"I..." Jiang Nanfei took a deep breath, looked up at Huo Beijiang's face which was almost identical to the one in her memory, and suddenly the words on the tip of her tongue faded away.
"Who are you?" Huo Beijiang's eyebrows knitted together, "If you don't speak, I'll throw you out."
The burning pain in her neck made Jiang Nanfei want to laugh, but her eyes gradually misted over and became wet.
"No crying." Huo Beijiang's handsome face grew colder, "I don't have much patience, especially with women." Seeing how the tears hanging on her eyelashes could fall at any moment, Huo Beijiang wondered if he was being too harsh? That wasn't right! He was already being quite gentle; he hadn't even spoken the words he originally had in mind!
"You, you..." Jiang Nanfei's tears fell, "You're always like this, always so detestable..." Just his one sentence had the power to anger her to death.
"You're Jiang Nanfei?" A glimmer of surprise flashed across Huo Beijiang's deep black eyes and quicker than his mind could react, he had bent down to carry her horizontally in his arms.
As his future wife, she would become his possession and was naturally allowed to enter his room.
"Have you grown this much?" The woman in his arms exuded an attractiveness that could bewitch any man. For a moment, Huo Beijiang had a difficult time reconciling this woman with the tomboy he remembered from childhood.
"Let go."
"If I let go you'll fall."
Jiang Nanfei instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck. The enticing scent of the young maiden, intensified by her movements, invaded his nostrils. Glancing at the stark red mark on her delicate neck, a flicker of strangeness passed through Huo Beijiang's eyes.
"Put me down!" Calming down, she wiped her tears away to speak.
Huo Beijiang gently placed her on the bed, standing by it slightly uneasily.
Once set free, Jiang Nanfei immediately got out of bed, went to the balcony and found her clothes were dry. She bundled them and went into the bathroom. When she came out after changing, Huo Beijiang was standing there with a gloomy expression, silently watching her.
She couldn't help but take a step backward, a dozen years of estrangement made her instinctively fear him while also feeling an unexplainable bashfulness and awkwardness.
Jiang Nanfei's movements and expressions were being observed by Huo Beijiang without missing a beat.
She was afraid of him!
"You're leaving?" Despite his usually unrestrained behavior, when this man was serious, he was absolutely intimidating. Especially when he focused on someone, his eyes seemed capable of pulling in their very soul. It felt as if one was transparent before him, unable to hide the deepest secrets in their heart, laid bare before his eyes.
This feeling of being seen through was not pleasant.
Jiang Nanfei's shoulders couldn't help but shudder as she regretted agreeing to the marriage. Had she lost her mind?
"Now that you're back, I'll go home!" She spoke with some courage. With her head lowered, clutching her clothes in front of Huo Beijiang, she looked like a pitiful child.
"Did I let you leave?"
"What?" Jiang Nanfei thought she had heard wrong and looked up at him in surprise. Something familiar flitted across her mind but before she could grasp it, she couldn't recall what it was.
"Go!" Huo Beijiang pointed to the bed, ordered coldly: "I command you to go to sleep immediately."
Jiang Nanfei stood still, dumbfounded.
"I'll sleep on the sofa," he said tiredly, rubbing his temples. Without waiting for her response, he turned and went into the bathroom.