A Twisted Love Affair-Chapter 78: Having a treasure at home really makes a difference_1

Chapter 78: Having a treasure at home really makes a difference_1

Shen Jing picked up a small spoon and stirred the glutinous rice balls in the pot. "He’s too picky. If it’s not delicious, he won’t eat it. No matter how much effort I put in, he doesn’t care. He only does what he feels like."

The ones she saved for Zhou Luchen were handmade. She’d tried her best to make them look appealing, experimenting multiple times with the filling until the flavor was just right for him—he was, after all, incredibly picky.

At 10 p.m., Zhou Luchen hadn’t returned.

He must have gone home to dine with his family elders, so I shouldn’t disturb him, she thought.

Shen Jing looked at the glutinous rice balls on the bar counter and sent him a message.

The Winter Solstice was almost over.

The clock struck twelve.

Shen Jing picked up her phone, found the number, and dialed. After a long wait, the call finally connected.

For the first two seconds, the sounds from the other end were of shuffling mahjong tiles, faintly mixed with the playful laughter of young men and women.

Two seconds after Zhou Luchen answered, it fell completely silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

An image flashed through Shen Jing’s mind: him at some Pleasure Quarters, carousing with friends from his circle, laughing and talking, in high spirits, utterly oblivious to the mundane concerns of ordinary life.

Or perhaps he was leaning over a card table, eyes sharp and focused, shushing those around him because he was taking a call.

Shen Jing gazed at the Shanghai nightscape beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. "Today is the Winter Solstice. Are you coming back?"

He raised an eyebrow. "The Winter Solstice, huh?"

Shen Jing hummed in affirmation. "I sent you a message."

Zhou Luchen paused. "Forgot."

Shen Jing fell silent. How could someone like him care whether today was the Winter Solstice or the Lantern Festival?

"Angry?" Zhou Luchen’s voice turned playful as he coaxed her with a smile, "Shall I come back now? Will that be alright?"

Shen Jing chided, "How could you forget? I’ve been waiting for you to come home for glutinous rice balls."

Zhou Luchen gestured with his hand, signaling a friend to bring his suit jacket. He took it, draped it over his arm, and rose, holding his phone in one hand, utterly composed and indifferent.

"Be good, baby. We’ll talk when I get home."

A single word, "baby."

He really knew how to pamper someone.

Chen Yao, who was preparing tea behind a screen partition, suddenly poked his head out to look at the Second Young Master. "Well, well, leaving after just one call, are we?"

Zhou Luchen smiled faintly at him and hung up.

Chen Yao sighed. "Having a treasure at home really makes a difference."

Zhou Luchen toyed with a brass kerosene lighter in his hand. "You guys carry on."

Chen Yao waved with a smile.

"We won’t see you off then."

It was quite strange; Young Master Zhou had really left after just one phone call.

Zhou Luchen never drove slowly. It took him less than thirty minutes to reach Yunding. He unlocked the main door with his fingerprint; the house was pitch black.

He reached out and flicked on the lights.

By the floor-to-ceiling window, a beautiful woman sat on the wool carpet holding a cat, her legs tucked to one side. The moment she looked up, the cool lighting made her complexion seem even paler.

Her eyes held a look of blame for him.

Zhou Luchen set down his suit jacket, then squatted and took the little white cat from her arms, tossing it aside.

Shen Jing gestured towards the bowl of ruined glutinous rice balls. "I made these for you. It’s already past twelve."

Zhou Luchen glanced at them, unconcerned. "It’s past midnight, so I won’t eat them."

"I made them by hand," she said.

Zhou Luchen looked at her, amused. "Are you that bored?"

The casual disdain in his voice, that arrogant, superior attitude.

It was as if he were saying, ’Who asked you to make them?’

Completely indifferent to the effort she had put in.

In that moment, Shen Jing finally understood why social hierarchies existed between people.

There were people in this world who wouldn’t be moved by any amount of kindness from others.

He truly never lacked people who treated him well. Her occasional care and concern wouldn’t cause the slightest ripple in his heart.

He wouldn’t be moved; he would only think she was too dull.

Shen Jing quietly watched him.

"Zhou Luchen, do you ever feel sad? Have you ever experienced disappointment? Are there people or things you can’t have?"

"No," he said with ease, effortlessly lifting her to straddle his waist in an embrace.

Shen Jing propped her hands on his shoulders, looking at his exquisite, chiseled face. The light illuminated him, making the innate nobility in his very bones shine through, vivid and complete.

She knew.

He had never known trouble in his life; there was nothing he couldn’t obtain. It all depended solely on whether he decided he wanted it or not.

Phrases like "a future as bright as brocade," "heaven’s favored son," and "the world is his oyster" had always been associated with Zhou Luchen.

She remembered Chen Yao once saying, "It’s hard to speak plainly about his background. Whether you search the Zhou family trees in Beijing or Shanghai, you truly won’t find anyone without wealth or power. The Zhou family has to be strict with him—after all, who else is so blessed by fate to be born into such a lineage?"

"I really want you to experience what trouble feels like," Shen Jing said, looking at Zhou Luchen.

Zhou Luchen shot her a sidelong glance, his deep eyes glinting with a hint of roguishness. "Are you offering to give it to me?"

Part mockery, part disdain.

Shen Jing leaned close to his ear and gently nipped his earlobe. "Why do you always make me sad?"

Zhou Luchen’s smile was frivolous. "You bring it upon yourself."

He said it with such composure.

Shen Jing grew angry. Zhou Luchen, perhaps sensing her flaring temper, pinned her against the wall. Her back pressed against the hard Macedonian Dynasty mural, his unyielding chest trapping her from the front, her legs hooked around his waist.

In the scant space between them, their breaths mingled, making her feel utterly soft and weak. Her eyelashes fluttered uncontrollably, and her fingers tightened on his arm. "I’m scared of pain."

"You’re asking for it," he said, tilting her chin up with one hand as his lips descended.

He ignited the desire buried deep in Shen Jing’s heart, unleashing it completely. "Turn off the lights."

"No," he murmured, his gaze intensifying on her. "You’re beautiful."

He was always inventing new, provocative games, never satisfied.

"Turn them off, please."

No matter how coquettishly she pleaded, Zhou Luchen remained unmoved, his fingers sliding her skirt up to her waist.

The shyer she became, the more aroused he grew, tangling with her even more fiercely.

...

「Late at night.」

Shen Jing emerged from her bath, utterly weary. She went to the kitchen to clear away the bowl of glutinous rice balls and throw them out.

They were completely ruined.

It was the dead of night, and the housekeeper wasn’t here.

If I don’t clean this up, it’ll definitely smell by morning.

Never mind Zhou Luchen’s neat-freak tendencies.

She herself was also particular about the cleanliness of her living space, and washing a bowl wasn’t exactly strenuous.

The little kitten leaped onto the counter, let out a "MIAOW," and gazed at Shen Jing with longing eyes, as if it wanted to eat.

Shen Jing dried her hands and picked up the kitten. "You can’t eat this; it’s all sticky."

As Zhou Luchen walked past the kitchen on his way to the study to work, he happened to see the woman and the cat playing at the bar counter. He tapped a cigarette against its pack for a moment, then tossed it into the trash can, unlit.

Idly, a flicker of interest sparked in him for the glutinous rice balls Shen Jing had made.

"Let me try them."

Shen Jing looked at him in surprise. He was leaning against the counter in his bathrobe, his eyes lazily fixed on her.

But...

"They were ruined. I’ve already thrown them out."

In the end, Zhou Luchen didn’t get to eat any.

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Make some tomorrow."

When he was willing to coax her patiently, she found her nerve. "It’s not the Winter Solstice anymore. There’s no point."

Shen Jing didn’t want to make them.

The moment he coaxed her, she’d put on airs.

Zhou Luchen saw right through her. "Haven’t I pleased you enough in the past two hours?"

She hummed coquettishly. "The glutinous rice balls are ruined. No amount of pleasing will fix that."

Zhou Luchen responded with a nonchalant "Hm?"

The little kitten lay on the sofa, lazily observing Zhou Luchen.

"MEOW~"

Zhou Luchen glanced at the cat. "Little one, what exactly did I do to upset her?"