As time pa.s.sed, minute by minute, nearing the evening, Sheng Jiaoyang gradually grew more anxious.
When it was dinnertime, she wasn"t in the mood to play tricks on Shen Zhining and absent-mindedly ate her dinner in silence.
Daisy"s mind was filled with thoughts on how to seize the final chance at love, so she didn"t have the time to care about her rival"s mood. Contrariwise, Fu Failin noticed Sheng Jiaoyang"s strange behaviour and specifically reminded Shen Zhining to show more concern towards his girlfriend before she went to rest upstairs.
Shen Zhining nodded in acknowledgment when speaking with Andy, but he forgot about Sheng Jiaoyang the moment he turned around. He went upstairs by himself.
Sheng Jiaoyang dilly-dallied in the living room for a few hours until Felix reminded her, "Miss Xu, it"s quite late already. You should go upstairs and rest early." Only then did she summon up a bit of courage and started moving, proceeding like a slowpoke to the third floor.
Shen Zhining"s bedroom interior consisted mainly of the colours black, white and grey. Apart from these, she hardly saw any other colours. The walls were white, the carpets were grey, and the bed was black. Sheng Jiaoyang stepped into the room and felt visually challenged. She didn"t like dull coloured interior, but this was Demon King Shen"s territory. So, even if she didn"t like something, there was nothing she could do, nor could she change anything as she wished.
The only furniture in the room that was in a different colour was her dressing table placed in a corner.
Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t know what triggered it, but she couldn"t help but recall some memories of her childhood. One time, Little Devil Prince Shen occupied her bedroom, which was meticulously decorated by her mother. Inside her bedroom was an azure-blue coloured ceiling decorated with tiny stars that glowed in the dark, a pink coloured queen-sized bed on which she could freely roll about, silky soft snow-white carpets, a gallery wall filled with her childhood photos…in short, Little Devil Prince Shen must"ve loved that kind of bedroom style. Otherwise, why would he occupy her bedroom when there were so many other rooms available in her mansion?
Following this, Little Devil Prince Shen finally opened up to her and started to smile more often, even teasing her from time to time. However, not long after, Grandfather Shen came to pick him up and they left together.
"What are you doing standing there in a daze?" Shen Zhining"s sudden question brought her back to reality.
Sheng Jiaoyang blinked her eyes before s.h.i.+fting her gaze to Shen Zhining, who was sitting by the bedside in a black robe. She asked hesitantly, "Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?"
"Anywhere except the bed," Shen Zhining replied indifferently.
Sheng Jiaoyang scanned her surroundings, noticing that not even a sofa was available. She ground her teeth and decided to…endure it. The sooner she got the task at hand done, the sooner she could escape from Demon King Shen. But, looking at his "incapable of love" expression, she instantly relaxed. She no longer had to worry about Demon King Shen doing something to her at night.
As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, she heard Demon King Shen say, "Don"t use my bathtub, and don"t touch my things."
Who is going to use his stuff?! Even if he begged her to, she wouldn"t, alright?! Even she"s not that unhygienic, tsk tsk! Sheng Jiaoyang"s mouth was twitching as she closed the door.
After was.h.i.+ng up, she changed into a set of unrevealing pajamas. She found herself a bed sheet and a quilt on the second floor, and moved them up to the room, placing them near the floor-to-ceiling window some distance away from Shen Zhining"s bed. She made a bed on the floor and wrapped herself with the thin quilt. With her back facing the bed, she let her thoughts wander for a while before falling asleep.
Shen Zhining, on the other hand, couldn"t fall asleep because he wasn"t used to having someone else in his room. As such, he thought about many things from the past and the present. People ought to live with a goal in mind. After his parents pa.s.sed away, his goal was to become stronger, at least strong enough to protect the people around him and not let them be harmed by others. Yet, the person he wanted to protect the most had unexpectedly met with an accident. He then realised that there were still things that he couldn"t do anything about. He couldn"t bear to watch the most important person to him getting hurt, yet he was powerless and couldn"t do anything to help. This was the main reason why he"d decided to stay behind in the country.
The image of a beautiful, delicate-looking little girl suddenly appeared in his mind. She was rubbing her injured knee and holding back her tears as she said, "Brother Zhining, you have to get stronger and become powerful! That way, no one would dare bully us again in the future."
That year, he and his mother were kidnapped. His father came to their rescue and was, unfortunately, fatally injured in the process, dying not long after. His mother couldn"t stand the blow and committed suicide by overdosing on pills, following his father to the netherworld. Although he didn"t go mad after witnessing all this, he was psychologically traumatised and shut himself off from the outside world until the appearance of his little follower. The little girl, who he pushed to the ground again and again, still followed him around and clung to him like glue even though he"d pushed her away many times. If it weren"t for his little follower, he would probably still be that autistic boy who was living in his own little world.
If someone else were in the little girl"s shoes, they would certainly not patiently stick around. Even though she was pushed to the ground time and time again until she got bruises here and there, she would still get up and run up to him with a sweet smile plastered on her face, following him around everywhere. What left him with the deepest impression was that time when he was surrounded by a bunch of cla.s.smates who didn"t find him pleasing to the eyes and what happened after. This incident had made him start to step out of his own world of his own accord.
When he was about to get beaten by those cla.s.smates, his little follower had appeared and stood in front of him, preventing those bullies from approaching him. They pushed her out of the way, and she fell down, but she didn"t care about the pain and quickly stood up, stepping forward to stand in front of him again to protect him. If the Sheng Family"s driver didn"t come to find them, he would have certainly been beaten black and blue.
The little girl had stared at him with a pitiful look and said while sniffling, "Brother Zhining, if only you were strong. You have to get stronger and become powerful! That way, no one would dare bully us again in the future."
Since then, everything changed…
Shen Zhining opened his eyes and stared into s.p.a.ce, unable to fall asleep even after a long time.
Yet, another person in the same room was sleeping soundly, all the way to the morning.
Sheng Jiaoyang was awoken by the rays of sunlight s.h.i.+ning through the window. She opened her eyes and squinted, temporarily forgetting where she was at this moment. She fuzzily grabbed her gla.s.ses sitting beside her pillow and put them on. Her heart skipping a beat as realisation dawned on her.
Wait a second…oh, that"s right, she"d slept in Shen Zhining"s room last night. As she thought of this, she hurriedly looked towards the bed. Upon seeing that no one was there, she heaved a sigh of relief before getting up and heading towards the bathroom to wash up.
She was in the middle of brus.h.i.+ng her teeth when Shen Zhining walked in.
Sheng Jiaoyang"s eyes widened in shock as her gaze landed on the young man with sweaty hair who was wearing only a pair of gym shorts. At this instant, his entire being was exuding an inexplicable amount of male hormones. She simply stood there with the electric toothbrush in her mouth, forgetting to move it to clean another spot as she thought: Demon King Shen"s figure is pretty good!
In Shen Zhining"s eyes, the girl wearing a rabbit ear headband and a pair of black-framed gla.s.ses gazing at him with a stuffed mouth didn"t look especially foolish.
"Hurry up," Shen Zhining only uttered these two words before turning to leave.
Sheng Jiaoyang spit out the bubbles in her mouth and said, "You can wash up, I won"t peek at you."
Shen Zhining glanced at her without saying a word before walking away.
At breakfast, when Daisy saw Shen Zhining"s haggard-looking face and Sheng Jiaoyang"s energetic appearance, she couldn"t help but ask, "You guys…slept together?"
"Cough!" Sheng Jiaoyang, who"d just drank a mouthful of soya milk, heard this and instantly choked.
Seeing her reaction, the two elders, who were staring at them, let out a breath of relief. Seeing her shocked expression, they certainly wouldn"t have done that. That"s good, that"s good!
Shen Zhining"s expression turned somewhat ugly as he ignored Daisy.
"Is that a yes or no?" Daisy stubbornly asked again.
"Of course." But, it was just that one slept on the bed and one slept on the floor. Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t say that last part aloud. On one hand, she wanted to repay Daisy for letting her choke so early in the morning, and on the other hand, she remembered her task.
Shen Zhining glanced at her, but didn"t deny her words.
As such, Daisy believed them and glared daggers at Sheng Jiaoyang.
After breakfast Daisy blocked Sheng Jiaoyang, who was walking a dog, in the garden and asked, "How much money will it take for you to leave Ning?"
Sheng Jiaoyang"s expression was extremely flat. If she"d heard these words in the past, she definitely would have agreed. But, money wasn"t the main issue at this moment. Shen Zhining had something on her, so no matter how much money Daisy gave her, it was useless.
"The amount of money that you can give me, he can also give me. But…what he can give me, you can"t, so why should I leave him? You think I"m stupid?!" Sheng Jiaoyang sneered.
Her words made sense, so Daisy couldn"t rebuke her. She could only angrily stare at Sheng Jiaoyang"s departing figure. No way! She couldn"t let this become a wasted trip!