Epilogue: You Are My Only Standard

The bedroom door creaked open, lit only by the dim, warm glow of the nightstand lamp. Qin Yu stepped inside wearing a bath towel wrapped tightly around his waist, far tighter and higher than usual, his ears flushed a brilliant, deep scarlet like ripe tomatoes. Dropping all pretense of manners, I climbed onto the bed and sat cross-legged right in front of him.

He shifted uncomfortably, his voice dropping into a flustered murmur. “Don’t… don’t be in a rush.”

I cut him off instantly. “Don’t you want to know who drove me home today?”

“I don’t want to know!” His pitch spiked unnaturally high, his face draining of color. “I mean… at least give me a second to mentally prepare myself.”

I burst out laughing, spilling the complete truth about Xie Ming and that pathetic “desperate husbands” group chat. Qin Yu listened in utter silence, hanging his head like a obedient little child caught doing something wrong. “I’m sorry…”

“You’re so level-headed most of the time, yet when it actually counts, you go and turn yourself into a walking tragic hero. Do you really think I’m the kind of woman who falls out of love that easily?”

He hastily reached out, wrapping his fingers around mine, his low voice thick with bruised vulnerability. “It’s not that I don’t trust you… I was just scared. I’m older than you, and people say a three-year gap is already a world of difference. I was terrified that someone younger would show up, and you’d realize I wasn’t good enough anymore… that you’d get bored of this marriage. I was terrified you’d leave me.”

Hearing those words made my heart melt into absolute mush. I took his face in my hands and pulled him down into a deep, lingering kiss.

“So let me make this crystal clear for you, Qin Yu. I don’t have a thing for younger guys, nor do I have a thing for older men. Before I met you, those were just meaningless labels. But ever since I fell in love with you… my standard became one single person: You.”

I looked straight into his dark eyes, stating firmly, “If it’s not you, I don’t care how old or young they are. I don’t want them. Got it?”

“Sweetheart…”

“I’m right here.”

I eased back a fraction of an inch, deliberately keeping a teasing distance. “Didn’t you say you were going to do a hundred push-ups? Finish them first, then we’ll talk.”

I laid back against the pillows, lounging comfortably as if settling in to watch a circus act. Qin Yu began his “exercise routine” with utmost seriousness, but halfway through, the powerful, rhythmic motions began to waver into desperate tremors. He called out in a low, strained rasp: “Sweetheart…”

Resting my chin on my palm, I passed judgment: “Technically non-compliant. But… acceptable enough to be cute.”

The night was still young, and I came away with one painful, ironclad realization: when a man suppresses his dark overthinking for too long, you had better not poke the sleeping bear. Otherwise, the ultimate casualty will be your own waist.

—

SPECIAL EXTRA: A MADMAN IN A GENTLEMAN’S CLOTHING

1. A Milk Candy and an Offer to “Keep” Him

That year, when Qin Yu first met Song Nian, he was thirteen, and she was barely eight. Back then, he was not yet the high and mighty “CEO Qin.” He was merely a child brought into the world for a brutal, singular purpose: to serve as a walking medical backup for his sickly older brother, Qin He. The more his parents doted on Qin He, the more fiercely they guarded and monitored his own healthy body.

Every time his brother was rushed into the emergency room, he was forced to kneel in the ancestral hall until he collapsed from exhaustion. They even kept his head shaved completely bald, convinced that doing so was a more effective way to “pray for blessings” for their firstborn son. As a result, no blessings ever arrived, only a young boy growing up in bitter isolation, covered in sharp thorns.

The day he met Song Nian, he had just finished another grueling punishment. Dizzy with hunger, he collapsed in the middle of the street. The little eight-year-old girl, lost and confused herself, frantically pressed a piece of milk candy into his hand.

“Big brother, why are you all alone? Where are your mommy and daddy?”

Brimming with resentment, Qin Yu sneered back in a venomous tone: “I don’t have parents. Nobody wants to raise me, that’s why I’m wandering the streets. Happy now?”

Contrary to his expectations, the little girl didn’t run away in fear. Instead, she fell into deep, serious thought. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a thick red envelope stuffed with holiday cash, and generously shoved it into his hands.

“Big brother, I have lots of money. How about I keep you?”

That night, Qin Yu enjoyed a rare, peaceful sleep. In his dreams, the taste of sweet milk candy lingered, sweet all the way to the bottom of his soul.

—

2. A “Gentleness” Named Possession

The two months Song Nian stayed at the Qin residence were the rarest moments of warmth he had ever known. She would secretly sneak food to him, and in the middle of the night, she would clutch her plush doll and sneak into his room to sleep beside him. Qin Yu’s hollow, empty heart was filled for the first time by her pure, unreserved trust.

When he turned eighteen, his older brother passed away. His parents wept crocodile tears in public, but behind closed doors, they blamed him for “cursing his brother to death.” Qin Yu found it utterly hysterical. The moment he seized absolute control of the family empire, his first order of business wasn’t revenge, it was quietly laying out a smooth path for Song Nian.

He secretly funded her full-ride study abroad program and acted as the “mindless investor” who dumped endless capital whenever she wanted to launch a startup. He watched her grow step by step into a brilliant, radiant woman, but a dark sense of danger began to fester within him. Somewhere along the line, his feelings for her had ceased to be innocent. When Lu Su started pursuing her, Qin Yu simply applied a gentle “correction” behind the scenes, ensuring the kid suffered enough bad luck that returning to the country became an impossibility. Entirely reasonable, completely coincidental, and entirely unconnected to him.

3. The Nightmare Called “Uncle”

CEO Qin’s unshakeable composure fractured completely the day Song Nian casually addressed him as “Uncle.”

After they married, those two words became a recurring nightmare. Every time a younger man appeared by her side, he suffered from insomnia. Every time he spotted a fine line on his own face, he screamed silently inside. It was a deeply mature, deeply pathetic state of panic.

Only when Song Nian wrapped her arms around him and declared that she loved only him did Qin Yu finally find true peace. He quietly shelved his elaborate schemes to “deal with” those younger men.

In truth, however, he had lied to her.

He was not nearly as generous as his refined, gentlemanly facade suggested. If Song Nian had ever truly fallen for someone else, he would never have let her go. He wouldn’t blame her, he would simply ensure that anyone who dared to crawl into her orbit naturally fell into ruin, poverty, and desperation, vanishing from her sight forever.

Just like he had done with Lu Su.

[THE END]