Most of the things were prepared, so what she needed to do was gather the contracts and some other materials.

Xi Xiaye went straight into the study room. Just as she was about to grab some documents on the table, she noticed that the laptop was still turned on and it was on standby mode.

Her sharp eyes also noticed it was exactly like how she had seen it yesterday. It was her laptop.

After giving it some thought, she grabbed a chair and sat down. Moving the mouse and turning the screen on, she saw chunks of complicated data before her. Upon taking a closer look, she realized that it was the proposal for her South River project.

She looked through it and noticed the data analysis was completed. Since he had completed some of the most challenging parts, all that was left for her to do was just to start writing the proposal itself.

Even she felt a headache over the amount of workload on this, yet he...

Could he have pulled an all-nighter after they were done last night?

She skimmed through the document quietly. There was also a big pile of documents beside her. Her insides warmed and her eyes brightened up a little. Then, she took a deep breath before saving the file. She then turned the laptop off and started to pack the documents up.

Xi Xiaye was almost done when Mu Yuchen entered the study room. She was putting the documents back on the bookshelf accordingly.

The bookshelf was pretty tall, and with her height, she could only reach the third column from the top. He held his laughter in when he saw her tip-toeing to put the stuff back onto the bookshelf.

After spending some time by the door and watching her struggling, he went over to her and grabbed the documents from her to put back onto the bookshelf with ease. His fresh voice and helpless laughter reached her ears. "Couldn't you have thought of any other way like getting a chair?"

Swiveling around, she was stunned by his sudden appearance, clueless as to when he had appeared behind her.

She frowned out of habit and replied, "I was too lazy to look for one."

He smirked as he looked at her. Then, he noticed some marks from their intimate moments that remained visible on her clean neck. They reminded him that the moments of pleasure last night did actually happen...

He put in some effort to suppress his nearly uncontrollable thoughts. Soon, his eyes went back to its usual calmness when he looked at her face.

He adjusted her messy collar from her movements earlier while covering up the parts that made him feel like committing a crime. Xi Xiaye blushed slightly as she looked at where he was staring moments ago. Reflexively, she quickly adjusted her collar too.

"Right, I have something for you. I almost forgot!"

At this moment, Xi Xiaye suddenly remembered what Zhuang Shurong had told her the night before.

"What is it?" He raised his eyebrows and asked when he saw her getting flustered.

Xi Xiaye put her hand on her forehead and complained, "Look at me! I feel that my memory has been getting worse lately. Wait here!"

Her skinny figure passed him after saying those words. She went outside swiftly and left Mu Yuchen standing in shock.

After a short while, her lean figure reappeared again with an odd item in her hand.

"Here's a safety charm Grandmother and Mother got for you. Since you're always going abroad, it's better that you have it on you," Xi Xiaye explained as she handed it to him. A safety charm was usually a yellow talisman sewn onto a red cloth, but to make it easier to bring around, she had put it on a silver pendant instead.

"You believe in these too?" Mu Yuchen showed interest in the item she handed over as he asked.

"It's better than having nothing. You can even regard it as mental support. Don't waste their good intentions. They gave me one too."

She then grabbed his hand and stuffed the item into his hand. "They are very concerned about you. I can sense it from their conversation yesterday..."

"Have the three of you been talking about me all day yesterday?"

When he received the amulet, he went along with her motion and grabbed her cold hand, dragging her beside the large window and sitting on the chair nearby with Xi Xiaye standing beside him.

"Do you think you're the best actor who's won the Oscars and we'll talk about you all day long?" Xi Xiaye could not help but diss him a little. She looked downward at her hand on his knee. The ring on her finger was emitting a beautiful shine, and her vision turned slightly misty for a moment.

"It seems that your verbal attack level has gone up," he remarked ambiguously, smiling. Then, he continued after a brief pause, "What happened at Emperor last night? Aren't you telling me anything about it? Your friend was pretty angry for your sake. She's a really good friend."

Xi Xiaye's expression darkened when he mentioned this. The faces of Han Yifeng and Xi Xinyi crossed her mind, and she was also reminded of the scene whereby Su Nan had stood up for her...

After a short moment of silence, she sighed, "Nan Nan is always like that. Straightforward and very loyal. Thanks to her, I was never alone all these years. There were many times when she was always the first to stand up for me... I feel very lucky and happy to have a friend like her..."

She paused, her eyes staying focused on the bright shine on her ring finger as if she was chasing some old memories. After some time, she said, "Do you know? I daren't ask for too much in a friendship. In this world, there's no one else besides Su Nan that would go against everyone for me. Others might not know what I've gone through, but Su Nan understands. She's the kind of friend whereby even though we might not have spoken for a very long time, every time we meet each other again, we'd feel very close and I'd be very comfortable talking to her..."

Xi Xiaye felt emotional talking about it.

Time really passed by quickly. It was all just like a dream. All these years, who treated you really well? And who hated and rejected you?

Fake feelings and intentions created lie after lie, taking everything away from her, like Yue Lingsi or Xi Xinyi.