Su Yue watched Chen Ziming seem very interested in her desk, even reaching out to lightly trace its surface.
"Why do I feel like you're quite attached to my desk?" she asked with amusement.
He didn't answer, merely lifting the corner of his lips slightly.
Su Yue paid it no mind, suddenly remembering something. She reached into a hidden corner and retrieved a key, unlocking the bottom drawer.
"Look, these are all my childhood photos," she exclaimed, pulling out several photo albums.
Her childhood had been difficult, but Jiang Ling had still managed to keep a few photos for her.
Chen Ziming looked at the photos of the pretty, cute little girl. Her round little face was smiling, yet there was a hint of sadness in her smile.
When he had studied criminal psychology back then, he had seen faces like this.
Children's minds were pure; no matter what they encountered, a little effort to amuse them would usually elicit a smile.
But children with psychological trauma smiled differently. Most of them had eyes turned slightly downward, their gazes dim, and only the corners of their mouths were deliberately upturned.
His heart suddenly ached, a slight redness touching the corners of his eyes.
She, however, was completely unaware, smiling as she told him about the place she lived as a child and how these photos were taken.
As she was talking, she was suddenly pulled into his embrace.
The man's low, husky voice resonated from above her head, "I don't want to see them. Please put them away, my darling."
Su Yue blinked in surprise, then understood that he had connected them to the tragic childhood she had described earlier.
She couldn't help but chuckle. Separating from him, she stifled her laughter and asked, "What's this for? I don't even care about it anymore, and you're still hung up on it?"
He didn't respond, instead closing the photo album himself.
Su Yue had intended to mention that there were photos from later periods, but she recalled that her life hadn't improved much after she came under Su Minghua's control.
With a sigh, she prepared to put the albums back.
Just then, Jiang Ling's voice called out, as if asking for her help with something.
"Then I'll go out first." Suspecting Jiang Ling wanted to speak with her privately, she left him in the bedroom.
Chen Ziming sat down at the desk. After a moment of thought, he still reached out his handsome fingers and touched the somewhat aged photo album.
He then proceeded to flip to the later pages.
He was, after all, curious about her past.
Her expression in the later photos was much more cheerful, suggesting that Su Minghua hadn't actually done much to her.
However, when he turned to a certain page, a letter sealed in plastic caught his eye.
He hadn't intended to read it, but a visible sentence piqued his interest.
"The item I'm sending you this time is small and portable. Remember to carry it with you, and keep it under your pillow when you sleep."
The signature was Baili Qing.
A sense of unease crept in. He gently pulled it out and slowly unfolded it.
The letter's content was mostly Baili Qing's observations from her time at the local news station.
But in the final paragraph, she had added this sentence out of the blue.
Hearing approaching footsteps, Chen Ziming quickly folded the letter, put it back, and then closed the photo album, restoring the scene to how Su Yue had left it.
"My mom insisted I give this to you as a gift," Su Yue said, walking back in with a slightly sullen expression, holding out a gift box.
Chen Ziming raised an eyebrow, accepted the box, and found a rather expensive watch inside.
The corner of his mouth curved into a smile. He immediately extended the hand wearing the watch towards her, saying, "Help me put it on."
His watch was hundreds of times more expensive than the one Jiang Ling had given her, which made Su Yue feel a little awkward when she first entered.
Now that he extended his hand, asking her to change it, she complied.
"What, my mom gave you so many gifts, and I can't even receive a watch?" Chen Ziming chuckled, teasing her as she still looked subdued.
The hand that was changing his watch paused. Su Yue lowered her gaze and replied, "No, I was just afraid this watch, costing tens of thousands, wouldn't be worthy of your status as a young master."
His brow furrowed. He asked, word by word, "Young... Master?"
Then, before she could answer, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "My darling, your political awareness needs to be heightened. You can't use that title on me."