Chapter Five: Conditions

Yun Nan sat opposite Shi Nian after she finished tidying up and asked, "What's on your mind?"

Shi Nian looked at her in confusion.

"You've been staring at me for quite a while now. Do you have something to say to me?" Yun Nan inquired.

Shi Nian was speechless and felt a little uncomfortable; no woman had ever been so relaxed and presumptuous with him.

He cleared his throat and said lightly, "There's only one bed in my penthouse, and I don't have a guest room to place another bed. So, you'll have to sleep on the sofa in the living room."

Yun Nan looked at Shi Nian's devastatingly handsome face. She'd heard that this man was the dream man of millions of girls in the city. Those girls would be quite disappointed if they knew he was such an inconsiderate man.

"Shi Nian, we're collaborators; that means we are equally significant and no one gets preferential treatment. So why do you get to sleep on the bed while I have to take the sofa? Either we each take one side of the bed, or you sleep on the sofa and I can have the bed!" 

Yun Nan didn't give an inch; so what if he's a hunk—his pretty face wasn't worth her bed and she refused to sleep on the sofa!

"This is my home. Why should I sleep on the sofa?" Shi Nian also wouldn't give in.

"Then we'll share the bed." Yun Nan raised her eyebrows, a clear sign of 'there, problem solved.'

"Absolutely not! I can't fall asleep with someone else in the bed!" Shi Nian vetoed the idea immediately.

Yun Nan secretly rolled her eyes and thought, 'That massive bed of his had enough room for him to do ten forward rolls in a row without falling off. Is he Princess Pea reincarnated or some such? He's such a finicky and immature man!'

"Shi Nian, isn't your grandfather returning to the country soon?" Yun Nan suddenly changed the topic. Shi Nian was caught off guard and he unintentionally nodded.

"Well, if he finds out that we're sleeping separately despite being husband and wife and living together…" Yun Nan stared at Shi Nian with a deliberate frown as she let the sentence trail off meaningfully.

"Fine! We can share the bed!" Shi Nian snarled with gritted teeth.

Yun Nan smiled. "Don't worry, your virtue is safe with me; I'm not interested in you. We'll set up a pillow barrier, and we're not to cross over it. Whoever crosses that line will get beaten; just like boys and girls sharing the same table when we were kids."

Shi Nian looked bemused at the comment, and Yun Nan couldn't help but tease, "Oh, that's right. I guess your female deskmates are more than happy to have you invade their space."

Although Shi Nian didn't understand what Yun Nan was talking about, he could tell that she was teasing him. Feeling annoyed, he snapped at her, "I've never had a female deskmate before!"

Yun Nan chuckled. 'He's a little silly, isn't he? How did someone like him become the chairman of the Shi Corporation? Did he inherit via abdication?' 

She'd heard that, throughout the generations, the heads of the Shi family were smart and capable. 'Shi Nian probably had the lowest IQ among all the heads of the Shi family.'

'Tsk! He's lucky he was born into a wealthy family!'

"Good night!" Yun Nan stood up and started to move away as she said, "I'm going to bed."

"Hey!" Shi Nian called after her.

Yun Nan turned around and looked at Shi Nian and was once again struck by his good looks. 'Tsk! It was little surprise that millions of girls were infatuated with him; this man was indeed quite pleasing to the eye. No wonder Yun Liu desperately wanted to marry him.'

"Can you cook?" Shi Nian asked.

Yun Nan nodded as she answered, "Didn't you just eat the noodles I made? It tasted alright to me."

"Then I'll try my best to come back for dinner in the future so you have to make sure to cook food for us!" Shi Nian's tone was commanding and had no room for discussion.

Yun Nan raised her eyebrows as she said, "That would be a little difficult. My job as a director doesn't have set working hours. My schedule can be quite erratic, so it'll be a bit of a hit-or-miss if you want to eat my cooking."

Shi Nian looked at her starlit eyes and decided to humor the attractive woman. He casually stated, "I'm sure you can manage our dinner at least three times a week. We'll be eating with Grandpa and my father back at the family villa on the weekends."

"That's settled, then. You can postpone dinner under special circumstances, but you can't cancel. Otherwise, Chang Yuan might not appear in time the next time you're in trouble."

Yun Nan was dumbstruck. She watched as Shi Nian walked past her and headed upstairs.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll poison your food?" Yun Nan managed to collect herself and squeezed out those words.

Shi Nian didn't turn around and continued to slowly climb the stairs. "Of course not. You want to get a divorce in five years. I'm sure being widowed isn't what you planned for."

'Hey! I know I secretly mocked your low IQ not long ago, but I didn't expect you to slap me in the face so quickly,' Yun Nan mentally groused. 

"Shi Nian, we had a deal! You agreed to be my backer!" Yun Nan reminded him to abide by the spirit of the contract.

Shi Nian had reached the second floor by then. He turned around, smiled, and 'reassured' her, "Of course, I always keep my promises! My exact words were 'might not be in time' but I never said that I would withdraw my support. However, there's still a big difference between being your backer and being your timely backer, isn't there?"

Yun Nan gritted her teeth and capitulated, "Okay, fine!" Disgruntled, she wanted to have the last word and quickly added, "But you're paying for the food!"

'It's just making dinner,' she thought to herself. 'No big deal! I have to cook for myself anyway!'

"There's cash in the entryway drawer, take however much you want!" Shi Nian shouted from his room upstairs.

'Hmph!' Yun Nan put her hands on her hips and stomped her feet.

Up in his room, Shi Nian's lips curled into a smirk. That silly girl thought she could pick a fight with him? He'd never lost to anyone and that wasn't going to change. His performance today was off today due to the bowl of noodles; he won't be so easily caught off guard again.

Although Yun Nan was fun to tease, he couldn't let her have the upper hand!