Chapter 4: Hunter Becomes Hunted

When I woke up early the next morning, Xia Linzhou was nowhere to be seen—though his luggage was still sitting loud and proud in the room. A little while later, he walked in carrying several heavy shopping bags, looking for all the world like he’d just done a routine grocery run.

I took a deep breath, speaking slowly. “Xia Linzhou… I’m sorry. I misjudged you.”

“It’s fine. As long as you’re not mad anymore.” He took my hand and pressed it against his cheek, his eyes impossibly sincere. “Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up… we’re good, right?”

Silence hung between us for a long moment before I finally summoned the courage to lay all my cards on the table.

“Xia Linzhou… I actually lied to you. I approached you on purpose from the very beginning.”

“I know,” he replied, completely unfazed.

“I also know your real name is Xie Jinchen, and that you came after me just to break up my engagement with Song Qingli.”

My eyes went wide. “When the hell did you figure that out?!”

“The day before yesterday. I hired a private investigator.”

I mumbled under my breath, “If you already knew everything… why did you bother coming after me?”

“To make up with you.” His tone softened completely. “Sweetheart, you were the one who seduced me first. I’ve already given you my body and my heart… you have to take responsibility till the very end.”

I stared at him in utter disbelief. “You’re… not angry?”

“I was at first. Just a little. But then… I got over it.”

I decided to deliver one final reality check. “Xia Linzhou, the truth is… I don’t even like you that much. For the past two years, I only ever saw you as a friend with benefits.”

“That’s fine,” he said calmly. “You can treat this boyfriend of yours as a friend with benefits for now. Once you actually fall for me… then we can talk about marriage.”

I cleared my throat nervously. “Fine… but you need to dial it back in bed. Three times a week max.”

Without skipping a beat, he agreed, completely unfazed. “Deal.”

This man… is terrifying.

—

After lunch, I dragged Xia Linzhou to watch a movie. Halfway through, the scene on screen began to turn steamy. Sneaking a glance at the man sitting beside me, I sensed danger and tried to slip back into my bedroom. But before I could even make a move, I was yanked right back into his chest.

Xia Linzhou chuckled lazily. “Sweetheart, why is your face so red? It’s about to get a whole lot redder.”

The next second, he tilted my chin up and captured my lips. A few minutes later, as I leaned against his chest, breathless, he leaned down and rasped into my ear, “Sweetheart… do you want to?”

I nodded meekly, my ears burning hot, but then a sudden thought hit me. “Wait… we can’t… I don’t have anything.”

“I bought protection this morning,” he replied evenly.

Me: “…”

(So those heavy shopping bags from his morning grocery run were for THIS!)

—

Xia Linzhou officially moved into my place. As for me, I lived in constant, heart-pounding fear of getting caught red-handed by my brother.

Today, I dropped by my brother’s company to visit him. The moment I stepped out of the elevator, I saw him and Xia Linzhou walking out of a conference room together. When Xia Linzhou spotted me, he actually had the nerve to… smirk. I immediately whipped my head away, playing stone-cold strangers.

Back in his office, I casually probed, “Brother, was that Xia Linzhou just now?”

“Yeah,” my brother grunted. “Don’t know what kind of bug got into him today. He opened his mouth and called me ‘Brother,’ then actually apologized for getting physical last time.”

I gave a forced laugh. “Guess… he realized he was in the wrong. So, what do you think of him?”

My brother fixed his gaze on me. “Not happening. The guy looks untrustworthy through and through. Jinchen, don’t tell me you’re actually interested in him?”

“Not a chance!”

Leaving the building, I quickly ducked into Xia Linzhou’s waiting car.

“Sweetheart, am I really that embarrassing to be seen with?”

“No. It’s just that my brother’s impression of you is terrible right now. It’s best he doesn’t know we’re dating, and he definitely can’t find out… that I was living in Shanghai for the past two years.”

I had him drive us to an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Rolling down the window, I stared at the desolate landscape and softly opened up about the time I was kidnapped at twelve years old.

“They kept me locked up here for two days. They beat my brother half to death… If the police had been a minute later, I might have lost him forever.”

Xia Linzhou suddenly pulled me tightly into his arms, his voice dropping into a gentle hush.

“Sweetheart… that’s all in the past. From now on, I’ll take extra good care of our brother.”

Me: “…”

It sounded sweet and moving, but that word—“our”—he was settling into the brother-in-law role a little *too* quickly!

—

It turned out my brother was genuinely terrified of me getting wrapped up with Xia Linzhou. I looked at the man sitting across from me, offering a polite, if slightly strained, smile.

“Mr. Gu, I’m sorry, but I already have a boyfriend.”

Gu Cían simply smiled gently. “That’s fine. Consider this just a friendly dinner.”

He was one of my brother’s few close friends. Naturally, the moment I stepped out of his car… I was caught red-handed by Xia Linzhou. He swept his eyes over the two of us, saying absolutely nothing, but that deafening silence was far more terrifying than any outburst.

By the time we got home, the low-pressure atmosphere surrounding Xia Linzhou was stifling. His face practically screamed: I am furious. Explain. Now.

I walked over and wrapped my arms around his waist, standing on tiptoe to press a kiss to his chin. “Xia Linzhou, he’s just a friend of my brother’s. There’s nothing between us.”

He maintained his icy glare. “Probably the prime candidate for a brother-in-law your dear brother handpicked for you, right?”

I burst out laughing. “No way. You’re the only one who fits the bill. Come on, tell me, what’s it gonna take to fix your mood?”

He stayed dead silent. I decided to test the waters: “Or… how about you stay mad for a bit while I go take a shower?”

I hadn’t even dried my hair when the bathroom door was pushed open. Through the swirling steam, I was pinned against the wall. His raspy voice sounded right against my ear:

“Making an exception just for this week… and then I’ll stop being mad.”

Turns out his way of “getting over it” was thoroughly ruthless. By the time I staggered out of the bathroom, my legs were shaking like I’d just run a marathon. Sure enough… trusting a jealous man’s promises was a rookie mistake.

—

Barely past ten the next morning, frantic knocking shattered my sleep. I nudged the man beside me. “Xia Linzhou… go get the door…”

He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and headed out. When he returned a moment later, his expression was wildly complex.

“Sweetheart, get up… your brother is here.”

I snapped fully awake in record time. “My brother… did he leave?!”

“Nope. Sitting right out in the living room.”

I looked at the unmistakable scratch marks lining his bare back, and only one thought filled my mind: I am dead. Absolutely, utterly dead.

After a rushed cleanup, the two of us walked out. My brother was sitting on the sofa, radiating an icy aura cold enough to air-condition the entire apartment.

“Xie Jinchen. What is the meaning of this?”

I gripped Xia Linzhou’s hand tight and took a deep breath. “It is what it looks like… Xia Linzhou is my boyfriend.”

My brother launched into an aggressive interrogation: How long had we been together? Did I know he kept a woman in Shanghai? Was the fight last time because of me?

Just as I was breaking out in a cold sweat, Xia Linzhou spoke up.

“Brother Chao, let Jinchen head back to her room first. I’ll explain everything to you.”

I pressed my ear against the door to eavesdrop, but couldn’t make out a single word. By the time Xia Linzhou returned, my brother was already gone. I let out a heavy sigh. “Who knows how long my brother’s going to be mad at us…”

He pulled me into his arms. “Don’t worry. He’ll be over it by tomorrow.”

It turned out Xia Linzhou was right. The very next day, my brother was completely over it, even dropping by to bring me food.

He stared at me for a moment before asking, “Those two years you spent by Xia Linzhou’s side… did you suffer any grievances?”

I froze. “You found out? No, no grievances at all. He treated me really well… it was just the busybodies around him who kept gossiping, saying I wasn’t worthy of him.”

My brother’s face instantly darkened into a scowl. “Why do I feel like… he’s the one who isn’t worthy of you?”

—

That very afternoon, my brother suddenly whisked me off to Shanghai for an elite gala. The second I stepped into the venue linked arm-in-arm with him—introduced officially as Xie Jinchen, First Miss of the Xie Family—the entire grand hall practically exploded.

Meng Zhiyue stormed over, her face completely distorted in disbelief. “Are you Cheng Yunwu or Xie Jinchen?!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Both. And I’m here to marry Xia Linzhou.”

Her face drained of all color. “Impossible! You humiliated him like that—”

I glanced over at the man standing center stage in the middle of the crowd. “Are you so sure about that?”

Xia Linzhou looked straight at me, a faint, fond smile playing at the corner of his lips. I called out across the room, “Xia Linzhou, do you want to marry me or not?”

Without a second of hesitation, his voice rang out: “More than anything in this world.”

—

The two of us ducked out of the party early. The moment we got into the back seat of the car, he pinned me down against the leather. His voice was thick and raspy. “Sweetheart… did you miss me?”

I held his hands back. “Don’t… we’re outside…”

But the second the car pulled into the villa driveway… we weren’t “outside” anymore.

That night was very long—and the car was very, very busy.

—

On the day of my brother’s wedding, watching him slip the ring onto Qingli’s finger, I couldn’t hold back my tears. After all those years of waiting, he finally had the love of his life.

Xia Linzhou wrapped his arms around me from behind, his voice dropping into a tender murmur against my ear.

“Yunwu, your brother has someone else to protect now… so let me protect you for the rest of your life, okay?”

I smiled, nodding softly against his chest. “Okay.”

— THE END —