The trailer was a sanctuary of tension.
As Habiba leaned over Lin Sheng, her movements were not those of a lover, but of a devoted medic fulfilling a desperate pact.
When they had first traveled to Shanghai, Habiba had made a solemn promise: she would be his medicine.
She knew his fragility, and she had vowed that whenever the darkness closed in, she would be the one to pull him back to the light.
Lin Sheng had asked for permission to lean on her, to hug her, to touch her, and she had agreed, viewing it as the only way to keep him steady.
She didn’t know the depth of the hunger behind his eyes; she only knew the rhythm of his panic.
When his breathing stopped she didn’t hesitate.
She pressed her lips to his, blowing air into his lungs, a practiced, clinical movement.
She had performed it before.
It was an act of pure, selfless care.
But as the air entered, his system, and he snapped back into consciousness, the familiar pattern took hold.
Lin Sheng lost his grip on reality.
His hands rose to cradle her face, and he began to kiss her with a frantic, desperate intensity.
Habiba went rigid, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Every instinct told her to push him away, but her mind flashed back to the night’s in her residence, the time they had nearly lost him to his own internal abyss. Find the original chapter at novelping dot com.
If I push him, she realized with a jolt of terror, I will lose him forever.
And I did promise him I will let him lean on me, no matter what, or any kind of help he need.
She stayed still, a statue of stoic resolve, refusing to kiss him back but refusing to abandon him when he was at his most vulnerable.
She simply let him hold her, letting him pour his anguish into the kiss until the storm in his chest finally subsided.
She was the anchor, nothing more.
The trailer door creaked open.
The director and producer stood there, expressions shifting from concern to stunned silence.
Xiao Mei, trailing behind them, dropped the water bottle she had clutching.
The plastic clattered loudly against the floor, a sound that finally broke the trance.
Lin Sheng was still holding Habiba, his lips pressed to hers, his eyes squeezed shut against the world.
Habiba, still frozen in her promise to be his medicine, didn’t move.
She couldn’t, she looked up, her gaze meeting the director’s, her eyes pleading for him to understand that this was not a romance—it was a rescue.
The director’s face was a mask of professional shock.
He didn’t know about secret promises, the panic attacks, or the pact they had made before ever arriving in Shanghai.
To him, this was a scandal in the making. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
He gestured for the producer to back out, his face reddening with the weight of what he had just witnessed.
The loft as quickly as they had arrived, leaving behind a silence so thick it felt like it could choke the life out of the room.
Xiao Mei remained, her hand covering her mouth, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and confusion.
Habiba finally pulled away, her breath coming in short, shaky gasps.
She looked at Lin Sheng, whose eyes were now fluttering open, the intensity fading into a dull, exhausted realization.
“I’m sorry,” Lin Sheng whispered, his voice a ghost of its usual strength.
Habiba looked at the door, then back at him, her heart heavy.
“It’s done, Sheng,”
she whispered, her voice steady despite the fear gnawing at her.
“They saw. I hope you’re steady now, because we have a lot of explaining to do.”
## Author note
Well, the worst-case scenario just happened!
The director and producer walked in right at the worst possible moment, mistaking a medical rescue for a full-blown scandal.
How do you think the crew and director are going to react to this tomorrow on set?
Will Habiba and Lin Sheng be able to explain the truth, or is their secret pact about to blow up in their faces?
Let me know what you think in the comments below!