Harbor
Exhausted and hungry, Bai Yi accused Zhong Yunxi: "He always says he'll coax me, but it's all talk; he's all talk and no action."
Zhong Yunxi was already being considerate, knowing she had poor eating habits and would need to eat something by dinnertime. He wrapped her hair in a dry towel and said, "I'm just trying to coax you. You said you wanted me to..."
"Zhong Yunxi!" she interrupted him, her voice trembling as if she had been crying.
"I'll definitely listen to you next time."
There won't be a next time!
He changed the subject: "What do you want to eat tonight? There's a Michelin restaurant nearby, shall we try it?"
Bai Yi hummed in agreement; she was very hungry.
She put on a sleeveless knitted dress and picked out a black shirt from Zhong Yunxi's wardrobe.
When Zhong Yunxi came out of the bathroom after taking a shower, he saw her wearing his clothes, her sleeves casually rolled up to her elbows, and she was raising her hand to tie her hair into a high bun. She had only applied some lip balm, and her eyes and lips were glistening with moisture from the shower.
Zhong Yunxi was only wrapped in a bath towel. Before entering the dressing room, he walked up to her and put his arm around her waist: "Are my clothes comfortable?"
Bai Yi didn't want to hug him at all right now, so she turned to the side and pushed him with her elbow: "It's not comfortable to wear. I was afraid of getting my own clothes dirty when we went out to eat, so I wore it as an apron."
Zhong Yunxi smiled, lowered his head and bit her lip. She tied her hair up and pushed him away.
Knowing that she wouldn't be in a good mood when she was hungry, Zhong Yunxi didn't linger for long and simply put on a casual outfit.
The linen collar revealed the teeth marks on her collarbone. Bai Yi glanced at it and said, "You're not allowed to wear this. Wear a shirt."
Zhong Yunxi laughed and said, "You're just burying your head in the sand. If you can't see it, then it's not because you bit it?"
He changed his shirt, leaving two buttons undone. Even though Bai Yi was close, he could still vaguely see the teeth marks. Bai Yi reached out and buttoned it up for him.
Zhong Yunxi had accompanied her to meals so many times, but today was the day he saw her eat the most. She almost finished a roasted pigeon with green asparagus tips, a strawberry tart, and even took a bite of the Provençal pasta and potato cod he ordered.
"Your appetite is much better after exercising. It seems you should exercise more, right?" Zhong Yunxi poured her a small half glass of red wine.
Bai Yi was so engrossed in eating that her brain couldn't keep up with her taste buds. "What kind of exercise?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she looked up and saw Zhong Yunxi resting his chin on his hand, smiling at her.
Bai Yi: ...
Zhong Yunxi leaned forward, his voice low: "On the bed..."
Bai Yi poked a strawberry and stuffed it into his mouth.
A strawberry, stained with cream, smeared on his lips. Zhong Yunxi wiped it off with his thumb and then handed it to her to smear in her mouth.
Bai Yi brushed his hand away, ignoring him.
Zhong Yunxi sometimes felt that he was the one who was like her pet. When she was happy, she would give him affectionate rewards, but when she was unhappy, she wouldn't even talk to him.
After dinner, Aunt Wu had already helped them pack their luggage for their trip to Sunan the next day.
Before going to sleep, Zhong Yunxi picked him up and sat him on the sofa: "Unhappy?"
Bai Yi remained silent, not wanting to look at him, and turned her face to rest against his neck. After a moment, she shook her head. She realized that loving him a little more made her a little more anxious.
"Then why are you ignoring me?" Zhong Yunxi asked again. He didn't want to miss this auspicious day. After having her completely, he wanted to peel back her carefully guarded, soft, and timid love and hear her say that she loved him.
Bai Yi scratched his back with her fingers. Zhong Yunxi lifted her chin and turned her face to look at her, coaxing, "Say something, hmm? Do you love me?"
She avoided his direct gaze and shook her head again.
Zhong Yunxi chuckled and gripped her waist with both hands: "Not even a little bit? A little bit is fine too."
She whispered in his ear, "Then just a little bit."
Perhaps she was sleepy before bed, her voice was languid and soft. Zhong Yunxi carried her to the bed and couldn't help but rub her waist.
Bai Yi was afraid of him, so she grabbed his hand. Zhong Yunxi smiled and coaxed, "I only rushed through this afternoon because I was worried you'd go hungry. Are you going to repay kindness with enmity now?"
Bai Yi: ...
Two hours is considered rushed? What if it's not rushed?
"I'm exhausted, and I have to go to Sunan with you tomorrow," she protested.
Zhong Yunxi held her wrist, kissed her shoulder, and mumbled, "Just once. Didn't you just say you loved me a little bit?"
Bai Yi's spine went numb from his kisses, her waist was being supported by him, and her breath trembled.
He was exceptionally patient, almost as if he was deliberately torturing her, repeating over and over again: "Little Yi, be good and call me husband."
Bai Yi couldn't open his eyes; he had already shouted countless times.
Not satisfied, he went further, using a combination of coaxing and threats...
Do you love me?
"It was just a little bit before, but what about now?"
"To be honest, I love it very much."
Finally, Bai Yi realized she had mumbled a complete sentence in a daze: "I love my husband very much, I love Zhong Yunxi very much."
Then Zhong Yunxi kissed her eyelashes, which fluttered as he did so, and held her tightly in his arms.
Only at times like these can Zhong Yunxi coax Bai Yi into saying what he wants to hear.
Even after midnight, Zhong Yunxi restrained himself and let her sleep.
Even so, breakfast was still hastily eaten just a dozen minutes before leaving for the airport.
She slept the entire way through the flight.
After the private jet landed at Sunan Airport, she changed cars and went to the hotel. She felt a little better and said she was hungry.
We ate lunch early, changed into riding clothes, and went to the horse farm.
It was her first time wearing riding attire, and she found it novel. Seeing that Zhong Yunxi was dressed in ordinary outdoor clothes, she asked him, "Don't you wear clothes like this?"
Zhong Yunxi laughed and said, "Yeah, I didn't buy any, I only bought some for you. The riding outfit looks nice on women."
As soon as they arrived, someone came to greet them. A middle-aged man in camouflage, whom Zhong Yunxi called Wu Cheng, shook hands with Zhong Yunxi: "It's been two months since I last came. Last month, the Wuning River flooded, and a self-media team came to film Tianma Bathing in the River, which went viral. Recently, there have been significantly more visitors."
Zhong Yunxi simply smiled and said, "I've been busy lately."
Wu Cheng led them into the stable, occasionally turning to talk to him: "Some real experts come here to pick out horses to run, and when they see your horses, they are all envious. I told them that these horses already have owners and are being boarded here. They were so disappointed. Some even insisted that I call you, saying they would pay any price. I told them that each of your horses costs seven figures, and the boarding fee for a year is also six figures. It's not like I'm short of their money."
Zhong Yunxi, holding Bai Yi's hand, said to Wu Cheng, "Let's go see Xiao Wu. I brought my girlfriend today. Xiao Wu is the best girl, so I'll take her for a ride."
Wu Cheng glanced at Bai Yi, smiled, and nodded in greeting.
Zhong Yunxi handed Bai Yi a bag of biscuits, "Feed it two."
The horse was over 1.7 meters tall, and she was a little scared through the fence, so Zhong Yunxi took her hand and reached out.
After leading the horse out, Zhong Yunxi said to Wu Cheng, "Go ahead and get busy. I'm just spending time with her today."
At the fenced area, Zhong Yunxi told her about the precautions and basic operations for riding horses. She had never ridden before and was not interested in these things, but Zhong Yunxi had brought her all the way here, so she wanted to give it a try.
Zhong Yunxi helped her onto the saddle and corrected her posture, "Toes up, legs close together."
He was leading his horse in circles along the fence to his left. Bai Yi looked at his profile; he wasn't even wearing a face mask. Sunan is over 3,000 meters above sea level, and the sunlight and ultraviolet radiation are far stronger than in the port.
He looked much wilder in his outdoor clothes, which accentuated his sharp profile and jawline. "Zhong Yunxi, are you a very good horse rider?"
Zhong Yunxi turned around and said, "From the age of eight until I went to university, I spent my summer camps learning to ride horses and my winter camps learning to ski."
At eight years old, she should have been in the second or third grade of elementary school. At that time, she spent her winter and summer vacations watching cartoons.
"So, do you like it?" she asked again.
Zhong Yunxi lowered his head and smiled, "It's alright."
Bai Yi thought he probably liked it, otherwise he wouldn't be spending so much money to raise a few horses in a place so far away from Yuegang, just to come and play occasionally.
However, she was unsure whether Zhong Yunxi's preferences were truly genuine, given the money and time she had spent.
He seemed to have everything at his fingertips, so he couldn't see anything particularly precious.
Bai Yi thought that his love for horseback riding was probably similar to his love for playing egg waffle parties.
She couldn't help but wonder what kind of affection he had for her could be compared to.
He coaxed her into saying she loved him again and again, but he seemed never to have said he loved her.
After riding two laps, she wanted to rest, so Zhong Yunxi loosened the reins and took her feet out of the stirrups: "Come on, I'll hold you."
"Go ride it and let me see."
Zhong Yunxi looked in another direction and pointed to it for her: "There's a horse archery range over there, I'll take you there."
Bai Yi watched the horses galloping in the distance with great interest.
They changed horses and went over; the archery range was much larger than this one. Zhong Yunxi put on his helmet and ran a lap around the range first.
Bai Yi sat under the sky. When the man ran far away, Bai Yi casually picked up the spare binoculars next to him to look for his figure.
Zhong Yunxi rode a black horse, which Bai Yi heard him call Zhuobu. It was proud and spirited, and was more than ten centimeters taller than the horse she rode, Xiao Wu.
It was a beautiful sight. Zhong Yunxi's horseback riding was the result of years of experience, his posture standard and steady yet exuding ease and confidence. He was always like that, handling everything with ease.
After circling around, he returned without dismounting. He smiled at Bai Yi, took the quiver and bow from the riding instructor, put on his finger guards and glasses, and quickly ran off again.
Through the binoculars, she watched Zhong Yunxi and the target. His archery was unrestrained yet steady, and he never missed the target with a single shot.
A noisy crowd approached from behind, and someone called out, "Bai Yi?"
She turned around in a daze and saw Zhou Qi and a few people who looked somewhat familiar but she couldn't quite place. They were people she had met briefly a few years ago when she occasionally went out to eat with Zhou Qi in Vietnam and Hong Kong.
Zhou Qi saw her stunned, then frowned and stepped over. She put down the binoculars in her hand, pressed down on the table, and stood up.
"Bai Yi." Zhou Qi called out in a low voice, lowered his head slightly, paused for a few seconds, and then snorted, "I know you've always looked down on me, but there's no need to climb the social ladder and ruin me and Chen Zhaoyang's relationship."
Bai Yi was completely bewildered: "What?"
Zhou Qi curled his lips into a mocking smile: "That's true. Chen Zhaoyang is your cousin, after all. You treat him like this, so what am I?"
The crowd behind him jeered: "Fang Yuming, what did I tell you? Zhou Qi is practically glued to Bai Yi. You're going to break up with him before the New Year?"
Zhou Qi glanced back at them, and the group fell silent.
Bai Yi felt uncomfortable listening to his sarcastic remarks: "You're the ones who sent Chen Zhaoyang in, what does it have to do with me?"
Although she had always wanted Chen Zhaoyang to go in.
Zhou Qi stared at her for several seconds: "Don't tell me you don't know anything."
Bai Yi frowned: "What do I know?"
Zhou Qi stopped talking, but asked instead, "Xiao Yi, what is it about me that doesn't suit your taste? I know there are some rumors about me, but if you just look at me once..."
Bai Yi didn't expect him to ask such a question. She turned her head to look at the horse farm. She had rejected Zhou Qi too many times before, and her previous reasons were always "not suitable". But Zhou Qi seemed to have a problem with his understanding. He always thought that this was a way for her to play hard to get. She really didn't want to continue to pester him, so she said, "I'm already married."
The group of people behind Zhou Qi called out, "The coach has brought the horse over, let's go."
Zhou Qi took a step, but kept looking at Bai Yi's profile, feeling as if his feet weighed a ton.
Zhong Yunxi rode closer and pulled on the reins a few meters away. Bai Yi walked towards Zhong Yunxi.
Zhou Qi followed his gaze and, just by looking at the horse the man was riding, he knew that the man was far superior to him.
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