A week passed, and Bing Shi had to return to her home country.
"I'll visit you tonight," Lu Kai looked at his passenger seat, leaning over to capture her lips for the last time.
"Ngh...Mm..." Bing Shi, whose lips were currently being devoured, opened her eyes. He would visit her tonight? Then why was he kissing her as if he wouldn't be able to see her for a year?
Lu Kai breathed deeply against her neck, "Don't forget to lock your bedroom."
"Alright," Bing Shi nodded. After patting his back, she got out of the car.
Waving at the departing figure, Lu Kai reluctantly sent her off and returned to his office.
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On her way, Bing Shi went to pick up XiaoPu from a Hotel.
[[Host!]]
[["How was your vacation? Did you stay here the whole time?"]]
XiaoPu ran towards Bing Shi and gave her his phone.
[[Yes! I wanted to do nothing.]]
He was given a vacation and a chatting buddy in case he got lonely. He chose boredom over everything else. Who knew how busy he would get with his new host?
Together, they went to buy some groceries and called a taxi to her new apartment in the middle of the metropolis, which she bought with Lu Kai's approval as their new wedding gift.
The small residency complex was cozy and secure, offering a fitness center, a convenience store, a pool, and spas for its residents' convenience. Security was tight, with gated entrances and discreet personnel to ensure safety.
The people who managed Lu Kai's finances marveled at these out-of-the-blue expenses. What were those little splurges on dresses and cosmetics? A woman! There had to be a woman involved!!!
[["That's great. Ready to start working again?"]]
XiaoPu nodded exuberantly.
Bing Shi greeted her new personal attendant, received the keys to her new nest, and described other details she wanted to include in the renovation.
The elegant apartment, adorned with floor-to-ceiling windows, offered more space than expected. It featured two well-appointed bedrooms, each with its own attached bathroom. Additionally, there was a spacious office, a generously proportioned kitchen, and an inviting living room.
The variety of materials added a sense of layered complexity, creating an aesthetic that leaned just as much toward bold chic as luxury.
· · ───────── · ⊱❈⊰· ───────── · ·
After the attendant left, Bing Shi led XiaoPu to his bedroom.
[["Do you like it? I rarely send Kuro to monitor others. You don't have any defensive capabilities, and this world is relatively safe. Our mind communication will be enough, so have your search engine turned on all the time."]]
[["Yes Host!"]] Xiao Pu sat carefully behind a desk, gaping at his new computer setup. He was always jealous of systems that could hack and program, ["Host, could I buy some programming lessons?"]]
[["Sure,"]] Bing Shi handed XiaoPu her debit card, [["I remember you said that your learning skills are slow too."]]
[["I want to try,"]] Xiao Pu used his chubby finger to press the power button and accepted the debit card, looking at Bing Shi in wary, [["Wuwuwu, Host, you're suspiciously generous."]]
[["You're sharp. I enrolled in three universities... I'll need you to help me with my homework later."]]
Sitting next to XiaoPu, Bing Shi changed her resume a bit. She crossed out the violin and singing skills and added martial arts and horse riding.
Silika seemed more confident than her. That girl believed she was one of the actors who didn't need an acting degree or any other acting training.
To not miss any opportunities, Bing Shi couldn't depend on luck alone. She sent her very plain resume to every modeling and acting audition near her, hoping that her profile photo would catch someone's attention.
That was all she currently had- a pretty face. She needed some experience to spice up her resume a bit. Anything would do; being a background tree was fine, too.
[["Ah, it's late. I need to go,"]] Bing Shi sent Lu Kai's phone number to Xiao Pu's and left the apartment.
[["Try to ask my hubby if he'll teach you something about programming."]]
XiaoPu stared at the phone number with shaking hands. His relationships with his Host's lovers weren't the best. They always came to hate him for no apparent reason.
· · ───────── · ⊱❈⊰· ───────── · ·
Arriving at home, Bing Shi heard the sound of dishes crashing against the floor, "..."
XiaoPu immediately marked the scene so he could send it to the original Silika later.
Taking off her shoes, Bing Shi walked to the living room and unpacked her groceries at the coffee table. Her parents were currently in a heated argument and did not notice her arrival.
"My credit card was denied today! Do you know how ashamed I felt before my friends!?" Silika's mother screeched as she threw the expensive porcelain plates at the man that was kneeling on the floor. "My duties as a wife?! Thanks to whom is our family image still intact?! Hmpf, if you were a capable man, we wouldn't have to fire our housekeeper!"
"I failed as your husband." The man accepted his wife's painful hits and kicks. Under his clothes, there were many bruises of considerable sizes, hidden from the outside world.
"Good evening ♪♫," Bing Shi said as she walked around the counter and grabbed her mother's wrist. Dragging her outside of the flat, she avoided her mother's slap.
"Silika!" The mother started to fight with her daughter, "You dare to side with your useless father?!"
"Of course not," Bing Shi narrowed her eyes at the drunk woman before closing the door and hiding all the keys, "It's for your daughter's own good."
Her father ran after Bing Shi, "Silika, it's cold outside; what if your mother catches a cold? Let her in. I'll persuade her to clean the house, but you must apologize for what you did."
He outstretched his hand to demand the keys she had taken, "You've been with your friends for a week without helping out with the household. Your mother was very upset."
It answered why the old Silika would rather have the two of them divorce. Silika would always end up as a bad one, no matter whose side she took. If Silika couldn't obtain her mother's love, she at least wanted to steal her father for herself.
But whenever she tried, they would get into a huge argument. Their opinions would always clash. Silika would end up being angry at her father too, beating him up like her mother.
"You want to persuade a drunk woman to clean a house? Forget it. I'd rather do it alone. No... How about you give me a hand?" Bing Shi ignored the knocking sound and his pleading. She gave the groceries to the man to cook dinner, not caring if he was tired from work or not.
He needed to be occupied with something. After she swiped the floor, she helped him prepare another dish, sniffing the delicious aroma, "Mm, it smells so good. I missed your cooking so much. How was work today?"
"What got into you today?" Her father asked strangely while cleaning the dishes. Though her behavior was still as distant as ever, she didn't ignore him. Usually, his daughter would run to her room to avoid him.
After the food was done, Bing Shi showed him a copy of a contract and set the table. Her voice dropped a few temperatures lower, "Dad... I might have angered the wrong group of people. They forced me into bad things. I didn't know. They promised me that I would become a famous star... "
She continued, "I couldn't reveal this truth before mom because I'm sure she'd hate me even more...Dad... would she notice if I died? Would she be sad? Would she cry after me?"
"So this whole week..." her father didn't have time to finish his sentence.
"Mm..." Bing Shi nodded her head. Some would need to research psychology, some learned through experience, while some were born with high empathy.
She did the three things above but didn't diagnose a person like a psychologist would. She didn't take a professional approach only. If doctors could solve everything, how beautiful the world would be?
"Silika...you..." Reading the amount of debt Silika signed herself into, her father reached out to her worriedly. He knew that because of him, his wife didn't love their daughter. Like him, his little Silika had to be craving for her mother's love. "Don't worry. I will never abandon you. I'll contact all my friends, and we will pay the debt together."
"No! These men are from the Mafia! You will be in danger! I wanted to have dinner with you as a family at least once before I leave." Quickly avoiding her father's touch, Bing Shi ran to open the door for her mother; attempting to shed a few tears; she sniffed in her nonexistent snots, "Mom, I'm sorry..."
"You! I had to bear you for nine months! And this is how you repay me?" Her mother raised her hand to beat up the ungrateful daughter. She couldn't leave the front door without her purse and shoes, and the neighbors looked at her as if she was crazy!