1083 Perplexed and Smitten 143
He returned to the cage and opened the door before squatting down. Staring at Fang Erlan, who was still quivering in terror, he said in an alluring voice, “Come out.”
Fang Erlan looked up at him with tears in her eyes that were as dark as ink. She then walked out of the cage slowly.
When she was about to reach him, he grabbed her arm straight away, causing her to stumble forward and fall into his arms. He took the chance to pick her up.
She did not struggle to get out of his embrace at all and was instead behaving as meekly as a lamb, perhaps because she had just gotten a great shock.
He carried her back inside the room.
She finally felt better after he placed her down onto the bed.
“Xiao Chenyang…”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill those two people?”
“Yes.”
“Will the police arrest you, then?”
“Are you worried about me?” he asked, feeling a sudden sense of joy.
She did not answer his question and instead asked again, “Will they arrest you?”
“They wouldn’t.”
“Why not? You killed people…”
“Don’t you know that you won’t be punished by the law if you were to kill terrorists? In fact, you’ll even be handsomely rewarded. Don’t act like a saint and tell me that terrorists are humans too, that their lives ought to be respected as well.”
“I won’t do that or pretend to be a saint. What do you take me for?” she retorted.
“I’m very happy.”
“About what?” she asked in puzzlement.
“I’m happy that you were worried about me just now.”
“I wasn’t being worried about you. I was just afraid that I’ll be implicated if the police were to arrest you. Although I was the victim, I would more or less still be affected.”
“Even then, I’m still very happy. That’s a form of concern too, although you do sound like you don’t have a conscience.”
Feeling extremely disgruntled, Fang Erlan snapped, “Who’s the one who doesn’t have a conscience? You insisted on making me come here. If I hadn’t come here, would I have almost died in a foreign place? How dare you accuse me when I’ve yet to berate you?”
Xiao Chenyang’s lips curled into a smile, and he said, “Send your boss a text message to tell her that you’re safe. Tell them that they don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Okay.” She grabbed her mobile phone that was charging and sent An Xiaoning a text message.
She received a reply soon after.
“Sis said that the four of them are leaving tomorrow for a short vacation in another nation. They’re planning to return to the country after that. Shall we… tag along with them?”
“Why should we do that? Let’s go on a trip alone with just me and you. We’ll return to S Nation after a couple of days too,” said Xiao Chenyang, who had his own plans in mind.
Feeling uncomfortable at the thought of having to be with him alone, she said, “Why must we be alone with each other? Let’s go together with them, shall we?”
He could tell that she was extremely reluctant to spend time with him alone.
However, the more unwilling she was, the more he enjoyed compelling her.
Fang Erlan’s heart sank upon the sight of him entering the bathroom.
She pinched her legs, which were still weak and feeble, before removing her shoes and moving her pillow up to lean against it.
She opened her Weibo page and published a post that read: “Being alive is the most blissful thing ever.”
Those words truly described how she felt at this moment.
It was exactly how she felt after having a close shave with death.
Despite that, there were still a bunch of ill-intentioned netizens who mistook and tweaked the meaning of her words.
However, she had fortunately already become numb and invulnerable to the comments of strangers. She no longer felt as upset as she did when the rumors of her dating Jing Yang were first exposed.
“What are you looking at?” he asked.
Fang Erlan put down her mobile phone and answered, “I posted something on Weibo.”
He picked up her phone and said, “Let me see.”
She tried to s.n.a.t.c.h her phone back from him and said, “There’s nothing much to see.”
Xiao Chenyang raised his hand high above, causing Fang Erlan to miss. He dodged and tapped on the screen, which lit up instantly.
Her Weibo page popped up the moment he unlocked the mobile phone.
After reading the latest post she had published, he turned to glance at her and said, “Your words lack accuracy.”
“Why?”
“Bliss is when you get to live with the person you love. What’s so blissful about living alone?”
Pursing her lips, she said, “Even though you may have a point, I can’t publish that.”
He understood why she had said that. He looked at the screen again, and a number that was typed in red caught his attention — 10,865.
He tapped on the number, after which the page refreshed.
Unread messages: 1025.
Unread comments: 5685.
Likes: 4053.
Entertainment news updates: 102.
“Why are all these unopened and unread? Don’t you read these comments at all?” he asked in surprise.
“There’s nothing much to read. I only do so once in a while.”
He opened every comment and began reading them.
He continued to scroll down the page, growing more and more infuriated with each comment he had read.
Noticing the grave expression on his face, Fang Erlan said, “They’re all just criticizing me. Stop reading them.”
With a sullen expression on his face, he took out a piece of paper and a pen. Seeing that he was writing something on the paper, she asked, “What are you writing?”
“I’m writing down the usernames of all the accounts that have criticized you.”
Fang Erlan stopped him and asked, “What for? There are so many haters. Can you really finish writing down all of their usernames?”
He paused in his actions and looked at her solemnly. “Quit being an actress, will you?”
“Why…? I enjoy being an actress.”
“I don’t like reading these harsh comments about you.”
“Stop reading them, then. Out of sight, out of mind. Nowadays, I rarely ever read those comments on my Weibo posts. Do you know why those haters enjoy making such malicious remarks?”
“Why?”
“Precisely because they want me to read those comments. They want me to feel upset and attacked after reading all those verbally-abusive words. They’re hoping that I would be affected. However, what they don’t know is… I don’t even bother reading their comments at all. Ignoring them is the only way to keep my inner peace. Everyone is raised differently, and you can’t expect each and every single person to treat others with respect and have manners like you do. Otherwise, why would there be so many villains in this world? Since we can’t change society, we can only change ourselves and learn to adapt,” said Fang Erlan, who suddenly felt relieved.
Xiao Chenyang put down his pen and walked toward the bed. He handed her her mobile phone and said, “Since you’ve said that, it just means that you’re genuinely not bothered by those comments.”
She took it from him and asked, “Why are you dressed in such a manner? Isn’t it warm?”
“Not at all.” He then untied the ribbon around his robe and began undressing himself brazenly in front of her.
Fang Erlan closed her eyes and lay down motionlessly. “Can you stop stripping in front of me?” she chided.
“Why?”
“I don’t like it.”
“Oh? But I like it very much. Do you want to watch some DVDs?” he asked.
“Sure, I like watching romance films.”
“Alright.” He had already placed a disc inside the DVD player long ago.
He turned around and opened a bottle of liquor. He then poured a gla.s.s of wine for her and another one for himself, which they then chugged in one go.
She had a huge fright that night and decided to have a few drinks, only to discover that it tasted rather pleasant.