Lu Rangchen had returned to Nan City that very afternoon.

There was a seven-hour time difference between China and France. He could have chosen a different time to come back — but that day, for reasons he couldn’t quite name, he simply wanted to come back early and see Yunque.

It was just as he landed.

He received a brief message from Yunque — her routine “check-in,” telling him she was going to visit Zhu Yuxuan at the hospital that afternoon.

Lu Rangchen read the message and couldn’t help but smile to himself.

He thought — this woman was genuinely not bad at keeping her promises.

At the very least, back when they’d first been together, she’d had no idea she was supposed to tell him where she was at any given time. Every single time, it had been Lu Rangchen who called her or texted her first, and only then would she say anything.

Since he was coming back to see her anyway, Lu Rangchen simply headed straight for the hospital.

As it turned out — arriving early was no match for arriving at the right moment.

Lu Rangchen had just come from the nurses’ station and was making his way to the ward entrance, when from not far away, a commotion broke out from the direction of the fire escape stairwell.

A woman’s voice — resentful, brimming with self-pity — leveled accusation after accusation, her words coming through with perfect clarity. The one being accused was obviously Yunque.

Yunque hadn’t expected Lu Rangchen to appear here, and even less had she expected that the things Deng Jiali was saying would be heard directly by him.

Or perhaps it was simply the sheer pressure of Lu Rangchen’s presence.

The moment his words fell, the scene froze.

More surprised than even Yunque or Deng Jiali was Zhu Ping’an — this was his first time seeing Lu Rangchen in person.

Radiant in his prime and exceptional in every regard — truly the sort of man Yunque would carry in her heart for a lifetime.

Zhu Ping’an felt a complicated tangle of emotions. He instinctively parted his lips, was just about to say something — when Deng Jiali cut in, voice thick with tears, pointing an accusing finger: “You’re from the Cheng Family — don’t you know what dirty things they’ve done? Don’t come here playing innocent.”

The muscles at Lu Rangchen’s jaw pulled taut. He said nothing.

It was Yunque who pressed his hand tight.

Her voice carried the faintest tremor as she said, “Lu Rangchen, whatever needs to be said — let’s step outside to say it.”

Lu Rangchen glanced toward her at that. His cool, dark eyes fell heavily onto her face — stubborn and unyielding.

“Step outside to say what? Say it right here!”

Deng Jiali, gathering some inexplicable reserve of boldness, stopped attacking Yunque in that moment and actually began to argue on her behalf instead: “Yes, let him hear it all! Let him know how his grandfather abused his power back then!”

“It was that old man who deliberately leaked everything to the internet and let the entire world pile on — if not for that, would my Ye Tian have gotten into a fight and ended up at the police station?!”

“And Yunque going abroad — wasn’t she driven away by him? And when he’d already driven her off, he turned around and threatened her father’s job! Do people with money and power get to act as lawlessly as they please?!”

The woman spoke rapidly, giving Zhu Ping’an no room to interject.

It was Yunque who raised her voice and cut her off, calling out a sharp, “Stop talking!”

Perhaps when a person who never loses their temper finally does, the force of it hits all the harder — Deng Jiali was shaken to the core by the sudden rebuke, and went quiet.

Then she looked at Lu Rangchen.

The man’s expression had already gone completely still — past the point of what could be called composed.

He gripped Yunque’s hand so tightly it left little room to breathe, as though something that had been pressing against his chest for years had finally given way. He fixed his eyes on Yunque and said, “Is what she said true?”

In that single instant, years of accumulated emotion were ground to dust and scattered.

Yunque’s eyes suddenly misted over.

In that mist was something sour, something like love, and something even denser and more profound than love — something Lu Rangchen had never dared to hope for, and had never been able to decipher before now.

Her chest had never been so congested before — so stifling she could barely breathe.

The emotion in Lu Rangchen’s deep eyes surged, unspoken — and before he could say anything, Yunque had already opened her mouth. Her voice, damp like earth after rain, said, “What does it matter if it’s true?”

The palm that held Lu Rangchen’s hand was slick with a fine sheen of sweat. Her eyelashes trembling, she said, “It’s already long past.”

Lu Rangchen’s throat hitched at those words — like a fishbone lodged there.

True — it had long since passed.

But that was for her.

For him, it had never once felt like it was over.

Yunque turned to look at Deng Jiali and said, “So — are you satisfied now?”

Deng Jiali was struck dumb, stumbling over a response, her voice breaking back into a whining cry: “What did I do wrong? I was just speaking up for you——”

“I don’t need you to speak up for me.”

Yunque looked at her without expression, cold as a winter’s night without any trace of warmth. “I only ask that you leave me in peace.”

Those words landed like a slap, striking both husband and wife in one blow.

In the instant of stunned silence, Yunque turned to look at Zhu Ping’an.

Perhaps because Lu Rangchen’s presence had made her more certain of herself, she said, “The debt for the ways my mother’s wrongdoings implicated you — as of today, I’ve repaid it in full.”

“I owe you nothing more.”

“And I will no longer take any responsibility for the Cheng Family’s actions.”

With that, Yunque drew a quiet breath and said, “My decision to be with Lu Rangchen is not an impulse. It is a decision for the rest of my life.”

“I will not separate from him again.”

The words, spoken lightly and without flourish — but the weight with which they landed was nothing short of thunderous.

They struck Lu Rangchen squarely in the chest and made his heart shudder with force.

His dark eyes found her again, and Yunque’s eyes were red — her rims, her nose tip — yet she smiled as she said, “I’ve been carrying the weight of moral coercion for so many years. I am truly tired.”

All of it — what had been tied to Feng Yanlai, to Ye Tian, and to her father Zhu Ping’an.

She had had enough of all of it.

Her eyes empty as still water, Yunque said, “From now on — just treat me as if I don’t exist.”

Yunque’s departure that day was clean and decisive.

Only a carton of milk and a bag of fruit was left behind, cold and silent.

After she left, Zhu Ping’an kept calling her — every single call. Yunque didn’t pick up a single one, and simply switched on Do Not Disturb.

Lu Rangchen also had things to deal with — his manager called, asking him to come back to the club to handle some business. Apparently a few newly scouted athletes showed real promise, and the manager wanted him to meet them in person.

The schedule was last-minute, but it was important enough to warrant attention.

Lu Rangchen, however, had no interest in any of it. He simply took Yunque’s hand, got into the car, and with a frown said, “I don’t have time.”

It was a cool tone — entirely consistent with the manner his role as club owner normally required of him.

Yet it had nothing to do with being too busy.

It was plainly that Yunque was here, and he couldn’t spare his focus for anything else.

Yunque’s emotions had settled considerably by now, and she couldn’t help but suggest, “Why don’t you go — I’ll be fine.”

Lu Rangchen glanced sideways at her, eyes flowing with meaning too layered to read clearly — like something smoldering inside him that had nowhere to go, laced with a barely-contained, helpless resignation.

Yunque: “……”

How could she not know what he was quietly frustrated about?

She thought for a moment, then offered, “Then — how about I come with you?”

As she spoke, their interlocked hands tightened — Yunque was giving him a clear, unmistakable signal.

After all, it had been over ten days since the two of them had seen each other. For either of them, parting again so soon was the last thing they wanted.

At those words, Lu Rangchen lowered his gaze, then raised it again — and this time, a faint, sparse trace of a smile surfaced in his eyes. He let out a light, amused exhale and said, “Now that’s more like it.”

Enough to soothe him, at least.

Yunque was on her best behavior for the entire ride after that.

She had some sense of what it was that Lu Rangchen was upset about, and she began quietly working out what she would say to him later by way of explanation.

She hadn’t quite gotten there yet when the club came into view.

The people there were in a hurry, so Lu Rangchen simply had someone come and take Yunque to his office. Before stepping away, he cupped her face lightly in his hand — still warm and patient — and said, “Be good. Stay put and wait for me to come back.”

Honestly, the club staff had never seen their boss be this gentle with anyone.

Even the young woman at the front desk who had come to escort Yunque was wide-eyed with surprise.

After she’d settled Yunque in the office, she immediately stirred up the WeChat group, exclaiming that she’d just seen the boss and his girlfriend, that the girl was absolutely gorgeous, and that the boss had been incredibly — incredibly — gentle with her, even pinching her cheeks!!!!

The group had something like ten or so people, all club staff.

The message detonated among them. After all, Lu Rangchen’s “perpetually single” image had been in place for years — nobody had imagined he’d suddenly start dating someone. Everyone was curious, asking: is there a photo???

The front desk girl had none, of course.

But the curiosity of the others proved irresistible.

So the assortment of people in that little group conspired to wander into Lu Rangchen’s office on various pretexts, pretending they had things to attend to.

Some came to brew a cup of coffee, some to print a document, some to deliver fruit and drinks to Yunque.

Yunque, as always, was warm and amiable with people — these arrivals were no exception.

Back and forth they went, until the group chat erupted again:

[Oh my god, I genuinely could not have predicted this — I thought with his personality, the boss would go for the curvy, fiery type]

[Exactly!!! I never would have guessed either — he actually goes for the pure, refined kind??? But she’s stunning, her presence alone runs circles around those fiery girls]

[Don’t say ‘sister-in-law,’ that ages her — she should be called the future lady boss]

[Hey, did you all hear? Apparently this woman is the boss’s first love — and she’s a teacher!]

[Seriously?! A reconciliation after years apart! She’s that powerful — managed to hold the boss for this long???]

The group chattered away.

And somewhere along the way, someone sent a screenshot to Lu Rangchen.

Lu Rangchen was in the process of supervising the physical assessments of several newly signed athletes alongside the coaching staff. When the screenshot landed, he let out a sudden involuntary snort of laughter, and immediately forwarded it to Yunque with the message: [Future lady boss, your charm is something else.]

By then, Yunque was at his computer working on lesson slides for Monday.

She saw the message only a fair while later.

Logged into WeChat from the computer, she opened the screenshot — blinked once — and then a honey-warm amusement rose quietly in her eyes.

She had just typed out “when are you coming back” when the office door swung open again.

This time it was neither a curiosity-driven employee nor anyone else — it was Lu Rangchen.

Yunque looked up and saw that handsome face of his, and her heart picked up its pace.

The man standing before her not only had a face worth looking at.

His eyes now held notably more danger than they had earlier.

He simply pulled the door shut behind him and locked it. Lu Rangchen cast her a measured glance, then walked over to the coffee table with casual ease, dropping his lighter and cigarette case onto its surface.

He stood there, his lean frame draped in unhurried stillness — rolling up the cuffs of his dress shirt sleeves with one hand, watching her the whole time. There was something about him that carried a refined yet unruly edge, like a well-dressed scoundrel.

This long without seeing each other.

This man was somehow compelling in every single way — every angle of him carried a fatal kind of pull.

Yunque was momentarily undone by the sight.

She pressed her lips together and finally rose, walking over to stand in front of him.

Lu Rangchen looked down at her with a half-lidded gaze, mouth curling at the corner — and then simply reached out and pulled her into his arms, holding her close.

That rakishly pleased tilt of his lips, and then he said, “Look at that — you can behave when you want to.”

The words had barely fallen, and before Yunque could say a thing, he’d pinched her chin upward and was kissing her hungrily.

His tongue moved against hers — searching, pressing — laced with unmistakable want.

The mingled sound of breath and contact was shallow between them. Yunque could only keep swallowing, and at last — helplessly — brought her arms up around his neck and let herself be lifted sideways onto the sofa.

But of course this man had no intention of stopping at just excessive.

Eight full years of restraint, and not even half a month had passed before he was parched for her like a man gone mad.

Yunque was kissed and pressed and held until she was biting her lip on quiet little sounds, and finally had no choice but to catch his chin between her teeth and push him back.

A faint red impression from her teeth remained at his jaw.

His lips were slick and glistening, and the faint shadow of stubble across his face — just visible enough to catch the light — scraped lightly against her fingertips when she touched him, unbearably appealing.

After much of that pulling back and forth, they finally kissed themselves to a point of relative contentment.

Lu Rangchen smoothed her skirt back down over the curve of her thighs, then leaned forward to press his lips against her lightly panting nose, hoarse and not particularly gracious as he laughed: “Now then, lady boss — you’ve had your fill of my face. How about being a little more honest with me?”