Mason Nightshade tucked the thin blanket around her, turned off the air conditioner in the room, and got up to retrieve something from the cabinet.

Aurelia Shaw turned over and then saw what Mason was holding. She frowned, "When did I get a fairy tale book here?"

"I left it last time I came," Mason said with a straight face, pulling a chair up to the bed and sitting down before opening the book.

Aurelia laughed, "I didn't know you had a habit of reading these kinds of books?" She remembered that his bookshelf was stocked with profound finance books and such, which she couldn't understand anyway.

Mason looked up and glanced at her, "I prepared it for you."

Aurelia was dumbfounded.

Before she could react, Mason began to speak, his voice smooth, gentle, and richly mellifluous, "Once upon a time, in a certain town, there was a very lovely girl. Not only was she smart and beautiful, but she was also kind-hearted. This girl had no mother, because her mother had passed away from illness when she was very young..."

Aurelia's face darkened like the bottom of a pot, as she looked at Mason with an expression as if caring for the mentally handicapped, "I'm not a three-year-old child!"

Was it really necessary to tell her fairy tales to coax her to sleep?

"Be good, close your eyes, and sleep," Mason coaxed, completely ignoring what she said.

"Mason Nightshade!" Aurelia gritted her teeth in anger.

This man totally treated her as if she was a minor child.

Mason frowned, "Or perhaps you want to fall asleep to piano music? Hold on, I'll arrange for a piano to be delivered here."

Mason pulled out his phone from his pocket, found Gustavo Yates's number, and was about to dial when Aurelia's gritted voice came.

"No need!"

Aurelia turned around, her back facing Mason, tacitly allowing him to tell fairy tales, feeling like if she wasn't tormented to death by her period, she was close to being infuriated to death by this man.

The clear, magnetic voice resonated, soothing and deep, like a lullaby comforting the soul.

Aurelia had her eyes open, not asleep. She had long known his voice was pleasant; there was a description that one's ears could get pregnant just from hearing it, and Mason fell into that category. He never sang, but his usual speaking voice was mesmerizing enough.

Time passed, and drowsiness came along with the man's clear and pure voice.

Aurelia yawned, her eyes misted over, seeing everything as a blur. Mason's voice continued unceasingly, finishing Cinderella and moving on to The Goose Girl, The Seven Feathers, Snow White... Aurelia wondered: was this man trying to make up for her childhood? Or did he truly want to spoil her as a child? Or perhaps, both?

During the night, one's heart is the most fragile, and at this moment, Aurelia had a strong urge to call Viscount Zhou and cancel all plans. This was quite nice as it was.

If only she hadn't finally fallen asleep.

-

Aurelia rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. Mason was not in the room, but the mattress next to her was sunken, bearing the traces of someone having slept there, no guesses needed: he had surely slept here last night.

Since Aurelia discovered he often crashed at her place, this man no longer even bothered to hide the fact that he had slept in the bed.

Perhaps she shouldn't have exposed him?

Very quickly, Aurelia dispelled that notion. If she hadn't exposed him, she guaranteed that with Mason's personality, he would absolutely climb through the window every night to sneak into her room to sleep.

Aurelia rubbed her temples, her headache intensifying. Mason's clinginess was beyond her imagination. In a few days, if Mason found out what she had done, how would he react? With anger, grief, fury... or would he want to kill her?

No matter which possibility it might be, she had to make him experience the same pain of betrayal.