Chapter 9
After I got sick, everything turned fuzzy.
I vaguely felt someone lift me up, carry me to a car, then carry me again into a living room.
Xander went into the kitchen.
When he came back, he had made me a cup of honeyed ginger tea for my hangover.
The smell alone made me want to refuse.
He kept holding the spoon to my lips.
I got annoyed and slapped it away.
The spoon clattered onto the floor.
The second I did it, the little bit of sobriety I had left came back.
I shouldn’t have done that.
Wouldn’t that make him irritated again?
I opened my mouth to apologize.
But Xander had already bent down, picked up the spoon, washed it, and come back.
Not a trace of impatience showed on his face.
He only coaxed me with practiced ease.
“Baby, I added more honey this time. Drink a little, okay?”
Seeing him like that made me bold again.
I started bossing him around without thinking.
Told him to get my pajamas.
Told him to put toothpaste on my toothbrush.
Told him to wipe my face for me because I didn’t want to move.
He did everything.
No complaint.
No resistance.
After that, he carried me to bed.
Wrapped me up.
Stayed until I finally drifted off.
When I woke the next morning, the other side of the bed was already empty.
I rubbed my forehead and remembered, in fragments, how I had spent the previous night ordering him around just because I was drunk.
Guilt hit me all over again.
Right then, Xander walked in wearing an apron.
“You’re awake,” he said. “Come eat.”
I looked at him.
And the first thing I noticed was the number above his head.
It had dropped by half.
I stared.
How?
How had it gone down so much?
Then I slowly remembered something from the night before.
Xander saying something about not being Lucas’s substitute.
The system spoke up timidly in my mind.
“Host… I think we got this wrong from the beginning.”
I went still.
“It’s possible,” the system continued weakly, “that he wasn’t irritated because you were bossy. He might have thought he was a stand-in for someone else. The main system came back online last night. I can finally check the other meters.”
I sat up immediately.
“What are they?”
The system read them one by one.
“Affection: one hundred percent.”
“Possessiveness: one hundred percent.”
“Conquest progress: ninety-nine percent.”
I almost lost the ability to breathe.
The system sounded dazed. “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a target with a breakup and a ninety-nine percent conquest rate. It means if you asked to get back together right now, he would probably hand you everything he owns and say thank you.”
Then, after a beat, it asked hopefully, “Host… do you want to accept the mission again? We can raise your bonus to forty million.”
I fell silent.
Because after Xander’s mother came to see me, I had taken that card home and stared at it for a very long time.
In the end, I put it away.
I never touched a single cent.
And now, with all those one-hundred-percent numbers floating in front of me, the thoughts in my head became a complete mess.
So Xander had always liked me.
He had never been tired of me.
Never hated how clingy I was.
Never hated how difficult I could be.
I looked toward the kitchen.
His black hair fell obediently over his forehead while he plated breakfast.
He noticed me staring and said naturally, “Food’s almost ready. Sit still for a minute.”
I took a deep breath.
Then I made my decision.
Forget the ninety million.
Forget the whole thing.
Forty million from the system was enough anyway.
Enough to take care of my parents.
Enough to live well.
Enough, I thought wildly, to support one very expensive Xander Hale if I had to.
The thought actually made me relax.
So when he carried breakfast over, I stopped him.
“Xander.”
He looked at me.
And I told him everything.