Chapter 142 - Du Mansion Party (8)

"Cause you're younger than me." He smirked and continued to ruffle her hair.  

"That's a stupid excuse!" She pushed his hand away and said, "My hair is dirty by the way."

He shrugged and stood up. "Now that you're feeling better, let's get you cleaned up. By the way, why didn't you wear the dress I got you? At least that's more proper than this."

"It's ugly..." she lied while looking aside guiltily. She could tell that the dress Han Ye got her was expensive, but she could not wear it... and she did not want to admit to him why. Then seemingly as if she wanted to hide her true feeling about the dress, she then asked, "What's wrong with this dress? It's expensive!"

Han Ye wanted to say otherwise, but instead, he said, "Well, it doesn't suit you. I'll get you something. They have lots of dresses here that they keep aside for guests."

"Why?" 

Han Ye chuckled. "You're not the only one who had suffered an injustice here... Where there are the rich and famous, there would be petty fights like what happened earlier." 

As they walked back into the mansion, Han Ye noticed that she was limping. 

"What's wrong with your leg?" he asked as he stopped right in front of her.

"I sprained it earlier when I was getting away from an infuriating man."

Han Ye knelt on one knee and saw that her left ankle was swollen. Standing back up, he asked while pretending to put on a serious expression, "What kind of secretary are you? Getting into fights and getting injured when you're supposed to work. Are you trying to run away from work?" 

She punched his stomach playfully and said, "I can still work!" 

Chuckling, Han Ye took her right arm and placed it around his shoulders. Then he lifted her up in a princess-style carry. 

"You!" Xiao Lei blushed and said, "Let me down!" 

"You've already wasted a lot of my time. I need you to help me take notes later. The more time you waste, the more I'll deduct from your salary," he said while walking into the mansion. 

"What?!" Xiao Lei suddenly stopped.

When Han Ye looked down at her, she looked at his face and thought, "When did he become so manly? I'm kind of uncomfortable with a manly Han Ye." 

"What's wrong?" he asked when he saw her looking at him so intently. 

She shook her head. After a moment of hesitation, she murmured, "I really didn't steal it." 

"I know. Even before I know everything." 

"Why? You barely knew me." 

He shrugged. "I just do. Come on. We still have work to do after this."

"What about those women?" 

He smiled and winked down at her. "I've settled it. They won't even dare to look your way later." 

"Did you beat them up?" she asked in an almost whispering voice. 

"Damn, she's cute when she's looking at me like that..." Han Ye thought. He then quickly cleared his throat and scoffed, "Stop trying to beat people up. You're acting like one of Young Master Lyle's friends. Also, you're 35 years old! Behave more like your age." 

"I have to behave like a 35-year-old woman when I'm with my son... but now, I have to do it all the time?" she muttered, which caused Han Ye to chuckle and shook his head. She then looked up at him and asked, "If you grew up in a gang, you'd be the same. Fighting always solves things!" 

He rolled his eyes and sneered, "You were in a gang for like... 10 years? That's not a long time!" 

"Hey, those are my formative years!" she slapped his shoulder as she defended herself. 

"I seriously don't know how you survived back then."

She shrugged and rested her head against his chest as she mumbled, "Well, Yunjie is always there with me, and people respect him. I wish he's here with me... He wouldn't let anyone speak to me disrespectfully."

As she pouted, he sighed and thought, "How are you going to go back to Fan Entertainment like this?! You'll be a sitting duck!"

After he found out about her identity, he debated whether to confront her. In the end, he decided not to. He thought she wanted to play a game with him, and he wanted to play back. He was always the one at the end of the prank.

For once, he wanted to be in it too. 

He would not admit that he knew. He wanted her to admit it herself.

Still, he did not understand why she did not want to go back now. Even if his deduction was true, that her uncle was the reason for her disappearance, why didn't she return? He had been thinking about it since he found out about her identity, but he couldn't think of anything. 

In the end, he decided not to worry too much about it. After all, the past was set in stone, and what he could do now, for Xiao Lei and for his late wife, was to make sure that this woman in his arms was well protected. 

The most important thing for him to do now was to make sure that she would be strong enough to protect herself, in case she decided to return to Fan Entertainment and get back her birthright.

They were only friends, and he could not protect her forever, but he could teach her to be strong enough to protect herself... at least until her husband returned from wherever he was. 

"No matter how smart she was as a child, the a.d.u.l.t world is a more complicated game to play..." he thought with a worried expression as he took her into one of the guest rooms on the ground floor. 

Once Han Ye put her down on the bed, he went to the desk where a first-aid kit laid on it. He had been working for Du Family long enough to know what Old Mo was like. The old butler took his job seriously. When DX asked for "comfortable rooms with everything the guests would need", the old butler delivered. 

He took out an oil ointment and pulled a chair over to her.

Placing the chair right next to the bed, he then sat on it while facing her.  

When he took her left leg and placed her ankle on his thigh, he was about to put the oil ointment on her when he looked at her cautiously. 

"W-What?" Xiao Lei asked while blushing slightly. 

"You... won't hit me, right?" He was seriously worried about getting hit. "If you are... please give me a notice..."