22:49 The heavy, ancient doors creaked open slowly, releasing a stifling burst of suffocating incense smoke.
Outside the ancestral hall, the spectral shadow of a figure stretched into the dim interior.
“Time’s up. You may leave now, Sister.” Jiang Yaoye fought against the choking smoke, his voice cold and brisk. “There are eleven minutes left until eleven o’clock. Leave the old compound immediately. Do not linger.”
In the center of the hall, the kneeling woman kept her spine perfectly straight.
Indifferent. Aloof. Unbending.
At his words, she merely rose to her feet with deliberate slowness. Her qipao was entirely unwrinkled…a feat achievable only after remaining motionless for eighteen hours.
Her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Her footsteps were stiff and painfully slow, taking nearly five minutes just to shuffle out of the hall.
Jiang Yaoye checked his watch impatiently, his voice sharp with authority. “Someone get over here and assist my sister out. Make sure she is off the compound grounds before eleven.”
Several servants scrambled forward to help. Without a wheelchair nearby, they practically dragged, hoisted, and hauled the eldest young lady of the Jiang family toward the side exit. Like discarding a piece of useless trash, they shoved her into the back of a waiting car.
When the digital clock flipped to 22:59, a collective sigh of relief swept through the servants.
Thank goodness. They hadn’t crossed the line or broken the taboo.
Through it all, the eldest young lady’s expression remained ice-cold. She offered no protest or complaint against the servants’ rough handling. Even when she accidentally stumbled and her knees slammed heavily against the hard ground, she didn’t utter a single cry of pain.
She was flat and tranquil as a pool of stagnant water, as if her soul had been drained, leaving behind only a lifeless shell to be manipulated by others.
As the sedan melted into the darkness, a newly hired servant muttered under her breath.
“She’s so light… By the way, why did she have to leave before eleven?”
Beside her, an older servant instantly pressed a finger to her lips. “Shh! If you want to keep your job here, stop asking questions and just do as you’re told.”
The newcomer fell silent at once, glancing nervously around the quiet grounds. Only after confirming no one else was nearby did she let out a breath.
The older servant looked toward the direction the car had vanished, a flicker of pity passing through her eyes.
If that incident eight years ago hadn’t happened, the eldest young lady would have probably married a good man long ago…
Unfortunately, life offers no “what ifs”…and certainly no regrets.
XiuJie Apartments, Building 3, 18th Floor.
Moonlight filtered through the corridor windows, casting a soft glow across the hallway.
Positioned right in the middle of the previously empty corridor sat a broad massage chair. It faced the elevator directly, its back to the entrance of Apartment 1801.
Lounging in the chair, a woman had her eyes half-closed, hovering on the edge of sleep.
Gu Lingyi had been waiting here since five o’clock in the afternoon, passing the hours and even eating a dinner her assistant had delivered to her.
The digital display on her screen flickered and updated.
0:00
Jiang Yanqing still hadn’t returned.
Is she staying overnight at the old compound?
The Jiang family enforced strict, archaic rules, including mandatory weekend overnights at the ancestral home. It made sense.
Sighing softly, Gu Lingyi unlocked her phone to call her assistant to pick her up. But before her thumb could hit “Send,” the elevator doors slid open with a soft chime, spilling bright light into the corridor.
Lighting up alongside that glare was a pair of mesmerizing, fox-like eyes.
“I came to get my things,” Gu Lingyi announced, her tone full of righteous justification.
Jiang Yanqing gave a slight nod without saying a word. As she brushed past Gu Lingyi, a thick, suffocating smell of temple incense hit Gu Lingyi’s nose.
It was a scent that didn’t suit Jiang Yanqing at all, completely overpowering the forbidden, pristine fragrance of white magnolia she usually carried. Gu Lingyi’s brow furrowed in confusion.
According to the lunar calendar, today wasn’t the first or fifteenth of the month, nor was it a traditional holiday. The Jiang family shouldn’t have had any ancestral worship rituals today.
Moving with familiar ease, Jiang Yanqing stepped into the foyer and sat down to change her shoes under the warm overhead light. Seeing that Jiang Yanqing was about to drop to her knees again, Gu Lingyi reacted on instinct…her arm darted out, scooping the cold beauty up by her waist and gently settling her on the other side of the heavy wooden bench.
The woman was feather-light, carrying almost no weight at all.
The built-in bench in the foyer was narrow, barely big enough for two. By placing her on the far side, Gu Lingyi had effectively trapped the cold beauty against the wall, locking her within her own frame.
Through the sharp odor of burning incense, Gu Lingyi patiently searched for that faint trace of white magnolia, her eyes uncontrollably tracing the contours of that impossibly aloof face.
Even while held like this, their breaths and body heat intertwining in a subtle, electric tension, Jiang Yanqing’s expression remained indifferent.
Her deep black qipao, woven with subtle silver thread, made her look even more detached, chaste, and unattainable…as if the sudden chemistry between them was nothing more than Gu Lingyi’s wild imagination.
“Director Gu, once you have your things, please leave.”
Her tone was as flat as her gaze.
It was an explicit rejection.
Jiang Yanqing was kicking her out.
The warm, restless flutter in Gu Lingyi’s chest instantly felt as though cold water had been dumped over it.
Slowly, Gu Lingyi withdrew her arms from beneath Jiang Yanqing’s thighs and waist. The lingering warmth on her skin was a stark reminder that she had just held her…a reminder of why she had stepped across the boundary to hold the famously homophobic Director Jiang in the first place.
“You were the one who knelt down to change my shoes, and now you’re the one driving me away.”
Though Gu Lingyi pulled her hands back, she didn’t sit back. Instead, she stayed leaned in, keeping their faces dangerously close. The intoxicating scent of sweet peach wine drifted off her, wrapping around the cold beauty like a siren’s lure.
“Jiang. Yan. Qing,” she enunciated every single syllable. “What on earth do you actually want?”
She asked directly, virtually laying out the perfect springboard for Jiang Yanqing to start a secret affair.
Yet the cold beauty merely tilted her head up slightly, her voice icy. “It’s late. Please leave after you take your things, Director Gu.”
With that, she closed her eyes, refusing to look at Gu Lingyi any longer…though she didn’t push her away, either.
She could feel the urgency in the other woman’s departure. Gu Lingyi’s footsteps hurried away as if she couldn’t stand to stay another second.
The muffled thud of the closing elevator doors echoed right beside her ears.
The crisp wine fragrance and scorching warmth vanished from her world once again.
The moment Gu Lingyi left, an excruciating agony surged through her knees…as if ten thousand arrows were piercing through her joints. The overwhelming pain rippled through her bones and soul, making her tremble.
The immense toll of forcing herself to walk normally and bend her knees the moment the elevator doors opened was now demanding its full payment.
In the complete solitude of the quiet hallway, her impassive mask finally cracked.
Her brows knit together in silent, agonizing pain.
The voice-activated lights in the foyer suddenly snapped off. Beneath her lightly closed eyelids, the last trace of light vanished. Enduring the agonizing torment, she didn’t even have the strength left to make a sound and trigger the lights back on.
The sound of city traffic was blocked out by the thick windows. Without another person there, the apartment was terrifyingly quiet, her own breath barely audible.
After what felt like an eternity, Jiang Yanqing slowly opened her eyes.
The front door hadn’t been pulled shut properly; a narrow crack remained open. No wonder she had heard the elevator doors close so clearly.
She leaned heavily against the wall and forced herself to stand…a single movement that drained every ounce of her remaining strength.
Her legs trembled violently, her lips drained of color, swaying like a frail willow in the wind.
Just as her palm gripped the handle to close the door, a gentle yet firm force pushed it inward from the outside. Gentle as it was, Jiang Yanqing was far past her physical limit; she could only watch helplessly as her body tipped backward.
Her blank, unfocused pupils reflected the sudden arrival of the striking beauty she had just seen off.
Gu Lingyi tossed the items in her hand straight into her assistant’s arms behind her, crossing the threshold in two quick strides. Right as Jiang Yanqing was about to hit the floor, Gu Lingyi caught her, pulling her securely into her arms. Her breath came out in sharp, ragged gasps from the sudden rush.
Carrying Jiang Yanqing over to the sofa, she ordered in a low, stern voice, “Sit still. Don’t move.”
Her stunning eyes were filled with lingering panic.
Jiang Yanqing watched quietly as Gu Lingyi walked back to the foyer, took two insulated food bags from her assistant outside, and set them on the coffee table.
Gu Lingyi’s voice softened instantly. “Your legs… where are you hurt?”
Director Jiang…a name that struck fear into the hearts of everyone outside…now sat with her eyelashes fluttering softly. She kept her gaze cast down, looking every bit like an obedient, quiet student, yet she offered no answer to Gu Lingyi’s question.
Fortunately, Gu Lingyi hadn’t planned on waiting for an answer anyway. She sank onto one knee beside Jiang Yanqing, her fingers moving to unfasten the side buttons of the qipao one by one.
Although Jiang Yanqing’s qipao reached down to her ankles, it featured side slits. The frog closures were usually buttoned up tightly; no one had ever seen what Director Jiang looked like beneath that cold, chaste exterior.
Fair, delicate skin was exposed to the cool air.
Having been wrapped in fabric for so long, the sudden exposure made Jiang Yanqing flinch almost imperceptibly. But the moment she realized it was Gu Lingyi touching her, she let out a quiet breath, her tense body gradually relaxing.
Gazing at the slender fingertips carefully unbuttoning her dress, her mind drifted back to Gu Lingyi’s clumsiness eight years ago.
Compared to her effortless skill today…
In these eight years, how many women’s dresses has Gu Lingyi unbuttoned to master such seamless skill?
Jiang Yanqing’s eyelashes trembled, and she slowly closed her eyes once more.