After our confrontation in the garage, I led Huo Ci straight into the hotel. Only one thought kept racing through my mind: I had to lay everything out on the table. It was time to put an end to this whole “sugar mama and her eye-candy boy toy” game.

But the second we stepped into the elevator, before the doors even slid shut, Huo Ci pulled me flush against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist.

“Wait…” I gently pushed against his broad chest. “I have something important to tell you.”

“Me too,” he replied instantly, his tone even graver than mine.

I blinked, caught off guard. “What is it?”

Huo Ci held my gaze for a long second before announcing with utmost gravity, “I wore a new suit today.”

“…” Words failed me. That was his huge announcement?

The moment the elevator chimed at our floor, he took my hand and led me out with practiced efficiency. Keycard tapped, door closed—his movements were so seamless you’d think he’d rehearsed them. Before I could even react, he guided me down onto the sofa.

“I’m being completely serious,” I said, trying to maintain a stern face. “Someone took photos of us. Shen Yuhang is using them to blackmail me.”

Instead of panicking, Huo Ci let out a soft, amused chuckle.

I stared at him, baffled. “You’re not worried at all?”

“Why should I be?” he countered smoothly. “I can handle it. If it bothers you, I can make those photos vanish before the end of the day.”

“No need,” I interrupted, drawing a deep breath to summon every last drop of courage. “Huo Ci… I want to marry you.”

Pin-drop silence fell over the room, so quiet I could hear the rhythm of our breathing. Huo Ci froze, a stunned, completely blank look washing over his face—a rare sight on him.

“I’ve thought it through,” I pressed on. “If we get married, none of those scandalous rumors will hold any weight. I like you, you like me—so let me marry you.”

Huo Ci stared at me without blinking. The corners of his mouth twitched, desperate to break into a triumphant grin, but he fought to hold it back, making his expression endearingly absurd.

Anxiety crept in. “Is that a bad idea? If you’re not on board, I can figure out something else—”

“Yes!” he shot back instantly, so fast I thought I’d misheard. “More than on board. Nothing could be better.”

This time, I was the one who burst out laughing, the heavy boulder on my chest finally lifting away. I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Then it’s settled. Oh, by the way… what were you saying earlier at the hospital about needing to go buy something?”

Huo Ci pulled me close against him, resting his chin on top of my head, his low voice laced with amusement. “Rings.”

I paused. “Rings for what?”

“To marry you.”

My face flushed crimson, my mind going blank for a solid few seconds, while a certain someone couldn’t hide his smug, radiantly happy smile.

The next day, I sought out Shen Yuhang on my own terms. The moment we were face-to-face, I didn’t mince words. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m marrying Huo Ci.”

The smug victory on Yuhang’s face instantly evaporated, as if someone had abruptly pulled the plug. He bolted up from his seat, shouting, “Niyi! Do you even hear yourself?! Just to spite me, you’re going to throw yourself at some gold-digger?!”

Right on cue, a sharp, mocking sneer sounded from the doorway. Qiao Ran was standing there, arms crossed, leaning against the frame. “God, that’s hilarious. She’d literally rather marry a stranger than take you back.”

Yuhang’s face turned thunderous. “Shut the hell up!”

Qiao Ran just shrugged, completely unbothered.

Yuhang turned back to me, his voice raspy with desperate frustration. “Niyi, I’m giving you one last chance. It’s him or me. I promise I’ll treat you right from now on. We can pretend none of this ever happened.”

I calmly opened my bag, pulled out a vibrant red invitation, and slid it gracefully across the table toward him. “My engagement party is tomorrow. Feel free to stop by for a drink if you’re free.”

Yuhang’s face drained completely white. In a fit of rage, he violently swiped the invitation off the table, sending it fluttering to the floor. “Have you completely lost your mind?!”

Without missing a beat, I turned on my heel and walked toward the exit. Pausing after a few steps without looking back, I offered a cool parting blow: “My life is no longer your concern.”

Ten years ago, I met Huo Ci for the very first time.

That year, my parents traveled to an impoverished rural village to attend the opening ceremony for a primary school they had funded. And it was in that desolate, dusty town that I first laid eyes on a teenage boy named Huo Ci.

It was a sweltering day, the little village cast in a bleak, dreary grey. His mother’s funeral was being savagely crashed by a gang of aggressive loan sharks. Amidst the violent chaos, a scrawny boy dressed in mourning clothes was brutally shoved to the ground.

His forehead struck the sharp edge of a rock, cracking open and bleeding profusely. Crimson blood trickled down his hollow cheek, staining the joss paper money fluttering in the dusty wind.

That was the moment Huo Ci entered my life.

But the loan sharks weren’t done. Beyond smashing everything in sight, they moved toward the altar, preparing to knock his mother’s spirit tablet to the dirt.

That crossed a line. Like a cornered feral animal, the bloody boy scrambled off the ground and threw his body in front of the altar. Covered in blood, he wrapped his arms tightly around the wooden tablet. “Don’t you dare touch my mother!”

A burly man stepped forward, swinging a heavy iron pipe high into the air, aiming straight for the boy’s head.

Adrenaline surged through my veins. I don’t know where I found the courage, but I threw myself straight into the fray, screaming at the top of my lungs, “Stop it!”

The thugs paused, turning to stare at me in stunned silence. My heart pounded like a jackhammer against my ribs, but I did my best to channel my father’s calm, commanding presence during business negotiations. Hands on my hips, I declared with fake authority, “How much does he owe you? My family will pay it!”

Everyone froze—including Huo Ci. He looked up at me, blood dripping slowly down past the corner of his eye.

Those eyes… I’ve never been able to forget them. He looked like a feral stray snarling to protect the last thing he had, only for someone to suddenly reach out a helping hand. The fierce defiance in his gaze cracked open, laying bare a raw, hidden vulnerability.

I squatted down in front of him, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe away the blood. But as I gently touched his forehead, his body gave a subtle shudder.

“Don’t be scared,” I whispered softly. “My parents will help you.”

And my parents truly did. They cleared his mother’s remaining debts, arranged for him to transfer to a well-funded orphanage, and quietly sponsored his education for years.

In the beginning, Huo Ci visited our house often. He was quiet, sitting still as a wooden post all day, but whenever he looked at me, his eyes shined with bright, puppy-dog devotion.

Until, out of nowhere… he stopped coming. As I recalled, that was right around the time our families started casually bringing up the idea of an arrangement between Shen Yuhang and me.

I called my dad to tell him I was getting engaged. The old man rambled on, asking a million questions, until I casually dropped: “His last name is Huo.”

Total silence fell over the line for several seconds. Then my dad drew a sharp breath. “Wait… Not the Capital’s Huo family?! Well, damn! I was wondering why some giant conglomerate linked to the Huo ecosystem kept quietly pumping money into our company these past few years! Investing in failing projects, funding ideas before they were even built—I thought I’d bumped into some legendary philanthropist!”

I hastily cut off his wild deduction. “Dad, you’re overthinking it. It’s not some shadowy tycoon network. It’s Huo Ci! The Huo Ci you helped all those years ago!”

A beat of stunned silence, and then my dad erupted. “Little Ci?! Good lord, that boy?!” His tone shifted into pure, ecstatic celebration, giving his seal of approval in less than a second. “Fantastic! That’s brilliant! I knew back then the kid was built different. Quiet, sure, but he had grit in his bones. I knew he’d make something of himself!”

Then curiosity struck him. “Wait, how did you two reconnect anyway? How come you never mentioned it?”

I squeezed my phone tightly, my cheeks burning. How did we reconnect? Was I supposed to say: “Well, after my fiancé publicly dumped me, I got trashed, booked a hotel room, and accidentally picked up my future husband”? If I told him the truth, the poor man would pass out on the spot.

Thankfully, he didn’t press for details and went straight to the point. “Tomorrow! You bring Little Ci home for dinner, you hear me? An engagement is a big deal; we need to sit down and celebrate properly.”

The moment I hung up, a pair of warm arms wrapped around me from behind. Huo Ci gently rested his chin on my shoulder, his voice soft and low against my skin. “Your dad is so kind. He didn’t even ask why I vanished for all those years.”

Turning around in his arms, I slid my hands naturally around his trim waist and looked up. “He didn’t, but I am. Why didn’t you send me a single word in all these years?”

Huo Ci’s eyes flickered, a rare flicker of awkwardness washing over his features. Taking a few seconds to compose himself, he finally rasped, “Because… you and Shen Yuhang were already promised to each other. And then… I was brought back into the Huo family…”

My heart clenched painfully at his words. Instinctively, I reached up and covered his mouth with my hand, stopping him right there. My mind was already spinning with dramatic, bloody tales of elite family power struggles and succession wars. A proud man like Huo Ci—just how much humiliation and hardship had he endured within the Huo household to get to where he was today?

The thought made my chest ache with fierce, protective sorrow as I looked up into his eyes.