The seawater was colder than Rong Qian had imagined. The ocean floor was deeper than she had imagined too.

Rong Qian knew how to swim, but in this moment, she let her body sink toward the bottom. She kept her eyes open, watching as the surface of the water grew further and further away.

The sea was very blue. Up above, the wind and waves had been so fierce — yet down here inside the water, there was no sound at all. Everything was still and silent, as though all things had gone quiet.

As though the entire world had only her left in it.

The suffocating sensation of being unable to breathe began to press in on her uncomfortably. Rong Qian thought to herself — she had experienced so many different ways of dying, how could she have left out what it felt like to drown?

As it turned out — drowning was agonizing too.

Just as her consciousness began to scatter and drift, Rong Qian suddenly saw a flash of white pass before her eyes — it looked like the hem of a white shirt.

She froze for an instant. And at that very moment, an arm reached out from behind her, wrapping around her waist.

In that split second, all manner of strange and peculiar things flashed through Rong Qian’s mind — a water demon? A water ghost? A mermaid?

What did not cross her mind was the perfectly ordinary possibility — that someone had jumped in to save her.

Rong Qian didn’t quite dare to turn her head.

But the hand behind her had already reached out and touched her face. She was compelled to turn — and then she saw that the person behind her was Shen Yi.

Perhaps her brain had taken in too much water, because Rong Qian could no longer think clearly. She simply stared at the Shen Yi before her in a daze.

Shen Yi was smiling at her, very gently. He cupped her face in both hands, then bowed his head and kissed her lips.

Rong Qian closed her eyes. The photograph she had been gripping in her hand dissolved into ash at that moment, disappearing into the depths of the sea…

In the instant when Rong Qian felt she had nearly drowned, she burst to the surface of the water with a sudden jolt.

Feeling air again, Rong Qian drew in great, heaving breaths. She felt as though she were suffocating.

She wiped the water from her face, her heart still pounding frantically — it was the terror of having brushed up against death. Rong Qian took deep breath after deep breath, steadying herself, and then she realized: she was sitting inside a bathtub.

The water in the tub was warm. She was still fully dressed, soaked through and through.

Rong Qian was somewhat dazed. Was this how it worked — she traveled through time by jumping into the sea, and woke up in water?

If she hadn’t come to her senses just then, would she actually have drowned?

That thought sent a sudden chill of fear through her.

She climbed out of the bathtub. Her white T-shirt, soaked transparent from the water, clung to her skin. Rong Qian wrinkled her nose in distaste. All she wanted right now was a proper shower and a change into something clean and comfortable.

Though — come to think of it — where exactly was she?

Rong Qian looked around. This was clearly a bathroom, decorated lavishly, but not like a hotel — more like the bathroom of a grand private villa.

She had bathed at Shen Yi’s home before, and this was not Shen Yi’s bathroom. Had he moved to a new place? Or — could this be someone else’s home entirely?

If it was the latter, Rong Qian didn’t even know how she would begin to explain herself.

As she was thinking this, the bathroom door opened.

Rong Qian snapped her head up. In the first second she saw the figure, a look of delight crossed her face — it was Shen Yi!

But in the very next second, her smile vanished instantly.

She recognized him now. The man standing before her did look very much like Shen Yi — but that was all. He was not Shen Yi. He was — Mu Chaoxue.

The moment Mu Chaoxue opened the bathroom door, he stopped dead.

Sitting at the edge of the bathtub was a woman, soaked from head to toe.

Her white shirt, drenched transparent, clung tightly against her skin, the outline of her black undergarments clearly visible, along with the suggestion of a waist. Her long wet hair hung loose, and her face, bare of any makeup, was fair and lovely.

If she had worn an expression of feigned shyness — coy and inviting — Mu Chaoxue would have found her affected, common, and vulgar. But instead, she had an air of complete candor. Especially her eyes — clear and bright.

It made it utterly impossible to associate the image of her soaked appearance with anything remotely lascivious.

Noticing his gaze, Rong Qian stood up, grabbed a bath towel to cover herself, and asked him with perfect composure: “Pardon my asking — where exactly is this?”

Mu Chaoxue stared at her without blinking, then stepped forward and walked toward her.

Rong Qian gave him a quick look over. His face bore injuries, and his hands did too — he had clearly been beaten. There was even dried blood at the corner of his mouth.

Rong Qian remained unhurried, watching him approach with a perfectly steady expression.

“Who are you?” Mu Chaoxue finally spoke. His voice was low and gravelly — nowhere near as pleasant to the ear as Shen Yi’s.

Rong Qian cleared her throat gently. “Ahem, well, the thing is — I walked into the wrong—”

“I asked,” he said, his expression blank, his tone several degrees colder than before, “who you are.”

Rong Qian had no choice but to give him her name. “Rong Qian.”

“How did you get in here?” This place was under tight surveillance. He couldn’t even escape from it himself. Unless someone had brought her in, this woman’s claim of walking into the wrong place was something no one in their right mind would believe.

Though the situation had arisen without warning, Rong Qian remained remarkably calm. She turned the question back on him: “What do you think?”

That answer made Mu Chaoxue’s brow furrow. His first instinct was that this woman had been deliberately sent to him by Shen Fenran…