I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Cecilia's fingers were still gripping his collar tightly.

It was as if she was afraid he would run away, or as if she was telling herself not to regret it.

Gu Yan could feel that her breathing rhythm had become disordered, and her heartbeat could be heard through the thin fabric of her clothes.

Their heartbeats intertwined, making it impossible to tell which was hers and which was his.

The wind in the yard stopped, the ginkgo leaves stopped falling, and the hydrangeas stopped swaying.

The bodyguards forgot to breathe, and even the managers around them had their mouths agape.

The tray in a maid's hand finally tilted to its limit and fell to the ground with a thud, shattering a corner of a teacup.

No one had ever seen Miss Chen like this, and no one had ever seen a hot spring gushing from beneath the ice.

Aunt Tian stood beside the stone table, her usually composed face now filled with disbelief.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.

She loosened his collar, leaned back in her wheelchair, her face remaining as calm as ever.

Like a still lake, calm and undisturbed.

But from the base of her ears to her neck, and from her neck to above her collarbone, everything was tinged with a thin layer of crimson.

The red color wasn't applied; it was burned out from under the skin.

She herself never imagined that she would do such a thing, kissing a man, especially in front of everyone.

In that instant, she had only one thought in her mind—she wanted to make Lin Yan give up completely.

Disappear completely from her world and never appear in front of her again.

As for whether she was using this as an excuse to do something else, she dared not think further.

Her heart was beating so fast that she was afraid Gu Yan could hear it.

She looked up at Lin Yan, her voice not loud, but each word was like an ice blade slicing through glass.

"Do you believe it now?"

Lin Yan could no longer maintain his composure, and the expression on his handsome face crumbled layer by layer.

Then it twisted and deformed, like a bowl of paint had been spilled, with all sorts of colors mixed together.

"How could you do this? How could you treat me like this!"

His voice became sharp and shrill, like scratching metal with fingernails.

"I've been by your side for so many years, and you won't even let me glance at you!"

"What makes him so special? What makes him so special?! You've only known him for a few months!"

Aunt Tian stood beside the stone table, coldly raising her chin, her voice not loud but full of authority.

"What are you all standing there for? Drag this madman out of here."

"Anyone who lets him in again can pack their bags and leave."

The two bodyguards snapped out of their daze and wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

They lifted Lin Yan up again from the left and right and dragged him out, much more roughly than before.

No longer caring about his designer suit or whether his arm would hurt from being twisted.

Lin Yan was still struggling desperately when he was dragged out, his leather shoes scraping against the ground with a harsh sound.

The sound came in waves from outside the archway, growing farther and farther away, more and more distorted.

"Cecilia, you'll regret this! That guy surnamed Gu is no good!"

Once his voice was completely swallowed up by the sound of cars on the street corner, the courtyard finally quieted down.

A breeze blows by, carrying the fragrance of hydrangeas and the faint bitterness of ginkgo leaves.

Aunt Tian stood beside the stone table, her lips unable to resist curving upwards.

She gently wiped the corner of her eye with a handkerchief, folded it neatly, and put it back in her pocket.

"Miss, sir, please continue your conversation. We'll take our leave now."

After she finished speaking, she winked at the people around her, then turned and left.

His steps were several times lighter than usual, as if a burden that had been weighing on his heart for a long time had been lifted.

Several servants, still stunned, stood in the corner of the courtyard.

As they followed Aunt Tian outside, they whispered amongst themselves.

"Master Gu and Miss are such a perfect match, they look even better together than in a TV drama."

"Who does that guy surnamed Lin think he is, daring to come back looking for a prostitute?"

"You didn't see his face at the end, it was hideous, like he'd been slammed in a door."

"When Miss touched Master Gu twice, my heart stopped. I've worked for the Chen family for three years and I've never seen Miss touch anyone on her own initiative."

"I'm so tired, I'm so tired, I'm on night shift tonight."

Aunt Tian turned around and glared at them. The maids immediately covered their mouths, shrank their necks, and quickly slipped away.

But after stepping out of the archway, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

No one noticed what was behind the pillars of the corridor at the other end of the courtyard.

A figure with pink hair appeared at some point, and it was unclear how long she had been standing there.

Fu Wanqing was still carrying the dinner she had brought back for Gu Yan.

Inside the plastic bag were two packed lunch boxes containing braised pork that she had deliberately taken a detour to buy from a long-established restaurant near the Chen family's house.

She waited in line at that store for almost half an hour, her forehead sweating as she stood in the sun.

Her fingers gripped the handle of the plastic bag so tightly that her knuckles turned white, twisting the handle into a thin strip.

Her long pink hair swayed gently in the evening breeze, and a few strands clung to her cheeks, but she didn't reach out to brush them away.

She didn't say anything, didn't go up to them, and didn't jump out and interrupt them with her usual laughter.

She simply turned around quietly, her footsteps very light, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The lunchbox in the plastic bag bumped against her as she turned around, making a soft click.

Then she disappeared into the warm yellow light at the end of the corridor, her shadow stretched very long.

Gu Yan stood there, still a little dazed, as if she were stepping on clouds that had just drifted by.

The feeling of unreality spread from the soles of my feet all the way to the top of my head, and even my fingertips felt numb.

First, there's the issue of lifespan; Cecilia kissed him twice.

Just thinking about the life energy being drained from his body—once on his cheeks and once on his lips—made him want to curse.

He didn't dare open the system panel, afraid that just looking at the lifespan number would kill him instantly.

Then another, even more outrageous thought swirled in his mind, making him dizzy.

Cecilia, the eldest daughter of the Chen family who never lets anyone touch her.

That icy beauty, who would even frown when a nurse took her temperature, took the initiative to kiss him.

It wasn't just a kiss on the cheek, it was a kiss on the lips, right in front of everyone.

Was he dreaming? He secretly pinched his thigh, his fingernails digging into the muscle on his side through his pants.

The pain made his lips twitch; it wasn't a dream, it was real.

Only two people remained in the courtyard, and the wind picked up again.

The leaves of the old ginkgo tree rustled gently.

Gu Yan was still standing next to the wheelchair, unsure of what to say.

He couldn't form a complete sentence in his mind; he was like a computer that had crashed.

Even Cecilia, who is as composed as she is, is starting to feel the strain.

She operated the buttons on the wheelchair and slowly turned it around, a half beat slower than usual.

It felt like my fingers weren't obedient enough; I had to press several times to get the direction right.