Qiuyun: “Um, I’m here to see the steward—the one with the long beard.”
The young girl moved a little closer. “Your surname is Qiu?”
“Mm.”
“Oh, you’re finally here! I was starting to think you wouldn’t come!” She opened the side gate and ushered Qiuyun inside. “The Young Master has been waiting for you all day! Hurry to Pinhe Pavilion—he’s still waiting there!”
“Okay.”
The last time they’d met had been here for their makeup and styling, so Qiuyun knew the way. She didn’t bother having anyone guide her and hurried over on her own.
When she reached the small courtyard, however, she found that not a single light was on.
She pushed open the door, but there was no one inside either.
“President Pei? Pei Cizhou, are you here?”
There was no response. Qiuyun frowned. Could he have left just as she arrived? Maybe their paths had crossed in opposite directions, and they’d simply missed each other.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a phone at the moment and was completely unreachable, so she had no way to call him.
Qiuyun stepped into the courtyard and looked up at the slender crescent moon hanging in the sky.
Sigh. She had rushed all the way here, only to miss him again. What terrible timing—
“Miss Qiu.”
Huh?
Qiuyun turned around, looking left and right.
“Up here.”
“Where?”
Pei Cizhou flipped a switch, and light spilled through the glass doors of the balcony.
“Here. The attic.”
“What are you doing up there? I thought you’d already left.”
“Nothing else to do, so I was looking at the stars.” Pei Cizhou gestured invitingly. “Turn left after entering the house. There’s a staircase. Come up and look at them with me.”
Qiuyun felt bad about making him wait all day and couldn’t bring herself to refuse. She went straight upstairs.
The balcony wasn’t large. There were only two reclining chairs, and apart from the door, all four sides were made of glass polished until they gleamed. It was a beautiful sunroom.
At the moment, though, it was more of a night-view room.
“I’m sorry. Something held me up today.”
Pei Cizhou settled back into his chair and looked up at the night sky. “It’s fine. I know that if you’ve promised to do something, you won’t break your word unless you truly can’t make it.”
The heating in the sunroom was turned up high, so Qiuyun took off her coat. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
Pei Cizhou smiled. “Actually, it’s moral blackmail. I’m not anything to you. Whether you come or not is your choice. Even if you broke your promise, there’d be nothing I could do about it.”
He tilted his head. “Want to join me? There aren’t any skyscrapers around here. The sky looks as vast as a grassland.”
The reclining chair looked incredibly comfortable, so Qiuyun lay down in it.
She hadn’t slept well the night before. After giving a statement at the police station that morning and then spending the afternoon on the road, she was actually rather tired.
“It’s honestly a little hard to get used to President Pei being so understanding.”
Pei Cizhou sighed. “Want to know why?”
“Why?”
Qiuyun quickly ran through the remaining funds she had available to invest in the company.
“Because I realized that if I like a woman with a personality like Miss Qiu’s, I have to spell things out.” Pei Cizhou gazed up at the sky. “Otherwise, as long as I don’t say anything, you’ll never bring it up yourself—not in this lifetime.”
“Cough, cough, cough—what?” Qiuyun was so startled that she couldn’t get the next sentence out.
“Not curious how I figured that out?” he asked with a smile in his eyes.
“…”
No, thank you. She wasn’t curious at all.
“It was that day at the driving school, in the car.” Pei Cizhou didn’t wait for her to refuse. “If Miss Qiu hadn’t been certain that what you did would leave me too distracted to think straight, you never would have used that method to get your phone back.”
At the time, he’d been too flustered and embarrassed, his thoughts already racing thousands of miles away. How could he have had the presence of mind to consider anything else?
It was only later, when he quietly replayed the incident in his mind, that the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
That was when enlightenment struck.
Qiuyun stared speechlessly at the sky.
This Demon Boy really was her natural enemy, wasn’t he?
His powers of observation were simply too strong, and his instincts too sharp. Every time she encountered him, she felt as if she were completely transparent to him. He noticed everything.
Thankfully, something as bizarre and fantastic as traveling from ancient times to the modern world was too far-fetched. Even though he’d sensed from their very first meeting that something was off, he had only assumed she was putting on an act. At least he hadn’t suspected anything else.
“Why did you stop talking?” he asked with a quiet laugh. “When did Miss Qiu realize how I felt?”
Now that they had laid everything out in the open, there was no avoiding the subject.
Who could blame her? She’d been greedy for a bargain and taken three percent of the company’s shares from Sun Guoping for one million yuan. Now she was thoroughly trapped on this pirate ship.
“It was also at the driving school, the first time we happened to run into each other there,” Qiuyun said calmly.
A person’s first reaction was the clearest reflection of what they truly felt.
The instant their eyes met, an uncontrollable delight had burst into his gaze. He had looked so radiant, so overflowing with happiness, that if she hadn’t noticed something was strange, she would have been a complete idiot.
It was just that… as Pei Cizhou had said, he was not only an acquaintance and a friend, but also her boss and business partner. If they made things clear and then their relationship fell apart, it would seriously interfere with her money-making plans.
“I see.” After listening to her explanation, the corners of Pei Cizhou’s lips lifted slightly. “I really was especially happy and surprised that day. Beijing is such a huge city, and yet we ran into each other at a driving school. How could that not be fate?”
That was dangerous territory.
If it had been someone like Jiang Yifeng, she could have tossed back a casual retort.
But when it came to someone like Pei Cizhou…
She decided it was best to remain silent.
Miss Qiu didn’t respond, but Pei Cizhou wasn’t annoyed. He slowly continued, voicing the thoughts he’d kept to himself.
“I spent the whole day here today, thinking about a lot of things.
“Actually, I didn’t want to admit it before. Maybe this is the first time I’ve ever liked someone, so I have no experience with this sort of thing. I always thought that whoever confessed first would be the one at a disadvantage.
“But you’re just too composed, Miss Qiu. Your core is steady, your mindset is steady—you’re so steady that you gave me the impression that if I didn’t say anything, you would never point it out. You’d keep me in the position of a secret admirer forever and never take even a single step toward me.
“Today, I figured it out. Dating isn’t a battle. Why should I care about who has the upper hand?”
He drew a deep breath and calmed his racing heart before telling her in the most sincere voice he could manage:
“So, Miss Qiu, I like you. Will you give me a chance to pursue you?”
Under the vast expanse of stars, Pei Cizhou gathered his courage and confessed to the girl he liked.
But…
There was no response for a long while.
Pei Cizhou frowned slightly. When he sat up to look, all he saw was her tranquil, peaceful sleeping face.
He was so exasperated that he almost laughed.
Fine. Fine. Fine!
He’d nearly forgotten. Miss Qiu was an expert-level player in the art of pretending. Pretending to be polite, pretending to be amiable, pretending to be angry—she could do it all with ease!
And now, just to avoid listening to his confession, she had added pretending to be asleep to her repertoire!
He remembered that she had done the same thing before. Every time he opened his heart to her, she would change the subject and play dumb. She was a repeat offender, all right!
“Miss Qiu clearly did her homework this time. You’re even controlling your breathing.”
Pei Cizhou got up and walked over, crouching down beside her. His eyes narrowed slightly.
“As the saying goes, you can never wake someone who’s pretending to sleep. But today, I’m determined to give it a try.”
Still, there was no reaction.
Pei Cizhou frowned slightly. Then he simply bent closer and continued to threaten her.
“If Miss Qiu doesn’t wake up, I’m going to kiss you.”
Under the night sky, the ground lights around them glowed with a soft, warm radiance. He knelt on one knee, bracing his left hand against the back of her reclining chair as he slowly leaned closer.
“I’m not kidding. I really will kiss you.”
