Chapter 36: You Are So Adorable

Her excitement tinted the tips of her ears a delicate pink. When she looked at him, her eyes were clear, shimmering with a faint, gentle light.

“Do you always talk like this?” Gu Zhenzhi suppressed the subtle surge of emotion within him. He glanced sideways, his deep, lucid black eyes seeming to see right through Ruan Cha.

Ruan Cha caught the fleeting glimmer in his gaze in an instant.

She pressed her lips together, smiling softly, her eyes curving sweetly. Her beautiful features still held a hint of shyness. “No, I don’t. It’s just that you’re especially good-looking.”

After speaking, she blinked, as if suddenly realizing what Gu Zhenzhi’s words implied. She quickly waved her slender, fair hand. “I don’t act this way with anyone else! I just genuinely think you’re good-looking. Seeing you makes me happy.”

Ruan Cha’s face was serious and earnest.

Her eyes shone with sincerity—she was, without a doubt, a little genius at love confessions.

Gu Zhenzhi hadn’t expected such an answer to his deliberately tricky question.

“Smooth talker.”

His expression remained as indifferent as ever, his pitch-black eyes unreadable.

But Ruan Cha noticed something amiss from the faint blush at the tips of his ears.

Who would have thought that someone as obsessive and cold-hearted as Gu Zhenzhi could actually get shy when praised so directly?

Oh…

Oh my!

Ruan Cha felt as if she’d stumbled upon an astonishing secret.

She stamped her foot in excitement, then propped her chin in her hands, leaning onto Gu Zhenzhi’s thigh. With her elbows resting on his knees, her beautiful eyes gazed up at him. “Gu Zhenzhi, you’re so adorable!”

Gu Zhenzhi’s face turned cold in an instant: “…”

That word had absolutely nothing to do with him.

The chauffeur in the front seat almost choked on his own saliva when he heard Ruan Cha call Gu Zhenzhi adorable.

He glanced at the rearview mirror—Mr. Gu, with his usual menacing expression, looked terrifying as ever. Did this Miss Ruan perhaps… have something wrong with her eyes?

–

The car soon pulled into the apartment complex Gu Zhenzhi owned in the city center.

The entire luxurious duplex came with a sky garden and a sprawling balcony. The neighbors in the vicinity were all people of wealth and status.

Ruan Cha followed behind Gu Zhenzhi all the way to the top floor of the building.

Altogether, the space spanned nearly five hundred square meters, decorated in a uniform scheme of black and white—monotonous and cold.

The living room was spacious, the simple ceiling lights casting a bright, white glow.

After putting down her backpack, Ruan Cha walked out onto the balcony.

The large expanse of the balcony was mostly unused, with nothing yet planted.

Noticing her surveying the space, Gu Zhenzhi took off his suit jacket and said in a calm voice, “If you want to plant any flowers, tell Chen Yan. He’ll arrange it.”

“No need!” Already on the balcony, Ruan Cha crouched by the soil, loosening and sifting it with one hand to assess its quality. Without turning her head, she extended a small, fair hand behind her in a gesture of refusal.

“I’ll do it myself.”

Gu Zhenzhi said nothing further and went upstairs.

After she’d roughly determined the soil’s type, Ruan Cha made a quick note, then opened her laptop and pulled up a classified file, matching out a few spices to plant.

She listed out the seeds she needed and sent them to the contact saved as “S” in her WeChat: [Get these ready and send them over.]

By the time she finished, half an hour had slipped by unnoticed.

Ruan Cha packed everything away and, following the housekeeper’s instructions, headed upstairs to the bedroom assigned to her.

Just as she was climbing the stairs with her backpack, she saw Gu Zhenzhi coming down.

He must have just showered—his black hair was still damp, and he wore a set of silk pajamas. The loose collar revealed the taut lines of his muscles—