Chapter 216 I will control myself when I use my beauty to commit violence
"Ah? This doesn't count as taking advantage of someone's misfortune."
Zhu Yingning's understanding of taking advantage of someone's misfortune is more serious, such as taking advantage of the other person's drunkenness to do something inappropriate, taking advantage of the other person's extreme lack of money to offer support, taking advantage of the other person's weakness to seize the other person's money, and disregarding the other person's wishes or using power to force the other person to volunteer.
"Forget it." Xu Sirui's definition of the word was clearly broader. "Look, I always pick times when you're vulnerable or in need, and I've always been nice to you. This way, you might mistake being touched for love, and one day, maybe you'll end up with me."
She held the spoon in her hand for a few seconds, stunned. "But if you put it that way, then everything you pursue in the world is just taking advantage of someone's misfortune."
She put down her spoon and sighed, "I think I'm a bit worse."
"Do we really have to discuss such a cute topic?" He smiled, holding his chin. "...Okay, let me analyze it for you."
"Analyze what?"
"You didn't agree to my request, which shows that you still had some concerns about being with me. You hugged me and didn't have the heart to send me away, which shows that your emotions overwhelmed your rationality at that moment, right?"
It was an extremely shameful thing to openly discuss one's feelings with the person one was interested in. Zhu Yingning thought about it for a long time before she swallowed the shame and nodded reluctantly.
"But your emotions can't just rise out of nowhere. It's like a glass of water, left alone. It won't suddenly boil. There has to be some trigger to bring the temperature to its boiling point."
He tapped his fingers on the table, listing them one by one to her. "Think about it, weren't these opportunities all my own? When your father died, you didn't even call me. It was me who came to your village, giving you the chance to cuddle with me. If I hadn't been so insistent on staying with you, even if you were heartbroken by the death of your family, you wouldn't have asked me to stay with you. It was my words and actions that caused your emotions to surge in that vulnerable moment."
He concluded seriously, "I tried my best to make your emotions overcome your reason. In fact, everything was my conspiracy and you just fell into my trap."
Zhu Yingning was stunned. She felt something was wrong, but due to his strict logic, she couldn't think of any rebuttal. After thinking for a moment, she asked cautiously, "...Are you really that bad?"
Xu Sirui nodded with a stern face: "I'm really bad."
Afraid she wouldn't think he was bad enough, he added, "I'm just waiting for the day when your emotions blind you and you do something even more extreme to me, doing this and that. Then I can force you to take responsibility for me. You're so stubborn, you definitely won't sit idly by and watch my innocence. Even if your mind still has some concerns, you'll have to be with me forever."
She was horrified, moved her chair, sat further away from him, and said, "...I can control myself."
He tried hard to hold back his laughter: "It's okay not to control yourself."
"No, no!" She shook her head and waved her hands in a resolute refusal. Her speed was so fast that she could have flown into the sky like a propeller. Her face was filled with fear and seriousness. She said sadly, "Don't worry, I will definitely not destroy your innocence."
"No...why do you keep agreeing with me?" Xu Sirui couldn't hold it back and burst into laughter. He almost choked on his breath and wiped away the tears of laughter as he teased her, "Zhu Yingning, you haven't really thought about doing something to me, have you?"
"How is that possible?!" She retorted anxiously, "Don't spit blood on me."
"Oh, really?" He gradually stopped the wanton smile on his face, but his eyes were still smiling. He bent the knuckles of his index finger and pressed it against his lower lip, while his elbows were supported on the dining table.
This movement caused his plump, rosy lower lip to sink slightly, revealing a pale bluish-white hue, a contrast to the color of blood, like a petal that had just opened and hadn't yet fully colored. When he smiled, his eyes curved into a seductive arc, his bright eyes and white teeth laced with a hint of allure, a stunning beauty that was frightening, especially when he stared at her intently and asked, "How dare you say your liking for me has nothing to do with my appearance?"
Zhu Yingning recalled a hot topic online: Are there people in the world who are beautiful but unaware of it? She felt that at least there are no handsome men in the world who are unaware of their handsomeness. Handsome men not only know that they are handsome, but also like to use their good looks to commit crimes, killing people without being noticed.
**
When Zhu Yingning finished brushing her teeth and was about to go to bed, she still felt uneasy. She originally wanted to lock the door to prevent him from coming in. However, when she returned to her room after brushing her teeth, she found that he had sat on the edge of her bed without any hesitation, turning on a night light, with a laptop on his knees, typing away on the keyboard.
She had to re-examine what he said, "It's all my conspiracy." She originally thought that this sentence was mostly to comfort her, but now looking back on it, why does it seem to make sense?
She walked over cautiously, then carefully tucked herself into the quilt and started to drive him away: "...You can go out now."
Xu Sirui finished the last bit of work he was doing, closed the computer screen with his fingers, and asked with a smile, "You really don't need me to accompany you?"
"No." She shook her head frantically.
He said, "Then stay with me."
“…”
He had reasons to stay anyway. She looked at the ceiling tiredly, wondering how someone could be so shameless?
"Then you are not allowed to speak." She demanded.
Xu Sirui laughed and said, "Okay."
"...and you're not allowed to touch me." Seeing his hand reaching out, as if to tuck in the quilt for her, Zhu Yingning quickly twisted her body, rolled over with the quilt to the other side of the bed, away from him, and repeatedly warned him. It wasn't that she was afraid he would do something to her, but she was afraid she would do something to him if she got too excited. Influenced by his words, she now began to doubt her own ability to control herself.
He raised an eyebrow and took his hand back: "Okay."
After they stopped talking, the bedroom quickly fell silent. The lights were turned off, and the room was pitch black. She covered herself with the quilt, closed her eyes, and tried to fall asleep.
The darkness magnified the silence and slowed down time. Zhu Yingning silently counted sheep in her mind, from one to one thousand, then from one thousand back to one. It felt like an eternity, but she still couldn't sleep. She turned on her phone screen and checked the time. Only eighteen minutes had passed since she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
It was quiet outside the quilt. She was not sure whether Xu Sirui was still there. Maybe he had already gone out, because it was so quiet outside the quilt that she could not even hear the breathing. It seemed as if she was the only one left in the whole world, left in the endless darkness.
She suddenly felt a little breathless, so she carefully lifted a corner of the quilt and looked at the edge of the bed.
He is still here.
He sat with his back against the bedside cushion, looking a little sleepy, with his eyes closed and his head slightly lowered. It was unclear whether he was asleep or just taking a nap.
She watched him silently in the dark night.
Perhaps noticing her gaze, Xu Sirui opened his eyes and slowly looked towards her. His eyes were still a little sleepy, and his pupils were blurry and focussed.
"Xu Sirui, go sleep next door and don't stay here." She said to him softly.
He shook his head and didn't move.
"I'm just a little bit fragile today." She pinched the air with her thumb and index finger, measuring how big "a little bit" was, and said to him from under the quilt, "I won't feel that way tomorrow."
He smiled and said in a hoarse voice, "Well, tomorrow you will be Superman."
Belated sleepiness came over her, she closed her eyes and yawned, then asked casually: "Then what are you doing?"
"I don't think it's anything." He lowered his eyes to look at her hand resting on the edge of the quilt, reached out to cover her fingers, and gently rubbed the back of her hand with his fingertips. He whispered, "I wash clothes and cook for Superman."
She gave a whispered laugh and then fell asleep.
**
After returning from vacation, countless tasks flooded in. The health code pilot program in Hangzhou matured and was gradually rolled out across various cities, ultimately achieving nationwide coverage. The widespread adoption and promotion of health codes required the efforts of grassroots cadres. The screening, isolation, and assistance for individuals with red and yellow codes also relied heavily on these grassroots cadres. Add to that the need to accommodate existing cases and close contacts, and Zhu Yingning was overwhelmed every day.
When she lived alone in a temporary dormitory before, she rarely cooked by herself. The school cafeteria provided meals, but gatherings were not allowed. Most of the staff, including her, rushed to the cafeteria to pack up food at mealtime, took it back to the dormitory and had a quick meal.
The food in the cafeteria is not that delicious, it is just average. The seasonal vegetables are the same cabbage and baby cabbage, the set meal is the same spicy stir-fried potato shreds, the soup is the cafeteria's standard seaweed egg drop soup, which is so watery that it only has seaweed and no egg drops. The meat is mostly pre-cooked meat, so you can't expect much in terms of taste and freshness.
Zhu Yingning was not picky about food and didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but Xu Sirui was disgusted after visiting them once, saying that what they ate was exactly like pig food.
He had said before that he would do laundry and cook for her, but she had not taken it seriously at first, because Xu Sirui had no idea how to cook before participating in the variety show. Although he later learned to cook due to family changes, his attitude towards all housework, including cooking, has always been "Why do it yourself when you can pay someone to do it?" In short, he does not have the leisure and elegance to enjoy the joy of life from cooking.
Yet, a few days passed, and he actually persevered, meticulously preparing three meals a day. As for the taste, it wasn't particularly impressive. Like her, he had no special talent for cooking, so his dishes were just about average home cooking. The upside was that they were healthy, with the perfect ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. Even viruses would give them a pass. It was so healthy that she couldn't help but wonder if he'd taken a nutrition class without telling her.
Her life has entered a delicate balance. When she wakes up in the morning, she doesn't have to do anything. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, there is a prepared breakfast on the table. After finishing her work at noon, she returns to the dormitory to eat a ready-made lunch, then takes a half-hour nap and continues to work. When she returns to the dormitory in the evening and opens the door, she can see Xu Sirui standing in front of the cooking utensils with one hand on her waist, thinking about what seasonal vegetables to prepare today.
Since natural gas could not be installed, he bought an oven and a bread maker. He also wanted to buy a coffee machine, but Zhu Yingning strongly stopped him.
She looked at these expensive appliances with a sad face: "I will only live here for half a month at most. It's a waste to buy all these. I can't even take them with me when I leave."
"If you can't take them away, give them away." When Xu Sirui said this, he was sitting on the sofa typing on the keyboard. He glanced at her and continued to focus on the computer screen. "Just pick a few colleagues you like and give them away." He was very arrogant.
He'd already requisitioned the living room sofa for work. His job didn't require 24/7 availability like Zhu Yingning's, but the gaming industry itself was no slouch, and the pandemic, in particular, brought both opportunities and challenges to the industry—with everyone working from home and increasing time spent on online entertainment, market demand soared. However, working online also led to decreased team efficiency and delayed development of some projects.
Xu Sirui didn't want to miss this opportunity, so every day, except for cooking himself, he spent most of the rest of the time working on the sofa, and worked overtime as much as her.
It was because she saw how hard he worked that she couldn't bear to see him spending lavishly on things that might only be used for a dozen days, and she thought his consumption concept was simply outrageous.
But Xu Sirui insisted that money earned should be used to improve life, and no matter how much money is spent on improving the quality of life, it cannot be considered a waste.
Helplessly, Zhu Yingning could only increase the frequency of using these electrical appliances, and throw some baby pumpkins into the oven to bake from time to time, hoping that they could be put to better use.
Xu Sirui went to take a shower first, and Zhu Yingning lay on the coffee table to organize the work documents that needed to be summarized and reported in the next few days.
Halfway through his work, he heard his cell phone on the coffee table ringing. Someone was calling.
She picked up her phone, thinking if it was Zhou Tianlan or Zhou Tianqing calling, she could answer it. However, there was no note on the number; it was an unfamiliar number. Unsure if it was a call for a promotion or work, she hesitated to answer. She put the phone back, deciding to wait for Xu Sirui to finish his shower and then let him call back himself.
The phone rang for a while and then stopped. She continued to write the document. Not long after, she heard a ding-dong sound and someone sent a text message.
She subconsciously glanced over and saw that the text message was from the strange number just now. The content was very short, just one word: "Money."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
