Yunding Villa was Ji Zhouye’s residence in Jiang City.
A black Maybach drove smoothly through the night. The spacious interior was filled with the faint, cool fragrance of leather and cedar.
Nan Xin was settled in the back seat, her head resting against a soft cushion. She was still tightly wrapped in Ji Zhouye’s oversized suit jacket.
Ji Zhouye sat beside her, his gaze fixed on her face.
Even in the dim light of the car, her brows remained tightly furrowed despite being unconscious, as though she were enduring tremendous pain.
Almost as if possessed, Ji Zhouye reached out, intending to brush the damp hair away from her forehead. But just as his fingertips were about to touch her cold skin, he suddenly stopped.
What was he doing?
Ji Zhouye withdrew his hand, his brows drawing together even more tightly.
This feeling of being unable to control himself irritated him.
“I hate you all…”
Nan Xin suddenly mumbled in her unconsciousness. Her body shifted restlessly, pulling at her wounds and causing her to let out a muffled groan of pain. A crystalline tear escaped the corner of her eye and rolled down her pale cheek.
Seeing her complexion grow increasingly pale, Ji Zhouye said in a low voice to his assistant in the front seat, “Have Shen Yunchuan bring the gynecological and surgical equipment to Yunding Villa.”
“Yes!”
The car silently entered the Yunding Villa residential area halfway up the mountain and stopped in front of a villa nestled among lush green trees.
The brightly lit villa looked like a proud, solitary beast lurking in the darkness.
Ji Zhouye lifted Nan Xin into his arms once again and strode toward the villa.
By then, Shen Yunchuan, the director of Jinghe Private Hospital, the most authoritative private hospital in Jiang City, had already arrived at the villa entrance with the necessary equipment and several leading doctors under his command.
When he saw his friend Ji Zhouye carrying a pregnant woman home, he was stunned for a moment.
The next second, he immediately went into high alert.
“Get the equipment set up as quickly as possible! We must make sure both Sister-in-law and the baby are safe!”
Ji Zhouye was speechless.
But the woman in his arms was growing colder by the second, and he had no time to deal with Shen Yunchuan’s misunderstanding.
The rescue began immediately.
Nan Xin had no idea that she had once again been standing at death’s door.
Instead, she fell into a dream filled with memories.
In the dream, she had returned to her senior year of college, to the first time she met Fu Beichen.
During winter break, she had been followed by a group of thugs on her way home.
Just when fear had overwhelmed her, Fu Beichen appeared out of nowhere, frightened the men away, and personally escorted her home.
It was only after she arrived home that she learned Fu Beichen was actually her sister Nan Yu’s classmate—and a self-made entrepreneur.
By then, Nan Xin had already developed feelings for him.
The next time she saw him, he had been invited to her university as a guest lecturer to share his experience in starting a business.
Standing on the stage, he spoke confidently and eloquently. Mature and seemingly perfect, he embodied everything Nan Xin had ever wanted in a partner.
Once Nan Xin made up her mind about something, she would pursue it at all costs.
So when she had to choose between an opportunity to study abroad and marrying Fu Beichen, she chose to marry him without hesitation.
Because Fu Beichen once said that he hated all kinds of fragrances, she gave up her career as a perfumer and devoted herself entirely to being a housewife.
But her self-sacrifice never moved him.
All she received in return were three years of Fu Beichen’s coldness and distance.
In the dream, she watched everything from a third-person perspective.
She saw just how foolish and naive she had been.
She had never truly understood Fu Beichen.
If she could live her life again, she would never marry Fu Beichen!
Early in the morning, Yunding Villa.
Ji Zhouye stood against the balcony railing in a bathrobe, a cigarette flickering faintly between his lips.
After six full hours of emergency treatment, both his body and mind were exhausted, yet his thoughts were strangely clear.
It seemed as though that faint, distinctive fragrance still lingered on his fingertips, occasionally drifting into his nose.
His eyes suddenly darkened, like a boulder plunging into a freezing abyss.
Ji Zhouye took out his phone and dialed an encrypted number. His voice was cold and carried an unmistakable authority.
“Investigate everything about Nan Xin, the second daughter of the Nan family in Jiang City. Also find out everywhere she went on that day seven months ago.”
….
By the time Nan Xin woke up, it was already the third day.
Her consciousness struggled upward like a sunken ship breaking through the depths.
The first thing she felt was a faint, lingering ache deep in her lower abdomen, but the pain was no longer accompanied by the terrifying sense of being torn apart.
She slowly opened her heavy eyelids.
Above her was an unfamiliar gray domed ceiling.
She slowly turned her head and saw Ji Zhouye sitting in a single sofa not far away, his eyes lowered as he looked at the tablet in his hands.
The contours of his side profile appeared slightly blurred beneath the soft light, yet he was still breathtakingly handsome.
“Dr… Dr. Ji?”
Nan Xin’s voice was dry and hoarse.
Hearing her voice, Ji Zhouye looked up. His calm, emotionless gaze settled on her face.
“You’re awake?”
“Thank you, Dr. Ji.”
Nan Xin struggled to sit up, but the movement tugged at her abdomen and made her inhale sharply in pain.
“Don’t move.”
Ji Zhouye pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose and spoke indifferently.
“The baby is safe for now. However, you’ve suffered a disturbance to the pregnancy, so you need complete rest from now on.”
Nan Xin’s nose suddenly stung, and tears welled up without warning.
She bit her lower lip hard, forcing herself not to break down and cry.
Looking at the man before her, a man she had met only twice yet who had saved both her and her baby, she felt both immense gratitude and bitter irony.
“Dr. Ji, thank you. Truly.”
Her voice was choked with emotion as her hands clenched tightly around the bedsheets.
“If it weren’t for you, I might have…”
“You paid the medical fees, and I saved your life. It’s simply my duty.”
Ji Zhouye interrupted her.
After spending six hours saving both mother and child, the last thing he wanted to hear was anything depressing.
“No, it’s not the same!”
Nan Xin shook her head.
Ji Zhouye was merely her doctor. He had no obligation to go to such lengths to protect her and her child.
After thinking for a moment, Nan Xin cautiously said, “Dr. Ji, once I’m feeling better, could I invite you to dinner? I know it’s not much, but… it’s the only way I can express my gratitude right now.”
After she finished speaking, she waited nervously, like a child awaiting a verdict, afraid that he would refuse.
Ji Zhouye lowered his eyes without answering.
The only sound in the room was the faint beeping of the medical equipment.
Just when Nan Xin thought he was going to refuse, Ji Zhouye actually gave a slight nod.
“Sure.”
“Great! Then it’s a promise!”
Nan Xin finally breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on her face.
Ji Zhouye didn’t look at her again. He simply turned and walked out of the room.
The moment the door closed, the grateful smile on Nan Xin’s face slowly faded, replaced by a cold clarity.
She couldn’t go on like this anymore.
In the past, she had relied on Fu Beichen and lived at the mercy of others. Ending up in such a miserable state had been her own fault.
But from this moment on, she had to build her own strength and resources!
She struggled to reach the phone on the bedside table, opened her social media account, and skillfully logged into a long-abandoned account.
Moon.
The genius perfumer who had once stunned the international fragrance industry, only to mysteriously disappear at the height of her career.
That was the glory that truly belonged to Nan Xin before she became Mrs. Fu.
The account had been inactive for years, yet it still had an astonishing number of followers.
She took a deep breath, ignored the mountain of accumulated private messages and mentions, and directly composed a short post—one that was more than enough to send shockwaves through the industry.
**Moon: I’m back. Taking commissions.**