"Cough…"Bai Muchuan held his fist, holding it toward his mouth, and coughed as he almost laughed out loud.
"Alright, my Queen, I understand now. May I ask your permission to have a bath first so that I"ll smell nice and you can do anything you like?"
"Tch! Do anything I like?" Xiang Wan "rewarded" him with a glare. "You"re trying to wriggle your way out!"
"I don"t dare to, Your Excellency!"
"You"re the Lord—" Xiang Wan tilted her head to look at him with a smile.
Her smile was creepy!
Bai Muchuan looked serious and raised his brows. "Fine, ask away!"
Bai Muchuan probably felt odd to talk while standing in the middle of the room so he pulled Xiang Wan to sit on the edge of the bed. Then, he pulled a chair and sat in front of her.
"Please start your performance now!"
"You"re so annoying!" Xiang Wan almost burst out in laughter.
She pursed her lips and deliberated for a moment before she started to "interrogate" him.
"You know Meng Chi?"
Bai Muchuan: "Why did you ask that?"
Xiang Wan scrunched her eyebrows as though she was trying to see his thoughts through his eyes.
"When he entered the private dining room; when Abdul introduced him, and when he said he"s the investor of "The Grey List", you don"t seem to be surprised at all…"
"Surprise?" Bai Muchuan was indifferent. His smile seemed a little cold. "Little Xiang Wan, when did you ever see me caught by surprise?"
"…" That sure is rare, she thought.
"That is because I"m as brave as a lion!"
Seeing Xiang Wan in a daze, Bai Muchuan stroked her face and seemed pleased by the touch. He looked up happily and held her hand.
"Aye! My silly girl, what kind of strange thoughts are you thinking inside your head?"
His sigh was filled with an obvious pampering tone.
For an instant, Xiang Wan almost wanted to give him a hug.
Nonetheless, the more he behaved like that, the more suspicious Xiang Wan was.
She pursed her lips and held his hands tightly.
"How do you explain the part that he"s actually a fan of yours?"
Bai Muchuan laughed.
"Darling, are you jealous over a man?"
He had a charming smile; the way his thin lips moved to form a smile, and the way he gazed at her, so focused that Xiang Wan felt his gaze could murder hearts.
Xiang Wan"s heart skipped a beat.
"Stop fooling around!" She came out of her daze in one second, avoiding to look at his face. "I just feel that there"s something going on between the two of you."
"… What else could be going on between me and another man?"
"My sixth sense is telling me that something is not right." Xiang Wan started to be unreasonable and rolled her eyes at him. "Haven"t you heard? When a woman"s catching a cheating husband, her IQ is comparable to Sherlock Holmes!"
She even used "catch a cheating husband"? he thought.
Bai Muchuan burst into laughter and embraced her tightly.
"My silly Xiang Wan! Why are you so adorable?"
After his laugh, he returned back to his usual expression. "To tell you the truth, I do know about Meng Entertainment Group as well as Meng Chi. However, there"s only that, I don"t have any special connection with him."
Xiang Wan did not believe him entirely. "Really?"
Bai Muchuan nodded his head. "Nothing could be further from the truth!"
…
Xiang Wan did not fully buy his explanation.
However, she knew that she could not continue her "interrogation" anymore.
She knew Bai Muchuan very well.
To date, she might be the only person who dared to confront him like this.
It was not easy for him to explain things to her calmly.
Both of them were still at the dating stage, so she didn"t want to become a naggy woman in future.
Hence, Xiang Wan changed the topic. "What"s the mission tomorrow?"
She had heard Quan Shaoteng"s words earlier.
Bai Muchuan looked at her, his fingers twiddling her hair. "We"re paying Brother Steel a visit."
"Ah?" Xiang Wan was somewhat taken aback. "You know where he is?"
Bai Muchuan took out his mobile phone. "This is what Liang sent me!"
"Oh." Xiang Wan took a glance and understood what was going on.
"Will it be too dangerous?"
Only a few of them would be venturing into the wolf"s den.
Bai Muchuan showed a half-smile, as though he had seen through her thoughts. "There"s currently no progress for the 121 case. It"s about time we take some risk. We have Captain Zhang"s cooperation and have come up with a very precise action plan. Don"t worry."
"Okay. Then let"s turn in early tonight!"
Bai Muchuan showed a sly smile when he heard that. "Okay. Let"s sleep together."
"…" This guy.
Xiang Wan was speechless. At the next instant, he laughed and pinched her face.
"I"m just teasing you. Go take a bath and rest early…"
Xiang Wan"s eyes met his teasing gaze. She knew that he was just teasing her.
"I thought you wanted to bath earlier? You go first… I"ll see if I can get another chapter out."
If they would be out the next day, she was worried that she might not have the time to write a new chapter. In order to avoid the situation of failing to update, she wanted to write another chapter in advance to be published on the next day.
Bai Muchuan agreed. "Okay, I shall bath first. I smell like hotpot."
"Hey, I don"t remember you complaining about the smell when you were eating?"
Xiang Wan sat on the chair and chatted with him while she opened her laptop bag.
"It"s all for your sake. I"ll go to where you want to go."
"Yeah right. You sounded like you don"t like to eat hotpot—"
"It"s the truth! I really don"t like hotpot. But because I love you, I love hotpot."
Bai Muchuan had not said "I love you" to her seriously before. Although this sentence did not sound too serious, Xiang Wan"s heart could not help racing. She felt as though her heart was in her mouth—
Looking at Xiang Wan"s blus.h.i.+ng pink cheeks, Bai Muchuan walked to the bathroom with a smile on his face.
"What the! I almost believed you!" Xiang Wan gritted her teeth at Bai Muchuan"s back and turned on her laptop.
Out of habit, she logged into her author"s account and checked out her book review and comments page.
There weren"t any strange comments nor drama on that day. Besides the daily scamming posts like "Looking for part-timers", she did not find any comment relating to "The Temptation of the Rich and Famous".
Ever since getting involved in the 121 case, Xiang Wan actually hated to see these comments showing up in her book review and comments page.
After browsing through the page and not find anything of interest, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Ding!
She received a notification.
Xiang Wan took a look. It was Fang Yuanyuan who messaged her.
"Sis, are you still at Xi City?"
During the last time they chatted, Xiang Wan told her that she was in Xi City. For the next few days, they did not contact and had not caught up with each other.
The corners of Xiang Wan"s lips quirked up. "Yes, miss me?"
"Hahahaha. Yes, I miss you so much." Fang Yuanyuan sent a laugh out loud emoticon. "Do you want me to visit you?" She continued.
Eh! Visit her?
But she was far away in a remote place called Nanmu. Xiang Wan let out a sigh and replied to Fang Yuanyuan.
"There"s no need to! I"ve been very busy. Even if you come over, I"ve no time for you!"
"Urgh! You heartless thing. Dates over gals! You have time for your boyfriend but no time for me?"
Fang Yuanyuan continued typing, not waiting for Xiang Wan"s reply.
"Don"t think that I miss you a lot! I wanted to come to Xi City for a holiday with two of my friends. Second aunt also wanted me to bring you some snacks and to find out how you"re doing. Well, I"m being ordered to visit you!"
Fang Yuanyuan loved traveling and would do so whenever she could spare the time. She was a little of a typical dreamer or rather, a bit of an idealist.
And she had more than a dozen fair-weather friends than Xiang Wan.
Thus, Xiang Wan was not surprised when she saw that message. "When are you coming over then?"
It took a while before Fang Yuanyuan replied that message.
"I"ve just discussed with my friends, I"ll probably come over this weekend. l just need about two hours on the high-speed rail from Jin City to Xi City. We"ll be there to enjoy ourselves for two days before going back to work!"
Xiang Wan: "Oh, sounds like you"re not here specifically to visit me. I was happy over nothing…"
"Hmph! I"m just on the way to visit you, caress, and console you…"
"What a pity though. I"m currently not in Xi City." At this point, Xiang Wan had to be honest.
Seeing that text, Fang Yuanyuan got angry right away.
"Xiang Wan, are you hiding from me?"
"… Why do I need to hide from you? I"m not joking. I"ve left Xi City two days ago."
"So where are you now?" Fang Yuanyuan asked out of curiosity.
"Nanmu." Xiang Wan thought for a while and decided to tell the truth as she felt there was nothing to hide. "You can go ahead to enjoy yourselves at Xi City. There"s quite a lot of good food in their Food Street and the boys in Xi City are also manly and muscular. Mm… If I"m able to return to Xi City by this weekend, I"ll contact you again."
Nanmu was too far away from Xi City. Fang Yuanyuan was a little annoyed, but there was nothing she could do.
"Nevermind, forget it. Don"t contact me as you no longer love me anymore."
"Says who? I love you the most."
"You sure?" Fang Yuanyuan did not believe her. "No wonder the chapters for the past two days were not impressive."
"… I have been hard at work, okay? I did not forget to write an update even when I was on the road."
"Try your best! Let me feed you with some news to give you a boost. Wen Quan will be holding an annual awards ceremony. If you put in more effort in writing, you"ll achieve better statistics and look better. Imagine if you get invited to the annual awards ceremony and win a prize, your book will definitely be famous!"
Sounds so reasonable.
But it"s easier said than done.
Xiang Wan dared not think too much about it.
"Okay, Beautiful, you should rest early. I need to go back to writing."
"Okay, okay, hurry and scram!"
Fang Yuanyuan replied rather unhappily.
In fact, when Fang Yuanyuan"s friends asked her to join them for a short trip in Xi City, she was reluctant. If it wasn"t for the fact that she thought Xiang Wan was at Xi City, she wouldn"t have agreed to it. Now that she finally made up her mind to join her friends, Xiang Wan told her she was no longer there. As Yuanyuan felt too embarra.s.sed to reject her friends now, she was, therefore, feeling unhappy about it.
Xiang Wan knew Fang Yuanyuan very well. She coaxed Yuanyuan a little before going on to ask about how her mom was doing.
After ending the conversation with Fang Yuanyuan, Xiang Wan activated her "hyper writing mode".
…