Letting another person move into the home that had once belonged only to himself and to her… was it truly only because he was short on money? Or was it that, with time, his heart had finally begun to thaw a little… Or was it that, having been alone so long, some part of him had always longed for someone to talk to, someone to keep him company.
And the change in his heart, he faintly sensed, had quietly begun the day Guoguo appeared.
Then let it take its course. Follow the longing in my own heart, accept what comes, and look forward to it. She wanted me to be happy always, never to be alone again… So even now that she’s gone, I shouldn’t become what I once was — a walking corpse, silent and hollow, able to vent only in another world…
“Master, lollipops, lollipops…”
Guoguo’s voice had gone feeble, as weak as if she’d only just woken up. Ever since Su Feifei walked through the door, she had been chanting the name “lollipop”… and was chanting it still. Truly a terrifying kind of persistence. Ye Tianxie had held out against her voice all this while.
“Just a little longer. Once that lot leaves, there’ll be lollipops to eat.” Ye Tianxie explained once again.
Guoguo’s eyes glimmered, brimming with water, ready to spill over at any moment. From their time together, Ye Tianxie had learned one thing for certain: this little thing’s tears were extraordinarily cheap, and could come flooding out at the slightest provocation.
“Ah — the daughter of Asia’s richest man. What an irresistible temptation… A pity.” Ye Tianxie murmured to himself, gazing ahead. Having known the sea, no other water is worth the name; having seen the clouds of Wu Mountain, no other clouds will do. He had once had a true fairy — and so no mortal woman could stir his heart any longer. If he had to name one, then to this day there was only her, the one they called “the most perfect woman in Huaxia”…
The one who ranked eldest among the four of them, the one even he addressed, in all seriousness, as “Big Sister.”
Ye Tianxie had no interest in listening to whatever Su Luo would say to Su Feifei; he could guess the gist of it without hearing. Between his silent thinking and Guoguo’s astonishingly persistent campaign of pitifulness, time slipped quickly by, and the sun outside shifted through no small angle. At last Ye Tianxie lost patience, raised his left hand, and pressed a finger to the black wristband…
“Ding… To protect your body from unexpected injury while in the game, please adjust your posture to sitting or lying down. Lying down is recommended.”
The world before him didn’t change; instead, an electronically modulated female voice came from the game device on his wrist. Ye Tianxie pursed his lips helplessly and turned to head downstairs — and just then, a click-click-click of high heels on the floor came toward him, and before long Su Feifei’s radiant face appeared in his line of sight.
Very often, the speed at which women change their faces leaves men caught off guard, if not outright dumbstruck. Su Feifei’s face was now full of delight, without a single trace of the girl who had sat hugging her shoulders and weeping bitterly not long before. She came bounding up to Ye Tianxie almost skipping and beamed at him. “Wow! Tianxie, you’re amazing… My dad not only agreed to let me live here from now on, he’s pulling all those annoying bodyguards away too. He said you’ll definitely be able to keep me safe, that I won’t have to worry or be afraid wherever I go, day or night… And my dad is not a man who trusts people easily! How did you convince him?”
“My surname is Ye.” Being addressed directly as “Tianxie” left him uncomfortable inside and out.
Su Feifei’s brows curved. “We’re going to be living in the same place from now on — calling you Tianxie sounds nice and close. You can call me Feifei.”
Ye Tianxie pressed the tip of his nose and sidestepped the question without a trace. “Miss Su, where’s that super-tycoon father of yours?”
Su Feifei seemed entirely unbothered by his form of address and his obliviousness to romance, and smiled sweetly all the same. “My dad and the others went back. Hee — from now on you’ll have a great beauty like me keeping you company. Aren’t you just thrilled?”
“…Miss Su, you don’t seem to have ever had any intention of asking my opinion. This may be your family’s property, but it’s still my home, isn’t it?” Ye Tianxie said, thoroughly displeased.
“Oh… A great beauty like me volunteers to live at your place, and you’d actually be unwilling? Are you a man with something physically wrong with him?”
That single line from Su Feifei forced everything Ye Tianxie had been about to say back down his throat… Argue this point any further and he’d inevitably be suspected of some physical defect. Women — especially beautiful women, and especially especially beautiful women from excellent families — grow up amid admiring gazes and adulation, and imperceptibly develop a self-centered pride. Put simply, it’s called narcissism: the belief that every man in the world ought to hold her up, revolve around her, and that if she should approach a man or ask him for help, it isn’t a burden to him but a favor. And if some man should look right past her… then that man must be either mentally ill, or physically ill… or blind.
Su Feifei was plainly one of the finest specimens of this category of woman. From the moment she decided to move in with Ye Tianxie until now, she had flat-out never once asked whether he was willing.
In truth, women of this type aren’t common in real life, and Su Feifei was of a rather high-grade variety. The lower-grade sort… walk down the street, and if a man keeps looking at her, she’ll curse him inwardly as a pervert, a hooligan, a lecher, shameless; and if he doesn’t so much as glance at her, she’ll curse him inwardly as a hypocrite… and conclude the man must surely be a eunuch, or impotent…
Ye Tianxie suddenly felt a headache coming on. He was beginning to wonder whether protecting this young mistress for three hundred million a year had been a thoroughly brain-dead decision. Not every woman was like… like her.
“Is there something physically wrong with me? Care to find out?” Ye Tianxie said, expressionless.
“You—” Su Feifei visibly bristled, then, thinking of who knew what, flushed slightly, and her voice dropped. “Hooligan, pervert… a lecherous man who can’t get enough! All you do is go out on the street and take liberties with girls. That handsome face of yours is completely wasted!”
“…All right, you’re not wrong. But it just so happens that a certain someone volunteered to move into the home of a hooligan pervert lecherous man who can’t get enough… Don’t tell me you’re a lecherous woman who’s hoping to be taken liberties with by a hooligan pervert lecherous man who can’t get enough, every single day?” Ye Tianxie’s expression stayed placid, but his words shoved her little curses right back at her.
Su Feifei wrinkled her nose and gave a light snort. “Hmph! Man with no grace! This beauty won’t stoop to arguing with you — I’m ignoring you. I’m hungry, I’m going downstairs to eat… Hey! You haven’t had lunch either, have you? Want to come along?”
Ye Tianxie raised his brows. “Miss Su’s fine silks and delicacies are beyond what a commoner like me can afford to enjoy.”
“You’re insufferable!” Su Feifei tossed her head in irritation, ignored him, and turned to head downstairs. From behind, those long, jade-porcelain legs were a genuine pleasure to watch as she walked, and Ye Tianxie’s eyes fixed on them, quite beyond his control, for a good long while.
(End of Chapter 78)