Chapter 11: Miss Jian, Do As You Please

After Uncle He left, Pei Yan Zhou walked over to her, taking the paper bag from her hand. His dark eyes fixed on her. “Is your wound better?”

“Hmm.” Jian Ruo Ci pursed her lips. “Thank you.”

As she looked up at Pei Yan Zhou, she noticed a faint smile curving his lips.

He smiled?!

Jian Ruo Ci was incredulous. Her gaze was fixed on him. This man actually smiled. She had always thought he would forever maintain his cold expression.

She looked up at the sky. The sun wasn’t rising from the west. What was wrong with him?

Her gaze returned to his face. At this moment, the curve of his lips disappeared, and he returned to his usual expression. It was as if the few seconds just now were her illusion.

Pei Yan Zhou lowered his eyes to look at her, his gaze unfathomable. “Come in.”

“Ah?” Jian Ruo Ci didn’t react. After two seconds, she understood and hurriedly waved her hand. “No, I’ve delivered the clothes, I should go.”

She didn’t want to see him in the first place. She was just relieved that he wasn’t there, and she was about to slip away when he appeared.

Pei Yan Zhou’s thin lips parted, and his black eyes looked at her. “Afraid of me?”

Heh, who wouldn’t be afraid of such a dangerous figure?

Who was he? The big boss who ran the capital, the king of the business world. Who wouldn’t be afraid of him?

She was just a weak woman who couldn’t fight back. It was only natural to be afraid. It would be a problem if she wasn’t afraid.

He paused, his gaze as dark as night. “Then, Miss Jian, do as you please.”

Jian Ruo Ci opened her mouth, catching the fleeting gloom in his eyes. Was he angry?

Suddenly, Jian Ruo Ci felt a little guilty. Her aloofness was too obvious. Even if this man was dangerous, he had helped her a lot. It was rude of her to be so distant and avoid him.

If she were in his shoes, she would definitely be unhappy if someone she had helped was so distant.

Guilt welled up in her heart. What was the difference between her and a thankless villain?

Pei Yan Zhou didn’t look at her again. He strode towards the courtyard, carrying the paper bag in his left hand, his back tall and slender.

Jian Ruo Ci looked at his back, struggling with her thoughts. She ran a little to catch up with him.

She lowered her head and followed behind him. Just as she was about to say something, Pei Yan Zhou stopped, and she, not paying attention, bumped into a wall of flesh.

She looked up and met Pei Yan Zhou’s eyes, black as a deep pool. She avoided his gaze and stammered, “What… happened?”

“Didn’t you say you should go?” Pei Yan Zhou’s voice was very calm.

“Oh.” Jian Ruo Ci avoided his gaze, pretending to look around the villa. “Just pretend I’m a country bumpkin who’s never seen such a grand villa before. I’m just broadening my horizons.”

She made up an excuse. She couldn’t tell him that she felt he was angry and realized she had gone too far, so she followed him in.

Pei Yan Zhou pursed his lips and looked at her steadily, clearly not believing her words.

Jian Ruo Ci awkwardly searched for something to say. “How much is this villa? Do you think I’ll ever be able to afford to live in a place like this?”

“You can.” Pei Yan Zhou said.

“Heh.” Jian Ruo Ci rolled her eyes. “You’re just trying to fool me because you think I’m stupid.”

She couldn’t afford a villa like this, and she didn’t really want to live in a villa like this. But she had a dream a long time ago, to make a lot of money, to have a small home for her and Jian Xu. It didn’t need to be big, just warm enough. They could be poor, but they couldn’t be without money.

Following behind Pei Yan Zhou, she reached the entrance hall. Pei Yan Zhou took a pair of women’s slippers for her.

She looked at the women’s slippers at her feet, then at Pei Yan Zhou. “These shoes… are for women?”

A man having women’s slippers in his house was definitely something to be wary of. Maybe one day, there would be a big fight between the original wife and the mistress.

Pei Yan Zhou changed his slippers and looked at her. “For family.”

Jian Ruo Ci half-believed him and said “Oh” and changed into the slippers.

When they reached the living room, Jian Ruo Ci thought she had seen the world, but when she saw the huge living room, she was shocked and her mouth slightly opened.

“Can you smell it?”

She said, “The air is filled with the smell of money. That’s how the world is. The dry ones die of thirst, and the flooded ones die of drowning. Heaven is unfair.”

The decoration was modern, with a single color scheme. There were no excessive decorations in the house. It was simple yet profound.

“Pei Yan Zhou, tell me quickly, how much is this villa? Let me give up hope.”

This is a mansion villa, more expensive than a regular villa.

She was ready to give Pei Yan Zhou a piece of her mind, but he calmly uttered two words: “Boring.”

Pei Yan Zhou poured her a glass of water and told her to make herself at home. He went upstairs, and when he came down three minutes later, he had already changed out of his suit and was wearing dark casual clothes. Without the suit, he was less sharp and more languid.

Jian Ruo Ci stared. Sure enough, a man with good looks looks good in anything he wears.

So, she couldn’t be entirely blamed for mistaking him for a top-notch duck the first time they met. If anyone was to blame, it was him for having such good looks.

Jian Ruo Ci: “You look much more normal without the suit.”

Actually, he didn’t look abnormal in a suit either. It just gave people a sense of distance and unapproachability, a feeling of not being able to get along with him.

It’s a pity that he doesn’t smile more, with such good looks.

Pei Yan Zhou: “Want to take a walk around?”

“Take a walk around?” How big does this villa have to be to use the word “walk around”? She nodded. “Okay.”

When Jian Ruo Ci followed Pei Yan Zhou outside, she ran into Uncle He at the door.

Pei Yan Zhou glanced at Jian Ruo Ci. “You go take a walk first.”

She guessed that Pei Yan Zhou probably had something to talk to Uncle He about. She nodded and went to the courtyard first.

After going out, she didn’t walk around. Instead, she sat on the stone bench in the main courtyard pavilion. There was a fish pond next to the pavilion. She leaned on the railing of the pavilion and observed the fish in the pond.

There was fish food on the table in the center of the pavilion. She picked it up and threw a little into the pond. The fish scrambled to eat it. She didn’t dare to give them too much because she didn’t know if they had been fed before, and she was afraid they would be overfed.

She was so focused on watching the fish that she didn’t notice the person coming up behind her.

“Feed them some more.”

Hearing the voice, Jian Ruo Ci turned to look at him. “Feed them some more?”

Pei Yan Zhou calmly nodded. Jian Ruo Ci, like a child who had found something interesting, smiled and threw some more fish food into the pond. The fish swarmed over, vying for the food.

Pei Yan Zhou kept looking at her, a hint of imperceptible tenderness in his eyes.

Jian Ruo Ci, like a child, teased the fish in the pond, a genuine smile on her face.

At this moment, her mind was only on the things in front of her. She didn’t think about those complicated, scheming things.

Her tense nerves relaxed for a moment.

Who wouldn’t want to be a child, with parents who love them and someone who cares about them?

She didn’t want to be tense all the time, like a hedgehog, with her spines pointed at everyone.

Jian Ruo Ci felt the gaze on her, and the smile on her face froze for a moment before she retracted it. She finally realized that she had relaxed too much in front of Pei Yan Zhou.

She didn’t do this usually, except in front of Yan Xi and Jian Xu.

It felt like she hadn’t smiled like this in a long time.

As her thoughts were wandering, a red carp suddenly jumped out of the water and onto the ground, its tail slapping the ground.

Jian Ruo Ci looked at the fish lying on the ground and laughed. “What a silly fish.”

She had been paying attention to this fish. It had been vying for food with the other fish, and this time, it must have been too eager and jumped onto the ground.

She walked around the pavilion and squatted down next to the red carp. She reached out to grab it. The red carp wasn’t very big, about the size of an adult’s palm.

The fish was too slippery. She just grabbed it, and it wriggled and fell back to the ground.

She took a lot of effort to grab it again. A smile appeared in Pei Yan Zhou’s dark eyes.

Jian Ruo Ci said to the fish, “You’re naughty.”

She turned to look at Pei Yan Zhou. The moment she turned back, Pei Yan Zhou retracted the smile in his eyes.

Jian Ruo Ci playfully smiled. “Mr. Pei, do you want it steamed or braised? I love them both.”

“Then catch another one. One steamed, one braised.” Pei Yan Zhou’s cold eyes softened.

Jian Ruo Ci: “…”

Was he serious? She was just joking, but he was serious, not joking at all.

Jian Ruo Ci threw the fish back into the pond and stood up.