Chapter 41

Chapter 41

When Xie Qiyan agreed to go upstairs with Xia Wanzhi, he had already guessed what she wanted to say to him.

If he hadn’t intended to relent, he wouldn’t have come up to sit down tonight.

Once she had mostly regained her composure, Xie Qiyan finally proposed his condition: “You can stay in the Xingyao Building, but you have to do me a favor.”

Xia Wanzhi quickly followed up, “What favor?”

“The Top Floor of Xingyao will be designed as a Sky Garden according to my requirements. Your Studio’s space doesn’t have to be demolished; I can keep it for you. However, Teacher Xia, you will need to unconditionally paint countless colorful portraits for me according to my requests.”

Xia Wanzhi pursed her lips slightly.

There was a lot of information to unpack in those words.

He was turning the Xingyao Building into a shopping mall, yet the top floor was being reserved for a Sky Garden.

He called her Teacher Xia.

He wanted her to paint for him indefinitely.

Painting for a lifetime, and she had to paint whatever he said.

Rounding that up, wasn’t he basically asking her to sell herself to him?

Xia Wanzhi’s pupils shrank, and she swallowed hard in a bit of panic.

What a devious, cunning businessman.

“Paint who?” Xia Wanzhi asked tentatively.

Xie Qiyan pondered for a long time. “A person.”

“If it’s you, no way,” Xia Wanzhi sat up straight and said solemnly, “I’m a respectable person.”

She didn’t paint perverts.

Xie Qiyan remained motionless, scrutinizing her for a few seconds, wondering what kind of image he currently held in her eyes. “Is there a problem? Or are you not agreeing?”

Xia Wanzhi was caught in his grasp.

The next second, she compromised without a shred of backbone. “Fine, but you can’t challenge my professional ethics or cross my bottom line.”

For both of them, tonight’s conversation had achieved its purpose.

When Xie Qiyan left, Xia Wanzhi, to show her gratitude, enthusiastically hosted him until he finished that cup of millennial Ginseng Eight-Treasure Tea.

They toasted to a happy cooperation.

After seeing him off, Xia Wanzhi buried herself in the sofa, clutching a throw pillow and whimpering twice, shedding tears of excitement and joy without any dignity.

A triple kill against Xie Qiyan.

Her precious Studio was saved.

Xie Qiyan went for a drive before heading back, arriving at the South Courtyard at ten o’clock in the evening.

Ten o’clock was the time Xie Tan was forced to go to sleep, but at this moment, she was waiting in the living room. Seeing Xie Qiyan return, she immediately stepped forward to curry favor. “Brother, did you ask for me?”

Xie Qiyan was calm and composed. “Ask what?”

“Ask if Sister Wanzi is going to the UK.” Xie Tan had been unhappy all evening since learning from the Old Master that Xia Wanzhi might go abroad after breaking off the engagement.

She didn’t want Xia Wanzhi to leave.

But Xia Wanzhi’s family was all abroad.

Xie Tan didn’t dare ask, nor did she dare open her mouth to ask her to stay.

Xie Qiyan gave a very soft grunt of affirmation. “She’s not going.”

A child’s sadness comes and goes quickly. Upon hearing that Xia Wanzhi wasn’t going abroad, Xie Tan jumped for joy on the spot, grabbing Xie Qiyan’s hand and shaking it. “Really? Really! Did she tell you that?”

“Really.” Xie Qiyan’s broad palm pressed down on Xie Tan’s head.

She had begged for the Studio back.

Naturally, she wouldn’t be leaving.

He had been back in the country for less than three months, but he unexpectedly felt a connection with this younger sister, Xie Tan. Perhaps it was because he felt his third uncle and that third wife of his didn’t treat her well; he found her pitiable. Plus, the child called him ‘Brother’ the moment she saw him, with a look in her eyes as if she were looking at her own kin.

Xie Qiyan didn’t feel like he had any family in this household.

But Xie Tan truly treated him like a brother.

Among the members of the Xie Family, he now only recognized Xie Tan as his relative.

But she was a girl, after all, and Xie Qiyan didn’t feel he had any experience in raising a child.

As it happened, Xie Tan liked Xia Wanzhi, and Xia Wanzhi was good to Xie Tan.

He thought that in the days to come, Xia Wanzhi must not be absent.
Xie Qiyan had gone to bed before midnight, but at two in the morning, he was jolted awake by a restless, scorching heat.

His back and forehead were slick with sweat, and beneath his silk robe, a certain part of him was vibrantly, insistently alive.

He rarely had a moment to relax due to his workload, let alone indulge in any hedonistic thoughts.

No man understood his own body better than he did.

But Xie Qiyan had always been ascetic, never once losing control. Tonight’s situation felt as if he had taken the wrong medication.

Taken the wrong medication…

Xie Qiyan threw off the covers and stood up, heading to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face.

His breathing was slightly ragged. A memory of that large cup of strong tea he’d drunk at Xia Wanzhi’s place flashed through his mind. Gritting his teeth, Xie Qiyan took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

It wasn’t that he’d taken the wrong medicine; it was that he’d drunk the wrong tea.

Xia Wanzhi’s poisonous tea.

Whether intentional or not, this insidious, cunning prank was exactly like the ones she used to pull when they were children.

He took a cold shower, but it didn’t seem enough to alleviate the tension. He filled the bathtub with cold water and soaked for twenty minutes before finally suppressing that surge of desire.

It had been many years since he’d felt like this.

Perhaps that was why, once provoked, it felt so unstoppable.

He didn’t like being ruled by desire.

Nor did he like the idea of using his own hands to handle such matters.

He lived his life like a machine.

Emerging from the bathroom, Xie Qiyan didn’t return to the bedroom. Instead, he headed to the study and spent several hours working. He only managed a brief nap after dawn before heading to the office at his usual time.

Yu Fei reported his schedule as usual, but during the briefing, he couldn’t help but steal several glances at Xie Qiyan, signaling to Huo Yang with his eyes that something was up.

“If there’s something wrong with your eyes, go get them treated,” Xie Qiyan said, his gaze growing increasingly cold.

Under that stare, a chill ran down Yu Fei’s spine.

Once Xie Qiyan entered his private office, Yu Fei and Huo Yang walked back to their workstations together, only then daring to whisper, “Something is definitely up with President Xie.”

Huo Yang glanced at him. “What do you mean?”

“Can’t you tell?” Yu Fei gave him a look that said, *We’re both men, don’t you get it?*

Huo Yang nodded. “I see it. He didn’t sleep all night.”

“That’s only half right.” Yu Fei smiled slyly and leaned in, lowering his voice even further. “He didn’t get a release.”

Huo Yang looked up mechanically. “…”

The two had already sat back down at their desks when, after a long silence, they turned to each other in perfect synchronization-

“Miss Xia!”

“The CEO’s Wife!”

Yu Fei took a deep breath.

Huo Yang sucked in a breath of cold air.

They had discovered a monumental secret.

Before, it was just speculation, but now it was confirmed.

No man would endure that kind of situation without relief.

Solving it by oneself is still a solution.

But their President Xie didn’t solve it; he forced himself to endure it until it practically caused internal damage.

Therefore, the only answer was that someone was with him at the time. He couldn’t escape, and to maintain his image as a gentleman, he had to endure it whether he wanted to or not.

Three hours into the workday, Xie Qiyan realized that his Executive Assistant and his secretary were both acting as if they’d swallowed a ‘stupid pill,’ completely out of it.

Xie Qiyan himself wasn’t exactly in top form either.

At noon, Xie Qiyan walked straight out of his office to Yu Fei’s desk and tapped on it. “Is the contract drafted?”

Yu Fei immediately called the legal department to hurry them up.

He had only mentioned the contract half an hour ago and hadn’t said it was urgent. Who would have thought he’d want it thirty minutes later?

Yu Fei felt like he was seeing a ghost.

He had never seen his boss go soft on anyone.

And the result?

First, he sent an actor to fix someone’s pipes and deliver supplies, and now he was keeping her at Xingyao, drafting an overbearing contract that would essentially make her his personal artist for life-for free.

When it came to being devious, Yu Fei only admired his boss.

When it came to being stubborn about appearances and saying the opposite of what he felt, he also only admired his boss.