After a while, when he estimated that An Siyao had completely calmed down, Xia Yu asked, “What do you think about Zhu Mei then…?”
“Are you going to let her stay at my house?” An Siyao asked.
Just as Xia Yu had expected, An Siyao didn’t mind him bringing Zhu Mei back.
“It’s up to you; anywhere is fine,” Xia Yu thought for a moment. “They must have their own ideas too. We’ll see how things go.”
“Mm.” An Siyao nodded, grabbing the arm Xia Yu had wrapped around her waist.
Everything settled, Xia Yu began considering the current situation.
This was a rare opportunity for him to be alone with An Siyao.
However, Zhu Mei was still waiting downstairs, so he couldn’t delay for too long.
Thinking of Zhu Mei, Xia Yu recalled that he had kicked Hu Lianglu earlier.
Hu Lianglu might hold a grudge, so he couldn’t let Zhu Mei stay with her.
He said to An Siyao, “Let Zhu Mei stay with you.”
“Mm.” An Siyao agreed readily.
After nibbling on the girl’s lips for a while, Xia Yu set her down, and they opened the door and walked out together.
In the living room, only Kong Hanyue and You Xue remained seated on the sofa; Hu Lianglu and Liu Manman were nowhere to be seen.
Kong Hanyue pulled Xia Yu aside and whispered, “Did you sleep her?”
“It’s ‘persuade,’ not ‘sleep!'” Xia Yu corrected.
“Same thing.” Kong Hanyue wasn’t really focused on that point. “Since you can even persuade a strange woman, why not take in Xin Xin too?”
Xia Yu furrowed his brows and reached out to pinch Kong Hanyue’s cheek.
“I’m sorry,” Kong Hanyue immediately gave in.
After letting go of Kong Hanyue, Xia Yu looked at An Siyao, who had been pulled aside by You Xue and was being bombarded with questions.
This mother and son duo sure made a great team.
“Did Hu Lianglu and Liu Manman go back to their rooms?” Xia Yu asked again.
“They went back. You’ve offended both of them—you’re doomed,” Kong Hanyue, still holding her cheek, teased Xia Yu.
“Forget Hu Lianglu, but what about Liu Manman?” Xia Yu asked, puzzled.
Kong Hanyue first distanced herself slightly from Xia Yu before gleefully saying, “You were mean to her.”
“…”
Xia Yu recalled. Indeed, after picking up An Siyao, he had told Liu Manman to “move aside,” and his tone had been harsh. So, what Kong Hanyue said wasn’t wrong.
Xia Yu felt a bit of a headache, but it wasn’t a big deal—after all, it was just Liu Manman.
Going downstairs, Xia Yu called up Zhu Mei, who had been dozing by the window, and brought her to stay with An Siyao.
After thinking for a moment, he also asked An Siyao to go and comfort Hu Lianglu a bit, to raise their rapport.
It was already 9 PM. Xia Yu took a shower and went to bed, playing computer games on his laptop.
At 11 PM, he used today’s game opportunity and arrived at Wen Ziying’s place.
He had planned to come two nights ago, but ended up going to Jin Diao’s place unexpectedly.
After a moment of darkness, Xia Yu saw the familiar desk.
Wen Ziying was sitting in front of the desk, doodling on a piece of paper.
Picking up the paper, Xia Yu looked at the tornado made of countless circles and asked Wen Ziying, “Did something unhappy happen?”
“The book sales are a bit poor,” Wen Ziying replied.
“How bad is ‘a bit poor’?” Xia Yu asked for clarification.
“A bit poor” was a very subjective evaluation; some people earning hundreds of thousands a month would still say it was just slightly bad.
“At this rate, the sales might not even reach half of my first book’s,” Wen Ziying sighed.
“After all, you’ve shifted from romance to murder, which is quite a big jump,” Xia Yu thought of something else and asked, “Has that pen pal written to you again? This time, there’s no flaw in the plot, so she can’t find fault, right?”
“No,” Wen Ziying’s voice was light. “I’ve blocked her.”
“???”
Xia Yu was confused—this pen pal sent real letters to Wen Ziying, not emails. How could she be blocked?
“I smashed my mailbox and put up a note saying I’ve moved out,” Wen Ziying explained.
Xia Yu could sense the feeling of revenge fulfilled in Wen Ziying’s tone.
“Truly creative,” Xia Yu sighed, then steered the topic back to novels. “What are your plans for the next book?”
“The editor suggested I don’t rush to publish the next one,” Wen Ziying’s voice was somewhat subdued.
Yet Xia Yu sensed a sense of joy.
It seemed, just as Wen Ziying had mentioned before, she had been under a lot of pressure. Even though delaying the book’s release should have been disappointing, she felt happy.
To comfort the girl, Xia Yu said in a relaxed tone, “Want to experience a new ability? This time the rules are relaxed, so I can show you my throwing-knife skill. Maybe you can write a male clown protagonist in your next book, who rescues the heroine with his knife-throwing skills.”
“No thanks,” Wen Ziying replied.
Xia Yu hadn’t expected her to refuse.
“No need for the book, let’s just play!” Wen Ziying said.
She fetched a kitchen knife from the kitchen and took out some apples and bananas from the refrigerator, and Xia Yu performed his level-four shooting skill of knife-throwing for the girl.
Xia Yu didn’t place the apples and bananas on the cutting board and then throw the knife—anyone could do that.
Instead, he hung the cutting board on the wall, stepped back five meters, threw an apple into the air, and quickly threw the kitchen knife, which accurately pierced the apple into the cutting board.
“Amazing!” Wen Ziying cheered in Xia Yu’s mind.
After throwing a few apples, Xia Yu threw two bananas into the air at once and pierced both with one knife.
“666” Wen Ziying couldn’t find a suitable adjective, so she used an internet slang to express her admiration.
Throwing three bananas next, Xia Yu pierced all three with one knife and regretfully said to Wen Ziying, “This knife is too short. It’s not that I can’t throw more, but this knife can only handle this much.”
“More! More!” Wen Ziying wasn’t satisfied yet.
Although her body wasn’t the one performing the actions, she could clearly feel the movements. The sensation of intense concentration and muscle tension was fascinating.
Spending the whole night playing with Wen Ziying, Xia Yu returned to his own body at seven the next morning.
Yawning, he sat up in bed and picked up his phone by the bedside. No one had contacted him last night.
He lay in bed for a while, scrolling through his phone, feeling bored before getting up to wash up.
When he arrived at the downstairs dining room, Liu Manman and You Xue were already having breakfast.
Seeing Xia Yu, Liu Manman angrily stood up, leaving behind half a sandwich, and went upstairs.
As she passed Xia Yu, to ensure he knew she was angry, she even gave a deliberate “humph.”
Xia Yu sat at the table without showing any reaction.
“Brother, you should quickly go and appease her,” You Xue said to Xia Yu.
“No,” Xia Yu refused.
He had done nothing wrong last night; he hadn’t been intentionally harsh to her, and she had been the one causing trouble first. She wasn’t An Siyao, so why should he go and appease her?
Seeing the determination on her brother’s face, You Xue gave up trying to persuade him. She quickly finished her sandwich and went upstairs to chase after Liu Manman.
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