Chapter 56: The Baja cruise

T/N: Hello everyone. I'm still alive and kicking, just away on a vacation. It's summer after all. :)

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They were traveling for more than 30minutes, away from the city and Xiaonian got a little curious. 

All the fashionable places were behind them, where were they going exactly?

It was another 20 minutes before they stopped near the port, and when Xiaonian got down, she felt a cool sea breeze brushing against her cheek. The weather was pleasant and the night beautiful. She looked around and her eyes stopped on the giant cruise ship docked a few meters away from them.

“Baja?” (T/N: It’s pronounced Ba-ha, Mexican name)

Wasn’t this the cruise she worked on three years ago?

She turned and cast a questioning look at Gong Ouyang. What game was he playing at?

Feng De was the one to reply her unasked question, “Miss Shi, the Baja cruise hosts a dinner party every year for business scions in our and around neighboring countries. It is something the young master has participated in since a long time ago.”

“Let’s go” Gong Ouyang wrapped an arm around Xiaonian’s waist and steered her towards the cruise.

Two  professional waiters were standing at the beginning of the stairs collecting invitations from the guests, but when Gong Ouyang appeared, they simply bowed and received the invitation from Feng De and let their party in without any checks.

Once they were on the deck, Xiaonian found that the floor was decorated in almost the same sophisticated extravagance as it was three years ago. A huge hall extended in front of them covered on all sides by glass windows giving an uninhibited view of the black waters outside while the insides were lit with bright lights where people in glittering gowns accompanied those in expensive suits.

As soon as they entered the hall, the host came to greet them with an exotic looking woman on his hand. Xiaonian saw this man once three years back and he looked as impressive as he did back then.

“Mr Gong, welcome aboard Baja” he welcomed them with a smile that twinkled in his bright green eyes. He glanced at Xiaonian and his gaze turned speculative when he saw Gong Ouyang’s hand possessively wrapped around Xiaonian.

In all the time he had known Gong Ouyang, he never once saw him hold a woman close to him as if he valued her.

Wasn’t this interesting.

“Ze” Gong Ouyang called him before he could look at Xiaonian a little more with a deep frown in his eyes.

“Haha,  my friend, introduce me to your lady friend?” he asked with a wide smile.

“Stop your nonsense. You still have my room here?” Gong Ouyang asked still irritated by his interest in Xiaonian.

Damn woman! Attracting attention as soon as she got out. The last time she went out, there was that man he beat up, and now it was his own friend! If he didn’t restrict her properly then she’ll just go attracting unnecessary garbage everywhere.

“Your room? Of course! Someone will get the keys to Feng De in a few minutes” Ze Chen told him signaling a waiter nearby.

“Then we won’t keep you here, you should go and attend to other guests” Gong Ouyang told him offhandedly.

Xiaonian couldn’t help the corner of her lip from twitching. Even the host, his friend, was a recipient of his cutting words. It was a little refreshing, she had to agree. 

They were seated on a table near open windows open to beautiful scene and a beautiful lady was singing melodious tunes on the stage. Person after person came to their table to greet and talk to Gong Ouyang.

Xiaonian mentally dropped her jaw at all these big wigs behaving so subserviently  before Gong Ouyang. She heard and read about the big Gong family, but this was the first time she was seeing the disparity between riches so clearly.

Once it was past 12, they had a light dinner in between greeting all the people and people still kept coming. After yet another one, Xiaonian couldn’t hold back her yawn.

Gong Ouyang looked at the woman’s sleepy face and looked at his watch, if they were back at Tianzhi, they would have been in bed hours back

“Feng De, hold the rest back, I’ll meet them tomorrow” he instructed Feng De who was standing behind and got up pulling out Xiaonian’s chair and helping her.

Even half asleep, Xiaonian knew that this was also one of the things he only recently started doing. And for some reason, it was making her incredibly uneasy.

When they entered into the elevator, she noticed that Gong Ouyang was watching her closely. When her eyes caught his, he looked at her piercingly as if he wanted to know the deepest secrets of her soul. She shivered at that thought and quickly moved her gaze away.

The elevator opened with a ding and Gong Ouyang waited until she got out of it first and then he followed her out. He stood there and she waited with him confused. 

Was he waiting for someone?

She looked around her and found that there were only two doors in the spacious corridors. She looked at Gong Ouyang to see what was happening to only notice that his gaze was stationed on her, looking gloomier by second.

Xiaonian was taken aback.

What did she do now?

“Come!” he snapped at her and quickly walked to the door closest to them. When he opened the door, she saw an opulent space decorated with vintage wooden furniture and two doors on either sides that opened into other rooms.

This guy sure did live good.

Gong Ouyang removed his coat and threw it on a nearby chair and went inside the adjacent room opening the door wide, only then did Xiaonian see that it was a bedroom with a view of the sea.

It was beautiful.

A maid came in from outside and bought some refreshments along with her and dutifully put them on the counter and bowed on her way out.

Xiaonian was still standing at the door not knowing what to do. She slowly removed the shawl and her shoes and went inside the bedroom after Gong Ouyang.

It was past her bedtime and she was very sleepy, she just wanted to wash up and sleep like the dead now.

When she got into the bedroom, Gong Ouyang was nowhere to be found but there was a faint sound of running water from behind a door in the corner. 

So that’s where the bathroom was.

She waited until he came out and in the mean time she picked up some pajamas from their luggage that was already delivered into their rooms, probably by Feng De.

When she came back after washing up, Gong Ouyang was already on the bed wearing only his black pajama pants and leaning back on a huge pillow waiting for her. His mood seemed to have calmed a lot.

Watching her properly put back her cosmetics bag inside her luggage, he abruptly spoke, “do you know this room?”

Xiaonian was flabbergasted.

What know this room?

“…”

“Have you ever been here?” he repeated coldly seeing the confusion on her face.

Xiaonian’s eyebrows jumped, she slowly understood what he was talking about.

“No” she told him frankly, “like I told you, I only worked in the back and stayed in the quarters allocated for the hire” she explained.

Gong Ouyang stayed silent at her answer. His face went back to being a cold mask that did not show any pleasure or displeasure.

“Come here” he ordered her slowly and Xiaonian cautiously walked towards his bed until he caught her hand and pulled her onto the bed.

He turned in the bed causing Xiaonian’s to clumsily sit on him as he lied on the bed.

When Xioanian made to climb off of him, his hands gripped her tiny waist and pressed her down on his stomach. 

His dark eyes glittered like diamonds under the hazy lights and looked at her with a myriad of complex emotions. One hand slowly slip up her waist and squeezed her  making her jump.

“Three years ago, this is the room where you drugged me and slept with me” he told her softly with an expressionless face.

Xiaonian wanted to curse out. When did she do that, ah?!

She tried to pull the night gown down to make herself more decent in this situation, with her head bent low she concentrated on the hem of her night dress and studiously avoided looking at the muscular piece of flesh surrounding it, “I already told you, it wasn’t me those three years ago, I’ve never been to this room either.”

Was that why he was watching her so closely in the elevator?

To check if she recognized the route?

For someone so clever, why was he so stubbornly bent on believing wrong evidence?

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