Chapter 98: You Saw It
He stood at the door with one hand on the frame. While he showed no intention of coming out, he also had no intention of letting her in.
“Don’t worry. Go back to sleep,” he a.s.sured.
However, Ning Li did not move. A quick pause later, she said, “Second Brother, I remember that your master bedroom is connected to the study, right? May I…sleep here?”
Lu Huaiyu’s thin eyes squinted.
The moment the words escaped her mouth, Ning Li realized how wrong it sounded. “I…I can’t sleep in total darkness…”
Lu Huaiyu had a glance at the phone in her hand. She should be fine with the phone. It was not that he did not want to give the girl some comfort, but it was difficult for him to do so.
He was fine with Ning Li staying in the mansion. There were many empty rooms on the first and the second floors, so she was more than welcome to pick any one of those except his own room.
Did she realize how inappropriate it was to say those words to a young man in the middle of the night with no one else around?
Was it the blind trust she had in him? Or had she never taken him seriously as a man?
Finally, Lu Huaiyu said, “There’s only a couch in the study, and you won’t sleep well on it. I’ll get you a lamp shade, then you can use your phone—”
Beep!
The last bar of her battery died, and Ning Li’s phone went dark.
Lu Huaiyu was speechless while the air was silent.
Ning Li had been busy for the day, so she had forgotten to charge her phone. Even though she had the charger in her bag, they were experiencing a blackout. It might be a while before she could charge her phone.
Lu Huaiyu glanced at his phone at the tea table. He had flown all the way back from the capital and did not even bother to check his phone’s battery.
His phone should also be down to the last bar and it would not last any longer.
A swift thought later, he said, “There should be candles in the house. I’ll go look for them.”
He then wanted to go back into his room, but Ning Li held him back by squeezing his arm.
Lu Huaiyu paused.
Ning Li let go of him swiftly and suddenly felt irritated. “Then…I’ll wait for you, Second Brother.”
Lu Huaiyu stared at her with a profound gaze. Her grip on his arm was strong and nervous as she reacted like a lost child trying to grasp onto something important. Was it really because she could not sleep in the dark?
“Hmm, wait for me here. I’ll be back.”
He then walked towards the study through his bedroom.
Ning Li stood at the entrance quietly. Everything was dark, so she could only see what was in front of her when the moonlight shed its soft glow through the window.
Meanwhile, Lu Huaiyu’s footsteps were extra clear and crisp in the quiet night.
She sighed a heavy breath.
…
When Lu Huaiyu walked past the tea table, he grabbed the folder with the doc.u.ments and put it away. His fingers stroked the rough folder softly as he tied it together. The expression on his face turned serious.
The doc.u.ments did not mention anything about her current condition.
He put the doc.u.ments back in the drawer beside his bed and then headed to the study. He opened the drawer with a row of neatly arranged aromatherapy candles that he used as sleeping aids. He used to light them when he slept, but he recently stopped using them.
He stared at the candles for a moment before he closed the drawer.
Then, Ning Li heard his footsteps coming back.
“The candles are finished,” he said.
Ning Li was caught off guard by his words.
‘If that’s the case…’
“Let’s go to the living room,” Lu Huaiyu suggested.
Ning Li looked at him in confusion. “Why?”
“I can’t sleep as well, so why don’t we have a chat?”
Lu Huaiyu then closed his door.
There were several floors in the mansion which was still s.p.a.cious despite the number of rooms. However, the best place to chat at the moment would be the living room.
Ning Li sighed a breath of relief when she heard that. “Sure.”
…
The living room on the first floor was huge with a ceiling height of 5 meters. The huge floor-to-ceiling windows were also crystal clear.
A set of black couches were placed in the middle, facing the yard through the window.
Ning Li sat in the left corner of the couch whereas Lu Huaiyu sat in the single-seater. The two of them were quite far apart from each other, but she could hear his voice and see him. His presence calmed her down.
“What did you eat for dinner?” Lu Huaiyu asked.
‘Did he mean dinner last night?’
Ning Li shook her head. “I didn’t eat dinner last night.”
She had left Su Yuan’s birthday dinner after giving her mother the gifts. She did not even have a gla.s.s of water.
Then, she had gone to the apartment with Wei Songze. When the rain got even heavier after that, she decided to stay indoors. However, she had not felt hungry at all.
She wondered why Lu Huaiyu asked her about dinner. Her heart throbbed when she looked at him.
At that moment, he leaned back on the sofa in a lazy but elegant manner. The expression on his face was rather vague due to the darkness, but his perfect jawline remained obvious.
Given Lu Huaiyu’s influence, it should be easy for him to find out what happened yesterday.
She said, “I was just feeling down and wanted to take a walk outside—”
“So, you turned off your phone?”
“I just don’t want the Ye family to find me. I didn’t expect to cause you so much trouble.” Ning Li admitted her mistake.
Lu Huaiyu looked at her and said nonchalantly, “Did it occur to you that turning your phone off doesn’t only shut you off from the Ye family but also me?”
He sounded like he was trying to interrogate her, so Ning Li frowned.
“But you are in the capital and I thought that you were busy. I didn’t—”
“Busy?” Lu Huaiyu interrupted her, “Busy doing what?”
She parted her lips and said softly, “I don’t know…having a meal with a friend?”
Lu Huaiyu froze for a moment as he looked at her. The girl had a throw draped across her even though she was sitting on the couch. Her eyes were bright when she said that as if she was ready to defend herself. However, her voice was soft like a cat’s purr.
The frustration and irritation that troubled him for the whole day faded, only to be replaced by a strange feeling.
As though she sensed his gaze, Ning Li suddenly felt guilty and looked away.
Lu Huaiyu chuckled. “You saw that?”
Sometimes, a glance was all it required to convey a message. He knew what Ning Li wanted to say, and she also had the same feeling.
She tightened the blanket around her and curled up like a piece of marshmallow. To be honest, what she said was the truth.
The capital was Lu Huaiyu’s turf, and his friends and family were there. The man had stayed in Yunzhou for quite some time, and going back to catch up with a friend over a meal was common.
However, Lu Huaiyu’s answer told her that something was off.
“I went back because of my grandfather.”
She kept quiet, so Lu Huaiyu continued, “I haven’t gone back in months. So, I played chess with him, chatted with him, and we even went out for lunch together. As for friends, I didn’t have the time to meet any of them.
“I went back on short notice after all. Other than my family and you, no one knows about my trip.”
Even Cheng Xiyue only found out about his trip after the man flew back to Yunzhou. He said all that with calm and confidence, but the more Ning Li heard, the stranger she felt.
She grumbled, “You don’t have to tell me the details of your trip…”
Lu Huaiyu curved his lips. “It’s not very detailed. You also messaged me when you got home.”