Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xie Ting finally realized something was wrong.

He froze in place.

After a long moment, he took out his phone and tapped out a few words for me.

“Still angry.”

“About last night?”

Then he looked up, something indecipherable in his eyes.

The floating comments erupted into shrieks, demanding to know what had happened last night that even the male lead couldn’t resist voicing a complaint.

On any normal day, I would have folded my arms, loudly listed all of Xie Ting’s faults, and waited for him to attend to me.

Today, I didn’t dare make a peep.

Because I really had gone too far last night…

Xie Ting had an exceptionally beautiful face. Years spent mostly indoors had left his skin almost sickly pale.

My favorite game was casting him as an innocent young man tormented by a wicked woman.

I would sit astride him and bully him with words, murmuring deliberately into his ear, “Baby, look what I’ve done to you. No one else will ever want you now. You’ll have to stay tangled up with me for the rest of your life. You can never escape. Understand?”

He would get so angry he could barely force out the word “no” through his blush, before retaliating with his entire body.

By the end last night, I had even felt his damp eyes against the hollow of my neck.

At the time, I thought pleasure had made him cry…

Now it seemed he must have hated me so much, yet felt so powerless to escape, that he had cried from sheer frustration.

I drew a deep breath and said, with no small amount of regret, “I went too far last night. I’ll never do anything like that again!”

Xie Ting lowered his lashes and stared at me without moving, as if weighing how much truth there was in my promise.

The comments rushed to defend the male lead.

[My heart is breaking for him! Thank goodness our sweet, considerate heroine is here to save him!]

[Exactly! What did you do to our poor male lead?]

As if I would dare tell them.

I shot to my feet with a clatter, announced that I was full, and fled to the bedroom. I did not forget the comments’ repeated warnings, though.

“Oh, and don’t bring me milk tonight.”

“You don’t have to scrub my back or warm the bed, either.”

“I can listen to an audiobook instead of making you read me a story!”

When I finished, I looked up.

Xie Ting gripped his phone, then set it down again. Without a word, he turned away to clear the dishes.

Ours was a marriage arranged between our families.

Rumor had it that the Xie family’s youngest son was a gloomy, antisocial man who never left the house and had an exceedingly strange temper.

The first time we met, he had approached without saying a word and handed me a sheet of paper covered in countless rules for our marriage.

I was so angry I laughed.

Then I looked up, and my temper melted like butter.

I could practically hear a triumphant chorus announcing that true love had arrived.

Please. Someone that gorgeous? A few psychological issues only added to his appeal!

I arched a brow and declared, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world, “I’ll agree to the marriage, but we have to fulfill our marital obligations in bed.”

…

Looking back now, the signs had been there all along.

I had been wrong from the very beginning. I should never have taken advantage of Xie Ting’s inability to speak and forced him to do so many things against his will.

Half asleep that night, I heard the lock turn. A warm body slipped beneath the covers.

I was exhausted. Even as I mumbled, “Didn’t I tell you to sleep next door?” my body honestly wrapped itself around him, seeking the familiar warmth. Without hesitation, I pressed my cold feet to his stomach.

Xie Ting nuzzled against my temple.

“I… won’t run.”

“Don’t… hate… me.”

The words came broken and halting, his voice trembling and hoarse.

They sounded like the first words of a voiceless man who had practiced for a very long time.