In the mist-shrouded bathroom.
Yun Qiao was pinned against the vanity, a hoarse voice falling by her ear. “Behave.”
Her breath unsteady, she shook her head. ”You… don’t…”
Shen Changbei seemed to take her words to heart and eased his force, lifting her into his arms. She thought he was taking her to bathe—and he did carry her into the bathroom, though it was a different kind of bathing.
Before she could refuse, every sound she made was swallowed.
Yun Qiao couldn’t endure such intensity and tried to push him away, but her hands were wrenched behind her back and pinned there.
Unable to struggle free, she could only weakly beg for mercy.
His force softened slightly, and Shen Changbei’s lips pressed to her ear. “Still going to bring up breaking up?”
Bring it up…
Yun Qiao parted her lips, but somehow no sound came from her throat. He assumed she’d merely been throwing a tantrum earlier. ”Then stay by my side like a good girl.”
With that, he pressed down again.
Domineering. Scorching.
She ached from being stirred up like this. Unable to use her mouth, she used her hands instead, raking her nails fiercely down his back.
Mm?
Why did the feel of it seem wrong?
Soft and squishy.
In her confusion, a milky, childish whimper suddenly rang out by her ear. “Ow ow ow, that hurts!”
Yun Qiao bolted upright, and before she knew it, her eyes met the pair from her dream once more—the difference being that one pair was cold and sharp, the other clear and innocent.
Thanks to her accidental attack, the delicate little face was now scrunched up in a grimace, the small mouth especially pouted high.
“Sorry, baby.”
The little guy’s lips quivered. “Mommy, did you have a nightmare?”
“Mm…”
Yun Qiao didn’t give her son the chance to ask more. She moved to the bathroom as fast as she could and splashed three or four handfuls of cold water on her face before the heat slowly faded.
She must be possessed or something—she’d never had dreams like that back abroad.
“Qiaoqiao.”
Yun Qiao was used to her son switching between calling her “Mommy” and using her name. She pulled out a tissue and wiped her face. “What is it?”
“Hurry up, you can’t be late on the first day of school!”
Judging by his tone, he was quite looking forward to it.
She’d originally worried the little guy might not adjust to a new environment, but it seemed that concern might have been unnecessary.
Before heading out, Yun Qiao noticed the sky looked overcast and went back to her room to grab a vest to layer on her son. “Baby, if you get hot, ask the teacher to help you take it off.”
One button was still undone. Yun Yan did it up himself, then tilted his head up. “Are we not leaving, then?”
Yun Qiao’s lashes lowered. “Probably not.”
Three- and four-year-olds are at the age of endless questions, and he asked again, “What does ‘probably’ mean?”
She answered, “If living here feels comfortable.”
The little guy muttered, “I thought Daddy was here.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but she heard it clearly. She said nothing, only stroked his head.
Half an hour later, Yun Qiao appeared at the school gate holding her son’s hand. After handing the child over to the teacher, she was about to turn and leave when a voice called out to her. “Yun Yan’s mother.”
It was her son’s homeroom teacher.
“Yes, Teacher Qiao?”
“We need to complete the child’s information form.”
In the office, Teacher Qiao handed her a form. “The field for the child’s father was left blank.”
Yun Qiao looked down. The handwriting wasn’t hers—no surprise there, since her friend Zhi Yi had filled out the registration for her, back when she hadn’t yet returned to the country.
Without dwelling too much on the question of the child’s father, she wrote two words in the blank field: deceased.
Teacher Qiao was stunned. This parent before her had a slender figure with graceful curves, and her features—no need to even mention them—looked naturally filtered, vivid and striking.
Yet somehow she was a widow…
She blurted out without thinking: “Dead?”
Then she heard Yun Yan’s mother answer casually, “Dead.”
Yun Qiao’s eyes widened again. Seriously, what had this parent been through to be so nonchalant? There wasn’t a trace of sorrow in her expression at all.
……
After leaving the school gates, Yun Qiao headed straight to the company. She had received a call from Huayu Technology on her second day back in the country. It was a large company with a clear product line, and best of all, the compensation package was excellent.
She had just sat down at the company when the director’s assistant came over with a message. “Supervisor Yun, Director Qian wants you to bring the project proposal to her office.”
When Yun Qiao knocked and entered, Director Qian was touching up her lipstick. Seeing her come in, she closed her cushion compact. “How’s the preparation for the KL Chip project going?”
Yun Qiao handed over the documents first. “Please take a look.”
Director Qian flipped it open, gave it a quick scan, and didn’t hold back her praise. “Not bad.”
She paused. “But my approval isn’t enough—it has to be the client’s. They arrive at ten. Try to secure the Series A funding.”
Yun Qiao smiled faintly. “I’ll do my best.”
Director Qian said, “Go ahead and get busy. I have a meeting.”
Yun Qiao returned to her desk. She had only drunk a third of her coffee when an assistant colleague came over to call her. “Supervisor Yun, the investors are here—and President Jiang too!”
The President Jiang her colleague mentioned was the owner of the company. Yun Qiao only knew his surname was Jiang; she had never met him in person.
The assistant colleague added, “You go ahead first. I’ll see if I can find a chance to give Director Qian a heads-up.”
The conference room was on the 17th floor. Yun Qiao didn’t wait for the elevator and climbed two flights of stairs on foot. When she hurried in, there was only one person in the conference room, standing by the window—tall, with a straight, upright back. Over his pure black shirt he wore a matching vest that accentuated his broad shoulders and narrow waist.
For some reason, her eyelids twitched a couple of times. That silhouette…
The figure by the window stirred, and turned—unerringly—right into her dark eyes. The next moment, her limbs froze beyond her control, and her brain stopped functioning along with them.
For a few seconds, Yun Qiao forgot why she had come here, standing there dumbly, until a voice broke into her ears. “What, you know each other?”
She mechanically turned her head. A man in a gray shirt came into view. She tried to steady herself. The assistant colleague had said President Jiang was coming too—this must be him. But before she could greet him, Shen Changbei’s cool, detached voice fell by her ear. “We knew each other before.”
“……”
President Jiang raised an eyebrow halfway. “What do you mean, ‘knew each other before’?”
Shen Changbei pulled out a chair and sat down, his words clipped and faint. “Is that hard to understand?”
Yun Qiao’s shoulders tensed silently. She curled her trembling fingers, recalling how they had parted back then—both she and he had been resolute, leaving no room for turning back.
So, meeting again like this should have been this easy, this unfamiliar for them.
It was just that she hadn’t expected it to catch her so off guard.