Wang Xiaoliang made Wei Zijin change into her pajamas, then pushed her into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.
By the time she came out, her eyelids were already drooping.
But she didn't head toward the bedroom, because her phone was still on the sofa. She went straight over, bent down to scoop it up, and plopped onto the seat. Leaning against the backrest, she swiped the screen a couple of times before her head tipped onto the armrest. Her phone rested on her stomach, and she had already gone still.
Wang Xiaoliang came out of the bathroom and stood at the living room doorway, watching for a while.
This again.
He couldn't even remember how many times this had happened.
He walked over, slipped one hand behind her back and the other beneath her knees, and lifted her up. Wei Zijin murmured and nuzzled into the crook of his neck without even waking up.
He laid her on the bed and tucked her in, then went to get her phone from the sofa, placed it by the bed, and plugged it in to charge.
He left the bedroom and pulled the door shut.
He couldn't sleep.
Something pent up in his chest wouldn't rise or settle.
He went into the study, switched on the desk lamp, took the Book of Fate out of the drawer, and turned to the latest page.
One look made sleep even less likely.
[Thirty-Three Arts of Fate Alteration: One must spend one's own wealth; that which has not entered one's purse is not one's own. If necessity compels one to borrow another's wealth, one must repay it with interest. Beware of keeping borrowed wealth without repayment, lest fortune be exhausted and calamity arrive.]
Wang Xiaoliang read those lines