They surrounded me right after the breakup.

Suddenly, Carrie Lam stood up and clapped her hands.

"Yaoyao, take Xiaojiang upstairs to see your room. The young man can stay by himself for a while. Wanqing and I will tidy up."

Lin Yaoyao didn't react: "What's so interesting about my room?"

"You child!" Lin Zhengxiujuan glared at her.

"It's Xiao Jiang's first time here, shouldn't you show him around? Go away, don't just stand there."

Lin Yaoyao was half-pushed and half-shoved to her feet by her mother, and could only blush and tug at Jiang Han's sleeve.

"Then...shall we go upstairs and sit for a while?"

Jiang Han didn't think much of it and followed Lin Yaoyao up the stairs.

The villa has three floors, and Lin Yaoyao's room is on the second floor at the very back.

The moment the door was opened, a faint fragrance of gardenias wafted out.

The room is large and has a private bathroom and walk-in closet.

The decorating style is the same as downstairs, both being Chinese classical style, and there's a half-person-high plush bear on the bedside table.

"This is the room I've lived in since I was a child." Lin Yaoyao scratched her head, a little embarrassed.

"I haven't been back as often since I went to university, but my mom has someone clean the house for me every week."

Jiang Han looked around the room, his gaze landing on the dubbing equipment on the desk: "You work here too?"

"Yeah, sometimes I go home for a couple of days and do the voice-over work in my room."

Lin Yaoyao walked to the desk, picked up the photo frame and handed it to Jiang Han, "Look... this is a photo of me from high school."

In the photo, Lin Yaoyao is wearing a school uniform, with her hair in a ponytail, and her face still has baby fat, looking incredibly youthful.

Just as Jiang Han was about to speak, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

He took out his phone and saw a message from Qiu Siyao: How was the meal?

Just as Jiang Han was about to reply, a soft click sounded behind him.

He turned around.

Lin Yaoyao was standing at the door, her hand still on the doorknob, her expression as blank as her reaction.

"What happened to the door...?"

She turned the handle, pulled it inward twice, and then pushed it outward twice, but the door didn't budge.

Their eyes fell on the door lock at the same time. It was an old-fashioned external lock that could be locked from the outside with a key and could not be opened from the inside.

"My mom locked the door," Lin Yaoyao said, her voice trembling.

His face turned from red to white at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then from white to redder, like a cooked shrimp.

Jiang Han put away his phone, walked to the door and tried it; it was indeed locked.

Just then, Carrie Lam's strong voice came from outside the door, her tone filled with barely concealed laughter.

"Yaoyao, you and Xiaojiang should rest well. I'm going out to buy groceries with your seventh aunt."

"I've taken the keys, so you can relax and don't rush! Hehehe..."

The footsteps faded into the distance, mingling with the faint echoes of a conversation between Carrie Lam and Song Wanqing:

"Big sister, is this appropriate?"

"What's inappropriate about it? That's how I got by with Lao Lin back in the day..."

The sound faded into the distance until it was completely inaudible.

An eerie silence fell over the room.

Jiang Han leaned against the door, looking at Lin Yaoyao.

Lin Yaoyao stood in the middle of the room, not knowing where to put her hands, and finally simply covered her face.

"My mom...she is..."

"What is it?"

"She's just crazy!" Lin Yaoyao squeezed out a few words through her fingers, her voice muffled.

Jiang Han couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He looked around, walked to the bedside, sat down, and patted the spot next to him.

"Come and sit down. We can't go out anyway, and it's tiring to stand."

Lin Yaoyao peeked through her fingers, then slowly walked over and sat down about half a meter away from him.

"Why are you sitting so far away? I'm not going to eat you."

"I'm afraid you'll eat people!" Lin Yaoyao blurted out, then regretted it immediately, her face turning as red as if it were bleeding.

Her extremely embarrassed appearance only fueled Jiang Han's desire to tease her.

He deliberately moved closer to her, but before he could touch her, Lin Yaoyao bounced up as if she had been burned.

"You...you...don't move!"

Lin Yaoyao didn't actually object to Jiang Han's lewd behavior, but this was her home!

Her mother said she was going out to buy groceries, but who knows if she'll turn back halfway?

Does the Lin family's traditional culture include the tradition of elders guarding the gate?

Lin Yaoyao panicked and stepped on the hem of her skirt, losing her balance and falling backward.

Jiang Han reacted quickly, grabbing her waist and the two of them fell onto the soft bed.

Lin Yaoyao lay on Jiang Han's chest, the two so close that they could count each other's eyelashes.

She could feel Jiang Han's breath on her face, smell the faint scent of tobacco on him, and hear the strong heartbeat in his chest.

"Yaoyao." Jiang Han's voice was low.

"Um?"

"Your mother has gone to so much trouble to arrange this; if we don't do something, wouldn't it be disrespectful to her?"

Lin Yaoyao's brain immediately shut down.

She recalled the lingering kiss on the sofa last night, and the image of Shen Qingning walking while leaning against the wall…

The flashback to my death scene immediately appeared in my mind…

The door was locked.

Her mother locked it herself.

The key was taken away.

What kind of noise will a mother hear before she opens the door?

All the conditions fell in her mind like dominoes.

Pushing things to the limit, all that's left is the final outcome: she's finished!

I will never dare to laugh at Shen Qingning again!

"Can...can you promise me something?"

Lin Yaoyao raised her head, her eyes reddening. She wasn't crying, but rather experiencing a physiological reaction due to extreme tension.

"you say."

"Be gentle... I'm afraid of pain..."

She spoke with such a pitiful and aggrieved tone that it evoked sympathy from onlookers.

Lin Yaoyao had imagined countless beautiful and romantic scenarios, but she never expected to be betrayed by her own mother.

Still in my own villa, in my own bedroom…

Jiang Han's smile faded, and his eyes became serious.

He reached out and gently stroked Lin Yaoyao's cheek, tucking the stray strands of hair from her face behind her ear.

"What are you afraid of? I'm not some monster."

"I'm afraid of pain!" Lin Yaoyao's voice was trembling with tears.

"Shen Qingning needed to hold onto the wall to walk the next day, what am I going to do?"

Jiang Han almost couldn't hold back.

He never expected Lin Yaoyao to be struggling with this at such a crucial moment.

The white sheer curtains were half-drawn, filtering the afternoon sunlight into a soft, hazy glow.

The scent of gardenias in the room seemed to have intensified.

Lin Yaoyao's phone rang with a message notification, mingling with a sound in the air.

A message from Carrie Lam popped up on the screen.

"Go, my sweet daughter! Mommy's rooting for you!"

But at this moment, the owner of the phone was already preoccupied with his own problems.

The phone lit up a second time; it was still Carrie Lam.

"I've made a nourishing soup that's good for the kidneys and blood; you can all drink it!"

Lin Yaoyao didn't know if her biological mother was outside the door, so she bit her lip tightly until she could no longer hold back...

The plush bear on the bedside table still sat there憨厚ly, a smile on its furry face.

Quietly watching the overlapping shadows on the ground.

Song Wanqing put down her teacup in the living room and heard a faint, suppressed gasp from upstairs, followed by silence.

"Sister, were you and Lao Lin locked in the room by your mother-in-law like this back then?"

Carrie Lam, who was rummaging through the refrigerator, burst into laughter:

"Absolutely! The wisdom of our ancestors has been passed down through generations, and it's incredibly effective! Hehehe!"

……