So Soft

"..."

Nan Xingyu should have guessed long ago.

He was so overbearing. How could he have stopped asking about her boss just because she coaxed him a few times?

It turned out he knew who it was.

Things had already come to this anyway.

A wounded feeling of throwing caution to the wind rose in her heart, and she retorted through tears:

"It's only because you're always controlling me. If I'd told you, you would've gotten angry again. That's why I lied."

Xi Jin chuckled. "My little Xiaoyu."

His fingertips brushed her cheek before coming to rest on her lips, where he stroked them.

"You're really getting a little hard to discipline now."

"I'm so troubled."

"How should your big brother teach you to behave?"

Nan Xingyu tried to pull free of his hand and said angrily, "You're not my big brother. I'm a month older than you."

"Shh."

He pressed a fingertip to her lips. "Be good, Xiaoyu. Don't talk. Big brother will bathe you."

"I don't want you to!"

Every part of Nan Xingyu resisted.

Xi Jin finally lost his patience and yanked her clothes off.

He stepped in after her, clamped one hand around the back of her neck to keep her from moving, and used the other to rinse her with the showerhead.

Nan Xingyu closed her eyes and dodged.

Water went up her nose, leaving it aching and sore, and she coughed sharply several times.

"You got yourself so dirty."

He leaned close and sniffed with the tip of his nose against her neck. "Xiaoyu's scent is all gone."

Nan Xingyu seized the chance, opened her mouth, and bit his shoulder.

Xi Jin's brows twitched. A moment later, an excited smile gleamed in his eyes.

"Good baby, bite harder."

"..."

Nan Xingyu bit through the soaked fabric of his shirt until her jaw ached.

"Stopping already?"

Xi Jin lifted her by the back of the neck as if she were a kitten, turned her to face him, and brushed his thumb over her lips.

"I haven't even seen blood."

"..."

Nan Xingyu pushed at him. "You giant pervert!!"

Xi Jin smiled, a strange tenderness in his eyes. His gaze drifted down to her glistening lips.

They were slightly parted as she panted.

Just looking at them made him want to...

"Xiaoyu's... why are they so..."

"..."

Nan Xingyu instantly understood what he wanted to do.

She struggled even harder.

She knew exactly what his was like; he could probably be granted a marquis title.

"Get away from me, pervert, lunatic..."

Xi Jin caught her flailing hands and pinned them behind her waist.

"If only I really were crazy."

His obsessive gaze traced her outline, every part of it driving him mad with infatuation.

"But I still have a little sense left. Otherwise, I would have grabbed you and kissed you in front of them just now."

"..."

Nan Xingyu twisted in his grip. It was impossible to tell whether the look she gave him was fear, terror, or anger.

He seemed to be getting more and more out of control.

"Xiaoyu, do I have to lock you up before you'll behave?"

"Bastard, what gives you the right to treat me like this?"

Nan Xingyu looked at the face that was still handsome, yet wanted to push him far, far away.

Xi Jin leaned in to kiss her lips.

She turned her head and dodged.

Xi Jin's kiss landed behind her ear instead, his breath burning hot.

"Xiaoyu, I love you. Isn't that enough?"

"I don't want you to love me."

Nan Xingyu turned back, tears in her eyes. "I don't want to be with you anymore."

At her words,

Xi Jin didn't get angry as expected. Instead, he lowered his eyes and let out a scoff.

"Since baby is being so disobedient,"

He lifted his lashes slightly, dark currents churning in his eyes.

"I can only make baby suffer a little."

"..."

Nan Xingyu's throat tightened. "Wh-wh-wh-what are you going to do..."

"First, wash baby clean."

Xi Jin leaned close to her ear and chuckled softly. "Then do what I've always wanted to do."

He traced the lines of her lips. "Baby's lips are so soft."

"..."

Nan Xingyu's pupils contracted. She tried desperately to back away, but she was already in the palm of his hand.

The showerhead came at her again.

She closed her eyes and dodged from side to side, but the difference in their strength made it hard for her to break free of his grip.

Of the thirty-six stratagems,

first, beg for mercy.

"Big brother, I'm sorry... I won't dare do it again, really, I won't ever dare again..."

The showerhead spraying her face paused, then dropped into the bathtub. The water shot straight up like a fountain before falling over their heads.

Xi Jin's shirt was soaked, clinging to his firm chest as he wiped the droplets from her face.

"Can I still believe what you say, Xiaoyu?"

"Really, I really won't dare again, sob, sob..."

Nan Xingyu coughed a few more times as she spoke.

Water mingled with the tears on her face. Her eyes were watery, and she looked as bedraggled as a kitten that had fallen into water, even trembling a little from the cold.

Xi Jin raised a hand and turned off the shower.

The stream stopped instantly.

He wrapped his arms around her soaked body and felt her trembling.

"Xiaoyu, don't lie to me."

His voice carried a barely perceptible rasp as he spoke close to her ear.

"I love you so much. Why lie to me?"

"Sob, sob... I was wrong... I won't dare again..."

Nan Xingyu buried herself in his arms, her voice trembling too.

Xi Jin held her tightly, as if comforting her, or perhaps reassuring himself that she was there.

"Do you love me?"

"I do..."

Hearing her answer, Xi Jin's tense body relaxed a little.

He lowered his eyes to the person crying like a child in his arms. "Big brother loves you too."

A moment later,

when the warm water from the shower fell on the top of her head, Nan Xingyu's fingertips curled.

The warmth of Xi Jin's palm reached her through her wet hair. Every rub of his fingertips seemed to make a silent declaration.

He wanted to control her.

"How many more times are you going to wash me?"

She couldn't help asking in a quiet voice.

Xi Jin said nothing, as if he hadn't heard.

In the end,

Xi Jin washed her from head to toe three times.

Afterward, he dried her hair for her as he usually did.

Nan Xingyu sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes vacant, still shaken.

Why was he always like this?

One moment he was hurting her, and the next he could put on a tender manner.

Leaving her torn back and forth by complicated feelings.

The hum of the hair dryer stopped abruptly.

Xi Jin put it down, knelt on one knee before her, and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear.

His thumb gently rubbed the side of her neck.

"Xiaoyu, let's get married."

"..."

Her untroubled eyes flickered slightly.

Nan Xingyu looked up at him.

"You don't have to worry about my family. As for yours, I'll talk to your parents."

"No!"

"It's not up to you."

"..."

Nan Xingyu saw the determination in his eyes.

"My parents won't agree."

"I'm only informing them."

"I don't want to!"

"I'll tell them you slept with me when you were eighteen."

Slap.

Nan Xingyu's right hand tingled, and she clenched it tightly into a fist.

The blow had turned Xi Jin's head slightly to the side.

She only hit him like this when she was drunk.

This was the second time she had hit him while sober.

From childhood to adulthood, she had always been under his control.

Now she was like a puppet that had suddenly come to life.

She had begun to resist.

Begun to want to escape.

She was out of control.

"Do you have to humiliate my mom?"

Nan Xingyu's chest rose and fell slightly, and her eyes reddened once more.

"Let her know how shameless her daughter has been all these years."

"Being with me,"

Xi Jin lifted his eyes slightly, their gaze icy. "That makes you shameless?"

"Yes!"

Nan Xingyu answered without hesitation.

His family would think so.

If they knew about their relationship, they would surely think her shameless for seducing her employer's son.

Trying to fly onto a branch and become a phoenix.

Xi Jin looked at her and sneered silently. "Nan Xingyu, when have I not come to your door and offered myself up for you to sleep with?"