Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi stood at the door to the study motionlessly as she quietly watched Huo Shaoheng. Her dark, inky eyes seemed to be housing burning flames, but they were also hidden in a pool of autumn water. “What is it?” Huo Shaoheng took her hand. “Don’t know where the bathroom is?” Obviously, they had just looked at it, and now he was saying she didn’t know where it was. Was he treating her like a stupid bimbo?
Gu Nianzhi watched him steadily as she wrenched her hand away. Holding her right hand with her left to massage it, she replied dryly, “If that’s the case, I don’t want this house anymore. I can gift it to Huo Shao in thanks for raising me all these years.” She then turned to leave.
Huo Shaoheng froze for a second. He hadn’t expected Gu Nianzhi to be this stubborn. Seeing that Gu Nianzhi had already walked towards the foyer, Huo Shaoheng strode over and grabbed her hand right away. “Nianzhi! Don’t fuss!”
“I’m not making a fuss.” Gu Nianzhi lost her balance from being grabbed, almost falling down. Leaning over backwards, she happened to land right in Huo Shaoheng’s arms.
Huo Shaoheng encircled his arms around her to hug her from behind. His broad chest was like a mountain that could shield her from the wind and rain. “Nianzhi, what on earth do you want?” Huo Shaoheng was a bit helpless. “Being petty and cruel won’t solve anything.”
“But forcing me to accept the things I don’t want also can’t solve anything.” Gu Nianzhi stopped struggling and looked down to see Huo Shaoheng’s arms holding the front of her body. They were solid and strong. One hand was enough to render her immobile.
Huo Shaoheng opened his mouth and wanted to ask what she didn’t want, but he was also worried she would run her mouth and say something she’d regret later on, so he swallowed the words. The girl in his arms was fragile and had low confidence, yet she was smart and arrogant. The two conflicting emotions combined in her to create a mysterious allure.
Truthfully speaking, Huo Shaoheng had already known she actually wasn’t suitable for him when they first started dating. From a certain standpoint, General Ji, Speaker Long, and even his father, Huo Guanchen, all had legitimate concerns. In the beginning, he felt mostly responsibility for her. But when their relationship developed to a certain point, he could no longer rely on being influenced by logic. They had arrived at this point together, and she wasn’t the only one to get trapped; he was as well.
After he understood his own feelings, he immediately began preparations for their marriage. With Gu Nianzhi’s past, marrying someone like Huo Shaoheng was nearly an impossible task, but he thought of all the options and made something impossible a reality. However, Gu Nianzhi didn’t understand these things, and marriage wasn’t what she cared about.
Although she was incredibly intelligent and was an expert in her field of study, she was only a 19-year-old girl when it came to love. And compared to a man nearly 30 years old like himself, she certainly considered relationship matters differently than he did. Huo Shaoheng’s eyes were dark as the night sky. They flickered slightly as he tightened his arms embracing her and finally compromised. “This is your house. I’ll take all my things out tomorrow.”
Huo Shaoheng suddenly acquiesced, and Gu Nianzhi actually thought she misheard. A warmth rose from her chest until it hit her eyes and nearly turned into tears pouring out. Gu Nianzhi froze for a full minute before blinking to fight back the tears. She escaped from Huo Shaoheng’s arms and stood in front of him. She didn’t miss the flash of disappointment deep in his eyes. He had been in the military for so many years, and if anyone were to ask the highest intelligence agencies from various countries, overseas and domestic, who would ever think the Hua Xia Empire’s Major General Huo would actually ever acquiesce?! A hot-blooded man who never compromised a single word amid storms of bullets had somehow taken a step back to this extent for her. Gu Nianzhi really began to feel regret. Was she being too harsh? If she was being that decisive, would she hurt Huo Shaoheng?
Huo Shaoheng focused on her in his arms, lips slightly opened as he continued, “Give me some time. I’ll have Big Xiong come over tomorrow to pack up my things.”
Gu Nianzhi looked down, her full, curvy lips gaping as she finally said quietly, “You can still come over to visit in the future, just like Brother Xiong and Brother Ze.”
At least she had stopped insisting on giving away the house. Huo Shaoheng sighed in relief, finally able to console the little princess. He hugged her even harder and kissed her cheek. “Ok, let’s go take a bath now. I’ll fill the tub for you?”
“Ok,” Gu Nianzhi replied obediently. “I’ll go get clothes.”
Huo Shaoheng went to the bathroom while Gu Nianzhi went back to her bedroom to find pajamas. Opening the closet, she immediately saw the black T-shirt she’d always used as pajamas. These were casual clothes provided to Huo Shaoheng by the military, and there was a brand new stack in the cubicle inside the closet. She grabbed one and also took a small pair of panties before going to the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom, the tub was already filled, and Huo Shaoheng half-knelt in front of it to add essential oil to the water. Gu Nianzhi sniffed to discover it was her favorite Bulgarian rose essential oil. Huo Shaoheng tested the water temperature then turned around to see Gu Nianzhi standing at the bathroom door. She still carried his long black T-shirt. “It’s ready now. You can take a bath.” Huo Shaoheng stood up.
Gu Nianzhi moved aside at the door to give him room and watched him walk out. She sighed in relief once again. At least Huo Shaoheng didn’t make any further requests. Gu Nianzhi closed the bathroom door with a smile and began to bathe herself.
Huo Shaoheng returned to the study to check his email, then sent Yin Shixiong a message asking him to pick up his things tomorrow afternoon. It was Saturday, and tomorrow was Sunday, so he had a whole day’s time. The study door was left open, and after a while, he heard the bathroom door open. Huo Shaoheng knew Gu Nianzhi had finished bathing. He sat motionless in the study until she came over to tell him goodnight. It was only then that he turned to look at her and said, “It’s late. Go sleep.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and walked back to her bedroom with a smile. This was the first night in the house she had bought herself, so it was very memorable. Gu Nianzhi returned to the bed and moved the blankets aside to lie down. The bed, blankets, and sheets were the brands and models she had been accustomed to in the Special Operations Forces, so she didn’t feel uncomfortable in the bed at all. Very soon, her lids grew heavy, and she fell asleep.
…
Gu Nianzhi woke up feeling hot in the middle of the night. She had a dream that she slept beside an oven, and in the dream, she kept slapping herself and muttering, “How could it be this hot? Isn’t it already late October?” In the Imperial Capital, late October to early November was approaching the time when the city prepared for unified heating. Finally, she woke up covered in sweat and also discovered there was another person on her bed. It was Huo Shaoheng. Gu Nianzhi’s anger rose immediately. How could he be like that?! They had already made an agreement, and he was turning his back on it!
However, when she clearly saw what Huo Shaoheng was wearing, she was stunned silent. Huo Shaoheng hadn’t changed but still wore his military uniform as he slept like that outside her blankets and hugged her tightly while she was bundled in blankets. No wonder she felt so hot… But Huo Shaoheng’s hand was a bit cool. The air conditioning in the bedroom was automatically lowered at bedtime, and because she slept with blankets, the daytime temperature would make her too hot and kick at the blankets. Gu Nianzhi was certainly fine because she had blankets, but Huo Shaoheng only wore a standard military dress shirt and trousers, so he was still a bit cold at night.
Gu Nianzhi stared at Huo Shaoheng’s sleeping figure. His features appeared even more sculpted and exquisite, carrying a kind of harsh beauty that was especially alluring when he was silent. Now that he was asleep, he didn’t appear as authoritative as he did when he was awake but seemed even more astonishingly handsome. After staring at him for a while, she poked him gently with a delicate finger.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t rouse, so Gu Nianzhi pushed him again with a bit more force. Huo Shaoheng seemed to have finally awakened and mumbled without even opening his eyes, “Nianzhi, don’t fuss.” His hands then seemed to instinctively move the blakents and delved inside their warmth before he sighed deeply in relief.
Gu Nianzhi froze because the next second Huo Shaoheng had already embraced her and found a comfortable position. Soon after, she heard his breathing even out and relax like he was deeply asleep. Gu Nianzhi was extremely speechless and pushed him again. “Huo Shao, go sleep in the study…”
“Don’t fuss. I haven’t slept for four days now…” Huo Shaoheng mumbled hazily again, then was completely unresponsive.
Gu Nianzhi was about to inch closer to his ear and scream for him to leave, but when she heard that she couldn’t shout. He hadn’t slept for four days. He wasn’t made of steel! How could his body take it? At this moment, Gu Nanzhi was not worried at all about Huo Shaoheng’s “animal instincts unleashing” and doing things to her that she disliked or couldn’t talk about. Now she was only worried that she would wake Huo Shaoheng up from his rare chance to sleep, so she laid obediently and still in Huo Shaoheng’s arms, closing her eyes and even relaxing her breathing out of fear of waking him. After counting several hundred sheep, she also fell asleep.
Not long after she fell asleep, Huo Shaoheng opened his eyes to steadily watch Gu Nianzhi. With a smirk, he hugged her tighter in satisfaction and kissed her forehead. Pressing his cheek on the top of her head, he finally fell asleep. He hadn’t lied, he really hadn’t slept in four days. The German Federal Intelligence Service had been launching revenge attacks against them, and it was only then that Huo Shaoheng realized the Germans already knew many things about them. However, the Germans hadn’t made a move until now, probably because they were waiting for the perfect opportunity. Huo Shaoheng spent much effort transferring all the Special Ops field personnel out of Germany without any casualties. After this blew over, he planned to send new personnel over. Luckily, Gu Nianzhi had sent them intelligence to enable a deeper understanding of the German Federal Intelligence Service, so it was even easier to crack their passwords.
The Germans, of course, knew their encrypted files had been stolen, so they immediately changed all passwords but didn’t modify the rules for their password generation. Gu Nianzi’s contributions were not giving them existing passwords but were sending them all the system files. Day and night, Zhao Liangze led a 20-member team of elite technicians to process the millions of emails Gu Nianzhi had sent. They needed to classify and integrate, then decipher and summarize before sending them to specific intelligence departments for further analysis. These things wouldn’t be accomplished in a short period of time. But For Huo Shaoheng, not sleeping for four days was not something he couldn’t handle. His highest record was not shutting his eyes once for seven days and nights.
…
On Sunday morning, the sunlight filtered through the tulle curtains in Gu Nianzhi’s bedroom. She didn’t want to get up and planned to sleep some more. Hugging her blankets, she laid on her side to snuggle deeper when she was suddenly poked by something hard against her back…
