Only when Jiang Wangsheng saw the black in his eyes grow darker did she realize what she had just said.
Xie Lan wasn’t a good man. Shouldn’t she have known that by now?
She shrank back a little in fear. But when he saw her do it, he only grew angrier.
“Are you hiding from me? Am I that frightening?” If he had said nothing, she might have been all right—but the moment he spoke, Jiang Wangsheng’s eyes filled with hurt, and tears began to fall.
“Yes. You’re frightening.”
“I don’t want you anymore.”
Xie Lan froze. It was the first time he had ever heard her say those words.
She said she didn’t want him anymore.
How could she not want him?
Xie Lan reached out to her, trembling as he pulled her into his arms and held her tight.
“No, you can’t, Baby… You can’t stop wanting me…”
He held her so tightly it felt as though he might crush her to death. Jiang Wangsheng could barely stand it.
“Xie Lan, you’re hurting me…”
Only then did the man react. He loosened his hold, but still didn’t let go.
The way she had looked at him just now—resolute and calm. She had been afraid, but she had meant it.
For that instant, his whole world seemed to spin.
The sobs gradually faded as Jiang Wangsheng lay in his arms. Exhausted, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.
Xie Lan shifted, making her more comfortable.
Her little face, resting on his lap, still bore traces of tears. Gently brushing the hair away from her face, he lowered his head and kissed her forehead.
“Baby, we’re not breaking up.” He said it as if to himself, his fingertip wiping away the tear at the corner of her eye before tracing her brows, eyes, and lips. His gaze had darkened.
That person…
Who were they, really?
When Jiang Wangsheng woke the next morning, she found herself asleep in Xie Lan’s arms.
The bed was huge, yet she was wrapped around him like a koala. She jolted awake.
Had they broken up?
Had they actually managed to break up yesterday?
As she tried to piece together what had happened, the man holding her slowly opened his eyes. He saw the conflicted look on her face, and his arms tightened around her.
“What are you thinking about, Baby?”
Xie Lan leaned in and gently kissed her lips.
Jiang Wangsheng didn’t let him kiss her as she usually did. She turned her head away, not wanting to look at him.
“I think we already broke up.”
Xie Lan let out a low laugh, his eyes darkening at once.
“Oh? Shengsheng, do you remember the Couples’ Agreement we signed when we started dating?”
“The Couples’ Agreement?”
Jiang Wangsheng sat up, then suddenly frowned.
They really had signed a Couples’ Agreement.
“So… so what?”
Her confidence suddenly faltered. The agreement was horribly long, and although she’d read it, she’d forgotten what it said. She had agreed to sign it because she was certain there was nothing in it that could hurt her.
Xie Lan had prepared it the night before. He reached to the bedside table, took it out, and held it up so they could read it together.
“Clause 102 of the Couples’ Agreement: If neither party is at fault, neither may ask to break up before one year has passed.”
“See for yourself. I’m not lying.” He leaned close to her ear, his voice brimming with unmistakable delight.
Thank goodness he’d prepared this trick when they first got together. It worked almost too well for luring in a little rabbit.
Perhaps when Xie Lan had wanted her to sign something like this, it was because he knew that one day his appalling, obsessive possessiveness toward her would come to light—and she would be frightened and want to get away.
Jiang Wangsheng took the agreement and looked. That clause really was in there.
Xie Lan ran his fingertips through her long hair, then contentedly kissed the top of her head. His voice was hoarse as he asked, “What would you like for breakfast, Baby?”
Looking at the agreement had ruined her mood. How could she think about breakfast?
Her wish to break up right now had come to nothing.
It hadn’t even occurred to her that, even if she’d signed it, she could simply ignore it. It had no legal force at all.
“I’m not eating. I’ll be late for class.”
Jiang Wangsheng got out of bed briskly, looking a little angry as she walked away.
For the first time, Xie Lan found her anger thoroughly delightful.
“No. You still have to eat breakfast. I’ll take you to class afterward.” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, resting his nose against the back of her neck. Breathing in her scent filled him with pleasure.
Jiang Wangsheng had always thought he was clingy. He was always trying to kiss her, too.
He seized every chance he got, and the warm, damp sensation at the back of her neck made her scalp tingle. She hurriedly put a hand up to stop him.
“Don’t…”
“I’ll eat, then.”
Xie Lan chuckled. “Wait for me a little, Baby.”
After washing up, Jiang Wangsheng changed into a dress Xie Lan had prepared for her, then sat at the dining table to wait for breakfast.
From where she sat, she could see that he was wearing only a pair of pants, with nothing on top but a pink apron.
The muscles across his back were powerfully defined, radiating sex appeal.
Jiang Wangsheng lowered her gaze and didn’t look again. Only when a nutritionally balanced breakfast appeared in front of her did she say, “Thank you.”
“You’re not allowed to say thank you. How many times do I have to tell you, Husband?” He still held a spatula in one hand. With the other, he cupped her neck and lifted her head, then gave her lips a firm but not overly hard bite.
She didn’t dare say anything else and just bent her head over her breakfast.
Xie Lan sat beside her. The cartoon pink apron in front covered most of his body, leaving his firm, well-defined arms and chest exposed, as if they’d been carefully sculpted.
He’d caught her sneaking a glance.
“Heh.” The man tilted his head, tenderness overflowing in his eyes.
“Are you satisfied, Baby?”
Jiang Wangsheng nodded.
Looking at the breakfast on her plate, she suddenly wondered if he hadn’t meant the food at all. She shook her head.
He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like the breakfast?”
“I do. It tastes great.”
Xie Lan drove her to school. Before she got out, he coaxed her into letting him kiss her. Jiang Wangsheng couldn’t resist, and he held her in his arms and kissed her again and again.
By the time she stepped out of the car, her legs felt a little weak.
She wore the loose dress Xie Lan had chosen for her, which hid her figure completely. Her hair hung softly down her back, loose and unstyled.
Watching her walk away, Xie Lan picked up his phone. “I’m not coming in today. Something’s come up.”
Something very important.
He had to find out who had been egging Shengsheng on to break up with him.
As soon as Jiang Wangsheng entered the classroom, someone came and sat beside her.
She turned and saw Lin Yun.
Lin Yun wore a baseball cap and a white casual tracksuit.
Looking at her face, Jiang Wangsheng always felt she was so beautiful it was hard to tell whether she was masculine or feminine.
Her lips were thin and very red. The corners of her eyes didn’t tilt up like Xie Lan’s, and each of her features was delicate on its own; together, they were beautiful too.
“Shengsheng, did you sleep well last night?”
Jiang Wangsheng nodded and smiled at Lin Yun. “Mm-hm.”
Lin Yun smiled gently, a glint flashing in her eyes.
“So… Shengsheng, did you break up?”
That question gave her a headache. She lowered her head, her voice muffled. “I—I have to wait eight months before I can.”
In eight months, they would have been dating for exactly a year. Then she could bring it up again.
“Eight months?!” The sudden rise in Lin Yun’s voice startled her. Jiang Wangsheng turned to look at her. Thinking it over, she felt Lin Yun’s voice had sounded a little deeper just then.
Lin Yun had gotten so worked up that she’d forgotten to keep her voice under control. She regretted it, then said apologetically, “Shengsheng, I got carried away. I’m just worried he’ll mistreat you.”
…
Xie Lan slipped onto campus, still wearing a white shirt and black trousers. At a glance, he clearly wasn’t a student there.
He looked young too, around twenty-five.
The moment he stepped onto the stairs of the teaching building, nearly everyone nearby—men and women alike—turned to look at him.
There was no helping it. That build… over six feet tall, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, with powerful muscles faintly visible beneath his shirt. His short hair was sharp and neat, and his features were strikingly intense, giving him an air that warned strangers to keep their distance.
Plenty of good-looking people went to the school.
But a face this stunning? Today, there was only one.
Someone coming down the stairs spotted him, quietly turned around, and began following him.
Xie Lan checked the location on his phone. It showed that she was in a classroom.
He didn’t want Shengsheng to notice him. He only wanted to find out who else her friends were.
He found the classroom’s back door and quickly scanned the room.
When he spotted that familiar figure, Xie Lan’s gaze shifted. He also saw a long-haired woman in a tracksuit sitting beside her.
She didn’t look like any of Shengsheng’s roommates, and she didn’t look like Zhuang Mengmeng either.
And they were sitting much too close.
Xie Lan narrowed his eyes, his scrutinizing gaze fixed on the person beside her.