BXBX NOVEL Chapter 8 Quiet Thoughts
Xue Ning chewed on an apple. Beside her, Sun Jingwei did the same while lounging on the sofa.
She stared at him, trying to make sense of his behaviour. Throughout the lunch, he had been nothing but gentlemanly and attentive, making sure she lacked for nothing. He had her noodles served in a ceramic bowl that looked way too beautiful to be used as dishware, cut small bits of his steak for her to try, even tried to feed her from his fork before she batted his hand away in irritation.
Something was up.
She recalled what she had known of Sun Jingwei, prior to this night.
There were three things she learnt about him from the gossip circles:
1. He was very hot.
According to schoolgirls and lonely housewives, he was the epitome of male perfection, much to the distaste of their husbands. He looked every inch the perfect lover, and Xue Ning had more than once wished she could bleach out her ears when she overheard them talking about their sexual fantasies starring Sun Jingwei.
She stared at him and he smiled back at her.
The rumour mill wasn\'t kidding, she thought to herself. Even if he wasn\'t the best-looking man ever, he was still… pretty good-looking.
2. He was bloody rich.
Like he could shit in a golden toilet bowl and throw out that golden toilet bowl for a new one for several lifetimes and not make a dent in his life savings.
His family was part of the top 1% of wealthy people in the world, and it showed in his behaviour. He collected country homes the same way children collected pokemon cards.
Occasionally he donated exorbitant sums of money to women\'s charities and apparently helped build animal shelters, which was nice, assuming it was true.
Everyone knew that he had a hand in the underground street races at midnight, but law enforcement couldn\'t touch him.
With his kind of money, no one could.
I\'m now staying in a VVIP ward and getting fed imported fruit continents away, Xue Ning muses to herself. So once again, that was true.
3. He was a human trainwreck.
Sun Jingwei was infamous for stumbling out of clubs with a woman on each arm, his drunk face plastered across society\'s pages and social media. Even Xue Ning, who hardly used social media, couldn\'t escape it, because her rich customers never stopped complaining about him!
Seeing that strange women hated him enough to drug him, yes. He definitely was a human trainwreck!
Now that she confirmed the rumours for herself, she narrowed her eyes at him.
No man, least of all someone like her, would treat her, plain and poor Li Xue Ning, with this much care, without a hidden agenda.
It would have been a depressing thought when she was a teenager, but now that she\'s grown, she merely accepted this to be a part of her life. She wasn\'t the same hopeful teen to be fooled by sweet words and acts of kindness, only to have the rug pulled beneath her feet when she least expected it.
No one would get the better of her. Not even a billionaire\'s son, who remained devastatingly handsome even after he changed into a simple shirt and pants.
He is still smiling mischievously at her from the couch.
She raises an eyebrow challengingly.
He merely waves back, a tad bit mockingly.
She frowns to herself, before stumbling on a few reasons that were more plausible than him being interested in her.
Firstly, he felt guilty about the incident.
Possibly. Assuming that he had a heart that could still feel guilt. She heard from the doctor how the drugs weren\'t meant to affect Jingwei himself that strongly, merely knocking him out for a few hours or so. But because she was a woman of lighter weight, they did way harder than they needed to.
In all the dramas she watched, for every rich male lead that cared, there were at least five other assholes who happened to be his family members.
So it was dubious. Even if he wasn\'t an asshole, his family might be. She resolves to keep her guard up.
Secondly, he was afraid she\'ll sue.
He\'s here to pamper her so that she\'ll feel more comfortable with him and hence not sue him for the incident.
She remembers one fact - if he was not distracted by cleavage, they would not have spiked his drink.
So yes. He was a pervert and it led to her lying in the hospital bed, but she also didn\'t want to put the blame entirely on him. The bulk of blame should go to the two women responsible.
Well, even if she wanted to sue, she was so broke that she wouldn\'t even waste money on the printer ink used for the court summons. If he didn\'t know that, she wasn\'t going to dissuade him.
Thirdly, he didn\'t want her going to the tabloids.
In the guise of caring for her, he was secretly keeping an eye out on her and making sure she remained in the hospital so that she could not tell anyone about the situation.
The good food on beautiful plates was just a shiny, tasty distraction.
Yes. This was the most likely scenario, which would explain why he was so cagey around her using her phone. He had hovered around her using her phone until she added him on Wechat.
He must have been afraid she\'d take some incriminating photos of him lounging around with his shirt untucked and his stupid muscles to the tabloids to sell for quick cash.
He did nearly get drugged by two women. No wonder his guard was up. That made sense. Xue Ning was sympathetic to his plight, but she also really wanted her life to go back to normal.
"I know I\'m handsome, but you\'re going to make me shy if you keep staring at me," Jingwei smirks in direct contrast to his words.
Xue Ning splutters. Nevermind. She has a feeling this man would send his own pictures to the tabloids if the ones publicised weren\'t flattering enough.
"Don\'t worry, I won\'t be looking at you after I leave the hospital," she says firmly. He shoots her a betrayed look, giving her the best impression of a wounded animal.
Xue Ning remains unfazed and heartless and continues to ask.
"When did the Doctor say I can be discharged again?"
"When you\'ve recovered from nearly dying." He replies quickly. "And you really don\'t want to go out right now, I assure you."
"...Why?" Xue Ning asks cautiously, "what is happening outside?"
Before Jingwei can open his mouth to reply, he is interrupted by a brief knock. The door opens to reveal a handsome man in a tailored shirt and long pants.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Li Xue Ning?" He asks. His face looked stern and cold, and he wouldn\'t look out of place in a historical drama. However, his tone was gentle and his eyes were warm. The contrast made her cheeks flush.
"Y-yes." Xue Ning replies, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.
With her eyes on the newcomer, she failed to notice the brief sullen look that crossed Jingwei\'s face as he watched her attention be taken by someone else.
"Ge why are you asking? You already know!" Jingwei grumbles, making a sound of displeasure.
"Ge? This man is your brother?" Xue Ning exclaims in surprise. Her head swivels between the two of them, disbelieving.
Sure, both of them were tall and had broad shoulders, and they could wear a suit like they were born in it, but their personalities and demeanors seemed so different at first glance it gave her whiplash.
Their faces also didn\'t look very similar. They must have favoured different parents, for while Jingwei had a pair of upturned fox eyes, a sharp jawline, and the slightest hint of baby fat still on his cheeks, his brother had eyes shaped like willow leaves with a less pronounced jawline.
"Yeah he is," Jingwei says, no longer slouching on the couch.
"I am Sun Tianwei," the other man follows smoothly, giving her a professional handshake. She shakes it, nonplussed, while shooting Jingwei a quick look of confusion.
"Ge, why are you here?" Jingwei asks. "Did anything happen?"