Chapter 21

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After breakfast, Chen Xu took his laptop and went into Luo Xiyun’s room. After sitting in her chair for a while, he felt very uncomfortable and proceeded to move his own office chair into her room.

“What are you doing?” asked Luo Xiyun, who had just returned from hanging her clothes, in an utterly annoyed tone upon seeing what he was doing.

Chen Xu said, “Moving my chair?”

“Who allowed you to do so?”

Chen Xu asked, “Can’t I?”

“Only with my consent. This is my room.”

Chen Xu abruptly tuned in, “Oh, so you too know that you can touch other people’s things only with their consent?”

Luo Xiyun was rendered speechless, and her face somewhat reddened. Her secretly messing around with Chen Xu’s computer had truly come back to bite her.

Chen Xu revealed a winner’s grin while he pushed his chair into her room.

“Wait.” Luo Xiyun stamped her foot and stopped him in his steps, “Let me clean it.” As she spoke, she took out a spray used for cleaning, grabbed a rag, and carefully sanitized Chen Xu’s chair from inside out.

Chen Xu sat on her chair while he watched. He couldn’t help but say, “Can your boyfriend stand you behaving this way?”

Luo Xiyun ignored him, concentrating on rubbing the armrest.

Chen Xu shook his head and said to himself, “If it were me, I definitely couldn’t. Besides fact that it’s troublesome, it’s mainly because you act like you are disgusted with me. In all honesty, it feels uncomfortable…”

Luo Xiyun suddenly stopped what she was doing, turned around, and said chillingly, “Firstly, we are not friends. Secondly, we are not even familiar with each other to begin with. We are just two grasshoppers stranded on the same rope. At leisure, we can sit down together, have a nice chat, talk about our feelings, but, please do not judge my actions. This is the most fundamental respect we must have for each other.”

Chen Xu’s words choked in his throat. Karma hit him like a bat out of hell. This was what he had told her a few days back, and now when she used it on him, he truly had no counter for it.

He quietly turned around, put on his headphones, and went to watch a TV show.

…

Chen Xu stayed in the villa all day and never left. He was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading books, leaving Luo Xiyun all by herself to clean up the storeroom.

A day went by ever so swiftly. In the evening, Luo Xiyun stopped working and went to cook.

Dinner was simple – only noodles.

When Luo Xiyun saw Chen Xu’s eyes stuck to the book in his hand even while he was eating noodles, the anger within her rose to the verge of erupting. She thought about how she had been working the whole day to tidy up a room for him, and not only did he not help, he just sat there the whole day reading books.

She sneered, “Well, I didn’t know you are so into Sci-Fi novels.”

Without turning his sight away from the book, Chen Xu said casually, “I have wanted to read this book, ‘Three Dimension’, since a long time ago, but I haven’t had time. Since you have them on your shelf, I helped myself to it. It’s not bad I must say.”

Seeing that he hadn’t realized the sarcasm in her words at all, she became more depressed. Clenching her jaw, she said, “Can you understand what the book is saying?”

Chen Xu took a glimpse at her and said, “It is leisure I’m looking for while reading a novel. No matter what the author is trying to say, I’m willing to read it because I find amusement from reading it. What does whether or not I understand have to do with it? Or is it that you can tell a person’s superiority from the way they read a novel?”

“After everything, aren’t you just afraid of revealing your ignorance?” Luo Xiyun said with disdain, “Admitting that you can’t understand a book isn’t something to be ashamed of.”

Knowing that she was cranky, Chen Xu didn’t provoke her any further and resumed reading his novel.

…

After dinner, Chen Xu finally finished reading the book and stretched his arms. He looked at the time; it was almost eight o’clock. He went downstairs, turned off one generator, and topped off the other with gasoline.

He went into the room with the book. Luo Xiyun was choosing an outfit by the closet. Upon seeing him, her face turned grim as she said, “You, get out.”

“What for?” Chen Xu shoved the book back on the shelf and asked without looking back.

“I am going to take a shower.”

Chen Xu asked strangely, “You take your shower, and I read my book. Am I even interrupting you?”

Luo Xiyun gasped, “Get out.”

Chen Xu shrugged and said, “The heater outside has already been turned off. Could you bear to see me get myself frozen out there?”

Luo Xiyun stared at him with rage in her eyes. “Best if you die from it.” She said that, but she just took her clothes and went into the bathroom.

“How pretentious.”

Chen Xu shook his head, took the third book of “Three Dimension” from the bookshelf, sat on his chair, and flipped to the first page.

Swiftly, the sound of water came from the bathroom.

He hadn’t felt anything at first, but after being slammed by her earlier on, his mind became a little troubled as the scene in the bathroom tempestuously emerged in his thoughts.

This room was the master bedroom. The bathroom was separated from the room by a huge glass wall. Of course, it wasn’t transparent. He couldn’t see anything through it.

Swuuushh…

Chen Xu could feel an invisible hand teasing around his heart and a tight sensation in his throat. He grabbed the cup on the table and took a sip of water, all the while warning himself not to think wildly.

He shifted his focus elsewhere and felt that the lights were a little too bright. Over the past few months, he had developed a habit of conserving energy. So, he wished to turn off the bigger lights and leave only a few of the small ones turned on.

The owner of this house must have been a rather romantic person. The room was installed with various lighting settings that could create all kinds of effects.

He walked to the switches and saw about seven or eight of them. Without knowing which was which, he randomly pressed on a switch that lit up a few lights to his side.

It was still too bright. He switched it off and turned on another switch.

He tried a few and was not quite satisfied.

Moving on to the fifth switch, nothing lit up when he turned it on. Just as he thought it must be broken, his gaze swept across the glass wall of the bathroom, and as if he was hit by a stunning spell, his entire body iced over.

…

An eternity went by in an instant. Luo Xiyun, who was in the bathroom, turned off the faucet, dried herself with a towel, walked out of the partition, and began putting on her clothes.

She didn’t look over throughout the entire process. For Chen Xu, he didn’t know whether to feel pity or fortunate about it.

When she opened the bathroom door, Chen Xu turned off the magical switch as if by reflex.

Luo Xiyun who came out wondered, “Why did you switch off the lights?” Subsequently, she noticed that Chen Xu was standing by the switches, and as if she remembered something, her expression changed drastically. With a shaky voice, she asked, “D… did you… p… pressed on th… that switch?”

Chen Xu felt a little guilty, and his face showcased a very unnatural expression.

…