Every Male Lead love Me

Chapter 03

Xia Tian let out a startled scream and scrambled upright.

When had he come in?

Frank used to say Matthew could perform magic, and now that metaphor seemed disturbingly accurate. Xia Tian hadn’t slept particularly deeply that night, yet she hadn’t heard a single sound of Matthew entering the room. What was more—she glanced at the door, which was left ajar by a narrow c***k. Mrs. Smith had never bothered repairing or renovating the old house, and under normal circumstances, even opening or closing the door would earn Xia Tian a scolding for being too noisy.

“How did you get here?” Xia Tian asked, her heart still pounding.

Matthew offered no response.

Standing beneath the moonlight, Matthew Dennish looked even more like an inorganic doll. The cold, pale glow coated his soft blond hair with a faint sheen, while shadows stretched beneath his thick lashes, partially veiling his sea-blue eyes. He stared at Xia Tian without warmth, his gaze tracking her movements as she sat up and leaned closer. Aside from that, his delicate features betrayed not the slightest ripple of emotion.

Xia Tian felt a chill creep up her spine.

It was precisely this unsettling way of moving—or rather, existing—that drove Frank to provoke him time and again. Of course, she firmly rejected the idea of solving problems with violence.

“Is this because of what happened earlier?” Xia Tian asked again. Unsurprisingly, Matthew remained silent.

Fine.

He continued to stare, and Xia Tian studied him in return. It was obvious he had slipped out of his own room. He was still dressed in simple pajamas, and lower down—his bare, pale feet rested directly on the wooden floor, without even a pair of slippers.

“You’re barefoot!” Xia Tian exclaimed deliberately, making a show of it. She patted the bed. “Come up here and warm yourself.”

This time, Matthew finally moved.

Without a word, the blond boy stepped forward and climbed onto her bed.

The moment he drew close, a wave of icy cold rushed toward her. Xia Tian froze briefly, then immediately understood.

She grabbed the blanket and wrapped the small figure inside it. “The heater in your room is broken, isn’t it?”

It was winter, after all.

Mrs. Smith might have been emotionally neglectful, but she didn’t abuse the children physically. At the very least, the heating in the house was usually strong enough that she could walk around in a thin nightdress without discomfort.

It shouldn’t have been this cold. Most likely, the old heating pipes had malfunctioned again.

So Matthew hadn’t come because of the incident earlier. He was simply too cold and needed somewhere warm.

His options were limited. First, the boys who bullied him were out of the question. The erratic Layla next door was hardly a good choice either. As for Mrs. Smith—she was on night shift, and she strictly forbade the orphans from entering her bedroom.

Otherwise, Frank wouldn’t have been so brazen before bedtime.

Compared to freezing on the living room sofa for the night, it made sense to try Xia Tian’s room. At the very least, she had shown him a sliver of kindness earlier.

Seen in that light, his silent, unsettling presence no longer felt quite so frightening. Xia Tian relaxed a little.

She lay back down beside him, the two small children sharing a single pillow. Even beneath the blanket, she could feel how cold his hands and feet were. After a moment’s thought, Xia Tian reached out.

When she took Matthew’s hands, he looked up again. Their eyes met, and Xia Tian smiled brightly. “This way, we’ll warm up faster.”

Matthew only regarded her with his cool blue gaze.

“Tomorrow I’ll tell Mrs. Smith to call someone to fix the heater,” Xia Tian continued, her eyes lingering on his face. “Does it still hurt?”

The slap had been precise and vicious. Hours later, Matthew’s right cheek was still badly swollen—it would likely take weeks to subside.

“To be honest, I didn’t step in just to help you,” Xia Tian admitted. “Frank was getting too arrogant, and I couldn’t stand it. But now…”

Even if her actions were driven by the game’s objective, seeing Matthew’s injuries stirred genuine pity in her. “I’m sorry, Matthew. Once people adopt the mindset that something has nothing to do with them, they become cold. If I’d known stopping Frank was this easy, I wouldn’t have stood by.”

Of course, none of this made Matthew happy—or upset. One glance at his unmoving favorability value made that obvious. In his eyes, Xia Tian’s actions probably meant nothing at all.

“But it won’t be like that anymore.”

Whether he cared or not, she still said it.

After all, he had come to her tonight, hadn’t he? That alone proved he wasn’t entirely unresponsive to the world. He had seen everything she did.

“If Frank bullies you again, come find me,” Xia Tian said softly. “I can also teach you how to deal with him… in a civilized way. A way to protect yourself.”

She didn’t expect an answer. Freeing one hand, she gently ruffled his pale blond hair.

“Go to sleep.”

Xia Tian kept smiling. “Now that you’re warm, you can sleep peacefully.”

Six-year-old Matthew was clearly exhausted. At her words, his eyes closed at once.

Before long, the boy lying on his side drifted into deep sleep.

Watching his defenseless sleeping face, Xia Tian felt conflicted.

With his eyes closed, he no longer fixed people with that emotionless stare. Instead, he looked like an ordinary child. A beautiful child sleeping so quietly—it was difficult to reconcile this image with the blood-soaked butcher from the original story.

Based solely on the system’s memories, Xia Tian felt nothing. But with a living, breathing child sleeping beside her, recalling the bullying and abuse he had endured, she couldn’t help but feel compassion.

Still, sympathy aside—

She muttered to herself: this favorability value didn’t necessarily have to be romantic, did it? Friendship or familial affection should count as well.

Thinking that way made her feel much better.

Now thoroughly warmed, Matthew no longer radiated cold. With a small human heater beside her, Xia Tian felt more comfortable too. Gazing at his sleeping face, drowsiness soon overtook her as well, and she gradually fell asleep.

This time, she didn’t dream of Matthew’s piercing gaze—and in her sleep, she completely missed the system notification:

“Favorability +1.”

…

The next morning.

Xia Tian sat at the edge of the bed, her long black hair and white nightdress in complete disarray. Now it was her turn to stare intently at Matthew—specifically at the number above his head.

Favorability: 1.

What was going on?!

Helping him avoid a brutal beating hadn’t raised his favorability at all, yet simply letting him stay the night increased it by one?

Matthew had just woken up as well. He rubbed his eyes and instinctively turned to look at Xia Tian.

“Are you… happy?” Xia Tian asked blankly.

Naturally, he didn’t respond.

He withdrew his gaze coolly and climbed out of bed in silence.

From beginning to end, Matthew was like a robot—no, not even that. At least robots responded to external input according to their programming. As for Matthew Dennish, if Xia Tian hadn’t slept beside him, felt his breathing, and sensed his heartbeat, she might have believed she was speaking to a slab of iron or a stone.

She was baffled. If saving him hadn’t earned his gratitude, then letting him warm himself in her room shouldn’t have either.

So where did that single point of favorability come from?

Just as she puzzled over it, Matthew’s stomach suddenly let out a loud growl.

Xia Tian: “…”

She couldn’t help laughing.

Alright—so he wasn’t made of stone after all.

Frank had dragged him out of a storage cabinet; who knew how long he’d been hiding there. Matthew probably hadn’t eaten much the night before.

She glanced at the clock. It was just past six. On nights when Mrs. Smith worked late, everyone usually waited until seven, when she returned, to prepare breakfast.

“Hang on,” Xia Tian thought for a moment. “I’ll get you something to eat.”

There was no reason to starve while waiting for Mrs. Smith. She hopped off the bed, slipped into the kitchen, rummaged through the cupboard for some small biscuits, then grabbed two milk candies from the refrigerator before sneaking back to the room.

With six children in the house, food was never plentiful. An unspoken rule had formed: unless Mrs. Smith was in a good mood and distributed food herself, no one touched anything.

Of course, Xia Tian knew better. The other kids had helped themselves plenty of times—Matthew was probably the only one who rarely got anything.

She returned quietly, set the snacks by the bed, unwrapped a milk candy, and popped it straight into Matthew’s mouth.

“Just to tide you over,” she whispered. “Don’t eat too much—just enough so you’re not hungry. Otherwise, you won’t manage breakfast later and it’ll give us away.”

When she brought the candy to his lips, Matthew didn’t open his mouth. But once the sweet touched his teeth, his fondness for sugar won out, and he accepted it. Like someone thawing from ice, he gave Xia Tian his first genuine reaction.

He looked at her, then at the milk candies on the table, and then back at her again.

A sudden realization struck Xia Tian.

“Alright—one for you, one for me.” She unwrapped the second candy and put it into her own mouth. “Now we’re accomplices.”

“Matthew Dennish’s favorability +1. Current favorability: 2.”

…Wait.

Another point? Could the system at least tell her how it worked?

“Reason for favorability increase: the target’s hunger has been alleviated.”

Uh… thanks, system?

Xia Tian felt both stunned and at a loss.

So simply easing his hunger raised his favorability. That meant yesterday’s increase must have been because he’d warmed up. As expected, that staggering corruption value of nineteen was no joke. Kindness, protection, emotional interaction—none of it moved him. Without humanity, none of it registered.

Only when his own needs were met did he offer the faintest feedback.

Was she raising a character—or a puppy? Even puppies responded emotionally to humans.

Still, two points were two points, and the system had clearly explained how favorability increased. That alone was significant progress.

The milk candy soothed Xia Tian’s shaken mood. “After this, get a bit more rest. Mrs. Smith still—”

Before she could finish, the bedroom door slammed open with a loud bang.

“Xia Tian! You b***h, I’ve had enough of you!”

Layla’s shrill screaming rang out from outside the door for the third time. “Get out here! Don’t think hiding in there means I can’t deal with you! If you’ve got guts, don’t let me see you for the rest of your life, you—”

“What’s all this noise?”

Layla’s torrent of abuse didn’t faze Xia Tian—but the sudden adult voice made her heart sink.

Mrs. Smith was back.

Mrs. Smith always came home in a foul mood after night shifts, and nothing irritated her more than noisy children. If she started assigning blame, Layla wouldn’t escape—and neither would Xia Tian.

As if things weren’t bad enough, Frank’s booming shout echoed from downstairs. “Mrs. Smith, Xia Tian stole food from the fridge!”

Xia Tian: “…”

Oh, really? He dared to snitch.