The very next second, he scooped me up into a princess carry.

“Put me down! I’m not going back!” I thrashed in his arms.

“That’s not your call to make.”

“You’re an asshole!”

Tightening his iron grip around my legs, he gritted his teeth. “In a minute, I’ll show you what a real asshole looks like.”

He shoved me into the car and tore down the road at a dizzying speed. By the time we pulled up to the house, ignoring my dramatic complaints that I was going to “throw up,” he hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack of cargo and took long, sweeping strides into the bedroom.

I was tossed onto the mattress. His fingers clamped around my chin, tilting my face up to force me to look directly into his dark, storm-filled eyes. Siyan leaned down, each word forced through gritted teeth:

“Drinking alcohol. Hiring male models. Qiao Yihua, I had no idea my wife knew how to party so hard. If I hadn’t showed up tonight, just how far were you planning to take this?”

Under the faint glow of the moonlight, I caught a clear view of his obsidian eyes—they weren’t just burning with rage, but laced with an undeniable edge of panic. A sharp sting hit the back of my nose, and tears spilled over without warning. All the grievances I had been bottling up all evening finally burst through the dam.

“Siyan, what right do you even have to be angry?” I sobbed, completely throwing any semblance of composure out the window. “I saw Lin Ximo pulling on your tie, and you didn’t even push her away! Did you care about my feelings for even a second? I want a divorce!”

His whole body visibly recoiled, the usual calm composure in his eyes shattering into raw panic. He spoke almost instantaneously, “I’m not divorcing you!”

Looking at me like a large, frantic dog that had just done something terribly wrong, he reached out with clumsy gentleness to wipe my tears away. “There has never been anyone else in my heart. From the very beginning to the end… it’s only ever been you. There is nothing between her and me, let alone dating.”

His voice dropped, softening into something so tender it was practically a plea: “You can be mad at me, yell at me, even hit me… but please don’t leave me, okay?”

It was the first time I had ever seen Siyan lower himself to this extent. The cold, aloof demeanor was completely stripped away, leaving behind just a man desperately trying to hold onto his wife.

Pulling me into his chest, he patiently explained what had actually happened in the stairwell. As it turned out, when Lin Ximo had cornered him with her subtle advances and low blows aimed at me, Siyan hadn’t stayed silent at all:

I froze, thoroughly stunned. He took my hand, pressing a soft kiss to my knuckles. “Qiaoqiao, if I really had something going on with her… would I have brought you to that party in the first place? Do you really have so little faith in me?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you…” I lowered my head, my voice dropping to a whisper. “It’s just that since we got married, you’ve never wanted to be intimate with me.”

Siyan’s voice turned thick and low. “It’s not that I didn’t want to be intimate with you. The night we registered our marriage… I thought you understood.”

The memory of our wedding night instantly came rushing back. The atmosphere that evening had been scorching, almost combustible. But because I had never been in a relationship before, even kissing was something he had to guide me through. Surprised by my own fear and tension, I had instinctively pushed him away. It was that single, subtle push that made him freeze. He had kissed my forehead, grabbed a pillow, and moved to the guest room—simply terrified of scaring me any further.

Thinking back, a shocking realization hit me like a bolt of lightning: It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; he had been holding himself back. He had exercised so much self-control that I thought he was emotionally dead inside, so much so that I almost threw away the man who loved me most.

“Silly girl. You were trembling so hard your face went pale, and your eyes were bloodshot. How could I bring myself to force you?” Siyan rubbed my head, his tone laced with helpless affection.

It turned out that all this time, he had been enduring it just to wait until I was truly ready. My face flushed bright red, and a tear splashed onto the back of his hand. “How was I supposed to know that…? I took the initiative that night and you still wouldn’t touch me. I thought you hated me…”

Siyan leaned down, kissing away every tear like he was handling the most precious treasure. The kiss carried a faint taste of salt, but it made my heart completely melt. “It was my fault for staying silent and hurting you. Don’t be mad anymore, alright? Honestly, the second after I turned you down that night, I regretted it instantly.”

The atmosphere thickened until the air felt too heavy to breathe. Siyan pressed closer, his voice dropping into a playfully desperate whimper that crossed every line: “Wife, I really don’t want a divorce.”

Before I could even process what was happening, he pulled out a ring, carefully slipping it onto my finger as if terrified I might run away. “Don’t divorce me, okay?”

“Let me think about it…”

“No thinking allowed.”

“No divorce.”

The moment the words left my mouth, he flipped over, pinning me directly onto the mattress. His eyes burned like liquid fire as his fingers slowly unbuttoned my shirt, deliberately teasing my remaining patience. Wrapping his silk tie tightly around my wrists, he leaned down and whispered into my ear:

“You were the one begging me to fulfill my marital obligations earlier… Why are you scared now that we’re actually starting?”

I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, my voice barely audible from sheer embarrassment. “Siyan… stop teasing me… please…”

“Call me ‘husband,’ and I’ll go easy on you.”

Everything after that turned into a blur, leaving only the sensation of him guiding me through depths of passion I had never experienced before. That night stretched on for an eternity, warmer and more sincere than any romance movie ever made.

When it finally ended, I was curled up against his chest, far too exhausted to move a muscle. Where I couldn’t see, Siyan’s eyes flushed red with emotion.

What he had never told me was this: Ever since his junior year of college, the very first time he laid eyes on Qiao Yihua, he was hooked.

He had loved her in secret, hiding his feelings away for four long years, right up until he could legitimately marry her and bring her home. To him, every single second of waiting had been entirely worth it.

Moonlight spilled across the bedroom. He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “Qiaoqiao, you still haven’t told me… do you like the ring?”

“I love it… but when did you even buy it?”

“Last month. I planned to give it to you on our anniversary, along with a candlelight dinner. Too bad it all got ruined,” he gave a self-deprecating laugh.

A wave of guilt washed over me. I crawled up onto his chest, whispering an apology. “Then can we make up for it tomorrow? A candlelight dinner?”

Siyan looked down at me, a lingering, meaningful look dancing in his eyes. “Are you sure… you’ll have the strength for that?”

I tried to dive under the covers, but he caught me before I could escape. His voice dropped, low and fiercely possessive: “It’s still early. You still owe me, and you don’t get to sleep until you’ve paid up.”

“What do I owe you?! I’m sleepy.”

“I don’t care.”

And another round began, wrapped in the warmth of a love that had finally, beautifully blossomed.