I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

Zhou Yao held up his QR code in front of her. Yun Muqian glanced at it, and without hesitating for long, she took out her phone and scanned it.

With a crisp "beep," the friend request was successfully added.

Zhou Yao looked down at the avatar that popped up on the screen, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up. He quickly pursed his lips, but still couldn't suppress it.

"Yun Muqian." He repeated her name. "A good name. I asked your colleague."

His gaze was fixed on her face as he spoke, filled with an undisguised fervor.

Just as Yun Muqian was about to say something, a voice suddenly came from behind her: "Assistant Yun, President Qin urgently needs these documents. Could you please take a look?"

A male colleague stood next to her workstation, holding a stack of folders. He spoke politely, but the stack of files in his hands was so thick that it would take her an entire afternoon to read them.

Yun Muqian reached out to take it, but Zhou Yao was faster, blocking her way. "Go find someone else."

The male colleague paused for a moment, looked at Zhou Yao, then at Yun Muqian, and looked somewhat embarrassed.

Yun Muqian spoke up at the opportune moment, her voice gentle: "It's alright, just leave the documents here, I'll look at them later."

The male colleague, feeling as if he had been granted a pardon, quickly left the documents on the corner of the table and walked away.

Zhou Yao then looked away and turned to Yun Muqian: "Are you tired?"

Yun Muqian simply said, "It's alright, it's just work."

Zhou Yao lingered for a while longer, asking her all sorts of questions: where she was from, how many years she had graduated, and what she liked to do in her spare time. Yun Muqian's answers were brief and polite, offering no further expectations but also not neglecting him.

She knew that Zhou Yao was the kind of person who liked novelty and became more enthusiastic the more he was ignored. All she needed to do was make him feel hopeful.

Later, someone came downstairs to call Zhou Yao, and he reluctantly stood up. Before leaving, he glanced back at her one last time: "I'm leaving now. Contact me on WeChat."

Yun Muqian nodded.

It was completely dark when I got off work.

She didn't work overtime. She closed her laptop, picked up her bag, and went downstairs. Qin Qihan's car was parked at the side gate of the company, the window half-rolled down. He leaned against the driver's seat, his profile illuminated by the interplay of light and shadow under the streetlights.

She opened the passenger door, got in, and fastened her seatbelt.

"I have a business dinner tonight, I'll take you home," he said.

"good."

As the car drove onto the main road in the night, the streetlights on both sides slid past the car window one by one.

Yun Muqian took out her phone and glanced at it.

Zhou Yao sent her several messages. The first one was sent in the afternoon:

You must come out next time you have time.

The second one was just posted:

Have you finished get off work?

She didn't reply, but turned her phone over and placed it face down on her knee.

A moment later, her phone vibrated again. She picked it up and saw it was Zhou Yao again: [Tomorrow? Are you free tomorrow?]

He added a pitiful emoji.

Just as Yun Muqian was about to type "I'll see tomorrow" in reply, she suddenly felt a gaze fall on her from the side.

She looked up.

Qin Qihan's right hand was on the steering wheel, and his left hand was on the edge of the car window, his eyes glancing at the phone in her hand.

"Who are you chatting with so enthusiastically?"

Why did you add him?

Yun Muqian's tone carried a hint of explanation: "He's Miss Zhou's younger brother, so he's family too. In case anything happens in the future..."

Before she could finish speaking, Qin Qihan interrupted her, his voice cold:

"Deleted."

Two words: decisive and clean, with no room for negotiation.

Yun Muqian was stunned for a moment, as if she hadn't reacted yet. Her phone screen was still lit up, and Zhou Yao's message, "What about tomorrow? Are you free tomorrow?" was still hanging in the chat box.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but Qin Qihan didn't give her a chance and snatched her phone away.

Before Yun Muqian could react, he had already grabbed the phone with its screen lit up. His thumb swiped across the screen, and a new chat window popped up:

I'll take your silence as a yes.

It was followed by a bouncy emoji.

Qin Qihan deleted Zhou Yao's WeChat account, tossed her phone into the back seat with a soft "thud," and the phone landed in the gap between the back seats.

The carriage was silent for a moment.

Yun Muqian sat in the passenger seat, turned her head, and glanced at him cautiously.

"Are you angry?"

He did not answer.

Seeing his angry expression, Yun Muqian felt a little smug, but she still added:

"I just added him on WeChat, I didn't agree to anything, and I didn't reply to his messages."

Qin Qihan suddenly braked sharply, the tires screeching on the asphalt, and the seatbelt tightened around her shoulder, pulling her back into the seat.

Before she could even regain her balance, the car had already stopped on the side of the road.

Yun Muqian's heart skipped a beat in her chest. Before she could say anything, a large hand reached out and gripped her neck.

You think I won't mind, right?

"What did I tell you before?" he said. "I told you to keep your distance from other men."

Yes, even if she were to marry a rich man, she could only marry one.

Yun Muqian looked at him, "I didn't talk to him about anything; he was the one who kept sending messages."

"You should have told him no when he added you," he said. "What could a secretary like you possibly have with him?"

Yun Muqian did not refute, but looked into his eyes and obediently hummed in agreement.

Qin Qihan usually seems cold and aloof, but he actually has quite a temper. However, no matter what, Yun Muqian knew he was jealous, and once a man starts to get jealous, he becomes very petty.

Her "hard times" were yet to come.