Chapter 35
The closed space made Vanessa feel depressed.
Even, Vanessa didn't know how to answer Shawn.
Shawn didn't say anything and just looked at Vanessa.
It was he who had taken action, but it was he who insisted on waiting for an answer.
Her silence became more and more difficult to maintain under Shawn's gaze.
It was absolutely quiet. She could only hear her heartbeat. The heartbeat in her ear was "banging, banging", louder and louder.
Her heart seemed to beat fast and could not supply blood. Even the oxygen began to be insufficient, and she began to lose weight.
Vanessa's throat itched.
Vanessa wanted to stretch out her hand to press her chest, let it stop beating wildly, to give her rational thinking to answer Shawn's question.
But everything was out of her control.
She even began to wonder if he would hear her deafening heartbeat.
They looked at each other silently. The elevator suddenly rang.
Vanessa did not hear or notice that the sense of weightlessness had disappeared.
Until the elevator door opened, two blonde foreigners stood outside. Seeing this scene, they were stunned and said, "Hello? Excuse?"
Vanessa suddenly came to her senses. Vanessa caught a glimpse of the foreigners, immediately took back her hand, and walked out.
Vanessa's hand still had Shawn's warmth. She dropped her hand to the hem of her skirt, which had a burning feeling. It was like the burning of a warm fire, gradually warming her whole body.
Shawn followed her at a leisurely pace.
Vanessa in front walked quickly, hung her head, and said nothing.
After a few seconds, Shawn stopped moving, even holding his arms to see what she would do.
"Vanessa, do you know where your room is?"
Vanessa even went in the wrong direction.
Sure enough, Vanessa paused and turned around to walk toward him.
Vanessa was still lowering her head. She seemed to ignore Shawn.
Until she almost passed by him, she still looked like that.
Shawn calmly looked at her coldly passing by him, and finally reached out impatiently to take her hand.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Shawn and Vanessa, one facing north and the other facing south, stood with their shoulders crossed.
"I'm thinking about something."
Vanessa looked at the wide-open window at the end of the corridor in front of her and said expressionlessly.
Shawn said, "What?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes and then slowly retreated to Shawn.
"I was wondering, did you just kiss me?"
Shawn, "...."
He raised his eyebrow.
Vanessa said, "I'm not dreaming, am I? It's too unreal."
Shawn, "...."
Vanessa stood on her feet. "Would you like to kiss me again?"
"..."
There was s gust of draught. It was very cool. It also had some effects of temporarily sobering up.
Sure enough.
One could not use normal logic to explore what Vanessa was thinking.
Seeing that he was silent, Vanessa went even further, pulling his sleeve and shaking it.
"I just didn't feel it. Do it again?"
"Every exam has a chance to make up."
"I apply for a make-up exam."
A moment later, Shawn grabbed her sleeve, pulled it apart, and then pressed her shoulders, forcing her to turn left.
"Go back to bed."
Vanessa was pushed to the door, and the room card was directly taken out of her coat pocket. He swiped the card to open the door. A series of actions were done in one go. Vanessa didn't even have a chance to struggle.
Not at all.
When Shawn was about to close from the outside, Vanessa grabbed the door, cocked her head, and looked up pitifully. "Don't you do it again? I really didn't feel anything."
Shawn had no expression, wrenched her hands from the door, and then closed the door without hesitation.
Snap. The door was closed.
Inside and outside the door, the atmosphere suddenly changed.
Vanessa's whole body was exhausted, and the expression on her face disappeared. She had to lean against the door to support herself to stand. She stared at the opposite wall blankly.
Outside the door, Shawn stared at the door for a long time before leaving.
This night, Vanessa spent a long time in the hotel bathtub, trying to get rid of all her panic.
Vanessa thought, "Don't panic. If I panic at this time, all the efforts will be in vain.
I should be the one who leads all this.
How do I feel that I'm passive..."
Until the water was cold, Vanessa got up slowly, and came out with a bath towel. There were winding water stains on the ground.
...
On the morning of the first day of Krencher Forum, there were two meetings, namely, "Financial Risk Contagion From the Stock Market" from 9:00 to 10:00 and "New Vision for Industrial Cooperation" from 10:30 to 11:30.
In the morning, Vanessa's alarm clock and the hotel's wake-up service rang at the same time.
She sat up with her hands with her head aching and went to the bathroom to have a look at her face.
As expected, she had heavy dark circles under her eyes.
Fortunately, she brought a full set of cosmetics on this trip.
She just came out a few minutes later than the appointed time.
Shawn stood at the door of her room, looked at his watch, and knocked helplessly.
Shawn's helplessness was not because Vanessa was a little late, but because he vaguely felt that he couldn't decide what new tricks Vanessa would do these two days.
Vanessa had no other skills. Her tricks were absolutely impossible for ordinary people to parry.
Vanessa inside didn't respond, so Shawn had to call her.
But as soon as he dialed, the door opened.
Vanessa in front of him was wearing a white shirt and a beige pencil skirt. A coat was in her hand and her hair was pinned behind her ears. She looked perfect.
Her makeup was appropriate, and her look was natural.
When Shawn thought of her "asking for kissing" last night, he was still not used to it.
Shawn even felt that she had a great bad idea.
However, until they got into the car, Vanessa had been obedient. She sat quietly aside, demurely like a textbook female anchor.
Vanessa looked normal but abnormal.
"Have you had breakfast?"
Shawn asked.
Vanessa nodded, "Yes, how about you?"
Shawn glanced at her. "Yep."
She smiled and looked straight ahead.
Vanessa quietly cheered herself up.
She thought, "Well, continue being calm. I can. I have the upper hand."
The car drove smoothly towards the meeting.
A few minutes later, Vanessa's mobile phone vibrated. Someone in the group had mentioned her.
This group was called Lantrie Financial Reporter Circle. It was not a work group, but a group of private peers. The purpose was to promote exchanges and mutual assistance in the circle.
There were magazine reporters like Vanessa, TV station reporters, and new media reporters.
Lantrie Finance Channel - Eliza: @ Financeweek - Vanessa Are you in Boynton? Did I just see you? At the gate of Oxley Hotel, is it you who wear a camel coat?
Lantrie Finance Channel - Eliza: Are you coming to Krencher Forum this time?
Vanessa glanced at the messages. She didn't plan to reply, so she ignored them. Anyway, there would be many messages in the crowd.
But Tracy was also in the group. When she saw it, she immediately sent a private voice to Vanessa.
Vanessa glanced at Shawn and saw that his attention was not on her. She put her mobile phone to her ear and pressed to play the voice.
In the next second, Tracy's highly recognizable voice suddenly sounded on the car stereo.
"Why did you go to Boynton? For Krencher Forum? Didn't you say you were with your father?"
Vanessa, "...."
Tracy's voice was played, clearly heard in the quiet car.
Vanessa's hand holding her mobile phone stopped in her ear.
At that moment, she even suspected that she had heard wrong.
How could her voice be played in the car?
But Shawn's reaction dispelled her luck.
He turned his head and narrowed his eyes.
"With dad?"
Vanessa was silent.
The driver in the front row coughed, and then she remembered that when she came last night, she thought the music played by the driver was not good, so she used Bluetooth to link her cell phone to the car.
So as soon as she got into the car, Bluetooth was automatically connected.
Vanessa, "...."
Shawn raised his hand and propped it on the armchair behind her.
"It's shameful to go out with me?"
Vanessa tried not to panic, "No..."
"Well, so..." Shawn seemed to understand and nodded, "So you have this kind of interest."
Vanessa turned her head. "What interest?"
Shawn looked straight ahead and gently said.
"So you like to call me dad."
He also nodded, as if to accept this "interest".
Vanessa, "...."
Since then, Vanessa had to be obedient even if she didn't want to.
Otherwise, she thought that Shawn would force her to call him "dad".
...
The benefits of attending Krencher Forum with Shawn were obvious.
As a strategic partner who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, Shawn got more preferential treatment than ordinary members who paid tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Shawn and Vanessa were sitting in the first row. The host and four guests on the stage talked about one topic after another with confidence and composure, which caused applause from the audience from time to time.
The atmosphere was already high even if it was the first round.
Vanessa, who was beside Shawn, was very quiet. She looked at the people on the stage with focused eyes. From time to time, she thought. She didn't even notice that Shawn had seen her several times.
Shawn didn't know whether he felt strange or not used to it.
After the kiss last night, he thought it was normal for Vanessa to act abnormally.
But Vanessa acted calmly.
What was she thinking day by day?
Until the end of the first meeting, Vanessa finally began to have many actions.
Her subtle actions did not attract the attention of others, but Shawn caught a glimpse of all her strange movements.
She trimmed her skirt and tucked in her clothes.
For a while, she changed the position where her legs overlapped, and for a while, she glanced at him.
His fingers were still digging gently on the handrail. It seemed that she wanted to say something, but she hesitated.
Shawn suddenly held her hand, pressed it on the handrail, and whispered, "What do you want to do?"
Vanessa struggled a little, but without pulling back her hand, she hesitated and said, "After this round, I want to go back to the hotel."
The two whispered.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing..."
Shawn gave her a deep look.
Again.
Sure enough, Vanessa wasn't obedient.
But she didn't explain, and her cheeks were red, so Shawn had no choice but to agree.
"Tell me when you arrive."
Vanessa nodded.
When the meeting was over, she left quietly.
Fortunately, the venue was not far from the hotel. Within 20 minutes, she went back to her room and called the reception staff to ask for something.
She hurried to the washroom to change her underwear and tampon. The moment Vanessa went to bed, she felt dizzy and had terrible pain in her lower abdomen.
She kicked off her shoes, clutching the pillow, and slowly curled up to the corner of the bed.
...
At 11:30, the second meeting ended on time.
As soon as Shawn got up, he was stopped by the host of the meeting before he left the venue.
This was the host of a financial TV station. He had met Shawn several times. Now he was inviting Shawn to lunch.
Shawn agreed. The host glanced around him and asked, "Is the lady who came with you coming?"
In fact, just on the stage, he saw Shawn and Vanessa whispering and acting intimately, mostly in that kind of relationship.
But the host thought, what if not? Wasn't that embarrassing?
"She is not feeling well. She has already returned to the hotel. She's very spoiled. She shouldn't be able to come."
The host knew the relationship between Shawn and Vanessa according to Shawn's tone and expression. The host nodded and said, "Let's wait for another chance. I think she is very interested in the topic today."
Shawn agreed casually.
Later, Shawn and Barron went out together. Shawn looked at his mobile phone. There were no messages from Vanessa.
He called Vanessa, but no one answered.
"Ask the hotel." Shawn ordered Barron, "What's the matter with her?"
Shawn didn't need to explain who "she" was. Barron handled everything properly.
A few minutes later, Barron said, "She went back to the hotel and asked the reception staff for a box of painkillers."
"Painkillers?"
Shawn looked at his wristwatch and said, "Go to lunch instead of me."
Barron nodded.
But Barron felt annoyed.
Barron thought, "Why am I again?
I actually want to go back to the hotel to rest."
...
When Shawn stood at the door of Vanessa's room, he was about to knock on the door, but he paused.
The distance from the venue to the hotel was too close. He didn't react until this time. Why did he come back so instantly?
Stopping for a moment, Shawn dropped his hand and took out his mobile phone.
The ringtone rang for a long time, until the call hung up automatically. Shawn raised his hand again and rang the doorbell.
Like the ringtone, the doorbell rang three times and no one answered.
Shawn frowned and turned to the elevator.
At noon, the sunlight sparsely splashed on the bed through the curtains, revealing mottled shadows on the pure white sheets.
Vanessa was in a cold sweat. Her clothes were soaked and stuck to her body. She was so uncomfortable that she was in a bad mood when she woke up vaguely.
At the same time, there was a bell ringing in her ears. She gave an irritable "tut", pushed away her pillow, and reached for her mobile phone.
The mobile phone was not touched. She touched warmth.
Vanessa slowly opened her eyes. She turned around and saw Shawn's face beside her bed.
And her hand was touching his wrist.
"How ... did you come in?"
Shawn looked down at her fingers, then held her hand and stuffed it into the quilt.
"If I don't come back, are you going to suffer alone?"
Maybe she was dizzy after taking the medicine. Vanessa was confused for a long time before she realized the current situation.
Although what he said was not very pleasant, he seemed to know that she was ill and came back to see her.
Vanessa didn't speak, her pale face had not a trace of blood, and her eyes were misty. She stared at him, but she wasn't angry as usual.
Shawn felt sorry for her. Like a sigh, he asked in a low tone, "What's wrong?"
One was always very vulnerable when he was ill. This truth had never changed.
No one was around when she was hammering and gnawing at the pillow in pain.
That kind of helplessness could easily be infinitely magnified, making her feel like she had been abandoned by the world.
At this moment, Vanessa felt warm by his appearance.
She couldn't think about anything else.
But...
"I hurt..."
Vanessa covered the quilt and finished the words feebly, only to find out her voice had changed.
Actually, it didn't hurt that much.
But she just acted like she was terminally ill.
"Where does it hurt?"
Shawn asked.
Vanessa said hoarsely, "I hurt everywhere."
Shawn, "...."
When Shawn slowly straightened up, he slowly smiled.
It seemed that he had seen through her acting skills.
Vanessa felt embarrassed and hurriedly said, "It didn't hurt so much. Just coax me."
Shawn looked down to size her up.
"How to coax?"
"You just say..." Vanessa thought for a moment, "Why have I seen a fairy before I went to heaven?"
"..."
Shawn looked gloomy.
Then he went to the bedside, took off his suit coat, and sat on the sofa without expression.
When he looked up again, his tone became very helpless.
"Sleep, I'm right here."
"Fairy."