Chapter 31 "Should I help you take it off yourself?"...

Xu Shaoting felt the gentle pressure around his waist and took the initiative, lifting Wen Jia up again and gently placing her on the sink. His forehead pressed against hers, their breaths mingling.

He said meaningfully, "Will you take it off yourself, or should I help you?"

Wen Jia was practically deaf to reason; her cheeks flushed red, her heart pounded with embarrassment, and she couldn't even utter a word.

Her thin knit top and dark blue jeans were tossed to the ground one by one, and she felt the cool touch of the man's jade-like hands. Perhaps because he had been holding a fountain pen for many years, Xu Shaoting's fingers were covered with a thin layer of calluses, but it did not affect his appearance at all. Instead, it brought her a tingling sensation that made her whole body tremble.

Wen Jia sat on the table, her arms around his neck. Only the fabric covering her key areas remained intact. The man looked down at her and smiled gently. The smile was both serious and frivolous, with a hint of intimacy. It was hard to imagine that he was actually undressing a woman in this state.

Xu Shaoting wasn't in a hurry. Rather than an attack, it was more like a maneuver. His movements were slow and gentle. His slender fingers circled around her back and precisely placed on the hidden clasp. Along with his light chuckle came the soft, crisp sound of the clasp being snapped open.

With her last barrier removed, she completely forgot what she had solemnly said when signing the contract. At this moment, her mind was filled with shame, and she covered herself with her hands to prevent him from seeing.

Xu Shaoting became patient at this moment, leaning down to kiss her, but not directly. Instead, he lightly touched her forehead, earlobes, and cheeks, until his patience ran out, and then he finally stopped at her lips.

Wen Jia's mood fluctuated wildly today. His teasing made her dizzy and her body weak. Unable to find anything to support herself, she could only lean her weight entirely on the man. She took her hands off her chest, wrapped them around him, and returned his kiss.

Xu Shaoting should have deepened the kiss, but he didn't. He suddenly opened his deep eyes, and the mist before his eyes instantly dissipated, leaving only a clear, cool light. He completely withdrew from the kiss.

His gaze followed her lips down, stopping at the snow-white skin that had slipped from her hand, and he chuckled teasingly, "Actually, you weren't resisting at all; you were just pretending?"

Wen Jia's self-control was not as strong as his; she became infatuated after being kissed for a while, and it took her more than ten seconds to come back to her senses. By the time she realized what Xu Shaoting had seen, it was too late...

Her eyes welled up with tears, and she couldn't bear to look at him anymore. She rested her forehead on his broad shoulder and exhaled, "You rascal..."

A low chuckle came from above her head. She was incredibly embarrassed, both afraid of him and recklessly defiant: "Do you do this all the time? You seem so skilled at it..."

“Miss Wen,” he called her softly, “how can this be considered proficient?”

His hands were ice cold.

Wen Jia trembled violently, "No..."

"What do you not want?"

Wen Jia bit her lip hard and buried her head even lower, into his chest.

"Say it, and I'll stop."

"..."

Wen Jia pressed her forehead against his shoulder, feeling his burning body temperature, so she couldn't see the man swallowing repeatedly.

She was too self-aware to know that her words carried no weight, and at a loss for words, she could only curse him again, "...a scoundrel."

Xu Shaoting scoffed, ignoring her insults, and played with her for a while before lifting her off the counter and immersing her in the bathtub filled with hot water.

The countertop was icy cold, and the hot water was scalding. Wen Jia was not used to the temperature difference and suddenly shivered.

Yu Kaiqing's voice came abruptly from outside the bedroom door, shouting and urging her to rest early.

Wen Jia finally snapped out of her daze and saw the man standing by the bathtub, his expression clear and unperturbed. She looked up at him and mouthed, "What should we do?"

Xu Shaoting remained calm and said, "I'll go and talk to them."

Just as Yu Kaiqing was about to knock on the door, which was separated by only a wall, the door was opened.

Xu Shaoting's tall figure blocked the doorway, only opening it a crack, preventing her from entering.

Yu Kaiqing clicked her tongue and stood on tiptoe to try to peek inside. "Where's my sister? She should be sleeping."

She's taking a shower.

Yu Kaiqing looked him up and down suspiciously, and only when she saw that his clothes were neat and tidy did she feel a little relieved.

"Is Chairman Xu planning to stay here tonight?"

She thought he would reject it outright, but instead received an ambiguous answer:

"Maybe not."

Yu Kaiqing exclaimed, "Maybe?!"

Inside the bathroom, Wen Jia listened intently to the conversation between the two people at the door. Seeing that the topic had taken a turn in another direction, she suddenly raised her voice to interrupt, "Kaiqing, get me a bath towel!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Shaoting made way for him and turned to walk towards the single sofa in the bedroom. He sat on the sofa calmly for a few seconds. A desire intensified in the short few seconds he hadn't seen Wen Jia, making him feel irritated. He took out a cigarette to smoke, but then realized he was in her room and restrained himself from smoking it.

Yu Kaiqing darted in and out of the doorway. He crossed his arms and glanced at her indifferently until he was sure she had completely left the bedroom. Only then did he stand up from the sofa and return to the bathroom.

The door locked silently, and as he looked at the woman before him, his eyes suddenly shifted from dim to burning.

She stood in the bathtub, her body already neatly wrapped in a bath towel.

"You're done washing so quickly?"

"I can't really ask you to wash for me..." Wen Jia didn't look at him, staring blankly at the floor.

"Why not? Go back and wash it again."

Upon hearing her words, Wen Jia felt a sudden alarm bell ring in her heart. She believed that he was absolutely capable of doing it, so she quickly stepped out of the bathtub, still wet with water droplets.

Because she was carried there, she didn't even have slippers. She walked barefoot on the floor, and the cold made her shiver.

Seeing her pitiful state, he unusually took pity on her and stopped tormenting her. He simply stepped forward and said, "I'll hug you."

The man moved with ease, seemingly without any effort, and pulled her into his arms.

This time she learned her lesson and stayed quietly in his arms.

She was only wearing a thin bath towel, which was very damp, so the sensation of his body against her skin was even more pronounced. She wanted to twist her body and adjust herself to a more comfortable position.

However, he stopped her, saying, "Don't move."

Wen Jia looked back at him, her expression unreadable, but she didn't say anything.

Her limbs relaxed, making the other sensations even more vivid. Wen Jia suddenly felt a burning sensation on a certain part of her skin. Her mind went blank, and she subconsciously wanted to look down, but he held her even tighter.

"...Don't look."

She regained her senses, closed her eyes, turned her head and buried her face in his chest, saying something that seemed to fuel her curiosity: "You're the one who should be wearing a towel..."

Xu Shaoting looked down at her, his eyes swirling with dark emotions. "Whose fault is it?"

"I didn't force you to watch this. So Chairman Xu can be this unreasonable after all..."

He was completely convinced, closed his eyes briefly, and said, "Indeed."

He gently placed her on the bed, then, without looking at her again, said, "I'm going to have a smoke."

He then picked up his suit jacket and slowly walked out of the bedroom.

Wen Jia sat on the bed in a daze for a moment, and after the burning sensation in her ears had completely disappeared, she walked to the French windows and looked down.

Within two seconds, the man appeared in the villa's courtyard. He walked out slowly, facing the window of her room. His tie seemed to have been loosened, not as straight as usual. Although his posture was upright, he exuded a sense of dejection and weariness.

I can't figure out what he's thinking.

Xu Shaoting cupped his hand around the wind and lit a cigarette, a striking crimson hue suddenly appearing in the deep night.

He took a deep breath, exhaled, and the smoke swirled around his deep silhouette. He squinted and looked up at the second-floor window.

A gaze looking up collides with another looking down. In fact, the floor-to-ceiling window is one-way, so he can't see Wen Jia standing in front of the window. However, he still feels inexplicably flustered.

Wen Jia quickly looked away, pulled the semi-transparent curtains closed, and turned to sit back on the bed.

Xu Shaoting smoked three cigarettes in the small courtyard downstairs. He didn't want to indulge in this self-numbing mood. Normally, he would consciously restrain himself, and two cigarettes a day was already an indulgence for him. However, at this moment, it seemed that some kind of unbearable burning sensation in his body needed to be relieved by nicotine.

He lowered his eyes, his expression helpless.

After the last wisp of cigarette butt went out, he went up to the bedroom on the second floor again, where Wen Jia had already changed into a lace nightgown.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, playing with the half-hundred-million-dollar pink diamond, turning it between her fingers, from her index finger to her pinky finger, and then back to her index finger. In the end, she found that her ring finger was the most suitable size for it.

The room was quiet. She heard familiar, steady footsteps coming from the stairwell, getting closer and closer. The next second, the doorknob was turned. Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly took off the ring and hid it behind the pillow.

It's clearly nothing shameful, and I don't know what I'm hiding.

When Xu Shaoting stepped into the room, he could only see her sitting peacefully in bed, her expression calm and composed, holding a thick book and reading.

If he hadn't looked closely, he might have actually believed in her studiousness.

Xu Shaoting curled his lips in a flippant manner.

She held the book upside down.

"..."

However, her gaze lingered only on the corner of the book, with no attention paid to its contents. Naturally, she didn't notice her own embarrassment and simply looked at the man standing at the door as if nothing had happened.

Xu Shaoting didn't point it out to her. He simply walked to the bedside, gently took the book from her hand—a heavy, thick book with a cardboard cover. He looked at the words on the cover.

Camus's Love Letters

He gave a half-smile, "Looking at these things before bed, aren't you afraid of having nightmares?"

Wen Jia said frankly, "If we're going to do it, it'll just be a wet dream, what's so scary about that?"

"I didn't expect you to like this type of movie."

Wen Jia nodded, then quickly shook her head. "I've been buying them for many, many years. When I was preparing for the college entrance exam, my Chinese teacher told us to buy a bunch of books by philosophers, copy down their sentences, and write them in our essays. I couldn't read a single word of those books, but I didn't dare disobey the teacher. So I bought a collection of love letters by a philosopher, thinking that since they were all philosophy, what was the difference between discussing love and discussing human civilization and the natural universe?"

Xu Shaoting nodded slightly in agreement, "That's true."

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you," Wen Jia waved her hand. "You definitely haven't experienced it."

Xu Shaoting tugged at his suit trousers, sat down on the single sofa by the bed, and nodded. "That's right, I went to study in the United States when I was ten years old."

Wen Jia propped herself up on her arms and sat up straighter. It was the first time she had heard him talk about his past in person, and her sleepiness turned into interest; she was clearly listening very attentively.

“America?” she said, resting her chin on her hand. “But your way of doing things doesn’t seem like someone who was educated in America.”

Too restrained, reserved, and upright, yet ruthless and cold-hearted.

Xu Shaoting smiled self-deprecatingly. "My father was very strict with me. If he had brought the American way of doing things back with me, I probably wouldn't exist in the Xu family anymore." He paused, then added, "So after I graduated from high school, he sent me to England."

He paused for a moment, "I left the country the day after my tenth birthday. I remember it very well because I was the only person on the entire private jet, apart from the cabin crew."

Wen Jia was slightly taken aback. "Where are your parents?"

“I didn’t accompany him,” Xu Shaoting shook his head, “I deliberately didn’t accompany him.”

"I later learned that my mother actually wanted to come that day, but she was stopped."

She put it bluntly, "Are you going to leave me alone abroad to fend for myself?"

"Not really, because apart from not being there in person, they prepared everything for me."

He has a butler to take care of his daily life, a chef to prepare his meals, and a large estate to support his lifestyle. Since he went abroad, he has been given millions of dollars every month.

But if you were to ask ten-year-old Xu Shaoting whether he liked this kind of life...

He would reject it without hesitation.

He lived abroad for a whole year, carefree than most people, but no one knew that in a manor in Southern California, eleven-year-old Xu Shaoting's birthday wish was to see his parents the next day.

This wish was made until he was sixteen, but it never came true. When he grew up, he learned that his parents had indeed come, but each time they would only glance at him sleeping in the middle of the night before leaving in a hurry.

Do you hate your parents?

"Not really."

Will you blame them?

"Maybe before adulthood."

"Then..." Wen Jia hesitated before speaking, "Is this how all the children in your family grew up? Last time I heard you say that you also have a younger sister."

"just me."

"Is it because you're their eldest child?"

“I never asked.”

Although reluctant to mention or recall his childhood spent alone abroad, Hsu Shao-ting still has to admit that those years of experience fundamentally overturned his nature and habits, and perhaps even changed the trajectory of his life to a great extent.

He was raised with the values ​​of self-discipline, propriety, and moderation. However, the people, events, things, and even emotions he lost during his growth taught him that mere humility and etiquette were insufficient to ensure his well-being. He gradually came to understand that the world does not always respond to politeness; sometimes, it requires sharpness, decisiveness, and even toughness.

Wen Jia observed his expression, shrugged, as if to show him magnanimity, "Okay... now I know why you won't listen to your parents' arrangements for marriage. If I were you, I wouldn't listen either."

Xu Shaoting's gaze paused slightly. "My reluctance to abide by the marriage agreement may have something to do with this, but it's not the whole story."

"What is that?" she asked without thinking.

He laughed, "Take a guess."

Wen Jia lowered her head, and the room fell silent for a moment.

Xu Shaoting reached out and adjusted the floor lamp by her bedside, dimming the light. He didn't speak again. His long legs were stretched out, his slender fingers holding the book, his brows furrowed, yet his demeanor was quite different from his business persona, clearly mixed with a hint of nonchalance.

Wen Jia glanced at him sideways, starting to wonder if he had a split personality.

Is this quiet, reserved man really the same person who was a beast in human clothing in the bathroom just now?

Wen Jia blushed, afraid that she was having inappropriate thoughts, and dared not look at his face again, instead shifting her gaze to the book in his hand.

One page in the collection of love letters had a deep, heavy crease, making it stand out from the rest. Xu Shaoting naturally stopped on that page.

He looked down at the two short lines of text, one in Chinese and one in English:

My lifelong wish is

It is possible to conspire with one person.

He read the English version of the line aloud, with perfect American pronunciation, a deep and magnetic voice, and a calm and elegant tone.

He looked up at Wen Jia, "You like this line?"

“I wouldn’t say I like it, I just find it unique, and this sentence left the deepest impression on me,” she said in a clear voice. “Because the teacher asked us to write book reviews, I was lazy and chose this shortest sentence.”

"How was it written?"

Wen Jia looked up, as if recalling something. “What I wrote was that in Camus’s philosophical system, the world is absurd, and humanity yearns for meaning but encounters a meaningless universe. In this context, collusion is akin to an alliance against absurdity, where two people, through absolute trust and understanding, jointly confront the nothingness of life. This collusion is not a romanticized sweetness, but a choice of the sober-minded, knowing that love cannot last forever, yet still witnessing each other’s existence.” She paused for a few seconds, looking at him. “It’s as if, if the world is inherently absurd, then at least let the two of us jointly invent a meaning and pretend it’s real.”

Xu Shaoting listened quietly, his aura softened by the sharpness of the day. He was calm, the dim light of the floor lamp outlining his profile, making his features appear deep and three-dimensional.

After listening to Wen Jia's explanation, he slowly closed the book, placed it on the bedside table, stood up, and smiled regretfully.

"It's a pity that this collection of love letters was written to his mistress."

Wen Jia twitched the corner of her mouth. "Of course, I only agree with his interpretation of love, but I don't agree with his love life... or his actions."

"Then so am I."

Xu Shaoting glanced at his watch, then dimmed the floor lamp. "You can go to sleep now."

Wen Jia clutched the corner of the blanket. At this moment, she was not wearing any makeup. Her face was perfectly shaped, with sharp and three-dimensional features that were not excessive. Her skin tightly covered her features, and the transition between her brow bone and the bridge of her nose cast a hazy shadow in her eye sockets.

She looked up at him, tugging at his shirt sleeve, "Has Mr. Xu ever coaxed a girl to sleep?"

"No."

"You don't even have a younger sister?"

“No,” Xu Shaoting chuckled for a moment, then turned completely around and looked at her meaningfully, saying:

"If you need me to coax you, then you're the first one."

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Author's Note: Okay, okay, so you call sleeping together "coaxing"?