After taking a quick rinse, Ruan Qiaoqiao returned to her room and lay down, but she wasn’t sleepy at all.
Thinking about the rabbit bite marks she had spotted on the mountain earlier that day, her heart itched with curiosity. She wanted to test whether she really had become blessed with extraordinary luck.
She wanted to make a trap and catch a rabbit.
The moment the thought appeared, she acted on it. She got up, grabbed the net she had bought at the black market earlier, and quietly headed toward the mountain in the dark.
If she had known she would be going up the mountain at night, she should have bought a flashlight.
Fortunately, the place where she had seen the rabbit tracks wasn’t far.
Following the path she had walked during the day, she carefully stepped through the dappled moonlight filtering between the leaves and arrived at her destination. Remembering how her father used to make traps when she was little, she skillfully set one up for rabbits.
After finishing, she was about to head back down the mountain when she suddenly heard muffled noises coming from the woods nearby, mixed with low groans.
An ordinary girl would probably be terrified hearing such sounds.
Then again, an ordinary girl probably wouldn’t dare wander into the mountains alone in the middle of the night.
But Ruan Qiaoqiao was never ordinary. Since childhood, she had often followed her grandfather and father into the mountains to gather herbs. Sometimes they even spent nights there, and over time, her courage had grown far beyond that of most people.
Driven by curiosity, she bent low and quietly moved toward the source of the noise.
Under the moonlight, she saw a slender man pinning another person beneath him at the base of a small dirt hill. One hand gripped the other man’s collar while the other clenched into a fist, punching him over and over again.
The man being beaten was already covered in blood, his face unrecognizable.
As for the one doing the beating—
When she saw clearly who it was, her heart nearly stopped.
How could it be… Fu Wenzhou?
She had actually caught Fu Wenzhou deep in the mountains at midnight… beating someone half to death?
Her first instinct was to run, but in her panic, she accidentally snapped a dry branch beneath her foot.
Immediately, a cold, alert voice rang out behind her.
“Who’s there?!”
Ruan Qiaoqiao’s heart nearly exploded in terror. She instinctively glanced back, and in the hazy moonlight saw Fu Wenzhou’s blood-splattered face.
He looked like a demon crawling out of hell.
Their eyes never truly met because the instant she realized the danger, she turned away and bolted.
She ran faster and faster, stumbling twice in her panic, though luckily she wasn’t injured.
By the time she rushed home, she collapsed onto the edge of the bed, clutching her pounding chest while her thoughts spiraled into chaos.
The Fu Wenzhou from her prophetic dream had been a refined and elegant man of great status. He had never carried any murder charges, nor had she heard of violent tendencies.
But then again… weren’t some psychopaths exactly like that? Perfectly normal on the surface, utterly insane underneath.
And in that dream, Fu Wenzhou had remained single while raising two children alone.
He had no wife.
Could it be that his wife had…
Ruan Qiaoqiao shuddered violently.
Should she run away now?
But where could she go? Legally, she was already Fu Wenzhou’s wife. Without official documents, even if she escaped, she couldn’t truly disappear.
She stood up anxiously and paced around the room.
No. Running would only expose her guilt.
She had to stay calm.
But how could she possibly calm down?
Just then, steady footsteps sounded from the courtyard outside.
Panicking, she immediately threw herself onto the bed and closed her eyes, pretending to sleep.
Soon, the door opened.
A man carrying the heat of the summer night stepped into the room and stopped beside the bed.
Ruan Qiaoqiao felt like her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
He wouldn’t… silence her, would he?
It had been so dark. He probably hadn’t seen her clearly.
That’s right.
He definitely hadn’t seen her.
Fu Wenzhou had already washed the blood from his face. His gaze swept over her calmly, quickly noticing the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
His deep voice sounded casual.
“Why are you breathing so hard? Can’t sleep?”
Ruan Qiaoqiao held her breath for three seconds before realizing she couldn’t avoid this forever. She opened her eyes and sat up as calmly as she could.
“A little… not sleepy. You… finished your business?”
Fu Wenzhou looked down at her from above. The corners of his peach blossom eyes curved slightly, making him look dangerously alluring.
“Mm. Want to know what I was busy doing?”
“Not at all,” she answered instantly.
Then realizing she sounded too deliberate, she quickly added, “I’m already your wife. If one prospers, both prosper; if one falls, both fall. As long as you’re not harming the country, I’ll respect whatever you do.”
That should make her stance clear enough, right?
They were tied to the same rope now. Surely she didn’t qualify for being silenced.
Fu Wenzhou chuckled softly.
“You’re quite sensible.”
What else was she supposed to do? Become tonight’s second victim?
He casually removed his blue shirt and deliberately turned the bloodstained side toward her.
“Oh? There’s blood on it. Do you think it can still be washed clean?”
He was testing her.
He definitely knew someone had been there earlier, but he wasn’t certain it was her.
So he was probing.
“It can definitely be washed out,” she replied quickly. “I’m very good at laundry. I’ll clean it for you tomorrow. Were you… hunting?”
Watching her reaction, Fu Wenzhou answered lazily, “Mm. The prey was too big. It escaped.”
Escaped?
So the man hadn’t died.
For some reason, Ruan Qiaoqiao felt immense relief.
She truly didn’t want Fu Wenzhou to become a murderer.
Once human life was involved, everything would be ruined—not just for him, but also for herself as his legal wife, and for those two children.
“My prey escaped, yet you seem rather happy.”
“Not at all,” she said with a dry laugh. “If it escaped, it escaped. Large prey is troublesome anyway. It’s better to catch rabbits or pheasants instead, right?”
Fu Wenzhou tossed the shirt aside and sat sideways on the bed, staring at her leisurely with an unreadable amusement in his eyes.
His gaze never left her.
The nervousness she had barely managed to suppress instantly returned.
“W-What is it?”
The moment she finished speaking, Fu Wenzhou suddenly leaned forward and pinned her onto the bed.
He grabbed both her wrists effortlessly and pressed them above her head.
Ruan Qiaoqiao’s mind went blank with terror.
It’s over.
He really was going to silence her.
She struggled desperately, trying to pull free, but despite his lean appearance, his strength was overwhelming.
“Fu… Fu Wenzhou,” she stammered nervously, “we can talk this out—”
One of his hands restrained her wrists above her head while the fingers of his other hand slowly traced downward from her cheek, across her neck, and lower still, finally stopping lightly over her heart.
“Ruan Qiaoqiao.”
She was terrified out of her mind. This felt like torture.
“What exactly do you want?”
“To consummate our marriage.”
The moment the words fell, so did his kiss—