Chen Shao arrived on time, sending her a message at five minutes to five: “I’m here, come out.”

That senior had already left after receiving a phone call. Ye Chuqing sat alone for quite a while, the bowl of milk strawberry taro balls in front of her had already cooled, and she’d barely eaten a few bites, having been lost in thought for a long time.

After receiving the message, she slowly gathered her things and left the dessert shop.

She suddenly didn’t know how to ask Chen Shao why he’d never mentioned anything about school to her.

Their first meeting was for a work project. Ye Chuqing went to his company to find him, and they even argued about some project details. Although that time it was indeed Ye Chuqing who fired the first shot out of anger…

When she received the invitation and was surprised to discover that she and Chen Shao were alumni, he didn’t mention anything about school either, let alone that his former dormitory leader had once pursued her.

The more Ye Chuqing thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong as if she had fallen into a trap.

Could it be that when Chen Shao said he was willing to take responsibility, there was another layer of connection?

She walked out while thinking, her gaze downcast without watching the road until Chen Shao honked twice. She turned around, walked over, and got into the car.

Chen Shao turned to look at her, quite surprised: “What’s wrong?”

Ye Chuqing gave him a listless glance, thinking to herself, why do I feel like I’m sitting next to an ancient cunning fox?

Not knowing how to begin, she didn’t bother dealing with him anymore. She turned her head to look out the window: “Nothing.”

Chen Shao: “You do get annoyed whenever you see a man.”

“What?” Ye Chuqing asked before realizing it was about the meme she had casually sent to Chen Shao an hour ago. So she slumped back again, correcting him, “Oh, I only get annoyed when I see you.”

“Fine, that’s quite an honor.”

Back home.

The housekeeper had already prepared dinner. The two of them ate together and then started doing their things.

Ye Chuqing had gained a few pounds recently due to pregnancy, and today, having nothing else to do, she decided to do some yoga.

After changing clothes and bringing her yoga mat to the living room, she saw Chen Shao sitting down on the sofa, placing his laptop on his legs and opening it.

Ye Chuqing paused: “You’re still not done with work? Isn’t the film festival over?”

Usually, Chen Shao’s work wasn’t particularly busy. After all, the people under him each had their teams, and he didn’t need to worry too much. He mainly dealt with the broader issues.

“It’s from the old man’s side.” Chen Shao typed on the keyboard. After all this time, he had reconciled with his identity as the Chen family heir.

Ye Chuqing laughed gleefully: “Then you’d better be diligent. Chen Die and I are both waiting to rely on you.”

Chen Shao curled his lips with mild mockery: “Stop it.”

Ye Chuqing changed her position, legs in front, back straight as she bent forward. Fortunately, her belly wasn’t too big yet, so it didn’t get in the way.

Chen Shao watched her posture for a while and couldn’t help saying: “Doesn’t that position hurt your stomach?”

“I don’t feel anything.” Ye Chuqing’s voice was muffled as she spoke. After a while, she suddenly said: “Today I met one of your college classmates at the dessert shop.”

“Which one?”

She muttered: “How would I know? Seems like he was your former roommate, one of those we ran into at the KTV last time.”

Chen Shao thought for a moment and figured out who it might be: “Oh, what did he say to you?”

That you’re a beast who dared to trap me into marriage, Ye Chuqing thought to herself.

But when the words reached her lips, she still couldn’t say them. She felt it wasn’t that serious, and if she said it out loud and it turned out to be a big joke, wouldn’t that give Chen Shao a great opportunity to mock her?

She paused for a moment and decided to proceed gradually: “He told me some things about your college days.”

Chen Shao looked quite calm, his eyes still fixed on the computer screen without moving, following her words: “There’s nothing worth talking about.”

“I just found out that you were quite a popular senior in college. On the school anniversary day, I told my friend I was married to you, and it scared her. I had no idea. Did you know me when you were in school…”

Before she could finish, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her waist as she tried to straighten up.

She let out a long hiss, the pain spreading from her tailbone up her spine. For a moment, she couldn’t even speak.

Chen Shao noticed and quickly walked to her side: “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”

He thought it was related to her pregnancy.

Ye Chuqing was sweating profusely and after a good while finally managed to squeeze out three words: “My back seized.”

“…”

She had thrown her back out because she hadn’t practiced yoga for too long and was distracted. Chen Shao helped her to the sofa like he was assisting an elderly lady, and didn’t forget to tease her: “Do you even have a waist anymore?”

“?”

Is he even human?

Ye Chuqing completely abandoned the notion that Chen Shao had been secretly loving her for years.

“Do you want to go to the hospital?” Chen Shao asked again.

“No need, it feels better now.” Ye Chuqing said, holding her waist. “I just got up too quickly and forgot I was pregnant.”

“Let me see.”

“…” Ye Chuqing slowly raised her head to look at him, genuinely curious. “Do you know what you’re saying?”

Chen Shao raised an eyebrow, equally curious: “What’s wrong with that?”

“…”

Well, there was nothing wrong.

The yoga outfit was very tight. Ye Chuqing rolled it up two layers, revealing a slightly bulging belly. Since it wasn’t very big yet, it looked more like a child’s round stomach after eating too much.

Exposed like this in front of Chen Shao, it felt quite embarrassing.

She bit her lower lip, forcing herself to calm down, not wanting to blush again. That would be too humiliating.

Chen Shao leaned back slightly, moving closer to look at her lower back. Seeing no marks, just smooth white skin, his Adam’s apple bobbed as he reached out to press on it, asking softly: “Does this hurt?”

“I don’t feel anything.”

He tried another spot, and before he could ask, Ye Chuqing sharply inhaled: “Ow, ow, ow! Why are you pressing so hard?”

“I didn’t use much force,” Chen Shao said.

“Then why does it hurt so much? Is my bone broken?”

Any sensual atmosphere was destroyed.

Chen Shao glanced at her: “If it were broken, you wouldn’t even be able to speak right now.”

He grabbed a cushion and tossed it to her. “Lie face down.”

Ye Chuqing looked up, watching him warily: “Why?”

He laughed, giving her an ambiguous look: “What are you thinking?”

“…Shut up.”

After Ye Chuqing said this, she flipped over, putting the cushion under her stomach, lying face down on the sofa.

Ten minutes later, Ye Chuqing was squinting with enjoyment. It was quite comfortable, and by then her waist barely hurt anymore. She didn’t even want to get up, directing Chen Shao: “Yes, yes, yes, right there.”

She had completely forgotten the question that had been on the tip of her tongue earlier.

Her skin was very good, smooth, and fair even on her lower back, showing she had been pampered since childhood. Now Chen Shao had made a red mark there.

Although her belly and waist had indeed gained weight due to pregnancy, other parts of her body hadn’t. Now, lying with her arms supporting her, her shoulder blades protruded, still looking thin.

Chen Shao stared at her butterfly bones for a while, then asked: “Have you been vomiting badly recently?”

“It’s been okay lately, not much vomiting.” Ye Chuqing crossed her arms, chin resting on them. “Be grateful, Chen Shao. I never thought I’d get pregnant and have a child before. You’re getting all the benefits.”

He laughed and continued massaging her lower back: “Aren’t I showing my gratitude right now?”

“It is quite comfortable.” Ye Chuqing turned her head to look at him, narrowing her eyes. “You don’t frequent massage parlors, which is why your technique is so good, do you?”

“…Do you still want the message or not?”

“Yes, yes, yes. I have to say, you’re quite professional, Master Chen.”

“…”

Chen Shao was annoyed by her teasing and directly slapped her on the buttocks, no longer in the mood: “Get off, I need to check my emails.”

When Chen Shao slapped her, he hadn’t thought much about it, just looking for a fleshy spot that wouldn’t hurt. But after he said those words, both of them fell silent.

Ye Chuqing: “…”

She questioned the appropriate boundaries with her marriage partner every day.

She was so shocked that random ancient poems started floating through her mind, like “The wind howls, the Yi River is cold, once the hero leaves, he will never return,” and “Softly, the sound of departure is in the flute, silence is tonight’s Cambridge.”

That slap had completely stunned her.

The two stared at each other for a long moment. Ye Chuqing’s face grew increasingly warm until she was the first to look away, adjusting her clothes and quickly sitting up.

Chen Shao was also confused at first, but seeing Ye Chuqing’s reaction, he found it quite interesting and wasn’t embarrassed anymore.

Ye Chuqing sat for another two seconds, feeling she couldn’t stay there any longer, then stood up and walked upstairs.

Chen Shao instinctively raised his hand to stop her: “Chuqing.”

She immediately dodged, furious with embarrassment: “Don’t talk to me.”

“…”

Chen Shao watched her quickly run upstairs with thumping steps, afraid she might fall, then heard a “bang” as she slammed the bedroom door, followed by the sound of locking.

Chen Shao: “…”

Had he been locked out of the bedroom?

He was about to go upstairs and knock when his phone beside him started vibrating continuously.

It was the same “annoyed when seeing a man” meme he had received in the afternoon, but this time she had sent over a dozen of them, nearly bombing his phone.

After a couple of seconds, another message came.

[Ye Chuqing: Go sleep in the guest room!]

Chen Shao: “…”

It was just a slap, yet she was acting like he’d never touched her before.

Meanwhile, Ye Chuqing was lying on the bed, burying her head in the pillow, desperately wanting to die.

I thought I got married because of pregnancy, but now the shocks keep coming one after another. First from living separately to sharing a bed, then discovering Chen Shao kissed me while sober, followed by finding out Chen Shao knew me long ago, and now—physical contact.

They were truly no longer pure…

Because of this incident, their gradually merging married life was forcibly torn apart. Chen Shao, due to his momentary carelessness, was forced to sleep in the guest room for three days.

During these three days, the housekeeper didn’t dare say a word, afraid that a sudden disagreement would lead to divorce talks.

Later, Ye Chuqing, worried that the housekeeper would secretly report to Huang Sheng, finally granted Chen Shao permission to return to the master bedroom.

Also concerned that their pure and respectful married life would become increasingly impure, Ye Chuqing deliberately gave him the cold shoulder for a few days.

Although the back strain that day wasn’t too serious, it still ached faintly for a few days, so Ye Chuqing didn’t go out.

She ate and slept, slept and ate, her schedule becoming increasingly irregular. One day she woke up just as dawn was breaking, with Chen Shao still sleeping beside her.

She lay on her side, picking up her phone from the bedside table, and found a friend request on WeChat.

Ye Chuqing occasionally met new people through work, so without thinking much, she casually accepted and asked: Who is this?

[Wei Yuanhe.]

“…”

Ye Chuqing, lying on her side, rolled her eyes, planning to directly drag him into her blacklist.

He immediately sent another message.

[I’m contacting you about Project 32 at the film base.]

Ye Chuqing paused her fingers, halting her action to move him to the blacklist.

Later, through work, she learned that Wei Yuanhe’s father had invested in related industries, so it was normal for Wei Yuanhe to gain experience there.

The film-based project was originally fine, but there were some temporary issues with coordinating the filming location, requiring Ye Chuqing to communicate.

[Ye Chuqing: Are you the person in charge there?]

[Wei Yuanhe: Yes, when can we meet?]

Ye Chuqing yawned, truly lacking interest, set a contact note, and replied slowly: This afternoon, I’ll contact you later.

After replying, she turned off her phone screen, lay for a while longer, and found she was completely awake. So she got up and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Chen Shao was awakened by the sound of water from the bathroom. His hand reached to the side and found no one, then he opened his eyes, just in time to see her phone light up on the bed.

Chen Shao looked over and saw a message.

[Wei Yuanhe: Okay, I’ll pick you up this afternoon.]

Chen Shao’s brow slightly furrowed.

A moment later, Ye Chuqing came out. Chen Shao leaned back, the phone screen had darkened again, and he picked it up and handed it to her: “You just received a message.”

Ye Chuqing took it and looked, inexplicably felt guilty, and secretly glanced at Chen Shao.

He wasn’t looking at her.

She lowered her head again and replied: No need, I’ll just send you the meeting location later.

Chen Shao also got out of bed. When he came out, she wasn’t paying attention, her phone still showing the chat with Wei Yuanhe. She turned her head and instinctively darkened the screen again.

She asked: “What’s wrong?”

Chen Shao’s expression was bland, as if he hadn’t noticed her action: “Nothing.”

“Are you going to the company?”

“Yes.” Chen Shao put on his jacket. “Are you going out? I’ll drive you.”

Ye Chuqing: “No need, I’m going out in the afternoon, I can go by myself.”

Chen Shao nodded and went downstairs.

It was still early. Ye Chuqing applied a face mask and turned on the projector to watch a movie. After it ended, the housekeeper called her for lunch. After eating, she sent a message to Wei Yuanhe.

Not wanting to go too far, she set the meeting place at a nearby afternoon tea house.

When Ye Chuqing arrived, Wei Yuanhe was just getting out of his car. Looking from a distance, he appeared quite presentable, though his essential nature couldn’t be changed.

She looked a bit longer and another thought emerged—he wasn’t as handsome as Chen Shao.

The matter was resolved quickly, especially since Wei Yuanhe didn’t seem to want to make things difficult for her. He even leaned toward her side, very willing to make adjustments.

Ye Chuqing didn’t overthink what his ulterior motives might be, knowing full well that Wei Yuanhe was indeed giving her face, but as long as the matter was resolved, that was good.

The entire outing didn’t exceed half an hour. After modifying the contract details, Ye Chuqing didn’t linger and rose to say goodbye.

Wei Yuanhe frowned slightly and asked: “It’s almost dinner time, shall we have dinner together?”

“No, I have something else to do. Please feel free.” Ye Chuqing left as soon as she finished speaking. Her driver was still waiting outside.

She made a phone call to the project manager at the film base, who was shocked by her efficiency and repeatedly expressed thanks. Ye Chuqing didn’t elaborate on the details.

The recent film festival coincided with Ye Chuqing’s worst morning sickness, so Chen Shao helped her with many things, including obtaining contact information for some relevant managers.

He found a postcard among them and dialed the number.

The person answered, apparently having saved his number somewhere, immediately saying: “Mr. Chen, what wind has blown you here?”

Chen Shao’s expression remained unchanged: “Nothing much, I just wanted to ask if the filming location issue that Chuqing was handling at the film base has been resolved?”

The other person observed, understanding that Mr. Chen was probably concerned about his wife getting tired, so he was checking on the situation behind her back.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Chen, it was just resolved. They agreed to all our requests and signed a new contract.”

Chen Shao’s brow furrowed slightly as he replied “I see” and hung up.

Earlier, when he had inadvertently glimpsed the text message on Ye Chuqing’s phone, combined with what she had complained about to him before, it wasn’t hard for him to figure out that the collaborating party was the Wei family’s company.

Ye Chuqing returned home early again and only came downstairs when the housekeeper called her for dinner.

“Isn’t Chen Shao coming home for dinner?”

“No, Mr. Chen called earlier and said he’d be back late tonight.”

This was the first time Chen Shao hadn’t returned for dinner since they started having dinner together. Ye Chuqing checked her phone, but he hadn’t sent her any messages. Although she found it a bit strange, she didn’t think too much about it.

Chen Shao came home late that day.

After dinner, Ye Chuqing went back to the bedroom and lay down for a while, but still didn’t see him return. She started to feel bored, usually having someone to argue and bicker with.

She rolled over in bed, grabbed her phone, and sent Chen Shao a message.

[Ye Chuqing: When are you coming back?]

[Chen Shao: What’s wrong?]

[Ye Chuqing: I want to eat watermelon.]

At this season, where would he find watermelon for her?

[Chen Shao: You’re pregnant, eat fewer out-of-season things.]

Ye Chuqing lay on the bed, propping her chin up, clicked her tongue, and replied: Then when are you coming home?

[Chen Shao: I have something today, I’ll be back late. You sleep first.]

Leaving his pregnant wife alone at home and not coming back, that’s not something an ordinary scumbag would do.

Ye Chuqing rolled her eyes and started looking through her meme library.

A minute later, Chen Shao received another meme from her.

A cat stepping on a ten-yuan bill, with the caption “Buy you for a night.”

He smiled slightly, rather coolly replying with a question mark.

Unexpectedly, Ye Chuqing got more enthusiastic, probably bored at home. It was still the same cat, with the same “Buy you for a night” four characters, except this time the cat’s paw was pressing on a twenty-yuan bill.

The price had gone up.

Chen Shao closed his eyes, remembering the message Wei Yuanhe sent her that morning, exhaled, and didn’t reply.

Ye Chuqing had no idea what Chen Shao was thinking, only feeling proud that her meme had stunned him, and sent two more.

One was a fifty-yuan bill, and the other was a hundred-yuan bill.

Both captioned “Buy you for a night.”

It was a set of images.

Chen Shao had no choice. After a few minutes, he replied “I’ll be back as early as possible.”

Ye Chuqing saw this message and laughed as she fell back on the bed, feeling like she had won a victory.

Chen Shao had nothing to do tonight, staying alone at the company to work overtime. He used to work overtime before, but he would do it at home. However, Ye Chuqing was too noisy at home, stretching his overtime hours by several hours.

He sat in his chair for a while, then pulled out a drawer containing a photograph.

It was a photo of him and Ye Chuqing—he was in front, looking at the camera, while Ye Chuqing was passing by in the background.

Remarkably, this photo was taken by his college dormitory leader Lin Qimeng. The first time he saw Ye Chuqing, he thought she was stunning and wanted to take a secret photo. So he pulled Chen Shao in, pretending to photograph him, resulting in this confusing picture.

Later, when Lin Qimeng developed the photos since Chen Shao was the main subject, he had an extra copy made for him.

Before that, he had also seen Ye Chuqing once.

The Business School was moving to a new campus in their junior year, but Chen Shao was a student council department head at the time and had to frequently visit the main campus for various handover ceremonies and meetings during the first month. This is why he had seen Ye Chuqing once before Lin Qimeng.

At that time, Ye Chuqing was a freshman, and he was a junior.

They only exchanged one sentence. Ye Chuqing had a fiery temperament, and when turning a corner, she bumped into his shoulder, running while looking back, her ponytail swinging in a clean arc as she apologized: “Sorry, senior.”

Chen Shao frowned slightly.

Some student council members indeed had an air of authority. Chen Shao himself didn’t like such attitudes, but he couldn’t stop the girl beside him, who immediately scolded: “Can’t you be more careful? These freshmen nowadays, are so reckless even when seeing a department head.”

So Ye Chuqing stopped in her tracks.

Chen Shao said lazily: “It’s fine, it was just a bump.”

The girl then waved her hand, indicating it was no big deal, letting her go.

As they continued walking inside, Chen Shao inexplicably asked: “Was that person from our department?”

“Which one?”

“That girl.”

The girl answered: “Oh, it’s not decided yet. She just came for an interview today. Her surname is Ye, I think. She interviewed with our deputy department. He’s using his position for personal gain—he kept praising how pretty she was right after the interview ended.”

Chen Shao gave a mocking laugh, recalling: “She is quite pretty.”

“…”

A few days later, Lin Qimeng took that photograph. Through the grapevine, he learned that the girl’s name was Ye Chuqing, and in their dormitory, he boldly declared that he must win her over before graduation.

Chen Shao wasn’t so beastly as to deliberately steal his brother’s crush. During college, he had two impressions of Ye Chuqing:

1. She was indeed beautiful.

2. She was the heroine who had rejected Lin Qimeng 83 times.

Initially, Lin Qimeng was very nervous about confessing, but after being rejected so many times, he became quite open-minded about it. Eventually, it reached the point where confessing became a routine greeting whenever they met.

At that time, if he didn’t have afternoon classes, Lin Qimeng would take a taxi to the main campus cafeteria just to “accidentally” encounter his goddess.

Chen Shao had a car. Once when he had business at the main campus, Lin Qimeng hitched a ride with him. After finishing, they went to the cafeteria together, and on the way, they ran into Ye Chuqing once.

At lunchtime, there were always many people on the way to the cafeteria, making it very crowded. They parked their car across from the dormitory area.

As soon as Chen Shao got out of the car, he saw Ye Chuqing with her companions. Soon, Lin Qimeng craned his neck and also found her.

He told Chen Shao: “Brother, I’m going in.”

Chen Shao chuckled: “Sure, waiting for your 48th rejection.”

Lin Qimeng rolled his eyes: “Stop adding numbers. This is the 46th time.”

After saying this, he pushed through the crowd.

Ye Chuqing was stopped by him. Already familiar with this admirer, she even greeted him, smiling: “You’re here again.”

“…” Lin Qimeng scratched his hair. “Well, junior, I like you.”

Ye Chuqing nodded, rejecting him without any guilt, saying lightly: “Sorry.”

Lin Qimeng showed no signs of being hurt by the rejection either, grinning: “No problem.”

Then Ye Chuqing continued walking toward the cafeteria with her companions, while Lin Qimeng turned and walked back in Chen Shao’s direction. The whole confession seemed like a mere formality.

Chen Shao watched from a distance, leaning against the car, unable to help but laugh mockingly: “Idiot.”

Lin Qimeng walked back to the car, shrugged, and opened his hands, showing a bit of disappointment: “46 times.”

Chen Shao laughed heartlessly: “So are we still going to eat at that cafeteria?”

“No, that cafeteria is terrible. Let’s go to the commercial street in the South District to eat,” said Lin Qimeng.

So the two got back in the car.

Chen Shao casually said: “I heard your bold declaration in the dormitory and thought you were pursuing her aggressively. But all you do is say ‘I like you’—anyone can say that.”

Lin Qimeng laughed and cursed: “You can’t even say that yourself.”

Chen Shao raised his eyebrows, looking casual and frivolous: “Wooing girls doesn’t necessarily require those four words.”

“Enough, you talk like some love guru, but weren’t you also without a girlfriend for all four years of college? Don’t pretend with me,” Lin Qimeng mercilessly exposed him.

“I just wasn’t interested. Those girls, are too annoying.”

Lin Qimeng: “Alright, when you meet your goddess someday, show me your skills—how you get someone without even confessing.”

Chen Shao smiled: “Sure.”

Not long after Ye Chuqing sent her message to Chen Shao, she fell asleep. Lately, she had been sleeping hazily, with frequent interruptions, making her sleep very light.

When Chen Shao pushed open the bedroom door, he was very quiet, but Ye Chuqing still woke up.

She had fallen asleep without turning off the light. As soon as Chen Shao entered, he reached over to turn off the light for her.

Ye Chuqing propped herself up to look at him, wanting to say she wasn’t asleep when she saw Chen Shao carrying a bag as he walked to her bedside, looking down at her.

…Why wasn’t he saying anything?

Could this be some kind of sleep paralysis hallucination?

Ye Chuqing blinked and asked: “What did you buy?”

Chen Shao: “Didn’t you want watermelon?”

“Can you buy it now?” she asked in surprise, sitting up.

Chen Shao sat down on the edge of the bed, opened the bag, and took out a bottle.

It was pink, palm-sized, with a cute watermelon pattern on the bottle—a bottle of watermelon-flavored drink.

“…”

Ye Chuqing stared at it for a while, finally unable to help laughing: “Well, thank you so much.”

Chen Shao looked at her. The dark room made one want to do bad things.

He suddenly leaned forward, his hand pressing against the back of Ye Chuqing’s head, and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Ye Chuqing couldn’t remember if they had kissed during those two nights. In her memory, this was the second time she had kissed Chen Shao.

There was no alcohol taste like last time, just a very clean flavor.

The feeling was quite nice.

After three seconds, she became fully alert, opened her eyes wide, and began to struggle.

The sober Chen Shao was much easier to push away than that drunk night. He backed off a bit, looking at her with deep eyes.

Ye Chuqing finally squeezed out a sentence after a while: “Are you drunk?”

Although she didn’t smell any alcohol.

“No,” Chen Shao said.

She pursed her lips and asked again: “Did you drink?”

He still answered: “No.”

Ye Chuqing glared: “Then why did you kiss me again!”

Chen Shao looked at her expression, his mood finally improving: “Didn’t you want to buy me for a night?”

“???”

Was there something wrong with his comprehension?

Well, although that meme did indeed mean that, they weren’t in that kind of relationship at all.

Ye Chuqing said with a red face: “I didn’t mean for you to kiss me!”

Chen Shao deliberately misinterpreted her meaning, leaned over and kissed her lip again: “Remember to settle the account later, you owe me one hundred yuan.”

“Chen Shao,” Ye Chuqing was shocked, “have you no shame? If anything, I’m the one losing out here!”

He smiled, pushing her down on the bed, and kissing her again: “Fine, I’ll make it up to you later. Name your price.”

At this point, if Ye Chuqing still couldn’t figure things out, then all these years would have been lived in vain. Although she had long suspected that her relationship with Chen Shao had become unusual, tonight’s kiss in sobriety was the final breaking of the last barrier.

Seeing she wasn’t struggling, he kissed her even more endlessly.

Ye Chuqing finally became annoyed, pushed him away, raised her leg, and placed her foot on his dress shirt.

Chen Shao lowered his gaze, his eyes falling on her fair skin, where blue veins were visible.

Ye Chuqing applied pressure with her leg, pushing against his chest to move him further away, frowning: “What are you doing?”

“You met with Wei Yuanhe today?” he suddenly asked.

The question was so abrupt that Ye Chuqing was stunned, and after a while, she blurted out: “Are you stalking me?”

Chen Shao narrowed his eyes, adding a touch of coldness.

The two looked at each other without speaking, then Chen Shao grabbed her ankle that was pressing against him, pulled forcefully, causing Ye Chuqing to slide down, her head sliding off the pillow, her two fair feet stepping on his suit pants.

She warned cautiously: “What are you trying to do?”

Chen Shao lowered his head and bit her lip: “Just reminding you that you’re already married to me.”

At the same time, her phone rang. It was like speaking of the devil—another message from that haunting Wei Yuanhe.

[Wei Yuanhe: Chuqing, are you available to take a call now?]

This person was indeed an expert at creating ambiguity and destroying families.

Ye Chuqing thought, that if she saw a message like this on Chen Shao’s phone, she would want a divorce.

After reading the line on her phone, then looking at Chen Shao’s eyes, Ye Chuqing truly felt she had no way to explain.

She had been “accused” of having an affair during marriage.

“Well…” she began.

Chen Shao interrupted her: “You just can’t forget him, can you?”

“Huh?” Ye Chuqing was confused, asking with puzzlement, “How am I not forgetting him?”

“Otherwise, why did you sneak out to meet him today?”

Ye Chuqing justified righteously: “I met him openly, not—I mean, it was for work, for the film base project. I mentioned it to you before.”

Chen Shao naturally knew this, but what made him unhappy was far more than just this one thing.

“At Zui Xian’s birthday party that night, you only called me over because you saw him, and then you got so drunk.”

“…”

Ye Chuqing felt wronged, but she also felt that if she explained she was simply embarrassed about running into her ex-boyfriend with a companion, Chen Shao probably wouldn’t understand.

After all, men and women have very different understandings of things.

“…I’m not the type to do something as stupid as drowning my sorrows in alcohol. I just accidentally got drunk it had nothing to do with him.”

Chen Shao showed no expression, clearly not believing her.

Ye Chuqing had no choice but to take a deep breath, lean over, and plant a quick kiss on his face.

Chen Shao was stunned.

Ye Chuqing, with a red face, like a hooligan, touched his chin: “The only reason I was with him back then was because of his face, but now I prefer your face more.”

“So,” she looked like she was having difficulty breathing, took another deep breath, and said flippantly, “Don’t worry, I won’t divorce you for that jerk.”

“…”

The moonlight fell cold and clear into the bedroom. With no lights on, they could only see each other’s faces in the faint moonlight.

Chen Shao’s face relaxed slightly. Ye Chuqing barely turned her face away, her gaze falling on the pink watermelon-flavored drink on the bedside table. She could imagine Chen Shao picking out this bottle at the supermarket after work and taking it to the checkout counter to pay.

“Oh, right.” Ye Chuqing thought of something, picked up her phone, clicked on Wei Yuanhe’s message, pressed the voice message button, and said decisively: “Get lost.”

She shrugged, looking at Chen Shao: “Anyway, the contract has already been revised. He’s of no more use to me.”

Chen Shao laughed, finally returning to his usual self: “So you went to sell your charm today?”

“Yes, otherwise who would want to meet with such a jerk? I get annoyed just seeing him.”

Chen Shao: “Then from now on, don’t go sell your charm to him. Just come sell it to me. I can solve these little problems too.”

“…”

This misunderstanding was finally resolved. Chen Shao was sent off to take a shower.

Ye Chuqing lay alone on the dim bedroom bed, thinking. She had been confused by Chen Shao’s questioning, and by the end, she hadn’t even explored the initial kiss further.

She licked her lips thoughtfully.

Chen Shao had initiated twice, once drunk, and once sober.

And she didn’t seem to have resisted much, just been a bit shocked.

The meaning behind this would be obvious to an outsider, but Ye Chuqing was indeed somewhat confused at the moment.

When Chen Shao came out, she finally gathered the courage to mention the conversation she had with his college classmate, asking why Chen Shao had known her so early on but never mentioned it.

Chen Shao was candid. While drying his hair, he laid out the past events plainly.

He and Ye Chuqing hadn’t met much before. Strictly speaking, they were strangers, so his explanation was quick.

“Didn’t Lin Qimeng beat you up?” she asked.

Chen Shao answered shamelessly: “That’s why I’ve been avoiding him.”

“…”

In fact, Lin Qimeng had long been married and had a daughter last year. That night at the KTV, when he learned about their marriage, he did indeed yell about going to cut down Chen Shao, but it had little to do with Ye Chuqing anymore—it was purely because he felt Chen Shao had betrayed their brotherhood.

If it had been a few years earlier, such behavior would have been absolutely condemned as stealing someone’s love interest.

“Why didn’t you ever mention that we were schoolmates?” she asked.

“The first time we met later on, didn’t you get into an argument with me?”

Ye Chuqing: “But you never mentioned it afterwards either. You kept it hidden so well.”

“If I had mentioned it, I would have become a jerk.”

Ye Chuqing blinked, rolled over on the bed to face him: “Chen Shao.”

“What?”

She exhaled, looking like she had just sighed in relief: “When I heard what your classmate said the other day, I almost thought you had been secretly in love with me since college. That scared me to death.”

Chen Shao laughed lightly, saying casually: “Maybe I was.”

Ye Chuqing froze, her eyes widening as she looked at him: “What?”

Ye Chuqing understood how wondrous Chinese language could be.

Her statement had simply denied that Chen Shao had secretly loved her in college. But with Chen Shao’s words, not only was it possible that he had liked her since college, more importantly, Chen Shao was admitting that he liked her.

The shock of this evening was truly too great.

“Otherwise, why do you think I wanted to take responsibility for you?”

Ye Chuqing felt this was straight out of a scumbag’s playbook: “Because I was pregnant, what else?”

Chen Shao glanced at her: “I said I would take responsibility even before you were pregnant.”

“Holy shit,” Ye Chuqing couldn’t help cursing, “I thought you were just being nice.”

“You said you didn’t need me to take responsibility. Would I have repeatedly insisted on taking responsibility if I didn’t have a reason?”

“…”

That was true. Why hadn’t she thought of this before?

She still couldn’t believe it: “Then after we got drunk…?”

Chen Shao teased her: “You were too aggressive, hard to resist.”

Ye Chuqing didn’t believe him anymore: “Bullshit!”

He laughed.

Chen Shao didn’t know when he had fallen for Ye Chuqing. Maybe it was later, maybe it was earlier. He only knew that the night Ye Chuqing came to his place drunk, he was the one who had a physical reaction first, he was the one who went with the flow, and in the end, it was all initiated by him.

The second night, he knew the drink Ye Chuqing had was strong alcohol. He didn’t stop her, letting everything that followed happen naturally.

Ye Chuqing thought she had only married Chen Shao because of the pregnancy, but discovered that every step had been calculated by him.

Before, she didn’t dare casually mention divorce. Now, with Chen Shao’s words just now, she had the confidence to threaten him with divorce.

She rose up in anger: “Chen Shao, divorce! I want to divorce you!”

Chen Shao wrapped his arm around her waist and lay back down: “I once told Lin Qimeng that you don’t need to say ‘I like you’ to woo a girl. I never said it, but I married you.”

“However, now it seems these four words are necessary after all.” He kissed her lips again, saying indistinctly: “I like you, Ye Chuqing.”