Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Knowing she wasn’t the only one who had been soaked in seawater, Xia Wanzhi showered quickly. Before long, she came out in a bathrobe, her hair only half-dried.

“I’m done. Hurry up and go wash.” Xia Wanzhi padded over in quick little steps and knocked on Xie Qiyan’s door. The moment it opened, an expanse of dazzling male beauty hit her square in the eyes.

Was this something she was allowed to see for free?

Xia Wanzhi scolded him in a huff, “Why aren’t you wearing clothes?!”

She scolded him while staring straight at him, unable to tear her eyes away. Her mouth said no, but her body was terribly honest.

Xie Qiyan watched her ever-changing expression with amusement, and for some reason, the tight knot of anger lodged in his chest eased by quite a bit.

He had been angry at himself for bringing her out but failing to ensure her safety.

Now, seeing that she was still lively enough to glare and scold him, Xie Qiyan finally let out a shaky breath of relief.

She could curse him a thousand more times, and he would accept it.

“If I didn’t take them off, how would I show you?” After the hand-holding and the princess carry earlier, Xie Qiyan had been afraid of frightening her. Now that he was relieved, his usual wicked tongue returned, and he couldn’t help teasing her.

Xia Wanzhi’s eyes went round. Embarrassed and furious, she stiffened and stomped back into her own room.

The bathroom was still hazy with steam, lingering with warm, comforting heat and the faint scent of shampoo and body wash. Every molecule of air Xie Qiyan breathed into his lungs seemed to course through his body, telling him that Xia Wanzhi had just showered here.

After all, this was his first time sharing a bathroom with Xia Wanzhi.

A grown man’s first time stepping into the bridal sedan, so to speak.

For some inexplicable reason, Xie Qiyan felt nervous. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and he suddenly remembered what Xia Wanzhi had said on the deck: “my man.”

Pushing those improper thoughts out of his mind, Xie Qiyan turned on the shower and stood beneath it, rinsing away the scent of seawater clinging to him.

For all these years, he had never done anything he couldn’t control.

But from the very first time he had gone soft on Xia Wanzhi, the direction of things had already slipped beyond his control.

Agreeing to let her keep her Studio. Signing a contract with her. Paying attention to her every move. Moving in next door to her. Agreeing to pretend to be her boyfriend…

Things should have ended the moment she said she no longer needed him to cooperate and play the role of her boyfriend.

It clearly should have ended there.

But he just had to ask her to help him deal with the Old Master.

With a single sentence, he had tied her back to him again.

She was like a cat, always making people unable to resist teasing her.

That kind of behavior was addictive.

The moment he saw Xia Wanzhi fall into the sea with his own eyes, he hadn’t had time to think before he had already leaped after her. In that instant, his body had reacted faster than his mind.

When he caught Xia Wanzhi in the water, he was grateful that he had caught her.

Grateful that Xia Wanzhi knew how to swim. Grateful that he had appeared in time.

But along with that gratitude came self-reproach. He blamed himself for not going out to look for her sooner.

After finishing his shower, Xie Qiyan came out with his head lowered, tying the belt of his bathrobe properly so Xia Wanzhi wouldn’t accuse him of acting like a hooligan again.

When he lifted his eyes, Xia Wanzhi’s back entered his line of sight. Xie Qiyan slowed his steps and stared at her for a while.

He hadn’t exactly come out quietly. Logically, after hearing him, Xia Wanzhi should have turned around and said a few words to him. Even if she didn’t speak, given her personality, she would at least glance back at him.

Xie Qiyan lowered his eyes and guessed what was going on. So he took the initiative to walk over and sit down in front of Xia Wanzhi, assuming the posture of someone ready to be lectured.

This was a room on the cruise ship, and her gown was wet. Aside from a bathrobe, she had no other clothes to change into. The two of them sat facing each other in identical bathrobes, which, in a way, counted as a different kind of couple outfit.

“Do you know that woman surnamed Sun?” Xia Wanzhi questioned him icily.

Just now, after being soaked in seawater, then struck dizzy by Xie Qiyan’s gentle attack and shirtless attack, she had completely lost her sense of direction. Now that she had calmed down, she finally remembered that she had originally intended to settle accounts with Xie Qiyan.

“No.” Xie Qiyan looked into her eyes with great seriousness. “I’ll handle what happened tonight.”

Aside from Xia Wanzhi, these eyes of his had never looked at another woman.

“Fine. You don’t need to tell me how you handle it.” Xia Wanzhi leaned back, placing both hands on her crossed knees. She looked every inch a queen seated high above him, her gaze scrutinizing Xie Qiyan. “I don’t care who she is, and I care even less what relationship the two of you have. But right now-”
“Xie Qiyan, a person should have some professional ethics. Right now, you’re my man. I don’t care if it’s in the past or the future-deal with all those messy admirers of yours yourself.” Maybe it was because Zhou Yu had left her traumatized, or maybe her tolerance had always been this low. She would not allow her man to be tangled up with other women.

Even if this man was only putting on an act with her.

She was a clean freak. She didn’t like anything dirty.

Xie Qiyan looked at Xia Wanzhi without blinking.

He had heard it.

He had heard the words, “You’re my man.”

All he had heard were those words: “You’re my man.”

Possessive. Domineering without even trying.

He liked it very much.

“Got it, my…” His expression remained calm, but his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly as he added at an unhurried pace, “woman.”

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Her rigid shoulders relaxed, and she let out a breath. Suddenly, she felt rather childish.

What did Xie Qiyan’s messy love life have to do with her?

Why was she so concerned?

She slumped limply against the sofa. Xia Wanzhi felt a little cold. Although everything had turned out fine just now, the fear still lingered.

Xie Qiyan frowned slightly, seeming to notice that something was off with her. He got up, sat down beside her, and raised a hand to touch her forehead.

Xia Wanzhi held her breath for a moment. “I don’t have a fever.”

As if he hadn’t heard her, Xie Qiyan tapped his phone screen twice and ordered someone to bring up ginger tea at once.

The moment Xia Wanzhi caught the smell, she obediently sat up out of habit, took it, held her breath, and gulped it down.

She drank too quickly, and the ginger tea trickled from the corner of her mouth. Xie Qiyan reached out to take the bowl from her hand, while his other hand very naturally wiped the corner of her lips.

“You don’t like it?” Xie Qiyan’s fingertip lingered at the corner of her mouth.

The gesture was far too intimate. Xia Wanzhi froze for a second, then pressed her lips together and leaned back. “Who… who would like drinking something like this?”

It was just that she had been in poor health as a child and often caught colds, so Old Xia had always come up with all kinds of ways to force her to drink it. Over time, she had gotten used to it.

“I’m sorry about what happened tonight.” Setting the bowl down, Xie Qiyan poured her another cup of warm water to wash away the spicy heat of the ginger in her mouth.

The subject changed so abruptly that Xia Wanzhi almost failed to react.

Xie Qiyan did not look like someone who was good at apologizing. Though there was guilt in his tone, it sounded very stiff.

“Mm. Since you jumped in without hesitation to save me, I’ll let it go.” The moment she had surfaced, Xie Qiyan had jumped in right after her.

His timing had been oddly perfect, and he had leaped into the sea without the slightest hesitation to save her. The instant he hauled her tightly into his arms, she could feel his panic.

Thinking back on it now, she even found her feelings a little complicated.

Did Xie Qiyan like her?

During all this time fooling around with Xie Qiyan, although he often failed to speak like a normal human being, he had been extremely good to her.

She had not interacted with many men. From childhood to adulthood, there had only ever been Zhou Yu by her side.

But when she had been with Zhou Yu, never mind before their engagement-even after they got engaged, she had never felt this kind of pounding heartbeat.

In high school, she had once skipped class because she wanted to experience being rebellious. Later, when the teacher found out, she was punished with an eight-hundred-meter run. Zhou Yu, who had been sick at the time, accompanied her the entire way. The summer wind blew through the boy’s sweat-damp bangs, and Xia Wanzhi’s heart had stirred. She had thought that was probably what liking someone meant.

The fluttering of a young girl and the fluttering of a grown woman seemed to be different.

After graduating from high school, Xia Wanzhi devoted herself entirely to work. She was as indifferent as a chrysanthemum, her heart as still as water, and there was always something missing when she spent time with Zhou Yu.

People said that lovers who spent enough time together would become family. Besides, she and Zhou Yu had been childhood sweethearts for twenty-five years. When she agreed to the engagement, she had thought that since they would become family sooner or later anyway, she and Zhou Yu had simply taken that step a little earlier.

But later, after the Xia Family went bankrupt, she saw Zhou Yu clearly-and at the same time, she saw that relationship clearly too.

It was not love.

It was only a young girl’s heart moved by gratitude.