“You guys head back first,” Su Jianan told her colleagues.
Without saying another word, Su Jianan jogged towards the car and stood beside the door of the driver’s seat.
Bending down at the waist, she peeked into the window. Through the ambient light from the street lamps, she saw that Lu Boyan was asleep in the car. Even in the murky ambiance, the lines of his profile were distinct; he looked incredibly handsome.
Su Jianan rapped the gla.s.s of the window with her knuckles. “Lu Boyan.”
Lu Boyan had always had a keen sense of awareness. At the rapping sound, Lu Boyan opened his eyes. Seeing that it was Su Jianan, he opened the door beside the pa.s.senger’s seat. “You’re done?”
“Mm.” Su Jianan settled into the seat and buckled her seatbelt. “Jiang Shaokai and the others can handle the rest. Why didn’t you leave?”
“How’re you supposed to go back if I leave?” Lu Boyan glanced at the clock. The sun would rise in another three hours, all of which would probably be spent on the return journey. “We’ll go back to the apartment in the city?” He asked Su Jianan.
“Mmhm,” Su Jianan answered hazily. She could no longer keep her sleepiness at bay. Once she settled herself into a comfortable position in the pa.s.senger’s seat, she closed her eyes. Then she felt the rumbling of the car engine as it started. She fell asleep sometime later without even knowing it.
Lu Boyan’s apartment was not too far from here. That, plus the fact that cars were scarce during this hour, enabled their car to arrive at the apartment building in less than ten minutes.
Su Jianan woke up on her own and followed Lu Boyan into the elevator. When the elevator doors slid shut, she leaned her entire body against Lu Boyan and buried her face into his chest. “So sleepy…” She mumbled.
Somehow, Su Jianan had gotten used to such intimate displays and could now perform them naturally without any hints of shyness.
Lu Boyan wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her upright and prevent her body from sliding to the floor. His other hand went up to her head to hold her face against his chest. They rode the elevator in silence. Shortly, the elevator reached the top floor. Leaning against Lu Boyan, Su Jianan dragged herself into the apartment.
“Shower?” Lu Boyan knew about Su Jianan’s habit of always taking a shower after working in the lab.
Su Jianan buried her face into Lu Boyan’s chest once again. “Nah. I’m so sleepy.”
Her warm breathed caressed his chest through the thin fabric of his shirt. Lu Boyan felt a twinge of desire burgeoning inside him, causing his voice to turn deeper. “Then let’s head to the bedroom, hm?”
Su Jianan nodded. Exactly how she got into the bedroom, she knew not; she might have walked on her own, or Lu Boyan might have carried her. Not long after, she felt the soft mattress beneath her body. Her entire body felt so relaxed as if every single pore on her body had been thoroughly ma.s.saged. Satisfied, she dragged a pillow towards her. A while later, she felt Lu Boyan lying down beside her.
Maybe it was because they had shared the same bed so many times before, but she found herself not minding his presence at all. Or maybe it was just because her hazy mind had yet to grasp what was happening right now fully. Closing her eyes, she asked hazily, “I just returned from a crime scene… Are you sure you don’t mind?”
Lu Boyan adjusted the temperature of the air conditioner and then pulled the blanket over their bodies. At the same time, he dragged Su Jianan into his arms. “Hurry up and go to sleep.”
All Su Jianan could feel right now was contentment and warmth. The corners of her lips lifted without her knowing it. She snuggled and rubbed herself against Lu Boyan like a baby silkworm.
Lu Boyan had gotten a few hours of sleep in the car, so he was not that sleepy right now. Also, if Su Jianan kept rubbing against him like this…
He reached out and stilled the movements of the “baby silkworm”. “Jianan, stop moving around,” he growled.
“Oh,” Su Jianan answered. Perhaps it was because she had detected the dangerous edge to his voice, Su Jianan had stopped moving. Instead, she buried her head against his chest and held still.
Lu Boyan dropped a kiss onto her forehead and closed his eyes.
More than two hours later, a sliver of white, which looked about as murky as the color of fish belly, emerged in the eastern sky. The first shafts of sunlight spread from the horizon, illuminating all corners of the city.
At seven o’clock sharp, back in their villa in the suburbs far away from the city, Su Jianan’s alarm clock went off. Meanwhile, in the CBD, Su Jianan was still fast asleep until it was nine o’clock in the morning. With his eyes tightly shut, Lu Boyan lay there with his arms wrapped around her sleeping form.
At 9:30, Lu Boyan’s phone vibrated vigorously against the surface of the nightstand. The buzzing sound pulled Su Jianan from her dreams back into reality.
She opened her eyes and was caught slightly off guard when she realized that she was still in Lu Boyan’s arms. Then, as she remembered what had happened yesterday, a wave of emotion slowly crept into her heart.
Lu Boyan must have been exhausted after spending an entire day at work yesterday. He did not have to accompany her when she was suddenly called into work.
But if Lu Boyan had not been there, she really would end up having to drive from the crime scene to the apartment in the middle of the night. That did seem a bit frightening now that she thought about it.
Would she even be able to survive after leaving Lu Boyan?
“Buzz… Buzz…”
Lu Boyan’s phone vibrated a second time. Lu Boyan was still holding Su Jianan against him, and he showed no signs of wakefulness.
Su Jianan took Lu Boyan’s phone from the nightstand and glanced at the screen. She picked up when she noticed that it was Shen Yuechuan calling.
“Boss Lu! Dearest brother of mine!” Back in the office, Shen Yuechuan was losing his s.h.i.t. “The meeting is about to start. For G.o.d’s sake, where the h.e.l.l are you?! Why aren’t you showing up?!”
“Um, Lu Boyan… he…”
“Jianan?!” Shen Yuechuan felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him right on top of his head. He was shocked into a daze and only recovered himself after a long time. “Don’t tell me Lu Boyan still isn’t awake…”
“Um, well, he isn’t…”
The phone was s.n.a.t.c.hed away before Su Jianan could get her words out. Surprised, she stared at Lu Boyan, who had suddenly woken up. Then, she said, “Shen Yuechuan called, asking you to go to work.”
Lu Boyan hung up the phone without batting an eye, and then he dragged her back under the covers. “Mm,” Su Jianan said as she instinctively began to struggle against him. Lu Boyan tightened his hold. “Aren’t you sleepy?”
“I am,” Su Jianan said tiredly. “Your phone woke me up.”
Lu Boyan kissed her forehead, causing the person in his arms to stop moving. He pulled the covers and draped it over her. “Sleep with me for a while. Wake me up at noon.”
Could he afford to sleep until noon?
“But what about your work?” she asked curiously. Since she had been called in last night, she was allowed to take the morning off. But Lu Boyan… “Isn’t there a meeting he needs to attend?”
“Shen Yuechuan can handle the meeting,” Lu Boyan said. “It’s not like the company will collapse if I skip work for half a day.”
Su Jianan was rendered speechless. “Wait… Wasn’t Lu Boyan a workaholic in the past?” She wondered.
The workaholic himself had skipped work. Well, it turned out that Su Jianan was not the only one who was surprised by this fact; the entire staff of Lu Enterprises was shocked. Shen Yuechuan, on the other hand, had straightaway a.s.sumed that the world had plunged into madness.
Shen Yuechuan had heard it just now; it was Su Jianan who had answered Lu Boyan’s phone. She had told him in a sleepy voice that Lu Boyan was still in bed!
“f.u.c.k. He’s the boss, and yet he’s hugging his wife in bed while leaving his a.s.sistant to run his company?”
Inhumane! Utterly and outrageously inhumane!
Shen Yuechuan stomped into the conference room and told everyone that the meeting had been postponed to this afternoon. When someone asked him about the reason for the delay, Shen Yuechuan responded by first clearing his throat twice. Then he said, “You guys have to get used to Boss Lu’s new work habits. He’s got a sweet wife at home now. So the ‘oh-I-woke-up-late-so-I-might-as-well-skip-work’ show shall begin today.”
Everyone, “…”
A fuming Special a.s.sistant Shen collected all the doc.u.ments and then stomped out of the conference room. He headed straight into his office to do Lu Boyan’s job for him, feeling nothing but disgruntlement while doing so.
Lu Boyan had gotten the girl just like he wished, and he had now relinquished the hold of his “empire”; Su Yicheng had discovered real love, too. As for Shen Yuechuan himself… G.o.dammit! He also wanted to start dating and then skip work like a boss!
But still… Ugh. Was there no lady out there who would notice him, a single, rich, handsome, and nice young man?
Shen Yuechuan did some soul-searching, probing into thoughts meticulously. After a while, he realized how lonely his life truly was.
Noon arrived in a blink of an eye.
Not even Su Jianan could stay in bed until this time, despite her habit of lazing around in bed. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she woke up and saw the time.
Shockingly, though, Lu Boyan was still asleep.
Somehow, she found that interesting. So she lay flat on her stomach in bed with her chin cradled in both palms and just watched him.
The lines of fatigue and exhaustion from last night had vanished from his face, perhaps because he had now replenished his sleep. Right then, the only things she noticed on his face were his handsome features as well as his flawless skin that would make any woman envious.
Not even a single pore could be seen on the skin of his face!
Su Jianan refused to believe that to be the case, so she inched closer to his face, and then closer again. This was purely in the interest of meticulous research; there had to be a flaw somewhere that she could find.
Just then, Lu Boyan suddenly opened his eyes.
In her fright, Su Jianan sucked in a deep breath, and her body instinctively moved to get up. Lu Boyan had different ideas; he reached out and tugged at her body. She failed to resist the force behind Lu Boyan’s pull, so she ended up falling right on top of him.
To any watching the entire scene, it would seem a lot like it was Su Jianan herself who had willingly thrown herself onto Lu Boyan’s body.
This… This was just far too intimate.
Su Jianan forced out a laugh and tried to cheat her way out of the potential interrogation which awaited her. Right. As if Lu Boyan was that easy to fool. He did not release his hold on her, not even when her smile was practically frozen on her face.
“I have to be at work by one,” she said, playing the work card. “Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea if you don’t show up at work by the afternoon. I mean, sure, Lu Enterprises won’t collapse, but what would your employees think of you?”
Lu Boyan refused to allow Su Jianan to change the subject. “What were you looking at just now,” he asked. His strong, slender hands were still gripping her waist like a vice.
Well, it seemed like no gimmickry could get her out of this. Su Jianan stuck with the truth, “Looking at you, of course.”
Lu Boyan seemed rather satisfied with that answer. He arched his brows. “You miss me that much? Really? After just one morning?”
Su Jianan could not help but laugh. Then, she picked up a fallen eyelash from the corner of Lu Boyan’s eye. “It’s because you’ve dropped an eyelash.”
She studied the lash. “Not bad. Your eyelashes are so long that they rival my own.”
Lu Boyan, “…”
Smiling, Su Jianan placed the eyelash into Lu Boyan’s hand. “I’m going to brush my teeth,” she said.
Only when she was out of the bedroom did she begin taking in the apartment unit.
The apartment was s.p.a.cious, though it only had one bedroom. It was a studio apartment; the living and dining rooms were joined together, and there was an open kitchen. The cla.s.sic European style decor exuded a modern vibe; it was simple, but at the same time, elegant. All in all, it did seem like the kind of place where Lu Boyan would occasionally stay for one night.
Su Jianan walked to the foyer and opened the shoe cabinet. Peering in, she saw a pair of pink slippers which were meant for women. The slippers came in size 37; her size was 36.
Su Jianan hesitated over the decision to put on the slippers. Okay, more like she was struggling with the suspicion that was brewing inside her mind. “This is just a place Lu Boyan will stay whenever he works late and is too lazy to go home,” she thought. “Why’s there a pair of female slippers here?”
She slipped her feet into the slippers and went into the bathroom. The cabinet contained only a simple set of male toiletries. The bathroom counter was bare of any objects except for an electric toothbrush, which was the same brand as the one Lu Boyan was using back home.
Nothing else was suspicious other than the slippers.
For some strange reason, Su Jianan felt relieved at that. She would not know how to handle it if she found other traces of female presence.
Just then, Lu Boyan suddenly appeared at the bathroom doorway. “Spare toothbrushes are kept in the drawer on your left. There aren’t any spare towels. Do you want to use mine first? Or do you want me to call someone to bring you a fresh one?”
Su Jianan glanced at the time and realized that they were running out of time. “I’ll… I’ll use yours, then.” After all, there were a few dry, neatly-folded ones stacked inside the cabinet.
“Mm,” Lu Boyan said before he walked away. Then, Su Jianan heard his voice as he told someone on the phone to bring their brunch. She locked the bathroom door, brushed her teeth, and then took a quick shower. By the time she got out and went to the dining hall, brunch was served on the table.
Lu Boyan held a necktie on the one hand, while his other hand held his phone to his ear as he gave out work-related instructions. When he noticed her presence, Lu Boyan handed the necktie to her.
Having lived under the same roof for a while, they had at least formed some understanding between them; Su Jianan took the necktie and began knotting it for Lu Boyan as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
One thing she could not quite figure out was why Lu Boyan was so keen on having her knot his neckties these days.