In a moment of impulse, I forcibly kissed my brother's best friend.

"That should be safe now." Xie Yige clapped her hands, looking at her masterpiece with satisfaction. "Zhixia, you can go out now."

Zhi Xia glanced at her hesitantly, then finally turned and left, closing the door behind her.

Only two people remained inside.

The candlelight flickered, casting warm shadows on the walls. Xie Yige had exerted a tremendous amount of effort to subdue him, and she was exhausted and dizzy. She looked at Cui Yutang lying on the bed with hazy eyes.

The person seemed even more handsome in the candlelight.

His eyelashes are so long, casting a small shadow under his eyes like two tiny fans. He must be the reincarnation of an eyelash fairy.

She had long coveted his eyelashes. Thinking this, she leaned down and gently kissed them.

First he kissed the left eye, then the right. Not satisfied, he repeated it several more times.

Cui Yutang kept his eyes closed, his body tense. Did she even know what she was doing? She was driving him crazy.

Xie Yige was completely oblivious. She tilted her head and looked at him for a while, as if that wasn't enough. She wanted to taste what it was like.

So she stuck out her pink little tongue and gently licked his eyelashes.

It feels so special.

She licked it again, and after licking the left side, she went to lick the right side.

Cui Yutang's heart was pounding wildly, almost as if it would burst out of his chest.

"Strange, what's that loud noise?" Xie Yige asked, drunkenly searching for the source of the sound. Her gaze swept over his tightly pursed lips—because he had just drunk alcohol, his lips were moist and pink, looking especially delicious.

She leaned closer and licked it with her little tongue.

"It's sweet," she added earnestly.

Cui Yutang couldn't take it anymore.

With a flick of his wrist, the white cloth binding him was easily torn off. He rolled over and pinned her beneath him.

Before Xie Yige could react, a deluge of kisses rained down on her. He pried open her teeth, his tongue swirling inside, with an almost frenzied plundering intensity.

She's gone mad.

He was driven crazy by her.

The candlelight crackled and burst, leaving a flickering flame. In the ensuing struggle, he removed her clothes piece by piece, leaving them on the footstool beside the bed. His kisses traveled from her lips down her collarbone and into the hollows of her shoulders, burning with desire.

Her fingers pierced his chest, and she arched her body like a dying swan, raising her long neck.

His breath was heavy and hot, spraying onto her bare skin and sending shivers down her spine. He kissed her eyebrows, the tip of her nose, and her lips again and again. His hands were on her slender waist, slowly moving upwards until they reached the peak that was too high for both hands to grasp.

Her body trembled slightly, but she didn't back down; instead, she pressed herself even closer to him.

His sanity was teetering on the brink of collapse.

He wanted her. He was obsessed with her.

But when his burning hot palm slid across her lower abdomen and touched that slightly protruding, delicate skin, his movements suddenly stopped.

His fingertips lingered there, as if burned by something.

That is……

Gonggong sand.

He jerked his head up, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. He looked down at her beneath him—her eyes were closed, her cheeks flushed, and her eyelashes glistening with tiny drops of water, completely unaware of what he had discovered.

His breathing became erratic.

Wasn't she already married? Wasn't she Zhou Xuan'an's wife? But why... is her virginity mark still there?

How could a married woman still have the mark of virginity?

unless……

She did not get married.

Or perhaps, there are no feelings between her and Zhou Xuan'an at all, then could he...?

This thought struck him like a bolt of lightning, cleaving through the long-standing gloom in his heart. He stared blankly at her, at her slightly panting beneath him, at her completely open and unguarded self, and a surge of emotion welled up within him.

There was ecstasy, confusion, disbelief, and a sense of relief that almost overwhelmed his reason.

He leaned down, burying his face in the crook of her neck, breathing deeply her scent. His body was still trembling, not from desire, but from some deeper, more primal emotion.

"Yige," he whispered her name, his voice hoarse.

"Mmm..." she mumbled sleepily, reaching out to wrap her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.

He did not continue.

He simply held her tightly, unwilling to let go for a long time.

Moonlight streamed in through the cracks in the window, casting a thin silver line on the floor. A night breeze rustled through the pear trees in the courtyard, causing petals to fall softly.

He held her in his arms, and gradually calmed down with the sound of her breathing.

If only she were his wife.

He closed his eyes, carefully burying the thought in his heart, and fell into a deep sleep.

When Xie Yige woke up the next day, she felt weak all over, as if she had been taken apart and put back together. She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and found herself lying on the bed with her clothes intact and the blankets neatly tucked in.

Zhi Xia stood by the bed, looking at her with eyes full of anger at her lack of ambition.

"What's wrong?" Xie Yige asked, bewildered.

Well, she actually drank herself into oblivion. Zhi Xia didn't say anything, but just looked at her with a "don't you have any self-awareness?" look.

Xie Yige tried hard to recall what had happened last night. She remembered getting him drunk, tying him up, kissing his eyelashes, licking his lips... and then?

Then she forgot.

She looked down at her intact clothes, then at Zhixia's face, which screamed "You've gone too far," and shrank back guiltily.

"Zhixia, you were alright last night, weren't you?"

Zhi Xia paused for a moment, then said expressionlessly, "Nothing happened. I just had a fight with Bao Yu."

"what?"

"I heard a noise inside and tried to rush in," Zhixia said calmly, as if she were talking about something insignificant. "He blocked the doorway and wouldn't let me in. So we got into a fight."

Xie Yige swallowed hard: "Then... who won?"

Zhi Xia fell silent again.

This silence is the answer.

"He beat me by one move." Zhi Xia's voice carried a hint of resentment. "Just one move. I'll practice more when I get back, and I won't lose to him again next time."

Looking at her earnest and competitive expression, Xie Yige was unsure whether to feel sorry for her or for herself. She had a feeling that a grudge had been formed between the two of them.