The white glow of the computer screen reflected the face of the man sitting before it.
The rhythmic tapping of keys echoed through the silent room, occasionally accompanied by flashes of blue light.
Reading the information sent by his subordinate, Lu Zhixing slowly curled his lips into a smile.
The contempt and mockery were unmistakable.
The moment the smile disappeared from his eyes, only his original cold indifference remained.
After all this time…
His dear younger brother was still thinking about coming back.
Had life overseas not been treating him well?
The man’s long fingers lightly tapped the keyboard, instructing his subordinate to continue monitoring Lu Zhihan.
[River’s Mark]: Brother Xing, Lu Zhihan seems to have been in contact with your stepfather recently. Should we…
Seeing the message, Lu Zhixing narrowed his eyes slightly.
His single eyelids stretched into long, narrow arcs, and the bluish glow from the monitor cast an ominous shadow across his refined features.
Only after a long moment did he begin typing.
[Mountain Wind]: I know. Just keep monitoring Lu Zhihan.
[River’s Mark]: Understood. Also, I’ll have to trouble you to keep looking after my family, Brother Xing.
[Mountain Wind]: Mm.
…
After erasing all traces of his activity on the computer, Lu Zhixing stared at the darkened screen for a while before taking out his phone.
“There’s no need to continue sending Mr. Zhou his monthly nutritional allowance.”
After ending the call, the man leaned back into the black leather chair as though finally relaxing.
He undid one button at the tightly fastened collar that always concealed his neck, revealing a glimpse of pale skin.
Tilting his head back, Lu Zhixing looked up at the silver chandelier overhead.
Suddenly, he found himself wanting a cigarette.
Of course, it was only a passing thought.
Men who smoked were always met with criticism and branded with negative stereotypes. When he was younger, Lu Zhixing had secretly smoked in his bedroom. The faint scent of tobacco had accompanied all the fantasies and reckless dreams of his youth, and every single one of them had been about his wife.
After he began hiding his true self behind a carefully crafted mask, he never touched a cigarette again.
He was not sure whether his wife also disliked the smell of smoke or men who smoked.
Suddenly, Lu Zhixing thought of his mother and let out a quiet laugh.
His muddle-headed mother had spent her entire life valuing daughters over sons. Unfortunately for her, she was simply not fated to have a daughter. Even on her deathbed, she never got one. The child his stepfather bore was still a son.
Thinking of his younger brother overseas, Lu Zhixing’s mood finally improved a little.
In any case, his wife belonged to him now.
The one Wen Lan had married was him.
That was enough.
He stood up, poured himself a glass of warm water, and drank it, intending to go find his wife afterwards.
Knock. Knock.
A knock sounded at the door.
Lu Zhixing calmly fastened the hidden button at his collar before saying gently,
“Come in.”
A tall woman entered, bringing a gust of wind with her.
Lu Zhixing accepted the documents Leng Feng had gathered and skimmed through them before nodding.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Leng Feng scratched her head.
She truly could not understand why Lu Zhixing insisted on having the family head’s birth father monitored every so often. Wasn’t he just making trouble for himself?
Still, she did not ask any questions.
This man, Lu Zhixing, always made her feel uneasy.
Sometimes she felt he was like a venomous snake wrapped in harmless skin, cold and vicious.
Except when facing the family head and the young miss, after working beside him for so many years, Leng Feng could confidently say that every emotion Lu Zhixing displayed outside was nothing more than an act.
Silently lowering her head, Leng Feng suddenly felt it was rather unethical to be criticising her employer behind his back.
“Oh, right.”
As Lu Zhixing tucked the documents into a drawer, he asked casually,
“You have a younger brother named Su Qing?”
Leng Feng’s head snapped up.
The scar running diagonally across her nose twitched, making her already intimidating face appear even fiercer.
Yet her voice betrayed a hint of panic.
“Brother Xing, I was in such a rush handling things that I forgot to tell you. Su Qing really is my younger brother. He came to Shang City looking for work. He didn’t have anywhere to stay, so I let him stay in the small house you assigned to me.”
Lu Zhixing cast her a half-smiling glance, amused to see the usually taciturn Leng Feng speaking so much.
Only after a long pause did he reply,
“Why are you so nervous? If he’s staying there, then he’s staying there. It’s not as if I’m going to punish you.”
“You must be joking, Brother Xing.”
Leng Feng hurriedly responded.
“You may go now. That Su Qing has been looking for you for quite a while.”
Supporting his chin with one hand, Lu Zhixing’s expression remained indifferent.
Leng Feng nodded.
Her instincts told her that Master Lu was not in a particularly good mood today.
Only after closing the office door behind her did she finally unclench her tightly balled fists.
Lowering her head, she roughly wiped the sweat from her palms, then sniffed at her clothes.
Frowning fiercely, she wondered whether she should take a shower before meeting Su Qing.
As she was thinking about it, she caught sight of the family head from the corner of her eye.
“Family Head.”
She lowered her head in greeting.
Seeing Leng Feng emerge from her principal husband’s office, Wen Lan thought nothing of it.
After all, Leng Feng worked under Lu Zhixing.
She stopped walking, still holding a bottle of medicine in her hand.
After a moment’s thought, she greeted her in return and casually mentioned that someone had been looking for her.
Looking up at Wen Lan’s cool, composed features, and the concern hidden so subtly beneath them, Leng Feng suddenly remembered the disgraceful things she had done behind the scenes.
For some reason, she found herself unable to meet Wen Lan’s eyes.
She hurriedly answered a few times before quickly leaving.
Watching Leng Feng’s retreating figure, Wen Lan frowned in confusion.
Leng Feng’s attitude toward her today felt strangely off.
Walking a few more steps forward, she knocked on the door.
Wen Lan had not forgotten the wrist she had injured the previous night.
“Zhixing?”
From inside came the man’s warm voice, tinged with surprise.
“Wife?”
A moment later, the door opened.
Wen Lan saw him dressed in a grey set of casual home clothes.
Looking past him, she noticed that the desk was somewhat cluttered, while the computer screen was filled with documents and files.
It seemed her principal husband was quite busy.
Wen Lan suddenly felt she had come at the wrong time.
But since she was already here, she could only continue.
“I brought some medicated oil. Does your wrist still hurt? Would you like me to apply some?”
The familiar medicinal scent reached Lu Zhixing’s nose, and with it came the strange sensation that his wrist had begun to burn warmly again.
When Wen Lan saw that he remained silent, she lowered her gaze.
All she could see were the fair tips of his ears beneath his black hair, slowly flushing crimson.
At the same time, his steady, composed voice sounded as usual.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Wife.”
Wen Lan…
Wen Lan suddenly found him rather adorable.
How could this man even blush in such a dignified manner?
She lifted her head and deliberately stopped looking at him.
Naturally, she walked to the seat beside the window and sat down.
As soon as she uncapped the bottle of medicated oil, an overwhelming sense of familiarity washed over her.
It felt as though she had sat in this very spot countless times before.
She even knew exactly where the sunlight would fall, warmest and most comfortable.
The blank space in her mind suddenly filled with scattered fragments.
She was sitting on the sofa, right here.
Beside her sat her principal husband.
Lu Zhixing rested his head on one hand as he watched her.
Sunlight fell across his face, blurring his features.
A book rested in his hand, long forgotten as his fingers held it loosely.
The scene shifted.
Through the eyes of her former self, she watched the man lean closer and closer.
Until a pair of cool, soft lips gently landed on hers, carrying careful joy.
“Wife.”
“Wife?”
Lu Zhixing stepped closer, looking at the suddenly motionless Wen Lan with concern.
“What’s wrong?”
Wen Lan abruptly came back to herself.
She did not know whether it was only her imagination, but she could still feel the lingering touch of the man’s kiss on her lips.
“N… nothing.”
She steadied herself.
But the moment she looked up, she found the man’s crimson lower lip close enough to touch.
His pale lips parted slightly as he breathed, each soft breath brushing faintly between them.
“Wife, are you feeling hot?” Lu Zhixing looked at Wen Lan with concern as she suddenly blushed, his voice tinged with anxiety.
Wen Lan felt as if her entire body had gone haywire. She hurriedly pushed the man a little farther away, putting some distance between them. They had been standing far too close, so close that she felt she could barely breathe.
Lu Zhixing froze when she pushed him away, sitting motionless on the sofa in a daze. It was the first time she had reacted so strongly when he approached her. Why? Had she remembered something? Or had someone said something to her? Lowering his head, the strands of black hair fell over his face, concealing the sinister look that flashed across his eyes.
Only after pushing him away did Wen Lan realise things had gone wrong. She glanced sideways at the man sitting silently beside her, then quickly poured herself a glass of warm water from the nearby table. The breeze drifting in through the window finally cooled the heat burning across her cheeks.
Wen Lan rarely blushed. The memory that had suddenly surfaced moments ago had left her unusually flustered. She had never imagined that they had once been so intimate. More importantly, the “former her” had shown no sign of resisting at all. Didn’t that mean she and her husband had never been merely a couple in name? They really had shared genuine feelings.
It seemed her earlier assumption had been mistaken.
Maybe she should take the initiative.
Wen Lan glanced at the man, who was still sitting there with his head lowered in silence, her fingers twitching slightly.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhixing was calmly analysing his wife’s reaction. He kept his eyelashes lowered, making sure his gaze remained fixed on the wooden floor, while replaying every change in her expression from the moment she entered the room and sat on the sofa.
Had she remembered something?
This was his office. It had also been the room where he had often coaxed and lured his wife into spending time with him. Most of the time they simply read together or sketched portraits. There should have been no unpleasant memories here.
So why had she pushed him away?
What exactly had she remembered?
Could it be… had she remembered Lu Zhihan?
The sudden touch on his wrist startled Lu Zhixing, instantly scattering his thoughts. The vicious, violent emotions that had been coiling inside him vanished without a trace. His thick eyelashes trembled like butterfly wings, giving him an air of fragility and innocence. With his head lowered, he looked every bit like someone who had been hurt.
Lu Zhixing had always known exactly how to make the best use of his limited physical advantages.
He slowly raised his head. Under the sunlight, his pupils glowed with a warm amber sheen, flecked with tiny points of light.
Unfortunately, Wen Lan never saw it.
Her attention was on his wrist, still tightly covered by his sleeve. Remembering the fragments of memory she’d just recalled, as well as the decision she’d made moments ago, she reached out and took his hand.
His hand was slightly cool.
Suppressing her awkwardness, Wen Lan deftly undid the black cuff button, exposing his slightly swollen wrist. Against his pale skin, the redness looked even more severe.
She uncapped the bottle of medicated oil, poured a little onto her fingertips, and gently rubbed it onto the swollen area.
The moment her fingers touched him, she sharply noticed his body stiffen before quickly forcing itself to relax again. The deliberate restraint made her instinctively look up, only to meet his gaze.
He had been watching her the whole time.
Wen Lan cleared her throat softly and looked away first. The way her husband looked at her reminded her of the memory of him kissing her.
The skin beneath her fingertips was smooth and warm. Before long, it grew even warmer under the massage. After patiently working the medicated oil into the injury, she wiped away the excess with a wet tissue before fastening his cuff again. The neat row of black buttons concealed his wrist once more, making the covered skin appear strangely restrained and ascetic.
Lu Zhixing flexed his wrist lightly and naturally curved the corners of his eyes into a smile. His voice was soft and lingering, almost like a tiny hook tugging at the heart.
“Thank you, Wife.”
Wen Lan straightened up and put away the medicine bottle. Seeing how pleased he looked, she couldn’t help smiling faintly.
“No need to thank me.”
Had her husband forgotten that she was the one who had injured his wrist in the first place?