Gentle words.
Soft touches.
Kisses landing on the ear.
Arms holding her body tightly.
These comforting actions perfectly met a woman's need for emotional depth, smoothed away the deep-seated uneasiness in her heart, and brought a sense of security to her inner self.
"Okay," Song Xinya finally stopped worrying about the mice and was willing to sleep peacefully.
Her thick, velvety eyelashes drooped like two soft butterfly wings, and her breathing was so light it was almost inaudible.
Gone was the slyness, rascality, and petulance from earlier; she was now as well-behaved and docile as a cat.
Qin Yuhe watched her, his fingers gently stroking her cheek.
His hands acted on the thoughts in his heart.
His fingers landed on her lips.
The slight pout of her lip was pressed inward, leaving a soft indentation on her plump lips.
The sensation against his fingertips was soft and delicate.
Her exhaled breath carried the scent of alcohol.
Qin Yuhe stared at Song Xinya's lips for a moment, his long eyelashes blinking heavily before he stood up.
He walked into the bathroom and saw puddles of water all over the floor.
She hadn't closed the glass door when she showered earlier, splashing water everywhere.
The robot vacuum would make a buzzing noise and disturb her sleep, so Qin Yuhe found a mop, bent over, and gently, slowly mopped the floor.
His phone rang at this moment. He pulled it out, immediately muted the volume, and then glanced at the caller ID.
Holding the phone, he walked out of the bedroom and answered the call when he reached the second-floor hallway.
His father Qin Hanxiao's voice came through: "Why did it take you so long to answer? I thought no one was going to pick up and was about to hang up."
Qin Yuhe: "Walking from the bedroom to the hallway takes time."
Qin Hanxiao: "Why not answer in the bedroom? Is there something you need to hide?"
Qin Yuhe: "I can't disturb my wife's sleep."
Qin Hanxiao let out a mocking laugh. "What's the big deal? It's just disturbing her sleep. If she's disturbed, so be it, just let her go back to sleep. Let me tell you as someone with experience: you can't spoil women. The more you spoil them, the more they'll walk all over you. In a marriage, a man needs to be tough and have the final say."
Qin Yuhe: "As a man whose marriage failed and whose wife ran off with another man, I don't need you passing on your experience to me."
Poked in a sore spot, Qin Hanxiao jumped up from his chair: "Who said my wife ran off with another man? We had an amicable breakup."
Qin Yuhe: "She dumped you."
Qin Hanxiao's temper flared even higher: "Are you proud of having a wife?"
Qin Yuhe: "Why shouldn't I be."
His thin, red, moist lips added another remark: "It's still better than being a man whose wife ran off with another man."
Qin Hanxiao choked hard on his words.
Furious, he said, "You're hosting a public gala for your wife, and for the past week, I've been the one helping you send out invitations, contact guests, book the hotel, review the menu, and handle a whole series of other things. I'm doing it all for you."
Qin Yuhe's expression remained calm: "I give you a living allowance and dividends every month. Your current life of luxury comes entirely from my support. I never keep idle hands around. If you don't want to do it, then don't take my money."
Qin Hanxiao desperately wanted to shout that he would never take his money again, but he didn't dare.
Because if he said it, Qin Yuhe really would never give him money again.
He had originally called to wash his hands of the matter, to tell Qin Yuhe to let someone else handle the rest of the banquet preparations.
Now, before the words could even leave his mouth, he deflated and sheepishly hung up the phone.
Just as Qin Yuhe was about to return to the bedroom, another call came in.
Old Master Qin: "I heard you came back a day early?"
Resting both hands on the railing, Qin Yuhe looked down at the first-floor lobby: "At your age, Grandpa, you still manage to get firsthand information immediately."
Old Master Qin: "We have an alien signal tower installed at home. I'm so well-informed I could set up a hotspot for the entire universe."
Qin Yuhe: "Excellent."
Old Master Qin: "Right?"
After their daily exchange of pleasantries, the grandfather and grandson got down to business.
Old Master Qin: "The public gala is the day after tomorrow, and Qin Hanxiao is in charge of logistics. You know what your father is like—useless as mud that won't stick to a wall. Nine out of ten things he touches go wrong. Having him do things is like putting a jinx on every single one; nothing ever goes smoothly."
"So I was thinking, since you came back early, you should go to the hotel where the banquet is being held and take a look. See if there are any oversights and if anything needs to be fixed up."
Qin Yuhe said okay.
According to his original plan, he was already intending to go check the venue tomorrow.
This was Song Xinya's first public appearance in high society, and he took it very seriously.
Old Master Qin: "Did you send an invitation to the Song family?"
Qin Yuhe: "Yes."
To a large extent, this gala was being held for those snobs in the Song family who looked down on people.
Song Xinya's status in the Song family was so low that she wasn't even worthy of sitting at the dinner table.
Whenever the Song family held a family banquet, Song Xinya was arranged to eat in a dim, narrow room at the same table as the servants.
As Song Xinya's biological father, Song Xuanli despised her for being fat and having a poor image, feeling it was shameful to take her out.
Her stepmother Li Cuirou and stepsister Zhang Yingying were even worse, calling her Miss Piggy at every turn and insulting her as a fat pig right to her face.
When it came to marriage, the blind dates these three introduced to Song Xinya were either divorced men with two kids looking for a second marriage, or seventy-year-old retired men old enough to be her grandfather.
In the Song family, Song Xinya was looked down upon and ridiculed by everyone.
Those people's memories of Song Xinya were still stuck in the days when she was a two-hundred-pound fat girl.
When they learned that Song Xinya got married, they all said she had married some callow youth.
When the Qin family's invitation was sent to the Song family, the entire Song family was overjoyed. Because previously, the Qin family had never sent invitations to the Song family for any of their events. Now that they suddenly sent one, the Song family members all claimed—
Qin Yuhe had taken a fancy to Zhang Yingying and wanted to marry her to be the young mistress of the Qin family.
Qin Yuhe: "Tomorrow I'll have my assistant verify it again to confirm how many people from the Song family are attending."
Ideally, he wanted the entire Song clan to come.
Old Master Qin: "You've always been meticulous in handling things, so I won't worry. It's getting late, go get some rest."
The old man's deep, thick voice earnestly exhorted Qin Yuhe: "The best feng shui in a home is to treat one's wife well. Only when a husband has the intention to protect his wife will the wife have the heart to care for the home. Between a husband and wife, there must be more understanding, more tolerance, and more communication."
Back then, when Qin Hanxiao and Jiang Yaoxue divorced, the family was torn apart, leading to Qin Yuhe and Qin Yuyan lacking a mother's love and facing an absent father, growing up like orphans. This had always been a pain in Old Master Qin's heart, and the old man now desperately hoped that his grandchildren's marriages would be happy and fulfilling.
Qin Yuhe returned to the bedroom and saw Song Xinya on the bed with one leg under the covers and the other sticking out.
Her long leg was well-proportioned, slender and straight, glowing with a pearlescent white luster under the light.
Even after falling asleep, she was still so restless.
Qin Yuhe walked over, held her lower leg, placed it back under the blanket, and tucked her in properly.
After finishing washing up and walking out of the bathroom, Qin Yuhe saw that Song Xinya was lying on the other side of the bed.
He picked up the air conditioning remote and lowered the temperature from 22 degrees to 15 degrees.
Lifting the blanket and getting into bed, Qin Yuhe counted silently in his head: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Song Xinya rolled right from the edge of the bed into his arms.
Qin Yuhe reached out and held her tight.
During his week-long business trip to Shanghai, she had sent him suggestive photos every night. His heart had been kept in suspense, feeling as if it were being tossed and fried in a vat of boiling oil, causing him sleepless nights.
Waking up to work around the clock during the day had been quite exhausting.
Upon returning, he had originally intended to share some tender moments with her. Instead, he came home to find out she had gone drinking at a club, surrounded by a group of shirtless male models, admiring other men's abs and interacting with them, having the time of her life.
Giving her a piggyback ride, navigating through the small woods, and dealing with her throwing a massive tantrum because she mistook the robot vacuum for a giant black rat.
What a chaotic night it had been.
It was the most chaotic night Qin Yuhe had ever experienced in his entire life.
Now, with both of them lying in bed, holding her tightly, feeling her warm body temperature, smooth skin, and soft curves, that lingering sense of insecurity and restlessness faded significantly.
Soon, Qin Yuhe also fell asleep.
...
When Song Xinya woke up, it was 10:00 AM the next day.
She glanced at the time on her phone and bolted upright in bed. "Oh my god, I'm late for work!"
She threw off the blanket, exposing her bare body.
Qin Yuhe stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, one hand in his pocket, leisurely admiring her panic. "It's Saturday."
As if suddenly waking up from a dream, Song Xinya remembered. "Oh, right."
She quickly pulled the blanket back over herself and lay down again.
A moment later, she poked her head out from under the covers and looked at the man by the window. "Why didn't you remind me earlier?"
Qin Yuhe said, "Did I remind you too late?"
Of course it was late! She had already thrown off the blanket, and a second later, she would have sprinted out of bed completely naked.
Song Xinya suspected he had deliberately waited for her to throw off the covers before saying anything.
After lying there for a while, she sat up, ready to get out of bed.
While putting on her bra, she cupped her breasts to adjust them into the cups when, suddenly, her red lips pursed and her delicate brows furrowed together.
She looked at him with teary eyes. "What did you do to me? Why do I hurt so much?"
Qin Yuhe's dark gaze swept over her, and his thin, reddish lips parted. "I didn't suck on them."
Song Xinya stared at him unblinkingly, seemingly unconvinced.
Qin Yuhe said, "I really didn't suck on them last night."
He hadn't even confronted her about her antics yet, and here she was interrogating him.
He strode toward her with his long legs. His tall, imposing figure cast a shadow over her as he looked down, exuding an intense sense of pressure.
"Mrs. Qin, would you like me to help you recall all the wonderful things you did while you were drunk?"
