Ten million in exchange for her freedom was a windfall dropped right into her lap.
Lin Yumo had no reason to refuse.
Mu Linhan saw that she remained silent and grew a little impatient.
“Take it. Don’t let me see you again.”
He didn’t need a strange woman’s concern, much less some “auspicious marriage.” He just wanted to be left alone.
“…”
After a long moment, Lin Yumo suppressed the emotions roiling inside her, crouched down, and met his gaze.
She took the check without even looking at it and casually tossed it behind her.
The light white paper drifted down like a piece of trash, landing all alone on the floor.
The next second, she suddenly leaned toward him. Her slender, cool fingertips pressed lightly against his chin, and the distance between them closed until they could feel each other’s breath.
The man’s pupils abruptly widened, shock flashing through his dark eyes. “…What are you doing?!”
Lin Yumo lowered her gaze and studied his handsome face.
Honestly, her husband was so handsome it was practically a crime.
Though he was only a few years older than her, his striking features and mature, steady air made him the very image of a polished executive with years of experience in the business world.
Before his car accident, he had been a celebrated business prodigy in A City. In just two short years after taking over as the Group’s CEO, he had doubled Mu Group’s market value.
Young, handsome, talented, and born into a wealthy family—Mu Linhan had once been at the height of his fame. At its peak, reporters from all the major channels nearly fought each other to get an interview with him.
When Lin Yumo was still in high school, her classmates were already swooning over his posters. Back then, she’d wondered if Mu Linhan was some kind of model or actor. How else could he drive so many young women wild?
He was as popular as a superstar.
It was a shame…
Lin Yumo came back to herself and noticed that Mu Linhan’s colorless face had taken on the faintest flush, from shock and anger.
How unusual.
She had never seen this expression before.
Especially not on Mu Linhan.
“Does everyone in the Mu family like to use money to get rid of people?”
she asked softly. Her gentle voice made her sound like a harmless little white rabbit, but her actions were anything but gentle. She rested her thumb against the man’s smooth, clean chin and softly rubbed it.
“How did I never realize you had this side to you?”
“…Let go!”
He turned his head away in disgust, trying to break free.
What was this crazy woman babbling about?
What did she mean, “before”? They had never even met!
Lin Yumo didn’t let go. Instead, she smiled faintly. “Are you angry? Do you hate being touched that much?”
Mu Linhan seized her wrist and pressed her arm down with a little force.
He was the one sprawled awkwardly on the floor, but the haughty air of someone accustomed to giving orders never left him.
“I’ll say it again. Don’t touch me.”
His voice dropped, shadows gathering between his brows.
Lin Yumo met his sharp gaze head-on and could clearly sense the anger he kept buried deep inside.
His grip on her slender wrist hurt.
She was secretly relieved she hadn’t used her injured left hand.
He really was angry.
The air around them seemed to freeze. When she met his icy gaze, a chill crept up her back.
Someone else might well have been terrified by his intimidating presence, but the woman facing him now was Lin Yumo, who had lived another life.
After spending three years with him day and night, she knew that beneath his cold exterior, this man was a paper tiger.
And the Mu Linhan of this moment had no idea how wicked Lin Yumo could be beneath her seemingly gentle exterior.
“What if I say…I’m going to touch you? Not just now—I’ll touch you every day from now on. And not just here, but other parts of your body too…”
Lin Yumo asked quietly,
“What are you going to do about it?”
In an instant, the pain in her wrist intensified.
Mu Linhan stared at her in shock.
“…You!”
Lin Yumo forced down the pain in her wrist and managed a challenging smile.
“Are you the only one who gets to be angry? Mu Linhan, I’m going to be your wife. If you try to get rid of me with money again… I don’t mind showing you just how awful your wife can be.”
When she finished, she glanced at his hand and ordered, “Let go.”
“…”
Mu Linhan’s breathing suddenly grew heavier.
No one had ever dared threaten him in that tone.
He should have hit back with a threat of his own.
But the manners ingrained in him wouldn’t let him lash out—not at a delicate, slender woman.
After a long moment, the tension in his shoulders eased, and he slowly released her.
Several deep red marks stood out on her pale, slender wrist, proof of how little restraint the man had shown.
He really hadn’t held back at all.
“If you don’t want money, what do you want?”
Mu Linhan narrowed his eyes, watching her brows hidden beneath her lowered bangs as he tried to guess why she had approached him. But her expression was calm, impossible to read.
Lin Yumo didn’t answer.
She changed the subject as if nothing had happened.
“Isn’t the floor cold?”
Mu Linhan frowned. “Answer my—”
Before he could finish, Lin Yumo suddenly leaned toward him again.
He immediately held his breath and jerked his head back, looking like he wanted to keep everyone at arm’s length.
Luckily, she did nothing this time, only giving him another gentle smile.
“Let me help you into bed.”
She was a completely different person from the one who had just provoked him.
That change of face…
Mu Linhan realized belatedly:
This woman was no simple person.
He refused outright. “No need. Get out.”
Lin Yumo countered, “Have you thought about who’ll help you with your problem if I leave now?”
Mu Linhan paused.
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“Fine,” Lin Yumo said with a smile. “The moment I walk out, I’ll tell your mother you fell out of bed and refused to let me help you. Then she might bring a whole crowd of servants up here to lift you back into bed… Or would you rather more people see the Eldest Young Master of the Mu family struggling helplessly?”
“…”
As soon as she finished speaking, the man’s shoulders stiffened, and a suffocating silence fell over the room.
Lin Yumo watched the veins rise on the back of his hand. His long, strong fingers pressed against the cold floor, their tips white with the effort, revealing just how unwilling he was to give in.
“…Are you trying to dig a hole through the floor?”
she asked softly.
The man pressed his pale lips tightly together. The corners of his eyes were red, and profound grief showed in his gaze.
Lin Yumo’s heart gave a jolt.
Had she gone a little too far?
After all, he had only just been in an accident. Even if he had made her angry, what would it cost her to be a little more patient with him?
Her personality really was awful.
In the past, Mu Linhan had always been the one to put up with her.
She hadn’t expected the man before her to be so different from the Mu Linhan of her previous life, who had silently let her bully him.
A sudden pain pierced her chest.
…Right. This was the real him.
Lin Yumo, how could you pick a fight with him?
Wasn’t he the reason you had come back to this life?
At the thought, the memory of him hurling himself toward her without hesitation rose in her mind, and boundless regret swept over her.
“Ah…”
After a long while, she sighed softly, helplessly.
“You really are impossible…”
As she spoke, Lin Yumo began rolling up her sleeves.
Mu Linhan saw what she meant to do and gave a cold snort.
“You can’t lift me.”
She was so small. How could she possibly lift a grown man who weighed a hundred and sixty pounds?
His gaze fell on her bandaged left hand, and he silently mocked her for overestimating herself.
With her build, she’d only be crushed under him.
But Lin Yumo remained calm.
She walked to the other side of the bed’s headboard, bent down, and looked around, apparently searching for something.
“Why hasn’t the protective film been peeled off? Has it never been used…”
Mu Linhan was baffled by her strange behavior.
“What are you doing?”
Lin Yumo ignored him, finding a row of buttons behind the headboard with practiced ease. She pressed one of the round buttons.
The bed gave a quiet electronic beep.
Mu Linhan: “…”
The entire bed slowly sank. Even the thick mattress compressed automatically, until the bed was reduced to a thin, flat platform.
“Now you can get on,” Lin Yumo said.
There was no way she could lift him outright.
But she could move him horizontally a short distance.
“…”
Even after he was lying back in bed, Mu Linhan still looked dazed.
“How did you know?”
Lin Yumo’s expression froze.
“You didn’t know?”
Mu Linhan’s father had bought this bed for 1,989,999. It was specially designed for patients with paralysis.
The bed’s frame was covered in top-grade, handmade leather from Y Country, and much of its internal hardware was made of 24-karat gold. The mattress came from F Country’s most luxurious brand, and the bed’s many complex high-tech features could address most of the difficulties a patient might face in daily life.
After sharing a bed with Mu Linhan for three years in her previous life, Lin Yumo knew it inside and out.
But Mu Linhan had only recently woken up, so he didn’t know what made the bed special.
It was hard for him not to suspect her, given how easily she had operated it.
Lin Yumo gave a quiet cough, trying to cover herself.
“I’ve seen this model before, so…”
“No need to make excuses.”
Mu Linhan sounded tired. “Get out. I’m exhausted.”
It was a lousy excuse. He didn’t want to hear it.
Lin Yumo knew her explanation was flimsy, so she stopped trying to hide the truth. She tucked the covers around him and gently reminded him, “Then get some rest. My parents are still downstairs waiting for me.”
Mu Linhan closed his eyes and turned his head away, clearly unwilling to talk.
Lin Yumo sighed silently.
She reached out and carefully smoothed his messy hair, her deliberately lowered voice soothing.
“We’ll see each other again soon…”
Her cool fingertips brushed over the furrow between his brows.
The next second, Mu Linhan suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was full of cold mockery.
“Could you stop flattering yourself?”
His tone was cutting. “What makes you think I’d need a stranger’s concern? Who are you putting on that fake, sweet act for?”