In front of her, he didn't even bother to feign a cultivated composure, and his straightforward manner somehow didn't make anyone feel the least bit uncomfortable.
Leh Ying twisted awkwardly, trying to reach up to him. He was so tall that she had to stand on tiptoe for her chin to just barely touch his shoulder.
This guy, though, in a suit he looked refined and noble, but the actual feeling of embracing his waist...
The lines were so defined it was almost painful to touch.
He was the mature type, the kind with *very* robust functionality.
But she pretended not to understand and hugged Xu Jingxi's waist even tighter.
"I'm holding on now, going by feel."
Lifting her chin, her gaze slowly met Xu Jingxi's.
Just a step away from the wall, his gaze was so intense that Leh Ying couldn't help but retreat until her back naturally pressed against the wall.
Xu Jingxi's figure enveloped her completely, his large hand slipping under her clothing hem with practiced ease, reaching the button near her shoulder blade, the warmth on her back soft and warm, yet his fingertips teasingly hesitated at the fastening: "We could also try a different method."
The temperature from his fingertips caused her skin to tense up sharply, and Leh Ying bit down on his shirt button with her teeth, like a kitten thrown into a pot of boiling soup.
"You really are...."
Her voice was as soft as a puddle of water.
"What am I," Xu Jingxi leaned in slightly, chuckling with interest, "you think you know me well?"
Unclear and indistinguishable, buried in his embrace, Leh Ying's voice was awkwardly twisted, "I didn't let my thoughts wander to *those things*."
Xu Jingxi's voice was low, with a hint of amusement: "To what things?"
"It's just..." Her face heating up uncontrollably, she whispered, "That, I didn't."
If he asked again, she feared she wouldn't be able to keep things straight and might blurt out those two words inadvertently.
Xu Jingxi's other hand emerged from his suit pants pocket, to rest slowly on her lower back, his neck bending down, "Did I say you were overthinking things?"
His voice was low, not overly suggestive, but gentle and appealing, resonating with a deep and enticing timbre.
Her teeth still clung to his shirt button, her head rubbing against his chest as if she were a tiny piglet nesting, "Xu Jingxi, I can't beat you, okay?"
It was the first time she dared to call him by his full name.
Xu Jingxi chuckled deeply, removing his hand from beneath Leh Ying's clothing hem to pat her shoulder, indicating she should leave his embrace, "Let's not cause a scene here, people inside are about to leave."
"Who are all these big shots?" Leh Ying glanced confusedly at the empty alley.
His voice was muffled, "Didn't you peek already? Why ask me? Haven't you gone online to check the reports?"
Leh Ying hung her head low, urging Xu Jingxi to walk faster.
Xu Jingxi strode relaxedly, hand in his pocket, pulling her by the wrist, "Little girl, your hand is as warm as a little furnace."
Leh Ying's voice faded, "I think I have a fever."
As Xu Jingxi turned back to look at her, Leh Ying smiled up at him, "Can you buy me some medicine?"
His throat felt a bit itchy. He coughed heavily, not saying a word.
Leh Ying thought with a laugh, Leh Ying, you're really pushing your luck.
Who was she to ask him, a man of his stature, to buy medicine for her?
That night, the hospital was quite far away.
After exiting the alley, Xu Jingxi led her by the hand to a courtyard opposite the street, housing offices in a large quadrangle, with over a dozen security staff pacing back and forth.
Seeing it was Xu Jingxi, they didn't stop him; they even politely smiled at him.
He leaned against the stone lion, crossed his arms, and directly asked the guards for a thermometer to take her temperature.
The staff complied without hesitation, and in just two or three seconds announced, "You've got a fever, 38.4 degrees."
Xu Jingxi turned to look at her, "What if I don't go to the hospital, should I call an ambulance?"
What a sight, an ambulance would be.
She shook her head: "I don't want to go to the hospital, this temperature is fine for taking medicine."
Her stubbornness was plain to see; she definitely did not want injections. The man frowned slightly.
The staff suddenly spoke up, "What's brought you here with some free time?"
"Came to watch Uncle Chen's match," Xu Jingxi's reply was neither warm nor courteous.
"A rare guest." The man nodded with a smile, "It's dark, take care."
This 'take care' was a mark of respect, not just the polite 'take care' of the Beijing accent.
Leh Ying heard it and glanced back at the courtyard, then at Xu Jingxi holding her hand as they walked. She felt a shiver down her spine.
Leh Ying, feverish and barely coherent, only dimly overheard him from the driver's seat calling the white-gloved chauffeur; soon after, the car pulled up at a luxury hotel inside the Second Ring.
The Presidential Suite.
Right on time, Xiao Li brought over two types of medicine, one for coughing and another for the feverish young lady lying on the sofa.
Xu Jingxi hadn't bought them personally; Leh Ying took the medicine and immediately fell asleep on the couch.
Xiao Li looked up at the ceiling, then addressed Xu Jingxi, who was sitting on the other end of the sofa: "Should I get a doctor to give her an injection?"
He stood up, his tone detached, "We'll talk if the fever doesn't go down."
Xiao Li nodded, then busied himself with trivial matters, gazing out at the night scene from the floor-to-ceiling window, silent and at ease.
That young lady, Xiao Li had only met her twice before, and now she was staying here, her delicate beauty and graceful poise impressed him immediately.
-
Leh Ying couldn't sleep well on the sofa. After her fever went down, she got up, supporting her waist, looking around until her gaze landed on the man working at the desk.
He was coughing while flipping through a contract, a cigarette perched between his fingers, the ash growing long, brought to his lips for a draw and then exhaled slowly and deliberately.
Leh Ying propped her arms on the back of the sofa, her head peering out, "You should smoke less when you cough."
Xu Jingxi was never a passive person. His index finger tapped the cigarette ash as he cut to the chase with a deep voice, "Where did you go the night before last?"
"Friendship Hotel," Leh Ying admitted honestly.
She heard him continue to ask, "Then what? How did you get sick?"
She gently rested her chin on the back of the sofa, looking at him.
"After you left that night, Liu Huaiying showed up and dragged me to play cards."
That night, Xu Jingxi was simply flipping through pages, seriously reviewing documents, never once glancing at her as he slowly twisted the cigarette butt into the ashtray.
"Since when is the Friendship Hotel a playground? Those card tables need to be fined. It won't look good if it comes to light someday."
In the dissipating smoke, Xu Jingxi's face was clear and noble. He turned another page of the document and signed his name with a pen.
Xiao Li nodded beside him, "I understand, no cover-ups."
Leh Ying didn't know how to respond for a moment and buried her head in a pillow.
What does that mean?
Eventually, she figured it out. If the young masters of the Liu and Liang families played like this, it would not look good if scandals surfaced someday.
And then she thought sentimentally, by confiscating their card tables, was Xu Jingxi favoring her?
Xu Jingxi closed the file he was holding, stood up, and tossed a box of ibuprofen capsules onto the sofa, "For later use, hmm?"
All of a sudden, Leh Ying sat up, "Where are you going?"
Xu Jingxi stopped in his tracks and glanced at her indifferently, "Do you want to follow me?"
His gaze was deep, and Leh Ying awkwardly avoided his eyes, "That's not what I meant, just asking politely where you are heading."
He just smiled and didn't respond, picking up his neatly hung suit jacket from the closet and sliding it into the crook of his arm while walking and replying to text messages, not knowing who else he could be replying to at midnight.
The door 'click' shut completely.
Then, the only one left in the room was the driver with the white gloves.
"Why don't you go drive for him?"
"He can drive."
She knew what she wanted to say was, what was the point of leaving a driver here?
"Where is Mr. Xu going?"
"He has things to attend to, he doesn't live here." While speaking, Xiao Li gestured towards the thermometer on the coffee table, "You can take your temperature on your own, right?"
After he spoke, Xiao Li turned his head, called the room service manager to bring up some porridge, left his number, and then followed out, "Call me if you need anything while staying here."
Leh Ying acknowledged and lay on the sofa, spacing out.
Alone, sick, and staying in a hotel suite—this was all new to her.
She examined the thermometer in her hand.
She recalled the images of coming to the hotel: Xu Jingxi entering the entrance hall, casually tossing his car keys to the security guard.
It was the hotel manager pressing the elevator button without speaking and proficiently operating it, smiling and bowing as they were sent up.
It was the direct route from the elevator to the suite, Xu Jingxi looking at her with her cheeks flushed, asking if she was scared.
Not scared at all.
A young man and woman entering a hotel late at night—she was too dizzy at the time to give it much thought; she just wanted to lie down somewhere warm.
Leh Ying lay back on the sofa, looking out the window to easily overlook the entire night view of Imperial City. Over there must be the palace gate.
Jade Tower Banquet, Imperial City.
This kept her awake, so she called Li Ting on a video call.
The deafening music on the other end took a moment to quiet down, "Where are you in the middle of the night? How come it's not the bed in your apartment?"
Leh Ying curled up in a corner of the sofa, slowly pulling her legs up, "Wangfujing."
Li Ting: "Is the year-end event preparation going well? You're able to run around?"
That night, Leh Ying, like a girl with a springtime crush, had many things on her mind she couldn't understand, talking to herself: "Tell me, he didn't even buy medicine for me himself, didn't feel my forehead to ask if I was feeling poorly. He just took me to the hotel and left after seeing my fever go down. What does that mean?"
"..."
Leh Ying looked down, fiddling with her fingernails, waiting for her friend, who had been through five love affairs, for enlightenment.
"Liu Huaiying?"
"No."
Li Ting was lighting a cigarette and only after exhaling a puff of smoke did she laugh foolishly.
"Which Master Capital? Liu Huaiying and all those noblemen from his circle, isn't it all just about spending youth and sleeping with girls? Haven't you seen it yourself? Look at you, so pretty, with a slender waist and curvy hips."
Leh Ying pondered, "He shouldn't be that kind of person."
"Then what kind is he? Do you really see through the nature and background behind them?" Li Ting asked with a laugh.
Leh Ying reached for a water cup, "I can't say, he's very nice one minute, and terribly bad the next."
Li Ting: "Just call him directly. Why put on a show? Can you outplay those people?"
Indeed.
She couldn't even fool Liu Huaiying, let alone outplay Xu Jingxi.
Liu Huaiying looked like a well-to-do gentleman from a wealthy family with his generous and polite demeanor, presenting a squeaky-clean image on social media, but his private life was filled with nightlife activities that shattered her moral ground, and don't even think about getting them to show their faces in photos.
Leh Ying looked down to find her slippers, "I don't have his number."
"There you go, you don't even have his number and he leaves you at a hotel at this hour. Either he's impotent, or he's just not that into you. His heart isn't big enough to care for a beauty," Li Ting said in a long speech.
Agreeing completely with her friend's words, Leh Ying fell silent.
Li Ting: "Take care of yourself when you're sick. If you can't stand being alone, buy a ticket to Four-Nine City and come find me in Sanya. I'll host you."