“The Black Knight of Atlantis,” Annabel said with a bright smile, as if deliberately raising her tone.
“How do you know?” Khanyi looked at her friend in surprise.
“Who doesn’t know? Even the women of the entire empire are crazy for him, but only you have the fortune to see that moving performance,” Annabel said while sizing her up. Khanyi’s eyes sparkled with a captivating glimmer, and even the tears at the corners of her eyes seemed as sentimental as morning dew on rose petals by the lake.
She leaned down, showing a somewhat shy demeanor, massaging her ankle, and said softly, “He once said that love is an uncontrollable desire and impulse from the heart, sweet yet mixed with pain. When it hits me like a storm, I have no strength to resist. I don’t know if this is called love…”
“My dear Lin Mei, you are so in love that you don’t even know where you are!” Annabel was almost exasperated, rolling her eyes at her. “Does your ankle still hurt?”
“Much better,” Khanyi stuck out her tongue at her playfully. “Actually, it’s not that painful.”
In the afternoon, she accompanied Annabel to a fitness class. Perhaps due to not exercising for too long, her limbs were sore, and she fell asleep drowsily on the bed. Suddenly, the ringing of the phone startled her awake. She picked up the receiver, and his voice came through.
“Baby, did you have a good day?”
“Um… I went to a fitness group with Annabel this afternoon,” she turned over, lying on her stomach. “Mr. Twelve, why are you calling me at this time?”
“Don’t you want to hear my voice? Then I’ll hang up…”
“No, don’t hang up…” she pouted softly, “I was just asking why you called now.”
He seemed to answer her question indirectly. “It’s raining heavily here. Did you hear? Thunder and lightning outside the window, and two panes of glass in my office were shattered by the wind, but they’ve already been fixed.”
“It’s a bit overcast here too, but it hasn’t rained,” Khanyi replied. She could hear the sound of rain pattering on the other end of the line, occasionally accompanied by a distant rumble of thunder. She wanted to say that if it was raining too heavily, he shouldn’t come back; the roads would be muddy and driving would be too dangerous.
But he continued, “Given this weather, I can’t say for sure whether the rain will stop by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Oh,” she replied softly, suddenly feeling a bit down, as if her mood had dropped to the bottom.
“So I’m leaving tomorrow noon, but I can’t estimate the travel time. If I arrive too late, you don’t have to wait for me…”
“Do you mean you still have to come back? Then be careful on the road.”
“I’ll have my driver drive. I can’t stand driving myself anymore. It’s a ten-hour round trip. You know I’ve been staring blankly at my desk all week, unable to concentrate. During lunch, I just sit there and fall asleep…”
“Who told you to suffer? Why not call the driver?”
He paused for a moment before saying, “I’m afraid he’ll laugh at me. Baby, that guy usually keeps quiet, but he knows everything inside…”
Khanyi felt a sense of pride in teasing him in her heart. It was ridiculous; he brought it upon himself!
He stood at the door, drenched for some reason, his black coat soaked through with rain.
She leaped down the stairs like a little bird, bouncing straight into his arms. He caught her, lifting her by the waist. “Baby!” He kissed her deeply on the lips, carrying her directly up the stairs and into the bedroom on the second floor…
The passion of the previous night had almost exhausted her strength, and she fell into a deep sleep in his embrace. He was the same, holding her waist, but clearly more fatigued than she was after driving for five hours back from his base.
She woke up to find herself lying in his arms, his sharp chin resting on her shoulder, tickling her a bit with his stubble. She shifted slightly, trying to push away his large hand that was wrapped around her chest. He remained asleep, and her attempt to escape his embrace elicited a dissatisfied grunt from him in his sleep.
She gazed closely at his face, marveling at how handsome he was. She held a magazine to cover the rest of his face, leaving only above the eyebrows visible. His eyebrows and high brow ridge, paired with his broad forehead and light golden curls, were too perfect. Then, she slowly lowered the magazine to reveal his eyes. Even though they were closed, his golden eyelashes and deep-set eyes looked so affectionate, even in sleep. His nose was so high, and his entire facial structure was so three-dimensional, with sensual lips that had no flaws at all. She casually flipped through the magazine’s cover featuring a male star, and compared to him, that star suddenly paled in comparison. In the end, she concluded that he should be acting in movies, not serving in the military.
