Sweet punishment

The studio remained quiet for a long, long time.

Lu Yan stood in front of the computer desk, staring without moving at Aemeath, who was curled up on the sofa.

Aemeath's little face, usually so proud and playful, had long since turned bright red.

Like a child caught red-handed doing something bad by a parent, she kept darting her eyes away, her delicate, soft hands clutching the edge of a cushion.

Seeing how ill at ease she was, Lu Yan suddenly felt the nerves that had tightened in shock relax.

He had initially accepted Venus's commission because there really weren't many restrictions. Then it was because those strange requests kept inexplicably reminding him of Aemeath.

As it turned out, he hadn't just been reminded of her. It had been her all along.

Lu Yan sighed, slowly walked over to the sofa, and looked down at her. "So this incredibly generous client Venus, who doubled the final payment at the drop of a hat, has been sitting beside me the whole time, watching me draw her commissions and even making me feed her?"

Aemeath lowered her head even further, her voice barely audible. "A-Yan, are you angry...?"

"Whether I'm angry depends on how honest you are." Lu Yan bent down in front of her so they were eye to eye.

He reached out and gently grasped Aemeath's chin, forcing her to look up at him.

"First question. You've only been in this world a few days. Where did you get so much money to pay me?"

A flicker of guilt crossed Aemeath's eyes at the question, but it was quickly replaced by pride.

"I traded stocks," she muttered.

"Traded stocks?" Lu Yan froze, wondering if he had misheard her.

"Yeah." Seeing that Lu Yan wasn't getting angry, Aemeath grew a little bolder. She pulled the phone she had modified from beneath the cushion and waved it in front of him.

Her eyes sparkled with the light of a genius, and her voice was full of undisguised pride. "I just modified this phone a little. I used a tiny time difference and data prediction..."

"Don't worry, A-Yan!" Seemingly afraid he would be concerned, Aemeath hurriedly held up three fingers in a promise. "I followed all the trading rules in your world. Every penny I earned was legal and aboveboard! It's just... my efficiency was a tiny bit higher, that's all."

Lu Yan listened in astonishment. A tiny bit? She bought a house with a courtyard in the city in just a few days, and she calls that a tiny bit higher?

Lu Yan took a deep breath, absorbing this somewhat absurd reality.

The way Aemeath looked as though she was waiting to be praised almost made him laugh, but he deliberately kept a straight face and asked his second question.

"All right, I'll accept that you've explained where the money came from." Lu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the phone in her hand.

"Second question, then. You deliberately let the notification sound go off at that exact moment today. Was hiding it from me no longer fun, so you deliberately slipped up and planned to come clean?"

Lu Yan thought that, with Aemeath's intelligence, she could never have made such a basic mistake if she had wanted to keep it secret.

So the only explanation was that she had grown tired of playing the benefactor and wanted to surprise him.

But when Aemeath heard that, her cheeks, which had only just regained a little of their normal color, instantly flushed all the way down to her neck.

Her beautiful eyes went wide, filled with panic and embarrassment she could hardly conceal.

"N-no, that's not..." Aemeath stammered, shrinking guiltily farther into the sofa.

"Not what?" Lu Yan raised an eyebrow.

"I... I wasn't planning to come clean on purpose..." Aemeath bit her lower lip, wishing she could find a crack in the floor to crawl into.

Aemeath stole a glance at Lu Yan, her voice soft and sweet enough to drip. "I was just... so happy watching you draw."

"Happy?"

"Mm-hmm~"

Resigning herself to it, Aemeath closed her eyes and blurted everything out in one breath. "You drew it so well! The person in the picture had so much love in her eyes! I kept looking at the picture, and I... I completely forgot to put my phone back on silent!"

A brief, deathly silence fell over the room. A few seconds later.

Lu Yan finally failed to hold it in and burst out laughing. He had to brace one hand against the sofa's armrest.

There had been no ingenious scheme, nor any deliberate attempt to come clean.

She had simply been so excited by how much the drawing looked like her that she had made a mistake too basic for even an elementary school student to make.

"What are you laughing at? Stop laughing!"

Mortified and furious at his laughter, Aemeath picked up the little pink cat cushion and hurled it at Lu Yan's head. "I'm already so embarrassed, and you're still laughing at me!"

Lu Yan caught the cushion and casually set it aside.

He stopped laughing, but his eyes were still brimming with amusement.

He looked at Aemeath sitting there huffily on the sofa, and his gaze gradually darkened.

"Although the reason is hilarious..."

Lu Yan slowly stood up and braced his hands on the armrests on either side of the armchair, trapping Aemeath completely between his arms and the backrest.

He lowered his head.

"But my cute Aemeath actually lied to me." Lu Yan's voice dropped low, taking on a magnetic quality that made hearts race. "You kept me in the dark and made me your personal artist, watching me struggle to satisfy the client's strange requests. You had a lot of fun watching from the sidelines, didn't you?"

"I wasn't watching from the sidelines..." Feeling the warm, masculine presence coming from Lu Yan, Aemeath's heart began to race uncontrollably.

She protested weakly, "I just didn't want you taking commissions to draw other women. A-Yan's pen can only draw me."

"Not only are you mine, but your work, your drawings, even your time all have to be bought by me."

By the end, the possessiveness in her bones couldn't help showing itself.

Seeing how unrepentant she was, Lu Yan's lips curled into a mischievous smile. "Oh? Seems this client is pretty self-righteous."

"Since you did something wrong and lied, shouldn't you accept a little punishment?"

At the word "punishment," Aemeath's body trembled slightly. Far from being afraid, a hint of anticipation flashed in her eyes.

"A-Yan, how do you want to... punish me?" She raised her fair, graceful neck slightly, like a little lamb waiting to be eaten by a big bad wolf.

Lu Yan didn't answer. He suddenly reached out, wrapped an arm around Aemeath's slender waist, and with a little force, lifted her straight off the sofa.

"Ah!" Aemeath gave a short cry of surprise. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around Lu Yan's waist and clung tightly to his neck.

Holding her, Lu Yan turned and went downstairs to the living room sofa. Then he sat down, letting Aemeath straddle his thighs.

One of Lu Yan's hands held her firmly around the waist, while the other slipped silently beneath the hem of her top. His slightly cool fingertips touched the sensitive skin at her side.

"Mm~" Aemeath flinched at the touch, her eyes instantly growing misty. "A-Yan~ I'm your benefactor."

"Being my benefactor won't help." Lu Yan nibbled her earlobe, his warm breath washing over the extremely sensitive curve of her ear. "This is the first punishment."

As he spoke, Lu Yan tickled the soft, most ticklish spot at her side twice, neither too hard nor too lightly.

"Haha... don't, A-Yan, that tickles..." Aemeath instantly lost her composure, and the intimate atmosphere she had created was broken.

Lu Yan's tickling fingertips left her whole body weak, and she nearly laughed to tears.

She twisted wildly in Lu Yan's arms, trying to escape his mischievous hand.

"Will you dare lie to me again?" Lu Yan didn't stop. Instead, he followed her waist upward, his fingertips brushing, whether deliberately or not, over a sensitive area at its edge.

"I won't! Hahaha, A-Yan, I was wrong, I really won't do it again!"

Aemeath laughed until she was out of breath, pressing both hands firmly against Lu Yan's arm and shamelessly begging for mercy. "Venus is bankrupt! From now on there's only Aemeath, no more client... boo-hoo~"

Lu Yan looked at her tearful eyes and flushed cheeks as she laughed, the tenderness in his eyes nearly overflowing.

He stopped tickling her, but instead of withdrawing the hand beneath her clothes, he settled it against her slender back.

Aemeath finally had a chance to catch her breath. She gulped down air, lying limply against Lu Yan's chest without a shred of strength left in her body.

"Giving up already?"

Lu Yan threaded his long fingers through her pink hair and stroked her back intermittently. "The punishment isn't over yet."

Aemeath lifted her head and looked at him with wet, aggrieved eyes. "What else...?"

"This."

The moment he finished speaking, Lu Yan withdrew his hand from her clothes, cradled the back of her head, tilted his face up, and kissed her.

The tip of Lu Yan's tongue clumsily pushed past her teeth, his movements awkward and even a little reckless.

He had no technique. Driven only by impulse, he wanted to swallow up the lie she had just tried to conceal and all her secret little thoughts.

He didn't know how to express anger with his tongue, or how to convey punishment through a kiss.

Relying only on instinct, he invaded her territory and took what he wanted without any method.

"Mmm~" Caught off guard by the kiss, Aemeath could only let out a muffled whimper.

When the tip of Lu Yan's tongue touched hers, her body stiffened noticeably. The unfamiliar warmth, carrying Lu Yan's presence, left her mind blank for a moment.

She didn't know what to do, where to put her tongue, or how to adjust her breathing.

She instinctively pulled back a little, then forced herself to stop, because it was A-Yan.

Aemeath's hands, which had been pressing against Lu Yan's arm, found their way to his broad shoulders without her noticing, her nails sinking unconsciously into the fabric of his hoodie.

Lu Yan explored her mouth clumsily, pulling back just enough to leave a small gap only when he felt the girl in his arms go completely limp.

Their lips parted with a wet sound.

A thin, suggestive strand of saliva stretched between their lips and broke.

Lu Yan's breathing had grown somewhat uneven too.

He looked at Aemeath. Her eyes were hazy now, her cherry lips slightly parted as she panted heavily, her cheeks so red they looked ready to burn.

She was still in a daze, as though the kiss had drained all her strength, leaving her unable even to focus her eyes.

Lu Yan's ears were burning too. Now that his earlier rough boldness had passed, belated embarrassment was all that remained.

He had just put his tongue in her mouth, and the thought made him want to find a crack to crawl into.

But he didn't look away from Aemeath.

Lu Yan gently stroked her kissed lips with a finger, his voice soft. "Remember this. Your man doesn't need you to support him like this."

Lu Yan looked straight into her eyes and spoke each word distinctly. "I draw because I love it, but even more because I want to draw you. I don't lack money. All I lack is an Aemeath who loves me."

"From now on, whatever it is, even if you want to monopolize my time, you're not allowed to lie to me. Understand?"

Hearing Lu Yan's domineering words, so full of reassurance, Aemeath felt as though her heart had been immersed in warm water, completely at ease.

"I understand~!" Aemeath nodded vigorously, then leaned forward of her own accord and pecked Lu Yan on the lips again.

She hugged his neck tightly, her voice full of utter happiness. "A-Yan, don't take anyone else's commissions. From now on, let me support you, okay?"

"Okay~" Lu Yan tightened his arms, holding her securely against him and rocking her gently. "Little jealousy spirit."