There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Extra 4.2

Expecting that her words had made Huo Zhonglou quite uncomfortable, she smoothly continued without waiting for him to forcefully respond.

“We’ve only been at the Huo family for a week, wouldn’t it be too early to get married right away?”

Huo Zhonglou finally had some reaction.

He picked up the wine glass beside him and took a sip, “This is something the Huo family has decided, and Mr. Qin and Mrs. Yin have already agreed–as a sister, you probably don’t have much say in this matter.”

“……”

This was pointing out that she shouldn’t be foolish for those ungrateful people in the Qin family.

Qin Ke thought with a smile.

But he didn’t know that at this moment, her heart and eyes were filled with only him, she was only thinking about him, and didn’t care about those three people from the Qin family at all.

She could actually wait.

It was just one week, she only needed to wait for Qin Yan to be scared off after seeing his appearance, wait for her parents from the Qin family to come and beg her to marry into the Huo family instead of Qin Yan, then she could go with the flow, saving a lot of unnecessary trouble.

But she didn’t want to.

She didn’t want this person to force himself to marry Qin Yan for her sake. Now that she knew all the truth, she couldn’t bear to see him make such a choice that would use up and exhaust even his own remaining life value.

She wanted an outcome, one where it wasn’t Qin Yan abandoning him, but him actively making a choice following what he truly wanted in his heart.

Qin Ke knew well that only this way could he truly let himself go.

Just then, there was a knock on the door of the dining room.

“Come in.”

“……”

The servants pushing silver food carts entered. When they saw the girl sitting on Huo Zhonglou’s left side, several servants responsible for clearing and setting the table were stunned for a moment.

—

Although they had already learned from Butler Huo that the fiancée’s sister of the eldest young master would be dining with him tonight, when they were setting up the dining room earlier, it was still arranged with two end seats. How come in just a short while, the two were already sitting together, looking so intimate…

As if they had all thought of something simultaneously, several people suddenly came to their senses, hurriedly lowered their heads, pretending they hadn’t seen anything, and carefully pushed the food carts forward to clear and replace the cooled old meals for the two.

Noticing their reaction, Huo Zhonglou frowned.

Just now, he must have been bewitched by the girl, his head was in a fog, and he actually indulged her to sit beside him, and on his left side at that.

――

In the Huo family, the left side had always been the position for the lady of the house. This point had never changed for several generations of Huo family heads.

And just now, Huo Zhonglou, whether out of subconscious selfishness or truly forgetting, had placed this chair on his left side without a second thought.

It was too late to remedy it now.

He could only say coldly as those few servants finished changing the plates and were about to leave with the food carts.

“Keep your mouths shut.”

“…Yes, Young Master Zhonglou.”

The servants were so frightened their bodies stiffened, and the last one even walked out with the same hand and foot moving together.

The dining room door was closed again.

When Huo Zhonglou withdrew his gaze, he saw the girl sitting beside him propping her chin with one hand, her eyes curved as she smiled at him.

Huo Zhonglou’s body froze again.

He was about to pretend not to care and look away when he heard the girl ask with a smile. “They seem to be very afraid of you.”

Huo Zhonglou lowered his eyes, his voice cold and deep.

“You should learn to be as afraid of me as they are.”

“Why?”

“…”

“Just because you’ll be my future brother-in-law?”

“……”

Seeing that the man was unwilling to respond again, Qin Ke inwardly frowned slightly, and could only try a different approach.

“Then why did you tell them to keep their mouths shut?”

“…”

This time, a certain person’s high-voltage line was finally touched, and he raised his head to look at her with a gloomy gaze. “I’ve already reminded you once, I don’t want anything to disturb the wedding in a week–”

“Huo Zhonglou.”

“…” The girl’s sudden interruption made Huo Zhonglou’s figure freeze. He found he couldn’t say what he had originally intended to — because the girl sitting beside him was no longer smiling as always, but had somewhat retracted all her smiles, lowering her eyes slightly, as if hurt by his words.

In the strangely silent dining room, after a few dozen seconds of quiet, the girl asked in a very soft voice.

“Do you dislike me that much?”

“…!”

Huo Zhonglou’s grip on his knife and fork suddenly tightened, and it took all his reason to suppress the denial that almost slipped out.

He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice.

“You are… Qin Yan’s sister, of course I won’t… dislike you.”

“Only because of Qin Yan?”

The girl’s voice lowered even more, seeming to carry a hint of tears. She kept her gaze down, her voice low and soft, her whole face hidden in shadow.

Huo Zhonglou clenched his teeth even tighter, the cheekbones under his mask trembling slightly.

The girl seemed to be hurt even more deeply by his silence. She silently put down her utensils, stood up, her voice full of disappointment, so light it was almost dispersing.

“I see… It seems you really do dislike me.”

The girl slowly turned to the side, in the flickering candlelight, her eyes seemed to have turned slightly red.

Huo Zhonglou’s heart twinged, and he opened his mouth almost instinctively, “That’s not–”

Before the man could finish his words, the girl, who had already half-turned her body away from him, suddenly burst into laughter.

“So it’s not true after all?”

The tone was light and lively, where was there any trace of the previous sadness and disappointment?

“…?”

Huo Zhonglou was almost dazed and hadn’t come back to his senses when he saw the girl in front of him turn back again.

She didn’t bother to sit back down, but instead walked directly to Huo Zhonglou’s chair, leaned down supporting herself on her knees, and looked earnestly into the eyes hidden behind that smiling white fox mask.

“Since you don’t dislike me, does that mean you like me?”

Huo Zhonglou: “……”

Even if he was slow, at this point he had realized that he had once again been teased by the girl in front of him.

And this time, Huo Zhonglou found that he couldn’t even muster anger anymore, only looking at her with gloomy eyes.

“Qin Ke, are you done fooling around?”

“Who told you I was fooling around?” Qin Ke hesitated for a moment, lowered her eyes, and her long, slightly curled eyelashes trembled lightly.

In the candlelight, a fleeting blush, like an illusion, passed over the girl’s cheeks.

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on the lips of the cold white fox mask.

Huo Zhonglou’s body suddenly stiffened.

Before he could react, slender arms hooked around his neck, and the girl climbed up onto him.

A soft laugh sounded near his ear.

“Young Master Huo.”

“Otherwise… how about I become your concubine?”