Chapter 31: Sleeping Together p1
After the service robot in the living room entered standby mode, the room fell silent. Ming Fei’s mind kept replaying Zhu Yiqiao’s instruction.
…Sleep on the bed together?
It wasn’t entirely unacceptable.
After all, it was just a contract marriage, and they had to play the part.
She thought seriously, if she refused, would it appear as if she had other intentions, making things awkward and strange?
So, after sorting out her thoughts, Ming Fei glanced at the time on the display screen.
It was very late, and she didn’t want to delay their rest any longer.
She replied, “Okay.”
Zhu Yiqiao didn’t say a word and took the lead, walking away. Ming Fei followed closely behind, the blush on her cheeks already faded, returning to her usual porcelain white.
The bed in the bedroom was 2.4 meters wide, more than enough for two tall adults.
The left side of the bed was next to the bay window, and the right side faced the matching wardrobe. Ming Fei felt that sleeping on the right side would be more convenient.
She asked, “Jiejie, are you sleeping on the right side?”
“Mm.”
Sharing a bed for the first time, Ming Fei still felt a little awkward and unsure of what to do.
After taking off her shoes and sitting on the left side of the bed, she consciously took the pillow from the bay window and placed it in the middle, using it as a boundary to indicate that she wouldn’t do anything offensive.
“I won’t cross this line.”
After saying that, perhaps because Zhu Yiqiao had smiled at her for the first time tonight, or perhaps because Zhu Yiqiao had made an exception to teach her how to control her pheromones, or perhaps because she understood more about the reality of their contract marriage, she smiled at Zhu Yiqiao and even made a joke.
“If I cross the line, you can punish me.”
The main light in the bedroom was turned off, leaving only a warm night light leading to the bathroom.
Zhu Yiqiao lay down on the right side of the pillow, her long, black curly hair spread out like smooth and soft satin. The dim light cast a shadow on her eyelashes. The background was simple, yet this scene was as beautiful as a retro movie from the old century.
Ming Fei, lying on her side, faced the bay window. Just when she thought Zhu Yiqiao wouldn’t answer her, she heard her ask,
“What kind of punishment do you like?”
Ming Fei’s lips curved upwards, because she heard that it wasn’t a stern question.
She turned over and lay flat on her back, not looking at the person beside her, but staring at the ceiling and saying quite seriously,
“Punish me by making me cook.”
Zhu Yiqiao’s expression was indifferent: “Why?”
“Because I’m not used to the food here in Taiya.”
The local tastes of Taiya, like their passionate and unrestrained demeanor in the international community, were spicy. Every dish contained various colorful chili peppers, each with its own unique spiciness.
And Ming Fei, always considerate, had already noticed at the banquet that Zhu Yiqiao couldn’t handle spicy food, but because she didn’t want to appear as if she was trying to figure out Zhu Yiqiao’s preferences, she vaguely said that she couldn’t handle it herself.
Through the hazy night, Zhu Yiqiao’s voice was soft.
“Mm.”
Ming Fei, with her healthy sleep schedule, gradually became sleepy and closed her eyes after a few minutes.
She was a still sleeper, basically waking up in the same position she fell asleep in. Therefore, she was quite confident that she wouldn’t cross the line.
The soft and comfortable bed enveloped the two people with different dreams.
Zhu Yiqiao was a light sleeper. During her service, any slight movement would make her open her eyes immediately, ready for anything.
But tonight, her eyelids felt heavy as lead. The pear scent that had permeated the room seemed to seep into her dreams, making her sleep particularly soundly.
The latest hotel regulations issued by the relevant departments of Taiya required hotels to provide personalized services to meet the needs of various groups of people.
The soft and comfortable intelligent bed No. re2326 in the bedroom had multiple functions, including automatic adjustment. Since it detected that the two newlyweds were too far apart, the intelligent bed, which hadn’t been turned off, automatically closed the gap between them.
After confirming that the distance between the two had been completely eliminated, the intelligent bed also entered sleep mode.
Soon after, the cold rabbit burrowed into the warm nest of the large feline.
Ming Fei didn’t have any nightmares this time.
She felt herself surrounded by a warm fragrance, as if she had fallen into a tree hollow made of pine, fir, and torreya.
Her biological clock gradually woke her up at seven in the morning. She lingered in the warmth of the bed, struggling with sleepiness for a while before slowly opening her dark eyes. But as soon as she opened her eyes, the situation in front of her almost made her face flush crimson.
She didn’t know why…
The pillow between them was gone. Not only had she crossed the demarcation line, but she was also half-hugging Zhu Yiqiao, her head buried in her shoulder and neck.
Ming Fei froze, her breathing stopping for a beat.
She apologized inwardly and carefully withdrew without disturbing Zhu Yiqiao’s sleep. Only after completely moving to the other side did her breathing return to normal.
This offensive act wasn’t intentional. After repeating her apologies three times in her heart, she got up and covered the still-sleeping Zhu Yiqiao with the blanket before hurrying into the bathroom.
Ming Fei was usually a very still sleeper. She really couldn’t understand how this had happened.
The mirror on the vanity reflected her current appearance.
Ming Fei buttoned up her collar, which had come undone, and rubbed her increasingly hot face, ordering her cheeks to stop rising in temperature. But her order had no effect at all. It wasn’t until she finished washing up and making breakfast that the temperature on her face finally went down.
Because the hotel guests were all public officials, to ensure food safety, the hotel prohibited ordering food from third parties. If they didn’t eat the three meals provided by the hotel, they could only eat out or cook themselves.
Ming Fei chose to cook with the ingredients in the refrigerator.
She cooked very quickly, every step already memorized.
When she placed the blueberry pancakes and caramel cinnamon toast, made according to Zhu Yiqiao’s taste, on the dining table, Zhu Yiqiao, having finished washing up, had already arrived in the living room.
Their eyes met briefly, and Ming Fei looked away: “Morning.”
Zhu Yiqiao: “Morning.”
The dining table in the living room was only suitable for sitting face to face. Ming Fei served Zhu Yiqiao a bowl of porridge that had been simmering for half an hour, not trying to probe whether she remembered what had happened last night.
Instead, it was Zhu Yiqiao who asked, “Why did the bed shrink?”
Ming Fei, who had already asked the staff, lowered her eyes and said, “It’s the latest intelligent adjustable bed. We didn’t turn it off last night, and it… probably detected that we were too far apart, so it automatically adjusted the size of the bed.”
Zhu Yiqiao looked at her: “So, this is the punishment you gave yourself?”
Ming Fei pursed her lips: “Mm.”
She added, “But even without punishment, I would still get up and make breakfast. I’m not used to the food here, and I don’t want to eat spicy bread first thing in the morning.”
In this respect, Ming Fei felt that Zhu Yiqiao was very similar to Ming Zaozao, because Ming Zaozao also preferred sweet food and had a very low tolerance for spicy food.
Once, when eating biscuits, Ming Zaozao hadn’t seen the icon on the biscuit package clearly and mistook the spicy flavor for tomato flavor. After taking a bite full of anticipation, she almost cried from the spiciness.
Later, Ming Zaozao gave all the spicy biscuits to their neighbor in Hui Fu Garden.
Recalling the past with her daughter, Ming Fei’s eyes softened with a smile.
“Do you usually do the cooking?”
Ming Fei nodded: “Mm, back in Hui Fu Garden, Aunt Wang was only responsible for taking care of Zaozao. Only when I was busy would I ask her to help cook for Zaozao.”
Zhu Yiqiao put down her spoon: “Do you like cooking?”
“I can’t say I like it…”
Ming Fei paused and then smiled: “I grew up in an orphanage. There were many children in the orphanage, and sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat. I was very young then. Although I never complained about the food in the cafeteria, I would still crave the food in the pictures I saw in books.”
“After having Zaozao, I wanted her to not only have enough to eat, but also to taste all kinds of delicious food. And I happened to be interested in this, so I studied with a professional chef for a while. After that, I’ve always been the one cooking.”
Hearing this, Zhu Yiqiao’s expression remained unchanged.
She suddenly remembered some of the things Ming Zaozao had told her.
Cooking, handicrafts, reading, and hobbies like fishing and mountain climbing, which had nothing to do with excitement and challenges, almost occupied all of Ming Fei’s free time.
But such hobbies would never appear in any alpha in the Ole Empire.
Due to the Ole Empire’s training standards for alphas, most alphas’ hobbies were aggressive, dangerous, offensive, and even things they did knowing they shouldn’t.
Moreover, alphas in the Ole Empire basically didn’t learn to cook, because according to the common standard, alphas believed that it was the responsibility and obligation of omegas or betas.
If an alpha in the Ole Empire cooked, it would definitely make headlines, because it would shock all the alphas.
After taking a sip of coffee, Zhu Yiqiao asked, “Did you differentiate at seventeen?”
“Mm.”
“Were there any predictions before that?”
Ming Fei replied, “That shouldn’t count as a prediction. It’s just that when many people thought I would differentiate into an omega or beta, a doctor who often gave physical checkups at the orphanage told everyone that I would most likely differentiate into an alpha.”
No matter when they differentiated, the belligerence and danger engraved in an alpha’s genes would gradually train them into the standard alpha defined by the Ole Empire.
But the alpha in front of her was completely different.
This made Zhu Yiqiao even more interested: “Do you agree with the Kerry Declaration issued by the Ole Empire?”
The Kerry Declaration was named to commemorate Kerry, the first scientist to study human differentiation. After this declaration was issued, the Ole Empire officially divided humans into six groups and six levels, and implicitly proposed training standards for each group at the end of the declaration.
Almost everyone in the Ole Empire agreed with the Kerry Declaration, after all, everyone accepted the concept that differentiation was a matter of survival of the fittest.
And Ming Fei happened to be one of the very few who disagreed.
She met Zhu Yiqiao’s gaze. Although she didn’t know the Chief Judge’s attitude towards the Kerry Declaration, and although she was always gentle and shy, on this matter, she would always firmly express her stance and attitude.
“—I don’t agree.”
She said decisively, “I reject any definition in the Kerry Declaration and don’t recognize its stigmatization of ordinary people.”
After breakfast, Ming Fei, alone in the hotel, finally had time to turn on her phone.
The news of last night’s attack had long been reported by major media outlets, and her photo, as Zhu Yiqiao’s newlywed partner, had also spread along with the news.
The hotel’s public network happened to be down last night. After struggling with it, she was exhausted, so she turned off her phone to have a peaceful night.
Now that she was fully prepared, she had the time and energy to face the barrage of messages.
The top message in the chat software was from Li Xing, with a total of ninety-nine messages, including various emojis.
Ming Fei browsed through them one by one, her gaze stopping at the latest message received at two o’clock this morning.
[[Little bird going crazy.jpg]]
[You actually hid this from me, I’m really a little angry. But as a good friend, I still forgive you.]
[Happy wedding [rose.jpg][congratulations.jpg][fireworks.jpg]]
[Latest transfer 9999 Remarks: A long and happy life together]
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