Chapter 99

Chapter 99

An Ye returned to the country as originally planned, so she arrived at the domestic airport around 1 PM.

Qi Wei was a little cautious.

Lán Yīfāng had already told Qi Wei about the situation in Singapore, and she kept an eye on An Ye's expression after picking her up from the airport.

Unfortunately, An Ye was a seasoned actress, and when she didn't want people to notice her emotions, no one could tell.

"Shi Lu is still at the law firm," Qi Wei finally stopped hesitating. "The situation with Huàn Zhòu has gotten really big, and he hasn't gone back for the past few days."

"By the way, he still doesn’t know you’re back, right?" Qi Wei suddenly remembered. "I told him you’d be back tomorrow afternoon."

"Mm." An Ye was looking down, checking her schedule.

She and Shí Tuò had been in contact for the past couple of days, but she didn't dare to call him, so they only chatted on WeChat.

Huàn Zhòu was completely finished. Shí Tuò said there was a possibility of being acquired. The acquisition case had been taken up by Lao Yuan, and it would likely be handed over to Shí Tuò.

He was quite happy about it. For both of them, doing anything that could bring closure to the past was worth celebrating.

Taking advantage of his happiness, An Ye made a request. She said, "Shí Tuò, I want to buy back the old penthouse. I’ve calculated the price. With your income now plus mine, let’s not pay it all at once. I’ll pay the down payment, and we can get a 30-year mortgage, okay?"

Shí Tuò was a bit confused.

He patiently helped her calculate and told her that buying at a low price and selling quickly at a high price was a bit crazy. He suggested that if she really wanted to buy, he could sell their current place and add some money to pay the full price for the new one.

After all, the interest on a 30-year mortgage was still quite considerable.

Xiao É: [I want a 30-year mortgage.]

Shí Tuò: [...Alright, as long as you're happy.]

With that, she secured his promise that he would be with her for the next 30 years.

The car headed directly to Jīndǐng Law Firm in the center of Baigang City via the overpass.

After the long-awaited contract termination matter was settled, An Ye gave her studio team three days off and had Qi Wei drop her off at the underground parking lot before they could all go their separate ways.

Qi Wei was still worried and stole several glances at An Ye along the way.

"I'm fine," An Ye said, taking the initiative to share her personal matter with Qi Wei for the first time. "I just feel a little heartbroken for him."

She just really missed him.

Entering Shí Tuò's office was simple.

After she arrived at the underground parking lot, she had Qi Wei call Lín Hào, and Lín Hào, showing great insight, used the VIP channel at the law firm for An Ye. The elevator took her straight up, and when she arrived, it was just a few steps to Shí Tuò's office.

"Shí Lu should be sleeping..." Lín Hào said as he led An Ye into the elevator. "He worked overnight on the acquisition materials and sent everyone out after the meeting this morning."

He kept sneaking glances at An Ye.

Her low-key black outfit looked like something Shí Tuò would wear.

"Are you all almost done?" An Ye took off her mask.Without makeup, she looked like a freshly graduated college student.

"Actually, we're already done." Lin Hao, the workaholic, said with a hint of complaint but didn’t dare to voice it. "But our boss is used to making sure everything is prepared thoroughly, which makes the workload heavier."

An Ye smiled and didn’t respond to him.

Lin Hao continued to wait quietly, his eyes focused on the elevator, until it reached the twelfth floor.

Shí Tuò was indeed sleeping. The blinds on the glass wall of the office were all drawn.

He had very poor sleep habits. It wasn’t easy for him to fall asleep properly lying in bed, and long periods of empty time also made it hard for him to sleep. Instead, short naps, squeezing in one or two hours of sleep here and there, worked best for him. A nap here and there, five or six times a day, would be enough.

Today, he planned to force himself to sleep for another two hours. An Ye would be back tomorrow, and he knew the bloodshot eyes under his eyelids would probably upset her.

He still hadn’t gotten a clear answer from An Ye about whether she was angry or not regarding Yan Wan's situation. He’d been a little cautious these past two days.

After all, Wang Shanshan was her mother. He had been threatening and coldly handling the situation for several weeks, so it was indeed his fault.

An Ye would be back tomorrow, so he thought he would catch up on sleep today, go home and tidy up the place in the evening, and then properly apologize to her tomorrow.

So, he was sleeping a bit restlessly.

Half-awake, it seemed like someone had come in. He furrowed his brows, thinking Lin Hao must have come to grab something. Every time he wanted to sleep, Lin Hao always had something left in the office. He really wanted to set Lin Hao and Lán Yīfāng up together, then they could end up losing everything at home.

He turned over, and the person seemed to freeze.

After a while, Shí Tuò fell back into a drowsy sleep.

What woke him up again was someone curling up into his arms.

The slender body and familiar scent made him pause for a moment before he opened his eyes.

"Hi." The woman in his arms waved at him, and the four-person long sofa was cramped with two people.

Shí Tuò was still in a daze.

"How much longer can you sleep?" An Ye closed her eyes. "I’m so tired."

"...I have nothing to do this afternoon." He had planned to go home after waking up.

At home, it was just him and Lao Bai, too quiet for him to fall asleep. Here, with Lin Hao sneaking in often, he actually found it easier to sleep.

"Then sleep for a while." An Ye said, feeling reassured, and buried her face in his chest, closing her eyes.

Shí Tuò drooped his eyelids for two seconds, still not fully processing the current situation, but eventually, he closed his eyes again.

Ten minutes later, the person in his arms let out a soft snore, a sound like a grumble coming from a throat that had been holding back for too long. With his light sleep, Shí Tuò, eyes still closed, gently removed her head from his chest so she could breathe easier.

And then, he fell into a deep sleep.

It was truly absurd to sleep from 2:30 PM to 8:00 PM in an office on a weekday.

Even more absurd was that they were both sleeping together, and one of them was the newest, biggest client of the entertainment group.

When Shí Tuò opened his eyes, he stared at the pitch-black office for at least a minute, dazed.

Fortunately, An Ye had come up via the VIP elevator. She didn’t have to pass many people to get to his office. Luckily, Lin Hao’s skills were on point; he had turned off the lights, and no one disturbed them the entire afternoon.The person in his arms was still sleeping.

Her sleeping posture wasn’t great. In such a narrow sofa, she somehow managed to sleep with one leg hanging over the backrest and the other leg pressed against him, sprawled out in all directions.

It was impressive that he hadn't woken up even though she had been pressing on him for hours.

Shí Tuò reached out and poked An Ye's face, which was facing up to the sky.

After the filming ended, her hair had finally started to puff up a little. He was very sensitive about weight—An Ye’s thinness always made his heart tighten.

An Ye furrowed her brow, swatted his finger away, scratched her face, and shifted to a more relaxed position.

Shí Tuò stared at her T-shirt, which had slid up to her ribs, exposing a section of her snow-white belly, which even in the dark had a slight sheen.

Shí Tuò: "…"

He pulled her T-shirt down, but accidentally brushed against her stomach. His hand, almost instinctively, covered it.

His palm was warm and dry, and An Ye let out a soft murmur, curling into him.

Shí Tuò: "…"

At this point, he was fully awake. He was about to get up to turn on the light, but then he noticed the scent in An Ye's hair.

There was the faint smell of smoke.

It wasn’t fresh, but the lingering scent of smoke from several days of attempts to cover it up with showers and perfume.

Shí Tuò: "…"

In the dark, he fumbled and pulled a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of her jeans pocket. There were only four or five cigarettes left.

"Get up." He stopped being gentle, threw the cigarettes and lighter in the trash, and patted her face.

An Ye groggily opened her eyes, sat up in confusion, checked the time, and then gaped in confusion.

"If you smoke again, I’ll quit trying to quit." Shí Tuò turned on the lights.

The harsh fluorescent light in the office immediately wiped away any lingering romantic atmosphere.

"I..." An Ye, still half asleep, scratched her messy hair and stared at Shí Tuò. She wasn’t sure if she even heard what he just said and mumbled, "I'm so hungry."

She hadn’t eaten anything since she boarded the plane, and now it had already been a whole day.

Shí Tuò: "...Wait for me."

There was a vending machine on this floor, but it only had instant noodles, snacks, and coffee.

At 8 PM, other teams were still working overtime on this floor. As soon as they looked up, they saw the company’s newest big star, Shí Lǜ, squatting seriously in front of the vending machine. He pressed every button, gathered a pile of things, and then turned into the office.

A while later, he came back out with a bag of instant noodles. He couldn’t find a suitable bowl in the break room, so he made the noodles in the bag with the same cold expression as usual and brought them back to the office.

"…Why doesn't your law firm’s break room have any bowls for noodles?" An Ye asked in confusion, holding the bag of hot noodles like it was a hot water bottle.

"Because Lao Yuan says eating instant noodles is unhealthy." Shí Tuò opened another packet and went out to make himself another one.

"Good thing you sent extra chopsticks with the last takeout." Shí Tuò helped An Ye open the packet and taught her, "You can eat now, but you have to hold this corner, or it’ll burn your hands."

An Ye: "…"She stared at the red spot on Shí Tuò's finger. It was from when he was telling her that it was hot, while at the same time accidentally getting burned by the steam rising from the boiling water.

He didn’t even furrow his brows.

In fact, there had always been signs.

The first time he was seen stiffening, she watched as Shí Tuò got pricked by a wooden splinter, and then, with an expressionless face, he pressed harder on his swollen finger. When he got hit on the back by Yán Wàn and it turned red and swollen, he didn’t even apply medicine. When the goose scratched his hand, he just went to take a shower without disinfecting the wound. Occasionally, when cooking, if oil splashed on him, he would wait until An Ye saw it before letting out a small sound.

He was still numb to pain, or rather, still enjoyed it.

But he was also trying hard to return to normal. So, whenever he felt some discomfort, he wouldn’t hide it.

He told her when he was extremely tired, told her when he sprained his foot.

Even if he couldn’t feel it, he tried to act like a normal person in this way.

An Ye took a bottle of iced water that Shí Tuò had bought from the vending machine and pressed it against his reddened finger, not opening her eyes and lowering her head to eat noodles.

She still hadn’t completely moved on from those ten years with Shí Tuò. Seeing him frown and lying on the couch made her feel uncomfortable. She should have woken him up, but she couldn’t bring herself to. In the end, they both ended up sleeping together until now.

Then, the two of them looked like homeless people, each holding a packet of instant noodles, eating messily.

She had finished eating everything because she was afraid the soup would spill in Shí Tuò's office. She ate it all cleanly, not leaving a drop of soup.

After finishing, she pursed her lips and stared at the calorie chart on top of her noodles.

"Your face is going to swell up like a ball tomorrow." Shí Tuò had already finished his noodles. Now, while carefully holding the iced water to cool his burnt finger, he tried to scare her.

An Ye glared at him and opened a packet of marinated eggs.

Since she had already eaten, she might as well keep going.

"Was the filming smooth?" Shí Tuò asked, "Why did you come back early?"

He had been observing her since he woke up. It seemed that her mood wasn’t exactly low, but not happy either. She didn’t seem to be angry anymore.

It was just that her mood seemed a bit down.

An Ye thought for a moment while eating the marinated egg, then nodded.

It was smooth, I suppose. The goal was achieved.

"Then home?" Shí Tuò asked again.

An Ye stuffed the remaining half of the marinated egg into Shí Tuò's mouth and nodded again.

"Mask and baseball cap on." Shí Tuò picked up the small luggage An Ye had left by the door. "I only remembered after waking up that your current identity is my client."

An Ye: "…"

"If I get complained about, I won’t have money to pay the mortgage with you." The two of them sneaked into the elevator like thieves, and Shí Tuò let out a sigh of relief.

An Ye: "…"

She stared at Shí Tuò’s back.

He was always trying to make her laugh.

But that only made her feel even more upset.She also wanted to make Shí Tuò happy, that kind of simple happiness where nothing else matters.

She used to be really good at making him laugh. Sometimes, just by suddenly popping her head out to scare him, his mood would improve. But after their reunion, most of the time, it seemed like it was Shí Tuò who was trying to make her happy.

She had already lost that youthful ability to surprise him. Now, she thought that if she wanted to make Shí Tuò happy, she should be more mature about it.

An Ye pursed her lips and followed behind Shí Tuò, getting into his car.

The car hadn't been driven in four days. There was a thin layer of dust on the hood and the door. Shí Tuò, worried the dust might get on An Ye, used his suit to wipe it off before opening the door and letting An Ye sit first.

An Ye looked down at her dusty clothes from the flight and felt even worse.

Shí Tuò fastened An Ye’s seatbelt, walked around to the driver's seat, started the car, and pressed the gas pedal.

An Ye released the tight grip on her lips and said, "Let's get married."

Shí Tuò: "..."

Shí Tuò: "???"

Shí Tuò: "!!!"

In the midst of his panic, Shí Tuò managed to shift into reverse. With a loud thud, the car’s rear collided with the wall. Another loud noise followed, and it seemed like the bumper and the license plate might have fallen to the ground, making a racket like it was New Year’s Eve.

An Ye: "..."

Alright, now everyone’s comfortable.

Their chaotic reactions were truly a match made in heaven.