Ch. 2.

That was my sophomore year. After a full year of surviving college together, my friendship with Xiao Yu had officially upgraded to soulmate status.

One afternoon, she invited me over to her place. Her vibe, though, was completely off, she didn’t look like a girl heading home; she looked like a thief breaking into a vault. Leaning in close, her face drained of all color, she hissed in my ear:

“My second uncle is home today… In this entire family, he’s the one person I’m terrified of.”

According to her description, this uncle was a terrifying creature: stern, intimidating, never smiled, and could make your knees buckle with a single glare. Naturally, my brain immediately constructed an image of a middle-aged guy with a receding hairline, a subtle beer gut, and eyes sharp enough to shave with.

Then I took off my shoes at the front door, and a tall, impeccably built figure stepped out.

I froze. Okay, my bad.

Xiao Yu’s “second uncle” was on a whole different level. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than us, but he carried an air of effortless, grounded maturity that we couldn’t match if we had another ten years to practice. The only word for it was unreal.

I gave him a quick once-over and immediately looked away. Sure, he was gorgeous, but he was strictly off-limits. Besides, I already had a boyfriend at the time.

We had started dating earlier that sophomore year. He’d chased me for an entire year, swearing up and down that it was love at first sight when he saw me wearing a red dress at the freshman gala.

And I fell for it. I used to think love would be simple, just holding hands and growing old together, like my parents. Instead, that “model boyfriend” ended up giving me a crash course in harsh reality.

Barely three months in, I caught him locking lips with another girl like the world was ending. Confronted with the truth, he didn’t even bother apologizing. He just lost his mind and yelled:

“Teng Wan! We’ve been together for three months and you won’t even let me hold your hand! What am I to you, a boyfriend or a meal ticket who holds your spot in the library? You’re so damn old-fashioned—no one else is ever gonna want you!”

I didn’t bother turning back. When a dog bites you, the smartest move isn’t to bite it back, it’s to find a meaner dog to tear it apart. (Of course, back then, I had no clue that the “meaner dog” would end up being Pei Hang.)

Even though I knew he wasn’t worth the tears, it still stung. As I walked aimlessly, the sky split open, pouring down heavy rain mixed with roaring thunder. To top off my terrible luck, I stepped straight into a massive puddle while trying to run for cover.

My takeout bowl of snail noodles went flying. And so did I.

Right there in the freezing rain, on a completely deserted street, I sat flat on the pavement and just cried my eyes out. Right in the middle of my dramatic sob session, the rain suddenly stopped hitting my head. A pair of pristine, polished leather shoes stepped into my blurry field of vision.

I squinted up through a haze of tears. Wait. Xiao Yu’s uncle?

My dad always taught me to be polite to people I knew. So, sniffling, I choked out, “U-Uncle…”

The next second, the umbrella vanished. Cold rain slapped me right in the face. I blinked, utterly dazed. Wow… this guy is actually kinda brutal?

A moment later, the umbrella tilted back over me. His deep, velvety voice drifted down, laced with something unreadable: “Done crying?”

All the heartbreak in my chest evaporated in an instant, replaced by sheer, skin-burning embarrassment. Who wants an acquaintance to catch them sitting on the wet pavement, playing the tragic victim in a cheap drama? I scrambled to get up, but my legs were so numb from sitting on the cold ground that I wobbled, almost tumbling right back down.

A large, warm hand reached out, catching me by the wrist with steady force. That was the very first time I had ever touched the hand of a real man, not just a college boy. The heat radiating off his skin was ridiculously grounding.

“Thank you, Uncle.”

Pei Hang’s frame went slightly rigid. He looked down at me with an odd, intense gaze, then said coldly, “Get in the car. I’ll drive you back to campus. You talk too much.”

I climbed into the passenger seat like a stray kitten, shivering uncontrollably. The next second, a heavy, expensive suit jacket draped over my shoulders, wrapping me in a faint scent of fine tobacco and his lingering body warmth.

“Uncle, really, you don’t have to…”

“ACHOO!”

… Yeah, okay. I definitely needed it.

The cozy warmth inside the car slowly brought my brain back online. Once the shock wore off, a sudden thought struck me: Why on earth was Pei Hang casually driving down a secluded backroad near my campus at this exact hour?

His explanation was smooth as silk: “I was on my way to see Xiao Yu. I thought you looked familiar, so I stopped to check.”

It sounded so logical! So logical that… I bought it completely. Maybe it was because the heater was so comforting, or maybe it was just because his side profile was dangerously handsome, but before I knew it, I was spilling the entire pathetic story of my ex’s betrayal.

Pei Hang didn’t laugh or judge. He listened quietly, offering advice with the calm authority of an upgraded, ultra-sophisticated mentor. In that moment, I finally got why girls fell so hard for older men. That kind of pull wasn’t just accidental, it was magnetic.

After that day, the frequency of my “accidental” run-ins with Pei Hang shot through the roof. First it was returning his jacket, then it was thanking him with a street-food dinner (yes, a CEO eating at a roadside stall!). Slowly but surely, the distance between us melted away.

As for how we officially got together, and how I realized Pei Hang was actually a master-level fox disguised as a dark-suited gentleman, that happened the night before my graduation.

Xiao Yu had dragged me out to “expand my horizons” at a club packed with pretty young guys with smooth skin and bright smiles. Right as one of those college guys was leaning in to put an arm around my shoulder, my phone started buzzing. The name on the screen made my heart instantly leap into my throat.

“Hello.”

“Get outside. Now.” His voice was low, thick with a dangerous edge.

The second I slid into his car, I felt like I had stepped straight into a freezer. Pei Hang grabbed my wrist, his dark eyes locking onto mine with scary intensity.

“Wan Wan, I’m done waiting,” he growled low in his throat. “If I keep trying to play nice and respect your boundaries… I’m going to lose you.”

Fireworks exploded inside my head. It turned out that somewhere along the line, the way I felt about him had shifted entirely. We got together that night, but I stubbornly insisted on keeping us a secret: “Not until after I graduate!”

And just like that, powerful CEO Pei Hang was demoted to the secret boyfriend hidden away in the shadows. He complained endlessly about his “lack of official status,” but I completely ignored his protests.

—

“This one matches your dress.”

Pei Hang’s deep voice snapped me straight out of my flashback. He had already casually picked out a set of delicate, sheer lingerie for me.

I gritted my teeth. “Try it on your own damn self!”

Right as we were wrestling over the hanger, a familiar figure caught the edge of my vision outside the shop front, Bui Xiao Yu! She wasn’t at home sleeping in like she was supposed to; she was marching straight toward this store!

Panic hijacked my brain. Without thinking, I grabbed Pei Hang by the collar and yanked him straight into the cramped fitting room with me, slamming the door shut behind us.

“Wan Wan?” he murmured, surprised.

“Xiao Yu just walked in! Shh!”

The air inside the tiny dressing room instantly turned thick and suffocatingly hot. I looked up, bumping straight into his heavy, dark eyes filled with a dangerous, knowing glint.

A massive headache started pounding behind my temples. I had absolute no clue how I was going to explain this to my best friend if she caught us red-handed. After all, I was the one who had once boldly declared: “Your second uncle is an old, untouchable wolf, and I am definitely not his prey!”

If Xiao Yu ever found out that her “untouchable uncle” had devoured her best friend a long time ago… she would laugh me into an early grave.

God help me, this secret cannot get out!