“If I say I didn’t do it on purpose… would you believe me?”

Gu Xingyi blinked innocently, looking at Xia Xiyao’s flushed little face.

“H-Hurry up and move your hand~”

Xia Xiyao’s eyes shimmered like water, full of shyness, and her voice was soft and sweet.

Gu Xingyi awkwardly pulled his hand back, though he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed—that feeling had been… just too good.

“Then… should we get up?”

Even as he said it, Gu Xingyi felt reluctant. The soft body in his arms made him want to stay in bed forever.

"The spring night is short, and the sun rises high—since then, the king no longer attends court."

Now he finally understood the true meaning of that poem.

With such a beauty in your arms, even if the emperor came, he’d have to kneel!

“You get up first!”

By now, Xia Xiyao was so embarrassed she’d buried her head under the covers, her muffled voice coming from inside. All the courage she had gathered up last night had already been used up.

Now that it was broad daylight, she no longer had the guts to act so naturally around Gu Xingyi.

“Oh!”

Gu Xingyi scratched his head, then reluctantly crawled out from the warm covers and dashed into the bathroom.

Truth be told, it was his first time being completely exposed too—he was embarrassed!

Once Gu Xingyi was in the bathroom, Xia Xiyao finally peeked her head out, looking toward the bathroom with a bright smile.

But her smile quickly froze, and her face turned completely red—she suddenly remembered that all her clothes were still in the bathroom!

Gu Xingyi came out soon after, already dressed. In his hands were a few neatly folded pieces of clothing. He walked over to the bed.

Seeing Xia Xiyao’s little face poking out from under the covers, he bent down and placed the clothes by the bedside, smiling as he spoke.

“Here, I brought your clothes. I’ll go wash up now!”

“Wait~”

Just as Gu Xingyi was about to stand up, Xia Xiyao suddenly called out. A fair little arm reached out from under the covers and tugged him back.

The next thing Gu Xingyi knew, a soft, pale face moved in close—and Xia Xiyao’s lips gave him a quick peck before darting away again.

“Reward~”

Her muffled voice came from under the covers once more.

Gu Xingyi licked his lips and gave a helpless smile. Did Xia Xiyao not realize how dangerously attractive she was? Teasing him like this first thing in the morning—wasn’t she afraid of unleashing the beast?

Fine. He was completely under her spell now. Just wait—she’d get what was coming to her!

Gu Xingyi grumbled in his heart as he turned and went back into the bathroom—for a cold shower this time!

Half an hour later, the two of them, now freshened up, left the hotel and drove to the artist apartment.

Then Gu Xingyi saw it—Xia Xiyao pulled out a key from her bag and used it to open the apartment door.

“……”

Xia Xiyao seemed totally unaware that anything was wrong. She walked straight in. Then, turning around, she saw Gu Xingyi still standing at the door, giving her a weird look.

“What are you spacing out for?”

Xia Xiyao blinked, confused.

“…The key?”

Gu Xingyi smiled as he raised an eyebrow. He’d seen a joke like this online once—before marriage, one drink and she’s down; after marriage, a thousand drinks and she’s fine. Turned out… it was true?

Xia Xiyao looked down at the key in her hand in a daze. And then, the realization hit her.

A wave of red spread rapidly across her cheeks, and the moment became unbearably awkward.

Fortunately, just then, Tao Lele came out of the room with Nainai. When she saw Gu Xingyi and Xia Xiyao, a teasing smile immediately spread across her face.

"Morning, Xiyao-jie~ Hehe~"

Xiao Nainai quickly wriggled out of Taolele's arms and dashed to Xia Xiyao’s side, hugging her thigh tightly. She looked up with a pitiful expression on her little face.

The little one hadn’t seen her mama or papa all night. Last night, it took Taolele a long time to coax her to sleep.

"Mama~ Where did you and Papa go?"

Their appearance instantly broke the awkward tension from before. Xia Xiyao quickly scooped Nainai up in her arms.

“We didn’t go anywhere~ See, Mama and Papa are both right here!”

Xia Xiyao playfully tapped the little one’s nose, gently comforting her.

“But aunt Lele said you and Papa went off to have your own world and didn’t want Nainai anymore… sob sob~”

Xia Xiyao froze again, then immediately shot a murderous glare at Tao Lele. Tao Lele chuckled nervously, eyes darting around.

“Ah~ Xiyao-jie, you haven’t had breakfast yet, right? I already made it—let me bring it over right now!”

As she spoke, Tao Lele hurriedly slipped away. She felt that if she didn’t make herself scarce, Xiyao-jie might really finish her off right on the spot.

Before long, a delicious meal was laid out on the table by Tao Lele. The group sat down, and Gu Xingyi began feeding Nainai with a spoon. Xia Xiyao glanced around the table and then asked Tao Lele:

“Where’s Yun-jie? I haven’t seen her.”

It was already nine o’clock. Yun-jie would normally have been up long ago.

“She left early for the company. Isn’t Yun-jie the one handling most of the handover work over there~”

Hearing that warmed Xia Xiyao’s heart. Ever since coming to Yin Hai Entertainment, both Tao Lele and Yun-jie had been helping her nonstop, whether it was for daily life or work matters—they always handled things so well.

In fact, in the hearts of Tao Lele and Yun-jie, they also felt incredibly lucky to work as Xia Xiyao’s manager and assistant.

With other celebrities, the managers and assistants were usually much busier—finding gigs, handling business negotiations, doing promotions, taking care of meals, lodging, and everything else.

But with Xia Xiyao, they hardly had to worry about any of that, because behind her was Gu Xingyi—who brought his own trending topics and hit songs.

On top of that, Xia Xiyao gave them a much better cut than others did. With a star like her, how could anyone not be happy?

After the meal, Xia Xiyao held Nainai while Gu Xingyi drove. The whole family, neat and complete, began the journey home.

Tomorrow was the day Nainai would start kindergarten. No matter what, Xia Xiyao didn’t want to miss such an important moment.

So while only two had arrived, three returned—as a family.

Fortunately, Gu Xingyi had signed the highest-level free contract back then. Otherwise, like other celebrities, he wouldn’t have been able to live this freely and do whatever he wanted.

Meanwhile, as the Gu family happily drove back toward Jiangcheng, a haggard-looking woman stepped out of the detention center gates.

Liu Qian looked at the deserted suburban road, her eyes full of gloom. Because of what had happened last time, she had been detained for a full fifteen days.

Now that she was finally out, not a single person had come to pick her up.

Her company had already terminated her contract. She had nothing left now.

Liu Qian stood by the roadside, pulled her phone from a file envelope—just returned to her—and forcefully pressed the power button.

She couldn’t wait to find out whether Gu Xingyi and Xia Xiyao had broken up because of what happened last time. She firmly believed that if they had split, Xia Xiyao—without Gu Xingyi—wouldn’t be able to stir up any waves in the muddy waters of the entertainment industry.

If she was going down, she wasn’t about to let Xia Xiyao have it easy either.