Last year, it was standing in this very spot that Shen Qianzhan’s views on marriage began to waver.

She had thought about how after thirty-five, the friends, colleagues, and work partners around her would gradually get married and start families. Inevitably, she would bear the loneliness of being alone in such an environment.

Adult loneliness often doesn’t stem from lacking a partner’s embrace, kisses, and intimate relationships, but from the many times shopping alone at the supermarket and lacking someone to help carry the shopping bags; wanting to go to newly opened or favorite restaurants and lacking someone to save your seat and help decide tonight’s menu; and during busy business trips, lacking someone to send you to the airport or wait for your return.

No one to share the joy of your triumphant returns, and no one to bear the burden of that lamp light always waiting at the same place in your busy life.

She would gradually come to regret in her solitary loneliness, regret choosing to grow old alone.

Shen Qianzhan had also thought about how after thirty-five, she might be unable to withstand society’s prejudiced disdain toward single women, unable to withstand the constant pressure applied by Father and Mother Shen, and even she herself might no longer be able to uphold her original beliefs and hastily compromise.

The worst situation she could consider was when her bloom was more than half over and her heart began to wither from inside out, she still wouldn’t have waited for the person she wanted to spend her life with.

Even so, Shen Qianzhan’s pride wouldn’t allow her to surrender and wave the white flag before things actually arrived.

At twenty-five, she settled in Beijing. Mother Shen, unaware that she was burdened with massive debt, saw her work was stable and had once busied herself arranging blind dates for her.

Shen Qianzhan had no interest whatsoever in these matchmaking banquets that were like selecting concubines, listing conditions and choosing appearances, and rebuffed Mother Shen’s arrangements several times. Later, unable to avoid it, she attended one, and the experience was indeed as dull and tasteless as she had predicted.

Until last year, when she stood alone in the sea of people, a loneliness that shouldn’t have appeared until six years later suddenly overwhelmed her.

All the rhythms she had planned were disrupted by such a small, insignificant, even somewhat laughable thought.

What a coincidence it was.

The day after she was most indulgent in masculine beauty and companionship, she met Ji Qinghe.

At the moment she felt attracted to his appearance, she was also eager to verify whether she was experiencing middle-aged physical hunger or truly felt lonely in her heart and wanted someone for comfort, and she actually managed to thoroughly consume him, turning him over and over.

At that time, Shen Qianzhan had a chance encounter with Ji Qinghe and only regarded him in her heart as a romantic interlude during her Xi’an affair. She naturally didn’t know that Ji Qinghe’s heart still harbored a secluded and independent peach blossom paradise, and his acquiescence to her was merely going along with her plan while making long-term calculations. She even felt proud for a while, thinking her charm was extraordinary and that she had successfully conquered the high ground on her first attempt.

But even then, she hadn’t developed a heart for settling down.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have returned to Beijing as scheduled the next day without leaving even a single word for him.

Whether it was because revisiting old places stirred too deep emotions, or because of that afternoon’s explicit confession he had overheard, Shen Qianzhan tonight had quite a bit of that “breaking the jar and smashing it” determination to go all out.

——

However, Ji Qinghe was not as overjoyed as she had imagined.

His expression was the same as usual, without the slightest ripple.

After a brief silence.

A girl’s scream came from the distance, her laughter piercing through the crowd and drawing the sideways glances of surrounding tourists.

Shen Qianzhan instinctively wanted to turn her head to look.

The moment her gaze moved away from Ji Qinghe, he lowered his head, grasped her chin, and kissed her fiercely.

This kiss was savage and domineering, allowing her no moment to dodge, both fierce and deep.

People around witnessed this and whistled softly in encouragement.

Gradually, more and more tourists stopped to linger, with good-natured light laughter and spectator cheers rising and falling.

Only he acted as if no one else existed, hiding her in his embrace, kissing her with deep involvement and affection.

For a long time, the surrounding people dispersed.

He pressed his nose tip against hers, holding her hand and placing it over his heart.

Under her palm, that heart of his beat urgently yet steadily, like a prairie fire, burning her palm slightly warm.

Shen Qianzhan’s lips pressed together lightly as she raised her eyes to look at him.

Unexpectedly, she crashed into a deep starlight.

He smiled, lowering his head to kiss her fingertips, tender yet devout: “It wasn’t easy waiting for you to relent.”

“If I had known you were so easy to coax, I should have brought you to Xi’an earlier.” His Adam’s apple rolled, and he wanted to kiss her again.

Earlier it was being unable to control his emotions, now it was having eyes only for her. He pressed her against the tree, kissing her repeatedly, each time just a light taste, yet their lips matched perfectly, as if kissing a treasured possession, unable to let go.

Only now did Shen Qianzhan feel somewhat shy.

She tugged at his collar, unable to help whispering softly: “Not here, let’s go back first.”

Ji Qinghe chuckled lowly, saying composedly: “Alright, let’s go back and talk slowly.”

The “slowly” in the latter half of that sentence he bit down on extremely hard, as if it had hidden meaning, even his voice carried a low, hoarse quality.

Thus, the ten-plus minutes from the Muslim Street to Ji Qinghe’s villa in the city center felt like they were played at slow speed, becoming especially long.

——

Ten minutes later, the car drove into the underground garage and parked.

As the automatic curtain door opened, closed, and started, until it completely returned to position, Shen Qianzhan felt her breathing tighten inexplicably, becoming nervous.

She understood implicitly what conversations and events would happen next tonight.

In the past, sleeping was just sleeping. If you were open-minded, you’d try a few more positions, no need to talk about love or speak of affection, carefree and comfortable.

Tonight’s sleeping, however, was more than just sleeping. At the very least, before sleeping, she’d have to submit a little essay, just like signing a sales contract—there had to be proper documentation with stamps to establish the long-term relationship, and only after completing all this could they celebrate with an adult ceremony happily.

Thinking of these things, Shen Qianzhan suddenly felt pressure, and even her steps when entering became somewhat heavy.

Although Ji Qinghe walked ahead of her, his peripheral vision constantly paid attention to her.

Seeing her deliberately slow her pace, he didn’t rush her either.

He had seen Shen Qianzhan’s thunderous methods, and had also seen her use cunning and scheming to facilitate cooperation and achieve her goals. Precisely because of this, he found her current state of burying her head in the sand, thinking that not facing something meant she could avoid it, to be endearingly rare.

——

The villa’s underground garage was separated from the living room by only one floor.

After entering the house, Shen Qianzhan changed her shoes first.

Ji Qinghe fell a step behind her, turning to close the door and lock it.

The crisp sound of the security door locking seemed especially abrupt in the empty, unoccupied room.

Shen Qianzhan’s scalp tingled, and she couldn’t be bothered with putting on her shoes properly.

At this moment, she was like prey being roasted over an oil pan, her heart constantly on edge, not knowing when the string would be plucked or when she’d have to go into the oil pan.

This emotion that was beyond her control was too uncomfortable. Shen Qianzhan simply stood in the entryway and wouldn’t move forward.

Ji Qinghe found this amusing, changing his shoes while asking knowingly: “What’s wrong?”

Shen Qianzhan didn’t speak.

She kicked off the slipper she had already changed on her left foot, standing barefoot on the entrance mat, reaching out her arms to request a hug: “I’m tired from walking.”

Ji Qinghe obligingly carried her horizontally in his arms.

She was light in weight, curled up in his embrace, extremely capable of arousing a man’s protective instincts. But she was unaware of this, and the fingers embracing his neck restlessly brushed against that inch of skin behind his ear: “Old Shen has soft ears, and after marriage he obeyed my mother’s every word.”

She glanced at him, her fingertip playing with his earlobe, asking: “What about you?”

The motion-sensor light in the entryway dimmed with a soft pop after the two of them left.

Ji Qinghe, borrowing the moonlight streaming into the room, stepped up the stairs one by one, carrying her into the master bedroom.

Hearing her words, he remained silent for a moment.

It wasn’t until he placed Shen Qianzhan on the desk in the bedroom that he replied with a half-smile: “I’m hard where I should be hard, and soft where I should be soft, it all depends on how you use me.”

He braced his arms on the desktop, leaning down to kiss her nose tip: “Any questions and concerns you have, ask them all tonight while you can—this offer won’t last.”

Shen Qianzhan raised an eyebrow, asking somewhat uncertainly: “Anything?”

“Anything.”

Shen Qianzhan asked: “How many ex-girlfriends?”

“None.”

Shen Qianzhan didn’t believe it: “None?”

A man in his thirties with a successful career actually had no ex-girlfriends? If this were in the entertainment industry, her next question would be “Then how many boyfriends have you had?”

“There really are none.” He turned on the desk lamp, gazing at her intently: “My sexual awakening came too early, so I wasn’t interested in women.” Seeing her expression change, guessing she was thinking in another direction, he slowly added: “Nor in men either.”

Shen Qianzhan had originally wanted to take the opportunity to hear about Ji Qinghe’s romantic history, but seeing his history was completely clean, she instantly lost interest in inquiring further. Just as she was about to change the topic, he pondered briefly and added: “If you asked how many people I’ve liked, I could count them for you.”

Shen Qianzhan instinctively felt he had no good intentions and didn’t want to take the bait: “I’m not asking.”

“There’s nothing worth asking about.”

Everyone has a past—whether youthfully reckless or wildly unrestrained. Having lived in this world for thirty years, it’s impossible to be truly like a blank sheet of paper with no past whatsoever.

She also didn’t care whether he had once liked someone. The Ji Qinghe she could see and understand now gave her complete peace of mind, and that was enough.

Ji Qinghe studied her carefully in the lamplight for a while, asking: “Really nothing you want to ask?”

Shen Qianzhan shook her head.

She tucked the stray hair falling in front of her eyes behind her ear, licked her lips, and after a long while said: “I’m quite cautious by nature. If I wasn’t certain that you like me desperately, I wouldn’t be willing to take the initiative.” Moreover, they had only just established a romantic relationship now—how far they could go and how long they could last were both unknowns. Asking about Ji Qinghe’s romantic history was already the only question she could think of.

“I do like you desperately.” He smiled again, his voice low: “Knowing you were in Beijing, I asked Ms. Meng for the title of China Region Executive CEO, to be permanently stationed in Beijing.”

“Knowing you needed investment, I devoted everything, exhausting my heart and energy.”

“To conveniently pursue you, I deliberately put myself under your nose, working as free labor.”

“When one phone call wouldn’t go through, though I knew you must be safe, I still couldn’t help but change routes at the last minute, traveling through snow to find you.”

“Ming Jue thought I was crazy, but only I knew what I was doing.”

He spoke sentence by sentence, his tone low, as if making accusations.

Unfortunately, Shen Qianzhan was long past being an eighteen-year-old naive girl who could be dizzied by sweet words: “Don’t try to fool me. If the investment in Bu Zhong Sui wasn’t made after weighing pros and cons, I’ll twist my head off for you.”

Being mercilessly exposed by her, Ji Qinghe wasn’t angry. He played with Shen Qianzhan’s fingers, his gaze not moving away for a long time: “You also know the rest is true?”

Shen Qianzhan, who had never managed to avoid the trap he dug: “…”

“Exhausting my heart and energy is true,” Ji Qinghe raised his eyes, meeting her gaze: “The risk of exclusive investment is too great. If I don’t exhaust my heart and energy, I might not be able to do it.”

Shen Qianzhan opened her lips, the words changing several times at her mouth, but she still insisted on singing the opposite tune with him: “That can only prove you had premeditated plans.”

“I’ve never pursued a girl. If not you, there would never be anyone else.” His voice suddenly darkened, saying: “Don’t slander my true heart.”