The mysterious CEO's endless pampering

Xiao Jinghao noticed that Shen Yanran was holding an exquisitely wrapped box, and knew that it was a birthday gift she had prepared for him. "Yanran, is this a gift for me?"

Shen Yanran said with a bright smile, "Well, one is a gift I prepared, and the other is a cake I made. Do you like them?"

Xiao Jinghao gently stroked Shen Yanran's hair and said with a smile, "I like it. I like anything you give me."

Shen Yanran was a little embarrassed. "Brother Xiao, you said you liked it even though you didn't know what I was going to give you. You're too good at talking."

Xiao Jinghao's amber eyes were fixed on Shen Yanran's fresh and beautiful face as he said affectionately, "I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I will like anything you give me, no matter what it is."

If Shen Yanran were Xiao Jinghao's girlfriend, she would be overjoyed to hear him say such romantic words.

But she wasn't like that. She had always felt like family to Xiao Jinghao, so she didn't want others to misunderstand, and she didn't want herself to misunderstand either. "Brother Xiao, I know you're good to me, but you can't say things like that to other girls in the future. You can only say them to your girlfriend."

Xiao Jinghao's expression gradually softened. "Really? But I don't have a girlfriend yet, so it's okay for me to tell you, isn't it?"

"It's fine for me, but it's different for you. What if some of the beautiful girls who have a crush on you misunderstand? Speaking of which, when are you planning to find me a sister-in-law?" Shen Yanran gave Xiao Jinghao a playful look.

She expected to see him embarrassed, but instead he just frowned and said, "I'm not interested in other women right now. Let's not talk about this anymore, let's go."

After Xiao Jinghao finished speaking, he took the things from her hand and turned to leave.

Shen Yanran stared at Xiao Jinghao's suddenly turned back, somewhat confused about the meaning of what he had just said.

What does it mean to be uninterested in other women?

What are you interested in?

A man...?

Shen Yanran shook her head vigorously, trying to shake off the strange thought from her mind. Please, it can't be true...

Xiao Jinghao drove Shen Yanran to a huge villa with a very stylish design, almost the same size as Li Zhanting's villa in the south of the city.

Looking out the car window at the opulent decor, Shen Yanran asked, "Brother Xiao, where is this?"

Xiao Jinghao said calmly, "This is my home."

"Your home?" Shen Yanran thought Xiao Jinghao would take her to some restaurant for her birthday, but she didn't expect to come directly to his home.

Xiao Jinghao parked the car properly in the garage and asked, "What's wrong with my house?"

Shen Yanran gently shook her head and said, "It's nothing. I thought we would celebrate our birthdays outside."

Just as she was about to unbuckle her seatbelt, a pair of beautiful, large hands reached out and said, "Let me help you."

Sensing the man's sudden approach, Shen Yanran instinctively backed away, saying, "Oh, thank you."

Xiao Jinghao realized that Shen Yanran was avoiding him, and his mood dropped a bit. "You're welcome, get out of the car."

After getting out of the car, Shen Yanran saw that there were more than a dozen particularly nice old cars parked in the garage. She couldn't help but wonder if all rich men were interested in collecting sports cars.

Previously, Li Zhanting's villa was filled with all sorts of supercars, some of which she didn't even know the names of.

Seeing Shen Yanran staring blankly at the sports cars, Xiao Jinghao assumed she liked them and generously said, "Yanran, which one do you like? I'll give it to you."

Shen Yanran immediately snapped out of her daze and refused, saying, "No, I just thought they looked nice and took a second look. Li Zhanting's old villa also had a lot of sports cars like these."

Xiao Jinghao didn't want to hear Li Zhanting's name on his birthday. "It's cold in the garage, let's go inside."

Shen Yanran didn't think much of it and followed them inside.

The villa was large and luxurious, but there was no one else besides the two of them.

Shen Yanran asked curiously, "Brother Xiao, do you live alone in this villa?"

Xiao Jinghao said with a somber expression, "Yes, I'm used to being alone."

It's understandable that Shen Yanran would become sensitive and dislike interacting with strangers, given the suffering he had endured in the Xiao family.

She glanced around the room, then suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh right, Brother Xiao, Wenqian also asked me to prepare a birthday gift for you. I almost forgot to give it to you. I hope you like it."

Shen Yanran remembered it just before leaving home, luckily she had packed it in her bag beforehand.

Xiao Jinghao glanced at the equally exquisitely packaged gift box, his expression unchanging. After accepting the gift, he didn't even give it a second look before setting it aside, saying in a low voice, "Thank her for me."

Shen Yanran asked curiously, "Aren't you going to open it and take a look?"

Xiao Jinghao raised his hand again and gently stroked her soft hair. "No rush, I'll go make you some food first."

"You can cook?" Shen Yanran felt that Xiao Jinghao seemed different from the older brother she used to know.

Looking into Shen Yanran's gentle and clear eyes, Xiao Jinghao asked calmly, "Yes, is it strange?"

"It's not strange, it's just a bit unexpected. I always felt that you weren't the kind of man who would be willing to cook. Have you forgotten what you said when you were a child?" In Shen Yanran's memory, Xiao Jinghao was the kind of man who was born with no connection to the kitchen.

When he was young, he said that men should do great things, and only incompetent men would cook for themselves.

Now that Xiao Jinghao has achieved success in his career, it's even less likely that he would cook for himself.

Xiao Jinghao seemed to recall the foolish thing he had said when he was a child, and smiled helplessly, saying, "Silly girl, people change."

Especially after finding someone you like, anything you said before can be disregarded.

However, he cannot tell Shen Yanran his true feelings yet, otherwise he is afraid he will not even be qualified to be her brother.

Xiao Jinghao pointed to the kitchen and continued, "I've prepared all the ingredients, all your favorites. I'll be able to cook them in a little while."

Shen Yanran pointed to herself in confusion, "What I like to eat? Brother Xiao, today is your birthday, you should make what you like to eat."

Xiao Jinghao smiled gently, "What you like to eat is what I like to eat."

After he finished speaking, he got up and went to the kitchen to cook.

Shen Yanran didn't know what to say for a moment, so she sat quietly in the living room and waited.

Just as the aroma began to waft over, Shen Yanran's phone rang.

Shen Yanran answered the phone immediately when she saw it was Li Zhanting calling. "Why are you calling me so early?"

It should be morning in the US now, and she wanted him to sleep a little longer.

Li Zhanting had just woken up and said in a slightly languid voice, "I dreamt about you last night, so I called you as soon as I woke up. Did you miss me?"

"Of course I miss him, how could I not?" Shen Yanran was too embarrassed to tell him that she had missed him terribly since the first day he left.

Li Zhanting said with some complaint, "If you miss me, why don't you call me? I'm always the one who comes to you."

Shen Yanran smiled helplessly and explained, "You're going there for work, not for tourism. I keep calling you because I'm afraid it will affect your work."

Li Zhanting said domineeringly, "Work is important, but not as important as you. Fortunately, I have about two more days to finish here, and then I can go back to see you."

Shen Yanran's face lit up with joy. "Really? Then tell me your landing time before you come back, and I'll take leave to pick you up."

Li Zhanting immediately refused, saying, "No, you're pregnant now. It takes more than an hour to get from home to the airport, which is very tiring. Just stay home and wait for me."

"That's fine, I'll cook you something delicious at home and wait for you to come back." Shen Yanran agreed verbally, but in her heart she was still thinking about picking him up from the airport as a surprise.

Shen Yanran was chatting away and didn't notice Xiao Jinghao busy in the kitchen at all.

Xiao Jinghao had so many delicious things he wanted to make for Shen Yanran, and he estimated that it would take more than an hour to finish making them all. He was worried that Shen Yanran would be bored waiting alone in the living room, and that she might get hungry at this time. So he thought that there were some cookies he had bought before in the living room, and he would let her have some to eat first.

To his surprise, when he came out of the kitchen, he saw Shen Yanran standing in front of the French windows with a sweet look on her face.

There's no need to guess; the person on the other end of that phone call must be Li Zhanting.

The tenderness in Xiao Jinghao's eyes instantly turned into jealousy, and he deliberately raised his voice to ask, "Yanran, who are you talking to on the phone?"

Li Zhanting immediately heard a man's voice on the phone. His face darkened instantly, and he asked in a cold voice, "Where are you? Who are you with?"

"I'm at Brother Xiao's house. It's his birthday today, so I came to keep him company. Wait a moment." Shen Yanran didn't notice anything amiss and turned to Xiao Jinghao, saying, "Brother Xiao, I'm on the phone with Li Zhanting. What's wrong?"

Xiao Jinghao pretended to be nonchalant and said, "It's nothing. I was just worried you'd get hungry while you were waiting for me, so I got you some biscuits. You can continue now, I'm going to the kitchen."

Shen Yanran did feel a little hungry. "Thank you, I'll eat in a bit."

Shen Yanran thought it wouldn't be convenient to talk while eating cookies, so she didn't plan to continue chatting with Li Zhanting. But before she could say goodbye, Li Zhanting asked in a cold voice, "You went to celebrate Xiao Jinghao's birthday, why didn't you tell me?"

"I forgot..." Shen Yanran really forgot. Recently, she didn't know if it was because of her pregnancy, but her memory had become very bad, and she would forget many things after a while.

So when he asked her earlier, she just said it directly. Anyway, it wasn't anything shameful, so she didn't need to hide it.

After waiting for a while without Li Zhanting speaking or hanging up the phone, Shen Yanran suddenly realized something and tentatively asked, "Are you angry?"