As Ah Mo's car left and Mu Yuchen turned around, he heard the sound of a car engine coming closer. He looked over and saw a pair of headlights advancing nearer.

He then saw the woman in the driver's seat.

The car was quickly parked and Xi Xiaye got down. Mu Yuchen remained stationary and watched her with a smile. His gaze was warm and gentle, even sweet.

Xi Xiaye closed the door and locked the car. She held a bag in her hand as she swiftly went over to Mu Yuchen.

He saw a bright smile on her face as he closed in and put his arm over her shoulder. "Did you have fun?"

"It was alright. I thought you haven't had dinner, so I bought you some wantons. I tried it with Su Nan last time and thought they were nice. I didn't know you guys had a party at home." She waved the bag around in front of him.

"Just in time for supper. I drank quite a bit today. The food I ate just now doesn't feel like it's there anymore," he said while grabbing the bag.

"No wonder there's such a strong stench from you. Didn't I tell you not to drink so much? You can't drink as much as you think you can."

"It's not that much. Besides, Su Chen and Zimo drank more. Come, let's head in." He dragged her inside.

...

He unpacked the still warm wantons and started munching on them as she sat opposite him and rested her chin on her arms, watching him eat with a quiet gaze.

Mu Yuchen looked at her intensely. He took a wanton and dangled it right in front of her mouth. Mercilessly, she chomped on it.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Did I become more handsome lately?" He laughed after she ate the wanton.

Xi Xiaye swallowed the food before she pursed her lips and looked at him with interest. She then replied with a serious tone, "Mr. Mu, I noticed something very important."

"Mmm?" He looked at her as he ate a wanton elegantly.

"I noticed... You. Have. Gotten. Fatter!" Xi Xiaye enunciated slowly and clearly while shooting him a teasing look.

As expected!

"Ugh!" Mu Yuchen was shocked by her words before he got to swallow his food. He choked as he glared at her, coughing hard.

Xi Xiaye quickly grabbed a tissue and handed it to him. She chuckled when she saw him react so horrified. Being the caring wife she was, she also got him a glass of water.

His face turned a little red from all the coughing, Xi Xiaye stopped laughing and asked him in concern, "Are you alright?"

Mu Yuchen glared at her as he took the tissue and wiped his mouth. He cleared his throat and spoke as a faint light flashed in his eyes, "Not at all!"

Xi Xiaye turned her head away and started chuckling again.

"Really? I'm not, am I? It's not fat unless you can see my double chin..." Mr. Mu who had been confident about his body went to check his waistline and jowl for the first time after his woman made such a comment.

Xi Xiaye roared with laughter when she saw what he was doing. "I'm just kidding. Look at you! You're even more concerned about body size than I am!"

Mu Yuchen stopped and pinched her little face. "You trickster!"

Xi Xiaye pushed his claw away and laughed more. "Actually, you'll look amazing even if you get fatter. You being bigger makes me feel safer when I'm around you."

"So, are you saying that I'm not giving you enough sense of security now?" He glanced at her warningly. "Shouldn't you be happy that I'm keeping such a trim figure?"

She giggled again and handed him the glass of water. "Mother even praised you today. Of course, I'm happy."

He took a sip of water before asking, "What did she say?"

"She said you have an elegant vibe around you, smart and very gentlemanly... I think she mentioned it before!" Her eyes were like the sun, emitting a warm gaze. "From what she said, it sounded like you're everyone's baby instead."

"That can't do. No one can be even more precious than you, my dear. You're my baby!"

It was difficult to judge whether he was lying from his serious tone, but the warmth in his eyes was almost drowning her.

"Really?" She beamed. His recognition made her really delighted.

"Mmm." His heart turned into a fluffy marshmallow when he saw her beautiful smile. He could not help but pat her head lovingly. "You're everyone's baby because everyone likes the silly you."

She was stunned for a moment before she pushed his hand away. She scowled at him in disagreement. "I'm not silly! I just never displayed my intelligence!"

"You're not silly, just a little low in EQ. Usually, people who are stupid won't admit they are stupid."

"How can you say that!? I even praised you just now! Hey! What are you doing!? I'm not done talking..."

"Clean this up. I'll take a shower, but of course, I don't mind if you want to join me!"

"You..."

...

He was done showering when Xi Xiaye went upstairs. When it was her turn to shower, he read a book casually. After that, she got into bed as well.

"What are you reading?" She dragged the blanket over a little and poked her head over.

It was an architecture-related book, She felt a headache after several glances at it, but he just dragged her closer without looking at her.

He finished about a third of the book in that one session. He had been reading similar types of books in the past few days.

It must be because of Shen Yue! Xi Xiaye remembered that Shen Yue had given him a few books as well as some documents to read.

"Several more pages, hmm?" He flipped another page.

"Can you really go on reading this?" She looked at him with a frown.

"Why not? You have to put something in your brain if you need it. You can read it if you quiet your mind down," he replied.

She breathed in, and with one hand propping up her head, her clear gaze looked towards the page in her hand. When she saw those diagrams, she immediately recalled the document that Qi Lei had sent over that afternoon.

"Ah, I almost forgot!" she cried out and got up.

"What is it?" He looked up to her, yet saw that she had already put on her shoes and was rushing towards the door. A while later, she brought a document back.

"This! Take a look! Qi Lei delivered it this afternoon. It's amended based on our requests. I'm not too well-versed with this. We should get the opinion of the discussion group, so I brought it back."

"Qi Lei? When has he become so proactive? He even sent it over personally?" he asked with a deep voice as he squinted at her.

Xi Xiaye shrugged. "Who knows? But based on this blueprint, it should be his work. I heard that he's an outstanding student in a certain prestigious university abroad for construction, and even did his Masters in management. He sounds like he's pretty clever."

"You are also a graduate of a prestigious university abroad," he simply answered, and then flipped the document open. "He's quite talented at barely 30 and he's already gotten quite a few awards. I do quite admire him personally. He has high potential. If he was seriously unearthed, he'd be far better than Qi Feng..."

As he mentioned Qi Feng towards the end, he subconsciously stopped talking. His movements abruptly paused too while his still eyes dimmed. After that, he did not go on either.

Xi Xiaye naturally took in all his reactions. After thinking about it, she then clung onto his arm. "But to me, no matter how excellent he may be, he's far from being compared to you!"

"You're really getting more and more self-aware now." He then smiled.

"Of course, no matter how good someone else may be, they wouldn't be mine. Only your kindness to me is real. However, he said unkind things about you in front of me, yet you said you admire him to me. Based on this alone, Mr. Mu, you trump him."

When he heard her declare so, his gaze turned gentle. To be able to hear praises from her obviously made him very pleased.

...

The husband and wife couple patiently and meticulously went through the whole design blueprint and made notes where minor amendments were needed. When they were done, it was close to midnight. Xi Xiaye was quite tired that she almost could not keep her eyes open. Mu Yuchen had just kept the things away when she had already fallen asleep.

Mu Yuchen got up to put the documents away in the study room, then he laid back down.

"Mu Yuchen..."

He had just laid down when she subconsciously reached out to search for him. Nowadays, it was almost a routine every night. When she could not sleep soundly, she would call out to him and reach out to see if he was still by her side.

"Hmm?" He would also respond by routine naturally and without waiting for her to answer, he would pull her tightly into his embrace.

Every time at this second, his heart would melt and he could not help but feel a slight ache because he wanted to possess her even more.

He was not sure when he had actually begun to have such vulnerable and tender feelings.

On calm and warm days, he got used to her presence. Now, he unexpectedly willingly became addicted to her.

All of these wonderful things would continue on...

Meanwhile, in this dead of the same night, that in a certain luxurious villa in the Grand Lakes Area.

As usual, Qi Lei habitually stood in the breeze on the second-floor balcony in his pajamas after a shower and watched the flickering light on the lake across.

Cough cough! Cough cough!

In the cold wind, his coughs came from time to time.

This time it really was quite bad. He had not recovered after resting at home for a few days. Earlier on, he even had to be put on drips.

It was all because of that woman!

If it were not for being caught in the rain that day, he would have recovered from his cold by now. She had even tricked and tormented him, upsetting him thoroughly!

Qi Lei covered his mouth and coughed harshly a few times. He subconsciously reached into his pocket to get a handkerchief, yet he found a little metal box instead. When he took it out to look, he realized that it was the cough drops he had gotten from Xi Xiaye in the afternoon.

He gazed down at it for quite a while, then his handsome face relaxed. It was not the usual demonic charm on him. Instead, he looked much more gentle right now.

He fell silent for a while, then suddenly turned to walk towards the bedroom behind him. Taking huge strides to the side of his bed, he pulled the drawer open. Inside was a sketchbook.

It was Xi Xiaye's sketchbook that he had picked up from the hospital the other day.

He put the little metal box inside, and then closed the drawer before he laid down comfortably on the huge bed.

However, just as he laid down, his phone vibrated. Looking at the screen, he saw that it was Assistant Yang Sheng.

He stared for a while before he answered it.

The phone call had just gotten through when Yang Sheng's anxious voice came through.

"Master Qi, the butler at Qi Park just called. He said that the CEO is back and had a huge argument with the Madam who left the house angrily in the dead of the night. She drove by herself. Madam cut her hand when she made dinner for you the other night and it still hasn't healed..."

When he heard this, Qi Lei instantly frowned. An incredulous look crossed his handsome face. "These arguments are common. Mother's not a child either. What are you worried about?"

Qi Lei was quite calm since he was already used to all of these and did not find it out of the ordinary.

"But, Master Qi, it's already past midnight right now. Madam, she..."

Yang Sheng still could not help but want to say something more—

"Don't worry. She has an apartment in Century City. She should be there. Get someone to take a look," Qi Lei said quite calmly. Then before Yang Sheng could respond, he hung up.

As he watched his phone screen dim, Qi Lei's handsome face slowly curved with a sneer.

Pa!

In the darkness, a black shadow cut through the air and shot straight towards the wall across. Then, with a resounding smash, the phone that had been in his hand earlier shattered into pieces on the ground...

The brand new phone was turned to scrap.

He took a deep breath as he took the pillow beside him and covered his face with it. Immediately, intense sounds of coughs could be heard in every corner of the room!

He was done dealing with these conflicts for all these years. Initially, he thought that maybe it would get better once he moved out, but who would have thought...?

The next day, the husband and wife woke up quite early. After they leisurely finished their breakfast, they went straight to work.

They brought the blueprint that they had amended together the day before. Xi Xiaye called for an early morning meeting and explained everything to get a consensus from everyone's opinions. After the whole morning, they finally managed to settle everything.

These few days, she had been mainly assisting Mu Yuchen in the office while Li Si was busy helping Vice President Liu Lingyu. Mu Yuchen had delegated all the work on her hands, so she now really became an idle person.

Inside Mu Yuchen's office, he was sitting at his desk and discussing something with Vice President Wen Hai. Xi Xiaye stood by the side of the table as she put a stack of documents into a folder while he was still on the phone.

She hesitated momentarily, then decided not to disturb him and just go over herself. However, just as she picked up the folder, the man hung up.

"Where are you going?"

Seeing her about to turn around, he suddenly reached out to pull her back.

"Send these documents over to Qi Kai. There are some little details that still need to be explained to them. It's now a little over 10 a.m. By the time I'm done, it should be noon, just in time for a break. I won't be back for lunch then, so get your secretary to get you lunch. I should be able to rush back for work in the afternoon."

Xi Xiaye reached over to pull the drawer beside him open before taking a car key out. "You aren't going out at noon, are you? I'm going to drive over..."

"Come back sooner. I have to make a trip to the South River in the afternoon," he said and handed his phone to her.

Xi Xiaye nodded. "Mmm, bye."

...

When she reached Qi Kai, the person who greeted her was Qi Lei. He looked much better than the day before. Although his voice was still raspy and dry, he did not cough as badly as yesterday.

"We've roughly approved it on our side. There are just some minor details that we hope you could pay a little more attention to. Here's the amended blueprint. Take a look to see if there's anything you don't understand."

Xi Xiaye sat on the sofa and spoke seriously as her slender and fair fingers gently pushed the opened document towards Qi Lei. "Here, I hope that you can change it to Glory World's logo. This area will become one of the main recreational centers for the people of the South River. This part that Qi Kai is in charge of is extremely important."

"Did Mu Yuchen say he wanted to change it to your logo? It doesn't say so up there." Qi Lei's raspy voice was heard as he frowned at the document and pointed out the details that were noted at the top of the document.

"No, I just thought of it," Xi Xiaye answered quite frankly.

Qi Lei could not help but roll his eyes at her. Glaring at her, he said coldly, "You really know how to bargain. Two logos aren't easy to handle."

"Then, just ditch Qi Kai's logo and change to Glory World's. The actual people in charge of this project is Glory World anyway."

She did not tolerate it further and packed her things up. "Okay, I'm done explaining and you're clear about everything, so just follow this plan. I'm leaving now. If there's anything, you can just contact our Vice President Zhang Lan."

"It's almost time for lunch. Let's have lunch together."

Qi Lei packed the documents and slowly got up.

With lifted eyebrows, Xi Xiaye was about to reject him, yet Qi Lei spoke up, "You wouldn't reject me on this, would you? Of course, you can first ask Mu Yuchen for permission based on the way you look all obedient to him..."

Xi Xiaye did not like to hear these words Qi Lei just uttered.

What did he mean by that, implying Mu Yuchen had tamed her to be all docile?

They just got along well and lived in harmony!

However, since he had made it sound that way, she would obviously not reject him!

She squinted slightly and took a look at him. A faint ripple appeared across her elegant and beautiful face. She did not reject him and nodded gladly. "Okay, Vice President Qi, since you're so sincere, if I don't agree to this invitation, then it won't be very nice."

"It's my utmost honor!"

Qi Lei's handsome face brimmed with a smile, then he caught up with Xi Xiaye's stride.

After 20 minutes, they were at Emperor Hotel, City Z's most luxurious and deluxe hotel.

Xi Xiaye ordered a whole table of food that were all extremely expensive. After a complete meal, it was probably...

Qi Lei who sat across her was looking at Xi Xiaye who was looking down at the menu. When he heard her order all those food, he tried to hold back a laugh.

"That's just it. Right, for the first five dishes, I'd like to also take one set of it away. Thank you." Xi Xiaye closed the menu and handed it to the server.

When Qi Lei heard the words that came after that, he was slightly stunned. "You really didn't let go of an opportunity to butcher me." With a smile, he rather chivalrously handed the wet handkerchief to Xi Xiaye.

"Shouldn't you be happy that I've given you so much face?" Xi Xiaye reached out to take it, then plainly answered.

"Aren't you worried I have ulterior motives right now?" Qi Lei obviously did not forget that this woman seemed to have been quite on-guard against him many times previously.

"If I am, will you stop having ulterior motives? Actually, I've always been wanting to know what kind of grudges made you dislike Mu Yuchen. He even told me last night that he admires you. Instead, it's you who keeps talking bad about him. Don't you know that doing so will make you seem very narrow-minded?"

She squinted her twinkling eyes while her eyes were filled with judgment.

"I thought you were really not curious!"

When this was raised, Qi Lei's expression darkened.

Xi Xiaye lowered her gaze and looked coldly at the teacup in front of her. Her tone was quite calm as she pointed out, "The other day, when Xiao Mei and I sent you to the hospital, you kept calling out for 'Sha Sha'. That should be Gu Lingsha, shouldn't it?"

When Gu Lingsha's name was mentioned, Qi Lei's eyes instantly turned silent. The light in his eyes turned stagnant as his grip on the handkerchief abruptly tightened.

"She must be the person that you've always been missing, isn't she?"

She took in all of his reactions. Then, Xi Xiaye hesitated for a moment before she continued to ask.

Previously, she had heard the name Gu Lingsha from Mu Yuchen too. However, she vaguely felt that the situation was not as simple as he made it out to be. The Mu family seemed to treat this as a taboo and never mentioned it.