By the time Luo Xiaoxi’s voice died down, the only audible sounds in the audio-visual room were the ones coming from the video. People even held their breaths.

How could it be that… fast?

Damn, did she just cast doubt on Lu Boyan’s ability to last in bed? Although everyone was dying to know the answer to that question, but truly, Luo Xiaoxi had balls of steel!

Luo Xiaoxi noticed the weird atmosphere in the room; in particular, the stiff expressions held by everyone present. Finally, understanding slowly dawned upon her. She hurried out an explanation, “Boss, please don’t misunderstand me! I’m not saying that you’re fast in that sense. I didn’t mean it like that! I was just…”

“Pfft!” Shen Yuechuan was the first one who broke. Mercilessly, he burst into laughter, dropping onto the floor and rolling on the carpet. “Isn’t Luo Xiaoxi making the insinuation even more obvious by saying that?” he thought.

Mu Sijue and the rest could not help but start laughing as well. The only one who did not laugh was Su Yicheng, whose face held a dark scowl.

“Luo Xiaoxi, shut up!” Su Yicheng roared, finally snapping.

“I want to clarify!” Luo Xiaoxi tried her best to get her act together, though she could not seem to find the right words to get herself out of the awkward situation. After stammering and stuttering for a while, the only words she managed to get out were “I” and “You”, which did nothing but make the situation worse.

“Luo Xiaoxi, I told you to shut up!” Su Yicheng yelled angrily. He dragged Luo Xiaoxi towards him and held her down. “Sit down! And I don’t want to hear another word coming out of your mouth!”

Luo Xiaoxi was usually a brave and spunky person. She was someone with backbone, someone who would never let the little things in life get her down. Still, that courageous side of hers would only show itself when she was dealing with Su Yicheng or the people who flirted with her. Right now, the entire room was filled with prominent men, so she could not summon her usual courage no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was sitting there beside Su Yicheng without raising her head.

“That’s enough,” Shen Yuechuan got up from the carpet. “Xiaoxi, I’ve got to hand it to you. You have the guts to ask our President Lu that kind of question. Your future is bright indeed!”

Su Yicheng gave Shen Yuechuan a kick. “Are you done?”

“Oww,” Shen Yuechuan said, chuckling. “Alright, alright. Seems like President Su is starting to get his panties in a bunch. I think I better shut up and watch the match or else I’ll get myself into trouble.”

Lu Boyan had felt a headache from the moment the whole fiasco started. Now that he saw an opportunity to cut in, he said, “You guys watch. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait!” Mu Sijue called out. “You have to place your bet first before you leave. It’s the rule.”

Lu Boyan had never really been into sports. He would still bring himself to watch sports occasionally, but only those teams that he liked. Betting on sports, however, had been their long standing tradition; Mu Sijue, who ran a few legal casinos all over the city, had acted as their banker in these bets.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he said, “One million on Germany.”

After that he left the audio-visual room, leaving a palpable silence in his wake.

Luo Xiaoxi felt that the atmosphere had once again become weird. She touched Su Yicheng’s hand. “What’s going on with you guys? Did Boss Lu’s bet shock you?”

“No. We aren’t shocked. Just confused,” Mu Sijue said. “All these while, nobody knew whether he gave any deep thought into the bets he placed. Sometimes, people placed the same bet as him and ended up losing everything. Other times, they ended up winning instead. The shaky outcomes of his bets are really strange.” This time, they really had no idea whether or not they should follow Lu Boyan’s bet.

“I call bullshit!” Shen Yuechuan exclaimed as he made his decision. “One million on Argentina!”

After that, everyone began placing their bets too. Finally, when the replay ended, the grand finals kicked off.

When the final match ended, everyone knew that Germany had won. A wave of cheers sounded throughout the audio-visual room. On the balcony, there a bunch of nutcases who seemed rather keen on jumping off the platform.

Luo Xiaoxi cracked up. She had decided to trust Lu Boyan after some hesitation. In the end, she bet on Germany and won quite a some.

Apparently, her winnings failed to curtail her drowsiness. She forced herself to stand up from the couch, but ended up falling back down before she could even find a stable footing. She was practically half-asleep on the couch.

Su Yicheng pulled her back up. “Wake up. It’s time to go.”

Luo Xiaoxi used every bit of effort to open her eyes. When she did, she saw that the audio-visual room had already emptied out. “Where are the rest?”

“Everyone had left.”

“Oh,” she said, covering her face. “Then let’s leave too.”

She turned and walked straight into a window. Su Yicheng could no longer bear the sight of her, so he yanked her to his side and led her downstairs. After that, he shoved her into his car.

If he allowed Luo Xiaoxi to drive in her current condition, he would probably have to unzip a body bag first the next time he saw her.

In the car, Luo Xiaoxi had even forgotten to wear her seat belt; she fell asleep the moment she got in. Resigned, Su Yicheng secured the seat belt over her body and started the car.

The morning sun had already risen by the time they were downstairs of her apartment building. Su Yicheng had endured throughout the entire drive, so he was not in much of a good state himself. He called Luo Xiaoxi’s name in an attempt to wake her, but she barely reacted. In the end, he figured that he might as well carry her upstairs.

Someone greeted him at the elevator, though he did not realize who it was until he got off the elevator. It was a vice manager of his company.

It was true that fatigue would compromise a person’s reaction time. At this point, Su Yicheng did not even consider how it would look like to the vice manager and the misunderstanding that was sure to follow if the vice manager saw him carrying Luo Xiaoxi into her apartment.

He managed to carry Luo Xiaoxi to bedroom, and by the time he did it, Su Yicheng could barely move. He lay down beside Luo Xiaoxi and closed his eyes.

Having been nagged relentlessly by Su Jianan, Su Yicheng had always kept regular and consistent hours. Still, he had spent more nights away from home.

His own apartment was among those established within the CBD; it was spacious and luxurious, which were precisely the reason why it always seemed so empty. Every time he returned to his apartment, he would feel down, as if he was seized by some strange feeling of dejection. So he got himself a girlfriend and slept outside instead.

In the past, there were probably around ten days or so in a month that he would sleep alone in his apartment. In those days, he always had trouble falling asleep. Even if he did manage to fall asleep, he would wake up easily. This was even more noticeable these days since he had been sleeping at home for the past two months. In the end, he had no choice but to turn to sleeping pills.

It had been a really long time since he experienced falling asleep the moment his body hit the bed, and sleeping deeply at that.

They both slept until two in the afternoon. When she woke up, Luo Xiaoxi was still in the same posture as when she first lay down on the bed. As a result, her limbs were numb.

But why on earth would she be seeing Su Yicheng’s face beside her pillow? Could it be that her eyes had gone numb as well?

All of a sudden, she raised her palm and slapped him. The clear and resounding smack sufficed to shock her awake.

Luo Xiaoxi sat bolt upright on the bed, her eyes growing wide as she stared at Su Yicheng. She quickly lowering her head, and glanced down to check her clothes, which were still intact. “Thank God,” she thought. Su Yicheng looked like his usual despicable self.

They had spent an entire night on the same bed, and yet nothing happened.

Now that she thought about it, why did she feel that this was so much more depressing than if she were to be taken advantage of?

Still, she had to admit that in his present state, Su Yicheng looked… Well, his hotness was not in the slightest affected, that was for sure.

He was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, which had become slightly crumpled during his sleep. His hair lacked its usual flawlessness. Layers of dark rims could be seen underneath his eyelids whereas his lower jaw was peppered with greenish stubble.

This version of Su Yicheng was less striking. Even so, this version of him seemed more real than any other version of him.

Luo Xiaoxi lowered her head and brought her face closer to his.

She had no idea what she was trying to do. She just knew that her body wanted to be close to him. Just a bit closer…

Just then, Su Yicheng frowned and opened his eyes. Caught entirely off guard, Luo Xiaoxi failed to react appropriately; she paused in her movement, gawking at him with wide eyes while her face hovered above his. If someone was watching them right now, their current position would seem outright erotic, and it would be obvious that Luo Xiaoxi was the one who had initiated it all.

Su Yicheng, on the other hand, looked as composed as ever. “Are you sure you want to do this? Right in the middle of the afternoon and in broad daylight?”

“Eww!” Luo Xiaoxi straightened. “I was just trying to check out your stubble! You think I was planning to do something to you?! What? Like stealing a kiss or have a hot make-out session with you? Please. I was already in the middle of berating myself for overdoing it, okay!”

It surprised Su Yicheng that Luo Xiaoxi was capable of saying such things so casually. Unconsciously, he touched his own jaw. A while later, his hand moved to his cheek. “Luo Xiaoxi, did you hit me?”

Yeah, right. As if Luo Xiaoxi had the guts to admit it to him. She schooled her features and gave him a serious look. “I don’t have a violent streak, why would I hit you out of the blue?” she said, shaking her head. “But… Shouldn’t you be explaining yourself right now? How the heck did you end up on my bed?”

Well, she had successfully steered Su Yicheng away from the original subject. “When I sent you back here this morning, I was too tired to move. So I had to put up with sleeping in your bed for one night,” he answered frankly.

“Put up with?” Luo Xiaoxi glared at him. “All this while I’ve been trying damn hard to prevent any man away from coming near my bed. You’ve just crawled into my bed while I was asleep, and yet what did you say?! That you had to put up with my bed?”

A smirk tugged at the corner of Su Yicheng’s lips. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“I’m trying to tell you that your ‘Oh sorry, actually, I didn’t mean to do it’ attitude is detestable! Even more so considering that you’re clearly the one who had benefited from all of this!” Luo Xiaoxi grumbled angrily. “I’ll f*cking kick you down!”

Su Yicheng held down her legs with ease. That was also when he realized that after all the time she had spent at the gym, the lines of Luo Xiaoxi’s calves looked stronger and far more appealing than before; the lines of her calves were toned, defined, and infinitely more alluring.

He found himself zoning out for a long while. He could not help but feel a strange restlessness and frustration building up in his body. He averted his gaze from her legs. “Do you keep the hotlines for food deliveries? Order something if you do. I’m hungry,” he said before standing up and walking into the bathroom. After a while, he came out and asked Luo Xiaoxi, “Where do you put your spare toothbrush? I can’t find it.”

For the first time in her life, Luo Xiaoxi was stunned into speechlessness. In fact, she could count on hand the number of people who could achieve such a feat.

How could Su Yicheng act so naturally after everything! Putting aside the fact that he had just slept in her bed, now he was asking her where she kept her stuff as if they were some old married couple! What the f*ck was he trying to do?

“If you don’t tell me now, then I’ll just use the one in the bathroom,” Su Yicheng said, acting as though he was turning around to head back inside.

But that was hers! No way in hell she was letting him use that one!

“Hold it right there!” Luo Xiaoxi shouted. “Look inside the first drawer on the right side of the sink. There are a few toothbrushes there. And the towels in the wall cabinets are clean and unused.”

Su Yicheng went back into the bathroom with a satisfied smile on his face. Once inside, he followed Luo Xiaoxi’s instructions and gathered the required toiletries. After that, he went about his morning routine.

In the mean time, Luo Xiaoxi was still sitting in bed, scratching her hair in regret. Still, it was already too late to regret anything.

What she did just now was practically allowing Su Yicheng to do as he pleased. Somehow… she just could not help herself. It was like she had no rational control over her own actions and speech whenever she was around him.

Had she been rational enough, she would have kicked Su Yicheng off the bed instantly. After that, she would demand him to leave.

Instead, she ended up calling the food delivery service and ordering takeout for two.

Shit. Pretty sure she was beyond saving now…

Then again, so what if she was beyond saving. The idea of saving herself from this one-sided love never once crossed her mind anyway.

Su Yicheng came out after he had washed up. He looked refreshed and once again had his usual elite businessman look. Luo Xiaoxi glanced at her own reflection in the mirror and found that she looked like crap; her face had an unhealthy color, and her hair was a mess. Even her clothes looked dishevelled .

Damn. What a world of difference between two people!