327 5.71 – Night Glow – The Sleepless Elite’s Wife
+— Author’s note —-+
Edited by Psycho S.
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Li Jie arrived inside an inconspicuous six-story apartment building, which was located within the metropolis’s busy streets. Well, he called it inconspicuous since, compared to other buildings on the busy street, it was relatively lowkey...
Holding two bottles of wine in his left hand, he pressed the doorbell with Shiffer’s nameplate. A tall, half-naked man in a simple pair of sweatpants opened the door for him. It looked like he was still in the process of putting on a T-Shirt, “...”
Lu Kai covered the rest of his well-defined abs with the shirt, so the scratch marks that covered his torso were hidden, “You’re early.” He opened the door wider and gave Li Jie a pair of slippers for guests, “Come in.”
“...” Li Jie handed Lu Kai the bottles of wine as he followed him inside, “The underground garage is filled with cars...but I didn’t see any other residents besides you two?”
“Oh, that,” Bing Shi walked out of the kitchen with a spatula in her hand, “There were some problems with the neighbors. At first, we bought the units around us. Then, Lu Kai ran out of garage space, so we ended up buying the whole building.”
With so much free space left, Xiao Pu could choose whichever apartment he wanted, and with the pocket money he received every month, he could decorate it however he pleased like a grown-up man! Xiao Pu was very pleased with this arrangement. It felt like he was very independent.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt.....
“...” Li Jie complained inwardly: ‘You two are on another level of extravagance.’ Then he helped Lu Kai to set the table, “Why don’t you move into a house?”
“Why waste time on moving, when you can pay others to go away?” Lu Kai took the utensils from Li Jie’s hand and admonished the man, “You’re a guest. Sit.”
They could drive in and out of the complex as different people without catching too much attention. Having all his new cars nearby came in handy whenever he needed to change his identity: for example, those times when he went to pick up Bing Shi as a taxi driver or drove to the school as a teacher with concerningly low-income.
“You can lower the price if you make others think that it’s haunted or if someone’s been killed in the house.” Bing Shi laughed from the kitchen. Some apartments were available for short-term tenancy. Currently, some tourists were renting a few apartments and their cars for a couple of weeks. Hubby decided to become a shinobi like her, and Lu Kai seemed to be best suited for this. Without special access to confidential files, one would have a hard time exploring his background; that itself could be incredibly useful.
Li Jie was too speechless to utter a word. He could become a cripple with the flick of one of their fingers... and he would probably end up being grateful for it (See Mo Luwei’s case). Did this make him a masochist of some kind? To avoid the ensuing awkward silence, he looked in amazement at the number of dishes, “She cooked all of this?”
“She cooked these,” Lu Kai pointed at the rice, mapo tofu, and the stir-fried pork, “And bought the rest.” He rearranged the food Bing Shi made closer to him, subtly marking his territory, “I hear you wanted to meet me?”
Li Jie didn’t expect that Lu Kai would agree to his request- what surprised Li Jie even more was the fact that this man even invited him for dinner at what seemed to be their home, rather than a restaurant, “It’s about my cooperation with Silika. If you want to blame someone, blame me. Don’t blame her.”
Lu Kai met his gaze with a cool, almost stand-offish stare. His blue eyes, half lidded and therefore hidden by a curtain of eyelashes, hid whatever motives he had from Li Jie.
That man, Lu Kai, analyzed the situation with ease. Li Jie came to the conclusion that Silika’s husband was hard to anger. Up until Silika appeared, Li Jie couldn’t get a single reaction from Lu Kai.
Meanwhile...
Bing Shi looked down at the ugly baked cake and sighed in disappointment. She shouldn’t have tried a new recipe when they had a guest coming. She placed the cake back into the oven and walked towards the silent men as if nothing happened, “You didn’t have to wait for me.”
Sitting down next to her hubby, she motioned for them to go ahead, not minding the tense atmosphere. It would be strange if they got along anyways. She already told Li Jie that she was happily married, so why was he getting suspicious of her husband?
Xuan Mu scooped a few spoonfuls of rice into his bowl, while choosing a few dishes he finally gave Li Jie a response, “What exactly did I do for you...to think that I would do something bad to her?” He exchanged his bowl with Bing Shi’s.
Bing Shi thanked Lu Kai for serving the food with twitching eyebrows. They never picked dishes for each other... They hated it. Either he was showing off, or he was taking out his displeasure on her. She nibbled on her food at an incredibly slow speed. For those who were curious... He. Was. Doing. Both! He was clearly doing something bad to her, but on the outside, he looked like a gentle husband taking care of his wife’s needs.
“I’m only reminding you,” Li Jie felt there was something wrong, but couldn’t tell what it was. He wasn’t afraid to go against Mo Luwei, he wasn’t afraid to go against Quin Yu, of course, he wouldn’t be afraid to look for death again, “If you’ll ever do something to her. I’ll...”
“You’ll what?” The corners of Xuan Mu’s lips curved up into an amused line while picking another dish for Bing Shi, “Steal her from me?”
|”Baddie! Baddie! Baddie! Take the food back! Take the food back! Take the food back! I’m warning you! I’ll become a Godzilla!”|
“She’s not something to steal,” Li Jie frowned, glancing at Silika who didn’t take either of the men’s side. If anything, she looked like she was distracted while slowly picking at the dishes presented to her.
Xuan Mu laughed mockingly while staring down at Li Jie. Someone- no, actually, some nobody man was spewing bullshit at his face, and he allowed it just because that particular nobody was trying to protect his Bing Shi, “Look. I didn’t invite you here for this nonsense.”
Lie Jie frowned but didn’t reply. One had a hard time denying the authority and power in Lu Kai’s voice and harsh stare.
“She’s my wife, and you should chill out before I kick you out for contaminating our house with your crap. Now, eat before it gets cold,” Xuan Mu placed the shrimp he intended on giving to Bing Shi into Li Jie’s bowl instead.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm*Plop* Bing Shi poured more than half of the content of her bowl into Xuan Mu’s.
“Silika, didn’t anyone teach you not to play with your food?” Xuan Mu glanced at the unappetizing mashed mix and much to her annoyance, his tone changed back to the pleasant one. What a baddie!
“I was only taught not to waste food. The food is easier to eat like that,” answered Bing Shi merrily. She belonged to him and only him, that was a sure thing. She could make him beg for forgiveness like a servant, that was a sure thing too. But none of them had a need to degrade and embarrass the other before the outsiders.
“...” Li Jie took a gulp of the glass of wine to flush out the embarrassment. Despite all the signs, he continued to think, no, he wanted to believe that Lu Kai stopped caring about Silika, and used the extreme busyness as an excuse to cheat behind her back.
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“Why is it always the taken ones... You lucky bastards,” Lie Jie murmured to himself after drinking a few glasses of wine. While drinking and eating, he threw his restraints away, “Women always prefer the bad boy types...do they want to get hurt that much...?”
“What a discovery... The all amazing gentleman is stereotyping women now?” Xuan Mu accepted the glass of wine that Li Jie just poured for him. Swirling the liquid, he inhaled the complex aroma, but he didn’t take a single sip. He never saw himself in either the good or bad spectrum, he was just a decent being with demons in his mind.
Xuan Mu didn’t like Bing Shi’s tactic where she made herself seem unlikable before other men just so he wouldn’t feel insecure, and also for her ridiculous mission. She deserved all the admiration in the world. Li Jie had great talent which would help Bing Shi with her singing skills, and he planned to show her new boss some gratitude.
+– ANTI PIRACY NOTE–+
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