Imprisoning the Black Moonlight

The midday sun shone through the tall French windows, illuminating half of the beautiful young woman's face. She seemed to be bathed in the radiance of the world, dazzling and splendid.

"What is it?" Yao Gongyue looked up with a smile, meeting the man's burning eyes.

"Little Chang'e, I might—" The man held the delicate coffee cup in his large, well-defined hand, carefully choosing his words, "I might, fall in love with you. Would you be my girlfriend?"

The girl opposite him froze on her face, her eyes filled with disbelief. The object of her secret crush, whom she dreamed about every night during her teenage years, would one day confess her feelings to him.

The air seemed to freeze at that moment, everything else was illusory, only the two of them looked at each other.

"Little Chang'e, don't feel guilty. I'm a grown man, and I don't want any regrets when it comes to relationships, but that doesn't mean you have to reciprocate. If you don't want to, we can still be friends, I..."

"But—" Yao Gongyue interrupted the man before he could finish speaking.

"If I remember correctly, you're already engaged to Miss Xiao Siqi!" After the initial shock, Yao Gongyue regained her composure.

"Brother Xu, I am grateful for your help every time, but you shouldn't have confessed your feelings to me after you already have a fiancée!"

Feelings are feelings, and morality is morality; she can distinguish between the two.

"This is the second thing I want to tell you!" Ouyang Xu composed himself and continued.

"Xiao Siqi and I are in a business marriage. Before the engagement, we signed an agreement that, apart from the binding of our families' interests, we would not interfere with each other. She has a boyfriend, and the two of them live together. Even after the marriage, we will live separately and will not have any contact with each other unless necessary!"

The man was a little irritated. He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, paused, took it out, glanced at the girl's reaction, and continued to explain, "Little Chang'e, my marriage is just a commodity, but my feelings are not. They are the only thing I can freely control, and I want to give them to you!"

The man's words were too unbelievable. She didn't know that such a marriage and such a relationship existed in the world. She was so shocked that she didn't know what to say.

“Little Chang’e, I’m not clueless. I know what it’s like for a girl to like a man. You have feelings for me too, right?” Ouyang Xu looked at the girl nervously, his Adam’s apple bobbing, afraid that she would say something like “don’t be presumptuous.”

"Brother Xu!" After a long while, Yao Gongyue's delicate voice slowly came through, "You mean if I agree to be your girlfriend, we can only be girlfriends?"

"Little Chang'e, apart from marriage, my person, my feelings, everything I have is yours!" The man excitedly grasped the girl's soft hand, his eyes burning so intensely that no one dared to look directly at him.

“Brother Xu!” The girl’s voice was still sweet and pleasant. “I admit that I liked you from the first time I saw you. I’ve liked you for many, many years. When I was little, I was bullied by my classmates and my clothes were torn. When you came to pick up Zhenzhen, you also took me home. At that time, I felt like you were a god descending to earth.”

Speaking of the past, the girl's eyes were filled with happiness and longing. "Over the years, you have always lent a helping hand when I was at my lowest point. In my heart, I have long admired you like a hero. I never dreamed that one day you would hold my hand and say that you like me."

"But! I don't want to be your lover, Brother Xu!" Yao Gongyue pulled her slender white hand away from the man's grasp.

"Although I am just a girl from the lowest rung of society, I know that if I am to marry, I must be properly married with proper betrothal and formality. I would never be someone's mistress, even if that man is you, someone I have liked for many years!"

That's enough, no more words are needed.

She picked up her bag and turned to leave.

"Little Chang'e!" The man caught up in two steps, hugged her from behind, pulled her back to her seat, and sat down next to her.

"Little Chang'e, I know that if I tell this, I'll be a complete bastard, but I can't control myself."

Since things had come to this point, the man decided to go all the way, pulling her into his arms and inhaling her faint, youthful fragrance. Suddenly, he didn't even want to be human anymore.

“Baby, Xiao Siqi has a man. I’ll go through the motions with her and never see her again. Please, just give in. I swear, from now on, I will never let you suffer even the slightest grievance.”

The man's hot breath sprayed onto her neck, and his large hand on her back almost melted her slender back.

"Brother Xu, you should know about me and my family, right?" Yao Gongyue pushed against the man's chest with her small hand, her calm demeanor completely different from before.

Her bright eyes trembled slightly, a faint smile on her face as she looked at the man's handsome face. "My father abandoned us when I was very young. My aunt was deceived by a bad man and became a mistress without her knowledge."

She straightened her skirt, her face cool and indifferent, as if she were telling someone else's story.

“When I was in junior high school, I witnessed those people stripping my aunt naked and beating her in the street. My mother and I tried to pull them away, but we were also beaten up.”

I was young then, and I bit a man's leg and wouldn't let go. He kicked me and broke three of my ribs. The rib fragments punctured my spleen, and it took me two whole days to save my life.

But at that time, my mother had no money. To save me, my aunt went to that bad man to ask for money. That man even demanded that my aunt sleep with him. As a result, she was cornered on the bed, and his son threw sulfuric acid in her face.

At this point, even though she gritted her teeth and pretended to be calm, tears still streamed down her face like a broken string.

"Don't say anything, baby. I won't, I won't let anyone hurt you, believe me." Ouyang Xu pulled her into his arms and tenderly wiped away the tears on her cheeks.

"My aunt and mother suffered a lot to save me and raise me. They opened a barbershop in the alley. All the relatives and neighbors said that they were not doing honest business and no one looked up to us. We were living an honest life, but they just wouldn't let us go."

In high school, that boy kept pursuing me. I didn't like him, but everyone spread rumors that we were dating. His mother slapped me in front of so many people at school and said that our whole family were vixens and immoral.

I was furious and called that boy a jerk, saying I hated him to death. I never knew he would try to jump off a building just because I ignored him. I really didn't know a boy would jump off a building because he was rejected. But in the end, his jump ruined me. All the parents in my class signed a petition asking the school to expel me, but nobody believed me.

She cried harder and harder, and people nearby kept glancing over. Ouyang Xu was in a state of turmoil and could only keep comforting her.

“I went abroad to study, and my mother and aunt sold the only house that my grandfather left them to raise the money. I swore that I would make sure they could live in this city with dignity and uprightness, and let those who gossip and say that my family has ‘demon roots’ see that I will marry with dignity and live a decent and happy life.”

Yao Gongyue cried for a long time before she stopped sobbing. Ouyang Xu looked at the little girl whose eyes were as red as a rabbit's and sighed, "Baby, five years, give me five years. I'll arrange everything and marry you properly, okay?"

Yao Gongyue looked at the man. He was once her human fantasy, but in the end, they still had to part ways.

"I'm sorry, Brother Xu, I can't accept this. Once you're a mistress, you're a mistress for life! Let's not see each other again. I wish you happiness!"

After saying that, he rushed out without looking back.