Mister Li, the Heart Bandit

Ji Weixi nodded. “Of course!”

“What about Daddy?” There’s no way the little one would sleep with Li Shaoling!

Afraid of looking at Li Shaoling and be frightened by his look, she said, “He’ll sleep alone.”

“Oh, yeah!” The little one happily stopped crying and rolling around, and instead started having a disco dance on the sofa.

Li Shaoling could only watch as Ji Weixi carried the little one into his bedroom and closed the door, the vein on his temples throbbing as darkness fell over his face.

He took out his phone and called the welfare home, but hung up in seconds and smashed his phone on the coffee table in irritation.

This bleeding disaster!

***

The next morning.

As Ji Weixi washed up, a figure wobbled behind her.

Ji Weixi found as she brushed her teeth and gargled. The moment she looked up—she was struck by beauty.

He was very tall, just as his feet was on the longer side. The sun glittered as it shone over his black short hair, and he looked much warmer.

Ji Weixi spat out a mouthful of water and coughed a few times, while someone gently rubbed her back, his voice carrying morning languidness and charm. “Why are you so careless?”

Wiping her mouth, she avoided looking at him. “I’m fine.”

“Let’s get breakfast.”

“Okay…” Ji Weixi followed him outside to find the little one already having her breakfast, with oil overflowing around his mouth and stuffed cheeks. Afraid that he would choke, she quickly went to him, giving him some milk to let things flow.

Then, she sat down with Li Shaoling also sitting down opposite her. His sleeves were rolled up slightly, exposing slightly protruding veins but his long and slim hand remained like an art.

He was elegant even when eating, showing both refinement and culture.

Ji Weixi quickly withdrew her gaze, lowered her head for some sips of milk but still managed to choke and cough a few times.

Li Shaoling frowned at the splatters of milk remaining around her mouth.

“Don’t move.” He drew a tissue paper even as he spoke, stood up and went round the table, arching his back and lowering his head as he wiped her mouth gently.

Ji Weixi’s entire body stiffened, and she stared fixedly at Li Shaoling, blushing slightly.

She didn’t know what was with her today that she was so mesmerized with his beauty she couldn’t turn away.

Coughing, she asked casually, “Why aren’t you dressed formally today?”

In their time together, she realized that Li Shaoling’s aesthetics were a simple black and white, all western formal clothes and rarely any casual wear.

Still, Li Shaoling flatly mouthed, “Mind your own business.”

“…”

Was it alright to say something so mood-killing?

***

After breakfast, the couple sent the little one to kindergarten.

“Baby, study well and play nice with your classmates, but don’t play bridal room!” Ji Weixi’s eyes turned sharp at the last part.

She was especially upset when she imagined young girls flocking around her son.

The little one smiled, revealing rows of stark-white teeth. “Yes, ma’am! See you, Mommy, Daddy!”

***

Soon, they returned to CBS International.

Jiang Cong followed Li Shaoling into his office and asked conspiringly, “How was it, Boss? Did Sister-in-law like your fashion today?”

Li Shaoling’s face was cold. “Nope.”

She didn’t even look at him!

Jiang Cong was stunned and he quickly explained, “Sister-in-law isn’t most women, Boss! Hear me out, take her to a luxury couple’s dinner at noon today! She will be moved to tears!”

Li Shaoling lowered his eyes and thought about it. Fiddling around with his pen for what felt like half a minute, he then looked up. “Go make the reservation.”

“Alright!”

Li Shaoling stared at his computer, but he did not have the mood to work.

Jiang Cong was right—sacrifices had to be made before a relationship becomes stable and for the woman to fall in love, and he had already paid up.

He did not want things to stay the same with Ji Weixi. He wanted her to be completely unable to leave him and love him very terribly.

That way, he would no longer have to worry that she would fall in love with other men.

Li Shaoling touched his own lips with his fingers and narrowed his eyes, before changing his desktop wallpaper to a photo of Ji Weixi.

It was a photo of her from a web encyclopedia, in a summary about her as a fashion designer.

She was wearing simple black-and-white working clothes with her hair loose, her eyes knitted in a smile without any loss of charm.

Li Shaoling became more upset the more he looked, however. He didn’t have a single photo of Ji Weixi in his phone at all.

And in his point of view, that photo of her was soulless.

Still, he found his boring work much more interesting after seeing her.

***

In Ji Weixi’s office, Tian Miaomiao was explaining to her about the annual rookie contest.

Chiefly organized by CBS International and Yu Group, it was held yearly in River Town.

A model and a designer would jointly participate in the contest, and it was judged by two criteria. However, it was the winning model who would sign an agreement with the company to be the year’s top model.

Ji Weixi was a little bemused at that. “Why would they want a designer if their main purpose is to pick a model?”

Tian Miaomiao put a finger on her lips as she thought about it for a moment. “I heard that the rookie contest gathers much attention every year and gets a high viewership. Qiao Ai told me that there are also many veterans and not everyone in the rookie contest are newcomers. To put it bluntly, they are just there to hype it up, and it’s the same for designers too…”

Then, the Tian Miaomiao spoke, the more she felt that something wasn’t right. “That old bag Qiao Ai said that having you join the contest is for your own exposure so that you could be trending again. Damn it, Xixi, isn’t Qiao Ai just mocking you? Why couldn’t I tell at the time?!”

Although it had turned out that Qiao Ai wasn’t the culprit in Lin Xiaoman’s incident, Ji Weixi still did not have a good opinion of her.

That said, she was already used to her mocking.

“Doesn’t that mean that the rookie contest is just a program for old folks to hype themselves up?”

“Maybe…” Tian Miaomiao replied. “And I heard that Qiao Biluo is joining the contest too! Damn it, with her status outside the country, joining means she clearly isn’t giving newcomers a chance.”

Ji Weixi frowned. “And I have the feeling that it’s already decided amongst the judges that she would win.”

Tian Miaomiao nodded. “I have the same feeling too!”

“So?” Ji Weixi lifted a brow. “So? What do you think? Should I join?”

Tian Miaomiao slammed her hand on the table. “You’re the chief fashion designer of CBS. Of course you have to join! By the way, I heard that Yu Group’s chief designer would be participating as well, and their partner is that model Qu Yingying who is way past her prime. Looks like their company would definitely try to hype her up even though she has hit her expiry date… that woman must not be a simple person!”

Ji Weixi herself had heard of Qu Yingying: she debuted as a young model at sixteen, becoming Yu Group’s top model at twenty, before she basically became anonymous and never heard from after her scandal with a married man at twenty-two.