731 A Million Times for You 93

"That'll depend on your behavior."

She patted her chest and said, "Rest assured, Master Pei. I won't let you down."

"I hope so."

After breakfast, Pei Yi answered a call and headed out.

An Xiaoning sat in front of the desk and began scribbling on a square piece of paper.

Afraid that Pei Yi would find out when he watched the surveillance camera footage, she purposely wrote several other lines of well wishes for Pei Yi.

She only stopped when her hands began to ache.

She then folded them into cranes one by one and dumped them inside the large plastic bottle.

Pei Yi had yet to return by the time she was done.

Thus, she decided to grab a few books from the bookshelf and catch up on some reading.

She would usually be able to get engrossed in any book she read. However, today was an exception.

Although her eyes were fixed onto the words on the pages, her mind had drifted elsewhere and she could not help but feel incredibly distracted.

She put the book away and lay on the couch quietly.

She decided that she would ask Pei Yi to bring her out once he was back.

Pei Yi had yet to return even when it was already in the afternoon. She opened the door to see that the guards on duty were standing outside the room. They glared at her coldly and said, "Ancestor has already ordered us not to let you out."

"I'm not trying to go out. I just wanted to ask, what time is Master Pei coming home?"

"How would we know? Master Pei will never tell us about his agenda and whereabouts."

An Xiaoning closed the door and continued to wait.

She was bored out of her wits.

She was hoping that he would bring her out for a spin when he came back in the afternoon.

However, her wishes did not come true because Pei Yi returned home only at seven o'clock in the evening.

As soon as he entered, he caught sight of her staring blankly into space on the couch.

"You're back?" She sprung up abruptly and lost her balance, causing her to almost fall onto the coffee table.

Fortunately, he managed to rush forward in the nick of time and grabbed her to prevent her from falling. "Be careful."

"What made you so upset? I'm so bored at home without you around. I was thinking that you'd come home in the morning but you didn't, so I thought to myself that you'd definitely come by in the afternoon. But you didn't either," An Xiaoning said gently.

Pei Yi's mood was instantly lifted upon hearing her words. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes."

He sat down and said, "I went for a matchmaking session."

An Xiaoning snorted with laughter as soon as she heard him. She did not expect him to tell her that; neither did she see a need for him to go for a matchmaking session.

Is he kidding me?

"What are you laughing at?" he asked with raised brows.

"You're so handsome and dashing, Mr. Pei. The lucky lady who got to go on a blind date with you must have been extremely blessed. Master Pei, what did she look like? How's her temper and personality like? Do you fancy her?" An Xiaoning asked curiously.

"Tian Tian. It's that woman you saw previously."

"I understand why you're so upset now. That explains it. Since you both already know each other, is it really still considered a blind date?"

"Yeah, my mother is rather fond of her and wants me to marry her. That's how the elderly are like. They get too eager to have a grandchild," he said with a frown.

"Master Pei, you don't have to force yourself to marry a woman you don't love. Wouldn't it be a piece of cake for you to fulfill your mother's wishes of having a grandchild?"

"How do you know that I don't love her?"

Dumbfounded, she asked, "Don't tell me, you love her?"

"Not anymore."

So he used to love her?

"Is Ms. Tian your ex-girlfriend?"

He did not answer immediately. Just as An Xiaoning thought he was going to ignore her, he answered, "No, I did love her in the past when I had nothing to my name. She was different from me though. I was inferior to her in every aspect. I was much younger and reckless back then. I tried to woo her, but all I got in the end… was humiliation and animosity from her. Later on, she took the initiative to court me and requested for me to be in a relationship with her several times. I turned her down every single time, for I had already lost all feelings for her. She was smart enough to butter my mother up instead. My mother was so fond of her that she even made her her goddaughter."

"She's a classic example of a mercenary gold-digger. You must have had a tough time to get to where you are today, going from rags to riches. I thought you were wealthy right from the start," An Xiaoning remarked.

Thinking that there was no way An Xiaoning could escape, he decided that there would be no harm in telling her about his past, which he rarely mentioned to others. "No. My mother and I have always only had each other to rely on ever since I was a child. I wasn't the founder of DK. DK was established long ago, and my place here is only one of its branches. I began training here ever since I was an adolescent. Training back then was much more arduous and grueling than it is now. A bunch of kids would be thrown into a room with the task of killing each other. Those who survived the battle would get to stay."

An Xiaoning got goosebumps just from hearing his story.

He must have had several close shaves with death and survived all odds in order to get to where he was today.

"Will you adhere to your mother's wishes and marry Ms. Tian?"

"No, I can't bring myself to marry a woman I don't love, let alone give birth to a child together with her. I can only bear a child with a woman whom I love and treasure greatly. Not every woman deserves the right to bear my child."

"That's right. You never know when the last day of your life will be. Marrying and bearing children with a woman you don't love is only being irresponsible toward yourself, your other half, as well as your child. When you finally meet the woman you love, she might not want to be together with you since you're already married. Even if you could bring her back with you forcefully, it wouldn't feel great since she wasn't a willing party."

Although she had nothing to do with whom he marries, she did not wish for him to marry Tian Tian, who might just kill her before she even gets to escape.

For the sake of my safety, it'd be best if he remains single for the time being until I escape!

"You have a point. Are you such a person too?"

She decided to use herself as an example and tell him about the woes of marrying someone without love. "I married my first husband when we barely knew each other at all. We never got intimate at all throughout the two years of our marriage. Not even once."

"Why?"

"He'd rather touch any other woman but me. But I have to thank him for keeping his hands off me, although he wasted two years of my youth. Otherwise, I would have been really devastated," said An Xiaoning, who felt peeved and speechless at the thought of the shameless scoundrel, Shi Shaochuan.

Pei Yi guffawed and remarked, "Was that man a fool? How about you and Jin Qingyan…?"

"Jin Qingyan… well, I don't know why, but I might have been bewitched or something. I didn't learn from my mistakes during my first failed marriage and went on to get married to Jin Qingyan in a flash. When we first got married, we didn't love each other at all. In fact, he was still harboring feelings for someone else at the time. Perhaps I was fooled by his appearance!"

"Fooled by his appearance? Did you find him to be handsome?" Pei Yi asked.

"That's one of the reasons, but the main thing that influenced my decision was that he appeared to be extremely gentlemanly, mild-mannered, and well tempered…"