CEO's Billion Dollar Heart

Bai lifted his hand and placed his palm on her forehead. Lai froze at his touch and blinked several times, unable to fathom what was happening right now.

To her, she felt like she was dreaming.

"Looks like your fever is dying down," he said with a breath of relief, "Your forehead is not as hot as it was before."

He placed a portable table over her lap and put the bowl of rice porridge on it. He then walked out and returned with a glass of water and two pills.

He placed them on the table and sat on the bed.

"Eat," he pointed at the porridge.

She nodded, pressing her lips together and grabbing the silver spoon. She watched as he walked out again and came back with a bowl of catnip and milk.

She placed it in front of the white cat that had just woken up. The cat stretched its body and meowed at him, then began to eat. She had noticed that the cat was bandaged up in some places but was no longer dirty with mud or bloodstains.

He noticed her gaze as he sat back down on the side of the bed.

"I took him to the vet while you were sleeping," he told her, ushering her to eat before the porridge gets cold, "I was told that he will be fine and just needs some rest."

He watched as she sighed in relief.

"Thank you," she told him, lifting the spoon to her lips.

"Be careful, it's-"

"HOT!" she cried, putting the spoon down and fanning her burnt tongue.

"-hot," he finished with a sigh.

He watched her fan her tongue for two minutes, shook his head, and grabbed the spoon, scooping some rice porridge onto it.

He gently blew on it to cool it down.

"Ah," he told her, opening his mouth for her to do the same.

The spoon was hovering in the air. He was going to feed her, or else by the time she ate, the rice porridge would be cold, and that would give her already ill body an upset tummy.

"Lat? (What?)" she asked him, her speech inaudible due to her burnt tongue sticking out her mouth.

"Let me feed you," he told her, causing her to widen her eyes and close her mouth.

She shook her head, 'no.'

"That's alright," she said, "I can do it mys-"

"Ah, ah, ah," he increased his pitch with every 'ah.'

He was not taking 'no' for an answer. She twiddled her thumb and leaned forward, opening her mouth. He drove the spoon into her mouth.

She swallowed the rice porridge on it. She chewed slowly, a pink blush highlighting her already feverish and red body.

'What kind of romantic movie plot is this? Is this not what married couples do?' she wondered, taking another bite of the rice porridge, which he would blow to cool down before she would swallow it.

'Or people in relationships? I feel like we are newlyweds,' she gulped at the thought.

He continued to feed her until she finished all the rice porridge. Satisfied, he took the bowl and spoon and stood up.

He walked to the door but paused and turned around.

"Drink that medicine now," he told her.

She nodded, and he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. She put the two pills in her mouth and drank the water.

She then sighed as she watched the white cat drink its milk.

"What did we get ourselves into, kitty?" she asked it.

The cat meowed at her and began to lick itself. She sighed. Just then, her phone rang, and the caller ID was her mother.

"Oh, right!" she exclaimed, coming to a realisation, "Mum must be so confused and worried sick about me."

She picked up the phone and brought it to her ear, thankful that it was not damaged in that crossfire of the fight back at the supermarket.

"Hello?"

"LAI LAI!" her mother yelled loudly as if wanting the whole world to hear her.

She held the phone away from her ear as her ears started ringing. She shook her head and placed her phone on her lap.

"Mum-" she gulped nervously.

"DON'T 'MUM' ME, YOUNG LADY!"

She pressed her lips together. Although her mother was not on speaker, her voice was loud enough to fool anyone into thinking she put her mother on speaker.

"WHERE ARE YOU? IT'S QUARTER PAST 7 RIGHT NOW, AND YOU'RE STILL NOT BACK. I CALLED SO MANY TIMES, BUT COULDN'T REACH YOU! I EVEN LEFT MULTIPLE MESSAGES BUT GOT NO REPLY. WHAT IS GOING ON..."

She let her mother enter into a fit of questions and did not say anything. She just listened to her mother go on and on and on.

Bai knocked on her door, and she whispered loudly enough for him to hear but covered the phone so that her mother did not.

"Don't speak!" she told him.

He looked at her with a furrowed brow, confused.

"...SO, WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU AT WEN'S HOUSE? HELLO? HELLO?"

She pressed her index finger on her lip, ushering for him to remain quiet. She mouthed the word 'mother' while pointing at her phone, and he immediately understood.

"LAI LAI?" she heard her mother call out, "ARE YOU IGNORING YOUR MOTHER RIGHT NOW?"

"No, mother," she quickly answered, "Please keep your voice down. The neighbors will complain-"

"Come back home this instant!" her mother couldn't care less about her damn neighbors right now.

Bai stared at her looking amused. He tapped her hand she looked at him.

"Let me talk to her," he whispered.

"Are you crazy?" she whisper-yelled at him.

They could hear her mother grabbing pots.

"Who are you calling crazy?" her mother asked her, and Lai covered her face, "Are you calling your mother crazy?"

"No, mother," she groaned softly, facepalming herself.

"You better come back home from wherever you are this inst-"

"Good evening, Mrs. Xiulan," her mother heard a male voice greet her over the phone.

"W-who is that?" her mother asked, bewildered.

"My name is Bai Ying," he told her, "I am a friend of Lai's."

"A friend?" her mother asked Bai, sounding very skeptical.

"Yes, Mrs. Xiulan," he looked up at Lai, who was staring at him with widened eyes and her mouth wide open in surprise.

"I met your daughter at Pagoda Supermarket, and she fainted due to the rain," he told her mother.

They both heard a gasp over the phone.

"Good heavens!" her mother sat on the kitchen chair, "Is she alright? Is my baby okay?"

He stared into her hazelnut eyes and smiled.

"Yes," he winked at her, "She's getting better as I brought her to my house to rest a bit because her place was too far. I promise to bring her home later today."

"Oh, thank you!" she heard her mother cry out, "Please look after my daughter."

He nodded.

"Okay. We will see you later, Mrs. Xiulan."

With that, he hung up the phone and handed it to her. She took it and stared into his amber eyes.

"T-thank you," she said softly, placing the phone on the desk next to the bed.

He nodded and told her to get some rest. He took the portable table and walked to the door.

"I'll wake you up in an hour or so," he told her and closed the door.

'This guy really is kind-hearted,' she smiled, 'You can't even tell that he is part of the mafia.'

She let out a long sigh and groaned at the million questions her mother was going to ask her when she went back home.

Shaking her head, she glanced at the white cat and found him asleep.

"Yeah," she mumbled, laying her head on the pillow and closing her eyes shut, "Good idea. Let me also sleep and wake up with some energy to deal with my mother and all of this."