The antique girlfriend of a chaebol heir

Outside the window, an autumn rain had just passed, and the sky was barely light, carrying a hint of chill.

On the desk, a few sprigs of osmanthus flowers were casually inserted into a simple porcelain vase. Their delicate sweet fragrance wafted through the room with the cool morning breeze, creating a sense of tranquility.

Xie Shuheng lay on the rosewood desk, his brows furrowed slightly, as if he were trapped in some kind of deep nightmare.

He slowly opened his eyes, his vision gradually clearing from blurry to sharp, and what came into view was the well-worn copy of the Book of Rites that was under his arm.

He was in a daze for a long time, and it seemed that the loneliness he felt before his death in his previous life still lingered in his mind.

Suddenly, he stood up abruptly, causing the armchair behind him to make a dull thud.

"Young master, you're awake? I'll fetch you some water right away."

A servant's cheerful voice came from outside the door.

Xie Shuheng's heart skipped a beat. Due to the instincts that this body had developed over the years, he silently sat back down in the chair, letting the servant Zhu Yue bring in a copper basin and skillfully wipe his face and wash his hands.

Zhu Yue wrung out the warm cloth and wiped his head while secretly glancing at his young master.

The young master was exceptionally handsome, with eyebrows like distant mountains and eyes as black as lacquer. Even though he had just woken up and his hair was slightly disheveled, he could not hide his refined and noble air.

But the way the young master looked at him today... Zhu Yue's heart skipped a beat.

Those eyes were dark and deep, like two bottomless ancient wells. They lacked the usual gentle and composed demeanor, and instead held something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

I guess he's been staying up late reading lately and got tired.

Zhu Yue sighed inwardly. He used to accompany the young master to the academy, and he had never seen a student more diligent than the young master.

Last year, the young master lived up to expectations and won the top prize in the provincial examination.

With the young master's exceptional talent and status as the eldest son of the Minister of War, he is destined to be ennobled and appointed as a prime minister in the future.

"Young Master, please rest a little longer. Don't ruin your health."

Zhu Yue offered a soft word of advice, then quietly withdrew with the copper basin in his hand.

As he reached the door, he couldn't help but glance back one last time—

A sliver of morning light had already seeped in through the crack in the window, landing precisely on the young master's profile, half-lit and half-shadowed, as if splitting him in two.

Once the room fell silent again, Xie Shuheng's gaze lingered slightly.

The memories of the two lifetimes collided violently in my mind like two surging tides.

For a moment, he couldn't tell which dream was the real one.

He clearly remembered that he had just survived a long and lonely life.

Before his death, he divided his estate in two, giving one half to his sister Xie Shuyun's children.

The other half... he cashed it all out, converting it into a huge sum of money, which he anonymously donated to the National Academy of Literature.

This is because the current director of the research institute is Shen Ci.

That great female writer who has been reported countless times on television and in newspapers, and who has made tremendous contributions to the translation and restoration of ancient Chinese literature.

She was also the person he secretly loved in his heart his whole life.

Looking back on his life, Xie Shuheng only felt sorry for himself.

To outsiders, he was born on a pyramid.

Xie Jiafu's businesses span the globe and even overseas. He has lived a life of luxury since childhood, always being chauffeured in luxury cars and associating with celebrities and the powerful.

He possessed everything that the world envied—wealth, status, talent, good looks, and a bright and promising future.

But then, he had such an absurd yet stubborn dream.

In his dream, his good friend Jiang Duo's girlfriend turned out to be the girl he had longed for but could not have in his previous life.

At first, he was able to control himself, thinking that he was just disturbed by that absurd dream.

But once a crack appears in a person's heart, desires will grow wildly like vines.

He overstepped his bounds at his sister's birthday party.

He held Shen Ci tightly in his arms, pressing her against him without leaving a single gap.

The girl in his arms angrily said he was crazy.

He thought he had indeed gone mad.

After that, he locked himself in his room for three whole days.

He looked in the mirror and told himself over and over again:

That was just a dream.

Shen Ci is Jiang Duo's girlfriend, and she has no past ties or entanglements with Xie Shuheng.

He shouldn't have been led by the nose by a ridiculous dream, and he shouldn't have acted like a madman, coveting his brother's woman.

He started going on blind dates as arranged by his family.

The women chosen for him by the Xie family elders were all from wealthy and influential families, and all were suitable matches for him.

Some are gentle and virtuous, some are bright and beautiful, some are talented, and some are lively and pretty.

He sat in the exquisitely decorated restaurant, watching the women across from him smile charmingly, listening to them talk about jewelry, fashion, and travel. He maintained a polite smile on his face, but his heart was desolate.

Because every time, he would subconsciously compare the woman in front of him with Shen Ci.

They weren't as pretty as Shen Ci.

Shen Ci's beauty is not the kind of flamboyant glamour, but a kind of quiet scholarly air, like a light ink landscape painting, the more you look at it, the more you feel its charm.

They are not as talented as Shen Ci.

Shen Ci can write beautiful calligraphy; she can create a world within a small frosted teapot; she can achieve academic success that is unmatched by others, so much so that when the old professors mention her, they all give her a thumbs up...

None of them even had the aloof and distant look in their eyes like Shen Ci.

That look had haunted his dreams, and it had also plunged him into an icy abyss.

It cannot compare.

None of them can compare.

He suddenly realized that even though he tried to forget that absurd dream, Shen Ci had already become a thorn deeply embedded in his heart.

Unable to pull out, the more one struggles, the deeper one sinks.

He knew he was sick.

He fell in love with someone he shouldn't have, a love that was morbid, humble, and dark.

He would repeatedly scroll through Jiang Duo's WeChat Moments late at night, just to find a trace of her.

He would even pray in his most unbearable dreams that her relationship with Jiang Duo would crack, that Jiang Duo would betray her, and that when she turned around, she would see him, who had always been watching over her from the shadows.

But Jiang Duo didn't give any spying people a chance.

He protected her extremely well, so well that he left no gaps in her protection.

On their wedding day, he, as Jiang Duo's childhood friend, should have been one of the best men.

He made an excuse, saying that an emergency had occurred at one of the Xie family's overseas projects, and he needed to go there to handle it.

He fled, fleeing in a disheveled and panicked manner.

Because he couldn't imagine her walking towards Jiang Duo in a pure white wedding dress, surrounded by everyone's blessings.

That scene would kill him.

He spent three whole months abroad, burying himself in endless work, trying to numb his already battered heart with exhaustion.

When he returned to China, his father called him into the study.

"Shuheng, you and Jiang Duo grew up together. The Xie and Jiang families are deeply intertwined in business; their fortunes are intertwined, and their losses are intertwined. You should put away some of your ambitions. If you dare to ruin the relationship between our two families and destroy the foundation of the Xie family for the sake of a woman, I will disown you as my son..."

That night, his father scolded him for a long time.

It turned out that his father had already guessed his thoughts from some clues.

After the conversation, his father arranged even more blind dates for him, so frequently that it was almost coercive.

He went there and sat like a puppet in those elaborately arranged venues, smiling, exchanging pleasantries, and contact information with each lady, but lost contact with them after only a few days.

They all died peacefully without any apparent cause.

His heart had already died in the dream where she was, so how could it accommodate anyone else?

Through past lives and present lives, through cause and effect, she was the tribulation he was destined to overcome.