Ruthless Romance

Chapter 11: Discovered

Wen Yan's body stiffened at his words. "The storage room is fine for me!"

Mu Tingchen cast her a sideways glance, a slight ripple disturbing his icy gaze. "I said upstairs, not my room. Mrs. Liu will prepare the guest room next to mine for you."

Embarrassed at having her thoughts exposed so easily, Wen Yan fell silent.

Just then, the housekeeper announced from the dining room, "Young Master, Miss, dinner is served."

Mu Tingchen closed his magazine and stood. "Let's eat."

When he said "let's eat," he meant together. How long had it been since they'd shared a meal? She couldn't remember.

At the table, she kept her head down, eating quietly and only reaching for dishes closest to her. Mu Tingchen ate with deliberate grace, barely making a sound. The vast dining room felt oppressively silent.

Butler Lin, standing to the side, sighed softly before using the serving chopsticks to add food to Wen Yan's plate. "Don't just eat vegetables. You're still growing."

"Thank you," she murmured.

By the end of the meal, she had eaten everything Butler Lin had given her. The sudden increase in food made her stomach ache slightly.

After dinner, Mrs. Liu announced that the room was ready. "Yan Yan, check if I missed anything in the storage room. I've moved most of your things upstairs already."

With Mu Tingchen still in the living room, Wen Yan cast him a nervous glance before acknowledging Mrs. Liu.

She waited until he returned to his room before sneaking to the storage room to retrieve a gift box hidden under her bed.

As she crept upstairs, just as she reached her door, the adjacent door opened. Their eyes met, and she froze like a startled deer, her long lashes trembling as she instinctively hid the box behind her back.

"What's that? Hand it over." Mu Tingchen's commanding tone brooked no argument as he looked down at her.

Like a child caught misbehaving, she held out after resisting his gaze for two seconds.

Mu Tingchen opened one of the gift boxes, glanced inside, then said simply, "Go to bed."

She knew he wouldn't return them and didn't dare ask. She'd expected this outcome when she'd accepted the gifts.

Once safely in her room with the door closed, she let out a long breath. Thinking of the note in Shen Jie's gift box, she slowly crouched down. "I'm dead..."

Like most guardians, Mu Tingchen forbade her from dating, even though she was legally an adult and he wasn't her parent... though he was technically her legal guardian.

Mu Tingchen considered throwing the gift boxes away immediately, as he had done for the past decade. This time, however, he hesitated, remembering her frightened expression. The thought only increased his irritation.

He absently opened the unopened gift box. What caught his attention wasn't the delicate bracelet inside, but the note.

His handsome face darkened instantly.

"To hold your hand and grow old together..." He scoffed.

Meanwhile, Wen Yan lay sleepless in her new soft bed.

She desperately prayed Mu Tingchen wouldn't find Shen Jie's note, while simultaneously wondering what would happen if he did.

Suddenly, her phone – the one Mu Tingchen had given her, which only contained his number – buzzed on the nightstand.

She knew without looking that it was his message. Aware of the consequences of ignoring him, she reluctantly checked her phone. The message contained just two words: Come here.

Her heart sank. Putting on a cardigan, she walked hesitantly to his door, taking several moments before finally knocking.

His cold voice came from within: "Enter."

She opened the door to find him in his usual spot by the floor-to-ceiling window, a cigarette between his fingers – a sure sign of his poor mood. She remained at a distance, not daring to approach.

"Come here," he repeated, his voice even colder than before. Though the words matched his text message, hearing them directly made her heart race with anxiety.

Steeling herself, Wen Yan approached and stood beside him. Before she could say anything, he suddenly pulled her into his lap, catching her completely off guard!

Her body tensed immediately, every muscle rigid with surprise and fear. The familiar scent of his expensive cologne mixed with cigarette smoke enveloped her, a combination that had always meant trouble. His arm around her waist was firm, preventing any attempt to escape, though she wouldn't have dared try even if she could.

The note from the gift box lay on the table beside them, its innocent words now seeming like a death sentence. The silence stretched between them, broken only by the soft sound of his breathing and the faint rustle of his shirt as he moved to extinguish his cigarette.

She could feel the controlled anger radiating from him, like heat from a banked fire. In all her years under his roof, she had learned to read his moods, and this quiet fury was far more dangerous than any explosive anger...