No one answered. An Ruo gently pushed the door open, and the man was still sitting by the window, lost in thought.
Sometimes An Ruo felt sorry for him. Every time he sat by the window for hours, unable to see the beautiful ocean view.
She came over with a tray: "Master Shen, I made you some small cakes. They smell really good." She bit her lower lip. "Could you do me the favor and try one?"
The man remained unmoved. She set the tray on the side table, picked one up, and held it to his lips: "Just try it. I worked on this recipe many times before getting it right. Open up, ah... give it a taste, don't be so ungracious."
Shen Xiaoxing turned his face away. Sunlight hit his pitch-black eyes, making them transparent like glass marbles, but the hollow sockets looked terrifying.
"They're really quite good..."
The man kept his jaw tightly shut, showing no grace at all.
An Ruo had never met such a stubborn man. He was impervious to reason, and neither soft nor hard tactics worked.
How could there be such a difficult person in this world!
"Fine, if you won't eat, I won't force you." An Ruo sat on the sofa stool nearby. "Master Shen, do you really hate me that much?"
He always gave her that cold expression.
The man's fingers twitched slightly. Hate?
Setting aside that face, he just found this woman annoyingly clumsy and noisy, yet he could never figure out why he couldn't bring himself to hate her.
He didn't eat because... for years, he had suppressed his nature, afraid to reveal his preferences.
"I know you hate me, but I can't help it either. A marriage alliance between two families isn't something you can just divorce from." An Ruo glanced at him and pursed her lips. "Anyway, the agreement is only for three years. After three years, whether your legs recover or not, I'll leave, and I promise I won't cling to you."
"..."
"So please bear with it for now, Master Shen. Endure these three years, and we'll both be free."
For some reason, when she said this, it grated on Shen Xiaoxing's ears, and somewhere in his heart, he felt a sense of resistance.
But he said coldly, "You'd better remember what you said today."
An Ruo silently snorted, rolling her eyes at him, making faces, and sticking out her tongue.
What's with the arrogance? So what if he's the eldest son of the Shen family? He just got lucky in the birth lottery.
His peripheral vision caught all her antics.
He said coldly, "Cursing me in your head?"
"No." An Ruo instinctively denied it, raising an eyebrow. "Can you hear what I'm cursing in my mind?"
The man snorted, and An Ruo pouted. So annoying.
---
At night, the ocean-view villa under the cold night was shrouded in a persistent mist.
An Ruo tirelessly helped the man bathe. His eyes were bad, so he wore a protective eye mask against strong light, lounging in the bathtub like a lord.
And she was like a maid scrubbing him down!
The lights were dim, and Shen Xiaoxing watched the girl's shy and angry expression with interest, several times wanting to smirk but forcing himself to hold back.
He could see. The eye mask was made of a special material that allowed the wearer to see everything clearly.
In short, it was like wearing nothing at all.
So he saw every one of her embarrassed expressions clearly.
An Ruo casually tied up her hair, wanting to finish washing him quickly so she could relax and attend to her own matters.
The water rippled as her hands rubbed in the tub. Lost in thought, she slipped and touched the man's forbidden area. Her wrist was instantly caught in a strong grip.
Startled, she looked at him in confusion.
The man's voice was slightly hoarse. "Scrub my back."
An Ruo gave him a faint glance. So demanding!
She knelt on the ground to wash his back. Since she was behind him, she couldn't see Shen Xiaoxing's face, unaware of what he was suppressing, his prominent Adam's apple bobbing fiercely.
Bored, An Ruo lathered his hair with foam and deliberately shaped it into various styles.
A Chibi Maruko-chan, hmm... then a Nezha look, and a mohawk.
An Ruo could barely hold it in and finally burst out laughing.
The man said darkly, "What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing..." An Ruo said. "Just thought of a joke."
This man had a cold personality; he definitely wouldn't ask what the joke was.
If she made him laugh, his aloof persona would be ruined.
"Tell me."
An Ruo: "..."
Bro, your aloofness just hit the floor. Do you want it back?
"Uh..." An Ruo forced a smile. "Master Shen, you're so aloof, you wouldn't be interested in such a corny joke."
"I want to hear it."
"..."
An Ruo had to rack her brain, remembering a joke Chen Keqiao once told her.
A school had just started, and the teacher was handing out notebooks by calling names. Whoever was called went up to get theirs.
At one point, the teacher called out: "Yellow Belly! Yellow Belly!" After several calls with no answer, the teacher skipped it.
When the teacher finished and asked, "Is there anyone left who hasn't been called?"
A girl raised her hand. The teacher asked, "What's your name?"
The girl timidly replied, "My name is Huang Yuepo..."
This was one of those internet jokes Chen Keqiao had found to make her laugh, and it had worked.
Now telling it again, recalling Chen Keqiao's animated expression, she laughed again: "Hahaha."
The bathroom echoed with her pleasant laughter, but the man remained cold. An Ruo's smile faded, and she suddenly felt like an idiot.