Chapter 6

Qin Ruanruan had not yet calmed down. I held her while considering my objective for the day.

Forget it. If I said those frivolous lines to her now, I would probably upset her again.

I patted her lightly. “All right, hurry and eat.” Then I withdrew my comforting embrace and returned to my seat with a gentle expression.

Zhou Bai had been left standing there, ignored. His lips twitched hesitantly. “Aren’t you going to explain?”

Qin Ruanruan raised her tear-reddened eyes. Flustered, she was about to say something when I cut her off.

I put the chopsticks in her hand. “Eat.” Then I looked at Zhou Bai. “What’s there to explain? It’s broad daylight. If we have to discuss anything, it’s the fact that your wife was deeply upset and you weren’t here when she needed you.”

No wonder someone else got to her first.

What a repressed weirdo.

I scorned him inwardly while revealing nothing on my face, and continued eating my lunch.

These boring dishes were as boring as the man who made them.

Zhou Bai’s eyes darkened. He pulled Qin Ruanruan’s chair a little farther from mine and planted his arm forcefully between the woman and me. Leaning down, he stared at me. “Even if I’m not here, that doesn’t mean my wife needs you to comfort her.”

My temper flared at once. “Oh?”

“Are you saying she belongs to you?”

As the man stared at me in shock, I raised a malicious, contemptuous smile. “We’re long past reform and opening-up, Zhou Bai. Ditch the feudal thinking.”

I abruptly decided not to end today’s plot here. Rising, I seized Zhou Bai by the collar.

He was light as a feather. It took hardly any strength at all.

So this was what strength and power felt like.

I dragged Zhou Bai toward me. He stumbled and nearly fell against me, but I caught the side of his face with my other hand.

I teasingly brushed my thumb over the corner of his eye, which had reddened with humiliation. “You know, your eyes and brows are better suited to tears than your wife’s.”

“You must look even more beautiful when you cry.” The second line was complete, merely directed at someone else.

Zhou Bai pressed his lips together. Anger appeared on a face that rarely showed any emotion. I laughed. “You can’t even endure this? Where were you when other people were attacking your wife?”

My fingers slowly traveled upward until they tangled in his hair, forcing him to look up at me.

I made Zhou Bai gaze up at me from an almost kneeling position. Bending to his ear, I murmured, “Because this is the kind of contemptible thing you are.”

In the original plot, I looked into Qin Ruanruan’s damp, reddened eyes and forced her to sink with me, cruelly bursting the bubble of morality in her heart.

But this moment was different. The person kneeling beneath me was a man.

I felt no desire to be gentle with him. The words came one after another—

“Why aren’t you fighting back?”

“Or do you secretly like this?”

My damp breath washed over his ear. The vibrations of my voice passed through it and sank into his chest, rising and falling together with his rage and humiliation.

But he did not struggle.

Qin Ruanruan looked frightened. From her perspective, she could only see Zhou Bai trapped in my grip. Both of us looked furious.

All five lines complete, I released him without warning and let him collapse to his knees when my support vanished.

I stopped looking at him, sat down, and continued enjoying my lunch. I even remembered to reassure Qin Ruanruan. “It’s fine. Keep eating.”

Zhou Bai stared at the floor for a long time, his gaze dark and unreadable.

The emotions surging inside him would not subside. He had no idea how to process them.

He had never experienced anything like them before.

His entire life had followed safely in fate’s footsteps. Even joy and sorrow were rare, much less anger.

I quickly finished eating and looked at Qin Ruanruan. “There’s a pretty good café downstairs. Would you like to try it?”

Qin Ruanruan looked worriedly at her husband. “But Zhou Bai…”

He had remained in that position for nearly ten minutes.

What a useless, cowardly husband.

I deigned to glance at him. “Ignore him. Perhaps he’ll be more comfortable once we’re gone.”

Free to savor his own cowardice.

I took Qin Ruanruan by the hand and left, abandoning Zhou Bai where he knelt, motionless.

After an unknown length of time, the man raised his head.

His beautiful eyes brimmed with indignation, rage, humiliation… but mingled among them were a few nearly imperceptible threads of pleasure.

He smiled softly.