Unknowingly, her hand had moved unconsciously to caress his cheek and her voice softened without her knowledge. By the time she realized her actions, everything already happened, making it so that she was unable to take them back.
Frozen by her own actions, Peng Mingzhu paused, "Uh… That… Sorry… My hands...just moved on their own… and…I don't know why I'd say those words…"
As she spoke, she tried to pull back her hand and step backward. However, while she was trying to distance herself from Wei Kangnuan, he stopped her.
Grasping onto her soft hand that was originally resting on his cheek, Wei Kangnuan wrapped his arm around her small waist, trapping her in his embrace. Taking a sniff of her comforting scent, he rested his head on top of her shoulder.
While Peng Mingzhu stood stiff in shock, Wei Kangnuan made use of her inactiveness to behave even more shamelessly. Letting go of her hand, he instead wrapped both arms around her tiny waist and pulled her right onto his hard chest. The previous short distance apart was now nonexistent as he so wanted to fuse her with him.
Leaning to her ear, Wei Kangnuan started speaking, "I am truly happy that you are allowing me to hug me. Today was a tiring day. I would be even happier if you would greet me as my wife…"
Everything that Wei Kannguan spoke was taking a long time to register in her brain, but eventually, she began to respond again albeit slowly, "That...will...never...happen…"
Wei Kangnuan sighed at her response, "Even when you are not in the right state, you still know to reject my proposal."
"I'm not braindead," Peng Mingzhu told him as she started flailing about as soon as she could regain control of her consciousness again.
"Yet you do not avoid my hug?" Wei Kangnuan teased just before she could free herself from his strong hold.
Avoiding his teasing eyes, Peng Mingzhu answered, "I was in shock…"
"So, when you are in shock you do not react," Wei Kangnuan remarked with a grin. "It seems that I must shock you more. In that way, I can continue to hug you."
"It only works once…" Peng Mingzhu quietly stated shyly while blushing fiercely as she remembered the scent on his body.
His scent was so intoxicating to her. Addicting, comfortable, and sweet…
His scent was like a drug to her, making her want to stay close to him without straying far away.
She did not know what his scent was, but if she had to make a guess...it was probably his own personal and unique scent that he was born with.
Coughing to cover up her inner thoughts, Peng Mingzhu said in the smallest voice ever with an extremely red face, "I-I...I will...think...about your marriage...proposal…"
Too embarrassed to remain standing in front of Wei Kangnuan, she ran away inside the house, leaving him to stand on his own, allowing him to go crazy as he thought of the words she just spoke to him.
By the time he came to and realized that she was long gone, he immediately shouted, "Wait, what was that? Can you say it again!? Please?!! Just once again!"
However, of course Peng Mingzhu did not answer as she was still flustered by herself. Wanting to distract herself from the increasingly loud voice that called her name and the constant rampage of hovering thoughts, she decided to focus on looking at the house in order to find anything that could be a reason as to why Ren Lin would commit such a crime.
When Peng Mingzhu managed to find something in the room that belonged to Ren Lin, that was when Wei Kangnuan reached her.
As she was on her guard, she knew that he had arrived and pointed at an inconspicuous small bookshelf, "Look."
"Hm? What is it?" Wei Kangnuan asked, not knowing what she was pointing at.
"Look at the shadows in between the books. Don't you see something?" Peng Mingzhu questioned before walking up to the small bookshelf.
Paying attention to what she pointed out, he realized that there was indeed something to take notice of. Since the books hid the item, no one would notice the item, but with sunlight shining through the cracked windows, they could see the item as long as they paid enough attention.
Right behind the books, was a metallic silver lever. Due to the material used to create the lever, the sunlight created a reflection on the lever, allowing them to easily see it with some attention.
Wei Kangnuan could not imagine how long it would take before he and his men would be able to find the lever as the books hid the lever so well. He could only claim that he and Peng Mingzhu were lucky today as the books were mispositioned by the Ren family, most probably due to panic, and the intrusion of the sunlight.
Walking up to the bookshelf and removing the books, Wei Kangnuan pulled the lever to reveal a secret stairway down into a small cold room with all the necessities that a human would need, with the exception of a lavatory, of course.
Seeing the room that was totally trashed, Wei Kangnuan could not help but to frown as Peng Mingzhu was also exposed to the same horrid sight as him, "Ah Nai, how about leaving this to me? This is-"
"You and your brother," Peng Mingzhu remarked. "You both treat me as though I'm a weak lady. Just shut up and continue doing your work."
Once again, Wei Kangnuan did not expect her harshness.
Coughing to cover up his shock, Wei Kangnuan said, "Are you sure? The smell in here is horrible, the place itself is pretty trashed, and it is also dark."
"This place is much better than the place where I spent a third of my life, so you don't have to worry," Peng Mingzhu stated.
Why did she say that? Well, she was speaking the truth. However, at the same time, for some reason unknown to her, she wanted him to know about her, specifically about her past.
For the first third of her life, she was also raised in a room similar to the one she was standing in right now. Walls of plain white bricks, no light, and with only one way to exit and enter.
However, like she said, this small underground room was much better than the place that she grew up in.
In the place where she grew up as a child, there were no tables for eating, no books for entertainment, and definitely no paper and pens for writing. Her room was completely empty except for a bed for her to sleep on with chains that were tied to her ankle, a toilet to use when she needed to release herself, a sink to wash her hands after she finished eating, and a shower for her to use when she needed to freshen herself.
Since there was no lavatory in the current room that she was in, she knew that the parents of Ren Lin allowed him to leave the room in order to release himself. He was given much freedom and was spoiled despite the fact that he was practically locked up in a room.
Compared to her, she was not allowed to leave her room at all. The people that raised her gave her three meals every day, sent her clothes to change into after she showered, and collected her trash. Maybe many people wanted this free life where they did not need to do anything other than sleep, but she knew that this was merely a method to cut her off from the world, a method to make her lose her freedom.
She was encased in the most beautiful clothes, ate the best delicacies, and did not need to work, but there were other reasons as to why those days were some of her worst days. No, that was wrong.
Those days were one of out of the many worst periods of her life that she hated and wanted to forget badly.
As Wei Kangnuan thought that she was referring to the bad mother that raised her, he did not ask any more questions about her going back and instead started to focus on the task at hand.
"What do you think they used this room mostly for?" Wei Kangnuan asked as he started lighting the candlesticks in the room.
"The Rens probably thought Ren Lin was psychotic and put him in this room," Peng Mingzhu answered as she walked around while avoiding the debris, or rather, the trash left behind by Ren Lin. "Looking at the many furniture and items in the room, Ren Lin must have been spoiled by his parents, but...probably too much considering how they decided to shut him out from society."
Out of instinct, Wei Kangnuan asked, "Did you parents also spoil you in the same way?"