Chapter 45: Acting Pitiful
Sunlight filtered through the curtains.
In a daze, Ruan Yi nuzzled toward the heat source.
It was a feeling of being completely enveloped in a warm but firm embrace.
The girl’s legs were hooked around a long leg. She had found the most comfortable sleeping posture ever.
What a comfortable human-sized body pillow.
Ruan Yi sighed comfortably. Just as she was about to bury herself deeper into the warm neck, her entire body froze.
Where did such a big pillow come from on her bed?
She snapped her eyes open. Her vision was met by a handsome face inches away.
Gu Zhi’s eyes were closed. His fair skin faintly revealed pale blue veins under the sunlight. His slightly lowered eyelashes cast a small shadow.
Ruan Yi could even feel the subtle sensation of his thigh muscles tightening and then relaxing while being clamped between her legs.
“Ah!” Ruan Yi recoiled like she’d been electrocuted, scrambling to separate her body from his.
Gu Zhi’s eyelashes fluttered. He lazily propped up his upper body. The collar of his pajamas was very deep, hanging loosely off his shoulder.
He was the living image of a peerless beauty waking up in the morning.
Ruan Yi swallowed hard, repeatedly chanting in her heart:
This is my brother, this is my brother, this is my brother.
“Sister is awake?” The man’s voice carried the hoarseness unique to the morning, holding a trace of indescribable allure.
“Why are you in my room!”
Ruan Yi was both urgent and fierce, her face as red as an apple.
“Sister fell asleep by the bedside last night. I was worried you’d catch a cold, so I carried you back to your room.”
A few strands of Gu Zhi’s black hair hung slightly messy over his forehead. He raised his brows innocently, staring at Ruan Yi with moist eyes, his lips pursing with a bit of grievance.
“I wanted to leave, but Sister kept holding onto me. I couldn’t break free. I didn’t want to wake Sister up, so…”
Picking a lock, kicking a window—he could do those. But he “couldn’t break free” from his sister’s embrace. To Gu Zhi, this was very logical.
The man’s tone sounded exactly like a pitiful little beast that had been wrongly accused.
Ruan Yi was speechless. Her emotions yesterday were indeed a roller coaster. When she lacked a sense of security, this was indeed something she might do.
But Ruan Yi still feigned composure to accuse him.
“Still… there was no need to be so close!”
Gu Zhi blinked innocently and moved further toward the edge of the bed. He was clearly about to fall off.
“I already shrunk to the very edge.”
The man looked down at the position Ruan Yi had occupied after jumping away. She was currently only at the center of the bed.
“It was Sister who kept burrowing into my arms and even put your leg…”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Ruan Yi’s panic.
“Fine! It’s my fault! Stop talking!”
The corners of the man’s lips curled up uncontrollably. The arc of his success vanished in an instant, returning to an innocent puppy-like expression.
[Sister is really so simple, so cute.]
[If I had known… I would have been even more excessive.]
After all, while the girl was sound asleep, the softness in his arms had tried to break free several times.
But every time she moved away by half an inch, the man’s arms would tighten with force, embedding her into his embrace. His palms roamed freely amidst the softness.
When the man’s nose pressed against her neck, the “aching” part of him deliberately applied force and rubbed against her until he felt her helpless, slight trembling.
He knew the girl would lose her temper once she woke up tomorrow. But she was already in his arms; how could he bear to let go?
Then he’d just act pitiful again. Anyway, no matter what—Sister would always believe him.
Gu Zhi followed Ruan Yi downstairs.
The crimson on the girl’s ear tips refused to fade, making the person behind her smile even deeper.
Gu Zhi put on an apron and entered the kitchen. Before long, the dining room was filled with the sweet scent of pumpkin and millet.
Until the problem was precisely identified, she had to strictly monitor her mother’s diet.
But she knew absolutely nothing about cooking. Her way of “strictly monitoring” was, of course, to let Gu Zhi handle it.
The door to her mother’s bedroom was ajar. Ruan Yi’s fingertips on the door handle still trembled with lingering fear.
Pushing the door open, she saw Ruan Ying leaning against the headboard. Her pale face still carried some exhaustion, but it was clear she had stabilized.
“Mom!” Ruan Yi practically hopped over and buried her head in her mother’s arms.
“Mom, are you okay? Is there anything else making you uncomfortable?”
Looking at her daughter’s reddened eyes, Ruan Ying placed her palm on her back. “I’m sorry, my baby. Mom scared you yesterday.”
The moment she spoke, Ruan Yi’s eyes turned red, her nose tip flushed, and her eyes filled with tears.
“What does it have to do with Mom! It’s all the fault of the bad guy drugging Mom! From now on, Ah Zhi will be in charge of three meals a day; only then will I be at ease!”
Ruan Ying lowered her eyes and chuckled, rubbing her daughter’s head with a gaze full of helplessness and pampering.
“You clever little thing. How could that work? Wouldn’t that turn Ah Zhi into a chef?”
Ruan Ying slowly began to explain her current thoughts and views to her daughter.
Listening to her guesses, Ruan Yi’s brows furrowed. Her mother shared her view: the drugging had nothing to do with the meals.
Then what exactly was the method of drugging?
“Regarding the fake reports Xiao Yi mentioned, as soon as I woke up, I had someone check the hospital archives. The three reports were indeed different from the hospital data. They were swapped after being brought back.”
The range of suspects was still narrowed down to the Ruan house.
Just as Ruan Yi was about to follow up with more questions, her mother suddenly raised her hand to stop her. Her expression turned solemn, as if covered by a layer of frost.
“Put my matters aside for a moment.”
Ruan Ying took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly.
“What truly triggered my worsening condition was someone sending me text messages with death threats against you.”
Ruan Ying tremblingly unlocked her phone and turned the screen toward her, showing the anonymous messages.
Malicious content met her eyes. Although the sunlight outside the window was still bright, Ruan Yi only felt a chill crawling from the soles of her feet up her spine.
“The police’s word is that Ruan Zhengyi and Wang Yanqin have already boarded a boat to smuggle themselves out of the country. I also sent people to investigate, and it’s true.”
Ruan Ying dug her nails deep into her palms.
“Other than them, I can’t guess who else it could be. It was because of these messages that I worried every second that someone would lay a hand on you. Before you returned safely, I…”
“What?” Ruan Yi found it a bit unbelievable.
Actually, when she saw that the kidnapper’s thin hair was pressed down like a pancake under the balaclava…
She had suspected it was Ruan Zhengyi.
After all, he was carved from the same mold as his father.
Clearly, catching the kidnapper was hard, but changing the plot completely was even harder.
Ruan Yi squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying and took her mother’s cold hand.
“Mom, don’t worry. Let’s not get into a panic. I will definitely be careful from now on. Kidnapping won’t happen again.”
Seeing her mother’s still anxious expression, Ruan Yi gently pressed her mother’s hand against her soft cheek, rubbing it to comfort her.
“Once the results for the blood concentration and toxic screen come out, I’ll go and consult the doctor clearly. Let’s nourish your body first.”
Before Ruan Ying could respond, there was a light knock on the door. The warm scent of pumpkin millet porridge permeated the room.
Gu Zhi held the porcelain bowl steadily and placed the porridge gently on the nightstand. “Mom, you must be hungry. Eat something first.”
At that moment, a “gurgle” came from Ruan Yi’s stomach.
Ruan Ying laughed and told the siblings to fill their stomachs first.
Before Ruan Yi could respond, the man had already approached. His long arm wrapped around her waist, bringing the girl toward his side.
Ruan Yi was hooked into his arms, her back pressed against the man’s firm chest as she was led out of the room.
“Right now, feeding Sister is the most important thing.”
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