Looking on the bright side, she was at least a rich heiress now. No asshole boss forcing her to work overtime, no asshole client asking her to revise proposals in the middle of the night, and no asshole coworkers tripping her up and making life difficult behind her back. How great was that!
With that, Wen Ning coaxed herself into going to wash up.
When she came out of the bathroom, she saw that the long figure on the sofa was still asleep.
Wen Ning threw on a white T-shirt and jeans, then held a hair tie between her teeth as she gathered her hair and walked over to the sofa.
With her long, straight black hair tied into a high ponytail, Wen Ning called, "Bo Yan, get up and eat."
The person on the sofa didn't move.
Wen Ning called another two times, but the person on the sofa still gave no response.
Thinking of all the injuries on him...
When Doctor Xie had left last night, he had said Bo Yan's injuries were all on his face, and those on his body were only superficial wounds that hadn't damaged any internal organs. They weren't serious.
But seeing Bo Yan lying there so quietly now, Wen Ning's heart still lurched.
She quickly crouched down and felt Bo Yan's forehead.
Thankfully, he didn't have a fever.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Wen Ning thought that people really were contradictory creatures sometimes.
On the one hand, she worried Bo Yan might silence her on a whim and was scared to death of him; on the other, seeing him hurt like this made her feel so sorry for him that her head ached.
Of course, this had nothing to do with having a saintly heart. Wen Ning had never thought of herself as a saint.
If she had to put a name to it, perhaps it was humanity.
Even if a coworker she utterly despised collapsed sick in front of her, she would take them to the hospital.
She couldn't watch a living, breathing person die in front of her.
"Bo Yan? Bo Yan?"
Wen Ning patted Bo Yan's shoulder. Dead or alive, he could at least give her some response, or she wouldn't be able to eat breakfast with an easy conscience.
Bo Yan seemed to have heard her. His brows drew tightly together, his thin eyelids threaded with blue veins shifted slightly, his lashes trembled, and a low "Mm" emerged from his throat.
The sound trailed off for a long time, inexplicably making her ears tingle.
Wen Ning rubbed her ear and asked, "Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
Bo Yan didn't respond to him again.
Wen Ning thought this couldn't go on, and carefully studied Bo Yan's complexion.
Overnight, bruises had spread around the corners of Bo Yan's mouth and eyes, making him look rather frightening.
Farther down, the whip wounds on his body had all been bandaged, and blood could be seen seeping through the gauze.
Doctor Xie had instructed her to change the dressings every day.
Should she change them now before going to eat?
Or should she just wake Bo Yan and take him to the hospital for another examination? These injuries looked even worse than yesterday.
As Wen Ning thought this, her gaze settled on Bo Yan's swollen eyes.
Suddenly, she saw those eyes, covered in bruises and bloody marks, shift slightly.
Wen Ning thought Bo Yan was about to wake up.
But just then, a hoarse, cold, harsh male voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
"Why haven't you done it yet?"
Wen Ning froze.
The next second, those bruised eyelids lifted!
A sudden pain shot through Wen Ning's neck!
Bo Yan, who had been sleeping so deeply just a moment ago, now had not a trace of sleepiness in his eyes. He looked at her as though she were a corpse and reached out to clamp his hand around her throat.
Wen Ning stared wide-eyed at the person on the sofa, clearly still struggling to react.
In those pitch-black peach-blossom eyes, Bo Yan clearly saw his own savage face.
He froze briefly.
Then he put on a disgusted expression again, curling his lips into a sneer. "What, do I have to teach you how to kill?"
As he spoke, his grip tightened.
The relentless suffocation made Wen Ning's face flush red.
As though someone had pressed her power button again, Wen Ning finally remembered to resist.
She clutched Bo Yan's arm with both hands and forced an innocent smile onto her face. "Wh-what are you doing, hubby? Let go. I-I can't breathe..."
The sight of her fake smile sickened Bo Yan. "What am I doing? Isn't it obvious enough?"
The hand around her throat suddenly tightened, yanking her toward him.
Bo Yan smiled. "Killing, of course. Weren't you just about to kill me too?"
This lunatic!
Wen Ning cursed inwardly, but her face bloomed into a smile. Only, with her nearly suffocating, that smile looked badly contorted. "I... wasn't. I was just... going to change... your dressings."
After struggling to finish that sentence, Wen Ning fumbled frantically for the medical kit she had brought to her feet earlier and held it up with both hands for Bo Yan to see.
Bo Yan seemed not to have expected that answer. He stared at her for several seconds before shifting his gaze to the medical kit she was holding up.
An unknown amount of time passed. Only when the cold sweat on Wen Ning's back had nearly chilled through did the hand around her throat ease its grip little by little.
Given a new lease on life, Wen Ning instinctively stood and backed away several steps, terror and lingering fear flashing across her face.
Seeing this, Bo Yan curled his lips into an unreadable smile and slowly sat up on the sofa, pressing a hand against the wound on his abdomen.
Only after Wen Ning had breathed enough fresh air did she realize that her reaction had been too strong.
It was completely at odds with her persona as a pervert obsessively infatuated with this lunatic!
She was a little embarrassed, but above all, she was still shaken.
Looking at this bastard's utterly unconcerned face, without the slightest hint of remorse, Wen Ning was absolutely furious!
She really wanted to smash the medical kit she was holding over his head!
Always grabbing people by the throat, always thinking of murder first-didn't he know this was a society governed by law?
And she really did act on it.
She hurled the medical kit in her hands hard onto the sofa, tears welling in her eyes in an instant. As though she had suffered the greatest injustice in the world, she shouted at Bo Yan, "I only wanted to change your dressings because you were badly hurt! I never thought this was what you'd think of me! Do it yourself!"
Having vented, she turned and walked out.
Her whole manner said, You've wronged me, and I never want to speak to you again.
Bo Yan: "..."
A moment later, a derisive laugh suddenly sounded in the room.
Bo Yan looked at the medical kit that had been thrown onto the sofa and raised a hand to touch his own neck.
Why didn't she do it?
Wen Ning, why wouldn't you do it?
Are you, in the end, still Wen Ning?
After sitting distractedly on the sofa for a few minutes, Bo Yan got up and walked to the bathroom.
He looked at the face in the mirror, neither human nor ghost, and remembered how he had looked in that woman's eyes earlier.
In the past, those eyes had never held his reflection.
Bo Yan sneered and turned on the tap. Water gushed out. He reached over, only to suddenly notice blood on his right palm.
He looked up. The neither-human-nor-ghost version of himself in the mirror had no wound on his neck.
And the blade last night had cut his left hand.
He lowered his head again to look at the blood on his right palm.
It wasn't his blood.
Staring at that blood, Bo Yan grew a little distracted.
For some reason, he felt a little strange.
Had that woman treated the wound on her neck?
She was so damned delicate. Who knew how she was cursing him inwardly right now? She was probably still regretting not killing him outright earlier...
"Damned lunatic! Damned pervert! This goddamned fucking world! I'll get back someday!"
Before I go back, I'm going to beat you up, no matter what!
Wen Ning cursed the whole way, but as soon as she reached the main building, she hurriedly put on a smiling face again.
A servant was waiting at the entrance to the main building. Seeing her arrive, the servant immediately said solicitously, "Miss, breakfast is ready."
Wen Ning nodded in acknowledgment.
She had thought the servant was just an ordinary greeter NPC. Who knew that the moment she stepped through the door, the servant would follow right behind her and whisper in a lowered voice, "Miss, everything is ready just as you instructed. Just wait and enjoy the show!"