When Xu Mo came by in the morning to pick Shen Yi up for an event, he walked into the living room and immediately his eyes went wide.

With an exaggerated expression, he exclaimed: “My goodness — what am I seeing? In broad daylight — what are you two doing?!”

“My Shen Yi is just braiding my hair for me — do you have to make such a scene?”

Rong Qian, holding a small pink mirror, glanced over at Xu Mo. Did he really need to be that dramatic?

“A’Qian, hold still for a moment.” Shen Yi straightened her head so she would stop moving.

Xu Mo couldn’t hold back his laughter. He stood there, happily spectating: the great and legendary Movie Emperor Wei Long — who in the eyes of his fans was refined, warm, and of impeccable character — was at this very moment with a hair tie clenched between his teeth, an expression of intense, focused concentration on his face as he combed through Rong Qian’s hair.

And those hands — working with such delicate care, as though terrified of pulling a single strand.

Although last night’s revelation had been deeply moving, being forced to witness such a display of affection first thing in the morning still left Xu Mo feeling sour.

So, in the name of work, he “separated” this pair of lovebirds — giving them no further opportunity to be sweet with each other.

Before leaving, Shen Yi didn’t forget to tell Rong Qian that he would try to wrap up early and come home, and to wait for him.

And Rong Qian was even more generous in return — she looped both arms around his neck and kissed him of her own accord, right on the lips.

Xu Mo, standing to the side, was left speechless.

So Miss Rong could be this proactive? Also — these two weren’t even married yet, so why did everything about this give off the vibe of a long-settled domestic life?

When Shen Yi left, the smile on his face — well, it couldn’t have been more radiant. One look was enough to tell anyone that a certain someone was riding high in the wake of romantic success.

Fu Bozhong had noticed early that morning that the young master was in exceptionally good spirits. And the moment he observed the warm, intimate exchange between Shen Yi and Rong Qian, everything fell into place for him.

Still, there were things Fu Bozhong wanted to have a quiet word with Rong Qian about.

Rong Qian’s attitude was simple: take it one step at a time. Most people begin by thinking about how to live well in the present, and leave the future to deal with itself.

But these two — they had both been preoccupied with the future from the very start.

They had already given the future far too much of their thought. Now it was time to let them simply live in the present.

Fu Bozhong indicated that he understood. And so, by unspoken mutual agreement, they decided to set aside — for now — everything that had not yet come to pass.

But reality, as always, refused to cooperate with what people wished for.

At noon, Sheng Wanqing arrived. She had come specifically to find Rong Qian.

“You’re looking for me? About something?”

Rong Qian was genuinely a little surprised at the timing of Sheng Wanqing’s visit.

Sheng Wanqing said to her: “Miss Rong, do you remember Ke Wenguang?”

Ke Wenguang — the man Rong Qian had encountered in the hotel room shortly after she had arrived in this time period. She had briefly mistaken the room for Shen Yi’s, though fortunately nothing had come of the mix-up.

“I remember him. What about him?”

“He called me and said he wants to meet you. He wants to seek justice from you.”

Rong Qian’s expression turned strange. “Justice?”

“As for the specifics, he wants to explain that to you in person. All I know is that, according to him, what Shen Yi did to him was a profound act of ingratitude — biting the hand that fed him.”

Learning that it involved Shen Yi, Rong Qian couldn’t simply ignore it. So Sheng Wanqing drove her to the hotel to meet Ke Wenguang.

Ke Wenguang wore an unmistakably sour expression.

The moment Rong Qian arrived, he launched into his grievances: “Miss Rong, don’t you owe me an explanation about what you told me before?”

“What did I say to you?” Rong Qian played dumb.

Ke Wenguang was beside himself with frustration. “You told me that if I helped you, Shen Yi would owe me a favor!”

“And what happened? His idea of repaying that favor was to dig up a pile of incriminating material about me from some paparazzo whose conscience had been eaten by dogs — and then threaten me with it! Is that what repaying a favor looks like?” Ke Wenguang was practically hopping with indignation.

Rong Qian, however, remained perfectly composed. “It must be because you threatened my Shen Yi first. Otherwise, why on earth would he go digging up dirt on you for no reason?”

“I—” Ke Wenguang was stopped cold in an instant.

Only then did he realize that this Rong Qian was nothing like other women. She was far harder to handle.

Ke Wenguang dropped all pretense and came clean. “Fine — yes. In the beginning, I did intend to tip off the media about Shen Yi’s romantic life. But at the very least he could have spoken to me about it! Going straight to digging up someone’s personal history without a word — could his methods be any more despicable?”

“Oh, they absolutely could,” Rong Qian said without a trace of shame. “From what I understand, he’s capable of far more shameless behavior than that!”

And she even made her case with reasoned logic: “Besides, he was already being quite friendly toward you. After all, the incriminating material he dug up already existed because of things you yourself did — that’s not something you can blame on him, is it?”

Blame him? That’s not something you can even say!

Ke Wenguang felt utterly wronged. He had come to seek justice, and somehow he had ended up being the one at fault. How had that happened?

It was only now that Ke Wenguang realized he had picked the wrong enemies. These two were anything but decent people — both of them black-hearted through and through.

“Let’s all have some water and calm down a little.”

Sheng Wanqing poured three cups of water at that moment — one for herself, and one each for the other two — then watched them accept and drink, before taking a sip from her own cup.

Ke Wenguang still wanted to seek some kind of justice from Rong Qian. He wasn’t asking for much — he just hoped that Shen Yi would stop targeting him in the future.

After all, just for the service of leading her to find Shen Yi — even if he had earned no great merit from it, surely he had at least put in some effort?

“Alright, alright, I hear you — how big of a deal is this anyway?” Rong Qian agreed readily and without hesitation.

Ke Wenguang’s mood improved considerably at that. Then, all of a sudden, he let out a wide yawn, and said in bewilderment: “Strange — why do I suddenly feel so sleepy?”

“Same here.” Sheng Wanqing rubbed her eyes, looking as though she were about to nod off on the spot.

Rong Qian was just about to say that she felt nothing at all — when in the very next second, a powerful and overwhelming wave of drowsiness surged through her.

Rong Qian’s expression shifted. Her first instinct: the water had been laced with a sedative.

Oh no — she had fallen right into the trap!

Rong Qian snapped her head up to look at Sheng Wanqing — and saw that she was the first to collapse. Ke Wenguang followed right behind her, going limp and losing consciousness.

Was Sheng Wanqing a victim too, then? In that case — who had set their sights on her?

Although her vision was already blurring and her consciousness beginning to fade, Rong Qian forced herself to stay upright. She absolutely could not go down.

She absolutely… could not…