When Xie Yun came to, his eyes stared blankly into space for a few seconds. Then, abruptly letting go of me, he stammered, “S… Sorry.”

I gave him a brief “It’s fine” and walked away, but the words he’d uttered during his fever kept looping in my head. To make matters worse, I actually dreamed about him that night. I dreamed he lifted me onto the bathroom sink, his hands tracing my waist, his lips slowly, deliberately pressing against my collarbone…

I shook my head violently. Seriously out of my mind. Not only was I having wild dreams, but I could remember every single detail!

While I was out preparing for my mother’s birthday party, Jiang Sha—Xie Yun’s “brother for life”—came to rescue him. Instead of using the front door, I looped through the back garden and happened to catch the two young heirs in conversation.

Jiang Sha chuckled merrily. “Did Song Ngu put a beating on you? Honestly, I doubt she even cares enough to look at you. Plenty of guys have tried to marry her, only to be flatly rejected by the Song family. Come on, let’s get out of here!”

“I’m not going,” Xie Yun replied without a second thought.

Jiang Sha froze. “Huh? Aren’t you going to get your eyes treated? Besides, what if she comes back and hits you again?”

A slow, lazy smirk spread across Xie Yun’s face.

“Honestly… being blind isn’t so bad. I never know where her next slap is going to land. It’s pretty thrilling. I kind of love it.”

The tips of his ears turned a shade of red so deep they looked ready to burst into flames. Standing behind the bushes, I didn’t even know how to laugh. So all my hard work trying to “train a good dog” had just been turned into a “perk” for him? Getting beaten into a high like that… this guy was completely broken!

That evening, Xie Jin-yi sent me another whiny text, begging me to drop by his gym. Hearing his younger brother’s sweet, coaxing tone over the phone, Xie Yun—standing nearby—did not look pleased at all. “Are you two… that close?”

“Just normal.”

In the middle of the night, Xie Jin-yi unexpectedly climbed over the perimeter wall and snuck onto the property, stopping right outside my bedroom door to blurt out a sudden question:

“Sis… you’re keeping my brother locked up like this… is it because you like him?”

“No!” I answered so fast I startled myself.

Jin-yi let out a sigh of relief, then dropped a absolute bombshell:

“That’s good, then. My brother’s arranged marriage partner—Jiang Ngu—is back in the country. They’re meeting this Saturday. With the way things are between you two… it’s not really appropriate.”

My brows pulled together slightly. “Marriage alliance?” Before I knew it, my hand had tightened into a fist against my thigh. I tried reassuring myself that when you return a pet you’ve looked after for a few days, you’re bound to feel a little reluctant. But this bitter, uncomfortable feeling was clearly something far more complicated than that.

Even though I said I’d let Jin-yi take his brother back tomorrow, my hands were brutally honest as I opened the security app on my phone.

And then, I went completely numb.

On the live screen, Xie Yun had already removed his chains. The golden cage’s lock had been picked wide open. Lying on the floor was a black hairpin—his weapon of choice, picked up whenever it suited him.

Unbelievable.

This “good dog” wasn’t nearly as blind or helpless as I’d thought… he’d known how to pick the lock all along!

Before leaving, Jin-yi couldn’t resist twisting the knife further, emphasizing that Xie Yun and Jiang Ngu were childhood sweethearts, and that both families had intended for them to end up together for years.

I stayed silent. But the moment he walked out, my fingers automatically navigated to Jiang Ngu’s social media page. The pinned posts showing New Year’s dinners with both families, memories spanning “ten years together,” and a photo of an airline ticket captioned, “About to hug the person I love!”… every single item felt like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head.

I set the phone down and looked back at Xie Yun through the camera feed. He was sitting there, head held high with his usual arrogance—not a trace of submission left, not even bothering to pretend anymore.

Fine. Let him go.

I decided to fly out to Hong Kong to attend my best friend’s wedding. Before leaving, I instructed the bodyguards to throw away the iron cage and chains, and to block all of Xie Yun’s contact information. For one hectic month, I lived my life as if he had never existed.

The night before Wen Yue’s wedding, I walked her back to her room and headed toward my own to get some rest. Just as I was about to swipe my keycard at the presidential suite, I noticed someone standing in the shadows.

“Song Ngu.”

Xie Yun stood there, taking a deep breath as if trying to force down something choking his throat.

“I’ve never seen anyone act like a Master the way you do. Saying you don’t need me… did you really mean it?”

I froze. Truth be told, running away here and keeping myself ridiculously busy was all just an excuse to avoid him. He was like a thorn buried deep in my heart. I crossed my arms, letting out a cold laugh.

“What is this? Don’t tell me you’re actually serious?”

“I am,” he answered without hesitation. “I’m dead serious.”

“You love playing the obedient dog that much? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have wasted my—”

Before I could finish, he pinned me against the door.

“Song Ngu, you know damn well I’m not talking about that.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“I like you,” his voice rasped.

My heart hammered wildly against my chest—though whether it was his heartbeat or my own, I couldn’t tell. I turned my head away, about to spit out something sarcastic, but he snatched the keycard from my hand, scooped me up into his arms, carried me inside, and slammed the door shut.

Before I could even call him a brute, the proud, arrogant man suddenly… dropped to his knees. Pulling a silver chain from inside his jacket, his eyes bore into mine, practically begging:

“Ngu Ngu… let me be bullied by you one more time… please?”

Stunned, realization suddenly hit me. “Wait… can you see?”

He paused, then nodded. “After you left, I had the surgery to restore my vision.”

“Then why aren’t you resting at home? What are you doing running all the way out here?”

His voice dropped low. “When I woke up, you weren’t there. I went to your place, only to realize… you threw me away. Song Ngu, you’re cruel.”

He smiled, but the warmth never reached his eyes.

An overwhelming exhaustion washed over me. It was past midnight, I had a wedding to attend tomorrow, and I simply didn’t have the energy to deal with a madman anymore. I said coldly, “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police.”

His face hardened instantly, but he didn’t say another word. Getting up, he silently turned around, walked out, and softly pulled the door shut behind him. Silence settled over the room, leaving me alone with my tangled, chaotic thoughts.