Li Weiyi had never been so mortified in her entire life!

Face flushed, heart dead as ashes, she stood beside Zhang Jingchan, watching him greet everyone as if nothing had happened. When Li Weiyi walked past her parents, her mother even pinched her arm.

Everyone took their seats.

Li Weiyi’s smile was still somewhat stiff, while Zhang Jingchan was already gently and calmly inquiring about Ding Chenmo’s health and chatting with Zhang Moyun about company matters. Li Weiyi felt indignant! Losing face this badly was all his fault—he was the one who lifted her onto his body, the one who moved his hand to spread her legs and position her properly. As a result, what everyone saw was her actively straddling him.

Li Weiyi covered her eyes with one hand, glaring at him viciously.

Zhang Jingchan had already removed his suit jacket. Off work and without a tie, his shirt collar was open. Just sitting there casually, his entire being exuded elegant nobility. When listening to people speak, his gaze was very focused. At twenty-seven years old, his eyes were deep and sharp. Because of that somewhat restrained aura, anyone—even his father—couldn’t be completely relaxed when talking with him.

Li Weiyi’s furious gaze—he seemed not to see it, still chatting with Ding Chenmo.

Glaring and glaring, Li Weiyi’s gaze involuntarily fell on his fair profile under the light, on the shoulder, back, and waist lines outlined by his shirt, and on the long legs wrapped in suit trousers.

Why did she feel… he was even more handsome than before? It must be because in this life everything had gone smoothly, leaving him high-spirited.

As Zhang Jingchan was chatting, he suddenly turned his body back, reached out to press the back of her head, almost embracing her, and asked in a voice only the two of them could hear: “What are you trying to stir up now?”

Li Weiyi directly kicked him under the table. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he acted as if he doted on her, smiling and patting her head before turning back to continue talking with people.

Li Weiyi: …

Really good at pretending.

The whole table smiled at their little interactions. Only Li Yunmo covered his eyes in disgust, shaking his head: “You’ve been good for seven years already, yet here you are having a second spring like an old house on fire. Can you stand it? Anyway, I don’t want to see it again.”

Li Weiyi threw a napkin at him. The whole table burst into laughter.

Li Weiyi laughed too. All the accumulated awkwardness and shyness swept away. She wagged her head at Li Yunmo: “We just get to fall in love twice. Envious? Jealous? Single dog!”

Li Yunmo: “Brother Chan, control her! She’s bullying people!”

Zhang Jingchan rested one hand on Li Weiyi’s chair back, picked up the teapot to fill Li Weiyi’s cup, and said: “Can’t control her. I listen to her.”

The whole room erupted in laughter again. Li Weiyi felt Zhang Jingchan was being unprecedentedly agreeable today. She leaned back lightly into his arms, made a face at Li Yunmo—a complete display of bullying by association.

What Li Weiyi didn’t know was that this small gesture made Zhang Jingchan’s heart feel as if something had gently struck it. All the most important relatives and friends in life were here, and they were all well. And she, relying on his favoritism, was beaming with joy, swaggering. Her presence was in his embrace, at his fingertips—from now on, belonging only to him.

Today, they were old friends reunited after a long separation, as well as companions who would spend each day together. Talking about past events again, everyone only sighed with emotion. On that night in 2014, Cheng Chuan and Xu Yi died on the spot, Liu Ying committed suicide by jumping into the river, and Zhang Fengming was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. All other persons involved were sentenced to varying degrees according to law.

The loop completely ended. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From this day forward, the timeline would move forward without looking back.

After that, father and son Zhang joined forces to establish the new company Huicui. Over these five years, Zhang Moyun had basically retired behind the scenes, but with his father’s experience and connections, Zhang Jingchan’s assets in this lifetime had multiplied several times compared to even his most successful previous life.

During the meal, Li Weiyi went out to take a work call that lasted about twenty minutes. As she walked back down the corridor, before turning the corner, she heard two familiar voices.

“When are you planning to get married?”

“No rush, we have our own arrangements.”

Li Weiyi smiled and was about to take a detour when she heard Wu Xinhui’s voice become agitated: “Have you developed other intentions? Let me tell you, you can’t wrong Weiyi. Your father and I absolutely won’t allow it.”

Li Weiyi stopped in her tracks.

Zhang Jingchan’s helpless voice came through: “Mom, where is your mind going? What divided loyalties could I have? Don’t try to provoke me just because you want to hold a grandchild.”

“Then when will you let me hold a grandchild?”

“In a couple years.”

“In a couple years you’ll be twenty-nine!” Wu Xinhui was exasperated. “Are you saying you’ll be thirty and still childless? Listen to Mom—at the latest, at the very latest, get married next year, conceive, and give birth the year after. Weiyi is twenty-five this year. Twenty-six or twenty-seven is the optimal childbearing age.”

Zhang Jingchan remained unhurried: “Whether to have children depends on her. When to have them also depends on her. The belly isn’t growing on me—I don’t have decision-making power.”

“You!!!”

Wu Xinhui suddenly became hesitant: “It’s not that she’s dissatisfied with you, is it? Girls who do art care most about spiritual purity. You and your father, both reeking of money, full of schemes, sigh…” The more Wu Xinhui thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Her son was handsome and capable, but Wu Xinhui had been accustomed to her husband’s vast wealth since youth and didn’t think her son was all that impressive. Plus she knew these father and son had the same nature in business—appearing righteous on the surface but actually cunning and shameless.

Zhang Jingchan said decisively: “You’re overthinking. She likes me exactly as I am.”

——

Late at night, Zhang Jingchan and Li Weiyi returned home. Zhang Jingchan had drunk alcohol today. He removed his suit jacket and hung it up, saying: “I’ll go run the water for a bath.”

Li Weiyi shook her head behind him: “Sigh! Reeking of money, full of schemes, spiritually impure—how did I end up with such a boyfriend?”

Zhang Jingchan turned around. His cheeks were flushed from the alcohol. One hand slipped into his suit trouser pocket, chin slightly raised, he said: “What boyfriend? Just yesterday you were calling me husband.”

Li Weiyi: “…That doesn’t count.”

Zhang Jingchan walked toward her step by step. His usually deep eyes now flowed with hazy light: “You also called me male god.”

Li Weiyi’s face heated up. She had—in bed.

Zhang Jingchan suddenly lifted her up, leaned against the wall, eyes half-closed, saying nothing. Li Weiyi gazed at his brow bone, nose bridge, and chiseled jawline, saying from the heart: “You really do have that male god vibe now. But I think you were most handsome the first time I met you by the river—especially beautiful, strong, and tragic. Not like now—you get whatever you want, high and mighty, lacking that pitiable quality.”

Zhang Jingchan’s eyelids lifted slightly. His head tilted against the wall with a rare air of languid charm. He said: “You flatter me. Likewise. You also have that goddess vibe, especially the first time I saw you—so touching and endearing. Nothing like now—all claws out, straddling me, grabbing my neck when you talk.”

Li Weiyi wrapping her legs around his waist was a completely natural bodily reaction. Grabbing his neck was also just touching him. She awkwardly loosened her legs, wanting to slide down. But Zhang Jingchan’s hands forcefully lifted upward. The overly close body lines and clear sensations made Li Weiyi’s heart tremble as she heard him ask carelessly: “Why come down? Isn’t hanging on your boyfriend nice?”

Li Weiyi immediately recalled a similar scene—once, she had wrapped her legs around his waist just like this. After kissing for a while, when Zhang Jingchan wanted to put her down, Li Weiyi clung even tighter and asked him: “Why come down? Isn’t your girlfriend hanging on you nice?”

At that time, Zhang Jingchan’s arms were already sore but could only force a smile and continue carrying her. When sleeping that night, he shook his wrists for ages.

What goes around comes around. Later, President Zhang went to the gym every day to lift weights, and it did have some effect. Wasn’t this the chance to wash away that humiliation?

Li Weiyi beamed with joy and lowered her head to kiss him.

——

The bathtub was in the master bedroom bathroom. While Zhang Jingchan went to soak in the bath, Li Weiyi rinsed off in the outer bathroom, then sat in the living room, hand propping up her chin, gazing at this enormous house, deep in thought.

A grand three hundred square meters with only one bedroom, one bed—not even a spare guest room. She remembered this apartment had been prepared just before they moved in together.

Li Weiyi now faced a serious problem: How to sleep tonight?

Zhang Jingchan finished his bath, changed into loungewear, and read in bed for a while without seeing Li Weiyi enter the room. He closed his book on the bed and walked out.

An extra blanket had appeared on the living room sofa. Li Weiyi was nestled inside with only her head showing, looking perfectly natural: “Tonight I’ll sleep here. I’m giving you the bed—no need to be polite. I’m small and don’t take up as much space as you. Sleeping on the sofa is perfect.”

Zhang Jingchan’s half-drunk haze had completely cleared after the bath. Expressionless, he stood there for a moment across five or six meters, then walked over, scooped her up horizontally with the blanket, turned, and headed for the master bedroom.

Li Weiyi: “You’re going back on your word!”

Zhang Jingchan placed her on the master bedroom bed, then went to pull away her blanket. Li Weiyi looked like she was about to suffer terrible abuse, clutching it and refusing to let go. Zhang Jingchan laughed, forcibly pulled the blanket away and tossed it on the cabinet, then took the super-large down comforter from the bed to cover her before lying down beside her, saying: “I only promised not to touch you. I didn’t promise we’d sleep in separate beds.”

He turned off the light. Li Weiyi turned her head, looking at him in the darkness. He was truly well-behaved. The bed was large enough that he wasn’t even touching her.

Zhang Jingchan really didn’t intend to do anything to her. He’d never been a man whose mind was full of those things. He preferred for those things to happen naturally. Right now, having them living together immediately after crossing back was indeed awkward.

Plus he really had drunk a bit too much today. He placed the back of his hand on his forehead, just about to sleep, when he heard the person beside him say: “Originally I was quite touched that you simply wanted to be with me. That’s what love is.”

“And then?”

“Then I remembered something: Zhang Jingchan, you’re not being human. When I was nineteen, you already slept with me. Now you can take that blanket and roll to the sofa.”