Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Thief! Thief! A shameless thief!”

“It’s you! It’s all your fault Rou’er is gone! You are such a despicable thief…”

“I’m no thief; I’m really no thief…”

…

Yun Shishi clung onto the comforter in her dreams, beads of perspiration littering her forehead.

The room was lighted up suddenly.

Qin Zhou pushed open the door and walked in. He did knock on it a few times but received no response. Worried for her, he took the prerogative to enter and checked on her.

The sky outside the window had long turned dark.

The evening breeze blew past the window and sent the curtains flapping.

He quickly walked over to close the window.

His careful action, nevertheless, roused the lady in the bed who had been trapped in her dream until then.

She opened her eyes hazily, first, to the ceiling, and, second, to the smiling, handsome face of his.

“Darling, are you awake?”

Her head was throbbing dully. She had unknowingly dozed off, but her sleep was incessantly beleaguered by nightmares. He promptly took a cushion pad to prop her back on the bed as she slowly sat up.

As his fingertip lightly brushed across her arm, he felt her skin to be burning to the touch. Alarmed, he reached his hand to her forehead. “Oh, no. You are having a fever!”

“Eh?” She tried to keep her misty eyes open. At the moment, she was not yet fully awake, so her reaction was quite retarded.

With a sigh, he rummaged through his cabinet for the first-aid kit and then sat at the bedside with a thermometer.

She let him place the thermometer in her mouth obediently. A minute passed, and he took it out to look at the reading. She was really having a fever at 38 degrees Celsius!

“I think you caught a cold while you were sleeping with the window open. The wind tends to get chilly at night in my condo. It’s my fault!” Looking vexed and apologetic, he poured warm water into a glass and supervised her to take a flu pill.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to be so formal with me,” he jestingly said. “Shishi, count yourself lucky to have such a caring agent like me.”

She was teased by his narcissistic tone. “Yes, yes. I’m lucky indeed to have such a good agent like you. I must thank my lucky stars!”

“That, you should do.” Made smug by her praise, he bantered with her for a bit before he smilingly asked out of the blue, “Are you feeling better now?”

She slowly nodded.

“You want to share what happened this afternoon?” He dropped his usually frivolous attitude to take on a solemn disposition.

She was silent for a while as her gaze, like her thoughts, drifted elsewhere.

He was patient, though, and did not disturb her pondering. After a long wait, she opened her mouth hesitantly. “It was all in the past; I’m not sure if I should tell you.”

She had willingly chosen to forget and bury those memories, only to have them wreaked havoc in her mind anew after her argument with Mu Wanrou, which had set them free.

“Of course, I won’t force you if you don’t want to share. However, when you finally want to talk about it, just remember that I am a willing listener. Although I’m just an agent to you in name, I already take you as my family. We are in the same boat, through joy and happiness, trials and tribulations, from here on, so don’t treat me as an outsider.” He sounded serious and sincere.

Nodding, she shared her entanglement with Mu Wanrou from beginning to end, and he listened patiently and attentively all throughout.