The next day, Bai Youwei could not get out of bed.

Her stamina wasn’t actually that poor — the main issue was that in the morning, the scoundrel Shen Mo had settled accounts after the fact and demanded to know why she had lied to him.

— If she truly was his wife, how could last night have been her first time?

So he put her through it again in the morning, as punishment.

And then it was noon, and Bai Youwei finally managed to get up…… She sat on the edge of the bed with a hand on her waist, lost in thought for some time, and came to the conclusion that Shen Mo had changed.

At the very least, Bai Youwei no longer felt quite so free to casually provoke him……

……

Lunch was something Shen Mo had brought up from downstairs for her: creamy corn juice, pan-seared salmon, honeyed purple sweet potato mash, and a refreshing vegetable salad.

Bai Youwei was still sitting in bed after washing up. Her legs ached, her arms ached, even her hands had no strength — all manner of discomfort, and she demanded that Shen Mo feed her.

She had no idea what she was doing, really. It was probably that this man looked so completely untroubled and at ease, and so she felt particularly put out.

Shen Mo, with admirable patience, picked up the bowl and fed her, absolutely unruffled.

After a few spoonfuls, feeling rather as though he were feeding a small cat, he couldn’t resist touching her little face, smoothing her hair, and then pinching her ear.

“Stop fussing over me,” she said. She was puffing her cheeks as she chewed and shot him a disgruntled glare. “I’m eating.”

The smile at the corner of Shen Mo’s mouth deepened. He fed her another sip of corn juice and said lightly, “Eat more. Build up your strength. Otherwise you’ll be complaining you’re tired again tonight.”

Bai Youwei froze, and then swallowed what was in her mouth with some force and stared at him. “Are you serious?! Can’t you let a person rest?!”

Shen Mo smiled and speared a piece of fish with the fork, offered it to Bai Youwei’s mouth, and said in an unhurried tone, “Mainly I feel…… as though I owe myself.”

He paused briefly and continued, “After all — all those days and nights before. Everything I missed.”

Bai Youwei: “……”

A man who has experienced this for the first time truly does undergo a transformation of a fundamental kind.

At that moment, a commotion broke out downstairs — she could dimly make out Ada swearing at someone, followed by a loud bang of a door, as though something had happened.

Shen Mo set down the bowl. “I’ll go see.”

Bai Youwei said nothing.

When Shen Mo had reached the bedroom door, she spoke up suddenly. “It might have something to do with the record. You know how it is — everyone here wants a spot.”

Shen Mo glanced back at her. “Don’t worry too much.”

……

Shen Mo went downstairs and found Yuri, Ada, and Natasha all in the living room. They seemed to have anticipated that the noise would bring Shen Mo down, so none of them looked surprised to see him.

“Just back?” Shen Mo looked toward Yuri. “The strategy deals — did you find any sellers?”

“We were just talking about the strategies.” Ada’s brow was deeply furrowed, his expression irritable. “The sellers we’ve worked with before — it’s like they made some prior arrangement — every single one of them has refused to sell us strategies this time!”

Shen Mo’s brow furrowed slightly. “So our record has made them feel threatened. They don’t want us to secure this year’s spots without difficulty. Have you tried offering more points? A higher price might get some of them to reconsider.”

“It’s no use.” Natasha sighed. “Yuri reached out to several of his contacts. No matter how high the points offered, none of them will take it — and they’re all giving the exact same response. They say if we want strategies, we’ll have to meet two conditions……”

Shen Mo raised an eyebrow. “What conditions?”

The silent Yuri slowly lifted his head and looked at Shen Mo. “Tell them the secret behind our high scores — or allow them to join our squad.”

Shen Mo went quiet.

The scenario Bai Youwei had anticipated had, in the end, come to pass……

“Our squad is already full!” Ada said with a scornful edge in his voice. “They’re trying to force Yuri to kick someone out — the nerve of them!”

“Someone must have approached them in advance and put them up to this,” Yuri said in a low voice. “Otherwise their stance wouldn’t be this unified.”

—