"What's so fun about that place?" She was unfamiliar with Kaohsiung, so she had to ask someone who knew.
"I don't know; I've never been there." He usually focused on his work. He only went in and out of either hotels, restaurants, offices or his own home. He rarely went out to have fun. So, even though he was born and raised in Kaohsiung, he was no more familiar with that place than she was.
Once they got into the car, she noticed his hands were fidgeting on the steering wheel. When he answered her inquiry with these three words, 'I don't know' as they moved forward to their date location, she couldn't help but wonder, "You don't know? Then why do we have our first date in Shoushan? Ah, Lei, when you said you wanted to go out for a date this morning, it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea, was it?"
"Ah Lei, you said you want to have a date. So how can you have no plans at all? What about when we get to Shoushan? Do we just wander around aimlessly?"
While he was busy looking ahead, he had his own set of arguments in persuading her. "You don’t need a plan for everything, right, housekeeper? Dating is between us anyway. As long as we stay together, no matter what we do, that is still a date, right?"
"But…"
Since he didn't want her to issue a very long speech on her own opinion on it, he took out the information that Secretary Xu had compiled for him and handed it to her, "Here's the information on Shoushan."
"Hey, in addition to the scenic spots in Shoushan, it seems that there are quite a few places for us to visit, such as Shoushan Zoo, limestone cave area, Taiwan Macaque natural ecological preservation area..." She became more interested in today's date when she looked at the information on Shoushan and famous nearby scenic spots.
"Since there are so many places to visit in Shoushan, then housekeeper, even if we don't have a plan, we can still have fun without any complaints, right?" He teased her when he heard the hint of excitement in her tone.
"Yes, what you said is right."
As they talked along the way, the car made it to Shoushan, and the first place of their date had been decided, which was Shoushan Zoo.
After they bought the tickets and entered the zoo area, the first thing that caught their eyes was the painting on the ground painted by 60,000 children. Qiu Xiaoya was momentarily touched. She couldn't help saying, "Wow, I haven't been to the zoo for a long time. This is my second visit to the zoo."
She remembered the first time she went to one. Her parents brought her to a zoo when she was eight years old. At that time, her whole family was still happy and warm. However, after two years, her parents divorced. Now, it had already been more than ten years. She never expected that she would come to the zoo again.
She didn't blame her parents for not wanting her. After all, they were still young at that time, and taking her with them would only delay their chance to find their second spring1. Now, it was enough for her to know they were living happily with their new families. As for her, she was already big enough and independent enough. Thus, it didn't matter if she had her parents around or not…
Han Yinglei turned to look at her pretty face, which was full of memories. Her eyes had a trace of longing and a touch of melancholy. He suddenly reached out and took her small hand without thinking about it. "Oh, this is the first time I've ever been here."
If it weren't for their date this time, he thought, he wouldn't have set foot in here because of his busy work schedule.
As they walked in parallel on one of the park's 1,800 metre-long walkways, she recovered from a brief moment of thought and stared at him suspiciously, "The first time? Ah Lei, how come you're much worse off than me?"
However, for the warmth he passed from his palm, her mouth unconsciously overflowed with a smile, and the sadness she felt at the absence of her parents became much lighter as she knew that she was not alone right now.
When she sneaked a glance at his appearance, which was always so self-centred and arrogant, she smiled even more. She pretended not to notice his movements and let him hold her little hand as they walked forward.
"I don't have any interest to come here."
"Don't have any interest? Ah Lei, you have never been to one. So how would you know it has no interesting things for you? I think you must have been receiving talent education since childhood, and when you grow up, you are busy with work, so you don't know how to have fun at all." She outlined his outstanding childhood scene after scene while shaking her head.
"Ah Lei, working hard is a good thing, but living a life with only work without relative recreation will cause a lot of physical and mental stress in the long run. So you need to work as well as rest to ensure that you are healthy enough to continue moving on..."
"Housekeeper, I am resting right now." He interrupted her while pointing it out. He didn't deny that he was a workaholic before since he didn't think anything other than work could attract his interest. However, after meeting her, everything became different.
Since when did he start to worry about his beautiful housekeeper other than his work?😏
"Is going on a date with me your rest time?" She looked at him just in time to stare into his soft eyes when he turned towards her. Her nervous heart started to speed up, and she cut short all the words she wanted to say.
"That's right. Being with you is the most important thing in my life right now besides work. Once I remove my work time, the remaining time I have will be my rest time. Dating you certainly counts as part of my rest time." He said it as if it was a matter of course3, indirectly revealing her position in his heart.
When she became aware of the leaked information from his spoken words and in the face of his focused eyes, her little face turned red and burning hot. She had no choice but to change the subject eventually, "...look, hippos!"
Han Yinglei suddenly showed a wicked smile on his face, leaning over and murmured in her ear, "Housekeeper, if you've realised that you've fallen in love with me, just be honest and don't stiffly change the subject."
"I don't. Don't you dare talk nonsense." Qiu Xiaoya beat him for deliberately blowing in her ears and subconsciously tried to jump away from him while forgetting that he was still holding one of her hands; she managed to jump back, but when he pulled her hand, she somehow lost her footing and fell forward instead, throwing herself into his arms.
He held her waist and deliberately asked, "I didn't talk any nonsense. Otherwise, why don't you tell me, who is the woman who just voluntarily threw herself into my arms?"
Since he wouldn't let go of her hand, she could only nestle in his arms and pout. "Ah Lei, don't lie through your teeth. I didn't mean to throw myself into your arms. I just couldn't get a firm foothold."
"I say you did it on purpose because you are embarrassed to say that you are in love with me, so you simply express it with your actions. But it doesn't matter. I don't mind how you express it as long as I know you love me." He ignored her complaint and insisted on his thoughts as the smile on the corner of his mouth became quite wicked.
"Ah Lei, I know you are very arrogant, but you should not cover your face with gold leaves4. We are going out for a date today! Not to listen to you talk to yourself." She finally couldn't help rolling her eyes at him, but calming down her increasing heartbeat was difficult.
"Since it's your first visit to the zoo, your attention should be on the animals. So let go of your hand and take a good look at the animals inside the zoo."
With that said, he released his hands around her waist, but his eyes were still on her, and he didn't seem the least bit interested in the park animals. Hence, she had to reach up to cup his face and turn it towards the animals.
"Look, the hippos are lazily sunbathing..." Initially, she was trying to get him interested in the animals, but halfway through her sentence, her brow furrowed. Just now, to change the topic, she ignored the place where the hippos were displayed. However, when she properly looked at it, she found that the pool inside was almost dried up?!
On such a scorching day, the animals that needed water were displayed, but there was not much water in the pool. Did the park manager want to dry the hippos?
Sensing that her expression was off, he asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
"Look, the pool is empty, and the weather is so hot. The hippos won't be able to stand it..." At first, when she entered the zoo, she felt nostalgic because of her childhood, but her expectations were suddenly dampened by the sight of the hippos' activities.
She took his hand and strolled to the different animal areas before her. They circled most parts of the zoo and found that a lot of the animals were not well taken care of; either they lacked water or were locked in small cages, or the different types of animals were placed not too far distance from the visitors where visitors could have direct contact with them… this time she completely lost interest in strolling the rest of the zoo.
"Housekeeper, let's go somewhere else for our date." Discovering her mood change, Han Yinglei took her out of the zoo gate without saying anything and walked along a path near the gate. He was going to take her to explore the limestone cave in the Shoushan Scenic Area and change her depressed mood in passing.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
"Wow, they're beautiful." The two of them walked the narrow and twisted limestone caves. Inside the big and small holes of the cave, crystallised stalagmites in the shape of an obelisk and concentrated stone could be seen. Qiu Xiaoya couldn't help but marvel at the magical world of nature, and her mood improved.
In the past few days, Han Yinglei put aside his work and devoted himself to accompanying Qiu Xiaoya on their dates to various famous scenic spots like Shoushan. Then Gold Lion Lake, Lotus Pond, Cheng Ching Lake, and Urban Spotlight...they went everywhere while making their memories together one after another.
Their dates were supposed to make up for the regret in her heart. While she gained all the smiles on her face, the dates also made the two people's feelings gradually brew and warm up, especially their intimate contact every night, which was as sweet and hot as every newly married couple.
"I'm so tired!" After spending their time together having fun outside for five consecutive days, and considering Han Yinglei had to go to work the next day, they went home relatively early today. However, it was already ten o'clock when they finally got home, so it was normal for Qiu Xiaoya to exclaim that she was tired.
Seeing her yelling that she was tired, she still insisted on sitting instead of letting her whole self collapse on the sofa. A smile flashed in Han Yinglei's eyes as he went to the kitchen to pour glasses of water for each of them. He teased her in passing, "Housekeeper, your stamina is terrible."
"Thank you." After taking the glass he handed her, she thanked him and then inquired, "That's strange. You are a workaholic, and I rarely see you exercise. So why is your stamina this good?"
He was obviously exhausted from having fun with her during the day, but he still had the energy to pull her over and roll around with her on the bed at night. How come it was like this? Was his body made of iron?
"I was born with it.” He shrugged his shoulders.
As if she had thought of something, she waved her hand and tried to send him off to bed, "Whether you're born with it or raised with it, you have to go to work tomorrow. So you should go to bed early!”
"What about you?” He sat beside her, not moving an inch. He just put the glass of water in his hand on the coffee table while looking at her innocent little face.
"Don't you want to sleep with me?” He leaned close to her ear, breathed a bit of heat, and deliberately accentuated the word ‘sleep’.
"Ah Lei, you have to go to work tomorrow. I don't want you to be too tired and become an excuse for you to be late for work..." She shrank her neck and tried to hide. However, he was a step faster than her as he took her into his arms. There was a wicked smile on the corners of his mouth, a common thing on his face these days.
Ever since he had a sexual relationship with her, he felt attached to her body. In addition, they were a legitimate married couple, which gave him more reason to demand it from her.
"I have enough stamina to cope with it." With this one sentence, he managed to block her rejection, but she was unwilling to give up as she tried to get him to leave her alone.
"But I'm tired." She didn't hate their 'bed exercise', but she was already worn out from having fun during the day, and then she had to consume her remaining physical strength at night. She felt tired; furthermore, he had to go to work tomorrow, so he needed more strength and stamina to cope with the official business accumulated during his days off. Thus, she had to try hard to find excuses to avoid doing it.
"You're tired because you don't have enough stamina. I'm helping you train your stamina. In the end, the one required to give so much effort is me." He lifted her small face to face his. The smile on his face, together with his egotistical tone, made it sound like she was the one who took advantage of him.
The suffocation she felt when his breath sprayed on her face made her pretty face turn red. She wanted to pull away from him but was still unable to. She looked at him in frustration and innocence as she wondered what other reason she could use to convince him, "Yes, it has been hard on you. So I have to be considerate of you by letting you go to bed early and for me not to bother you."
"Did I mention you look so cute when you blush?" Her brain was still trying to find a reason to convince him, but his sudden compliment made her freeze at first, and the light blush on her face suddenly deepened.
The words stuck in her throat before she could spit them out when he suddenly leaned forward and lifted her smooth chin. He easily plundered her slightly open red lips. His flexible tongue also dug into her mouth at the same time, tempting her little tongue to dance with his. The sweetness of the kiss made them both swoon together.
After the kiss was over, their hot breath intertwined, and an inexplicable atmosphere of ambiguousness surrounded them. Her eyes became misty as she looked up into his dark gaze. While gasping for a breath, she murmured without conviction, "I, I want to sleep."
"It's okay. You sleep in your own way while I'll do mine." With a touch of a wicked grin at the corner of his mouth, he suddenly picked her up and walked with firm steps towards his room.
"But I haven't showered yet." Fearing that he would not hold her firm and let her limp body fall, she had to wrap her hands around his neck and cling tightly while in his embrace.
"I haven't either, but we'll be sweating all over again later, so there's no need to take a shower in such a hurry." Not wanting to give her another chance to speak, once his ambiguous words left his mouth, he once again blocked her lips by kissing her until she completely surrendered to him as the flames of passion burnt both of them.
Footnotes Full List
- falling in love for the second time
- 🦊: Erm...since you drank the coffee she made and ate the food she cooked?
- Chinese idiom: go without saying
- brag
Mini Announcement
I've decided to release the remaining chapters of this novel into two parts, and each part will be released once a week. Why? Because I have become lazy. 😅
But...you like it to be this long, right? Right? Right?
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My Housekeeper