Mr. Lu, stop being such a jerk. Your wife is your nemesis's white moonlight.

Why is Yan Heng here?

Wasn't he on a business trip?

When did he come back?

How much of what was said just now did he hear?

In an instant, countless questions flashed through Xu An'an's mind.

Her language system froze, and she stared blankly as Yan Heng walked out of the elevator step by step, unable to utter a single word.

It was Su Xiaohan who reacted first: "Hello, Mr. Yan, you're at the gym so late?"

"Yeah, just stretching a bit." Yan Heng replied casually, his gaze only fleetingly shifting away from Xu An'an before returning to her. "Just finished class?"

"...Um," Xu An'an finally found her voice. She smiled slightly and said as naturally as possible, "I was a little late for the last class."

Su Xiaohan glanced back and forth between the two people in front of her, feeling like she was being a blatant third wheel. So she gave an exaggerated yawn, "I have to catch a flight tomorrow morning, so I'm going back to sleep. You two can chat all you want~"

After saying that, before Xu An'an could react, he rushed towards the stairwell without looking back.

Watching her disappearing figure, Xu An'an felt betrayed.

She silently turned her gaze back. In the vast, empty second floor, only she and Yan Heng remained—this was the first time they had been alone together since Yan Heng confessed his feelings.

Xu An'an felt inexplicably nervous.

"Flight to Milan the day after tomorrow?"

She heard Yan Heng ask her.

"Yes," Xu An'an replied, "We're taking advantage of the film crew's holiday to go and check it out in advance."

Yan Heng nodded. "Is everything ready?"

"It's alright," Xu An'an smiled, "I'll try my best not to fall on stage."

Yan Heng also curled his lips slightly.

Perhaps it was because he was wearing sportswear, but Yan Heng looked exceptionally young tonight. His smile looked exactly like the 18-year-old face she remembered, making Xu An'an feel a little dazed.

It seemed as if he had transformed back into that familiar, sharp-tongued young man, and they were still living in that simple yet cozy rented room.

This gave Xu An'an a long-lost sense of relaxation.

"When did you get back?" Xu An'an asked. "Song Zhe told me you've been traveling for work lately?"

"I just got off the plane," Yan Heng glanced at his watch, "to be precise, 45 minutes ago."

Xu An'an blinked: "You came to the gym right after getting off the plane?"

No wonder he has such a great physique, his hair is so curly...

"I'm still jet-lagged," Yan Heng said casually. "I need to tire myself out so I can fall asleep."

Hearing this, Xu An'an felt a little uncomfortable. She frowned slightly and asked, "Have you always used this method to adjust to time differences?"

Yan Heng, puzzled, asked, "Is there a problem?"

Of course there's a problem!

Xu An'an felt her blood rushing to her head uncontrollably.

She had asked Song Zhe before, and Yan Heng had been traveling frequently for work recently, going to the United States, Singapore and Dubai several times. This kind of non-stop schedule is enough to exhaust a person, and this person does not rest properly after getting off the plane, and even uses this more exhausting way to adjust to the time difference in each place!

Does this person even know how to take care of themselves?

Xu An'an took a deep breath and asked in a firm voice, "Yan Heng, is this how you live?"

Yan Heng noticed that Xu An'an's tone was off, frowned and thought for a while before suddenly realizing what was going on.

His eyes flickered, and he leaned down slightly, looking into Xu An'an's eyes as he said, "You... are you concerned about me?"

"Who cares about you!" Xu An'an's face flushed instantly, and she turned her head away, denying it outright.

"Is that so?" Yan Heng's lips curled up almost imperceptibly, but he moved even closer to Xu An'an.

With nowhere to hide, Xu An'an instinctively raised her arm and pressed it against Yan Heng's chest.

The fabric of the quick-drying shirt was so thin that it was almost imperceptible, and Yan Heng's body heat was transmitted to him without any obstruction.

My heart pounded in the heat.

She seemed to be burned by the temperature, her movements paused, and she instinctively wanted to withdraw her hand.

But the moment her fingertips moved, they were firmly grasped by an even warmer, larger hand.

Yan Heng clasped her hands behind her back against his left breast, the delicate back of her hands pressed tightly against the thin fabric.

Xu An'an's breath hitched.

She could clearly feel the contours of his muscles, firm and hot, like a rock baked by the sun, the heat flowing steadily to the back of her hand through the almost invisible fabric.

That skin felt like it was being scalded.

The heat traveled along her sensitive nerves to the base of her ears, and she couldn't break free.

"Yan Heng..." Xu An'an turned her face away, which was almost bleeding, biting her lower lip, her voice low and trembling: "What are you going to do..."

Yan Heng didn't speak, but simply moved his well-defined fingers down slightly and gently placed them on Xu An'an's wrist.

Xu An'an didn't understand what he was trying to do, and she didn't have the courage to look up at him.

Yan Heng's heart pounded steadily and powerfully, one beat after another, like a covered drum striking her knuckles, causing the blood to vibrate and return to her own chest.

Xu An'an couldn't tell whose heartbeat it was for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, Yan Heng finally spoke.

"Xu An'an," his voice was low, as if carrying an electric current, "your pulse is very fast when you lie."

He paused, his thumb gently brushing against the delicate skin of her wrist:

"...It's especially fast now."

The voice caused a tremor deep within her chest, and Xu An'an felt a tingling sensation, her legs going weak uncontrollably.

The phone rang abruptly, breaking the thick silence.

Xu An'an felt as if she had been granted a pardon. She pulled her arm back and hurriedly answered the phone. Only when the familiar voice came through the receiver did she realize that she had made a mistake.

—I didn’t check the caller ID beforehand.

"An'an,"

Lu Yiming's voice on the phone clearly suppressed his anger: "You finally answered my call."

Xu An'an frowned, wondering how Lu Yiming knew this number.

She had recently changed her phone number so that she could contact essential people during the internet outage, such as Dongdong, Lawyer He, and... her grandmother.

It's Grandma.

Grandma dotes on Lu Yiming.

From the day they got married, Grandma treated Lu Yiming like her own grandson, and Lu Yiming was always very filial to Grandma. Whenever Xu An'an visited Grandma, he would always make time to be with her, no matter how busy he was.

Xu An'an sighed silently.

Lu Yiming was indeed clever. He knew the old man's soft heart and how to take advantage of it.

"Lu Yiming," Xu An'an said coldly, "I don't think there's anything left to say between us."

As she spoke, she turned her body slightly, unaware of Yan Heng's sudden furrowing of his brows.

"Nothing to say?" Lu Yiming seemed unable to keep up the act any longer, his voice suddenly rising: "So you helped Yan Heng steal Yi'an away?"

Xu An'an was stunned, and asked incredulously, "Lu Yiming, what are you talking about?"

"In the past ten days, more than half of Yian's middle and senior management have resigned and joined Anri Future. Are you telling me this is a coincidence?"

"It's not a coincidence."

Xu An'an answered without the slightest hesitation, "But have you ever asked yourself why they left?"

Xu An'an's voice turned cold: "First, you suspended them from their duties without any reason, then forced them to sign a strict confidentiality agreement, and used that to threaten me—Lu Yiming, wasn't it you who personally drove them away?"

"You know perfectly well I won't actually do that," Lu Yiming said after a moment of silence, his tone softening as he spoke again.

"An'an and Yi'an are the companies we founded together when we got married. Even their names are a combination of our personalities. In my heart, he's like our child..."

Upon hearing those two words, Xu An'an froze.

Painful memories from not long ago came flooding back.

The excruciating pain of the fall, the empty house, the hysterical cries for help, the cold operating table... and that flesh and blood that already had a heartbeat...

Xu An'an suddenly began to tremble violently.

Yan Heng noticed something was wrong with her and was about to approach when he heard Xu An'an scream almost uncontrollably:

"Shut up!!!"

She used all her strength to say that, and her hoarse, distorted voice was chilling to the bone.

Yan Heng's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively pulled her into his arms.

He raised his hand and gently stroked her trembling back, as if soothing a frightened fawn.

Xu An'an, however, did not react at all.

She was still in a state of near-death stress and loss of control.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke, her voice colder than ever before:

"Lu Yiming,"

Her lips trembled, her teeth clenched, and she squeezed out each word into the phone, one by one:

"You are not worthy to mention my child!"