If possible, please like me a little too.

The sleeping Zhou Shiyu was quieter and softer than imagined.

Only two long breathing sounds remained quietly in the bedroom. Sheng Sui carefully pulled the blackout curtains closed, blocking the harsh light outside the window, then turned to look at the man sleeping peacefully on the bed.

This was the first time she had carefully observed Zhou Shiyu without his glasses.

The man’s sculptural features were profound and sharp, what should have been an extremely aggressive bone structure, but because of his long black lashes that trembled lightly with his breathing like a waterfall, with strands of hair half-covering his brows and eyes, his whole person instead became gentle and serene.

It wasn’t until Ping’An came in from outside, tilting his head and meowing softly, that Sheng Sui came back to her senses—she had been staring at Zhou Shiyu for too long.

Worried about waking him, Sheng Sui picked up the clingy kitten and left the bedroom, gently closing the door, lowering her head to kiss Ping’An on the head: “Morning.”

The kitchen counter was full of various ingredients. With Sheng Sui’s culinary skills, she naturally couldn’t tell what Zhou Shiyu had originally planned to make.

Not wanting to waste the ingredients, she took a photo and sent it to her chef friend Xiao Ming for advice.

Working person Xiao Ming had to work from home on weekends too. After receiving the message, she replied instantly: “Yo, your virtuous husband got up early to cook again.”

【ss: No, he’s resting; what can I make with the ingredients in the picture?】

【Xiao Ming: The ingredients you have prepared are enough for four or five dishes; babe, let’s not be greedy, let’s start by making garlic butter shrimp well.】

【Okay.】

Sheng Sui didn’t trust her own cooking skills either, so she started a video call for live instruction.

“Your husband’s family conditions are quite good. You can tell from the decoration that this house isn’t cheap,” Xiao Ming instructed Sheng Sui while observing the background behind her. Seeing her best friend lowering her head to concentrate on cutting shrimp, she couldn’t help but sigh,

“This is the first time I’ve seen you cook seriously instead of just getting by, and it’s actually for your husband.”

Sheng Sui used long chopsticks to remove the shrimp heads that had been fried for oil, oil droplets occasionally jumping onto the back of her hand, making her unable to think: “I don’t want him to work too hard.”

Hearing the heartache in her words, Xiao Ming kept clicking her tongue and asked gossipily: “Although this question is very strange, I’m really curious—you haven’t fallen in love with your husband, have you?”

Sheng Sui didn’t hear clearly, looking up: “What did you say?”

The woman’s eyes were clear and transparent. Without needing to guess, you could see what she was thinking at a glance. Her appearance made Xiao Ming shake her head: “Never mind, you’d be this considerate whoever you married. Pretend I didn’t ask.”

In her flustered state, Sheng Sui spent an hour and a half to complete the garlic butter shrimp and blanched vegetables. Seeing it was still early, she covered them with plastic wrap and returned to the bedroom with a thermos cup.

Zhou Shiyu was still fast asleep, lying on his side facing where she usually lay, with half an arm extended in an embracing posture, as if even in his dreams he unconsciously wanted to hold someone.

The clothes soaked with sweat in the morning were draped over the chair by the bed. Sheng Sui picked up the clothing and discovered the belt she had given him was pressed underneath.

The belt’s surface was well-crafted, the cowhide soft and new, except for one hole position where you could see usage marks left by the belt buckle, looking as if it had been repeatedly inserted.

Sheng Sui suddenly remembered Zhou Shiyu’s expression when he specifically emphasized before bed that he had learned to use the belt.

Lowering her eyes and pursing her lips, she carried the man’s clothes out, sent them to the laundry room for cleaning, then silently returned to the walk-in closet, stuffing the belt back to the bottom where she placed infrequently worn clothes.

Having mostly guessed the story behind the belt, Sheng Sui understood that Zhou Shiyu didn’t want her to feel guilty, but at the same time, she was even more unwilling for him to force himself.

Sheng Sui crouched on the ground, hugging her knees as she looked at the belt lying at the bottom of the cabinet, silently thinking about what kind of better gift she should give next time.

She wasn’t a charge-ahead personality, sometimes being cautious when doing things, but Zhou Shiyu had given her too much tolerance and understanding, making Sheng Sui feel that if she continued to shrink back or retreat, it would be a desecration of the man’s good intentions.

They had known each other for too short a time, and their marriage had been too hasty. It was perfectly normal not to understand each other’s personalities and pasts well enough.

How could life become jade without polishing? Sheng Sui comforted herself, took a deep breath to relax, and when she returned to the bedroom, she saw the man had already awakened.

After waking up, Zhou Shiyu first put on his glasses from the bedside table. His pale complexion had obviously improved, though his lips were still slightly white.

The man looked at Sheng Sui approaching with a smile, his gaze gentle, his voice carrying the hoarseness of just waking up, especially sexy: “What were you busy with this morning?”

“Just made some food casually, not very successfully.”

Sheng Sui stopped at the vanity table by the bed, poured Zhou Shiyu a small cup of warm water, asking: “Would you like to drink some hot water first?”

Usually when dealing with others, her role was mostly as a caregiver, but with Zhou Shiyu, Sheng Sui always lived a life of having clothes handed to her and food brought to her mouth.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the man’s gaze sweep over the chair beside her. Sheng Sui didn’t want him to notice the belt had been hidden away, so she silently moved half a step to the side, using her body to block in front of the chair.

Not realizing at all that this action had any suspicion of protesting too much.

Zhou Shiyu withdrew his gaze without leaving a trace, looking up at Sheng Sui blocking in front of the chair with a clearly protective posture, his dark eyes behind the lenses completely gentle.

“I’ll drink the water later,” he leaned against the headboard looking at her, opening his arms toward his wife, saying gently,

“Come here and let me hold you first.”

“…Oh.”

They had done more intimate things, so Sheng Sui obediently put down the water cup and went over. Before she could sit down after approaching, she was gently pulled into the man’s embrace. In an instant, her nostrils were filled with Zhou Shiyu’s unique scent.

She was easily encircled in Zhou Shiyu’s arms, surrounded on all sides by the familiar cold woody fragrance. When her uneasy emotions were silently comforted, she felt a heavy head pressing on her shoulder.

The man just quietly held her without any further actions, like a weary traveler from a long journey who had finally found a resting place and didn’t want to move on once he found it.

Sheng Sui let him hold her for a while, then raised her hand to gently pat the man’s back: “Zhou Shiyu, are you alright?”

“…I’m fine,” today’s Zhou Shiyu was unusually clingy, his head buried in Sheng Sui’s neck and shoulder in a nestling posture, his strong arms encircling her slender waist, his voice low and soft,

“I just didn’t see you when I woke up, and suddenly missed you very much.”

Sheng Sui’s cooking skills were indeed worrying.

The garlic butter shrimp she made had all the shrimp stuck together, the outer skin burnt and bitter due to poor heat control, and even the simplest blanched vegetables were too salty from too much sauce.

The only edible thing on the table was the stomach-warming corn, carrot, and pork rib soup that Zhou Shiyu had prepared in advance.

“…Let’s order takeout, this is too awful.”

Sheng Sui gave up decisively after tasting two bites, raising her hand to take away the inedible two dishes, muttering quietly: “Usually watching you cook, I thought it was very easy.”

“I think it tastes very good.”

Zhou Shiyu took back the dishes and wouldn’t let her throw them away, eating with good appetite as he picked up another string of burnt shrimp, seeing Sheng Sui’s face full of wanting to speak but stopping, his lips carrying a faint smile: “Taste is a very subjective feeling. You think it’s awful, maybe we just have different tastes.”

When it came to sophistry, Sheng Sui was never a match. She tried to provide evidence to refute: “But these shrimp are burnt.”

“Being burnt just right is also a skill,” Zhou Shiyu rested his chin on his hand and smiled at her, responding unhurriedly, “That’s how rice crust is made.”

Sheng Sui wanted to say this wasn’t rice crust at all. Thinking the man would definitely say this dish was her creation, she was unconvinced and thinking hard when her head was suddenly ruffled by the person beside her.

“To evaluate whether a dish is good or bad, I prefer to consider the feelings the other person wants to convey in addition to the taste.”

Zhou Shiyu used his chopsticks to transfer all the food that had almost been thrown away into his plate, continuing in a calm, gentle tone: “I like the taste of the dish itself, and I can also feel your intention to take care of me; if this meal were thrown away, I would feel it was a great pity.”

Serving a full bowl of rich, aromatic pork rib soup and passing it over, the man lowered his head to meet Sheng Sui’s eyes, smiled slightly, and requested:

“So, let me finish it, okay?”

Sheng Sui had absolutely no resistance to Zhou Shiyu’s appearance.

The man’s sincere expression when lowering his head to taste the food was so sincere it was almost devout. If she hadn’t just tried it herself, Sheng Sui would have believed she was a culinary master.

“…I won’t throw it away,” deciding internally to improve her cooking skills, Sheng Sui lowered her head to silently drink soup, suddenly remembering Zhou Shiyu’s focus when cooking daily and his mention of “conveying feelings” just now, she couldn’t help but be curious,

“Then what are you thinking when you cook every day?”

The hand holding chopsticks paused slightly. Zhou Shiyu pondered for a moment, then smiled slightly: “Probably thinking, ‘It would be good if you could like it.'”

The man got up to take a mango from the refrigerator, cut half and placed it on the food scale: “That day when you were on a blind date with someone else, I saw a pineapple bun in front of you. You wanted to take it several times but never acted.”

“I was thinking then, maybe you really wanted to eat it, but had to give up due to objective conditions.”

Zhou Shiyu’s excellent knife skills remained unchanged. Accompanied by the crisp sound of cutting, the mango became thin slices in the blink of an eye: “After marriage, I always hope to make up for this regret. Even if I can’t do much, it’s better than being indifferent.”

The man’s low, gentle voice echoed in the kitchen. His defined hands repeatedly picked up thin mango slices, rolling them from small to large while not forgetting to round the edges.

Soon, a rose made of mango flesh stood quietly in the porcelain plate, lifelike.

Under Sheng Sui’s astonished gaze, Zhou Shiyu washed and dried his hands, turned to place the porcelain plate in front of her, lowering his eyes and saying softly: “Speaking of it, it’s presumptuous of me. I’m not clear whether you really need it.”

“But all the beautiful things I’ve seen in this world, I hope you can experience every single one.”

Even if it’s just an ordinary dessert.

An ordinary Sunday afternoon, because of her husband’s casual, plain sentence, made Sheng Sui feel that even the spring light outside the window became more beautiful.

Her eyes heated up as she looked down at the mango rose, inexplicably wanting to cry for a moment: “…Zhou Shiyu, it would have been so good if I could have met you earlier.”

She rarely fell into meaningless past difficulties, but recently she increasingly thought about how good it would have been to meet this person earlier.

Zhou Shiyu always couldn’t bear to see her sad. If this person had been there to accompany her through those dark days of the past, would they have been so unbearable?

While lost in thought, her waist was encircled by the man’s strong, powerful arms. Zhou Shiyu easily lifted Sheng Sui from her seat, steadily supporting her to sit on his lap.

“It’s not too late now.”

Zhou Shiyu held her and kissed her, his arm blocking behind her back so she wouldn’t hit the cold, hard dining table edge. When Sheng Sui no longer needed teaching and naturally wrapped her arms around his neck, his eyes were full of tender love, his thin lips kissing her forehead, nose bridge, lips in turn, finally stopping at her slender neck.

The person in his arms couldn’t help but tilt her head back, wanting to escape for a moment to seek fresh air. Zhou Shiyu pulled her back to earth, his voice low and hoarse:

“…Suisui, as long as you want, I will always be yours.”

In the end, the inseparable passionate kiss was interrupted by a phone call.

After Zhou Shiyu hung up three times and it called again, the phone persistently vibrated on the table, making even Sheng Sui come to her senses.

She leaned on the man’s shoulder to calm down, saying softly: “…Answer the phone first, it might be something important at work.”

Zhou Shiyu looked at the words “Qiu Si” on the screen, his dark eyes behind the lenses slightly sinking, answering the call expressionlessly, saying coldly: “Speak.”

“…Speak about what? Old Xu moved to a new house, and we agreed to celebrate with a barbecue in the backyard tonight. Did you forget?”

After Qiu Si finished his spiel, he suddenly got a new idea: “Bring your wife too. Everyone’s going crazy with curiosity, wanting to see what kind of fairy your wife is.”

The man kept saying “wife” so smoothly, making Zhou Shiyu slightly raise his eyebrow. He muted the call and asked for Sheng Sui’s opinion:

“Colleague’s housewarming celebration, with people you met last time. Want to go?”

Sheng Sui hadn’t formally thanked Qiu Si and others for their help last time, so she didn’t mind, loosely hugging her husband’s neck: “Either way is fine with me. Do you want to go?”

“A little,” Zhou Shiyu was stared at by her bright, moist eyes, then turned his head to nibble on the vulnerable soft flesh of her lower lip, chuckling softly,

“I want to tell everyone that I have a wife.”

The one celebrating the housewarming was Xu Zhuo, also one of the core members who assisted Zhou Shiyu in founding Cheng He. Sheng Sui had seen him at the restaurant during that blind date, but unlike Qiu Si, they hadn’t greeted each other.

Xu Zhuo’s new home was in a wealthy district some distance from the city center, a two-story small villa.

The villa wasn’t large, but the lawn behind the house was spacious. The villa’s several rooms were connected by a small path that led to the backyard lawn.

There were more than ten or twenty friends and colleagues who came to celebrate. Sheng Sui and Zhou Shiyu were the last to arrive. As soon as they entered the house, they were greeted with a round of cheering.

Sheng Sui could see that although Zhou Shiyu had prestige among his subordinates, he wasn’t a high-and-mighty superior. The man maintained just the right amount of affability and distance with colleagues—appearing at team-building activities wouldn’t ruin the atmosphere, but he wouldn’t participate too much either.

From her personal experience, Cheng He employees would gossip and ask about their relationship, but wouldn’t dare tease her even a little.

After everyone split up to buy barbecue ingredients and equipment, as evening approached, they began shouting and setting up barbecue stands on the backyard lawn, then moving over chairs and several cases of beer.

A few meters away from the two rows of barbecue stands were heaters. Sheng Sui sat in a folding chair watching the noisy crowd in the distance, occasionally accepting barbecue handed over by Zhou Shiyu, her eyes carrying unconscious shallow smiles.

Although she wasn’t good at joining in, she liked such joyful and lively scenes, and even more liked nights filled with young, happy atmosphere.

Soon, Qiu Si, Xu Zhuo, and two or three others who couldn’t stand seeing people alone came over, familiarly moving stools to sit down on Zhou Shiyu’s side.

“Congratulations on your marriage, brother.”

Qiu Si handed the newly opened beer to Zhou Shiyu, then toasted Sheng Sui from afar: “I’m not being stingy with blessings, it’s just that you two got married too fast.”

“Indeed it was fast. Initially everyone didn’t believe it,” Xu Zhuo, wearing glasses, laughed along: “Who would have thought Zhou Shiyu would be the first among us to get married.”

Wedding congratulations rose and fell. Zhou Shiyu didn’t reach for the beer bottle, turning his head to quietly ask Sheng Sui’s opinion: “I usually don’t refuse wedding congratulations. Can we drink some?”

Sheng Sui’s ears turned red from his question. She quickly nodded and gently pushed the man’s arm, telling him to hurry and accept the beer bottle.

“This sour, stinking couple love smell.”

Seeing the two intimately whispering to each other, Qiu Si couldn’t stand it and looked disgusted, no longer talking to a certain wife-slave, leaning toward Sheng Sui mysteriously: “Let me tell you, this Zhou Shiyu guy has many schemes.”

“That day at the restaurant, his eyes were fixed on your table the whole time. I saw it clearly.”

Qiu Si had poor alcohol tolerance but had drunk quite a bit, speaking incoherently: “Based on my years of understanding Zhou Shiyu, maybe this guy already liked you long ago.”

“I can testify,” Xu Zhuo was also shrewd. Hearing this, he nodded and pretended to seriously analyze: “That day our President Zhou looked at Teacher Sheng with eyes that were not innocent at all.”

Except for Sheng Sui, no one present believed that with Zhou Shiyu’s personality, he would so rashly and hastily marry someone. Led by Vice President Qiu Si and Xu Zhuo, various bizarre stories emerged endlessly, even creating TV drama plots about Zhou Shiyu secretly loving her for years.

Sheng Sui only felt dignified about this and kept waving her hands to clarify. Helplessly, the alcohol-stimulated people became more excited as they talked. Her explanations had little effect. In the end, it was Zhou Shiyu’s long silence and his seemingly smiling but not smiling gaze that made several people sheepishly shut up and leave.

“Want to get up and take a walk to aid digestion?”

After eating two more rounds of meat and vegetables, Zhou Shiyu stood up and extended his hand to Sheng Sui, saying softly: “If their words made you feel embarrassed, I apologize to you.”

“I’m fine,” Sheng Sui knew the others were joking, and besides, they were teasing Zhou Shiyu. She held the man’s hand and stood up: “As long as you don’t mind.”

Thinking of those stories, she just found them absurdly funny and shook her head helplessly: “Just knowing we went to the same high school, they said you had a crush on me back then—everyone’s imagination is really too rich.”

The evening breeze stirred up her hem and blew the man’s bangs. Zhou Shiyu used his back to block the wind, his smiling eyes gentle.

“No one would take such stories seriously,”

His dry, warm palm held Sheng Sui’s hand, seeming to smile carelessly: “I thought you would strongly reject others saying I like you.”

The two walked hand in hand toward the corner of the lawn away from the crowd. Sheng Sui’s steps paused slightly upon hearing this, and she happened to stop under the street lamp by the fence: “I wouldn’t think that way.”

“Rather than rejection, I think I lack a real sense of the word ‘like.'”

Sheng Sui had been honest in expressing her thoughts and feelings since the day she met Zhou Shiyu, and this time was no exception: “My expectation for marriage is longevity and stability. I don’t want romance.”

“I remember you said something similar before marriage,” she smiled sweetly at Zhou Shiyu with curved eyebrows, “I think we are indeed very suitable for marriage.”

At this moment, Zhou Shiyu suddenly understood what it meant to “lift a rock and drop it on your own foot.”

Sheng Sui was right. The words “marry because of suitability” did indeed come from him.

Initially, he thought the same way, believing that becoming her partner and being able to legitimately keep her by his side was already a pipe dream, and he didn’t dare to covet more.

But human nature is never satisfied, and greed is always endless.

Sighing silently, he raised his hand to hold Sheng Sui tightly in his arms, embracing the small bundle of a person, asking in a low voice: “How about this? Does this give you a real sense?”

Sheng Sui obediently let the man hold her, hiding in his embrace and unconsciously rubbing her face against Zhou Shiyu’s chest, muffled: “Yes.”

Zhou Shiyu was always warm, and people have the instinct to grow toward the sun. She was no exception in wanting to depend on him.

“Then do you like this embrace?”

The man’s voice was low and mellow. When speaking, Sheng Sui leaning against him could feel the slight vibration of his chest, accompanied by steady and loud heartbeats: “Or to put it another way.”

“Not liking me—do you like your current life?”

“…I do like it,” after hesitating for a moment, Sheng Sui raised her head from the coat, repeating and modifying the man’s question,

“I like my current life, and I also like living with you now.”

There wasn’t much time to think, but Sheng Sui had carefully considered that if she truly didn’t talk about Zhou Shiyu, her current life simply couldn’t exist.

Her tone was serious and solemn, completely unaware that her current appearance looked exactly like a little mole poking its head out of a burrow.

Zhou Shiyu’s eyes were completely soft. He couldn’t help but bend down to kiss her forehead gently, chuckling softly: “This is enough.”

He was responsible for loving her.

Sheng Sui only needed to like the life he constructed with love. That was enough.

“Is this enough?”

This time it was Sheng Sui asking the question. She reluctantly withdrew somewhat from the warm embrace, wanting to see the man more clearly,

“We are husband and wife. Is there nothing I can do for you?”

Zhou Shiyu lowered his eyes to quietly look into her smiling eyes, which were full of unguarded trust and dependence toward him. He suddenly sighed at how fortunate he was to be able to like someone like Sheng Sui.

He bent down to meet Sheng Sui’s gaze, and in her clear, water-like eyes, he spoke in a low, soft voice as if about to dissipate in the wind the next moment: “If possible.”

“…Please like me a little too.”

He didn’t need her to love him.

As long as she could also like him a little when she had nothing else to do, that would be enough.