Chen Huaixu didn't flinch, letting her leave a row of teeth marks on his hand. He looked at them for a moment, then chuckled. "Quite a bite you have there."

His words hung in the air, heavy with implication. Yan Zhen remembered his suggestive words from earlier and blushed, mortified. "You…don't even think about it! If you dare make me…I'll bite it off!"

"What are you thinking about? I meant your teeth are healthy." Chen Huaixu said slowly. "Seems like you have quite the imagination. Maybe we should put it to the test sometime."

Frustrated, Yan Zhen started to scratch him.

After dinner, Yan Zhen went to the sofa by the French windows to bask in the sun. Chen Huaixu sat beside her with his laptop open on his lap, his fingers tapping lightly on the keyboard.

Yan Zhen peered at his screen for a moment. It was filled with investment analysis reports—utterly boring. She turned back to the window, yawning, the sunlight making her drowsy. "Chen Huaixu, I'm sleepy. Coax me to sleep."

"Yan Zhen, how old are you?"

"Are you going to coax me or not?" Her princess-like temper flared.

Chen Huaixu said, "Close your eyes."

Yan Zhen closed her eyes contentedly, waiting for him to continue.

His cool, calm voice drifted into her ears, smooth and undisturbed. "...Financial leverage, simply put, is…"

Wasn't that the topic of her graduation thesis?

Yan Zhen jolted awake. "What are you reading?"

Who coaxed someone to sleep by reading about financial leverage?

Before she could sit up, he gently pushed her back down, his fingers lightly covering her eyes as he continued. "The degree of financial leverage…"

The world was dark, and the only sound was his calm, measured voice reciting professional jargon. Although she hated to admit it, the effect was surprisingly hypnotic. Yan Zhen closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Sensing her breathing even out, Chen Huaixu slowly removed his hand. He looked down at her sleeping face for a long moment, a smile playing on his lips.

When Yan Zhen woke up, Chen Huaixu was gone. She threw off the blanket and wandered around the apartment until she found him in the study.

He sat at his desk, working, his expression focused and serious, his brow occasionally furrowing in concentration. He had a captivating aura about him.

Yan Zhen watched him for a moment, then turned to leave, but he noticed her. "Where are you going?"

"You're working. I won't disturb you." Then she remembered something. "It's getting late. I should go home."

"Have dinner first, and I'll take you." Chen Huaixu gestured with his eyes. "Your clothes arrived. They're on the sofa."

Yan Zhen nodded and went back to the living room to retrieve her clothes before heading to the bedroom.

Her phone lay silently on the nightstand.

After spending the entire day with Chen Huaixu, she finally remembered to check her messages. She opened WeChat and scrolled through her notifications, stopping abruptly when she saw a message from Liang Yu sent that morning:

[Zhen Zhen, are you seeing someone?]