A man and a woman inside the car alone and the car doors wouldn’t open. The boss could do anything to her at any given moment. Yan Shuyu, who has a thorough understanding of her current situation, didn’t dare to try anything funny. She resorted to telling him the truth that she got a while ago. “You wanted me to return the check to send the message that you still want to pursue me.”

Truth be told, as much as Yan Shuyu had an inexplicably overwhelming amount of self-confidence, it was still horribly shameful to say this out loud in front of the boss.

Which was why she fought him tooth and nail earlier!

After forcing herself to say all those words shamefully, Yan Shuyu quickly turned to check on Zhou Qinhe’s look.

Zhou Qinhe pursed his lips a little. Finally, there was a bit of a smile on his face. “You are finally done with playing dumb?”

When the boss smiled, the pressure within the cabin of the car relaxed a little. Yan Shuyu, too, was able to relax a bit. She purposefully ignored what he had said and asked him, somewhat courageously, “Can I go home now? It is really getting late.”

“No,” said Zhou Qinhe as he politely informed her. “I have another question.”

“……” Luckily Yan Shuyu stopped herself just in time. She almost slipped and said, “Yes, I have loved you once before. Next question.”

But, by this time, under such an atmosphere, she had already been traumatized by the boss’s questions. She asked weakly, “What is your question?”

“Do you dare do it again next time?”

Oh. So he wasn’t planning on forcing her to accept him right here, right now. Yan Shuyu relaxed all of a sudden and her verbal diarrhea resumed. “Dare to do what? Accept a check?”

Zhou Qinhe asked, as though he was someone who had no comprehension of a commoner’s suffering, “Was it that hard to give it up?”

As the boss was asking her oh so sincerely, Yan Shuyu kindly nodded her head. Placing her hand over her chest, she said painfully, “That was my chance to become an instant millionaire overnight and you just nipped it in the bud.”

If the boss had not clearly stated that he was pursuing her, she would for sure feel that he was doing this to her on purpose.

Hearing that, Zhou Qinhe stared at her intently for a while. Without warning, he said to her, “If you like checks so much, I can write one out to you too.”

The boss is writing her a check!! Yan Shuyu felt that extremely hard to believe. Her eyes almost lost focus. But then, she quickly thought of something else. Her cheeks turned beet red, and she stuttered as she declined him, “Oh, nev…never mind.”

From the light pouring inside the cabin of the car, her flustered cheeks could be seen clearly. Zhou Qinhe looked quietly at her.

She was only a little over 20 years old but had already experienced becoming pregnant before she had gotten married then losing her husband. Now she was a single mother who had to run around trying to keep the lights on. Even if she wasn’t exactly weathered by now, she should at least be more mature than others of her age.

But ever since the day that he had noticed her, she had always been an innocent girl that one could see right through. Especially when she was frantic right now, she looked even more like a girl who knew nothing about the world and had just fallen in love. Just like how it had always been described, even he felt that his heart had skipped a beat when looking at her.

He was close to 30 years old. Given his status and his look, he had been in a few relationships previously. He might not be particularly interested in being in another relationship, but he has needs and had dated a few women before. As far as his circle was concerned, he was someone with a lot of self-restraint.

But, all of those women, his ex-wife included, none of them had ever made him feel this way before. Back then, it was just that he was at the right age and his ex-wife checked all the boxes, so they got married.

All these years, this one sitting in front of him right now was arguably the only one he had ever proactively been interested in getting to know better.

At first, it didn’t have to be her. It was just that he hadn’t been with anyone for the last two years since his divorce, and she happened to offer herself up. She was quite good looking, and they were very compatible. Plus, she was good at it. Many had tried playing hard to get with him, but she was the only one who had succeeded. So he thought perhaps he could give her a chance, and that there would be more enjoyment in his life.

Up until that point, she had done exactly that. Except that even Boss Zhou, who could see a thousand steps ahead, met his Waterloo. As it turned out, the woman whom he thought was playing hard to get, her interest in him was nothing but a spur of the moment thing. She couldn’t get away from him faster now that she had piqued his interest. He should be upset, but instead, his interest in her had increased.

This was the first time he had pursued a woman, but this had offered him no difficulty at all. Yan Shuyu was a woman who wore all of her emotions on her face. All he needed to do was to play to her weakness. It was an entirely stress-free ordeal as far as he was concerned. Rather, he very much enjoyed the display of how she’d go from very resentful at first to her eventual lost expression and giving in to temptation. Which was why he kept things at a comfortable pace and didn’t mind a long and convoluted process of courting her.

Nonetheless, he didn’t expect that he’d really have fallen for her.

All of a sudden, Zhou Qinhe has sorted out his own feelings – because he was truly interested in her, that’s why he was angered by her wanting to have nothing to do with him and why he had suddenly lost all interest in continuing this cat and mouse game.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t a bad feeling either. He didn’t mind to be more interested and for a longer period of time. Granted, this couldn’t be 100% one-sided. Fondness should be a two-way street.

Having it all figured out, Zhou Qinhe’s lips curved upward a little, and he happily leaned into Yan Shuyu. He asked casually, “Oh, why not?”

Even though Zhou Qinhe had thoroughly thought everything out, as far as Yan Shuyu was concerned, it was just a brief moment. The blush on her cheeks was still there. Hearing the boss’s straightforward question out of the blue, she blushed all over again. And this time, the boss was observing her from a close distance. Once could only imagine how shameful she was feeling at this very moment.

Stuttering, Yan Shuyu couldn’t force out the answer. “This… that…. No reason…”

Why didn’t she want the boss’s check? Of course Yan Shuyu knew the answer within herself. Both the checks from the rich woman or the boss were money, cold hard cash, and either would be enough for her to become an instant millionaire. In theory, she should like them both equally.

Except that, she knew the boss very well. He’s rich, but he’s not silly. There was a limit to his generosity. Yan Shuyu has a pretty good idea. Whether she accepts the check from the boss or the rich woman, they both came with strings attached. The rich woman’s request was for her to leave Boss Zhou; the boss’s request would most likely be the exact opposite.

At the current way that things were going, Yan Shuyu did not resent too much about dating the boss. After all, he had made her lose out on 2 million yuan. If the boss was willing to repay that with his body, her little fragile heart would at least receive some comfort – lost the money but gained a male god level boyfriend. At least, she didn’t lose both money and the person.

Part of the reason for her change of heart must be accredited to the rich woman’s words. The rich woman had made it abundantly clear that the boss was just messing around with her. For someone like him, he has a very high requirement for his other half. She must at least be a lady from a prestigious family like his ex-wife to be the new Mrs. Zhou. Which meant that as long as she didn’t have the stupid idea of wanting to marry into a prestigious family to be the stepmother of the male lead, the boss would not pro-actively want to get married. So, the final outcome would just be that they would get together for a little bit, then each would go their own ways.

That would be the perfect outcome as far as she was concerned. She could bed the boss as much as she wants and not have to be the male lead’s stepmother. She must have been the galaxy savior in her past life to have luck like this in her current one.

Yan Shuyu, having nothing more to worry about, might still look to be disinterested in the boss, but that was mainly because she was still a little bit mad at him. She had already been prepared to only deny him half-heartedly. As long as the boss didn’t try anything else, once she was no longer angry, she’d probably make a move on him voluntarily.

Now that she had that idea in her mind, it wouldn’t be right for her to take his check. If she had accepted his check then be with him, she’d turn into a kept woman. That would violate the moral standard that she had held for over the past 20 years of her life. She couldn’t bring herself to do that; nor was she shameless enough to ask for the boss to pay her to be his woman. With the boss’s look and body and the technique and endurance that could only belong to a male lead in an H story, the truth was, she had always felt that she was the bigger winner between the two of them already.*

Yan Shuyu was way too poor in this lifetime. If this was her previous life, she would even willingly eat bran and vegetables and cheat her own parents for money to support the boss.

Of course, Yan Shuyu knew that that was a very treacherous way of thinking. Even she was ashamed of her own thoughts, but looking at the boss’s very probing look and straightforward question, she wasn’t able to give him the answer. She felt seriously embarrassed.

The boss, who was usually very understanding and didn’t even put her on the spot like this when he was mad at her earlier, would not let this one go. He insisted on getting to the bottom of this. “There’s a reason for everything, right?”

Yan Shuyu struggled desperately. “No, there is no reason. I am a very unreasonable person.”

“Then why did you accept the check from Madam Qin? Do you have more respect for her?”

Yan Shuyu, “……”

Even though the boss was looking very calm and friendly right now, Yan Shuyu suddenly had the thought that if she didn’t tread carefully, she just might not be able to go home tonight. Granted, giving him the truthful answer would lead to the same outcome. She was an idiot when she climbed inside of the pirate ship…er, no…. pirate car.

At this very crucial moment, Yan Shuyu suddenly has a stroke of genius. She replied wittily, “I can’t just take your money for no reason. Madam Qin gave me the check because I promised her that I will stay away from you. And now you said you will give me a check; do you want me to stay away from you too?”

Just like that, she tossed the very embarrassing question back to the boss. She was so witty. Yan Shuyu had stopped blushing, and her volume went up. She met the boss’s gaze head on.

Even Zhou Qinhe hadn’t expected her sudden stroke of wittiness. He paused for a little, and then the way he was looking at her changed. He looked at her full of tenderness and said to her, “Do you really not know what it is that I want from you?”

The atmosphere in the car became suggestive all of a sudden, and Yan Shuyu, to her own dismay, blushed all over again.

When the boss openly said he was interested in her, she could still put up the I-am-well-experienced front and laughed and talked as usual, but now, with just a look, or a suggestive sentence, she’d all of a sudden blush uncontrollably.

Yan Shuyu was very disappointed at her own ability in self-control, but she felt completely helpless in front of his near-lethal gaze. She reflexively avoided his gaze and looked down slightly. With shyness on her that even she wasn’t aware of, she said, “Well, then you know the answer to that…”

“So, you didn’t want my check because you didn’t want to stay away from me?”

Yan Shuyu: Meow, meow, meow?

The head that was just lowered popped right back up immediately. The boss’s words were so shocking. And that logic of his…

She couldn’t even figure out what to say to that. Yan Shuyu thought it through and realized that it sort of made sense to arrive at that conclusion from what she had said. Welp. That was a little bit embarrassing. She ended up jumping into the trap that she had set for herself. She turned beet red once again, but she still said stubbornly, “No. That’s not it. You have over-analyzed it…”

Her voice became softer and softer and less and less convincing as Zhou Qinhe had already reached out his hand and placed it on the back of her head. Yan Shuyu, much like someone who’s neck had been held, dared not make another move.