C24

The sound of the lock opening became clearer and clearer. Su Qiu struggled to stand up, but before she could run over to lock the door …

When he clearly saw the face of the approaching person, Su Qiu heaved a sigh of relief. Her legs went soft, and she fell to the ground.

Su Qiu gritted her teeth and refused to speak.

Thinking about the relationship between Fang Tan and the key in his hands, Su Qiu felt that it was not surprising to have the key here.

"It seems that I have to properly explain the Shen family's reasoning to you." He carried Su Qiu up from the waist and circled around Fang Tan with a dark expression on his face, then headed downstairs.

Fang Tan was worrying about how to get drunk, so he did not follow them.

The wind outside was very cold and Su Qiu hid in Shen Ling's embrace, still tightly wrapping the windbreaker on her body, just like that night when she was carried back from Qi Shaofei's house.

Shen Ling sighed a few times and placed his in the back of the carriage.

Her appearance still made her heart ache.

"Shen Ling." Su Qiu sat in the front passenger seat and squinted his eyes as he called out his name, "I'm not drunk."

Shen Ling got onto the driver's seat. At first, he didn't want to care about her, but after struggling for a while, he still turned around and wrapped up her clothes.

"Aren't we just going shopping? Why are you drinking?" Shen Ling asked her coldly.

Su Qiu immediately became drunk. She was drunk to the point where it was up to her nature not to care about anything else.

She tilted her head toward the window, trying to find some coolness.

Hot.

"Come over here. Do you want a cold?" Shen Ling saw that the person was walking in the opposite direction from him, so he was extremely dissatisfied. He extended his arm and pulled the person over.

Su Qiu frowned, but she did not have the strength to speak, so she simply went over.

She had a dream, a very long dream.

She couldn't see her surroundings clearly in the dream. The only thing she could see clearly was the man in a black suit standing in front of her.

He extended his hand out towards Su Qiu, but she slapped her.

When the man left, he kept looking back … Su Qiu dreamt of that person lighting a fire around his body, then pulling him out from the fire.

He kept running with me, running with me.

He kept running.

"Su Qiu."

He thought it would be an endless escape, but the man suddenly turned his head and looked at Su Qiu's face, gently calling her name.

Su Qiu was startled, what she saw was clearly Shen Ling's face.

Her sleepy eyes opened, and Su Qiu was carried to the bedroom on the second floor. Her clothes had been changed, and the person sitting beside her was Shen Ling.

What a ridiculous dream.

Back then, she had rejected Shen Ling's love. Shen Ling had destroyed the Su Family, and the person who had personally saved her from the Su Family's mess was none other than Shen Ling.

"Su Qiu." Shen Ling was still muttering her name. Seeing that someone had woken up, he took out a cup of ginger tea from beside the bed and gave it to her. "Auntie Liu's method of brewing is to dispel the cold and to cure the wine."

She obediently took the cup. Jiang Cha's mouth was a little hot, but she still frowned and drank it down without batting an eyelid.

Shen Ling stared at her sulking actions, and did not try to stop her.

It looks like these three years have yet to smooth over her edges.

"I've taken a leave of absence for you tomorrow. You can rest at home for a day." Shen Ling took the empty bowl from Su Qiu's hands and forced her to lie down.

"Let's sleep separately tonight. I smell alcohol, I'm afraid that I might catch a cold and infect you." Su Qiu said after pausing for a moment.

She would still resist.

He did not care about what she said after, and as if he did not hear her, he opened the door and gave the bowl to Auntie Liu.

Su Qiu laid on the bed in a daze. She wanted to flip her body over, but she was too lazy to move. After fifteen minutes, Shen Ling, who had just finished washing up, turned off the light, lifted up the blanket and laid beside her.

"If I could give you everything you had three years ago, or even more, would you be willing to stay by my side?" He turned around and wrapped his arms around her.

She only felt his chin on her shoulder, and the sudden pressure made her uncomfortable.

Su Qiu was indeed seriously considering this question. After a while, she answered with a cold voice, "What I want is far more than just this."

Shen Ling tightened his grip around her. The woman in his arms was destined to be his weak spot, not his armor.

's brain, which had originally been paralyzed by alcohol, had now become exceptionally clear. She could feel the warm breath that he had breathed on her back, and she could feel the rhythmic movements of his heart.

The two of them had never been so close, nor so far apart.

"I'll give it to you. Stay and try to love me, okay? " Shen Ling's practically begging voice made Su Qiu have the desire to turn back.

Turn back!

Go and take a look!

That pitiful man behind her, was he a domineering guy!?

The corner of Su Qiu's eyes moistened and tears rolled down her cheeks. They fell on the pillow and she quickly disappeared as she cleared her throat and continued to make her demands. "What I want is more than just a Su's consortium."

"Alright." Shen Ling buried his head into her neck, and only answered with a single word after a long while.

The two of them continued to embrace each other as they shared a strange bed.

Su Qiu didn't know what Shen Ling was planning, but she remembered that not long ago, he had said that he didn't love Su Xia and that there was someone else in his heart.

Was this the second person to reject their courtship seven years later?

Had he come to such a deal at this time because he was certain that after selling out his body, he would betray even his pure heart for the sake of the Su Clan?

As she was lost in her thoughts, she subconsciously turned over, and as a result, flipped over to Shen Ling's embrace.

The embrace was filled with Shen Ling's scent, all of it was the warmth of a man, tightly wrapping around her like a protective barrier, preventing her from receiving any harm from the outside.

However, she also had to remember that a lot of the harm came from this barrier that warmed you.

In his arms, Su Qiu peacefully fell asleep.

He had never felt so at ease and calm before.

"In the future, I will protect you well. The words I said to you seven years ago are not lies."

"Su Qiu, I love you so much."

Not knowing if Shen Ling knew that the person in his embrace had already fallen asleep, he did not retract his numb arm, and only muttered his confession beside her ear.

If only Su Qiu could hear her.