Chapter 20: If You Dare, Just Kill Me

“Sorry.”
“The bus doesn’t accept your apology.”
She laughed.
Xu Si’an laughed at her irritation. “Four years apart, and your sharp tongue has only gotten sharper.”
“It’s just that my kissing skills have declined.”
Qiao Xu gave him a playful slap on the mouth, neither too hard nor too soft. “Don’t be rude. That time you forced a kiss on me was caught on my family’s security camera—I could report you to the police.”
Xu Si’an chuckled softly. “Go ahead. Let the police judge. What’s wrong with me kissing my girlfriend?”
“I’m not your girlfriend. Since you have a fiancé, you should behave with some decency.”
“When did I get a fiancé? You arranged that for me.”
“Your mother did.”
Xu Si’an was amused by her scornful expression, and the panic in his chest slowly eased.
“How can you insult me like that?”
Qiao Xu looked down, avoiding his gaze. “I’m not insulting.”
With long legs, Xu Si’an quickly walked back to the company entrance and put her in the passenger seat. “We still haven’t settled the score about you meeting my mother four years ago.”
“Curse your mother—muah—”
Before she could finish, her lips parted, and Xu Si’an wasn’t surprised when he got another slap.
He laughed gently. “One more kiss.”
This time, he pressed her head down and kissed her deeply, his tongue intertwining with hers, making Qiao Xu almost suffocate.
Qiao Xu pounded him with all the strength she had, wanting to beat him to death, but the man only pressed deeper and harder in response.
Xu Si’an flinched from the pain and pulled away; the sound of her slap echoed inside the car.
“Dirty scoundrel.”
He pinched her cheek. “Want another kiss?”
After getting into the car, Qiao Xu ordered him fiercely, “Take me home.”
“Better go to the hospital for a check-up.”
“Open the door. I want to get out.”
Xu Si’an tilted his head and warned, “Behave, or don’t force me to ‘take care’ of you right here in the car.”
Qiao Xu: …
“Go ahead, try it. If you can, kill me.”
That sly man was such a pain. It wasn’t her fault she fell while he was chasing her—was he possessed or what?
“Take me home, or if I jump out and get crippled, then take me to the hospital.”
“Choose one.”
Xu Si’an’s head throbbed with anger; he turned the steering wheel sharply to make a U-turn.
The black Porsche arrived at the underground parking entrance of Qiao Xu’s apartment. After the license plate was scanned, a machine announced, “Welcome home.”
Qiao Xu’s gaze shifted from the window back to him. “You have a place here?”
“Don’t know, maybe.”
He expertly parked beneath Building 16.
Qiao Xu was absolutely certain he owned a place here; otherwise, how could he find it so easily?
When she first moved here, she often got lost.

“Thanks for taking me home. You can go now.”
Xu Si’an unbuckled his seatbelt, stepped out, and hoisted the limping Qiao Xu onto his shoulder as he entered the elevator.
“Xu Si’an, you’re being an idiot again. Put me down.”
A heavy hand squeezed her thigh, making Qiao Xu’s ears flush with anger.
“You’re being lewd.”
“Don’t use bad language.”
Qiao Xu rested on his shoulder, her legs kicking him restlessly.
Xu Si’an pressed down on her legs. “Where are you kicking?”
“To break Xu Xiao’er and have you pay me back.”
The elevator stopped on the eighth floor. Qiao Xu glanced at the apartment next door.
A new neighbor? The door has even been changed.
“Put me down.”
Crazy man—after all these years, how could he still be so rough with her? She wasn’t an object to be carried.
“Password.”
“Don’t know. Forgot.”
Xu Si’an’s lips curled upward. “Alright then.”
He turned around, carrying her back to the door to press the elevator button again.
“Hey, what are you doing? Put me down. Xu Si’an, can you have some self-awareness as an ex?”
“Fingerprint—fingerprints work.”
Xu Si’an carried her back to the door.
Qiao Xu was so annoyed she practically itched to bite him. “Can you please put me down?”
“Which finger?”
She stayed silent. Xu Si’an grabbed her right hand and pressed her index finger against the fingerprint scanner.
The door opened, and he stepped inside. The motion sensor lights came on.
After taking off his shoes, he walked to the sofa and gently set her down. Then he opened the drawer of his coffee table.
“Xu Si’an, don’t touch my stuff.”
“A good ex should be as good as dead. We once loved each other; I’m not asking you to turn to dust, but can you please stay far away from me?”
Xu Si’an took out all the medicines from the drawer, checking their expiration dates. At the very back, he found a spray bottle that had expired two years ago.
He took out his phone and ordered replacements for all the daily medicines.
Then he threw all the expired ones into the trash.
Coincidentally, the only unexpired medicines left were fever and cold medicines Xu Si’an had bought recently, along with cold remedies Qiao Xu had ordered herself.
“Who gave you the right to throw away my stuff?”
Xu Si’an took off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
“The stuff is expired.”
“None of your business. Get out.”
Qiao Xu grabbed a hair clip from the corner of the sofa and clipped her hair up.
She was about to roll up her pants to check her injury when a glass of water was placed in front of her.

The man crouched down. “Don’t move; no fumbling.”
Qiao Xu dodged his hand. “Xu Si’an, a qualified—”
“I’m not qualified.”
His husky voice gently rolled up her pant leg. “I’ll apply the medicine and then leave. You got hurt because of me.”
Qiao Xu brushed his hand away. “Good that you know.”
“Hmm, consider it a work-related injury.”
Her pant leg reached her knee, revealing tender skin scraped raw, the blood still fresh.
Xu Si’an frowned and scooped her up, heading toward the bedroom.
“What are you doing? Put me down. Xu Si’an, don’t force me to slap you.”
There was still the faint swelling of her slap on his cheek from earlier in the car.
“Whatever, you haven’t spared me slaps either.”
Back when they were dating, after they became intimate, she slapped him every night several times.
People are just stubborn. After four years without slaps, suddenly having them again was almost nostalgic.
He put her down by the bed and went into the bathroom.
“What are you doing? Get out.”
Xu Si’an searched around the room and finally found a small round stool on the balcony, which he brought into the bathroom.
“Go shower, just don’t let the wound get wet.”
Qiao Xu sat still, pointing toward the bedroom door. “Go out.”
Xu Si’an was silent for two seconds. “I’ll help you wash.”
Qiao Xu was really scared. Only a shameless scoundrel like him could do something like that.
“Get out. I’ll wash myself.”
He stood still, not moving. Qiao Xu ignored him and opened the wardrobe, taking out a nightdress and shorts to go into the bathroom.
She closed and locked the door behind her.
Xu Si’an chuckled softly, guarding her like a thief. Was it really necessary?
She wasn’t someone he hadn’t seen or kissed before.
After the sound of running water started, Xu Si’an left the room.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket but couldn’t find his lighter.
He opened another drawer of the coffee table. Qiao Xu smoked, so there had to be a lighter at home.
Only...
Besides the lighter, there was also a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.
His hand froze as if he was desperately denying the truth.
He held the cigarette, pulled one out, and put it in his mouth, lighting it.
No taste?
Only one cigarette had been smoked from the pack. Did this prove it wasn’t that man’s?