Chapter 37

It was not difficult for Xie Jin to get Su Tao's home address, and it was not difficult to find her door key in her backpack either.

What was difficult was opening the door while hugging the squirming Su Tao in his arms. Her naughty little hands had already undone four buttons on his shirt. Xie Jin barely managed to maintain his strong willpower long enough to get the door open and put her down on the bed before lowering his head to kiss her.

Outside the window, the crescent moon hung high as its bright moonlight filled half the unlit bedroom.

On the rumpled bedspread, his big hand held her small hand, ten fingers tightly intertwined. Xie Jin used all his strength to reluctantly leave her soft lips.

His chest heaved as he gasped for the oxygen he had been missing.

His back was already soaked with sweat. He swallowed and moistened his dry throat, murmuring in a low voice, "Little Taozi, be good. Otherwise I won't be able to hold back."

This time Su Tao seemed more drunk than last time. She was not as difficult as before. Once he covered her with a thin quilt, she fell asleep.

Xie Jin waited for the heat in his body to subside before finding the bathroom in the dark and taking a cold shower, finally calming down. He walked out with a towel around his waist.

After fumbling around for a while, he finally found the light switch and turned on the lights. The decor of the room made him pause in surprise.

Just like a model room, the tidy living room didn't even have the coziness of a model room. Aside from the cushion on the sofa adding a pop of color, everything was black, white and gray.

Even calling it a cold, industrial style would be an insult to that aesthetic. At least that style would have some bright accent colors.

He looked towards the bedroom with the light from the living room to find a bedside lamp or table lamp, but didn't find any. There was only a bright overhead light. The room didn't even have a doll or stuffed animal.

What kind of woman's home was this?

Xie Jin crouched by Su Tao's side, his long fingers gently brushing aside her hair to reveal her serene sleeping face.

From the day he met her, she had always been so well-behaved and sensible, never making unreasonable demands or doing things he didn't like.

She was always so gentle, just gentle enough, not clingy or petulant, good at hiding her true feelings, to the point that he had overlooked her inner emotions.

What girl doesn't like cute things? What girl doesn't want to be a little princess?

He only knew that she looked like a woman when wearing pink, but he never gave her enough acceptance and indulgence to truly enjoy a woman's privileges.

Her lack of desire wasn't because she really didn't want anything, but because no one had ever given her those things.

Thinking that his little Taozi had never been doted on made his heart feel like it had been stabbed and twisted, leaving him breathless from the pain.

What had he been doing before? Why was he only realizing all this now?

A transparent, warm teardrop fell on Su Tao's eye, followed by a second teardrop. Xie Jin belatedly wiped his own wet eyes.

He lowered his head to kiss away the tears that had fallen on her eyes, speaking in a voice so soft it was barely audible, "I will spend the rest of my life spoiling you like a princess."

The first ray of sunlight hit Su Tao's face, making her eyelashes flutter lightly as she slowly awoke.

Her head hurt a little. She tried to raise her hand to rub it but found her arm pinned down, unable to pull free.

She opened her eyes fully to find an enlarged face close beside her ear, breathing evenly on her cheek, instantly waking her completely.

Her first reaction was that she must have slept with Xie Jin again.

Su Tao turned her head to look. His sharp side profile with skin as fair as envied by women, narrow eyes with long lashes resting smoothly, sleeping with a peaceful expression, none of his usual arrogance and solemnity.

Su Tao extended her other arm that wasn't pinned under him and pushed him, successfully shifting his position.

But he hugged her even tighter, nuzzling his head against her neck, still seeming to be dreaming, "Mm, little Taozi, you're getting up to study again... sleep with me a little longer."

His words instantly brought Su Tao back to every ordinary morning four years ago when he would always coerce her to be lazy in bed a little longer after waking up.

Su Tao snapped out of her thoughts and scowled. "Xie Jin, let me go."

This time he really woke up, opening drowsy eyes to see the scene he could only see in his dreams every day.

Xie Jin blanked in a daze for a long while, the corners of his lips curving up.

"What are you smiling about?" Su Tao asked grumpily, pushing him away and looking down to see her clothes intact under the covers, breathing a sigh of relief.

"You didn't wrongly accuse me last time when you slept with me, right?" Xie Jin blinked his somewhat swollen eyes and knocked on the bathroom door, leisurely asking her.

Su Tao defended, "I've never blacked out from drinking either. I didn't do anything to you last night."

"You didn't do anything to me last night?" Xie Jin's eyebrows raised as he smirked, his pitch black eyes lighting up. "You already had my shirt unbuttoned before we even got home..."

"Shut up!" Su Tao threw the covers at him, covering his head. She swiftly went into the bathroom and locked the door. Her warning came from inside, "Disappear before I come out!" "You definitely slept with me last time, you can't wrongly accuse me of that," Xie Jin struggled to keep his slightly swollen eyes open as he knocked on the bathroom door, casually asking her.

Su Tao defended, "That was also your fault for eroding me day after day wearing just swim trunks across from me."

Xie Jin's eyebrows quirked up as he smirked, a gleam appearing in his dark eyes. "So the person you slept with in your dream that day was me?"

This time Su Tao didn't respond immediately. After a while, her voice finally came from inside, so low that Xie Jin had to press his ear against the door to hear.

"It was the young man I first met on the bridge, not you."

Xie Jin's smile instantly froze on his face, his heart contracting violently. His head felt like someone was bashing it with a hammer. He stood there in a daze for a long time, unable to regain his senses.

The day they first met, they had consumed each other's warmth, able to give their all to each other.

He had almost forgotten that little Taozi lacked a sense of security. He had almost forgotten how he had gradually stepped into her heart one small step at a time, making her lower all her defenses and believe that he was the one who could give her a sense of security.

The kind of crazy security where you could give your heart or even your life to someone.

Later, after she completely belonged to him, he started relying more and more on her, and became more and more domineering, only allowing her to listen to him, wanting to sever all her external ties to make her exclusively his.

Little Taozi had found security and given it to him, but after obtaining her, he was the one who inexplicably lost his sense of security instead.

Wasting her love time and time again.

Until he drove her away with his own hands.

...

After washing up, Su Tao put on a bathrobe and raised her voice to call towards the outside, "I'm going out now. Leave now if you haven't!"

There was no response from outside. Su Tao slowly opened the door and glanced out. No one was in the living room or bedrooms.

Breathing a sigh of relief while also feeling puzzled, she wondered why he was so obedient now?

This hangover was worse than last time, maybe because of the different alcohol. By the time she got to the company, her headache still hadn't subsided. Then she received a disastrous news.

Jiang Qi's DG endorsement had fallen through.

Although she had been drunk last night, she clearly remembered Li Yajie saying this endorsement was perfect for Jiang Qi. Why was she suddenly saying they weren't using Jiang Qi today?

Su Tao immediately went to the DG building to find Li Yajie.

Li Yajie was wearing a white custom tailored suit, exuding a mature and capable aura compared to her casual look yesterday.

She placed a document in front of Su Tao. Inside was a contract already drafted for the new product series endorsement with Jiang Qi's name listed as the endorser.

Su Tao looked up puzzledly at her.

Li Yajie lightly sighed, full of helplessness in her tone, "I had the contract drafted already, but the Chairman suddenly disagreed. I don't know why either."

Wasn't the Chairman her husband?

He hadn't been involved in company affairs for many years. Why was he suddenly interfering with DG's new product endorsement?

Su Tao thought about it and still voiced the question, "Isn't the company under your management now?"

Li Yajie spread her hands helplessly. "He's still the Chairman and largest shareholder of the company after all. Procedure-wise I have to listen to his opinion."

"Sis, is there really no other way?" This was the first time Li Yajie had seen Su Tao so worried. She squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Why don't we invite Jiang Qi as a guest performer for the new product launch event?"

This was probably Li Yajie's greatest goodwill already. No matter how well they got along, this still involved various stakeholder interests that a minor favor could not sway.

After leaving the DG building, a gust of wind suddenly kicked up. Unknowingly, it was already late summer, early autumn.

Standing in the wind, Su Tao seemed to be woken from her hangover. She immediately had Le Xuan send Jiang Nian's information to her.

If she gave up so easily every time, Top One would not exist today.

In the past, for Top One, and now for Jiang Qi, she would definitely turn the impossible into possible.

Li Yajie lived in a villa outside now, basically never returning to the old villa, maintaining more of a cooperative relationship with her husband Jiang Nian.

Su Tao staked out Jiang Nian's old villa compound from her car outside. She couldn't rashly go see him, she had to observe the situation clearly and know herself and her opponent well.

After staking out for a whole morning, it was already past lunch time. The villa entrance remained silent, without even a moving figure.

Her phone buzzed continuously with bank text messages.

The card she had given Xie Jin as "hush money" suddenly had a 7-figure deposit transferred in.

Before Su Tao could react in surprise, she saw several ten thousand dollars in spending from the card in succession.

Was he using her bank card as his own?

Didn't he have his own card?

Su Tao, hungry to the point of stomach rumbling, threw her phone aside. No time to deal with him. She pondered whether food delivery would come to this location. Suddenly the villa gate opened from the inside. A familiar figure in a pink skirt suit walked out, using a remote control to open the garage door and headed in to get a car.

Not until a black sports car drove out of the garage did Su Tao come to her senses. She started her car and followed it immediately.

She didn't regain her composure until they reached the hospital. Why did Qin Xuexi come out of Jiang Nian's villa?

Without thinking too much, Su Tao put on a mask and a hat, and followed Qin Xuexi from not too close or too far away into the hospital.

Su Tao was shocked to accept the fact that Qin Xuexi was pregnant after witnessing her going into the obstetrics and gynecology clinic with her own eyes.

After leaving the hospital, Su Tao followed Qin Xuexi all the way back to Jiang Nian's villa. Qin Xuexi didn't come out again until dark.

Li Yajie didn't have any children with Jiang Nian. Jiang Nian was childless. It was absolutely impossible for Qin Xuexi to be his daughter-in-law.

So the facts were very clear. Qin Xuexi's child was with Jiang Nian. She was Jiang Nian's mistress!

In an instant, Su Tao's thoughts were complicated, but countless thoughts seemed to have been combed into one clear line after all.

Why did Li Yajie decide that Jiang Qi was the spokesperson, but Jiang Nian, who hadn't managed the company for many years, suddenly stood up against it?

Could it be that Qin Xuexi knew that Jiang Qi was her artist, so she deliberately interfered?

After a tiring day, Su Tao returned home with many questions in mind. She then realized her house key was missing.

She dumped out all the contents of her bag and rummaged through them for half a day, but still couldn't find it.

The other keys were clearly hanging nicely in the key pouch. There was no reason that only the house key went missing!

Just as Su Tao was depressed by the bizarre experiences one after another today, the door suddenly opened. Xie Jin's face appeared, blinking at Su Tao squatting outside the door and the mess all over the ground. He had a premonition that he was about to be scolded.

Xie Jin stood neatly beside Su Tao with his hands clasped together, carefully observing her expression.

With her arms akimbo, Su Tao looked around the changed house.

The original gray sofa was replaced with deep purple cushions. There was a vase of yellow dried flowers on the coffee table. The carpet was also changed to purple that seemed to match the cushions. A money plant was placed next to the sofa, along with a floor lamp.

The white bed sheets and duvet cover in the bedroom were also replaced with light blue silk bedding. Two rabbit plush toys were placed on the headboard.

There were many other small changes, such as the tablecloth in the dining room, apron in the kitchen, toilet seat covers in the bathroom. Colors were added to the cold black, white and gray base. It was chaotic yet orderly, and the quality was improved.

"So you stole my keys just to change my house like this without permission?"

Su Tao's light tone made Xie Jin hold his breath. He explained in a low voice, "I just wanted to surprise you. If you don't like it, I can restore it to the original state immediately."

He had originally wanted to redecorate it, but without Su Tao's consent, he didn't dare to move anything. He just bought some stuff and brought it back. If she didn't like it, he could remove it all immediately.

"Restore it to the original state," Su Tao took a deep breath and exhaled to keep herself from getting angry at him. "Also, where's my card? Return it to me after transferring the money out."

Xie Jin drooped his head dejectedly, his eyes were a little swollen with dark circles underneath, looking haggard as if he hadn't slept well. While tidying up the cushions on the sofa, he yawned.

He mumbled, "You gave me the card yourself, and now you're asking for it back?"

Su Tao: "Don't you have your own card? Stop sending me reminders all the time, it's annoying."

Xie Jin seemed unable to even open his eyes. He put the four cushions into his pocket, and went to tidy up the dried flowers, no longer talking back. He nodded obediently, took out the card and placed it on the coffee table.

"Transfer all the money out before returning it to me," Su Tao glanced at his unsteady, tottering body, "Don't pretend to be weak here. Hurry up and tidy up, you have half an hour."

Su Tao went into the bedroom and closed the door heavily before sitting on the edge of the bed. She picked up the plush rabbit beside her and threw it angrily onto the ground.

After thinking for a while, she picked up the rabbit again.

The fat rabbit was as long as her forearm. Its long drooping ears hung beside its round face. It was soft all over with a nice hand feel, and would probably feel comfortable to hug when sleeping...

What was she doing?

Su Tao threw the rabbit back onto the bed, refusing to admit that she was attracted to it. She huffed angrily and opened the bedroom door to "supervise" the work.

There were few things missing from the living room, but Xie Jin was gone.

After the room quieted down, Su Tao suddenly heard steady breathing coming from the direction of the sofa.

She walked over to the sofa and found that Xie Jin had actually fallen asleep deeply on it.

Su Tao went over and pushed him, but there was no response. She kicked him with her foot, still no response.

She bent down, pinched his nose with her hand. Finally, on the verge of suffocation, Xie Jin opened his mouth and raised his arms struggling before waking up.

However, his eyes only opened a slit. Half asleep, he recognized the person in front of him, and hugged her to his chest, murmuring, "Little Taotao, don't make trouble."

Su Tao struggled with all her might before finally crawling out from his arms and falling onto the carpet.

The carpet was soft, indeed more comfortable to step on than the original hard floor. Su Tao shook her head vigorously, feeling that she was being brainwashed by him.

Just as she was about to get up, she found a folded piece of paper by her feet. Su Tao picked it up and opened it. It was full of brand names corresponding to the items that appeared in her house.

At the end of the paper were lines of words that seemed heavier than the others, as if she could feel his force when he was writing.

- I will pamper you like a princess for the rest of my life.