Perhaps it was because saying something she had steeled herself to say was embarrassing.
Or perhaps the eyes of everyone present, all fixed on her, left her at a loss.
Roxy's face turned bright red in an instant.
She bit her lower lip tightly.
Her head hung so low it nearly touched her flat chest.
Then Roxy spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet with the grim resolve of someone marching to her execution:
"If... if Ciyou... doesn't mind..."
Roxy's voice was quiet, but it carried clearly through the silent living room.
She paused, seemingly to bolster her courage, then spoke so quickly she nearly bit her tongue:
"Ciyou... he... he did come here on official business to 'help protect the territory,' after all."
"And I can't... can't actually make him stay in the stable..."
"That would... I, I would feel terribly guilty about it..."
At that, Roxy took a deep breath, as though it was the only way she could get through what came next without fainting from embarrassment.
She even raised her head a little. Though she still dared not look at anyone, she finished what she had to say:
"That, that guest room... it should... should be fairly spacious, right?"
"So... if Ciyou doesn't m-mind... Ciyou and I... could... could stay in that guest room together..."
When those last few words slipped from Roxy's trembling lips like something murmured in a dream,
her shoulders slumped, as though all her strength and even her soul had been drained away.
At that moment, Roxy wished she could vanish to the ends of the earth.
"..."
In an instant, an exceedingly strange silence fell over the entire living room.
Paul and Zenith first stared at Roxy, dumbfounded, then turned incredulous gazes on Cui Ciyou.
Their expressions