I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

Zhou Xue began her furious revenge.

She made calls to media outlets, newspapers, and publishing houses:

"I have some material; you publish it for me. The headline needs to be sensational, and the sooner the better."

The person on the other end of the phone paused for two seconds, then asked something. Zhou Xue sneered, "The president of Qin's Group has had his fiancée stolen."

She said, enunciating each word clearly, "The other woman's name is Yun Muqian. Give me as many channels as you can, I want her trending on social media for three whole days. Money is no object."

The press release was issued that very evening.

The internet exploded. The headlines were increasingly sensational—

"Qin Group CEO suspected of being embroiled in a love triangle, his fiancée allegedly snatched away."

"A soap opera in a wealthy family: Childhood sweethearts no match for a scheming, seemingly innocent woman."

"The inside story of the collapse of the Zhou family's daughter's funeral hall revealed; the third party was actually her younger brother's widow?"

The accompanying images are several blurry photos—one showing Qin Qihan's back as she enters and exits the hospital's side entrance, another showing Yun Muqian's profile as she stands at the entrance of the mourning hall, and a previously unpublished old photo of Yun Muqian and Zhou Yao having dinner together, sitting face to face with Zhou Yao smiling.

The tone of the comments section was initially sharp.

"Holy crap, this is so melodramatic! Her brother just died and she's already hooking up with her sister's fiancé?"

"Who is this woman? She's someone we don't know, she just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She must have a powerful background."

"Zhou Xue is so pitiful. She lost her younger brother and her fiancé. I would go crazy too."

"Wait a minute, the younger brother is dead, and the older sister's fiancé is with the person the younger brother liked? What kind of ethical drama is this?"

A massive influx of online trolls flooded in, spamming comments like "Get out, you mistress!", "The white lotus has been exposed!", and "I feel sorry for Zhou Xue."

Zhou Xue sat on the sofa in her apartment, the blue light from her phone screen reflecting on her still swollen face. She scrolled through the comments one by one, her lips twitching slightly, which aggravated her wound and made her hiss in pain, but she still smiled.

She spent seven figures buying trending topics for several days without even blinking.

However, the wind direction began to change not long afterward.

The first to jump out was an entertainment blogger with millions of followers, who posted a long Weibo post that put together screenshots of Zhou Xue causing trouble at the funeral hall, candid photos of her being held up at the hospital entrance, and several instances of her losing control during previous interviews.

Zhou Xue's recent words and actions have been witnessed by everyone. Her brother's death is indeed sympathetic, but her emotional outburst of violence at the funeral hall and continued to cause trouble at the hospital can no longer be explained by grief alone.

As for his so-called fiancée—Ms. Zhou and Mr. Qin were engaged, but they broke up amicably.

Qin Qihan personally responded, guaranteeing Yun Muqian's innocence, and Yun Muqian even took advantage of this free wave of traffic to appear on variety shows.

She is beautiful, has high emotional intelligence, and is very likable, so the sentiment in the comments section began to shift.

"Is this woman mentally unstable? How could a normal person cause such a scene at her brother's funeral?"

"I heard she even went to the hospital and caused a scene, but security guards had to escort her out?"

"This attempt to play the victim backfired."

"Actually, it's because her ex-boyfriend got together with someone else, that's why she started cyberbullying him."

New terms have appeared on the trending searches: "Zhou Xue lied" and "Zhou family heiress's mental state is worrying".

The previous comments criticizing Yun Muqian were overshadowed by new comments. The paid commenters were still posting, but they couldn't outnumber the real people.

The public opinion outside was still brewing, but none of it reached Yun Muqian's ears.

She turned off her phone, drew all the curtains in the house, nestled on the sofa with a cup of hot tea, the TV was on but there was no sound, and a variety show was playing on the screen.

In her view, this incident actually brought her a lot of fame, and she just needed to lay low for a while.

However, Chi Qiusheng suddenly came to find her.

He was wearing a light gray trench coat, the collar slightly turned up, and his hair was a little messy from the wind. He said to her:

"Come with me."

Faced with the overwhelming amount of press releases online, he simply said:

"Go somewhere no one knows."

"Okay." I'll just treat it as a way to clear my head.

Three days later, they decided to go to Yunnan.

It was already afternoon when the plane landed. The place we stayed by Erhai Lake was a small courtyard in the Bai ethnic style, two stories high. There was a large pomegranate tree downstairs, with several cracked fruits hanging on it.

The courtyard is surrounded by water, and the wind blows from the lake, carrying the moist scent of grass and trees.

Yun Muqian stood at the window of her second-floor room and looked out. The view was so expansive that it was almost surreal. The Cangshan Mountains rose from the other side of the water, and a vast expanse of silvery-gray light spread across the surface of Erhai Lake. It was so beautiful.

Chi Qiusheng stood behind her without saying a word. She turned her head to look at him and realized that he was looking at her.

"Is it pretty?" she asked.

"Mmm." He nodded and said softly, "It looks good."

The next day, they rented two bicycles and rode along the ring road of Erhai Lake. In the afternoon, they arrived at a lake bay with few people. The water was very clear, and they could see the stones and aquatic plants at the bottom.

Yun Muqian took off her shoes and sat on a rock on the bank, dipping her feet into the water. The coolness spread up her ankles, and she let out a soft "ah" before laughing.

The two of them had a very free and easy time these past few days, talking about many things, things from high school and things after they grew up.

At this moment, the sky is slowly darkening, and the western clouds are burned to a golden-red by the setting sun, floating in patches above the mountaintop like an overturned palette.

Are you happy?

"I'm so happy."

Chi Qiusheng looked at her, then suddenly raised his hand and tucked a strand of her hair, which had been ruffled by the wind, behind her ear. His fingertips lingered for a moment near her earlobe, very lightly, cool and dry, before he withdrew them.

Yun Muqian didn't dodge; the feelings between the two didn't need to be explained too clearly.

After it got completely dark, they returned to the courtyard, brewed tea downstairs, and invited them down to drink. The two sat under the pomegranate tree in the courtyard, with countless stars overhead and the sound of Erhai Lake gently lapping against the shore not far away.

There were no streetlights, only a little warm yellow light coming from the main room, which cast a long shadow of the pomegranate tree, swaying and spreading on the stone floor. She sat on the wooden chair to cool off.

Suddenly, Chi Qiusheng stood up and reached out his hand to her.

She looked at his hand, its knuckles distinct and clean, palm facing up, outstretched before her. Without hesitation, she placed her hand on his. His palm closed around hers, dry and warm.

He called her name, and she nodded gently, her eyes shining.

He pulled her up, lowered his head and kissed her. The kiss was light and soft, yet it carried a sense of long-planned tenderness.

She gently and slowly closed her eyes. The stars above her head hung motionless, and the sound of Erhai Lake drifted over from afar. After Chi Qiusheng stepped back slightly, she suddenly smiled.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked.

"Chi Qiusheng." She called him by his full name:

"Did you really like me back in high school?"

"Yes."

He answered so readily that Yun Muqian was taken aback.

He wanted to say something more, but she had already wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him passionately. What happened after that was only natural.

The wind blew across the water, and the distant Cangshan Mountain lay silently in the night. The stars overhead were reflected on the surface of Erhai Lake, breaking into pieces of silver light that swayed gently with the ripples all night long.

The next morning, Yun Muqian woke up in his arms.

The curtains weren't fully drawn. She moved slightly and realized that she was resting her head on an arm, warm and firm, rising and falling gently beneath the back of her head with each breath. Her back was pressed against a warm chest.

She blinked, her gaze slowly focusing.

He was already awake, his arm encircling her neck, his hand loosely resting on her shoulder. "Awake?"

Yun Muqian hummed in agreement, then rolled over in his arms to face him.

The blanket slipped down a bit with her movement, and she reached out to pull it up, burying her chin in the edge of the blanket, only her eyes showing as she looked at him.

It was all so beautiful, like a dream.

Chi Qiusheng raised his hand to brush the stray hairs from her face, his fingertips sliding down her brow. "Did you sleep well last night?"

Yun Muqian nodded from under the covers, her eyes crinkling into a smile.

Actually, I didn't sleep much last night.

It was quiet for a long time.

Then Chi Qiusheng stirred, took her fingers in his palm, and said, "How about—"

He looked at her. "Let's go."

Yun Muqian looked at him but did not interrupt him.

"Let's not dwell on the past anymore," he said. "Let's stay here, or go somewhere far away. Let's ignore those people and those things. Let's live our lives freely."

His thumb stroked the back of her hand. "Wherever you want to go, we'll go. No phones, no news, no calls. Just the two of us."

For a moment, she almost nodded. The word "okay" had already reached her tongue. She would never go back to that city, never see those people again, get up early every day to watch the sunrise over Erhai Lake, ride her bicycle along the lakeside road to chase the sunset in the evening, and sit under the pomegranate tree at night to drink tea and watch the stars, with him sitting next to her.

The scene was so beautiful that it brought tears to her eyes.

But in the end, she gently shook her head.

Chi Qiusheng paused for a moment, his hand still holding hers. "Why?"

"I haven't finished what I'm supposed to do," she said.