Outside the door stood a cart piled higher than a man, stuffed full and heaped with colorful things. One casual glance left Ye Tianxie feeling dizzied by the sheer variety of it, and he spoke first. “Sorry for the trouble. Go and tell Boss Su he can rest easy.”
A flicker of puzzlement passed through the bodyguard’s eyes, but professional discipline kept him from asking questions. He nodded slightly, pushed the cart up to the doorway, and turned to leave without entering. What agreement had been reached between Su Luo and Ye Tianxie, he didn’t know; nor did he have the faintest idea what “the first payment” Su Luo had mentioned might mean. Su Luo would naturally not speak of such things to anyone else.
Once the bodyguard was out of sight, Su Feifei emerged from her new room, grinning. “Wow! So much stuff. Tianxie, hurry up and push it in for me.”
“Push your own things.”
“Hey! Are you even a man? Making a girl push a cart — if anyone saw, they’d laugh at how useless you are.”
Ye Tianxie shot her a glance, didn’t bother replying, and strolled lazily toward his own room.
“Ye Tianxie! Don’t you dare walk away!” Su Feifei stamped her foot angrily, hands on her hips, at once furious and smug. “Hmph hmph hmph hmph! Don’t think I don’t know… My dad told me everything. He’s paying you three hundred million Huaxia yuan a year to protect me! Three hundred million… three hundred million! I nearly thought my dad had lost his mind.”
“That’s right, your dad is paying three hundred million for me to protect you… Mm, protect you. He didn’t hire me as your nanny.” Ye Tianxie yawned, wearing the drowsy, indifferent expression of a man about to nod off.
Su Feifei blinked, then the corner of her mouth lifted as she deployed her trump card, her voice dripping with sweetness. “Little Tianxie, who loves lollipops so — do you think big sister could get a shocking headline onto the front page of the Huaxia Daily about your fondness for candy?”
Ye Tianxie turned around and, under Su Feifei’s triumphant gaze, pushed the fully-loaded cart all the way to her room, then returned to his own with a bellyful of resentment.
…The true culprit behind Su Feifei’s nonexistent leverage was at that moment sitting on the bed, blissfully working her way through a lollipop, wearing an expression of such contentment that Ye Tianxie’s teeth began to itch inexplicably. He didn’t greet her, but let his gaze rove across every corner of the room, as if searching for something.
“Hm? Master, what are you looking for?” Guoguo tilted her head up, licking her lollipop, and asked curiously.
“A flyswatter.”
“Hm? What’s that?”
“…Something for swatting little pests.”
“So, is Guoguo a pest?” Guoguo blinked those enormous, innocent eyes — capable of killing anything on sight — and looked earnestly at Ye Tianxie.
And then… Ye Tianxie stopped searching for the flyswatter that didn’t exist. And then his door was pushed open, and a beaming Su Feifei walked in. His room might have been an unmitigated disaster, but it lacked the stench most bachelors’ rooms carried, the kind that could suffocate a fly — which mildly surprised Su Feifei, who had braced herself for a serious assault. She carried an exquisite box, which she set on the table beside him, and an increasingly rich aroma of cooking began to waft out of it. She was about to speak when she spotted the lollipop wrapper by the bed. Her eyes at once curved into two crescent moons, and she said fondly, “Little Tianxie, eating lollipops all the time is bad for your teeth. This is the lunch my dad had prepared for us — here’s your portion. Less candy, more proper food. Understood?”
Looking at that wrapper lying not far from his feet… Ye Tianxie knew that this time, not even jumping into the Pacific could wash him clean.
Still, for a man who hadn’t eaten a proper meal in far too long, the fragrance drifting from that box slammed hard into his stomach, and his appetite stirred despite himself. He wasted no more words on Miss Su, picked up the lunchbox, and prepared to dig in.
“Hm? You play Fate too?” Su Feifei exclaimed, spotting the black wristband on his arm. But she immediately realized what a foolish question it was. Everything else aside, the sheer scale of Fate‘s free device distribution meant nearly every person alive had one. Playing Fate was the most ordinary thing in the world; not playing it was what would be strange.
“Mm.” Ye Tianxie made a sound of assent.
“Hee, wonderful. I play every day. Let me tell you, I’m already Level 8 — impressive, isn’t it?” Su Feifei moved over and sat down on Ye Tianxie’s bed, a move that gave him a jolt of alarm… Had Guoguo not dodged so quickly, Su Feifei would have sat squarely on top of her.
“Mm, impressive.” Ye Tianxie praised her with a perfectly straight face… when in fact, just yesterday, the average player level had already climbed past eight.
“Oh, right — what’s your name in the game? Which novice village are you in? We’re so fated, maybe we’re even in the same one, and then I could go find you and play.” Su Feifei scooted a little closer to Ye Tianxie, her brows curving.
The pleasant scent of a young woman and a faint trace of perfume drifted into Ye Tianxie’s nose, faintly prickling at his nerves. His gaze traveled, quite beyond his control, to her long legs.
When a man looks at a beautiful woman, he is invariably fixed on her face, her lips, her figure, her legs, and his thoughts wander where they will… And Su Feifei possessed long legs, a graceful neck, exquisite curves, and a face of the truly beautiful sort. Even without her illustrious family, she had the capital to conquer any man on earth. Her legs above all — apart from her, Su Feifei’s were the most beautiful legs he had ever seen. Up close, one could see all the more clearly that they were flawless, without the slightest blemish — enough to give even Ye Tianxie the urge to reach out and run a hand down their length…
For her to stir such an impulse in him… Ye Tianxie silently classified Su Feifei as a little vixen.
“Once you’re out of the novice village, then you can think about coming to find me. Otherwise there’s no point telling you.”
“Why…? Ah? Don’t tell me you’ve already advanced your class?” Su Feifei, still oblivious to the gaze periodically sweeping over the long legs she took such pride in, was first puzzled, then let out a small cry of surprise.
“…I’m already in the City of Heaven’s Stars.” Ye Tianxie sidestepped the matter of his classless state without batting an eye.
“Wow! So you’re already Level 10! That’s amazing!”
“…” Somehow, being praised like this by Miss Su — complete with that exclamation and that faint touch of admiration in her eyes — gave Ye Tianxie, for the first time in his life, an entirely unwarranted sense of achievement. He rapped himself on the forehead inwardly, wondering whether some wire in his brain had come loose.
(End of Chapter 80)