A whirlwind marriage with a high-ranking official: Lights out, don't force me to take the initi

Ye Wenxi, wearing a floral tank top, leaned against the headboard with Lu Weidong. She was holding a thick stack of questionnaires and was extracting and recording data.

Lu Weidong had one arm around her shoulder, and held the book in the other hand, flipping through it with one hand.

The fragrance and warmth emanating from Ye Wenxi's body wafted into Lu Weidong's nose with each breath.

Under the blanket, a tent had already been set up somewhere, but Ye Wenxi was focused on the information and data from the questionnaire, occasionally scribbling a few lines or muttering a sentence to herself.

Lu Weidong didn't disturb her and quietly stayed with her.

Half a day later, Ye Wenxi tapped the questionnaire summary sheet with her pen, lost in thought, occasionally biting her pen as if she was struggling with something.

Lu Weidong, holding up his book, casually remarked, "Were you always this hardworking?"

"Hmm...hmm?" Ye Wenxi responded subconsciously, then suddenly realized that something was off. She put down the summary sheet and rubbed her fingers together.

"Where we live... many people are like that; the pressure of life and work is much greater than it is now," she continued.

Lu Weidong paused in his reading. He had thought Ye Wenxi would brush it off, but she took the bait.

"Where... is that?" he asked casually, continuing to look at his book.

"Country Z is just... a little different from what it is now," Ye Wenxi said slowly.

"What's the difference?" Lu Weidong asked, unusually.

Ye Wenxi pursed her lips, lowered her head, and didn't reply.

"Time?" Lu Weidong asked very softly, as if speaking to Ye Wenxi, or perhaps to himself.

Ye Wenxi wasn't surprised that Lu Weidong could guess it, and she turned to look at him.

Lu Weidong did not turn his head to meet her gaze. He still held the book, pretending to be very natural. Ye Wenxi frowned slightly when she saw his posture.

A thought popped into Ye Wenxi's mind: Lu Weidong must have mustered up a lot of courage to say these words that had been pent up for so long.

She could feel the large hand holding her gradually changing from warm and dry to somewhat cold.

Ye Wenxi sighed softly, reached out and stroked his cheek, turning his face towards hers. Lu Weidong looked somewhat bewildered and helpless, as if something he had always been afraid to touch had been revealed by someone else.

"Weidong, perhaps I will never be able to explain why I am here. I used to be obsessed with these answers, and those feelings of confusion and unease have always haunted me, making me afraid to think about it and making me feel restricted. But now I just want to let go." Her voice was so soft that it was like a breath, and her breath brushed against his face.

Ye Wenxi smiled, looking into Lu Weidong's eyes: "You made me stop being afraid. You gave me love and a sense of security I've never felt before. From now on, I won't ask why anymore, I'll only ask myself, where am I going next?"

"Now... I hope you can also entrust those anxieties to me."

Lu Weidong put down his book, raised his hand, and stroked Ye Wenxi's cheek. His hand trembled slightly, and his eyes were filled with deep affection and emotion.

She didn't say anything more, but kissed his lips.

The kiss was extremely light and slow, like touching something precious. Lips pressed against lips, slowly caressing each other, telling him little by little, "Feel me, I'm here."

Their lips met, their breaths mingled. Lu Weidong rolled over and pinned her beneath him.

"You'll always be by my side, right?" His voice lowered, tinged with unease.

"Yes! Forever!" Ye Wenxi hugged his neck and looked at him with a smile.

But... her gaze flickered.

The next morning, Ye Wenxi didn't let Lu Weidong follow her.

"You should stay home and spend some time with your parents. See if there's anything they need help with. You didn't have time to come back before, but now that you are, spend more time with them," she said to Lu Weidong as she dressed.

"Okay. I'll bring you lunch."

"Don't bother sending it. Just stay home and have a quiet meal with your parents. We won't miss your meal; we can eat whatever we can buy." Ye Wenxi buttoned her shirt and added, "Besides, we have Wang Hao. If all else fails, we can ask him to run errands for us."

Lu Weidong chuckled, "How about this, you see what you need to buy. I'm taking my parents shopping today, so I'll buy some things to take back with me."

"Hmm! This is acceptable." Ye Wenxi nodded in satisfaction.

Wang Hao spent the whole day at the mall.

Ye Wenxi watched as he ran around taking care of Ding Jiahe and showed off their affection all day long. It wasn't until it was almost time for Lu Weidong to return that she picked him up.

After Wang Hao left, Ye Wenxi leaned close to Ding Jiahe, lowered her voice, and asked with a hint of mischief, "What happened yesterday?"

Ding Jiahe paused in folding clothes, then reluctantly put them down, rolling her eyes: "I said you..."

"Hurry up, stop dawdling!" Ye Wenxi interrupted her.

"A few more times..." Ding Jiahe's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

"Ew~~~" Ye Wenxi grinned like an aunt, "If this happens once, it'll happen twice, three times... and after a while, hehe..."

"Stop it! Why are you so gossipy?" Ding Jiahe blushed and pushed her away.

"Life is so hard, if you don't listen to these things, how will you have the strength to make a living?" Ye Wenxi said with a straight face, completely ignoring Ding Jiahe stomping her feet in anger behind her.

Around 5 p.m. on the last day of the exhibition, the department store suddenly became crowded.

"Hey? Did you notice? That person has been loitering around here several times." Ding Jiahe pointed with her chin at a woman in her twenties, leaned close to Ye Wenxi's ear, and whispered.

"Hmm. It seems like there are more people coming on the last day than on the previous days." Ye Wenxi glanced around.

"Why are you all loitering around here?" Ding Jiahe hadn't realized what was going on yet.

As the two were talking, the couple who had been loitering around for a while approached: "Excuse me, do you still have this dress in a larger size?"

"Please wait a moment, let me check." Ding Jiahe rummaged through the shelves. "Some of you, comrades, there's one plus-size item left. Would you like to try it on?"

"I'm not trying it on. Give me a discount. Anyway, today is your last day. You can't take it away if you don't sell it to me." The woman crossed her arms and spoke with certainty.

Ye Wenxi and Ding Jiahe exchanged a glance and simultaneously exclaimed "Ah!" in their hearts. So this was someone waiting to haggle.

"I'm sorry, comrade, our prices are all the same, we can't offer discounts." Ding Jiahe shook his head with a smile.

"Oh dear, this is the last day. Your stall is about to close down. If you don't sell to me, who will you sell to?" The woman felt that what she was saying made a lot of sense, as if what she was about to do was a great help to Ye Wenxi and the others.

"I know you usually do custom-made clothes, so I don't need you to be so particular. You can't sell this garment anyway, so you might as well give it to me at a lower price."

Hearing the commotion, several customers nearby gathered around and collectively advised Ye Wenxi and her team: "That's right, there's only a little over an hour left before they close, why not sell it at a lower price?"

Ye Wenxi didn't rush to reply. She took the dress off the shelf, unfolded it, draped it over her arm, and looked up at the woman.

"Comrade, do you know why this dress isn't on sale even on its last day?"

The woman paused for a moment.

"Because I can't let customers who have bought our clothes feel that they missed out by buying them a few days earlier."

She hung the dress back on the shelf.

"So this dress will be the same price tomorrow as it is today. If you like it, you can take it at the original price. If you don't think it's worth it, you can browse around some more."

The woman was still hesitating, muttering, "Can you make it cheaper? Is it really that much less? You sell clothes for such a high price, you're practically making exorbitant profits! You won't even give me a discount on this small amount."

Ding Jiahe's eyes twitched as she listened, and she tried to step forward, but Ye Wenxi held her down.

At that moment, a woman in her early thirties came out of the fitting room after trying on a women's shirt.

She glanced at the clothes rack, her gaze landing on the dress. She picked it up, examined it, and then decisively turned to Ye Wenxi, saying, "Comrade, give me this plus-size dress."

"Okay, I'll wrap them up for you." Ye Wenxi went over to take off the clothes, quickly folded them, and put them in a bag.

"Hey?" The woman panicked and slammed her hand on the counter. "I looked at it first! How dare you steal someone else's things?"