Little Treasure slept heavily as Ning Xi lightly got off the bed to find out what had happened.
Opening her bedroom door, she saw Lu Tingxiao pouring himself a glass of water, one hand clutching his stomach and his face ghastly pale.
Ning Xi rushed over. "Mister Lu, are you alright?"
"It's nothing."
"Do you have a stomachache?"
Lu Tingxiao was silent.
Ning Xi knew she had guessed right.
Lu Tingxiao couldn't handle spicy food. But if he couldn't handle it, why had he still eaten it?
"Wait a second, I'll get you some medicine."
Luckily, her house was well-stocked with medical supplies.
Ning Xi hurriedly brought over the stomach medication. "You have to eat both pills."
"Thanks." Lu Tingxiao took the caplets from her palm, the coolness of his skin lightly grazing hers and giving her a shock which engraved itself into her heart.
It was currently very late into the night, and with a beauty standing before her, in such a difficult, dangerous situation, it was very easy to light a fire!
Ning Xi silently recited math equations in her head to calm her heart. As she watched Lu Tingxiao take his medicine, she felt it wouldn't be appropriate to just leave, and decided to accompany him for a while.
"Is it better now? Do we need to go to the hospital? I'm sorry, I didn't know you couldn't eat spicy food…"
Originally, she was worried about Little Treasure eating too much spicy food, but in the end, Little Treasure was fine but Lu Tingxiao was not. What kind of situation was this…
"It's no big deal."
Both of them didn't say anything for a while before Lu Tingxiao finally opened his mouth: "Tonight we came to bother you because Little Treasure wanted to see you."
Ning Xi felt surprised. "Little Treasure wanted to see me?"
"Since you saved him after the scare he received in the bar storeroom, Little Treasure is now very reliant on you," Lu Tingxiao explained.
Ning Xi realized that if Little Treasure was nearby or whenever the topic of Little Treasure came up, Lu Tingxiao's unfathomable cold demeanor would soften; he was not as frightening as he had been at the hospital during the day.
"So it was like this…" Ning Xi nodded her head.
The atmosphere created from being up this late at night tended to make people lower their guards and confess their worries, so Ning Xi asked a question she'd been thinking about a lot. "That, if I may boldly ask, does Little Treasure not know how to speak?"
She had never heard Little Treasure utter a single word. The little guy only knew how to nod or shake his head.
"It's not that he doesn't know how, he just doesn't want to speak," Lu Tingxiao replied.
"So it's a psychological issue?" Ning Xi furrowed her brow.
"Yes." Lu Tingxiao didn't intend to hide anything.
"This…" It was almost as she had guessed.
As for the issue of what had happened to trigger the child’s trauma like this, Ning Xi dared not ask further about such a secret.
"Miss Ning." Lu Tingxiao suddenly fixed his attention on her. His gaze was cold, yet it gave her a scorching hot feeling which excited and exhausted her.
"Yes?" Ning Xi froze under his gaze.
"Have we met somewhere before?" Lu Tingxiao asked.
If anyone else had asked this question, Ning Xi would assume that the other person was hitting on her using a completely worn out pick-up line. But the person speaking was Lu Tingxiao. Also, there was an entirely serious and honest expression in his eyes.
"I don’t think we have. If I had seen a person like you before, Mister Lu, it’s impossible that I would have no recollection of it whatsoever… that, is there a problem?" Ning Xi’s tone was firm. Even if she was the eldest miss of the Ning family, there was absolutely no possibility of having met Lu Tingxiao, who was of a higher and different class.
"It’s nothing." Lu Tingxiao directed his gaze, dark as the night outside, towards the window. He seemed forlorn.
If this kind of tête-à-tête continued, the atmosphere would not be good!
"Mister Lu, if you’re alright now, I’m going to head back to bed," Ning Xi said carefully.
Lu Tingxiao saw through her and waved his hand. "No rush. Sit."
No rush! She was really rushed, okay!
With a face like she was about to cry, Ning Xi sat down obediently, like a student in class.
Lu Tingxiao rested his head in one hand. "Are you that scared of me?"
A late night Lu Tingxiao was much more unreserved than the daytime Lu Tingxiao, so he was even more dangerous.
Ning Xi shook her head like a rattle, but then nodded her head. "You’re a king. Who wouldn’t be afraid of you?"
Lu Tingxiao swirled the water in his glass, and said faintly, "So because other people are afraid of me, you are afraid of me? Then, all the other women want to marry me, but why don’t you?"
This question nearly scared Ning Xi into falling off her chair. She thought she had already dodged this bullet during the day, but she was just too naïve.
This question made her feel like a thousand knives were directed at her. How was she supposed to answer it?
Ning Xi raised a shaking hand. "Before I answer this question, can I ask a question first?"
Lu Tingxiao nodded. "Sure."
"Why me? Is it because Little Treasure is reliant on me? I think this is only temporary; wait until his emotions settle down, and it’ll be fine. Even if he is always going to be like this, you don’t need to… you don’t need to force yourself…" Ning Xi earnestly advised and persuaded.
Lu Tingxiao lowered the glass in his hand and lifted his eyes to meet hers. "Miss Ning, I believe that I explained very clearly in the beginning: because you saved Little Treasure, I decided that I would repay you with my body."
This kind of explanation is so weird, it blinds me. There’s no way I could accept this, alright? Ning Xi howled in her heart.
Ning Xi felt that she couldn’t possibly get through to him if they persisted in this vein, so she could only put on an apologetic face and say, "Mister Lu, I really appreciate your intention, but I’m not a person who wants to get married, so…"
Lu Tingxiao furrowed his brow. "So you only want to sleep with me? And you don’t want to marry me?"
"That’s right… pah! No, no, no… I don’t mean it like that!" Ning Xi was ready to just kneel before him. Can you not say such horrifying things?
"How regretful, I only accept sexual relationships with marriage as a prerequisite."
"Who would believe that…" Ning Xi could not help saying. Didn’t you have a child outside of marriage?
Lu Tingxiao looked out the window with a slightly absent-minded expression. "Little Treasure was an accident. Even I don’t know who the mother is."
"…" Why did this sound so bad?
"Is it because you mind that I have a son?" Lu Tingxiao abruptly asked.
"Impossible!" Like Lu Tingxiao had said, if you cut open the brain of every woman who lived in the city, you would know they all wanted to be Little Treasure’s stepmother. How could she mind such a thing!
"Then why?"
Seeing his expression, she knew that Lu Tingxiao would not let her go until she answered the question.
Ning Xi raised her head and let out a deep breath. "Mister Lu, marriage isn’t a game. Whether it’s to repay me or for any other reason, we should at least get to know each other. Do you know what kind of person I am? Do you know my past?"
"The one I want to marry is the present you. Your past has nothing to do with me." Of course this would be Lu Tingxiao’s answer. It was as tyrannical and overbearing as it could possibly be.
Ning Xi’s expression turned frosty. "Except to me, my past is a part of me. I can’t cut out that part of me to marry you. Mister Lu, there is no point in being together with someone who follows different principles. I sincerely advise that you take back your ridiculous offer."
Her statement was followed by a cold silence.
Right when Ning Xi thought the other party was so furious from shame he was about to fly into a rage, Lu Tingxiao opened his mouth and calmly said, "I understand."
Ning Xi relaxed, and replied, "I’m going to bed then. Good night."
"Good night."
The man stared at her seemingly fragile silhouette, his gaze unfathomable like the ocean; the only thing unchanged was the boiling heat at the bottom of the sea.