46 Just Hold It In

Hui Yin lifted up their linked hands with an astounded expression.

"You...can't be serious?"

She tugged her wrist, and his arm followed. She went right, and he went right. She stared at her personal space that had been erased out of existence.

"Where's the key?" she asked calmly.

"I flushed it."

"Flushed...don't joke around. Where's the key? We can't stay like this forever."

"I told you," Lu Shen said blandly. "I flushed it."

Hui Yin wanted to throw her cup of coffee at his face.

"How are we going to remove this if you flushed the key?"

"That's the point of why I did it."

"What if I wanted to go to the toilet? Don't tell me that you're going to come with me too!"

"That..." He showed her a troubled expression. "You just have to hold it in."

Hui Yin couldn't take it anymore. She shook their linked hands and shoved it in front of his face.

"Why are you doing this to me?! Huh? Why are you doing this to me?"

She pulled out one of her slippers and hit his chest. Not satisfied, she raised her leg and kicked his stomach with her bare foot.

"I drank coffee! That means I'm going to pee later. How am I going to pee?!"

Lu Shen caught her ankle with his free hand and put it down. "Calm down first."

Hui Yin grabbed his ear. "I can't calm down! How can you be so controlling? Watching my every move...do you know how much it stresses me out? And it's all because of you!"

"Xiao Yin...ow, stop..."

She let go of his ear and pinched his waist. "You should know, people are not born to obey your orders. We have free will. Free. Will!"

Lu Shen forced his head to nod as he tried to stifle his laughter. Hui Yin saw his expression and twisted her hand even more. Lu Shen winced.

"Did you really flush the key?" she demanded.

He kept silent and just looked at her.

"Did you?"

Lu Shen at last sighed. He said, "I didn't. I put it in the bedside drawer."

Hui Yin stopped pinching him and stood up. "Let's go there now!"

Because of her movement, Lu Shen's arm was lifted up like a student raising his hand in class. He didn't move and said, "If you leave me again without telling me, I'll handcuff our hands together and throw away the key."

Hui Yin felt smug. I'll leave you again, but you won't be able to do any of that...since her victory was so close at hand, Hui Yin decided to be nice to her tyrant captor.

"Alright, I understand. But if you hurry up and free us now, I'll cook you breakfast. I can't cook with only one hand."

Hui Yin didn't break her promise.

As soon as Lu Shen freed them, she went to the kitchen and Lu Shen followed her. He made all the kitchen staff scram and because he didn't know how to cook, his only help to her was to reach up and hand her the cooking utensils placed on the shelves that Hui Yin couldn't reach.

Hui Yin dipped the ladle spoon into the pan and tasted the sauce. Lu Shen stretched out his hand for the ladle spoon so that he could taste it too, but she slapped his hand away.

"If you have nothing to do, wash the utensils piling up in the sink!"

Lu Shen's mouth twitched as he walked over towards the sink. Who said before that people were not born to follow orders? She clearly forgot her own words.

He stared at the stack of dirty plates and picked up one of them. Since Xiao Yin said to 'wash' them, he turned on the faucet and put the dirty plate under the running water. But the food stains were still there.

Hui Yin was actually monitoring him from the corner of her eye. When she saw that he didn't even see the sponge and the dishwashing liquid, she felt really helpless. It was good that he was wealthy. If he wasn't, how would this pampered CEO even be able to survive the daily trials of life?

"Forget it, just get a bowl there and crack the eggs."

Hui Yin should have instructed him with more details. When Lu Shen presented her the bowl five minutes later, the eggshells mixed in were so abundant that it resembled a reconstructed world map.

"You..." She noticed the mess in his hands. "You cracked it with your bare hands?"

His forehead creased. "Was I not supposed to?"

Hui Yin pressed her lips and reminded herself to be nice. "Just make yourself a cup of coffee and don't disturb me. How many hours of sleep did you get last night?"

"One."

"Never mind, go back to your bedroom and sleep. I'll call you when breakfast is ready."

"I'll stay," he said, taking a lock of her hair between her fingers and rubbing off the sauce that coated it. "Let's get the hair out of your eyes."

Carefully, as if he might ruin something fragile, he tucked her hair behind her left ear. He smoothened it down behind her back. Then he did the same thing to the other side.

"Do you have a hair tie?" he asked her.

Hui Yin saw that he was eager to be of some use and relented. She took the hair tie out of her pocket and handed it to him.

Lu Shen gathered her hair and tried to neatly tie it. But his fingers were clumsy and in the end, he was dissatisfied with the result. There were many strands that escaped his grasp and plastered to the back of her neck.

After a half an hour of trial and error, he finally managed to do a semi-decent ponytail. It was also enough time for Hui Yin to finish cooking the sauce and boiling the pasta. She made some toasted garlic bread and the two of them moved the finished dishes into the dining room.

There was still one last dish that Hui Yin had to prepare using the disastrous egg mixture Lu Shen made. After picking out all the eggshells and steaming them, Hui Yin brought out the egg custard and the two of them ate with great relish.

Hui Yin then taught Lu Shen how to manually wash the dishes and left him to his task. Thinking that it was at least better than cleaning the toilet, Lu Shen did as he was told.