Seeing that Yan Yunning was about to leave as soon as she had spoken, Xuan Yanyu’s lips curved up in a slight arc, and his gaze drifted unhurriedly onto her. “The gift.”

Yan Yunning pressed her lips together briefly, reached into the gift bag, felt around until she found the watch, and set it in front of Xuan Yanyu. Then she took hold of Yan Jingzhi and walked out of the private room.

In the car.

Yan Jingzhi grabbed Yan Yunning’s ear, gritting his teeth. “Explain things to me one at a time. Start with the shirt.”

“Jingzhi!” Yan Yunning slapped his hand away and shifted herself further from him. “Xuan Yanyu caught the shirt on the car door himself.”

Yan Jingzhi frowned and scoffed. “How exactly did he catch it?”

“I didn’t see how he did it.” Yan Yunning spoke with complete confidence.

“Fine, skip that.” Yan Jingzhi clenched his fist. “What was it about you grabbing his hand?”

“It was a misunderstanding.” Yan Yunning fidgeted and squirmed, and reached into the gift bag to pull out the “little umbrellas.” Her face flushed red with embarrassment.

“I had no idea how they ended up inside the gift box. Xuan Yanyu was about to pick them up. If I hadn’t pressed down on his hand, Jingzhi — both your face and mine would have been completely gone.”

“Yan Yunning!” Yan Jingzhi erupted in a furious shout. “You didn’t know? You didn’t know what was in the gifts you bought?”

“It’s true. I had Jingye come along to help me choose — he must have slipped them in without me knowing.” Yan Yunning explained weakly.

Yan Jingzhi’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Why did you have Jingye help you choose? By your own reasoning, Yanyu wouldn’t accept your gifts — so why go through the trouble of asking someone to help you carefully pick them out?”

Yan Yunning opened her mouth. She swore she’d had absolutely no ulterior motives.

“Yan Yunning, tell me honestly — do you have feelings for Yanyu?”

Yan Yunning pressed her hand to her forehead, her tone absolute. “No. With whatever unclear relationship he and Shiyao have, even if I liked him with everything I had, I would absolutely never get involved with him in any way. Jingzhi, you can be completely at ease.”

“If I really had any intentions toward him, I wouldn’t have brought Jingye along to help choose. I would have gone myself and picked something out carefully, just for him.”

Yan Jingzhi stared at Yan Yunning for a moment, then gave a nod. “Stay away from him from now on.”

“I promise to behave.” With that said, Yan Yunning noticed Yan Jingzhi’s expression had eased considerably, and seized the opportunity to hold him accountable. “Jingzhi, why did you abandon me today and let me ride to the restaurant in Xuan Yanyu’s car?”

Yan Jingzhi rubbed his face, his brow furrowing tight. “What else could I do? Yanyu said he was afraid you’d have second thoughts about going to apologise to him and then back out — that he needed to personally keep an eye on you before he could rest easy. I couldn’t argue with him. I had no choice but to give in.”

“But I never even apologised.” Yan Yunning muttered.

“……” Yan Jingzhi looked at her, thought of something, and suddenly asked, “What happened in the car? Why did Yanyu have you sit in the head seat?”

Yan Yunning swallowed, met her brother’s probing gaze, and shook her head. “What could have happened? We just made normal conversation. I have no idea why he wanted me to sit in the head seat either.”

“Really?” Yan Jingzhi’s eyes grew deep and searching.

Yan Yunning blinked. “Really.”

She wasn’t lying. She genuinely didn’t understand why a Xuan Yanyu with no memories would pick out dishes for her, peel shrimp for her. Perhaps it was instinctive habit.

Surely it couldn’t be that his mind had forgotten that he loved her, while his body had yet to forget?

As though some remnant of subconscious memory were compelled to instinctively care for her — while only the love had gone from his eyes.

Yan Jingzhi’s gaze shifted to the window outside. After quite a long silence, Yan Yunning heard him say, “Ningning, I think it’s time for you to start dating someone. Tomorrow your brother will introduce you to someone.”

Looking at how things stood now, Yanyu had very likely taken an interest in Ningning. Although Yanyu had already clarified that he had absolutely no involvement with Shiyao, the fact remained that Shiyao was still living in the Xuan family residence.

And he also wasn’t sure whether the statement had been genuine, or had been issued because the senior Xuan was dissatisfied with Shiyao. So Ningning could not and absolutely must not have even the slightest entanglement with Yanyu.

There were plenty of good men out there. There was no reason to get involved with a man who had a complicated history with another woman.

“Let’s talk about it later, Jingzhi. I have something I need to sort out with Jingye.”

Yan Jingzhi fixed her with a threatening look. “Yan Yunning, you will go home with me like a good girl, and tomorrow you will go meet this person as I arrange. If you don’t listen, I’ll tell our eldest brother everything that happened today.”

“All right, all right, I hear you.” Yan Yunning gave a perfunctory reply.

Yan Jingzhi let out a low snort.

Yan Yunning: “……”

Having been lectured by Yan Jingzhi the entire way home, Yan Yunning flung open the car door the second the driver brought the vehicle to a stop, and walked into the villa without so much as a backward glance.

After running to her bedroom, Yan Yunning took a silk spaghetti-strap nightgown from the wardrobe, pulled open the bathroom door, and stepped out of her clothes, letting her hair fall loose.

She turned on the showerhead, closed her eyes, and let the water run down from the top of her head.

‘Ningning, if you disappear, I will wait for you in that very spot.’

‘Yan Yunning, from now on, you may only give things to me.’

‘Yan Yunning, do you not hear me speaking?’

‘Yan Yunning?’

“Go away.” Yan Yunning suddenly opened her eyes. “You utter scoundrel! Xuan Yanyu!”

An hour later, having finished washing up, Yan Yunning looked at herself in the mirror — her slender figure, the slight, barely noticeable roundness of her abdomen — and knitted her brows with irritation. She had to admit she had put on a little weight.

“Ding-dong.” A notification chimed from her phone, followed immediately by the ringing of a video call.

Seeing a certain someone persistently follow up an unanswered call with a video call, Yan Yunning gritted her back teeth, answered it, and said, “What do you want?”

The man on the other end of the video came into view — collarbone exposed by a low neckline, two rounded curves visible on either side, a sliver of soft pale lines showing.

His throat bobbed, and his voice came out tight. “Yan Yunning, what are you wearing? Your brother is still home. And what if someone else calls you on video—”

“Stop.” Yan Yunning looked down at her own nightgown. It was perfectly ordinary. She looked back up at the man on screen and curved her lips slightly. “And what does that have to do with you?”

She had no intention of leaving the room after her shower anyway.

With a “beep,” the man ended the video call. Yan Yunning tugged at the corner of her mouth. “What is wrong with him.”

Two hours later, Yan Yunning was merrily scrolling through short videos when she didn’t hear the muffled thud of the glass window being levered open.

It was only with a “thud” — the sound of shoe soles landing on the floor — that Yan Yunning went on high alert. Her nerves weren’t exactly steady at the best of times, and right now she didn’t dare suddenly close out of the video.

In the darkness, her mind raced at full speed. The villa complex had a front gate. Who could have gotten past that gate and then climbed up to the second floor?

First of all, he would need to know the villa’s layout well. Second, why not go to her brother’s room?

“Squeak.” The sound of a wardrobe being opened.

Yan Yunning’s heart seized with a sharp lurch. Realising the video had been playing on a loop, she swiped up on her phone to switch screens, intending to dial for help.

“Yan Yunning, go turn on the light.” A man’s low, lazy voice rang out in the quiet of the room.

Hearing that familiar voice, Yan Yunning’s pupils gave a faint flicker of shock. She pressed the lamp on the bedside table and saw clearly the man who had climbed into her bedroom.

“Xuan Yanyu, what is wrong with you!” Yan Yunning, furious, grabbed the soft pillow and hurled it at him.

The man caught the pillow with one hand and produced a black shopping bag from somewhere. With fingertips that showed each knuckle, he pinched up a low-cut dress, a V-neck nightgown, and a strapless sundress, bundling them all into his black shopping bag.

“Xuan Yanyu.” Yan Yunning’s eyes went wide. She threw back the thin blanket and got out of bed. With a “bang,” she slammed the wardrobe shut.