The entire walk basically involved Luo Xiaoxi stomping around like a barbarian.

To her, walking like this was a strange way to blow off steam; by the time she stopped, she felt as if all that rage and frustration in her chest had vanished with each step she had taken. After heaving a long sigh, she was once again acting like a decent human being.

There was a junction up ahead where Luo Xiaoxi stopped and waited for the traffic lights to turn green. While she waited, she turned her head around to glance at Su Yicheng. She had to hand it to the man for being able to maintain just the right amount of distance between them; throughout the entire walk, he was neither too far away nor too close to her.

When Su Yicheng came up beside her, she asked, “How much do the shoes cost? I’ll pay you back.”

“There’s no need for that,” Su Yicheng said. “Just think of it as my way of thanking you for treating me lunch today.”

She laughed. “Then you’ll be suffering a huge loss.” Luo Xiaoxi knew the typical price range of this brand; she could barely cover a tenth of the price even if she treated him to ten takeout lunches.

Su Yicheng did not mind at all. He stood there silently and waited for the traffic lights to turn green.

He could not even remember the last time he had stood at a crossroad and waited for a green light. He had been too busy for the past few years; he had to first get his company on the right track, and then he had to figure out a way to fight Su Hongyuan. He did not even have time to wait around for the traffic lights to turn green.

Around dozen seconds later, the traffic lights turned green. Almost unconsciously, Luo Xiaoxi took a stride forward. She had just taken one step when all of a sudden, she noticed an electric car making a turn at the junction behind her. The car was speeding towards her.

Startled, the driver immediately honked. Luo Xiaoxi was so shocked that she was rendered immobile.

“What should I do? What should I do? I can’t afford to get run over by a car. I still have a photo shoot tomorrow!”

Su Yicheng called Luo Xiaoxi’s name once. When she did not react to his call, he rushed over and yanked Luo Xiaoxi off the road. A second later, the car zoomed past them like a gust of wind…

If Luo Xiaoxi had been standing there, she would have been run over by now.

Only now did Luo Xiaoxi recover from her daze. Her pulse was racing and due to post-traumatic fear, she felt waves of chills down her spine.

Su Yicheng was worried that the car had chafed Luo Xiaoxi as it moved past them. But upon closer inspection, he noticed that her skirt was unharmed, so she was probably fine.

Finally, anger rose within him. “Luo Xiaoxi, what’s the matter with you?! What the heck were you looking at when trying to cross the road?!”

“I was looking at the streets,” Luo Xiaoxi said with a shrug. “Who knew the car would silently approach me from behind.”

That was just the way she was. She could make up a perfect excuse and still come across as innocent even when she had caused an outright disaster.

Su Yicheng was not in the mood to engage in another pointless argument with her. Dragging her along, he walked across the zebra crossing.

The green lights flashed and as if the thing had been designed with humanitarianism in mind, a timer appeared and began counting down the remaining time: 19 seconds, 18 seconds, 17 seconds…

Luo Xiaoxi gripped Su Yicheng’s hand tightly. For the first time ever, she wished she was in the possession of magical powers. If she did, she could add to the number displayed on the timer instead letting it diminish into nothingness. She could also stretch the zebra crossing further and further apart, stripe after stripe towards the boundless infinity. That way, Su Yicheng would hold on to her hand forever.

Then again, too bad she was just a normal person; she had neither magical power nor a guardian angel with such power. After they had crossed the road, she freed her hand from Su Yicheng’s grip.

Throughout the decade, Su Yicheng had freed his hand from her grasp countless times. To her, that was the worst kind of feeling ever. That was why this time she had taken the initiative to release Su Yicheng first. At least she now had an “I’m-the-one-who-dumped-you” excuse that she could use to comfort her wounded pride.

“I’ve always been clever! Humph!” She thought.

They walked on for another stretch before Luo Xiaoxi accidentally noticed a gym equipment store.

The past two days’ binge-eating had made her feel guilty. What better way to handle the guilt than to sweat it out of her system!

Overjoyed, Luo Xiaoxi ran into the store. She was greeted by a muscular and spirited store owner who came up to her the moment she entered. “Hey, hottie. Looking to buy some equipment?” The man gave Luo Xiaoxi’s curves a thorough once-over. After that, he gave her a thumbs-up. “Not bad. You’ve spent some time at the gym, haven’t you?”

“I’m looking for a treadmill,” Luo Xiaoxi stated her purpose directly and ignored the obvious come-on.

“Come. This way, please,” said the owner as he led Luo Xiaoxi to a corner where the treadmills were placed on display. After that, he patiently introduced her to various treadmill models and gave her a few recommendations. In the end, he said, “Just let me know whichever model you like. I’ll give you a 30% discount!”

“Is your store giving out discounts recently?” Luo Xiaoxi asked curiously.

The owner smiled and shook his head. “Nope. We don’t have any sales promotion at the moment. But I’ll have to make an exception since I’m now serving a beautiful woman like you with a nice figure and who is also into fitness. It is my honor to have you as my customer. So I have to give you a discount!”

Luo Xiaoxi had seen far too many smooth-talking men like him. She flashed a smile and pointed at one of the treadmills. “I’m taking this one. I’ll be paying with a card.”

“Alrighty,” the owner said and then led her towards the payment counter. “I’ll personally deliver it to your home later. If you would please write down your phone number and address, I’ll contact the driver to prepare for the delivery right away.”

If he had not already been obvious before, then this right here would certainly count as a blatant come-on.

Just when Luo Xiaoxi was having second thoughts about leaving her personal details, Su Yicheng appeared at the counter and took the sales order sheet from the owner’s hand. After that, he began filling up the customer details section on the sheet.

“…” Luo Xiaoxi was stunned into a stupor.

Su Yicheng wrote on for a while. Then all of a sudden, his hand stilled and he angled his head to look at Luo Xiaoxi. “What’s the building number of our place again?”

“Ou— Our place? Who’s sharing a place with him?!”

For a moment, Luo Xiaoxi looked utterly discombobulated. Then she recovered and said, “No.1.”

Su Yicheng hummed and swiftly filled up the rest of the sales order sheet. “What time can you have it delivered to us?” Su Yicheng asked the owner, handing him the completed sales order sheet.

It only took a split second for Su Yicheng to make mincemeat of the buff-looking store owner who had, just a few moments ago, appeared suave and confident. The owner glanced down at the address written on the sheet. Then, in an utterly dejected tone, he said, “It’s so near. We can have it delivered within an hour.”

“Thank you.”

Su Yicheng took the sales order once again as well as the customer’s copy of the payment receipt. After that, he grabbed Luo Xiaoxi’s hand and left the store.

Still in a dreamlike state, Luo Xiaoxi allowed Su Yicheng to drag her around as if she were a wandering ghost. After a while of walking, she regained her senses. “Su Yicheng,” she said, “why did you do that just now?”

Su Yicheng did not answer. He gave her a cold stare instead. “Mind using your head next time? Do you even know what that dude was trying to do?!”

“Of course I do. He wants to come over to my place and have a one night stand with me,” Luo Xiaoxi said. She had encountered far too many men like that not to know. “What about you? What right do you have to stick your nose into my business?”

Su Yicheng felt a surge of rage, “Oh, so if I hadn’t stepped in, you would’ve left that guy your number. Is that it?”

Hell no. Even if she did plan on leaving a number, she would have given him the number of the lobby of her apartment building. Please. She would officially become a model tomorrow. She had to keep her phone number private!

Then again, she did not really have to tell Su Yicheng all that.

“So what if I did?” She lifted her chin in challenge. “You didn’t give me a chance to be with you, and now you’re preventing me from giving others a chance to pursue me?”

“What the— She wants to give chances to a man she had met only once?” Su Yicheng thought incredulously.

“Luo! Xiao! Xi!” Su Yicheng gritted out.

Luo Xiaoxi raised her brows coolly. “What?”

Flames of anger erupted in Su Yicheng’s heart and he shoved Luo Xiaoxi roughly against a tree.

They were now in a small park in front of her apartment building. Right now, the park was completely unoccupied. Light radiated from underneath the flower hedges, creating a dim and murky ambience; the setting felt oddly erotic.

Once again, the absurdity of those 8-o’clock soap operas became the subject of Luo Xiaoxi’s inward mockery. “Yeah, being trapped against a bed or a wall seemed so nice on screen. And yet here I am, trapped by a man against a frigging tree. What the hell?” She thought.

Fuck. Totally unromantic!

Preparing to give Su Yicheng the brush-off, Luo Xiaoxi lifted a hand to push Su Yicheng away. Her hand had just made contact with Su Yicheng when all of a sudden, Su Yicheng lowered his head and sealed his lips over hers.

In that split second, Luo Xiaoxi felt as if something had struck her. For a long while, she was rendered immobile.

The second time. This was the second time that Su Yicheng had initiated a kiss.

The first time had happened during Lu Enterprises’ anniversary celebration. Back then, he had kissed her out of the blue, so she ended up slapping him.

This time, it was not out of the blue at all, and she was sober enough to remember Su Jianan’s words: Su Yicheng felt something for her.

Joy rained down upon Luo Xiaoxi in glorious showers. As if having a mind of their own, her hands moved to grip Su Yicheng’s shirt.

This time, Su Yicheng did not kiss her like some kind of beast on a berserk. Instead, he was kissing her in the exact same way he did in her wishful dreams: hugging her and kissing her gently like he truly loved her.

Luo Xiaoxi had been waiting for his kiss for so many years. She had waited for so long that she had lost patience and kissed him instead.

At first, she thought that this day would never come. Sure, she could spout boastful words like “Su Yicheng will definitely become my boyfriend one day” all she wanted, but in the end, all she could do was pester Su Yicheng for the rest of her life. Or so she thought.

Now, he was kissing her!

This long-awaited moment had finally arrived!

Luo Xiaoxi tried to kiss Su Yicheng back. Too bad she lacked experience in kissing, so she ended up either having her teeth collide with his lips or nearly biting his tongue off.

What surprised her was that her clumsy attempts to kiss him back did not piss Su Yicheng off at all. As far as she knew, Su Yicheng was not a person with such good humor.

Actually, her lack of experience in kissing meant that she had only been kissed a handful of times; Su Yicheng barely had time to rejoice at that knowledge let alone be mad at her.

Su Yicheng himself was surprised that he would kiss Luo Xiaoxi so suddenly. Still, by the time he realized what he was doing, he was already in the middle of kissing her. Surely, pushing her away right now would be an ungentlemanly thing to do. Who was he even kidding? The truth was that he had no intentions of letting her go.

Then, it was as if something had come over Su Yicheng all of a sudden; he began sucking on her lips forcefully. Pain shot through Luo Xiaoxi’s lips. It felt as if her lips were experiencing a sudden rush of blood. She could not move an inch, seeing as he had trapped her possessively against the tree.

“Ow… Su Yicheng…” She could no longer endure the pain. “Hurts.”

Finally, Su Yicheng slowed down. After that, he gave her lips a few pecks before letting her go as if he could not get enough of her.

Luo Xiaoxi, who had been dubbed by others as “the ballsy tease”, was now blushing heavily, which was a very rare occurrence indeed. For the first time in her life, Luo Xiaoxi found herself unable to meet the eyes of the person who had just ravished her.

In that instant, the little lioness had turned into a soft little bunny.

“Xiaoxi,” Su Yicheng said, tilting her face so that their eyes met. “Please be more obedient. Things between us… aren’t impossible.”

Su Yicheng had always been quick and decisive to obtain whatever he set his heart on. Luo Xiaoxi was the only exception to that rule since he had hesitated for a few days before finally making his move on her.

But he could not afford to drag things out any longer; considering Luo Xiaoxi’s personality, he was pretty sure she would end up having an extra bunch of “best buddies” hanging around her if he kept hesitating. In the past, whenever he saw Luo Xiaoxi chatting and laughing with other men, he would always avert his gaze and walk away. Only now did he realize that it was not contempt or disdain that he had felt back then: it was jealousy.

Just now, the owner of that gym equipment store had asked for her number and address, saying that he would personally deliver her purchase tonight. The come-on and insinuation could not have been any more obvious, and yet she could still laugh. At that moment, Su Yicheng honestly felt an urge to storm into the store and then start throwing punches.

He was not a big fan of resolving matters through the use of violence. To him, bloodshed and violence lacked elegance and beauty. Also, the good feelings which came after blowing off steam through violent acts would vanish the quickest. In spite of all that, he still felt as if he had turned into a beast with bloodlust at that moment.

So that was how jealousy felt like. Never before had anyone made him go nuts with jealousy. Now, he finally understood.

He did not wish for any other man to appear in Luo Xiaoxi’s life, and the easiest way to achieve that would be to bring her into his life. That was why he had told her that things were possible between them.

Why not confess his feelings through a grand, romantic gesture, though?

Of all his many previous girlfriends, Su Yicheng had never once uttered the words “I like you”, let alone the other three words with an even greater emotional significance.

To those women, he had always asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?”

To him, those girlfriends were only the ones he could dine or enjoy a movie with; they were not the ones who he would think about building a future or have children with. He would take them to a hotel, not home.

Then again, why did he tell Luo Xiaoxi that “things were possible” instead of his usual “will you be my girlfriend”? Could it be that she was different from all the other women he had dated in the past?

——