Night raid?
Of course that was impossible.
After pulling out the remote control and turning on the light, Su Ziyan saw Xia Zhi walking into the guest room with her arms full of things, as bold as could be.
Her expression was natural, her movements arrogant, as if she had returned to her own home… even though this was already her home.
If she really had come for a night raid, Su Ziyan wouldn’t have believed it for a second.
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t been woken by the sound of the door opening so much as by the noise of the things she was carrying hitting the door that was propped against the wall.
That didn’t look like a night raid at all.
If it really was a night raid, even if you weren’t sneaking around, you wouldn’t be so brazen, right?
“So, what are you here for?”
Because he’d just fallen asleep and been woken up, Su Ziyan’s eyes looked like those of a dead fish, gleaming with an eerie light.
But in the face of Su Ziyan’s resentful gaze, Xia Zhi was not ashamed but proud.
She didn’t feel embarrassed at all—she could even smile.
“I saw you looked really troubled tonight, so I came specially to help massage your temples.”
Xia Zhi tilted her head, a strand of hair falling from the side, and said matter-of-factly, “Isn’t this so you can sleep well tonight? That way, when we go out to play tomorrow, you’ll have more energy.”
“What do you think? Touched?”
There was no guilt for waking someone up.
She even had the leisure to wink.
Naturally, Su Ziyan wasn’t going to be fooled by a simple wink.
He mercilessly poked holes in her words.
“If you really just came to give me a massage, I would be touched.”
Su Ziyan pointed at the pillow and blanket in her arms.
“But can I ask what those have to do with the massage you mentioned?”
“Oh, don’t be so hung up on the details.”
Xia Zhi didn’t care about his accusation at all.
Instead, she unhesitatingly stepped forward two steps and put the blanket and pillow on Su Ziyan’s bed.
“If I’m giving you a massage, I’ll get tired too, you know? So I’ll just sleep in your room.”
Her tone was so natural, as if it were an ordinary thing for a young girl like her to share a bed with a grown man like Su Ziyan.
And it was true.
After they’d known each other for a few months, because he had to take care of Xia Zhi, Su Ziyan found himself spending more and more time in her room.
And as time passed, there were times when the two slept in the same bed.
The first time was because Xia Zhi had pestered him to watch a horror movie with her.
After the movie ended, she couldn’t sleep and forced him to stay in her bedroom to sleep with her.
After the first time, there was a second and a third.
Sometimes it was because she wanted him to stay up all night playing games until they both fell asleep.
Most of the time, it was because of horror movies.
That was right.
Xia Zhi was terrified of horror movies, but she was also a wimp who loved watching them.
When she lived alone, she’d only watch one before stopping.
Now that she had Su Ziyan to keep her company, she finally had the chance to watch her fill.
She’d dug up horror movies from all over the world, both ancient and modern, whether they were bad or masterpieces.
Su Ziyan was actually a little scared of horror movies too, but for the sake of his generous salary, he pretended not to be afraid to comfort Xia Zhi.
As his movie-watching experience increased, either because he’d seen too many horror movies and become desensitized, or because he’d fooled himself into thinking he wasn’t afraid, Su Ziyan gradually stopped being scared of horror movies.
At least, even if he felt afraid while watching, once the movie was over, he didn’t feel terrified from replaying it in his mind.
But Xia Zhi was still a wimp.
Not only had she not desensitized, she screamed even louder and more frequently.
Logically, Su Ziyan, who was used to it, had no real reason to refuse to sleep with her.
After all, they weren’t sharing a blanket.
But unfortunately, Xia Zhi had a fatal flaw when sleeping: she had restless leg syndrome—or rather, she moved all over the place.
Su Ziyan could never guess whether the thing pressing on his stomach or thigh when he woke up would be her head or her leg.
Once, he even woke up to find her foot pressed against his neck.
There were none of those romantic scenes from love novels—waking up holding each other tenderly.
No, what he got was a puppy-form Xia Zhi who slept badly and made him uncomfortable every time he woke up.
So after a few nights of sharing a bed, Su Ziyan didn’t gain any romance or affection.
What he got was pure disdain.
Many times, he wondered if she was too lighthearted to care about such things.
But after actually experiencing it, he had to say she was right.
He didn’t care either.
Because he only treated her like a little puppy he was raising.
And in Xia Zhi’s eyes, he was probably just a plush toy teddy bear who could cook and clean.
No, teddy bears had to be hugged.
Xia Zhi never hugged him to sleep.
If she didn’t kick him out of bed, he could burn incense to thank the gods.
So, if he could refuse her, Su Ziyan really didn’t want to sleep with her.
In any case, no matter what she said, Su Ziyan, don’t let yourself be fooled by this woman!
Having made that resolution, Su Ziyan found himself resting his head on Xia Zhi’s beautiful lap within five minutes—though it was with a cushion in between.
And Xia Zhi reached out and gently massaged his temples.
Of course, it was more like caressing than massaging.
If she were to press his shoulders, she might do a passable job.
When it came to temple massage, she was both afraid to use force and lacked technique.
While complaining inwardly, Su Ziyan, with his eyes closed, couldn’t help but silently grumble about her so-called massage technique that she said she’d learned from watching videos.
Until her fingers touched his eye sockets, completely draining him of the energy to complain.
The reason was simple: what she was doing now looked more like eye exercises than a massage.
Where did you learn that technique? Elementary school?
Thinking that even though her technique was terrible, he’d still have to compliment her after the massage, Su Ziyan felt his life was bleak.
But what he didn’t expect was that he wouldn’t even make it to the end of the massage.
Maybe because he was about to fall asleep, or maybe Xia Zhi’s eye exercises actually had some effect.
He fell asleep just like that.
In his dream, someone seemed to be calling his name softly, but through the hazy fog, he couldn’t see clearly.
And Xia Zhi, certain that Su Ziyan was finally asleep, stopped calling.
She gently brushed her finger over Su Ziyan’s lips, then, with a flushed face, stuffed it into her mouth with lightning speed.
Her movements were as practiced as if she had done this many times before.