Proofread by Zhou Zhijie

The next morning, Song Chen comes to inform them that it is time to return to City H and everything is ready so that they can leave at any time.

When Ding Manman opens the door, she happens to see Zhong Shaoting making a call and right looking into her eyes. Ding looks away first and leaves as quickly as possible, as if he were some kind of monster.

Seeing this, Zhong tightens the phone suddenly. If he didn’t control his strength, the phone would be crushed into pieces in the next second.

Last night, Zhong Shaoting tossed and turned in bed for a whole night, trying to figure out why he failed to punish Ding after she defied him like that.

In the past, he would never allow this to happen. As Ding Manman leaves without looking back, Zhong’s eyes turn dark and gloomy. Recently many things have gone beyond his control and he feels he’s not himself any more.

All these must be attributed to Ding Manman. It seems that he has to keep her at a distance in order not to be further influenced by her after returning to City H.

As soon as they arrive at the villa in City H, Zhong Shaoting directly sends Ding Manman into the rose garden to pick one hundred roses without using any tool or asking for a helping hand from the servants, which means that she can only use her bare hands and she is not allowed to eat before finishing this job.

Actually Ding Manman is not really surprised at his punishment for what she did the previous night. On the contrary, what really surprises her is that Zhong Shaoting didn’t punish her directly or merely threw her out of the hotel right then.

So she does as he ordered. Under the scorching sun Ding Manman bends over in the rose garden and carefully picks one rose after another. No matter how careful she is, her hands are still cut by the thorns several times and the wounds hurt more and more.

When Sun Ling’er comes out of her room and passes the garden, she sees what Ding Manman is doing, and this makes her nearly heartbroken. But before she is going to get Ding into the room, Zhong Shaoting stops her.

“Brother, you are too cruel! How could you treat Sister Manman like this? Don’t you know that the thorns of these roses are sharper than those of the ordinary ones?”

Sun Ling’er complains to her brother querulously, as she can vaguely see beads of blood on Sister Manman’s hands, which makes her think that her brother has been acting too cruelly.

“It’s none of your business. The sin she has committed is enough to get her killed for hundreds of times. So this little punishment is relatively nothing to her.” Zhong talks to his sister without lifting his head, but in a slightly murderous tone.

Although she knows about her brother's temper, Sun Ling'er still tries to persuade him; after all, Sister Manman looks so poor.

“If Sister Manman must do this, you can let her do it in the late afternoon. With the burning sun directly over her head, and with no water to drink, Sister Manman is likely to faint from sunstroke. Will you enjoy it, Brother?”

Although she blames him, Sun Ling’er is immediately cowed by only one harsh look from Zhong, and she lowers her head cowardly. She has to admit that she is really afraid of his brother in her heart.

“If you dare to step in, you have to move out from this house and live alone.” After saying this, Zhong stands up and walks back to the study, during which he doesn’t give one glance at the rose garden outside at all.

Looking at her brother’s haughty figure, Sun Ling’er stamps her feet with anger. This wooden head! He definitely cares about Sister Manman, but he just won’t admit it! He really deserves being single!

Sun Ling’er still worries about Ding Manman, but she knows that Zhong Shaoting will act on what he says. So at last Sun Ling’er can do nothing but ask the maids to make some cool herbal drinks for Ding Manman to resist the heat.

When one hundred roses are finally picked, Ding Manman’s hands are so seriously injured that they are beyond recognition. Besides her ten wounded fingers, her head is also dizzy because of the exposure to the scoring sun for several hours. Even in such a condition, she has to take the roses to Zhong herself.

She can still remember that once after picking the roses she was so tired that she asked someone else to take the roses to him and went to bed directly. As a result, Zhong Shaoting was so irritated that he woke her up in the middle of her sleep and told her to do the work once again.

This time Ding Manman tries to drag her tired body up to the study on the second floor. When finally reaching the door, Ding finds her hands are too seriously injured to open it, so she can only knock at the door with difficulty.

The door opens quickly. Putting the one hundred roses on Zhong’s desk, Ding Manman finds him talking on the phone with his back to her.

In Ding Manman’s memory, Zhong Shaoting has always been so busy that he is either talking about company affairs on the phone or attending conferences. If possible, she really hopes that he could be busier, in which case he will forget about her. But it is impossible.

“Here are the one hundred roses.” Ding Manman says in a hoarse voice resulting from drinking no water for a long time.

Hearing this, Zhong Shaoting turns back and a cluster of bright red roses leaps into his sight. Ding Manman just stands in front of the desk, looking at him expressionlessly with blood still dripping from the wounds on her hands.

Watching the blood on her hands dropping on the carpet, Zhong Shaoting feels his heart tightens, especially when he sees her dry lips and pale face. Suddenly, his heart pains as if being pricked by the rose thorns, so painfully that he knits his brows tightly and even forgets to talk on the phone.

Zhong, who turns silent abruptly, makes Ding kind of confused. Raising her head, Ding finds him staring at her hands which are bleeding and leaving red stains on the carpet.

With a nervous look, Ding immediately takes her hands back to her chest, as she knows that Zhong Shaoting is not only bad-tempered but also has mysophobia, the serious kind.

The carpet looks very expensive. It is possible that Zhong will blame her for getting it stained.

“I didn’t mean to…” Ding Manman unconsciously starts to apologize to Zhong who looks unhappy, but she is instantly interrupted.

“Get out right now! Don’t dirty my room.” At his cold and emotionless words, Ding Manman’s whole body stiffens and then she lowers her head and retrieves from the room as rapidly as she can.

Looking at the half-closed door, Zhong Shaoting remembers what he said to Ding just now. In fact, he only felt unpleasant to look at those wounds and intended to hasten her to get her hands dressed quickly. But his words finally came out in a totally contrary way.

Just then, he suddenly hears a maid’s scream downstairs. Knowing something has gone wrong, he immediately rushes out of the study and looks downstairs where he finds the scared maid pointing to Ding who has fallen to the ground.

After walking out of the study, Ding feels dizzier with her feet getting heavier. At last her legs couldn’t carry her even one step forward. She couldn’t sustain herself any more and falls to the ground in the hall.