Chapter 89: Still Quite Delicate

She wanted to laugh.

Heh.

This was truly rather tormenting.

Shen Chaoxi pressed a hand to her forehead in her heart.

Yet deep in her chest, that ache burned like hatred.

Flame spread through her.

The drunken glow of the clouds, as if set alight, shimmered in her eyes.

No one knew what she was thinking.

The girl’s skin was as pale as snow, as though carved from jade and bone.

Then she suddenly leaned close to his face.

At that moment, Lu Yunzho’s eyes turned cold. Quick as lightning, just as she was about to fall off the bed, he seized her wrist.

At the same time, his palm pressed against her dress and came to rest at the small of her back.

His hand fit against her slender waist, warmth seeping into her skin from the pads of his fingers.

He steadied her body.

The two of them remained in that posture.

Lu Yunzho’s brows were tightly furrowed.

His gaze fixed on her with unmistakable tension.

In that instant, the light fell across his cool and beautiful face.

He looked like the distant, misty sunset glow, enough to make one lose oneself in it.

And his eyes were deep and dark, reflecting the pale curve of her cheek.

It only made her complexion seem even fairer, and her pair of peach-blossom eyes looked soft and tender, like a fragile white flower.

One he was shielding at the very tip of his heart.

Her breathing was close.

Lu Yunzho’s brow tightened.

His eyes darkened all at once.

His throat moved slightly.

Then he held her wrist and helped steady her.

Shen Chaoxi lifted a brow inwardly.

Oh?

His grip on her wrist was so much gentler than it had been in the eastern province.

When he had dislocated her arm, he certainly had not been so gentle.

Lu Yunzho’s voice was husky as he asked her, “Going to dinner?”

“Okay.” She answered obediently.

Why wouldn’t she?

Shen Chaoxi thought to herself.

How exactly should she act from here on out to make him dislike her?

For a man like him, only when he had completely run out of patience with her would he take the initiative to end the engagement.

Everything was within her control.

Only he was not.

He had been the one thing she had not anticipated.

He had not followed the path she expected.

The sky grew darker.

The fiery clouds at the horizon vanished after twenty minutes.

Only a faint trace of dusky red remained, and as night closed in, it turned black as ink.

Inside the military base.

The officers’ mess hall.

Lu Yunzho brought her to the same place as before.

Only this time did he learn that Shen Chaoxi did not like scallions.

The scallions in the meat rolls were picked out piece by piece with her chopsticks.

A pale hand held the chopsticks, carefully teasing them apart.

“Don’t like it?”

Lu Yunzho’s eyes were deep, his low voice carrying a faint air of languid indifference.

He raised a brow and watched the girl remove the scallions.

“Mm, I don’t eat this,” the girl said earnestly.

I’m a picky eater.

Heh.

And don’t you have a cleanliness obsession?

If you watch me pick out scallions like this, shouldn’t your body be revolting in protest?

What Shen Chaoxi was thinking was that since you’re still coaxing me this far, I’ll let you see.

The person in front of you and you are completely mismatched.

In fact, I’ll make you feel annoyed.

She kept striking at his sore spots.

One day he would grow disgusted with her.

Yet who would have thought that when Shen Chaoxi seriously picked the scallions out of her bowl, deliberately making it look very meticulous—

Lu Yunzho’s eyes turned dark, and his husky voice said, “Then don’t eat it.”

Shen Chaoxi: ?

She lifted her eyes slightly.

The mess hall was brightly lit, so she could clearly see the man’s fair, refined face and the furrow between his brows.

He probably did not like people fussing over food in front of him, did he?

And he could endure this?

Very good.

Shen Chaoxi lowered her gaze, stirred the food in her bowl, and said, “At home, it’s always my brother who cooks for me.”

Her voice was very soft.

It sounded like she was venting her displeasure.

Willful, with a hint of spoiled temper.

Lu Yunzho laughed.

“So you want me to cook for you?”

Shen Chaoxi frowned inwardly.

Was that the point?

She was clearly trying to make herself seem difficult to deal with.

Spoiled rotten by her family.

No ordinary household could afford to raise her!

Did she need to say it any more plainly?

How did it become her wanting him to cook for her?

But Shen Chaoxi did not know this.

The words she had said were quietly remembered by the man.

And one day, she would suddenly discover that his cooking was far better than Shen Mo’s.

Shen Chaoxi’s movements stilled.

She still had to respond.

“No...”

Her voice was tiny.

Lu Yunzho’s brows eased slightly, as if he understood something.

In his deep eyes, a shadowed smile seemed to flicker.

Heh.

The girl had been pampered from childhood, so of course she was not used to living in military dormitories.

Nor was she used to the food here.

She really was quite delicate.

On the other side of the mess hall, through the glass, a young female reporter could be seen bringing several students from Capital University’s training program to eat at the officers’ dining hall.

When Mu Ting first came in, she was still smiling.

But when she saw the two figures seated together in the distance,

her lips stiffened.

The smile on her face vanished at once.

“Sister Mu, what’s wrong?”

The Capital University trainees were curious too.

Mu Ting was very nice.

She got along well with them.

After finishing her recorded interview, she had even come to eat with them.

She was not some military district reporter.

She was more like an older sister they could be friends with.

“Nothing,” Mu Ting said with a small, forced smile.

But when she looked at the girl sitting with Lu Yunzho, a cloud of gloom suddenly rose in her heart.

After thinking for a moment, she turned her head with a smile and said to the girls, “I still have something to do. You go eat first.”

“Huh? Sister Mu, you’re not eating with us?”

The girls looked disappointed.

“Mm, next time,” Mu Ting said with a smile.

And so the girls had no choice but to go eat on their own.

Then—

“Captain Lu!”

A clear female voice suddenly rang out in the officers’ mess hall.

Even the instructors seated elsewhere turned to look over.

They saw a young and beautiful female reporter, camera bag slung over her shoulder, walking toward a certain spot inside the mess hall.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Mu Ting said happily.

Lu Yunzho frowned.

His expression was quite cold.

He said nothing.

Instead, Mu Ting turned around and smiled at Shen Chaoxi. “You must be one of the new students here for the Capital University training program, right?”

Her smile carried an air of something difficult to read.

Lu Yunzho’s brows knitted tighter.

His gaze grew even colder.

Although Mu Ting was smiling, there was still a look of condescension in her eyes, as if she were standing high above and lecturing someone below.

“Then do you know that at your age, you’re supposed to rely on your own efforts, especially since you’re still a student?”

Shen Chaoxi frowned.

“Mu Ting!”

Lu Yunzho’s face darkened. He spoke abruptly, his voice low and carrying a trace of icy chill.

“Did I say something wrong?” Mu Ting had by then withdrawn her smile, as if all the politeness she had shown Shen Chaoxi earlier had been nothing but an act.

She stared at Lu Yunzho. “Why is she here? Did she perhaps have feelings for you...”

“Enough.” Lu Yunzho’s expression was visibly stern, impatient.

His gaze swept over the work badge hanging on Mu Ting, and his low voice said bluntly, “You’re here to work.”

Mu Ting’s eyes reddened.

“Lu Yunzho.”