After finishing her own bowl, she inevitably began to covet the contents of someone else’s.

Jane Sampson nudged her empty bowl to the side, stood up, moved next to James Black, propped her chin with both hands, and watched him with shining eyes.

"You’re eating really slowly tonight," Jane said with a giggle, "Are you not hungry?"

James raised an eyebrow, indeed, he wasn’t hungry.

He was just keeping her company at the table.

"If you’re not hungry, can I help you with some?" Jane moved even closer to James, practically leaning on him at this point.

Seeing him not respond, she tentatively reached for the chopsticks in his hand, her fingertips already touching them, when she suddenly heard him speak.

"It’s very late now, and if you eat too much, your stomach might feel uncomfortable tomorrow morning," especially after being hungry for the whole afternoon.

Jane scratched her head, and after mulling it over for half a day, she squeezed out two words, "No way."

James glanced at her, then turned her face to the other side and lowered his head to quickly finish off the noodles in his bowl, which weren’t much to begin with; he slurped up everything, including the soup, without leaving a single drop.

After he finished eating, he let Jane’s face turn back to him.

Seeing her peek into his bowl, then staring at the empty bowl in a daze with an expression that was somewhat pitiful, James couldn’t help but laugh.

"Not even a noodle left for me, I must have entered a fake marriage, married a fake husband," Jane said, looking at James who was still laughing, she kicked his stool lightly, and huffed back to her own seat.

"I’ll go wash the dishes, you watch some TV in the living room. Wait half an hour, and I’ll make you some milk," James caressed Jane’s face, thinking she might have gotten thinner again.

Upon hearing about the milk, Jane immediately grinned, hummed in agreement, and thought to herself that she knew James was cold on the outside but warm on the heart, and then she scampered off to turn on the TV.

Washing two bowls was a matter of a mere three minutes. When James came out of the kitchen, he saw Jane fidgeting with the remote control, unable to find a show she wanted to watch. He called her, "I’m going to the study to look through some documents, if you’re bored, you can come to the study and find a book to read."

Upon hearing this, Jane quickly turned off the TV and followed James into his study.

The book collection in his dormitory’s study was much more extensive than in the study at home, with bookshelves on all sides filled with books of all colors. Reading was the only pastime that James enjoyed when he had free time.

One entire bookshelf was dedicated to introductions of firearms and various weapons used by the guard team, and Jane stood before this bookshelf for a few seconds, marveling with a series of tsk-tsks, before decisively turning around to check out another bookshelf.

She had wanted to ask James for a recommendation, but seeing that he was already settled down with his documents, she dropped the idea, decided not to disturb him, and started searching through the bookshelves little by little.

"Flower Camp... Brocade..." Suddenly spotting a book that seemed like a classical chronicle, Jane reached for it with curiosity, muttering to herself, "This guy reads ancient poetry too?"

Looking at the four characters on the cover, Jane’s first thought was that it might be like classical mythological stories or an anthology of ancient poetry.

The book was on the topmost shelf, and Jane, being somewhat short, had a hard time reaching and finally managed to tug the book out.

With a mix of puzzlement and curiosity, Jane opened the book to take a look.