83: Forced Love Boss 8

Li Jin's observational skills were pushed to their extreme when it came to Wen Ci; he noticed that she didn't show the slightest hint of annoyance, but rather seemed happy every day.

This made small flowers bloom once again in his barren heart.

During one afternoon tea, Wen Ci looked out the window and unconsciously murmured, "...That translation of 'The Wasteland Moon' is said to be excellent, but unfortunately, it's out of print."

Another time, she took a bite of a pastry, her eyes brightened slightly, and she casually said to a maid nearby, "This reminds me of the osmanthus cake from that old shop I ate in Sucheng before; that delicate sweetness and osmanthus fragrance are hard to find elsewhere."

These words, spoken without intention but heard with purpose, all stirred ripples in Li Jin's heart.

He remained outwardly calm, but secretly, he immediately mobilized his vast network of resources.

In less than three days, that precious, out-of-print copy of 'The Wasteland Moon' was carefully stripped of any traces that might reveal its source, and along with several pieces of the old-fashioned osmanthus cake, air-freighted in special insulated boxes, still carrying the scent of Sucheng's morning dew.

These items were "accidentally" placed by the butler or a demure maid on Wen Ci's bedside table in her room, or on the small tea table next to the rattan chair where she often read.

Li Jin would never admit it was his doing.

He was like an awkward teenager hiding in the shadows, secretly giving candy to his crush, except this "teenager" wielded suffocating power.

He sat tensely in the monitoring room, holding his breath, watching Wen Ci on the screen return to her room and discover the book and the pastries.

Wen Ci picked up the book, her fingertips caressing the cover, and her eyes revealed genuine surprise and delight.

She opened the box, picked up a piece of osmanthus cake, and took a small bite; the familiar taste melted on her tongue.

She looked up, her gaze accurately directed at an inconspicuous decorative object in the corner of the room—a miniature camera was hidden there.

She turned towards that direction, her lips curving into a warm and knowing smile, like a spring breeze sweeping over ice. She spoke softly, as if to herself, yet also as if to the air:

"Thank you, I like it very much."

"This taste is very authentic; I haven't had it in a long time."

Behind the monitor screen, Li Jin's heart felt as if it had been fiercely clutched by an invisible hand, then suddenly released!

A tremendous, unprecedented ecstasy instantly overwhelmed him!

She smiled! She liked it! She said thank you! She recognized the taste! That smile was so genuine, like a ray of sunshine piercing through the gloom that had accumulated in his heart for years.

He almost couldn't control the upward curve of his lips.

However, ecstasy, like a tide, came quickly, but after it receded, it left behind a deeper, stickier self-loathing and a sense of gain and loss.

Was she thanking him for the gift? Or for... the person who gave the gift?

She guessed! She must have guessed!

Is she pitying me? Does she think I'm some kind of pervert, sneaking around, only daring to hide behind the monitors?

Will she find this kind of flattery cheap? Disgusting?

Joy and self-loathing tore at him wildly in his heart.

He abruptly leaned back in his chair, fingers raking through his hair, his breathing becoming heavy and ragged.

Wen Ci's warm smile on the screen now felt like a searing branding iron, burning his nerves.

He both yearned to gaze at her greedily and feared the pity or mockery hidden behind that smile.

A few days later, Li Jin's emotions seemed to have calmed down slightly due to Wen Ci's "feedback."

Although he remained taciturn, the suffocating tension around him seemed to loosen almost imperceptibly when he was near Wen Ci.

Wen Ci keenly caught this change. One afternoon, after he had finished processing documents and his aura was relatively less rigid, she brought him clear tea and stood by the desk, her gaze directed towards the small corner she had cultivated outside the window, and made her request in a soft yet clear voice:

"Mr. Li, that corner in the east garden gets a lot of sun. I'd like to plant some roses there, if that's alright?"

Her request instantly stirred up a massive storm in Li Jin's heart!

Roses? Garden corner?

That corner! Li Jin's pupils suddenly constricted! The highest level of alarm instantly blared in his mind!

That location—it was relatively the closest to the back wall of the main house! Although the wall itself was tall and sturdy, densely covered with electric wires, the words "wall" alone were enough to trigger his deepest fears!

She wants to plant flowers?

Or is she trying to observe the terrain under the guise of planting flowers? Looking for an opportunity?

Would rose vines become an aid for climbing?

Is she testing him? Is she plotting?

A huge panic, like a cold venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart, almost suffocating him!

He abruptly looked up, his gaze sharp as a knife, locking onto Wen Ci's face, trying to find the slightest hint of pretense, guilt, or calculation in her gentle, beautiful eyebrows and frank eyes.

However, he only saw clarity and... anticipation? A pure anticipation of having her own small flower bed?

The air seemed to freeze.

Li Jin's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his jawline taut as rock.

An internal struggle raged in his eyes—the instinct to imprison and a faint urge to please her, which he himself had never even noticed, battled fiercely.

Time passed, minute by minute, making it suffocatingly oppressive.

Eventually, the instinct to imprison seemed to be forcibly suppressed, but not gone; instead, it transformed into a resolve for even stricter surveillance.

He almost gritted his teeth, nodding stiffly, and squeezed out a monosyllable from deep in his throat:

"...Mm."

This was the greatest "concession" he could make. But immediately afterward, he added, his voice tight like metal scraping:

"It's... windy there. Be careful."

The subtext: Don't even think about making any moves; my eyes are everywhere!

Li Jin's "permission" was like an activation switch. Almost the moment Wen Ci turned and left the study, he pressed the intercom on his desk, his voice cold and hard as iron:

"Immediately arrange for 360-degree, dead-angle-free, high-definition hidden cameras to be installed around Wen Miss's flower bed, with the feed directly connected to my study and the main screen in the monitoring room.

Also, check the voltage of all electric fences near the flower bed and the induction alarm devices, ensuring they are at their highest sensitivity. Any life-form signal approaching the wall, even a bird, must immediately trigger an alarm!"

He was like an extremely anxious guardian, or rather, a panicked jailer.

He allowed her a small fantasy of planting flowers within a carefully designated "safe zone," a seemingly free corner.

But at the same time, under the guise of protection, he instantly built a higher, denser, and more invisible iron cage around her—composed of cold lenses, deadly electric currents, and omnipresent surveillance eyes.

Wen Ci got her small flower bed.

As she walked towards that corner with her small shovel and rose saplings, she could clearly feel the cold, focused gaze from a window in the main house or a hidden corner, clinging to her like a physical presence.

The sunlight shone on the freshly turned earth and the tender green saplings, and also on the electric fence at the top of the distant wall, which gleamed with a cold metallic luster in the sun.

The tender rose buds swayed gently in the breeze, while a more intricate spiderweb woven from fear and possessiveness had silently enveloped her and her small world.

But she showed no fear at all; instead, she inadvertently smiled brightly and gently at the camera, "Mr. Li is truly a good person."

Just this simple sentence made Li Jin's pupils constrict violently in front of the monitor.

She actually... said he was good?