Li Chuanmo spoke quietly, "Sleep well. I'm sure the door will be open in the morning. I'm so sorry for everything again, but I'm glad we got to talk."
He cleared his throat and continued, "I'll be sleeping in the closet if you need anything. Sweet dreams." The closet was like a small room, but without a bed. Nevertheless, he preferred it to sleeping on the rug for some reason.
As he stood up, he heard a small voice, "You can just sleep here. The bed is big enough for two."
*****
Zhang Heying went to work immediately and went back to the party. She politely thanked all the guests for coming and brought the party to a close.
Sometime after she went back to the house, Butler Nan brought Fu Mengyao into the house.
"Auntie, do you need me for something?" Fu Mengyao knew something was wrong. The waiter she gave the drugs to was nowhere to be found. When she saw Li Chuanmo and Pei Yueran leave the garden, she thought her plan was working. She tried to follow Li Chuanmo, but a servant came from the main house and blocked her, saying that Madam Li was calling for her.
She followed that servant, but she was led to a small room and locked up for a while, until Butler Nan came and ordered her to be brought over.
She was shaking imperceptibly.
Zhang Heying did not bother to talk nonsense with her and threw the two packets of drugs at her face. Fu Mengyao flinched.
"You have guts! How dare you use such filthy things in my house?" Zhang Heying said imperiously, slapping the arm of the sofa she was sitting on.
In that short span of time, she had investigated what the packets contained. One was an aphrodisiac, similar to the one Zhang Heying herself bought *cough*, but more powerful.
The second one was a very potent laxative. It would not kill the victim, but cause the person to keep going to the toilet until the person is totally dehydrated, causing the victim to almost lose his life.
It was obvious who the aphrodisiac was for and who the laxative was for. How dare she try to kill her future daughter-in-law?
"I will not pursue this matter further, but you are no longer welcome in my home. I will also call Yinuo to tell her what good things her daughter has done in my house." Fu Mengyao's parents —Fu Yinuo and Fu Minghao— couldn't attend the party because of a prior engagement.
Fu Mengyao wanted to say something, but Zhang Heying cut her off mercilessly. "Butler Nan, see her out!"
Li Qianye, who was sitting down together with his wife, let her run the show, but he had something else in mind. That punishment was good, but too small. He was also going to call her father and tell him to discipline her properly, before she would go out and kill someone.
Fu Mengyao walked out, utterly humiliated. She would definitely not give up like this. She had to fight for what she wanted.
Zhang Heying asked about Li Yuchen, and Butler Nan told her that he was already asleep in one of the guest rooms that had been prepared for him. She nodded.
"Honey, how about Chuanmo and Yueran? Should we go and check on them?" Li Qianye asked.
"Check what? They don't need us two going in to meddle. They're adults. Given time, they would talk and sort things out themselves. Ha!" Zhang Heying exclaimed.
"What happened?"
"Nothing." Zhang Heying just remembered that she had forgotten to remove the wine from the room. She ordered for them to be placed there to set the mood, but since her plans changed, she felt she should have removed them.
It didn't matter though, she didn't think anything could have happened just because of those bottles. She only hoped they were able to talk things out and be on good terms again.
*****
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Li Chuanmo almost jumped out of bed. What in the world was that noise? It actually sounded familiar though.....
As he wanted to sit up, he realized his arm was imprisoned. Looking down, he saw Pei Yueran, sleeping soundly and looking like an angel. He smiled. So they maintained this posture?
Unknown to him, he had been smiling very much recently, more than he had done in the past twenty years.
He carefully stretched his other hand and grabbed Pei Yueran's phone to switch off her alarm. It was so weird that she could set such a loud terrifying sound as her alarm and still not wake up. He absentmindedly wondered how she got to work on time every day if her alarm was so useless.
After switching it off, he settled down again to look at her. She looked so beautiful and peaceful, like a fairy that just descended. He smiled at how corny that sounded.
Her hair tickled his arm, and he reached out to arrange it, moving the lock of hair from her face to the side. His fingers touched her face, and she stirred, changing her sleeping position. He felt his abdomen tighten.
Pei Yueran woke up with a splitting headache. She felt as if her head was about to fall off with the intensity. Although the wine didn't make her drunk, it still gave her a hangover.
As she wanted to stretch, images came rushing into her mind: Li Chuanmo's worried face, their heart-to-heart talk, the kiss...
She froze up immediately. Following that, she noticed that her head was not on a pillow but on something firmer. The side of her thigh was resting on something hard. She screamed in her mind.
When she invited Li Chuanmo to share the bed, it wasn't to continue from where they stopped, but for him to sleep well. The bed was very large, and sleeping at the ends would leave a large space between the two of them.
That was how they slept. Li Chuanmo even went to get an extra blanket so that they didn't have to share. So she was bewildered when she found herself in his arms. Did she perhaps roll to his side?
In truth, both of them rolled and met each other in the middle. When Li Chuanmo woke up during the night, they were already like that. He was surprised but didn't do anything to change it. He liked the feel of her head on his arm.
Li Chuanmo knew the moment she woke up. The way she froze was so amusing, but he didn't want to expose her. It was an embarrassing position after all.
He gently removed her head from his arm, stood up and went to the bathroom.
It was time for another cold, cold shower.