Lu Jin’an let out a low chuckle. “Wait until your period’s over.”
Gu Nianyi buried her face in his chest, clutching the gemstone gift box in her hand. “No, I don’t want to anymore. And you’re not allowed to bring it up again.”
Lu Jin’an gazed down at her tenderly. “Alright, whatever my wife says.”
He had taken a shortcut and played the rogue to coax her back into a good mood—he couldn’t afford to upset her again.
Under the glow of the lights, the girl’s face in his arms flushed even deeper.
Lu Jin’an gently placed Gu Nianyi on the bed. “Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Gu Nianyi wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his toned abs, refusing to let him go. “Not uncomfortable, just a bit tired.”
Her gaze drifted to the nightstand, where a cat-themed thermos sat on top.
She knew it was filled with warm water.
Ever since that time she’d used thirst as an excuse to get up and drink some, Lu Jin’an had made a habit of filling a cup with warm water every night before bed and leaving it by the bedside.
Marriage was all about the everyday chores—the rice, the oil, the salt, the soy sauce, the vinegar, the tea. Life’s little trifles wrapped around them, but Lu Jin’an was endlessly patient with her.
She knew it all too well. During that week of cold war, he had never once given her the cold shoulder.
Lu Jin’an indulged her little tempers—the kind she wouldn’t even dare show her parents.
He found ways to coax her, prepared apology gifts for her.
Her heart softened like cotton candy. She couldn’t bear to lose him.
Even if his feelings for her leaned more toward marital duty than passion.
Lu Jin’an stroked her head. “What’s wrong?”
“Just hugging you for a bit to charge you up.”
Lu Jin’an had carried her up from downstairs to the second floor without breaking a sweat. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Not tired. You’ll find out later.”
A smile tugged at the corners of the man’s mouth.
That one sentence shattered the atmosphere, and Gu Nianyi said shyly, “I don’t want to find out.”
She inhaled the scent of him—clean, woody, and utterly intoxicating.
＊
The day before Ming Yue was supposed to get her marriage certificate, she called Gu Nianyi over to her apartment.
As soon as Gu Nianyi stepped inside, she saw Ming Yue crouched on the floor, packing her luggage. She spoke slowly. “Yi Yi, I don’t think I have the courage to marry Xie Yunting after all. I don’t belong in this place anyway. I want to leave.”
The joy of trying on her wedding dress had been real, and so was the fear of heading to the Civil Affairs Bureau.
He deserved someone better. It was selfish of her.
She was a coward, running away like a deserter.
In the past, when she’d tracked down her birth parents, they’d rejected her and chased her away.
She was truly terrified of being abandoned again.
She was scared that Xie Yunting wouldn’t show up at the Civil Affairs Bureau.
She didn’t dare face it.
Gu Nianyi helped Ming Yue fold clothes. “They came looking for you again, didn’t they?”
Ming Yue sorted through their photo albums. “They showed up at my company. Xie Yunting chased them off. I know avoiding them isn’t a solution, but I’m exhausted. I don’t want to deal with them anymore.”
Every encounter was like twisting the knife in her wounds.
No one could resist craving family and affection.
She didn’t want to drag Xie Yunting into it, to have others gossiping about them.
After a moment of silence, Gu Nianyi steadied her emotions. “If you’ve made up your mind, then go. You never should have stayed in South City just to keep me company.”
She hated to see her go, but she didn’t want Ming Yue to be unhappy.
Gu Nianyi knew that if it weren’t for her, Ming Yue never would have applied to a university in South City.
Ming Yue froze, tears spilling over. She’d expected Yi Yi to try to stop her.
Gu Nianyi reached out and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t forget, the name I picked for you means joy and delight. Your happiness matters most. With how easy travel is these days, I’ll come visit whenever I miss you.”
Her voice choked as she finished, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.
The two girls clung to each other and cried.
Once they’d vented their emotions, Gu Nianyi pulled out her phone and transferred twenty thousand yuan to Ming Yue.
Ming Yue stared. “Isn’t that the money you saved up to pay back Dr. Lu?”
Gu Nianyi smiled. “You’re more important. I can save it again.”
Ming Yue hesitated for a few seconds. “What about Xie Yunting…”
Gu Nianyi patted her head. “I get it. Check in with me every half hour so I know you’re safe. Don’t skimp on spending—stay in a nice hotel, find an apartment in a secure complex with good management.”
“You’re so naggy,” Ming Yue said, then clapped a hand over her mouth and burst into tears.
“I’ll nag you to death. You’ll have to listen to my nagging for the rest of your life.”
Before leaving, Ming Yue handed her ring to Gu Nianyi, along with everything else related to Xie Yunting. She left it all behind in South City.
Including the registration photos they’d taken in advance.
The only thing Ming Yue took with her was the hand-strung Lucky Beads they’d bought together.
It was from her first paycheck earned from a university part-time job—the smallest beads from the gold shop.
Back then, they’d been full of dreams for the future.
Ming Yue took the early morning flight the next day. Gu Nianyi didn’t see her off.
She was afraid she’d get too emotional and that Ming Yue might stay out of pity.
Ming Yue should have left this place long ago.
Before shutting off her phone, Ming Yue shared a song with Gu Nianyi—”Possibilities of Love.”
Gu Nianyi slipped on her earbuds, and the melody played softly.
Because you have your own life
And I have my journey
Someone’s waiting for you up ahead
But remember, when you’re feeling alone
I’ll reach out my hands
I’ll be your friend forever
She must have been planning this for a while—ever since she heard the song at the bar.
Gu Nianyi crouched in the airport terminal, hugging her knees and sobbing.
She had come. She watched Ming Yue board.
She watched Ming Yue turn back, searching for her figure, looking for a long time before giving up in disappointment.
She watched Ming Yue’s silhouette vanish at the far end of the airport.
An arc of contrail lingered in the sky, the trace of Ming Yue’s departure.
Xie Yunting waited at the Civil Affairs Bureau until noon, but Ming Yue never showed. Her phone rang out unanswered, and her messages went unread.
The apartment was empty, some luggage gone.
He sat in the Civil Affairs Bureau lobby all afternoon, still waiting in vain for Ming Yue.
He’d known since morning that she wouldn’t come.
But why wouldn’t she even say goodbye to his face?
Xie Yunting rushed to Cypress View Pavilion and demanded of Gu Nianyi, “Where’s Ming Yue?”
“She left.”
Gu Nianyi said it lightly, as if it were nothing. She’d waited a whole day for Xie Yunting to come asking.
He was later than she’d expected.
Gu Nianyi pulled the ring and photo from her bag. “Ming Yue asked me to give you these.”
Xie Yunting gripped the ring, his fingertips turning white. “Is that all?”
“That’s it.” Gu Nianyi had asked Ming Yue if she wanted to leave a message. She’d said no—better to leave no lingering thoughts.
The person was gone. What was the point?
Xie Yunting’s face tightened. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
Lu Jin’an pulled Gu Nianyi protectively into his arms and shot back coldly, “Xie Yunting, watch your tone. Don’t yell at my wife.”
“Her legs are her own. Who could stop her if she wanted to go?”
Gu Nianyi lifted her chin. “She didn’t want to marry you. She was afraid you’d drag her to the Civil Affairs Bureau, so she took off.”
Xie Yunting: “Where did she go?”
Gu Nianyi’s voice turned icy. “I’m not telling you. We’re going to rest now. See yourself out.”
Lu Jin’an shoved Xie Yunting toward the door and warned him outside. “Don’t push my wife anymore, or our friendship’s over.”
He returned to find Gu Nianyi crouched on the floor, head buried in her knees.
Lu Jin’an drew her into his embrace. “Gu Nianyi, if it hurts, cry it out. You’ve still got me.”
Even if the whole world left her, he’d stay by Gu Nianyi’s side.
Until the end of time.
Gu Nianyi didn’t want to cry. Ming Yue had gone where she wanted to be, and she was happy for her.
But the tears wouldn’t obey, streaming down endlessly.
“Dr. Lu, she’s gone. Who knows when she’ll come back?”
“She’s finally free to do what she wants.”
“That’s great.”
Blue Mountain Town—a place that had brought her pain for the first half of her life.
Better to leave.
The world was so vast. She needed to see it.
To chase her dreams.
No sooner had she said “That’s great” than Gu Nianyi fainted.
Lu Jin’an touched her forehead—it was burning hot. He carried her back to the master bedroom.
He took her temperature and applied physical cooling methods.
Gu Nianyi murmured in her delirium, tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. “Dr. Lu, my only friend is gone.”
“I can’t bear to let her go, but I don’t want to see her unhappy.”
She hurt more than anyone.
Lu Jin’an felt her forehead again—still scorching. “Gu Nianyi, it hurts me to see you like this.”
Gu Nianyi’s fever raged on. Lu Jin’an called the family doctor to give her an IV drip.
He stayed up all night without sleep.
Watching to see if her fever broke, monitoring the IV.
He held her hand tightly the whole time, letting her know he was there.
Gu Nianyi woke at dawn and opened her eyes to see Lu Jin’an right there.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes, exhaustion plain despite his efforts to hide it.
He’d watched over her all night.
Gu Nianyi’s heart melted. “Dr. Lu, go sleep for a bit.” She got up to wash up.
Lu Jin’an touched her forehead. “Fever’s down. Get up and have some wonton soup.”
He blew on the soup to cool it and held a spoonful to her lips. “Too hot?”
Gu Nianyi shook her head. “Not hot. Just right.”
There was someone still by her side.
Never leaving.
She’d thought Xie Yunting had accepted reality. These past few days, he’d acted normal—going to the office, holding meetings.
But then Lin Qianyu called Lu Jin’an late at night, urging him to the bar. “Hurry up. Xie Yunting’s coughing nonstop and still drinking. I can’t talk him out of it. He’ll kill himself at this rate.”
Ming Yue’s departure had felled two people.
One recovered, and the other followed.
Lu Jin’an refused. “If I go, will he stop drinking? He’s almost thirty, and he can’t even handle this?”
Gu Nianyi overheard their conversation. “Dr. Lu, I’m fine now. Go check on him.”
She was luckier than Xie Yunting. Ming Yue had always stayed in touch with her.
Ming Yue was traveling in the south, dressed in a thin shirt against the local weather. She said she would look for a job after the Spring Festival, and she seemed visibly much happier.
She hadn’t asked about Xie Yunting, and Gu Nianyi had tacitly avoided mentioning him—as if the man had never existed.
Lu Jin’an rushed to the bar. Xie Yunting had already cracked open a second bottle. “Ming Yue is so cruel. She just up and left without a single word for me.”
He coughed violently several times and pulled out the ring.
This diamond was a top-tier jewel he had specially flown to an auction house to bid on.
She didn’t want it—just discarded it. She didn’t even want him anymore.
He let out a self-mocking laugh. If she had cast aside even Gu Nianyi, how could she possibly care about him?
Xie Yunting tossed the ring upward from his palm. It clattered into the trash can.
Lu Jin’an snatched the bottle from him. In the ensuing struggle, the glass tumbled to the floor and shattered into shards.
“So you’re wallowing in self-pity here, coughing your lungs out and still drinking. Who is this for? Ming Yue? She can’t see it.”
Xie Yunting muttered to himself, “This woman is impossible to warm up.”
After all this time, he still hadn’t found a way into her heart.
Lu Jin’an gritted his teeth. “She’s gone. What’s the point of drinking yourself stupid? Either chase her down and bring her back, or let her go for good.”
Xie Yunting let out a cold snort. “Easy for you to say. What if it was Gu Nianyi who walked out?”
Lu Jin’an replied without hesitation. “She wouldn’t.”
“What if? What if Gu Nianyi vanished without a word? What would you do?”
“No ‘what ifs.'”
Xie Yunting pressed on. “What if she fell for someone else? You still wouldn’t let go? You’d chase her back too?”
Lu Jin’an’s gaze darkened. “Liking someone doesn’t change a damn thing. You like Ming Yue, and she likes you back—what then?”
Xie Yunting shot back, “She doesn’t like you. Why keep her around?”
Lu Jin’an poured himself a glass of liquor. “It doesn’t matter. As long as she’s my wife, that’s enough.”
Whether she liked him or not was irrelevant. As long as she stayed by his side.
Xie Yunting wouldn’t let up. “What if she walked out too? You two sisters are cut from the same cloth.”
Lu Jin’an was adamant. “She wouldn’t.”
Lin Qianyu listened to their back-and-forth, feeling like he was trapped at a debate club. His head throbbed.
He never would have guessed these two were such hopeless romantics.
Xie Yunting’s voice turned icy. “What if she really did leave?”
Lu Jin’an threw back his glass in one gulp. “To the ends of the earth, I’d drag her back myself.”
In the end, the pair got blackout drunk and slumped across the sofa. Lin Qianyu fished Lu Jin’an’s phone from his pocket.
He unlocked it with a fingerprint scan and scrolled through the contacts.
No entry for Gu Nianyi. Nothing under “wife.”
He went through them one by one until he spotted “Yi Yi.”
Pretty sneaky—using a pet name like that.
He dialed. Sure enough, her voice came through. “Sister-in-Law, can you come pick up Lu Jin’an? He’s plastered.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.”
Gu Nianyi hung up and hailed a cab without delay.
The whole ride, she puzzled over it. Lu Jin’an drunk? What an unusual phrase.
She pushed open the door to the upstairs private room. Lu Jin’an sat quietly in the corner.
“Dr. Lu, weren’t you supposed to talk him out of drinking? How’d you end up drunk yourself?”
The moment Lu Jin’an spotted her, he pulled her into a tight embrace. “Wifey, what are you doing here?”
His arms clamped down, squeezing the air from her lungs.
Gu Nianyi spoke softly. “Dr. Lu, you’re out of it.”
He wouldn’t call her “wifey” if he were sober.
Lu Jin’an nuzzled into the crook of her neck. “I’m not drunk. You are my wife. You can’t leave.”
Gu Nianyi let out a light chuckle. “I’m not leaving. Let’s go home.”
Lu Jin’an laced his fingers with hers. “Okay. I’ll go home with you.”
Such an obedient, sweet Dr. Lu.
Gu Nianyi didn’t forget to warn Lin Qianyu. “President Lin, I’m taking Dr. Lu home. President Xie’s all yours.”
Lin Qianyu called after her. “Don’t worry. Dr. Lu wasn’t himself tonight. Keep an eye on him.”
“Got it.” Gu Nianyi had already noticed something was off with Lu Jin’an.
The designated driver took the wheel. Lu Jin’an paid no mind to the extra passenger—he clutched Gu Nianyi close, as if she’d bolt the second he loosened his grip.
Once home, Gu Nianyi steadied Lu Jin’an. “Dr. Lu, take some hangover meds first, then hop in the shower.”
What goes around comes around. Now Gu Nianyi stood guard outside the bathroom door.
A voice drifted out from inside. “Wifey, I forgot my pajamas.”
“Dr. Lu, here are your pajamas.” Gu Nianyi cracked the door open and passed them through.
But Lu Jin’an yanked her straight into the bathroom.
Bright lights beamed down from overhead. Gu Nianyi finally got a clear look at him.
He was shirtless, his abdominal muscles sleek and taut. Damp strands of black hair clung to his forehead as water droplets trailed slowly downward.
A hazy mist of steam curled around him from behind.
Gu Nianyi instinctively covered her eyes. Lu Jin’an gently pried her hands away, drawing her gaze into his deep, inky eyes.
“Wifey, can we?”
His voice was low and husky, the sexy timbre vibrating against her eardrums.
At such an inopportune moment, she couldn’t help wondering if he was up for it.
His profound gaze held no bottom, brimming with raw intensity.
In the instant Gu Nianyi nodded dazedly, Lu Jin’an dipped his head and captured her lips.
He undid the buttons on her pajamas and stripped the fabric away.
The man continued kissing her as he nudged the bathroom door open.
Lu Jin’an eased Gu Nianyi onto the bed and lowered himself over her.
Nothing stood between them.
He burned hot. She burned just as hot.