Chapter 55: Chapter 55: You Can Stay in My Room Tonight

Gu Ning sat in the back seat, not daring to move.

She kept her head down, pretending she hadn’t heard.

Kloer heard.

He was just about to open the other rear door when he heard Alex’s words. He immediately pulled open the front passenger door and got in.

"..." Alex rubbed his temples and said to Kloer, "Get out."

"Huh?" Kloer asked, confused. "Boss, didn’t you tell me to sit in the front?"

’Just a moment ago, I was thinking about sitting in the back to talk to the little Mixed Breed.’

After the whole tour of the police station, he had a bellyful of things to say.

The little Mixed Breed’s identity, in particular, had piqued his curiosity immensely.

"Go sit in the back." Alex didn’t have much patience for Kloer. "And you are not to say a single word tonight."

Kloer: "...Boss, we’re already out of the police station."

’Is he trying to kill me by making me hold my tongue?’

Under Alex’s somewhat cold gaze, Kloer had no choice but to move back to the rear seat.

As his huge frame settled in next to Gu Ning, she felt the seat sink down.

She shrank to the side, trying to minimize her presence as much as possible.

She was still clinging to a sliver of hope that Alex and Kloer would treat her like she was invisible.

However, two pairs of eyes were fixed on her.

"Sit here." Alex patted the passenger seat, his tone more patient with her than it had been with Kloer.

His voice was calm, and he showed no signs of anger.

But this only made Gu Ning more anxious.

’Has he figured out my identity or not?’

’If he hasn’t, can I keep pretending to be Cook?’

After a moment of internal struggle, Gu Ning resigned herself to her fate and moved to the passenger seat.

What was coming was unavoidable. She’d have to face him sooner or later, regardless of whether he’d discovered her identity.

Unless she could run away right now. Otherwise, with the amount of attention Alex paid her, it would be useless to hide anywhere in Zone 19.

"What are you looking for?"

Alex asked, watching Gu Ning feel around after getting into the car.

Gu Ning fumbled for the seatbelt for a long time without finding it. She turned to look at Alex and saw he wasn’t wearing one either.

’Do cars in the Beastman World not even have seatbelts?’

She stopped looking and sat obediently with her hands on her knees.

Seeing her settled and still, Alex started the car and drove toward the construction site.

No one in the car spoke. The silence made Gu Ning a little flustered.

In that short time, she had already calmed down and thought of a strategy to deal with Alex’s questions.

The main tactic was: as long as he didn’t ask, she wouldn’t say anything. The moment he did, she’d act surprised.

"You went to the Central District to rent an apartment?"

Gu Ning: ’Here it comes!’

She nodded.

Alex tapped his fingers on the steering wheel but didn’t ask her anything else.

The vehicle drove smoothly, and after about ten minutes, it entered the East Wall Construction Site, stopping in front of Building 1 in Zone A.

Alex had Kloer get out of the car first.

Gu Ning wanted to get out too. She quietly pulled the door handle, but it didn’t open.

The doors were locked.

A bad feeling.

Gu Ning leaned against the car door, feeling a sense of doom.

"I rented a new place for you. It’s right across from the gate we just came through," Alex said.

Gu Ning’s expression froze. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"I’ll have Kloer help you move your things tomorrow. For safety’s sake, you can’t live there anymore. Tonight, you’ll stay in my room," Alex continued.

Gu Ning looked at Alex in astonishment. ’Isn’t he going to ask about my identity or anything?’

She felt like she was coming back to life.

Alex looked at her and said, "Do you understand what I’m saying?"

Gu Ning nodded dazedly, her body still in a subconscious defensive posture.

Seeing her state, Alex’s finger, which was poised over the door-unlock button, curled slightly. He thought for a moment, then said to her, "You only have seven work days left to complete your contract."

Gu Ning froze for a second. When she came to her senses, she immediately pulled out a pen and paper and wrote: I will work hard!

Alex took the note she handed him. Seeing it, he confirmed that her emotional and mental state was calm, and then he unlocked the door.

After getting out of the car, Gu Ning saw that there were still many Beastmen working on the site.

A light rain was still falling. The Beastmen wore headlamps, and their tall figures bustled about in the dim, intersecting beams of light.

"Let’s go inside." Alex closed the car door and said to the hesitant Gu Ning, "Go take a hot shower and get some rest. You have studying and work tomorrow."

Hearing his words, the tightly wound string in Gu Ning’s heart finally relaxed, and she followed him into the building.

’Alex has been this tolerant with me. I can’t be ungrateful.’

"Are you hungry?"

Back at his place, Alex closed the door and asked the little Mixed Breed standing in a corner of the entryway.

Gu Ning shook her head. She stood awkwardly against the wall. Being alone with Alex always made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Alex walked to the living room, took a bag of bread from a cabinet, and placed it on the coffee table. He also poured a glass of water. "If you’re hungry, eat this for now. It’s all I have at the moment. I’ll have Kloer buy you something else."

Gu Ning quickly waved her hands at him. ’It’s so late, how could I trouble Kloer to go buy food for me?’

She picked up the bag of bread and waved it at Alex, indicating that this was enough.

After such a long ordeal, she was indeed a bit hungry. But with Alex staring at her, she didn’t dare take off her mask.

Alex didn’t say anything else and turned to walk toward the bedroom.

Seeing him go into the bedroom, Gu Ning seized the opportunity to tear open the bread and stuff a couple of bites into her mouth.

A moment later, Alex came out holding a neatly folded set of clothes and placed them in front of Gu Ning. "Wear mine for now."

Gu Ning wiped her hands on her clothes, picked up a shirt, and shook it open. Holding it against herself, she saw the hem reached her knees.

She handed a new note to Alex: Where are you sleeping tonight?

Alex said, "You can have the bedroom. I’ll sleep in the living room."

Gu Ning hesitated and put his clothes down. Although she was dying to use Alex’s private bathroom, if she had to stay the night with him, she’d rather not shower.

Alex: "You don’t want to shower?"

Gu Ning wrote: Can I not? I can just sleep on the floor. I won’t get your room dirty.

She didn’t have a translator terminal, so her writing was messy, but Alex could roughly understand what she meant.

He sat down on the sofa, glanced at the bread she’d taken two bites of, and said, "You can skip the shower for now. I have a few questions for you first."

Gu Ning’s heart skipped a beat. She took a step back, the breath she had just let out catching in her throat again.

’...You can’t be serious.’

She turned her head to look at the closed door, and that strong sense of foreboding washed over her again.

She clutched her pen and paper, wanting to ask him something, but she was too nervous to write a single word.

"Don’t be nervous." Alex sensed her anxiety and said, "I just want to understand a few basic things about you. You can choose to answer or not."

Gu Ning took a deep breath and wrote: What do you want to ask?

Alex leaned forward slightly, looking directly into the dark pupils behind her windproof goggles. "Now, can you tell me your real name?"