At work, Mu Sijue was like an autocratic tyrant who accepted no excuses.
When Xu Youning first started working for him, she complained every single time in her heart. She even asked Ah Guang why they had endured Mu Sijue’s temper for that long.
Ah Guang didn’t answer at that moment.
As the time passed, she realized that Mu Sijue’s brain was like a super computer with the utmost preciseness. Everything in his mind was well-organized. He could even analyze the trade-off when everybody else was still processing.
Even when he was wasted, the alcohol couldn’t affect him at all, and always made the right decisions.
Obeying him and following his instructions was always the right thing to do to, no matter what.
Xu Youning realized that a man like him had all the right to be proud or to be a tyrant. Afterwards, she had no comments on that.
But, she never expected that the way Mu Sijue kissed a person could also be naturally tyrannical.
His kiss was more likely a form of plunder.
He clenched her chin, unreasonably forcing her to open her mouth with his tongue, as if he were the king and was attacking other countries arbitrarily. Xu Youning couldn’t breathe, let alone fight back.
Gradually, Xu Youning started to feel numbness on the tip of her tongue. Breathing heavily, her chest moved up and down because of the lack of oxygen. It reminded her the feeling of suffocation when she had been thrown into a lake by Mike’s people.
But, why did she have to be bullied by Mu Sijue like that?
Driven by the unwillingness, Xu Youning tried to take revenge. She attempted to bite Mu Sijue a few times. But every time, Mu Sijue sensed her intention; he avoided her bites smoothly and kissed her even more deeply, further grasping the taste of her.
Xu Youning was even more annoyed. She bit for the last time while she still had her power, but that time, she accidentally bit her tongue, for god’s sake.
It was hundreds of times more painful than when you accidentally bit yourself while you were chewing. She gasped, with tears welling up in her eyes. Mu Sijue, finally, released her and looked at her playfully.
Forcing to kiss her, then look at her as if he were looking at a monkey in the zoo? Damn, what an insult!
Xu Youning tried to kick Mu Sijue hard with her uninjured leg. She said, “You jackass!”
She couldn’t stand a chance to beat him at her best condition, let alone when sitting in a wheelchair. It was as easy as pie for Mu Sijue to keep her down.
That was more embarrassing for Xu Youning. She gazed at Mu Sijue and asked, “What am I to you?”
She could overlook the other kiss, but what about that one? Just then, Mu Sijue couldn’t be more sober. All she wanted to know was what exactly she meant to Mu Sijue. Was she just a pet that he could occasionally mess with?
“Before I answer you, you answer me first.” Mu Sijue’s handsome face was covered in ice, showing indifference and aloofness. “Why did you save me that night?”
A lot of people asked Xu Youning that question, including Ah Guang and Su Jianan. Xu Youning answered them vaguely by saying that it was the instinct of protecting her boss.
That day, it was Mu Sijue asking the question.
“Keep it vague? Or…take a chance?”
That crazy idea popped up in her head again. Xu Youning wanted to confess her feelings to Mu Sijue, and to take it as a huge bet in her life. If Mu Sijue liked her back, then it would be like a pie dropping from heaven. If Mu Sijue rejected her… what’s the big deal anyway? At the end of the day, she was destined to be unable to stay with him. If he turned her down, she could leave without strings attached.
As her thoughts were getting crazier, Xu Youning’s heartbeat speeded up, as well as her breathing. The way Mu Sijue looked at her was hot, burning inside her heart. She opened her mouth and heard herself saying, “Mu Sijue, I fell for you.”
She didn’t call him Seventh Brother. Instead, she addressed him by his name.
At that moment, Mu Sijue was just a man; the man she fell for, not the man she obeyed.
Xu Youning exhausted all her courage to confess. But clearly, by seeing Mu Sijue’s unwavering eyes, he felt nothing.
He was as cold as ever. He even stood right in front of her, still out of her reach.
After a while, he asked flatly, “Why?” Simple, as if he was asking why something normal or unrelated happened. He wasn’t emotionally affected, at all.
Xu Youning felt a sort of disbelief about his attitude. But that was the truth. The way he rained on her parade doused the passion in her, and her heart was cooled down as well. “I…”
She stuttered; she couldn’t get anything out of her system. At last, she shook her head, innocently she replied, “I don’t know where I was heading.”
If she had known, she would have never fallen for Mu Sijue. She was not submissive, and never was.
Unexpectedly, Mu Sijue snickered and left the ward.
He assumed, “Xu Youning knows why she fell for me. It’s just that she doesn’t know how to put it.”
Falling for him—One of the missions that had been assigned by Kang Ruicheng.
It was one of Kang Ruicheng’s most used tricks—setting up a girl to fall for him so as to be around him, getting into his mind, taking the advantage of it, and eventually accomplish the missions.
The person she really fell for should be Kang Ruicheng, the man who had saved her years ago in the street when she had been in danger.
Walking out of the elevator, Mu Sijue ran into Shen Yuechuan, who had just delivered some papers to Lu Boyan.
Shen Yuechuan sensed Mu Sijue’s bad mood, walking towards him with his hand in his pockets, “You look like someone rubbed you the wrong way. Who’s got the nerve to irritate you?”
Mu Sijue didn’t have the mood for bantering. He asked, “You have time?”
“Yeah.” Shen Yuechuan thought about it and replied, “There’s a new bar down on En Ning Road. You wanna go there?”
On the way to the bar, Mu Sijue kept silent.
The first time when he kissed Xu Youning, it was in the name of ‘punishment’. But it was actually his eagerly awaited desire stirring at the late night. Not because of curiosity, it was just him purely out of control.
After the first kiss, Xu Youning’s face and the kiss had always popped up in his head.
Xu Youning had been stunned. Only God knew if she had been scared or if she felt upset about being kissed unwillingly.
She had had all the reasons to be upset. But in order to accomplish Kang Ruicheng’s missions, she had sucked it up. And also, that unexpected kiss may had given her the courage to confess her feelings.
At the time, Mu Sijue couldn’t deny it, he kissed her again because of obsession and nostalgia.
Xu Youning seemed ordinary, just like one of the girls with no surprises. But once you really kissed her, she was irresistible.
He had tried to get himself busy for the past few days. He wasn’t at all distracted when he was at work. But when he slowed down, while having a break, the taste of her red lips would come to his mind.
He had brought along camellias, Su Jianan’s favorite flower, but he sent away Ah Guang, and looked for Xu Youning as soon as he opened the door of the ward. At that moment, even if he was good at hiding his emotions, he couldn’t deny that he had feelings.
And then, Xu Youning was defensive and scared of him, which, admittedly, led to the kiss.
The only thing that was out his expectation was that little out-of-the-blue ‘confession’ coming from Xu Youning.
He knew exactly that it was part of her scheme. But when he heard her saying that she had feelings for him, he was thrilled, like a loser.
Outweighed by rationality, the thrill didn’t last for long. Then, it was the rage coming after that.
However, the rage came up against himself.
At the bar, Shen Yuechuan was very supportive, drinking one glassful of wine after another with Mu Sijue and planned on getting him drunk to get something out of him.
But there was one thing about Mu Sijue: No matter how drunk he was, he could always stay clear and organized, which meant that it was hard to get him to talk.
Unsurprisingly, when he asked Mu Sijue why he was in a bad mood and whether it had to do with a woman, Mu Sijue responded, “Fuck off!”
Nonetheless, Mu Sijue drank too much. Shen Yuechuan had to drive him home eventually.
Being carried, Mu Sijue murmured out of the blue. Shen Yuechuan didn’t quite catch that, asking, “What? Say that again.”
“I said…” This time, Shen Yuechuan heard him clearly. “I fell for a woman whom I shouldn’t fall for,” Mu Sijue said.
Shen Yuechuan knew who he was referring to. He sneered and said, “What do you mean by ‘shouldn’t’? Lu Boyan fell for Jianan 15 years ago. The point is, Jianan was only 10 years old! Listen to me. Seize the opportunity while you still have one.”
“Seize the opportunity?”
Before Mu Sijue passed out, the last thing in his mind was, “that seems like a good idea.”
The lights in the city dimmed, and the night was getting late. The city, like Mu Sijue, was gradually sunken in sleep.
Only Xu Youning, who was far-off in the hospital, couldn’t sleep at all.
She sent Aunt Liu back, took two painkillers, and stayed awake.
Not only there was pain, but also the disregard from Mu Sijue, resulting in her sleepless night.
Mu Sijue had been surrounded by people who loved him, so maybe he was tired of people saying “I fell for you” or “I love you” to him.
But… it had been her first time ever to say things like that. Shivering, she warily confessed her feelings with all her courage. Back in those days when she had utterly admired Kang Ruicheng—more precisely, was obsessed with him—she didn’t tell him that she had fallen for him.
Mu Sijue was the first one to whom she confessed her feelings. And all she got was an ambiguous sneer and the view of his back when he had left.
He taunted her, right? He taunted her for her unawareness and her ridiculous daydreams.
“Well, yeah. He’s Mu Sijue, a man who’s immensely influential and powerful in City G. He can get whatever and whoever he wants, including women.”
She was just a spy, a spy approaching him with despicable reasons, which meant that it had been impossible for them to be together in the first place.
Despite all that, Xu Youning didn’t regret confessing.
She had always been decisive, like that time when she had made the decision of working for Kang Ruicheng. A momentary decision that had led to a life-time impact.
But on second thought, it was unnecessary for her to regret working for Kang Ruicheng. If it weren’t for Kang Ruicheng assigning her all those missions, she would have been unable to meet Mu Sijue, let alone tragically fall for him.
Speaking of that, secret love had never been a delightful matter. She would rather go for it and tell the guy her true feelings than hide it cautiously. She couldn’t make him fall for her, but the least she could do was to let him know that she liked him.
Though, one day, when her identity was revealed, Mu Sijue would suspect that her confession was a part of her scheme.
At least, she knew that it was heartfelt.
In a short period of time, she really did like a guy named Mu Sijue.