“You need to eat a little more.”

Huo Qisheng’s voice vibrated softly near my ear, laced with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth. His fingers traced a lazy path down the length of my spine:

“Have you always been such a picky eater since you were little? Just how strictly did your dance instructor enforce your weight limit?”

I frowned slightly:

“I’m not a picky eater… I just have a small appetite.”

He let out a low, breathless chuckle:

“Small enough that you nearly passed out from low blood sugar back in Hong Kong?”

I went quiet. I couldn’t argue with that.

He lifted me onto the edge of the marble vanity, bending down to press a soft kiss against my neck:

“Though forcing yourself to eat too much makes you sick… It’s alright. We’ll take it slow.”

His fingers found the zipper at the back of my dress. The fabric glided down my skin like cool silk, pooling in a messy heap around my waist.

“Huo Qisheng…” I called out softly.

He didn’t answer immediately, only leaning down to kiss me deeper:

“Spread your legs for me.”

My body went rigid. He took hold of my ankles, gently drawing them up to hook around his waist. The posture instantly stripped away any chance of retreat.

“You…”

My voice thinned, swallowed whole by the warm, amber glow of the bathroom lights. The soft illumination reflected off the sharp contours of his face, smoothing away his usual coldness. For a split second, I was almost fooled by that tender illusion.

Only for a split second. Then, everything inside the bathroom spun entirely out of control—the running water, the rising steam, and the dwindling space between us.

“Don’t let the housekeeper in to clean tomorrow,” I whispered weakly.

“Alright,” he agreed smoothly. “I’ll clean it myself tomorrow.”

I shot him a skeptical look:

“Are you being serious, or just saying what I want to hear?”

“I’m serious.” He leaned down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. “I’ll clean it.”

I’d be a fool to believe him. Exhausted to my very bones, I lacked the energy to argue any further and simply curled tightly into his chest.

“Huo Qisheng…”

“Hmm?”

“If… if you ever want to end this down the road… just tell me in advance.”

He didn’t answer right away, only wrapping his arms a fraction tighter around me. Before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep.

Just before slipping into unconsciousness, I vaguely felt his lips brush against my forehead once more. Afterwards, he quietly stepped out onto the balcony to make a call.

His voice was dropped to a low murmur:

“Get everything ready. We can begin.”

A day before flying out to Hong Kong, I met up with Ngu Tich for dinner. Just as we finished our meal, my phone buzzed.

“I’m outside to pick you up,” Huo Qisheng’s voice sounded through the speaker.

I glanced at my watch:

“Tich Tich and I were going to sit for a bit longer. You don’t need to come; we can get back on our own.”

“No.” He paused briefly. “Call me when you’re done.”

I stared at the screen, speechless.

The moment I hung up, Ngu Tich rested her chin in her hands, eyeing me intently:

“You’re acting so weird.”

“How am I weird?”

“When Zhou Jisheng used to call you, you never had… that look.”

“What look?”

Ngu Tich flashed a sly grin:

“That look… like you’re actually in love.”

I immediately protested:

“I’ve always been gentle.”

“It’s different.” Her tone softened into something more earnest. “Niannian, I just want you to be genuinely happy.”

Her words caught me off guard. Happiness? I used to have it—briefly—before it vanished into thin air alongside everything connected to Zhou Jisheng.

“You know yourself best,” Ngu Tich said, squeezing my hand. “I just hope you didn’t make the wrong choice this time.”

The wrong choice? I didn’t know.

All I remembered was the first time I met Huo Qisheng… amidst the sea of faces, my eyes had landed on him first. And a person like me, who had spent a lifetime playing strictly by the rules, ended up breaking every single one of them.

And what about him? Why would a man like him ever agree to a private meeting that began with a drunken, reckless invitation? I had no answers. All I knew was that from that night onward, everything had veered entirely off course.

His car pulled up smoothly in front of the restaurant, and Huo Qisheng stepped out.

Ngu Tich gave me a subtle nudge with her elbow:

“Not bad at all. Total cold-and-celibate male lead vibes.”

A hot flush rushed to my cheeks. She burst into laughter:

“Look at you! Your face is red as a tomato.”

I stood up, grabbing my purse:

“Get home safely.”

“Got it,” she waved me off. “Go fall in love.”

Turning around, she nearly collided with a man walking past. He caught her by the arm with effortless courtesy:

“My apologies.”

“It’s fine.”

It was a fleeting encounter, and the man quickly turned to walk away. Ngu Tich watched his retreating back, then turned around with a casual shrug:

“Pretty handsome, though.”

I sighed:

“Do me a favor and try not to cause any trouble.”

“I know, I know,” she laughed.

Yet after taking a few steps, the man suddenly paused, turning back to fix a long, lingering gaze on Ngu Tich before asking:

“Is your name… Tich Tich?”

Ngu Tich blinked, completely caught off guard:

“Yeah. It is.”

In that single, quiet instant, neither of them realized that what seemed like a chance encounter had actually been set in motion long ago.

Later in Hong Kong, I received a call from an unfamiliar number. It turned out to be Mrs. Zhou.

The second I answered, before I could even utter a word, her voice exploded through the speaker like a barrage of firecrackers:

“Xu Nian, so what if you and Jisheng are divorced? You signed those papers barely a few days ago, and you’re already flying off to Hong Kong with another man? Where is your decency? What about the Zhou family’s reputation?”

“Is this how your parents raised you?”

“You lived under our roof for three years, eating our food, spending our money, and failed to produce a single heir! Even then, I never forced Jisheng to leave you! Now look at you—the second the company hits a rough patch, you wash your hands clean and run away…”

Her voice grew sharper with every word, scraping against my ears:

“Let me tell you, I won’t swallow this insult! How much has the Xu family profited off the Zhou family over the years? Show a shred of conscience!”

I took a breath, unable to hold back from interrupting her:

“Mrs. Zhou, if you have complaints about the business dealings between our families, you can take them up with my father or my brother. I have no hand in the family business. And as for the divorce, you’d better ask your son.”

There was a sudden, stunned beat of silence on the other end:

“What are you implying? Are you saying you’re completely blameless?”

I let out a tired sigh:

“Mrs. Zhou, please don’t call me again. Zhou Jisheng and I no longer share a marriage, nor do I have anything to do with the Zhou family. Please stop harassing me.”

“Xu Nian—”

I didn’t wait for her to finish before cutting the line. But whatever quiet peace I had managed to gather was utterly shattered.

I sank onto the sofa. Before I could even catch my breath, Huo Qisheng walked over:

“Go change. I’m taking you to Victoria Harbour tonight to watch the fireworks.”

I leaned lazily back against him:

“I’m tired…”

He leaned down, running his fingers through my hair, his voice dropping into a low register:

“You won’t have to deal with those annoyances anymore.”

I tilted my chin up, looking at him:

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” He pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. “Trust me.”

An hour later, I was standing on the deck of a luxury yacht. The Hong Kong skyline blazed with light as fireworks exploded across the dark canvas, cascading down like a starry galaxy spilling into the ocean. The heavy mood dragging me down lifted instantly.

To my surprise, the yacht featured a classical dance performance. Just as I was watching, completely entranced, the dancers unexpectedly pulled me up onto the stage.

Ever since I got married, I had rarely performed anywhere outside the dance studio. The sensation of standing beneath the glaring spotlight felt both intimately familiar and strangely distant. But the moment the music swelled, my muscle memory took over, guiding every beat.

Though mid-spin, a sudden thought struck me: this dress… he had definitely chosen it on purpose.

When the dance came to an end, the music shifted into a sweeping violin melody while fireworks continued to burst above us. Huo Qisheng, dressed in a sharp tuxedo, stepped toward me holding a bouquet of red roses.

My breath hitched. For a fleeting second, I had the surreal illusion that he was about to propose.

Then, he dropped down onto one knee.

Cheers and applause instantly erupted from the crowd around us. Someone gave me a gentle push forward toward him.

While I stood there in a daze, a men’s diamond ring rested quietly in his palm:

“Niannian, will you put this on me?”

He extended his hand toward me, his dark eyes brimming with absolute sincerity.

I stared down at him, my heart skipping a beat before a sudden laugh broke through, tears spilling over my lashes without warning:

“Huo Qisheng… I’m trusting you this once. Just this once.”

I picked up the ring and slowly slid it onto his finger. He stood up, pulling me into a tight embrace:

“Xu Nian, I will spend the rest of my life proving you made the right choice.”

After that night, the Zhou family never bothered me again. Word had it that Zhou Jisheng’s company remained an utter disaster, keeping him far too consumed to worry about anything else. Mrs. Zhou, meanwhile, threw herself into finding a new daughter-in-law, keeping herself perpetually busy with matchmakers.

The Xu family still called occasionally, though even my strictly demanding father spoke with a noticeably softer tone than before.

Yet I was clear-eyed about one thing: I would never allow the Xu family to leech off Huo Qisheng, nor would I let any of their baggage drag him down.

My father once got drunk and accused me of being an unfilial daughter. I simply smiled.

What was filial piety anyway? Was it sacrificing a daughter’s entire life to secure corporate gains for the family? If that was the definition, I’d rather be unfilial.

In the spring of that year, Huo Qisheng and I officially got engaged. Flowers bloomed in full glory across the entire city.

Ngu Tich flew into Hong Kong for the occasion, though the vibrant spark she usually carried had noticeably dimmed. When I asked if she had fallen for someone, she merely shook her head:

“I don’t even know anymore… I don’t know if it’s love. I see him every single day, yet he still feels so far out of reach.”

Her eyes welled up with red-rimmed tears:

“Niannian, loving someone is supposed to bring you joy… so why does it hurt this much?”

All I could offer her was a quiet truth:

“If it hurts too much, letting go isn’t a crime.”

She broke into soft sobs:

“But I can’t…”

A few days later, she returned to Beijing. I couldn’t stop worrying about her, but Huo Qisheng simply wrapped his arms around me from behind:

“Let her figure it out. Matters of the heart can never be forced.”

He looked down at me, a soft smile touching his lips:

“Just like how I’m only capable of loving you.”

I burst out laughing:

“Did you coat your mouth in honey today?”

He leaned down, his lips brushing against mine:

“Want to taste it and see?”

Before I could even react, he drew me in close. And this time, I didn’t pull away.