Su Jianan was staring Lu Boyan and letting her imagination run wild, when Lu Boyan suddenly opened his eyes. Amid the night-time ambience, that danger and coldness in his long, narrow eyes were far more intense than they usually seemed. Startled, Su Jianan took a deep breath.

Lu Boyan sneered. “If I’d intended to do something to you, do you think you’d still be standing over there?”

“Then… then where would I be?” Su Jianan asked blankly.

“The bed, of course.” Lu Boyan’s lips curved upwards, forming an evil grin.

Another sound went off in her head. Something had exploded in her skull, causing Su Jianan’s mind to go completely blank. Not because of what Lu Boyan had said, but because… because he knew exactly what she was afraid of!

That was just pure evil…

“Pass me the throw pillows on the couch,” Lu Boyan said all of a sudden.

“Oh.”

Obediently, Su Jianan did as she was told. Lu Boyan placed the throw pillows in the middle of the bed. Her eyes sparkled. “Hey! That’s a good idea.”

“This way I won’t have to sleep with my eyes open,” Lu Boyan said.

What on earth did he mean by that?

In the end, Su Jianan dragged her feet towards the huge bed, which was now divided into two sections courtesy of the throw pillows, and lay down. She closed her eyes, but sleep did not come.

She and Lu Boyan were lying down in the same bed. This was something she had never dared to think about in the past.

Even though she was certain that he would not do anything to her, her heart was still….racing.

Worried that Lu Boyan would notice something amiss, Su Jianan shut her eyes tightly and tried to summon up sleep. In the end, her racing heart lost the battle against fatigue and she fell into deep sleep.

In the dark, Lu Boyan opened his eyes.

On the surface, he could maintain a calm and composed facade like before. But now that they were about to spend the night in the same bed, how was it even possible for him to fall asleep?

Angling his head slightly, Lu Boyan looked at the person sleeping peacefully beside him. Her long eyelashes had casted a shadow on her eyelids. At that moment, her delicate face seemed completely vulnerable and defenseless. She looked like an innocent child.

All of a sudden, she rolled in her sleep. Her smooth calf was now pressed against his legs. In an instant, his breaths became heavy and labored.

If she kept throwing herself at him like this, this might really turn into a sleepless night for Lu Boyan.

He was just about to push Su Jianan’s leg away when suddenly, her entire body rolled towards him. Her slender arms reached for the bolster in the middle of the bed before casually pulling it to her bust.

This Little Monster was much bolder when she was asleep than when she was awake.

Lu Boyan grabbed the bolster and threw it to the ground. Su Jianan made a sound in her sleep, her tiny hands began groping his chest. In the next instant, she grabbed onto his entire arm before forcefully pulling it to herself.

At this point, she looked like a small pet nestling beside him, her lips containing nothing but satisfaction. With her eyes closed, she looked incredibly adorable.

It was as if Lu Boyan’s heart was suddenly dipped in water. Inch by inch, Lu Boyan’s heart soften. He moved closer towards her and Su Jianan responded by shifting her body to lean into his embrace.

So obedient.

He smiled in pleasure, lowered his head and kissed her in the center of her forehead.

Good night, little monster.

…

Lu Boyan had always been a creature of habit. At 7am sharp the following day, he stirred and opened his eyes. His eyes immediately sought out Su Jianan.

She was asleep, still using his arm as a pillow. Her breaths came out in shallow puffs as she slept soundly.

This would have been a beautiful portrayal had it not been for the way her pajamas had slid to her arms during her sleep. Images swamped his vision – the delicate lines of her neck, her beautiful collarbone and the area of exposed skin just below it.

There was an unnatural gleam in his eyes. He grabbed the covers and placed them over Su Jianan, who then frowned and kicked the covers away. He tried another time, but once again, she kicked the covers away in protest.

“Is she awake? Or was that unintentional?” he thought.

Lu Boyan stared at the Little Monster’s face. Suddenly, he remembered the feel of her forehead against his lips. Slightly cool, but soft and delicate. The moment the kiss landed, it was as if something had penetrated his heart, filling it up entirely.

His eyes travelled downwards and landed on her lips. “Would her lips taste better?” he wondered.

Plus, that did not seem like a bad way to wake her up.

Their lips touched. Indeed, she felt as tender as he had imagined. He felt a sudden urge to bite her lips, but – since when did he start losing control of himself like that?

He pulled away abruptly. At the same time, Su Jianan opened her eyes groggily.

Why was Lu Boyan so close to her? Was this real or just another fantasy?

She reached out and touched Lu Boyan’s face. Ah, it felt warm, and it seemed like he was frowning. He looked decidedly annoyed.

“Su. Jian. An!”

Never in Lu Boyan’s whole life had he been touched in the face like so. His voice came out in a dangerous growl.

Su Jianan sucked in a deep breath. She was awake in a instant. “Lu, Lu Boyan!”

“Your pajamas,” Lu Boyan reminded teasingly.

Su Jianan glanced down at herself. She had a wardrobe malfunction!

“Pervert!”

Lu Boyan raised his brows. “Says the one who clung on to me for the whole night, refusing to let go.”

Only then did Su Jianan realize that… she was hugging Lu Boyan’s arm!

She hurriedly released Lu Boyan’s arms and slid her hands back into the covers. On second thought, she might as well just hide her whole body under the covers considering how utterly mortified she was.

Lu Boyan watched as she withdrew her head into the covers like a tortoise retracting its head into its shell. He suddenly felt that it was not a bad way to start the day at all. A tiny smile formed on his lips. He got up and went to wash up.

Su Jianan stewed under the covers for a good half-day before she poked her head out. When she emerged, her entire face was red, almost as if someone had painted it with chili oil. Once she was certain that Lu Boyan would not be coming out for a little while, she grabbed her clothes and hurried towards the walk-in closet to get changed.

After she got changed, she opened the door of the walk-in closet and stepped out. Lu Boyan was just coming out of the bathroom.

But that was not the point. The point was –

He was only wrapped in a bath towel! Argh! Argh! Argh!

Su Jianan was used to seeing this man dress up stylishly, so she knew that he must have a physique comparable to that of an international supermodel. But what she had not expected was that he looked even better than any international supermodel.

Drops of water slid down the lines of his standard six-pack abs, rendering this devilishly attractive man far sexier.

Usually, these so-called muscular, ripped hunks did not interest Su Jianan at all. In fact, she had found the blocks of protruding muscles rather scary. But on Lu Boyan, that was not the case at all. He belonged to the lean and fit category, which was exactly her type.

While she was salivating blatantly, Lu Boyan approached her in a calm and composed manner. She took a few steps back. “You, what are you doing?”

Su Jianan was soon forced back into the walk-in closet. “I’m coming in to change,” Lu Boyan said calmly. “But what about you? Did you follow me in here to watch?”

Su Jianan’s dark eyes moved in their sockets. A thought occurred to her. “So what if I look?”

Lu Boyan’s lips curved into a smile. He began removing the towel…

“This guy’s for real!” she thought.

In a fit of panic, Su Jianan scrambled out of the closet.

It was a nerve-wracking morning indeed. A red-faced Su Jianan sat at the breakfast table, completely unnerved.

Tang Yulan had noticed Su Jianan’s strange behavior. “Jianan, are you unwell?” she asked with concern.

Su Jianan could not bring herself to look Tang Yulan in the face. “No, that’s not…”

Understanding dawned on Tang Yulan. “What feeling unwell?” she thought. “My daughter-in-law is acting shy.”

Tang Yulan had gone through the whole newlywed stage before, so naturally she would be thinking along those lines. She smiled and began filling up a bowl of porridge for Su Jianan. “Boyan really has no self-control at all. I’ll have a talk with him later.”

“Self-control? What?” Su Jianan thought with a blank look.

After a long moment, Su Jianan noticed the suggestive look on Tang Yulan’s face and finally understood what her mother-in-law had meant before. Su Jianan nearly fell of her chair. “No, mother. We, we’re not, we didn’t, we…”

“I understand.” Tang Yulan blinked a few times to let Su Jianan know that no further explanations were required. “I was once young too.”

“…” Su Jianan wanted to cry. Her entire face was as red as an apple.

Lu Boyan descended the stairs in a steady pace. He noticed Su Jianan’s lowered head and thought that she looked rather awkward. Tang Yulan’s smile looked even stranger. “What’s wrong,” he asked, rolling up his sleeves.

“Nothing!” Su Jianan answered quickly. Deftly, she began filling a bowl of porridge for Lu Boyan. “Let’s have breakfast!”

Tang Yulan smiled wordlessly, sipping her porridge. To her, the morning was incomparably great.

Su Jianan was too mortified to stay in the house for long. She bid farewell to Tang Yulan after breakfast, claiming that Lu Boyan had something he needed to take care of.

A long while after they had left Orchid Gardens, the redness on Su Jianan’s face slowly subsided. “Lu Boyan, about this morning… I can explain,” she stammered.

Not bothering to wait for Lu Boyan’s response, she went on, “I have poor sleeping habits. So rolling over to your side of the bed is normal. It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t even know I’d do it until it happened. Please don’t think too much about it, and please don’t take it to heart. Just think of it as a one-time accident. I mean, hey, you must’ve had some accidents before, right? Surely you can understand?”

Him? He was in control of everything pretty much his entire life. There were only two accidents, and both had happened fourteen years ago. The first was his father death and the other…

“I get it,” he answered in a tone which said that he disagreed.

“Argh. Only three simple words from him? What’s with that attitude?” Su Jianan thought. His response had made her lengthy explanation felt… redundant.

Lu Boyan really did have stuff to take care of, so he dropped off Su Jianan at the house and left. In the backyard, Su Jianan called Luo Xiaoxi and told her that Lu Boyan had already dealt with the doxxing attempts. Unless there was some unfortunate accident, none of her personal details would be exposed.

“Oh, I already know,” Luo Xiaoxi said excitedly. “Look, I’ve got only one word for your hubby. Badass! Just yesterday morning, there was this user who claimed to be in possession of your personal details, but will only release them if the thread reached a certain number of replies. But last night, that user account was deleted. After that, everyone on the forum was discussing whether you had done something to that user. How naive! As if you would do something on your own.”

Su Jianan knew Luo Xiaoxi all too well. “Luo Xiaoxi, did you say something on the internet?” she asked.

“I heard from brother Yicheng that Lu Boyan had intervened in the matter. So I told those idiots,” Luo Xiaoxi said smugly. “And then guess what? Now the thread was so quiet that it was as if a ghost had started it.”

Su Jianan pinched the bridge of her nose. “Luo Xiaoxi, you’re a graduate of a prestigious school, for God’s sake. Are you really planning to do nothing besides spending all your time lurking on the Internet while living off your parents?”

“Well, I’m not happy about living off my parents too. But here’s the saddest part. I could f*cking live off them forever, and they’ll still have plenty left!” Luo Xiaoxi said. “Plus, I still haven’t won your brother’s heart yet. Winning your brother’s heart is the most important job of my life!”

During their first year of high school, Luo Xiaoxi had come up to Su Jianan and tempted her with a bottle of yogurt. “Let’s be good friends!”

Luo Xiaoxi had a hidden agenda—Su Yicheng.

The first meeting between Luo Xiaoxi and Su Yicheng was fortuitous. The moment she laid eyes on him, she felt as though her body had been electrified. However, Su Yicheng had been so cold and unapproachable that she had failed to get closer to him. Afterwards, she found out that he had a younger sister who was attending the same school as her. So she decided to try getting closer to Su Yicheng through Su Jianan. At first, she did not reveal her intentions to Su Jianan. But since Luo Xiaoxi kept subtly and blatantly asking Su Jianan for news regarding Su Yicheng, it did not take long for Su Jianan to figure it out.

Su Jianan knew she should have stayed away from Luo Xiaoxi. But Su Jianan liked Luo Xiaoxi, who was happy-go-lucky and a little bit silly at times, more than those young chicks who constantly hung around her brother. Unknowingly, they became besties and at some point, Su Jianan had even contributed to Luo Xiaoxi’s efforts in winning Su Yicheng’s heart.

Naturally, Su Yicheng never reciprocated any of Luo Xiaoxi’s advances. Su Jianan had expected Luo Xiaoxi to give up after a short while. But it seemed that Luo Xiaoxi’s feelings had persisted until now.

How many years had passed already? Even Su Jianan, whose Math grades were definitely something to be proud of, needed a while to work that number out.

“Almost ten years! Even longer than Eason Chan’s ‘Ten Years’,” Luo Xiaoxi said resolutely. “I will keep going. Su Yicheng will not fall into the hands of other women! He’s mine!”

Su Jianan smiled. “I don’t want other women as my sister-in-law either.”

Whoever said that things would be smooth sailing for sincere and genuine people? Someone as carefree as Luo Xiaoxi had loyally faithful to her feelings for ten years. Would her wish finally come true?