What had caused his displeasure?

  Gripped in the palm of Fu Tingyu’s hand was her phone. Was there something wrong with her phone?

  Retracting her gaze she asked gently, “Have you eaten?”


  Qin Shu sat up as she spoke, the long hem of her T-shirt trailing against her supple skin.

  Fu Tingyu stared at Qin Shu for a long time, appraising her in silence. Eventually, he spoke, “You and Jun Li seem very close.” hanging in the air was a barbed accusation.

  “Pardon?”


  Hearing Fu Tingyu mention Jun Li’s name, she tilted her head to the side and inquired, “You know Jun Li?”


  Fu Tingyu neither confirmed nor denied being acquainted with Jun Li. He simply fixed an uncompromising stare at her. Suddenly, an idea came to mind – he would take her to Sheng Garden.

  Seeing as Fu Tingyu chose to keep his peace, Qin Shu did not press him for details. She stretched her slender arms out and wrapped them around his neck. In a husky voice dripping in sensuality, she whispered in his ear, “Are you angry?”


  Fu Tingyu lowered his eyes to meet hers. He could smell the floral scent of her warm breath against the nape of his neck. His eyes darkened with desire.

  His arms enveloped her delicate form, closing the distance between them. His obsidian eyes locked onto her hungrily. “Are the two of you so close that he visits you at your dorm often?”


  “Not really. He has only visited the dorm once.”


  Qin Shu leaned into his embrace, feeling a little perplexed. Her first encounter with Jun Li was purely coincidental. He had offered her a ride and she took it. In their second encounter at her dorm, he had brought with him a strawberry cake.

  “Once? He has managed to befriend President Ba in a single meeting? If the two of you weren’t close, would President Ba allow someone unfamiliar to carry him?” Fu Tingyu’s eyes glinted with frosty furore. His fingers around Qin Shu’s phone clenched like a vice. It was getting harder for him to suppress his mounting fury.

  From Fu Tingyu’s reaction, a vague impression of what might have occurred formed in her mind. Jun Li had probably gone to her dormitory in search of her. Since she had yet to return to her dormitory, he must have taken the liberty of securing President Ba’s material comforts and provided him with food and shelter. The message he had sent was, in all likelihood, a memo informing her of his actions and an assurance that President Ba was safe at his side.

  The more she reasoned, the more likely it appeared. Jun Li was just that kind of person.

  Qin Shu met Fu Tingyu’s intense scrutiny and felt wronged. “Jun Li and I are just friends. There is nothing special going on between us.”


  Fu Tingyu’s grip on the phone tightened. “Just friends? Why would he go looking for you at your dormitory, then?”


  His lack of faith in her fractured her brittle heart like thousand knives slicing into her skin. It hurt. “Why won’t you believe me?” she asked with a quiver in her voice.

  Fu Tingyu pursued his lips and inspected her once over with a raised brow.

  His reticence hurt her more than she showed. He did not trust her. Struck by this epiphany, her nose twitched and her eyes grew moist. “Jun Li and I are really just friends. There is nothing going on between us. He is just the friendly face next door.

  Fu Tingyu studied Qin Shu’s trembling form and his eyes took on a predatory gleam. He drew her deeper into the embrace, leaning in towards her vulnerable neck. “You’re mine. You’re not allowed to get close to any other man.”


  His words rolled off his tongue with a deep-throated growl. It was a domineering declaration of what was his.

  Clinging to Fu Tingyu’s stalwart figure, Qin Shu could feel his unease, his roiling emotions simmering under the surface of his skin. An inaudible sigh escaped her lips. “Do I not even have the right to make friends?”


  Fu Tingyu replied overbearingly, “You have me.”


  Qin Shu traced the lines of his chiselled jaw to his high cheekbones and cold, onyx eyes. His anger was a wintry chill barely concealed by his sharp looks. She tilted her head up towards him and planted a kiss on his lips. “I love you.”


  Startled, his body stiffened. He turned to her and demanded fervently, “Say that again.”


  Qin Shu took a deep breath and intoned seriously with all of her heart. “I love you. I love you and only you. My love for you will never change. Don’t ever doubt my feelings for you, okay?”


  Fu Tingyu inhaled her affections for him in the same way a dry sponge soaks up water. Though his outward appearance did not change, his heart throbbed with scalding passion.

  “Will you stay away from them, then? For me?”


  Qin Shu looked at him in bewilderment. Her contact with the opposite sex was all but non-existent. How did it become them?

  “What do you mean by them?” She couldn’t help but ask.

  He squeezed her lithe form possessively and muttered, “Bao’er, you are mine. Do you hear me? You are mine and mine alone. No other man may approach you.”


  She had heard him repeat this matra countless times but the more she heard it, the heavier her heart ached for him.

  What was he so scared of that he had to repeat himself so earnestly?

  “I am yours and only yours but could you give me some space to be free?”


  Qin Shu implored gently. She was afraid of his temper and never wanted the misfortune of having his ire directed at her.

  “I can give you anything. Nothing is beyond my grasp. All I ask is that you never leave me.” Fu Tingyu’s words weighed with cloying ardour.

  Bending forward, he kissed her.

  Qin Shu’s words caught in her throat. She had wanted to assure him that she would never leave him but before she could do so, she had been silenced by the abrupt kiss that had stolen her lips. In the end, she could only bury them in her heart and pray that he would be fine.

  The room quietened.

  A rumbling growl echoed in the vacuum.

  Qin Shu blushed a bright crimson. She was so hungry that she failed to suppress her stomach’s ardent protests.

  Much of Fu Tingyu’s annoyance subsided when he heard her stomach’s growl of hunger. Helping her out of bed, he instructed, “Go wash up and we’ll have something to eat.”


  “Okay.”


  Though her mind laid with her bed, her stomach protested the thought and demanded immediate satisfaction.

  Hauling herself out of bed in slow uneasy steps, she slipped on her bedroom slippers and ambled her way to the bathroom to wash up.

  Fu Tingyu sat by the bed, his eyes glued to the phone sitting innocuously on a pillow. He picked the phone up again. This time he opened the message in its entirety and read its contents His jet-black eyes darkened further. Opening an options window, he blacklisted the number representing Jun Li’s contact details. He then deleted Jun Li from his friend list and blacklisted him on his phone too.

  He did not hesitate.

  He erased everything. Nothing was spared. Anyone who would covet his woman was an enemy – and enemies were obstacles he disposed of.

  Returning the phone to its comfortable perch atop a pillow, he stood up and headed for the dining room. He would wait for Qin Shu there.

  It did not take her long to wash up and join Fu Tingyu in the dining room. He sat at the table, patiently waiting for her to arrive.

  She sat in the chair opposite his and marvelled at the exquisite breakfast laid out. She was so hungry that she could eat a horse. Picking up her chopsticks with her index and middle fingers, she gobbled down the delectable dishes with serene grace.

  Watching Qin Shu relish in the delight that was a good meal, he felt a twinge of hunger stirring his own appetite.

  Midway through their meal, Fu Tingyu raised his head to examine the woman eating with him. He had asked her a question earlier but had not received an answer.

  The uncertainty clawed at his mind – a veiled threat inducing panic and unease.

  His hunger abated as his thoughts ran wild.

  He put down his chopsticks and raised a glass of water to his lips. He drank from it slowly.

  At this point, Qin Shu’s hunger diminished. She felt stiff and bloated – a clear sign that she had overeaten.

  She had been worried that President Ba would not have had anything to eat or drink. Her initial plan had been to return and have Ye Luo watch over him.

  There was no need for that now. President Ba was safe in Jun Li’s hands.

  Dabbing the oil stains around her mouth with a clean napkin, Qin Shu regarded the man she had been eating with. In his hand was a glass of water. He brought it to his lips and took several tentative sips before asking, “Would you like to go out and play?”


  A workaholic like Fu Tingyu did not just ‘go out and play’.

  Qin Shu eyed him cautiously but when she thought of how he had taken time out of his busy schedule to accompany her, it seemed a little inappropriate not to indulge his whims.

  Setting his glass down on the table, Fu Tingyu smiled and continued, “Where would you like to go and have some fun?”