The abandoned daughter of the Lu family turns around and marries a celibate tycoon.

"What...is this?" Lu Xiran looked up, her eyes reflecting a fragmented light.

Gu Yanshen's Adam's apple bobbed heavily, all the words he tried to explain stuck in his throat, finally condensing into a tight, almost hesitant syllable: "This..."

These should be Song Zhihe's personal items from her phone call.

"Song Zhihe's?" she asked for him, her voice carrying a deadpan understanding.

Silence solidified and spread in the air.

Gu Yanshen's jawline was taut, his eyes dark and turbulent, but he ultimately did not utter a word of denial. He had always disdained lying, and his silence at this moment was the cruelest answer in itself.

Lu Xiran gave a very slight twitch at the corner of her mouth, "So... just now, you were on this bed..."

"No!" Gu Yanshen abruptly interrupted her, his tone urgent and forceful. "I just arrived, and you're here!"

He tried to grab her arm, but she stiffly avoided it.

"Then what is this?" She raised the clothes in her hands higher. "And when was it left behind? That night?"

"...It should be." He squeezed out a syllable through his teeth, but he wasn't sure.

Oh.

really.

On the night they almost crossed the line, he left in a hurry for another woman, and brought her back here, leaving behind such a private and provocative trace.

"Don't misunderstand," Gu Yanshen said, looking at her face which had instantly lost all color. His voice was dry as he tried to make amends. "That night... she had nowhere to go and was afraid of being photographed by paparazzi, so she came here..." His explanation sounded so pale and weak that even he himself found it unconvincing.

A lone man and a lone woman

Staying out all night

What will happen next is something every adult knows perfectly well.

A strong feeling of nausea surged up, and Lu Xiran abruptly released her grip, as if it were something filthy. The peach-pink lace fluttered lightly onto the carpet, glaringly resembling a pool of blood that shouldn't exist.

She struggled to stand up and escape the suffocating space, but the sharp pain in her ankle and the intense emotional turmoil made her legs go weak, and her body tilted uncontrollably to the side.

"Ranran!" Gu Yanshen reacted quickly, catching her steadily from behind. His strong arms wrapped tightly around her waist, holding her firmly in his embrace.

"Let me go... I want to leave here." Lu Xiran stopped struggling, her sobs filled only with exhaustion and a faint plea, "I don't want to... stay here."

Gu Yanshen rested his chin on the top of her soft hair, closed his eyes briefly, and finally gave in, saying in a low, husky voice, "...Okay."

Inside the car on the return trip, the air felt stagnant and icy.

Lu Xiran huddled in the passenger seat, her forehead pressed against the cold car window, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. The neon lights flashing past outside blurred into a cold, indistinct patch in her tearful eyes.

Gu Yanshen gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white.

He glanced at her several times, his lips moving slightly, but he couldn't find the right words. His usual domineering and controlling manner crumbled completely in the face of her silent tears and the despair that permeated her.

Looking at the unfamiliar night view outside the window, Lu Xiran realized for the first time how pathetic she was.

She wanted to escape, but didn't know where to go.

This marriage began as a mutually beneficial contract, something she knew from the start. So why does her heart ache so much, to the point where she can hardly breathe?

She tried to repeat to herself: He only married you for Grandma Gu's sake, it's just an agreement, just a collaboration.

His gentle gaze, his forceful approach, those moments that made her heart race—were nothing more than his superb acting skills, or perhaps… he was treating her as a projection of someone else.

It turns out that Song Zhihe is Ling Xue.

Ling Xue, whom she had secretly admired since her teenage years because of her talent and brilliance.

How absurd, and how ironic.

The idol she had truly loved for so many years turned out to be the person Gu Yan had kept hidden in his heart.

Back in her so-called "home," Lu Xiran went straight into the bathroom. The warm water washed over her body, but it couldn't wash away the sticky chill and dull pain in her heart. When she came out, her eyes and the tip of her nose were still red.

Gu Yanshen was actually waiting for her in the bedroom.

Gu Yanshen sat on the edge of the bed wearing the same pajamas, his shadow stretched long under the warm yellow wall lamp, exuding a rare weariness and... uncertainty.

"Let's talk." He stood up immediately when he saw her come out, his voice low.

Lu Xiran lowered her eyelashes and did not respond. She simply walked silently to the bedside and sat down far away from him.

Gu Yanshen walked up to her, knelt down on one knee, and tried to look her in the eye. "I know you probably won't believe me no matter what I say now." His gaze was fixed on her, his deep eyes churning with complex emotions—frustration, anxiety, and a hint of unmistakable urgency. "But I must tell you, that night, and just now... I didn't do anything to betray you."

His tone was more solemn than ever before, even tinged with a clumsy earnestness.

Lu Xiran's fingertips curled up slightly.

For a fleeting moment, rationally, she was almost burned by the sincerity in those eyes and wanted to believe. But that touch of red lace was etched into her mind like a nightmare, constantly reminding her of the "evidence" she had seen and touched with her own eyes, as well as the undeniable past and current entanglement between him and Ling Xue.

"I'm tired." She finally spoke, her voice hoarse and nasal, yet unusually calm. It was a calm born of profound sorrow, a calm born of utter despair. "I have to go back to the Lu family tomorrow." She stood up, turned her back to him, and walked to the other side of the bed. "You... go back to sleep."

Gu Yanshen stood there, stunned.

"...Okay." He replied in a hoarse voice, raised his hand and turned off the main light, leaving only a dim night light.

However, he did not leave. He gently lay down behind her, tentatively reaching out his arm, with an undeniable tenderness, and gently wrapped it around her slender waist, resting his chin on the top of her head.

— It is full of possessiveness, but also carries an almost submissive dependence.

Lu Xiran's body stiffened the moment he touched her. She didn't turn around, nor did she resist fiercely; she simply and silently, firmly, pried open his fingers, one by one, from her waist.

The movements were slow, but so decisive that there was no room for maneuver.

Gu Yanshen's arm froze in mid-air, the emptiness and coldness in his arms like a silent mockery, gnawing at his heart, which had never been so panicked. That emotion, a mixture of frustration, resentment, and a deeper kind of panic, finally broke through the dam of reason that he was so proud of.

He didn't know why things had taken such a sharp turn for the worse.

In the darkness, he looked at her slender silhouette, her back to him, filled with rejection. The restlessness that had lingered since their wedding, the stifling feeling of being misunderstood, and an almost instinctive, possessive desire that he absolutely did not want to lose, all intertwined into a savage impulse.

He suddenly stood up, his arm moving with irresistible force, almost forcefully turning Lu Xiran, who was facing away from him, over and pressing her into the soft bedding.