Even though the volume was low, she maintained distance from her phone. After he finished speaking, she answered, "I saw you were sleeping, so I went to the study to read."
As she spoke, she moved towards the master bedroom and hung up.
Gu Liancheng stared at her and asked, "Reading? With your intellect, can you understand any of the books in my study?"
"Yes, thereâs âOne Thousand and One Nightsâ, no?" Eleven said, not revealing the book she was reading in the morning, for fear of arousing his suspicion.
"Really?" Gu Liancheng was uncertain himself, "Do I have that book?"
He couldnât possibly sift through the bookshelf every day. The ones he read frequently were kept in the most conspicuous and accessible places, the rest he rarely looked at.
"Then, Queen, tell me about it. If itâs exciting, I wonât kill you tomorrow morning."
"Youâre not bored? Isnât it pointless to retell a story that has been read? Weâre not children."
"I havenât read it," he shrugged, "hadnât you? I want to test your storytelling abilities. After all, I paid your tuition, I need to see whether these four years have gone to waste."
"...Letâs eat first!"
After lunch, he was still insisting on a story. Eleven felt helpless. Fortunately, she had actually read âOne Thousand and One Nightsâ, or else she would have been exposed.
"Before the story, I want to ask you a question."
"Ask." Gu Liancheng put on a âpermission grantedâ expression, as if he was pardoning someone.
"Did you have a first love?"
His expression abruptly changed from the playful one before, "What does the story have to do with whether I had a first love?"
"Well, the king in this takes women as sacrifices and doesnât understand emotions. I need to distinguish whether youâre an emotional king or not, so I can figure out how to tell the story so as to not be âkilledâ tomorrow."
Gu Liancheng looked dubious, but still coldly replied, "No. But I am emotional. As Queen, you can rest assured."
...
Both of them did not remember when they had fallen asleep.
Gu Liancheng was running a fever and couldnât cool down. He fell asleep in a daze. Seeing him sleep, Eleven didnât pay attention and fell asleep at the head of the bed herself.
She slept heavily, probably due to recent fatigue. She briefly woke up in the middle of her sleep but didnât feel like getting up. Like sleep paralysis, she felt suffocated and fell back asleep.
In a daze, she felt as if she had been sleeping for a long time. Eleven moved abruptly, pulling herself out of her dream. She sat up quickly, leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath.
It was not as bright in the room as it had been in the morning. She had no idea what time it was.
She glanced at Gu Liancheng, he was still asleep. She touched his forehead; it was still hot. She took his temperature with a digital thermometer, which read 38.5C. He was still feverish.
Eleven saw the time on the wall clock and was shocked. Goodness! It was already 5 pm?
She needed to pick up the kids.
She unlocked her phone to call Jiujiu to have them wait a bit when she saw a message from Jiujiu saying he and Cute had gone to the dojo and would come back with Feiâs mom.
Because it was Jiujiu, Eleven trusted him and knew that nothing had ever happened before, so she wasnât worried about the two kids.
All was well until Ye Fei called her, asking, "Are the little treasures not coming to the dojo today?"