Growing Fond of You, Mr Nian

“Why are you still sleeping? It’s so late.” Xiang Wan could tell that she had just woken up from the hoarseness of her voice. “It’s already 11:00 a.m.”

“So… late,” Yan Su muttered after a moment. She thought that it was still 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. She remembered how she fell asleep the night before. She wondered when Mo Liuxi decided to call it quits.

“Yeah. Did you lose sleep last night because of the competition results?” Xiang Wan said empathetically. “It’s all right, you’ve just got to adjust your mood. However, the television station told me that it’s going to be tough for you to win first place or even make it to runner up. There are only a few episodes left, so it’s not a big deal if you get eliminated.”

“I didn’t expect anything more. It’s all right.” Yan Su rubbed her temples. There were rules in every industry.

“I know you want to go home and be with your child over Chinese New Year, so I tried my best to keep your schedule free,” Xiang Wan said.

“Thank you, Sister Xiang.” Yan Su was grateful.

“Take it easy and don’t get into any scandals, okay?” Xiang Wan warned her before hanging up.

Yan Su looked at the man in her bedroom. She tiptoed over and wondered how many times he came the night before. There was a big pile of tissue paper beside the wastepaper basket, and there was a weird musty smell in the room.

She used a broom and swept the room briefly before she opened the windows. It was already 11:30 a.m., and she hadn’t had any food yet. Her stomach was grumbling in protest.

Although she was still tired and sleepy, she decided to put herself together and cook lunch with the ingredients in her fridge.

…

As Mo Liuxi started stirring from his sleep, he caught the smell of delicious food wafting through the apartment. His stomach was growling as he opened eyes and stretched his arms. The woman beside him was long gone.

He sat up quickly and his expression was dark. She had gotten up earlier than him again.

Was she the one cooking in the kitchen right now?

He put on some pants and walked over to the kitchen. At the doorway to the kitchen, he saw Yan Su boiling soup with an apron around her.

The magnificent smell of breakfast filled up the place, and he started drooling at the thought of tasting her food again after so long. At the same time, he was shocked at the amount of energy she had. After all that went down the night before, he couldn’t believe that she could still wake up and cook for them.

Mo Liuxi’s face was dark as he stood behind her. “Yan Su, are you even a woman?”

Yan Su was tasting the soup and deciding whether she should add more salt to her dish when he caught her by surprise. Her hands trembled as she spilled the soup in the ladle onto the countertop.

She turned around in frustration to meet the gaze of Mo Liuxi. His expression was hard to read, but he looked handsome as always. “Can you not sneak up on me like that? You really scared me.”

Mo Liuxi was silent as he stared at her with his lips pursed.

With her stamina, he would be the one who would die of exhaustion if they really did it for four days and four nights.

Oh right. She had told him to carry on without her the previous night. In her eyes, she might only see him as a stubborn mule.

“Aren’t you… aching?” Mo Liuxi looked at her thighs.

Yan Su knew what he was referring to. She shook her head as her cheeks flushed. “Not really.”

Mo Liuxi was silent.

She wasn’t even sore from their intense exercise last night. There were no words to describe how he was feeling at that moment.

Yan Su tried to explain to him. “I do dance practices all the time. I’ve learned all sorts of difficult dances before, and there was one time I practiced all day and all night for an entire month to nail the routine. I had to do splits and leg raises, and it used to hurt a lot. It hurt so much that I couldn’t walk properly. Now that I’m used to it, it’s a piece of cake for me.”

“You’re a singer… Why do you have to train so hard at dancing?” Mo Liuxi said.

“I have no choice. I have to record albums and do tours.”