The heartless beauty is addicted to being licked by a seemingly obedient and loyal dog.

The funeral home is located in a somewhat remote area, surrounded by somber pine and cypress trees.

The process of handling the formalities went exceptionally smoothly. The deceased was unclaimed and would have taken up space in the museum, but the staff gave him almost the green light as soon as someone came to pick him up, and soon brought out the heavy black wooden box.

There was no photo on the urn, only the three characters "Zhang Fengzhu" neatly painted in gold paint, so simple it was appalling.

The journey back was exceptionally difficult.

Song Yunxi sat upright in the back row, her hands trembling slightly as she tightly hugged the urn to her chest. The wood exuded a cold, deathly aura that seemed to penetrate her thin clothing and seep straight into her marrow.

The weather outside the window began to change; the clear blue sky suddenly became overcast, and a torrential downpour began, pounding against the glass window like a clapper.

The young man, who had been forcing himself to maintain a cold and hard demeanor, suddenly found his eyes reddening without warning.

Hot tears splattered onto the black box lid, splashing out in a tiny spray.

Then, a second, a third… Sobs that had been suppressed for so long were squeezed out from her tightly clenched teeth. Song Yunqi lowered her head, tears falling like a broken string, wetting the three cold words.

He rarely showed such vulnerability, but at this moment, he could no longer hold back.

"Yunqi...don't cry...please don't cry..."

Shen Chonglu panicked and didn't know what to do. He hurriedly went over and awkwardly wiped the young man's face with a tissue.

But the tears flowed like a burst dam, impossible to wipe away, instead making his handsome face even more wet and flushed.

Song Yunqi's voice, muffled in her throat, was hoarse and barely audible, with a faint tremor:

"When I first approached Su Shen... I had the intention of using him."

He sniffed, his eyelashes glistening with tears: "I only want to use him as a tool to bring down the Lu family."

"But after getting to know him, I realized he was a very good person. He did everything he could to help me, and even when he was caught and punished by the mansion, his first reaction was to blame himself, afraid of implicating me..."

The young man clutched the urn containing the ashes to his chest even tighter, his shoulders shaking with sobs, his eyes filled with unbearable guilt: "And I... I couldn't do anything for him, I couldn't even save his mother's life..."

Seeing his beloved crying so heartbrokenly, Shen Chonglu felt a mix of bitterness and pain in his heart, a complex and indescribable feeling.

But at times like these, words seem insignificant.

"It's alright, Yunqi... Think of it this way: if it weren't for you, Su Shen might have died in the mansion long ago."

Shen Chonglu tried to comfort him in a low voice, but seeing that the young man's mood was getting more and more depressed, he simply cupped Song Yunqi's cool face in his hands.

He bent down and kissed the hot, wet tears from the young man's eyes again and again, finally slamming his lips shut as he spoke of unrepentant self-reproach.

The kiss was fierce and ruthless, carrying an uncontrollable possessiveness and clumsy tenderness.

Shen Chonglu frantically absorbed the breath between the other's lips and teeth, pried open the barrier, and almost ruthlessly swallowed all of Song Yunqi's sobs and sorrow into his stomach.

The young man still held the urn tightly in his arms, unwilling to let go. He was forced to tilt his head back and endure this almost suffocating tenderness. The dizziness brought on by the lack of oxygen overwhelmed him, and the chaotic thoughts and pain in his mind were forcibly suppressed by the overwhelming warmth.

The rain gradually subsided.

When the Maybach drove back to the hospital, Song Yunxi's eyes still had a faint pink tinge, and her lips were unusually red and swollen from being rubbed and pinched, but she was much calmer overall.

Pushing open the door to the VIP ward, the room was unusually quiet.

Meng Zhaoyuan, who had been making a ruckus on the sofa while eating an apple, had vanished without a trace.

He was quite angry with Shen Chonglu earlier, and the minor injuries on his body weren't a big deal, so he simply dusted himself off and went back to the company to deal with the backlog of work.

At this moment, Su Shen was the only person in the large ward.

"Mr. Song?"

Su Shen leaned against the soft pillows, his originally bloodless face regaining a faint glow because of Song Yunqi's departure.

His chapped lips parted slightly, his eyes brimming with barely concealed joy, as he struggled to move upwards, his hoarse voice laced with barely suppressed elation:

"Why...did you come back again?"

"Did you forget something?"

However, before he could even utter the words of joy, he keenly sensed that something was amiss.

The atmosphere between the two was oppressive and deathly silent.

Song Yunqi stood quietly three steps away from the hospital bed, her demeanor aloof and cold. Her lips were tightly pressed into a straight line, and her usually indifferent and aloof phoenix eyes still held traces of pale pink and moisture.

There's also a certain unfathomable quality to it.

Standing beside him, Shen Chonglu also restrained his usual carefree and roguish demeanor, his dark eyes revealing an unusual heaviness.

There were no usual jokes, no relaxed small talk, only an overwhelming silence.

Su Shen's heart skipped a beat, and an indescribable sense of panic instantly shot from his spine to his head.

My gaze also slowly and uncontrollably drifted downwards.

Passing through the young man's trembling shoulders, through his taut knuckles, the gaze finally settled on the object Song Yunqi was heavily embracing.

It was a square, black wooden box.

The box is made of rough wood, with an uneven finish and no elaborate carvings. Only in the center of the lid are three characters clearly and neatly written in gold paint—

Zhang Fengzhu.

With a loud bang.

Su Shen felt as if a thousand thunderbolts suddenly exploded in his mind, his eardrums were ringing, and all his vision and thoughts were stripped away in that instant.

He stood there, stunned, his mind blank.

"Mr. Song... Mr. Song..."

Su Shen's Adam's apple bobbed laboriously, producing a rough sound like a broken bellows being pulled, hoarse and almost incoherent:

"What...what are you holding in your arms?"

He stared blankly at that familiar name, his eyes so dry they ached, yet he kept them wide open, not daring to blink.

Song Yunxi tightened her arms around the urn, unsure how to respond.

Looking at the young man swaying precariously on the hospital bed, the frost in his eyes cracked, revealing an overwhelming pain and guilt.

Finally, he slowly took a step forward and walked to the bedside.

Song Yunxi didn't say anything, but carefully handed the wooden box to Su Shen.

Then, he knelt down.

Sincerity begets sincerity. Faced with this person who was willing to risk his life to help him, he felt so ashamed that he wanted to disappear.

The dim fluorescent light in the ward shone on the dark box, and the three characters "Zhang Fengzhu" written in gold paint looked like a blunt knife stabbing into Su Shen's eyes.

"Su Shen".

Song Yunxi's voice was very soft, as soft as a wisp of smoke that could be blown away by the wind at any moment, mixed with a helpless hoarseness:

"sorry."

"Auntie... I've brought you back."