After a short nap, he seemed uncommonly languid. With two buttons of his dark shirt undone, he looked quite different from his usual self. In the dim light, his eyes held an even stronger sense of aggression.
Gu Anxi instinctively reached for the car door handle, but the pressure on her wrist was a stark reminder of the clear difference in strength between men and women. He was clearly exerting considerable force, yet his expression remained impassive, giving no hint of how strongly he was gripping her hand.
Gu Anxi simply leaned back against the seat, turned her head as he had, and met his gaze.
Finally, Bo Xichen spoke, his voice slightly hoarse, "You’re Luo Lin!"
She hummed in affirmation. Bo Xichen’s voice held a trace of deliberate restraint as he asked, "Were you in Beicheng two years ago?"
Gu Anxi gazed at him without speaking, a silent admission.
Bo Xichen suddenly chuckled softly and murmured, "It was you."
He then leaned towards her. Gu Anxi was barely aware of when he unbuckled his seatbelt. By the time she registered it, her senses were filled with an alluring warmth and the faint, tantalizing scent of alcohol.
Leaning against the seatback, she lowered her gaze and said softly, "Bo Xichen!"
He hummed in response, his ice-like eyes darkening. "Not calling me Uncle anymore?"
Words like that, in such an environment, always seemed far too intimate. Even Gu Anxi, as slow on the uptake as she usually was, knew that his "Uncle" was definitely not the "Uncle" she had imagined. But she didn’t dare to ask. Instead, she gently closed her eyes. "Dr. Bo, you’ve had too much to drink."
She had barely finished speaking when his actions demonstrated that he had indeed had too much.
Tossing and turning...
The air seemed to grow thin. Gu Anxi’s fingers, resting on her skirt, curled slightly. Her long, curled lashes fluttered gently, seeming to glisten with a captivating moisture. Suddenly, her hand shot out and grabbed his sleeve. Her fair fingers crumpled the expensive fabric, released it, then clenched it tightly again.
Bo Xichen seemed to chuckle softly, looking quite pleased.
Finally, unable to bear it, she turned her head away, her voice tinged with faint indignation as she said again, "You’ve had too much to drink."
He hummed, this sound even more intimate than before. "I did have a few extra drinks, but Gu Anxi, I’m not drunk. I’m perfectly aware of what I’m doing."
She turned her face towards the dark night outside the car window, trying desperately to steady her breathing, not wanting him to sense her current predicament. However, he was a doctor—an excellent one—and he could clearly perceive every subtle change in her.
When she finally calmed down completely, Gu Anxi murmured, "Bo Xichen, my world is filled only with darkness and pain... I..."
"Then I’ll stay with you." He gently touched her hair, a warm smile on his face.
After a moment, she turned back to look at him. "What if it’s a darkness you can’t even imagine?"
"Then come to my side." He lightly touched her cheek and murmured.
Youthful skin, fair and soft.
Gu Anxi lowered her gaze, silent, her long lashes trembling ceaselessly.
"Gu Anxi," he said softly, "if you’re unwilling to come, then I’ll have no choice but to go to you... I’ll help you bear your pain."
Later, Gu Anxi didn’t know how she ended up in his bedroom. It seemed he had said it was late, that Grandma Chen had been asleep for a while and they might wake her.
She stood there as Bo Xichen retrieved one of his own shirts from the walk-in closet. "This will have to do for sleeping."
Suddenly, Gu Anxi remembered something. "Bo Xichen, who helped me change last time?"