I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

Yun Muqian did not actually move away from Beijing, because the land there is extremely valuable, and if she wanted to break into a larger circle in the future, she would have to stay here.

However, she did cancel her phone number so that Qin Qihan would stop contacting her.

She had no feelings for him. She used Qin Qihan whenever she could, just as she once said, her relationship with Qin Qihan was one of mutual benefit.

There's no point in her staying by his side anymore; it will only affect her ability to find other rich men in the future.

She bought herself a new apartment in a new high-rise building near the Third Ring Road. She unpacked the last suitcase and neatly stacked the designer bags she had brought from Qin Qihan's house into the wardrobe.

She deserves all of this; her life should start anew with such high spirits.

A few days later, the autumn chill deepened in Beijing. Qin Qihan's assistant made four trips to the telecom operator and used his connections to access the associated information of other phone numbers under Yun Muqian's name, but found nothing.

Her ID card showed she had never left Beijing, there were no accommodation records, and she had no flight or high-speed rail records, yet she seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Qin Qihan only slept for three hours, and the first thing she did when she woke up was to check her phone.

When his assistant came in to deliver coffee, Qin Qihan also told him that he must find her.

But the assistant wants to say, Ms. Qin, it doesn't really matter whether she leaves or not, she just doesn't want you to find her. She has cancelled her phone number and cut off all contact channels.

She doesn't even want you anymore, so why would she care about anything else?

But he didn't say it.

Qin Qihan turned around, her eyes bloodshot: "She must be angry with me. I've said a lot of hurtful things to her before, and she's held a grudge. It's normal for her to be angry."

"Mr. Qin..." the assistant finally said, "I think Miss Yun might not be angry."

Qin Qihan raised her eyes: "What?"

"She must have... let go."

The living room fell silent for a moment.

Qin Qihan stared at him, her gaze heavy: "What do you mean?"

The assistant didn't avoid his gaze: "Or perhaps she never took these things seriously in the first place."

This is not hard to understand. A beauty like Yun Muqian, what other reason could she have for becoming a mistress besides money?

But he refused to believe it.

"What did you say?" Qin Qihan's voice suddenly turned cold, and he took a step closer to him. "You're saying she doesn't take me seriously?"

The assistant remained silent and did not respond.

But that silence spoke louder than any answer.

Qin Qihan stood in front of him, his chest heaving slightly, then he suddenly laughed, a laugh devoid of warmth: "You think she has no feelings for me, right?"

"She made me coffee, accompanied me on business trips, and stayed up all night when I had a fever. She remembers all my schedules better than anyone else. She loves me, and no matter how hurtful the things I said to her before, she will never leave me."

But haven't you left now?

"President Qin," he said, "can't others do what she did?"

If we must talk about being extremely caring, then Zhou Xue is indeed caring, even towards everyone in the Qin family.

The difference is that these things were done by Yun Muqian, which is why he felt they were special.

"You mean Zhou Xue?" Qin Qihan said in a deep voice, "You're comparing Zhou Xue to her?"

The assistant pursed her lips. "I just wanted to say that what Miss Yun did was indeed something a considerate person would do. But that doesn't mean—"

"Doesn't it mean anything?" Qin Qihan interrupted him, "Doesn't it mean she loves me?"

With a loud bang, he smashed the glass ashtray and roared, "How could she not love me!"

His chest heaved violently, and the bloodshot in his eyes turned frighteningly red in an instant. "She loves me, she just loves me. If she didn't love me, she wouldn't have stayed by my side for so long!"

The assistant stood still. He had known Qin Qihan for so many years, from when Qin Qihan was just the young master of the Qin family to when he single-handedly supported the group. He had seen all kinds of situations and weathered all kinds of storms.

He had never seen Qin Qihan like this before.

"Mr. Qin, please calm down."

"Get out of here!" Qin Qihan suddenly raised her head, her eyes red, a tear glistening in her eye sockets, about to fall.

The assistant stood amidst the shattered glass, said nothing more, turned and walked towards the door. The door closed behind him with a click, leaving Qin Qihan alone in the living room.

He stood there, his chest heaving, a small patch of his shirt damp with sweat, clinging to his back, a chill seeping in little by little—

He was just thinking that he had to find her.

Moreover, whether she truly loves him or not is not up to her to say; perhaps she's just being stubborn. Whether she loves him or not is for him to decide.

The most urgent task is to find her.

When the time comes, he will definitely give her a proper status and a grand wedding to make up for the grievances she suffered while staying by his side.

--

For Yun Muqian, life was anything but peaceful. While scrolling through her phone, she saw a news article.

She initially wanted to scroll past the financial news notification, but those words were too eye-catching—

"Zhou Xue, founder of Zhou's Brilliant Group, was hospitalized after cutting her wrists, suspected to be due to relationship problems."

Her fingers paused.

The screen showed a blurry, secretly taken photo. The hospital corridor lights were a stark white, and the blanket on the stretcher was half-lifted, revealing a dangling wrist wrapped in thick gauze, with a small patch of red seeping through the edges of the gauze.

The picture was accompanied by a few lines of text saying that Zhou Xue was sent to the hospital late last night. When she was found, she had been soaking in the bathtub for a long time and the water had gone cold. It was only when the housekeeper went to call her for dinner that she realized something was wrong.

No one expected Zhou Xue to do such a thing.

It's ridiculous that a young lady from a prestigious family would attempt suicide, especially for the sake of love. It's a laughing stock for everyone.

When Zhou Yao called, Yun Muqian was just getting ready to leave for her appointment with Shen Xubai.

She answered the phone, and the young man on the other end sounded agitated, complaining to her:

"My sister woke up, but she's ignoring everyone. My mom is frantic with worry."

Yun Muqian paused in her shoe-changing motion. She tucked her phone between her ear and shoulder, bent down to tie the lace of her other shoe, and said in a calm tone:

"Would it be appropriate for me to go? I'm acquainted with Miss Zhou; I could go and see her."

"Suitable? Of course it's suitable."

Yun Muqian straightened up and glanced at herself in the entryway mirror. The person in the mirror had impeccable makeup, wore a well-tailored camel-colored trench coat, and had her hair loosely tied up. Looking at herself in the mirror, the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

"You trust me that much."

In fact, Zhou Yao also wanted to see her, so of course he agreed to let her come.

Yun Muqian hung up the phone and stood in the entryway for a couple of seconds. She shouldn't have gone, but Zhou Yao's words kept replaying in her mind. Yun Muqian admitted that she was indeed a little curious and wanted to see what the woman who had cut her wrists for a man who didn't love her looked like now.

She picked up her bag and went out the door.

When the car arrived near the hospital, Yun Muqian realized that something was wrong.

Traffic was already congested just two streets away, with reporters holding long lenses and microphones crowding both sides of the road, as well as many passersby taking videos with their phones.

The Zhou family's hospital is a high-end private hospital, and its main entrance is usually low-key, but it was now completely surrounded by people. Security guards had put up a barrier at the entrance, but they couldn't stop the crowd from surging forward like a tide.

Yun Muqian pulled her hat brim down and sent a message to Zhou Yao.

She went around through the back door, where Zhou Yao, wearing a black hoodie, was waiting for her at the entrance. As he led her in, he muttered under his breath, "I wonder who leaked the news. Now the whole of Beijing knows. The Zhou family has completely lost face."

Yun Muqian did not respond.

She followed Zhou Yao through a quiet corridor, where the smell of disinfectant grew stronger.

Turn left at the end of the corridor, and you'll find Zhou Xue's ward. Several people are already standing in the corridor, with Zhou's elders sitting on benches, their faces looking rather grim.

Yun Muqian slowed her footsteps, about to say something, when her peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of the other end of the corridor—

She stopped in her tracks.

Qin Qihan stood in front of the window at the end of the corridor, his back to her. He was wearing a dark gray coat with straight shoulders and his hair at the back of his neck was cut shorter.

In that instant, Yun Muqian felt as if the air in the corridor had been sucked away.

Qin Qihan turned around and walked towards her.

Was he certain she would come, which is why he was waiting here?

Yun Muqian didn't move, standing there watching him approach. When he stopped in front of her, she tilted her head slightly, revealing a polite and gentle smile:

"Mr. Qin, it's been a long time. You've come to see Miss Zhou too?"

Qin Qihan stood in front of her, only a step away.

He looked down at her, his gaze sliding from her eyebrows to the corners of her mouth, and back to her eyes, as if he wanted to look at her from head to toe again.

He didn't answer her question. His lips moved slightly, and his voice was very soft, as if squeezed out from his throat: "Yun Muqian."

"Hmm?" She looked at him calmly.

"You changed your phone."

"Yes," she smiled, almost too naturally, "the previous number wasn't convenient, so I cancelled it."

Qin Qihan looked at her smile, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. He lowered his voice so low that only she could hear, "You don't plan to let me find you."

Yun Muqian tilted her head slightly, not responding to his words. She simply looked away from his face, glanced at the closed hospital room door at the end of the corridor, then turned back, her tone calm:

"How is Miss Zhou? I was shocked when I saw the news. How could someone as dignified as her do such a thing?"

Qin Qihan stared at her, watching the way her lips moved as she spoke, watching her nonchalant expression, and felt as if his heart was being squeezed and slowly pulled outward.

He wasn't sure if Yun Muqian would come to a place like this, but he would come whenever he had the chance to see her.

On the way here, he kept refreshing the news reports in the car. Finally, in a photo taken by a passerby in the comments section, Yun Muqian was walking into the hospital through the back door next to Zhou Yao. It was just a blurry profile, but he recognized her at a glance.

He dropped everything and rushed over, standing in the corridor for more than ten minutes, thinking about what to say to her.

But when she actually stood before him and asked him in that polite, nonchalant tone, as if speaking to an ordinary friend, "You've also come to see Miss Zhou?"—

Qin Qihan felt as if something inside her body had shattered.

"Yun Muqian."

He called her name, softer than before, his expression cold, but his eyes were slightly red. "You have no heart."

Yun Muqian's smile paused slightly, and she calmly looked towards the ward. The corridor was quiet, and the distant noise of reporters could be faintly heard, but the sound seemed to be very, very far away.

"Mr. Qin," she said, her voice soft but each word clear to his ears, "what you said is inappropriate. Miss Zhou is still in her hospital room; she almost lost her life. And you're saying this to me standing outside her room?"

Qin Qihan's pupils contracted slightly. He looked into her eyes, his expression completely blank. It was as if his mere presence before her stirred not even the slightest ripple in her heart.

He suddenly smiled.

"You're right," his voice was hoarse. "I shouldn't be telling you this here."

Because she simply doesn't care.

"But you said you'd call me in seven days, and I waited seven days. Why did you lie to me?"

Yun Muqian smiled and said, "Of course I want to care about you, but my position isn't appropriate, is it?"

No one approached them, and no one knew what they were saying, but Yun Muqian didn't want to get entangled with them.

"Inappropriate status?" His gaze was deep. "You've been with me for so long, and now you're telling me our status isn't appropriate. Then tell me, what status is appropriate?"

Yun Muqian didn't avoid his gaze: "Let bygones be bygones. You saw it yourself, I brought someone else home that night. What happened between you and me should have been over long ago. You have someone like Miss Zhou by your side; she's a thousand times, ten thousand times better than me—"

"You know perfectly well that she's not the one I want."

Qin Qihan interrupted her: "Don't talk to me about her. You know that's not what I want to hear. I asked you why you lied to me, and you told me it wasn't appropriate for your status. I asked you who that man was that night, and why are you just moving on from me?"

Yun Muqian sighed softly, "Qin Qihan, do you really want me to spell it out so clearly?"

Her tone changed, becoming more candid: "You say I lied to you, then let me ask you, if I hadn't lied to you, would you have let me go?"

Qin Qihan's Adam's apple bobbed suddenly, and his lips moved, but he didn't utter a word.

Yun Muqian turned her head, expressionless, and walked towards Zhou Xue's ward.

She pushed open the ward door, walked in, looked at the pale-faced woman on the bed with her wrists wrapped in thick bandages, smiled, and said softly, "Ms. Zhou, I've come to see you."

Zhou Xue looked up at her, her pale lips moved but she didn't say anything, and a tear slid down her cheek.