, "Come in."
Shen Qi entered nervously and greeted him, "President He, you wanted to see me?"
He Yining pointed to a chair, and Shen Qi obediently sat down, waiting for instructions.
He Yining's fingers flew across the keyboard. After a full ten minutes, he hit the enter key and stopped.
Shen Qi's heart was pounding. Was he planning to settle scores with her?
That made sense. She had been acting foolish since yesterday.
Last night, she had forcefully kissed him, and he hadn't confronted her about it yet.
Today, she had been chased by a goose and ended up climbing all over him...
Had her IQ always been this low?
Why did she keep messing up whenever she ran into him?
"Shen Qi." He Yining spoke softly. That magnetic voice, just saying her name, was enough to drive countless women wild.
Unfortunately, Shen Qi wasn't one of them.
She was still uneasy.
"Huh..." Shen Qi stared blankly at He Yining, wondering how she would defend herself if he wanted to settle accounts.
But before she could finish her internal monologue, He Yining suddenly asked, "You said you studied aesthetics?"
Shen Qi replied dazedly, "Yeah..."
What did settling accounts have to do with aesthetics?
Was he going to settle things in an aesthetic way?
"Come take a look at this." He Yining pushed his laptop toward her, the screen facing her.
Shen Qi quickly went over and looked down.
Huh? Wasn't this an 18th-century Russian-style architectural design with embossed columns and Roman elements?
What was he doing with this design?
Although Shen Qi hadn't studied architecture, she immediately spotted a flaw and pointed to a spot. "This feels off. If you remove a Roman column here, add a corner door there, and put a dome roof over here, it would look better. 18th-century Russian architecture has some differences from French Roman architecture, mostly in these areas."
He Yining immediately made the adjustments she suggested.
Sure enough, the design looked much more cohesive.
Shen Qi couldn't help asking, "Did you study architecture?"
"Finance and management," He Yining replied. "I used to live in Princeton."
Shen Qi opened her mouth. Well, she hadn't asked.
"This is a design for Mo Ge. These houses are temporary; eventually, they'll be torn down to build a larger castle," He Yining explained.
Shen Qi thought to herself, Why is he telling me all this? Is he explaining himself to me?
Just then, someone knocked on the door. "President He, Miss Shen, the room is ready. Would you like to take a look?"
He Yining saved the design and said, "Let's go check how the room is prepared."
Shen Qi glanced at the houses around her. This time, there was no worry about a shortage of rooms, right? There were so many!
Shen Qi swung her arms casually and followed He Yining to a nearby room.
The room was stunningly beautiful.
It was a typical one-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, one-bathroom layout, with gauze curtains blocking the view. There were no other buildings nearby, ensuring privacy.
After looking around, Shen Qi couldn't help asking, "And my room? Where am I staying tonight?"
The person showing them around looked puzzled and replied, "You're a married couple, so of course you'll stay together!"
Married couple...
Couple...
Shen Qi shot a panicked glance at He Yining.
No way!
He Yining, please explain!