The light in the room was a little dim.
Carried back inside like a little chick once again, Nan Qing sat on the sofa, both hands resting unusually obediently on his knees, his eyes full of shock and confusion.
This was completely wrong.
Everything that had happened today was wrong!
He was clearly the notorious, vicious cannon fodder. When he provoked the protagonist shou, he was supposed to get thoroughly face-slapped, highlighting the little white flower Bai Ruanruan's irresistible charm.
But why, after all his efforts to stir up trouble, had he not only failed to exit the story, but been carried back to the room by Huo Yuzhou again?
"Could it be that what you did before was so annoying that Huo Yuzhou wants to take revenge on you personally?"
After a long stretch of rigorous reasoning, the system confidently offered its answer.
The boy on the sofa fluttered his lashes and began considering that possibility.
He was always loud and bouncing around, rarely ever this quiet.
His eyes were dark and glossy, like grapes soaked in water, their feline outer corners tilting slightly upward with an innocence untouched by the world.
Huo Yuzhou made a phone call. Nan Qing had no idea what he said to the person on the other end.
His expression was as cold as ever, his features sharply defined and austere.
But when his gaze swept over, those long, narrow eyes paused, lingering on Nan Qing for more than a second.
Nan Qing followed his gaze downward, and his ears instantly grew hot.
After being carried back just now, he had casually taken off the jacket Huo Yuzhou had draped over him.
Now, at a glance, all he had on was a pitifully short pleated skirt. Even though he was already tugging hard at its hem to cover his thighs, it could not conceal the fact that, when he sat down, the skirt could barely even cover the tops of his thighs.
At 178 centimeters, he was not short for a boy.
His long legs were slender and fair, almost entirely exposed to the air.
When Huo Yuzhou's gaze swept over him, he could practically feel the other man's eyes roaming over his body.
Like a powerful searchlight, they traced downward inch by inch along the texture of his skin.
Nan Qing's ears burned, and his face began heating up too.
On the side Huo Yuzhou could not see, he tugged at his skirt again, trying to cover a little more of himself.
His little movements were furtive, but his face remained as haughty as ever.
He tried to meet Huo Yuzhou's eyes calmly.
"Like what you see?"
The man's fathomless gaze settled on his face, and Nan Qing felt his cheeks grow even hotter.
Facing the composed Huo Yuzhou, Nan Qing deliberately put on an affected display of flirtation, trying to disgust him.
He blinked at the man, his voice unbearably cutesy.
"I prepared it especially for you, hubby."
"Do you want to take it off yourself later?"
A flash of lightning outside the window illuminated Huo Yuzhou's profile.
His handsome, sharply cut features were half-hidden in shadow. The way he looked down at someone like this easily brought to mind a male lion in a wildlife documentary locking onto its prey.
Lazy and dangerous, making people instinctively want to keep their distance.
Footsteps sounded in the room. Huo Yuzhou finally hung up, his impossibly long legs carrying him across the carpet as he closed in step by step.
"Especially for me?"
The man's low voice echoed through the air, repeating his words.
For some reason, hearing those words roll off Huo Yuzhou's tongue, Nan Qing kept feeling there was a deeper meaning behind them.
Unable to figure out what Huo Yuzhou was thinking, he could only sit obediently where he was, tilting his slender chin up to look at him.
But the next instant, the man's well-defined fingers reached over and settled against his cheek.
Perhaps because he had stood by the window too long and picked up the chill of the wind and rain outside, Huo Yuzhou's fingertips were a little cold. When they touched his face, Nan Qing could barely resist shivering.
The man's knuckles slid down the side of his face, moving along his delicate neck.
That unreadable look made Nan Qing's scalp prickle, yet he had to keep his pretty face lifted and pretend to be coy.
"You know perfectly well."
He felt he needed to test whether the system was right.
If Huo Yuzhou had brought him back to take revenge personally.
Then, to exit the story successfully, he could endure it for a while.
Nan Qing pressed his vivid red lips together, then suddenly reached out and caught Huo Yuzhou's large hand.
Caught off guard, Huo Yuzhou was pulled forward slightly.
Having started, Nan Qing went all the way, pulling hard on Huo Yuzhou's hand while forcing the man's fingers toward his skirt.
All the while, he kept murmuring.
"Hubby, I'm so hot. Will you help me take it off?"
That cloying "hubby" made Huo Yuzhou's brow twitch, and his gaze involuntarily followed Nan Qing's movements downward.
He saw those slender legs, their delicate skin like glazed white porcelain, warm when he accidentally touched it, soft and smooth.
Huo Yuzhou's eyes darkened for a moment, his Adam's apple dipping.
He swiftly withdrew his hand.
The little brat tilted his round eyes up, a flash of slyness passing through them.
"What's wrong, hubby?"
"Weren't you just saying you wanted to date me?"
"Why won't you touch me now? Don't you like me?"
"Hubby, you don't have some embarrassing problem, do you?"
The more Nan Qing talked, the more outrageous he became, the smile on his face steadily widening.
The system was right!
Huo Yuzhou must have brought him back to take revenge personally!
He had put on an act about wanting to date him earlier, but he clearly wouldn't even touch him.
"He just wants to give you hope first, then shatter it to get his revenge!"
The system's utterly certain voice rang out, and Nan Qing nodded emphatically along.
"No rush."
Huo Yuzhou answered.
What an act.
Nan Qing blinked, his face full of curiosity. "But hubby, what are you waiting for?"
The moment he finished speaking, the doorbell abruptly rang.
Nan Qing glanced that way, and Huo Yuzhou's familiar voice sounded beside his ear.
"Go get it."
Not understanding, Nan Qing hid behind the door and opened it a crack.
The visitor was Huo Yuzhou's assistant, who passed a small box through the gap.
Nan Qing closed the door and opened it, his pupils suddenly widening-
He stared in shock at the assortment of contraceptive supplies, then looked at the handsome man gazing down at him, at a loss for words.
The man seemed quite satisfied with his expression, his thin, crimson lips curving upward.
"We're ready, Qingqing."
Huo Yuzhou looked at him with a hint of a smile, his long, narrow eyes sweeping over that palm-sized skirt, a lazy amusement lifting the end of his words.
"Didn't you say you were hot and wanted me to help take your skirt off?"
"There's no need to wait now."
"I'll help you."