Shi Yue and Li Yin’s stroll seemed to have taken them around West Lake ten times, judging by how long they were gone.

Shi Sui had been kissed breathless by Yan Tingli, her whole body going soft. She didn’t even know how many episodes of cartoons had played, yet they still hadn’t returned.

At this moment, Yan Tingli wasn’t faring much better either.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his pupils dilated. He had to pull back and take breaks between kisses, his usually cool skin radiating scorching heat.

How could Shi Sui not see that he had reached his critical point?

In the past, when it was just the two of them, he would have already devoured her completely. Now he refused to let go, yet still forced himself to endure, all because Shi Yue and Li Yin could return at any moment.

After all, he still had to maintain his well-behaved and refined facade in front of those two.

Fortunately, due to the different physiological structures of men and women, compared to him, Shi Sui could still maintain much better control.

Her thick eyelashes lowered, her pupils slowly rotating once as she showed Yan Tingli, who was trying to calm down, a gentle and soft smile.

Then, her right hand’s fingers lightly traced across his lower back as if inadvertently.

Shi Sui knew Yan Tingli’s sensitive spots all too clearly.

She still remembered that first time, when she had nervously and accidentally touched his lower back not long after they started. The next moment, he let out a soft hum and froze in place.

Then he rolled off the bed expressionlessly.

When he came back, he flipped her over, his voice deep: “Again.”

Shi Sui reasonably suspected that his particular fondness for that position was also due to this unspeakable reason.

Now, her hand had just touched his lean lower back.

Yan Tingli’s pupils moved, his lips pressed tight, and his gaze visibly deepened as he looked at her.

Shi Sui blinked innocently and continued sliding her hand upward.

Her other hand lightly touched his thigh, feeling the muscles beneath tense and tremble.

Just as she was about to move higher, Yan Tingli caught her hand.

But his grip wasn’t firm, his head buried in the sofa, his chest rising and falling slowly.

Shi Sui blinked, taking advantage of his moment of recovery to press down directly with her fingers.

At the same time, she smoothly sat on his leg, her other hand skillfully pinching his waist.

Yan Tingli’s eyelashes trembled continuously, a husky, muffled groan about to escape his throat, but Shi Sui pressed against his lips.

She suddenly put on a panicked expression: “Shh, keep it down.”

“Mom and Dad are back.”

“They’re coming upstairs.”

Yan Tingli’s expression immediately soured, and his hands around her waist showed signs of loosening.

Shi Sui’s encircling right hand suddenly pressed down hard on his lower back with her thumb.

Yan Tingli’s pupils became misty as if soaked in water. He closed his eyes, the veins on the back of his hands faintly visible.

Finally, he said, “Get off.”

His voice was hoarse, his expression blank.

It was an unprecedented moment when his brain stopped functioning, led around by the nose by her.

Shi Sui could barely hide the triumphant smile at the corners of her lips, then mimicked his malicious tone from many years ago, saying airily: “Ah, I heard wrong.”

But accompanying her voice was Yan Tingli, who had only been dazed for an instant before immediately becoming clear-headed. He said flatly: “Little snail, lock the door.” The look he gave her made Shi Sui shiver.

Shi Sui’s waist was firmly pressed from behind.

“Ten minutes.”

“Otherwise,” Yan Tingli said coldly, “I’ll do you here all night.”

Shi Sui didn’t believe him: “My parents are about to come back—”

“3.0 is still in trial mode. Is it a problem if there are some bugs?” Yan Tingli showed her a smile, “Mom and Dad would surely understand, too.”

“……”

Shi Sui’s expression stiffened for a moment, and she immediately tried to push herself up from the sofa to run.

The next second she was grabbed by the ankle, the ankle chain she had just put on making delicate tinkling sounds.

Yan Tingli’s fingertips brushed over the pink diamonds on it, covering it as he whispered in her ear: “Do I need to say it again? I don’t like it when you try to run.”

Shi Sui had always been very tactful. She immediately said, “I’ll help you now.”

After a long while, Shi Sui quietly observed him – there was still no movement, so she glanced around while placing her other hand on his lower back.

She was immediately discovered. Yan Tingli’s expression didn’t look good as he said coldly, “No cheating.”

“……”

When it was over, Yan Tingli had 3.0 turn on the air freshening system to dissipate the smell.

The two people whose WeChat step count had probably broken ten thousand finally returned home.

Yan Tingli immediately politely said goodbye, maintaining his perfectly refined and genteel facade. While they were talking, Shi Sui shook her still-sore hand and slammed the bedroom door shut with a “bang.”

That night before bed, Shi Sui received a call from Zhou Xuyan, who said she was coming to Jiangnan for field research and immediately wanted to arrange to meet.

At that moment, Shi Sui was on her bed studying how to open the ankle chain.

But after searching around the chain, she still couldn’t find any clasp that could be opened.

She couldn’t help but become increasingly agitated, examining the ankle chain carefully.

“Suisui, what are you doing?” Zhou Xuyan sensed she was distracted and hummed in dissatisfaction.

Shi Sui quickly refocused and responded: “Come anytime, I’ll be here.”

Thinking of Zhou Xuyan’s encyclopedic knowledge of various luxury brands, Shi Sui turned on the camera and asked: “Yanyan, have you seen this ankle chain before? What brand is it?”

Zhou Xuyan became interested: “Move your camera closer, let me see.”

As she spoke, she also leaned closer to the screen, carefully examining the ankle chain.

Then she suddenly gasped: “How is yours so similar to that pink diamond that was bought by a private buyer for eighty million at Christie’s auction last month? Did you buy this on Taobao? Are replicas this realistic now?”

Shi Sui was stunned by the phrase “eighty million,” her fingertips touching the thumb-sized diamond at the center of the ankle chain.

“Never mind where I bought it,” she blinked, “how do you open this ankle chain?”

Zhou Xuyan was obviously more interested in the diamond, practically pressing her whole face to the camera, continuously saying: “Get closer, put your foot under the light, let me see the clarity and color.”

After looking for quite a while, she still doubtfully hissed: “Why do I feel like this doesn’t look fake?”

Knowing she was obsessed with bags and diamonds, Shi Sui said helplessly: “This should be real.”

“Ah?!”

Having gotten entangled with Yan Tingli again in such a short time, Shi Sui was too embarrassed to say it outright.

And her every word and action could potentially be monitored by 3.0 and reported to Yan Tingli at any time.

Shi Sui could only lower her eyes and hint at Zhou Xuyan with her gaze.

Zhou Xuyan immediately understood but still stood there with her mouth open, unable to react for a long time.

“What a complete—” Zhou Xuyan was about to curse, but the next second, thinking of certain deep memories, she forcibly swallowed the words back.

“Let’s talk when we meet in person.” She hastily waved and quickly went offline.

Leaving Shi Sui to worry over the ankle chain, feeling vaguely anxious and uneasy.

She lay back.

Forget it, she’d wait to meet in person and have Zhou Xuyan take another look.

Zhou Xuyan arrived in Hangzhou two days later and arranged to meet that same day.

At that time, Shi Sui had just completed her month-long internship and was having Fu Ze and Zhao Sheng sign her internship documents.

Fu Ze signed off on her excellent rating without a word, as if avoiding the plague.

When Zhao Sheng saw the documents, she was stunned: “You’re leaving just like that?”

Shi Sui nodded gently.

The entire Zhilian project was something President Yan had given to Guangmei just for her sake.

Why would she suddenly leave?

Zhao Sheng signed with her doubts: “You can come back anytime after graduation and be directly promoted to full-time.”

Shi Sui had always been grateful to Zhao Sheng. She smiled and thanked her: “Thank you, Sister Zhao.”

Taking the internship materials, Shi Sui felt completely relieved.

She hadn’t accumulated much at her workstation in a month, so after packing up casually, she left the company and went to the restaurant Zhou Xuyan had chosen, messaging her parents on her phone that she wouldn’t be home for dinner.

At the same time, she also saw Yan Tingli’s message.

[After dinner with your cousin tonight, I’ll pick you up]

Looking at the word “cousin” for a while, Shi Sui finally realized he was referring to Zhou Xuyan.

Compared to Yan Tingli’s previously cold attitude toward Zhou Xuyan when she met with her, he could now even be called “understanding and reasonable.”

But Shi Sui only felt a cold chill. She had never told him she was meeting Zhou Xuyan.

She turned off her phone expressionlessly and walked into the restaurant.

“Suisui,” seeing her, Zhou Xuyan at the table almost jumped up excitedly, rushing over to embrace her tightly, “I missed you so much!!!”

It had been a long time.

Shi Sui closed her eyes and hugged her back: “Me too.”

The two hugged for quite a while before sitting face to face.

Zhou Xuyan looked her over carefully and suddenly smiled: “Suisui, you’re even more beautiful than before.”

“How so?”

“Your eyes are brighter.” Zhou Xuyan pointed at her eyes with two fingers.

Shi Sui laughed.

The two chatted casually, but their conversation inevitably circled back to that person.

Only after all the dishes were served did Zhou Xuyan lower her voice: “Is he still the same as before?”

“Even more than before…” Shi Sui suddenly lowered her gaze.

She didn’t know how to describe it and could only leave it at that.

How could Zhou Xuyan not understand? Her expression also became extremely unpleasant: “So what do you plan to do?”

Shi Sui moved her lips. After several seconds, she still swallowed her words and changed the subject: “By the way, Yanyan, can you help me see how to remove this ankle chain?”

Zhou Xuyan’s attention was drawn: “You still haven’t gotten it off?” She got up and came to her side, “Let me take a look.”

Almost as soon as her gaze fell on the pigeon egg-sized pink diamond in the center, Zhou Xuyan’s eyes widened in amazement, unable to resist reaching out to touch it: “Damn, it’s really beautiful.”

No woman could resist diamonds, Zhou Xuyan especially so.

“You know what, even though Yan Tingli has become too…” she paused, “he is generous, eighty million just to put on your ankle to play with.”

Shi Sui calmly drank her soup: “Besides you, no one else can tell it’s real.”

Only after Zhou Xuyan finished marveling and her fingertips had made a complete circle around the metal chain did she slowly furrow her brow.

Seeing this made Shi Sui’s heart skip a beat: “You can’t figure it out either?”

“Hiss,” Zhou Xuyan was also dumbfounded, “this, this doesn’t have anywhere to open at all, does it?”

Her fingertip circled the pink diamond in the center, joking: “Could the clasp be inside here? Please, this is a diamond, diamond!”

Shi Sui’s brow furrowed tightly as she looked down at the ankle chain, her bad premonitions layering one upon another.

Both women stared blankly at their respective thoughts.

Until someone calmly knocked twice on the table with their knuckles.

“Long time no see, cousin.”

A laughing voice that could wake Zhou Xuyan from nightmares came from above her head.

Stiffening instantly, she jerked her head up.

The first second of eye contact, Zhou Xuyan reflexively sprang up, distancing herself several meters from him, and quickly sat across from Shi Sui.

“Suisui,” Yan Tingli smoothly sat beside Shi Sui, his tone dissatisfied, “cousin is ignoring me.”

Zhou Xuyan: “……”

Shi Sui was too lazy to deal with him and continued eating.

Yan Tingli had the waiter bring another set of chopsticks and bowl, saying casually: “I haven’t eaten either, shall we eat together?”

Zhou Xuyan suddenly lost her appetite and slowly put down her chopsticks.

Only Shi Sui remained unfazed: “Whatever you want.”

Zhou Xuyan’s eye twitched as she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—they had all underestimated Shi Sui. Not everyone could maintain such mental stability after being with Yan Tingli for so many years.

“You two,” this face-to-face situation was really unbearable, Zhou Xuyan finally couldn’t hold back, “are you back together now?”

As if waiting for this question, Yan Tingli immediately looked up, his voice light: “Suisui and I have always been together, haven’t we?”

Zhou Xuyan’s lips twitched, her tone strange: “Always… have you?”

“We were in a long-distance relationship for the past few years, weren’t we?” He raised an eyebrow.

Zhou Xuyan was silent for a long time before finally going against her conscience: “Uh, I guess… so.”

She grabbed her tea and gulped it down.

“Oh right,” Yan Tingli suddenly seemed to remember something, saying casually, “cousin should be my and Suisui’s bridesmaid at our wedding.”

“Marriage?!” Zhou Xuyan really couldn’t hold it together anymore, standing up abruptly, “You’ve already registered?”

Shi Sui: “No.”

Yan Tingli smiled: “Soon.”

Zhou Xuyan stared straight at Shi Sui for a long time.

Her chest felt restless, she almost wanted to ask if legal aid was needed.

Shi Sui said calmly: “It’s still early.”

Zhou Xuyan’s chest relaxed a bit as she sat back down and picked up her chopsticks.

She blurted out: “That’s good.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt the atmosphere freeze. Yan Tingli’s half-smiling gaze made her feel pressured as she lowered her head and ate obediently.

“……”

After this meal, Zhou Xuyan immediately flew back to Beijing.

At that moment, Shi Sui sat in Yan Tingli’s passenger seat, calmly seeing her off online.

Unlike the low-key black sedan from university, Yan Tingli now traveled in luxury cars.

Today, it was that supercar with extremely high exposure.

Sitting in it now, Shi Sui remained calm as still water.

“The ankle chain,” Yan Tingli asked while driving, “do you like it?”

Shi Sui suddenly turned to look at him: “How do you get this ankle chain off?”

“Why take it off?” Yan Tingli seemed puzzled. “Doesn’t it look good?”

Shi Sui tried to remain calm: “When you buy something, would you buy something that can’t be removed once worn?”

Yan Tingli chuckled: “I can help you remove it.”

Shi Sui: “So did you put a listening device in it?”

Yan Tingli lightly applied the brakes, as if sighing: “Suisui, how can you think of me that way?”

Just as Shi Sui was about to feel relieved, she heard Yan Tingli laugh softly: “It’s just a tracker.”

“Tracker?” Her voice shot up, “You’re tracking me?”

“Isn’t this just right?” Yan Tingli said lightly, “It’s convenient for me to find you.”

In an instant, Shi Sui felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

Did he already know about her buying a ticket back to America?

Her face paled as she slowly leaned back against the seat.

“What’s with that expression,” Yan Tingli pulled the car over, looking at her with a half-smile, “could it be that Suisui has already decided where to run?”

Shi Sui remained silent for a long time: “…I’ve already come back, where else could I run?” She said slowly: “So can you please stop doing this?”

Yan Tingli turned his head, blinking at her: “Really not going anywhere?”

Shi Sui’s mind was screaming “leave,” but after a long silence, she finally said with difficulty: “Really.”

Her expression must be very stiff, she thought.

Yan Tingli’s dark pupils fixed on her face. After a long time, just when Shi Sui felt her soul might leave her body from his stare, he finally smiled and leaned forward, his knuckles gripping her calf: “I believe Suisui.”

Shi Sui watched helplessly as he rubbed the pink diamond with his thumb.

Then, the ankle chain opened.

In that instant, Shi Sui’s eyes widened, looking at him with an almost horrified expression.

As if he couldn’t see her expression, Yan Tingli asked with curved eyes: “Isn’t it amazing?”

He played with the pink diamond with his pale fingertips, saying casually: “First use femtosecond laser to carve cavities inside the diamond, then put nano-level sensors and microprocessors inside.”

“The processing fee alone was twenty million.” Yan Tingli tossed the ankle chain back to her, “Now I’m giving it to Suisui to play with.”

A hundred million yuan item, thrown to her like a toy.

Shi Sui caught it like a hot potato, couldn’t help saying: “This is too expensive.”

Yan Tingli leaned closer to her, saying slowly word by word: “But aren’t all my things yours?”

Shi Sui looked at him.

She almost felt he was corrupting her with money.

Yan Tingli moved even closer.

His eyes gazed deeply at her, his hand on the steering wheel cupping the back of her head, his lips gently covering hers as he kissed her while saying: “As long as Suisui stays by my side.”

“I can agree to anything for you, can’t I?”

“You asked me to unlock it, and I did.” He said vaguely, “Aren’t I quite obedient to you?”

“So, always stay by my side.”

“Hmm?”

His kiss suddenly intensified.

Swallowing Shi Sui’s hesitant sounds.

Yan Tingli drove her downstairs, and Shi Sui returned home with a blank mind.

She had even forgotten that her lipstick had been completely eaten away, and there was an ambiguous kiss mark on her neck.

Li Yin coughed lightly and awkwardly averted her gaze: “Back from a date with Xiao Li?”

A date, a date with Yan Tingli?

Suddenly hearing such an unfamiliar word, Shi Sui couldn’t even react.

When had she and Yan Tingli ever had a date?

But in a daze, she remembered that in her parents’ eyes, she and Yan Tingli were lovers who had dated for five years, overcome difficulties, had love stronger than gold, and even had plans to marry soon.

In her colleagues’ eyes, she was Yan Tingli’s fiancée; he doted on her extremely, throwing away tens of millions in projects without hesitation.

How absurd.

Suddenly, Shi Sui’s phone rang, showing Su Han calling.

She came back to herself, greeted Li Yin, then went to her room to answer the call. As soon as she picked up, an incredulous voice came through: “My god, you and Yan Tingli are getting married? When did you two get in touch? Did he force you?”

Shi Sui opened her lips, not even knowing where to begin explaining all this absurdity. She could only ask weakly: “Where did you hear this?”

“My dad told me,” Su Han said indignantly, “today at the company, Yan Tingli was chatting with my dad and even said you’re getting married next year, asking me to be a bridesmaid.”

“So annoying, so annoying!”

Such words were undoubtedly the most direct provocation to Su Ye and Su Han.

From Zhou Xuyan to Su Ye and Su Han, everyone who had once helped her escape China had been notified by him with casual indifference.

With a kind of childish vindictive pleasure.

“So what about you? Did you agree to him?!”

Shi Sui took a deep breath: “I didn’t.”

Su Han: “That’s good, seems like it’s his wishful thinking.”

Shi Sui fell silent.

At this point, what did her refusal even count as?

All escape routes had been blocked, and everyone around her was helpless against him.

As long as Yan Tingli wanted, there were countless ways to find her.

Shi Sui finished the call with Su Han in a confused state of mind, sitting blankly on the bed, staring ahead.

3.0: “It’s getting late, Suisui, you should wash up and rest.”

Shi Sui’s lips pressed tightly.

Without her command, it had started calling her Suisui again. The current 3.0 was completely Yan Tingli’s eyes, and it did not attempt to hide it.

Shi Sui looked at it with hollow eyes.

In the end, she said nothing, mechanically taking off her change of clothes and getting up to go to the bathroom.

In the middle of the night, Shi Sui, who had never fallen asleep, got up.

She turned off all the circuit breakers in the house, packed her luggage, changed her flight to the earliest one, and headed straight to the airport.

On the way.

Shi Sui thought of nothing.

Regardless of the consequences, ignore tomorrow.

She only knew she had to leave this place.

Go to another space to properly calm down.

This feeling of being gently pressed into a swamp made Shi Sui experience the suffocation of having her eyes covered and mouth and nose blocked.

No one knew the truth.

Those who knew the truth were too busy protecting themselves.

Yan Tingli had used every means to surround her with iron walls, leaving her isolated and helpless.

Sitting on the plane, Shi Sui watched the city below become smaller and smaller.

She closed her eyes.

At this time, dawn was just breaking.

Yan Tingli sat in front of a huge single piece of glass window, quietly watching the plane crossing the city, getting farther and farther until it became a small dot.

The location information on his phone screen also followed the same direction.

Getting farther and farther away.

After a long time, he lowered his eyelashes.

“Liar.” Yan Tingli dissatisfiedly stroked Ping’an’s fur, “Your mother lied to me again.”

Ping’an was tugged and immediately bounced far away.

It “meowed” at him in reproach.

Yan Tingli said coldly to himself, “Fortunately, for a liar like your mother with negative credibility, I left several more trackers.”

Suitcase, backpack, makeup bag.

“Do you think your mother is stupid?” Yan Tingli suddenly smiled again, pulling Ping’an back into his arms, saying in a calm tone, “Running to America just makes it more convenient.”

“……” Ping’an looked at him with airplane ears.

Yan Tingli expressionlessly adjusted its ears back: “Don’t even need the household registration book anymore.”