The next day, at seven o'clock in the evening.
Qin Yuhe sat at the dining table, with Song Tingye sitting across from him.
The mahogany dining table with gold accents exuded a high-end, luxurious vibe. It was filled with dishes that looked, smelled, and tasted delicious, and could accommodate over a dozen people dining together.
At this moment, however, only Qin Yuhe and Song Tingye sat at the massive table.
Glancing up toward the second floor, Song Tingye asked, "Brother-in-law, a whole day has passed. Is my sister still not out of bed?"
Qin Yuhe gave a deadpan grunt of acknowledgment.
Song Tingye said, "The sun has baked her butt and already set, and she still isn't up. My sister is way too lazy."
Qin Yuhe paused his movement with the soup spoon and said, "Sleeping in can relieve fatigue, boost one's mood, promote hormonal balance, and repair the skin. This isn't laziness; it's self-love."
Song Tingye's eyes widened. "Wow, brother-in-law, you are too good with words. Hearing you say that, sleeping in is practically a virtue now."
Qin Yuhe replied, "It always has been."
Song Tingye said, "Then I'm going to sleep in tomorrow too."
Qin Yuhe said, "Is your handwriting practiced? Can you write an essay without going off-topic? Can you pass your language arts exam? Thinking about sleeping in when you've achieved absolutely nothing is just laziness."
Song Tingye said, "Damn, brother-in-law, talk about double standards!"
Qin Yuhe said, "Stay in your lane."
Song Tingye said, "...Alright, alright, I'll stay in my lane."
There was sizzling iron-plate steak on the table. Instead of using a knife and fork, Song Tingye used chopsticks to tear off huge chunks of meat, eating the premium steak as if it were cheap braised pork.
After finishing a two-pound steak, Song Tingye picked up another piece with his chopsticks.
"Brother-in-law, there's something I don't understand."
Qin Yuhe said, "Speak."
Song Tingye asked, "Why is it that whenever you come back, my sister can't get out of bed?"
Qin Yuhe kept a straight face. "Your sister was so happy I came back that she stayed awake all night out of excitement."
Song Tingye said, "Oh, so that's why."
Qin Yuhe said, "Mmhmm."
Unlike Song Tingye, who ate until he was stuffed, Qin Yuhe made a point of eating only until he was seventy percent full.
Groomed from a young age to be the head of the Qin family, the education Qin Yuhe received taught him: do not seek to be stuffed when eating, do not seek comfort in living, be diligent in action and cautious in speech.
It emphasized moderation to cultivate one's moral character.
In all things, including his diet, Qin Yuhe had always restrained and disciplined himself.
However, this formidable self-control completely disintegrated and fell to pieces whenever he was faced with Song Xinya.
The moment he touched her, the wild desires hidden deep in his bones were effortlessly ignited.
Qin Yuhe knew very clearly that he and Song Xinya were incredibly compatible physically.
This compatibility was evident from the very first time he saw her on their blind date at the Xundao Cafe, when his body sent him signals and sparked a desire to get close to her.
Hugging her, kissing her, and any physical contact with her made him feel incredibly comfortable.
That feeling was like a drug, completely addictive.
In front of her, he could not maintain his calm restraint.
He had enjoyed himself, but he just didn't know how she felt about it.
He had been too indulgent last night.
She had slept for twelve hours and still couldn't get up.
Qin Yuhe put down his chopsticks and picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth and hands.
Song Tingye was also worried about Song Xinya, because his sister was usually full of energy, always busy like a hardworking little bee. Even when she slept in, she had never slept for this long.
"Brother-in-law, is it really okay for my sister to sleep this much? Is she sick with a fever, and that's why she's so sleepy?"
Qin Yuhe replied, "I checked her temperature every hour. She doesn't have a fever."
A servant brought over an insulated lunchbox. Qin Yuhe picked up his chopsticks, packed some food into it, and stood up to head to the second floor.
"I'll go check on her."
Song Tingye suddenly stood up. "I'll go with you."
Qin Yuhe said, "Our bedroom isn't a suitable place for you to enter."
Song Tingye said, "What's unsuitable about it? It's just a place to sleep."
The kind of sleep Qin Yuhe had was not the same kind of sleep Song Tingye was thinking of.
Qin Yuhe turned around and cast a sidelong glance at Song Tingye. "When you see your sister in a moment, she'll ask you if your essay went off-topic and if you've finished your test papers."
Song Tingye flicked the hem of his shirt and sat back down in his seat. "I think I'll just keep eating."
...
Second floor, bedroom.
Song Xinya had many dreams—sensual, steamy, and blurry.
In her dreams, all sorts of crazy actions played out one after another. In her sleep, her delicate brows were slightly furrowed and her red lips slightly parted, making it impossible to tell if she was in pain or experiencing pleasure.
A whole day had already passed, yet she felt as though her intense, desperate entanglement with Qin Yuhe was still ongoing.
The aftereffects were too strong.
The aftermath of that crazy, unbridled experience was simply too intense.
The scenes in her dreams were less like her own wild imagination and more like a replay of last night.
The hand tightly gripping her waist, the temperature of their skin pressing and clashing together, the husky pants escaping from those dark red, thin lips...
He pushed hard, kissing her wet eyelashes again and again, coaxing her in a hoarse voice, "Be good, don't cry."
His actions were heavy, but the voice coaxing her was gentle.
It was too real.
She couldn't distinguish between dream and reality.
Trapped in the dream, she couldn't wake up.
Suddenly, a warm palm rested on her forehead.
Long, slender finger bones, thin calluses with a slightly rough friction, and a body temperature slightly higher than an average person's.
The crisp scent of a man entered her nose—deep, elegant, and familiar.
A low, husky male voice fell into Song Xinya's ears. "Mrs. Qin, are you still not awake?"
The chaotic scenes in her dream were cleared away. Song Xinya pulled herself out of the illusion and opened her eyes.
Her racing heartbeat had not yet fully calmed down, and she felt dazed.
She lay in the soft blankets, her face fair, tender, and flushed red. Her whole being exuded a childlike innocence and softness.
This version of Song Xinya was a rare sight.
Usually, she was radiant, glamorous, and aggressively bright.
Right now, she looked alluringly innocent, making one want to bully her.
Qin Yuhe sat on the edge of the bed close to her, looking at her with a faint smile in his eyes.
His hand moved away from her forehead, slipped around her slender, fragile shoulder, and slid between her and the bedsheets. With his palm supporting her back, he propped her up to sit and lean against his chest.
Song Xinya had no strength in her body, so soft she felt like she was falling apart. Her lower back was sore, numb, and a little painful.
She leaned against Qin Yuhe's embrace softly, as if she had no bones, looking like she had been thoroughly ravaged.
Seeing the insulated lunchbox he had brought over, she mumbled, "It's time for breakfast."
Qin Yuhe chuckled softly. "It's dinner."
Dinner?
Song Xinya's groggy state was shocked into wakefulness. "I slept for that long!"
Qin Yuhe held her with one hand and opened the lunchbox with the other. "Eat something."
A spoonful of peach gum, silver ear mushroom, and bird's nest soup was brought to her lips, smelling sweet and refreshing.
She hadn't felt it while she was asleep, but upon smelling the aroma, Song Xinya immediately felt hungry. She parted her lips and ate it in small bites.
After finishing a bowl of soup, her body regained some strength. She realized that she had been eating directly from Qin Yuhe's hand; he had been feeding her the entire time.
She wasn't a child anymore. Being fed by someone else was an exclusive privilege meant for children.
Song Xinya said, "I can do it myself."
She reached out for the lunchbox.
Her wrist was caught by him and pressed back under the covers.
Qin Yuhe fed a small, cut-up piece of steak into Song Xinya's mouth. "Does it make you happy when I feed you?"
Song Xinya chewed carefully and gave a soft "Mm."
Qin Yuhe: "I'll keep doing the things that make you happy."
Throughout the entire meal, he fed her every bite. When they finished, he took a napkin and gently wiped her mouth.
After taking the thermal lunchbox down to the first-floor kitchen, Qin Yuhe didn't go to the study to work; he went straight back to the bedroom.
Song Xinya was kneeling on the bed, sitting back on her heels. She wore a milky-white nightgown made of textured seersucker cotton, which gave off a very soft and sweet vibe—innocent yet alluring.
The moment the bedroom door opened, her watery, rippling eyes looked over at him.
Qin Yuhe looked at her and walked over without a second thought.
"Why are you kneeling?" He patted her head, sat on the bed, and naturally lifted her onto his lap. Embracing her from behind, he rested his face against her neck.
His breath fell upon her ear and neck, making her thoughts drift lightly.
Even though they had already done very intimate things together, this tender, warm, and doting gesture still made her heart flutter.
Song Xinya grew uselessly nervous.
"I was just... zoning out for a bit."
Qin Yuhe: "You slept for so long, I was a little scared."
The back of Song Xinya's head rested against his chest. She turned to look at him, her gaze falling on his lips.
"Why were you scared?"
Qin Yuhe looked down at her, his eyes tracing the high bridge of her nose and sweeping over her crimson lips.
"I was worried I might have fucked you to death."
A decadent blush crept across Song Xinya's face.
She had come close. She had passed out twice in the middle of it. She didn't die, so it was more like... dying and coming back to life, then dying again?
When girls discussed this sort of thing, they were always at least a little affected, unable to be as completely unfazed as men.
Song Xinya changed the subject, though she was also genuinely curious: "Mr. Qin, aren't you still busy with the project in Shanghai? Don't you need to work?"
Qin Yuhe: "I do."
Song Xinya: "If you're busy, you should go to the study and work."
Qin Yuhe: "Work can wait for a moment. Right now, I want to talk about another important matter."
His tone was deep, solemn, and serious. Song Xinya couldn't help but rein in her fluttering thoughts, straightening her expression into a posture of utmost seriousness, ready to listen attentively.
Qin Yuhe: "Was I a bit too rough last night?"
Song Xinya: "..."
The "important matter" he mentioned was a "post-class review."
He really was a top student; he strove for perfection and continuous improvement in everything he did.
Pre-class preview, earnest effort during class, and post-class review—he didn't skip a single step, always demanding that each time be better than the last.
Song Xinya understood that Qin Yuhe seeking her out for a review afterward wasn't just for his own pleasure, but to make it more pleasurable for her, too.
Since he had such great bedroom virtues, it would seem terribly impolite of her not to cooperate.
Song Xinya: "...Yeah."
Qin Yuhe: "Did I hurt you?"
Song Xinya: "...A little."
Qin Yuhe: "I'm sorry."
Song Xinya: "...It's okay."
Qin Yuhe: "How should I improve to make it better?"
Song Xinya: "...I think when it comes to 'solving problems,' you are already an outstanding national talent. You don't need to improve."
Qin Yuhe: "It seems you are very satisfied with me."
Song Xinya: "...Mm."
She raised her arm. Her tender, pale fingers swept past his eyes as she brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead, using the gesture to hide her fluster.
Qin Yuhe felt a flash of dazzling white skin before his eyes.
She was very fair; even the milky-white nightgown paled in comparison to her skin.
Song Xinya's hand passed before his eyes once more before dropping onto the bedsheets.
Immediately, a warm body temperature transmitted as he took her hand in his.
Qin Yuhe's fingers had distinct joints, and his palms were slender and strong—long and narrow rather than broad, giving off a refined, jade-like elegance.
But compared to Song Xinya's, his hands were still much larger; a single hand could completely envelop hers.
Qin Yuhe held Song Xinya's hand in his palm, playing with it.
Song Xinya was already nervous, and now her heart felt like it was floating.
The girl's hand was white, delicate, and smooth, feeling incredibly soft and pleasant to hold and toy with.
After playing with her hand for a while, Qin Yuhe casually remarked, "How is your hand so small?"
Every girl was born with a knack for catching the main point. A thought immediately popped into Song Xinya's head: "Have you played with bigger ones?"
Perhaps it was a case of the mouth acting on the mind's thoughts.
She actually blurted it out.
But the moment the words left her mouth, Song Xinya regretted it.
The deeper meaning behind that sentence was asking about his romantic history.
It was also asking about his sexual experience.
When making demands of others, one should first see if they meet the criteria themselves.
To demand that someone else be pure and flawless, one had to be a blank sheet of paper themselves.
You couldn't exactly be a used newspaper and demand the other person be a blank page.
Before marrying Qin Yuhe, on a night when she was drunk, Song Xinya had a one-night stand with a man whose identity she didn't know.
Asking Qin Yuhe this question now was tantamount to asking if he had slept with other women before.
If he answered her question, courtesy dictated that she would have to answer him in return.
Was she supposed to reply, I've slept with another man once before?
Well, actually, it was more than once. That night, she and that man had done it several times.
Exactly how many times, she didn't know, because after she passed out, the man had kept going.
Between husband and wife, or boyfriend and girlfriend, talking about this sort of thing was the ultimate taboo.
Don't be fooled by men who say they accept your entire past; if you actually tell them the details of what you did with another man, they'll be so furious they'd grab a knife and hack the guy to death.
In truth, Song Xinya could sense that Qin Yuhe wasn't a virgin either.
Because the first time they did it after getting married, he navigated her body with great ease.
His skills were so superb, it was obvious at a glance that he wasn't a virgin.
No matter how strong a top student's learning ability was, they still needed a process of practice.
Song Xinya recalled that night in the hotel a year ago; that man had been a bit rusty and unfamiliar during their first round.
However, that man was also a top student with a strong ability to learn. He quickly mastered the "problem-solving" techniques and was able to draw inferences, using different methods to continuously explore and "solve problems" in a variety of ways.
Thinking about it this way, Song Xinya felt that she had given her first time to the man she met in the hotel a year ago—who was also a virgin—rather than to Qin Yuhe.
Qin Yuhe was her husband, so it was inevitable that she would be curious about which woman he had given his first time to.
