Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Since this is what you said, then I’ll go back there later. But there’s no more cars on the roads outside, so I’ll go back tomorrow,” Xia Qingyi teased him on purpose.

“How dare you! Have you forgotten about what I said to you last night?” Mo Han’s voice got louder.

“I’ve forgotten about it,” Xia Qingyi echoed after his words, shrugged her shoulders and acted as though it did not matter much as she turned around to take the hairdryer to dry her hair.

Except that she did not realize Mo Han was slowly inching towards her. She went to put the plug in the socket and was about to switch on the hairdryer when Mo Han grasped her arm from behind and made her put down the hairdryer.

Xia Qingyi turned her head to look at him. Mo Han was taller than her by a head, and he was standing right behind her, his head looking down at her, the corners of his mouth curled into a smile. She kept blinking her eyes and moved her head back. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve really forgotten?” There was a charming allure to Mo Han’s voice.

“No… No…” Xia Qingyi started to deny.

“Then say it for me to hear…” Mo Han leaned in closer towards her.

Xia Qingyi started to stammer and kept moving back. “You don’t… don’t be like this…”

“Shouldn’t we also solve the problems between the two of us?” Mo Han spoke as he gently grazed his lips across her ear.

Xia Qingyi continued to shrink back, not daring to look at Mo Han. “Don’t do that, it’s itchy.”

Mo Han saw that her ears were red and she was still furiously blinking her eyes, looking extremely adorable. His heart fluttered, and he could not help but to lower his head and move forward to kiss her on the side of her face.

Xia Qingyi avoided him, smacked his left arm and took the chance to escape through the space beneath his arms. She did not look too happy, and said with a frown, “In the future… don’t do this… I don’t like it.”

Mo Han saw her expression and calmed down. Even his voice had changed. “You don’t like me?”

Xia Qingyi stood a distance away from him. She did not dare to look at him in the eye, and only stared at the side of his face. “I… see you as my older brother. I…”

Mo Han interrupted her, “Alright, don’t say it. I know.”

“I’m sorry…”

Mo Han’s tone turned as cold as the time when she had first met him. “You don’t have to say anything, have a good sleep.”

After he finished speaking, he did not look at Xia Qingyi, turned, and left the room.

Xia Qingyi saw him walk out of the room. The door closed with a bang, leaving her alone inside. She turned her head back and saw the blazer and a blue tie Mo Han left on the bed.

She had never thought that his reaction would be so big.

Xia Qingyi took his clothes and tie and carefully left it on the sofa in the living room to let him keep it when he saw it the next morning. She went to look at Mo Han’s room and saw that his door was locked tight.

Why did she reject him? He was clearly a good person, and it was an honor to be liked by him, so why did she reject him?

But what kind of person was she? She was someone who did not even know about her own past, and her personality was not good. Even she disliked herself sometimes. If they really got together, as her lover, he would slowly start to realize her real self and would probably dislike her as well.

So, why bother? She was not a person who liked romance. She had always liked being by herself, and did not really like someone bothering her at her side. It was better to stop it before they got too serious with each other.

Xia Qingyi felt that this was only a temporary thought by Mo Han. It was probably Han Liang’s sudden appearance that made him feel as though someone else had snatched something that belonged to him, and not a kind of undying love.

She admitted that perhaps her sorrow had made her wary towards a sudden appearance of kindness.

It seemed that good things were forever descending upon her. She admitted that she was really unlucky in this area.

Xia Qingyi saw that Mo Han was already sitting at the table when she woke up and went out of her room the next day. He had already changed, his ironed suit placed next to him as he ate.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Xia Qingyi sat on the other side of the table.

“I wanted to let you sleep longer,” Mo Han replied as he ate, his cold tone emotionless.

“Okay,” Xia Qingyi nodded her head as she chewed on her chopsticks. His estranged attitude also made her lose interest in chatting, so she sat at one side and quietly ate her food.

Since she had suddenly decided not to talk this time round, she realized that she was the one who would chat about all sorts of things with Mo Han when they ate for most of the times. Now that she did not say anything, the house was silent to the point of being eerie.

Xia Qingyi could not bear it any longer, and spoke in the end, “I’ll go to the school to complete the procedures this afternoon and try to start classes by this week.”

Mo Han did not speak and only ate his food.

“I’ll have nothing to do when I come back this afternoon, can I go to your law firm and stay there for a while?” Xia Qingyi asked.

“No.”

Xia Qingyi looked at him as he said, “The law firm is rather busy lately, it won’t be convenient if you’re there.”

“I won’t cause any trouble, I’ll just sit at the side and look at you all.”

Xia Qingyi could see that Mo Han was still going to reject her and said, “Alright, alright… I won’t go.”

“I’ve finished, I’ll go to the law firm,” Mo Han put down his chopsticks, took his briefcase and stood up. Xia Qingyi looked at him, and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Why are you so early today? You might end up going there too early.”

Mo Han had already walked to the doorway and was about to put on his shoes. “The law firm is busy lately, so I have to go earlier.”

Xia Qingyi was just about to ask him what time he would be back tonight? But Mo Han had already closed the door with a loud thud and left.

She released a deep breath, sat back down on the chair, stunned. She saw the unfinished food on the table, but she no longer had any appetite.

Was he purposely distancing himself from her? Or was he hiding from her? Because of what had happened yesterday?

When she came home from school in the afternoon, her mind was constantly elsewhere. Because she was alone and she did not know how to cook, she ordered takeout, sat on the rug and finished it.

Usually Mo Han would return a while later in the past. Sometimes he would even bring back food for her and the two of them would sit and eat together at the dining table. But now, there was only Xia Qingyi tastelessly poking at her food alone. She robotically ate a few bites, and was unable to continue. She simply threw the rest into the bin and went to the study room to read.

At nine P.M, Mo Han was quietly sitting in his car in the parking lot. He had actually reached here half an hour ago, but he still did not want to go up.

Actually, him telling Xia Qingyi that the law firm was busy in the morning was a lie. The expression she had when she saw him leave also revealed that she knew about it. She definitely had let him go back earlier, but he still hurriedly left, as though he was running away.

He had not expected her rejection. He initially thought that there would no longer be any problems between them without Han Liang. He thought that she liked him, but Han Liang had come in between them after that.

But now, she did not act as he had expected even without Han Liang.

He had neglected an important problem. She did not like him at all, she had only treated him as an older brother.

When she said it yesterday, he was truly shocked.

So he did not really want to see her in the morning. It was not her fault, but he would be overcome by the memory of the awful state he was in when he heard her say that she did not like him. Hinting that having romantic feelings was merely on his part.

His expression at that time had to be really ugly, since he had turned around and left in such a panicked manner back to his room.

And now he had to be really ashamed, sitting in the parking lot inside his own car thinking of when to go up to his house.

As he continued to wait, Mo Han looked at the time and saw that it was already nine thirty. It would probably not be good if he remained out here. Would she still wait for him to return as she did in the past? Mo Han quickly shook his head.

Don’t think so much! She did not think the same way as you. She only treated you as a brother, stop imagining things.

He still opened the door in the end and went home. The moment he opened the door, the house was still lit as he expected. Except that Xia Qingyi was not in the living room. The house was empty and quiet, only the bright light filled the room.

Mo Han did not go to her room to look for her as he usually did in the past. Her room had become a forbidden place to him.

There were still some details to be ironed out for the Yuanchen Company case on theft of trade secrets and embezzlement of funds. He wanted to continue doing it when he went back to work tomorrow, but he realized that he did not feel sleepy at all after he had reached home, so he simply followed his old habit, took a cup of water and laptop to the study room with him and prepared to work.

But when he opened the door to the study room, he froze.

Xia Qingyi was sleeping soundly on the small sofa seat in the study room; the book in her hand had fallen to the floor. She was lying down facing the inside on her side, her legs propped up high on the side of the sofa, it was unknown how long she had slept, and there was nothing covering her body.

Mo Han glanced at her, walked past her and gently closed the door.

Murphy’s Law was indeed right. The more you worried that something would happen, then the more likely that the particular thing would happen.

Like now.

Mo Han walked over, and seeing her sleep in such an unguarded manner, he shook his head. She certainly slept soundly. He picked up the book that had fallen onto the floor, and saw that she was reading Basic Principles of Economic Law .

She would really read all kinds of books; it was no wonder she had fallen asleep. Mo Han turned back to look at her sleeping face, and hesitated over where to wake her up.

Just as he was pondering about it, Xia Qingyi probably ached from sleeping on the sofa and was tossing and turning around to find a more comfortable position to continue sleeping. Mo Han came back to his senses, gave a small cough and said, “Go to your room and sleep.”

Awakened by his voice, Xia Qingyi was rather grumpy. She buried her head into the sofa and softly grunted a sound.

“Go and sleep,” Mo Han said again.