“What about it!”
Before the teasing lilt in Gu Ye’s voice had even fully fallen, the trace of guilt in Lin Wan’s eyes evaporated instantly.
It would have been better if he hadn’t said anything. Once he did, Lin Wan suddenly had even more to say.
Not only did she not avoid his gaze, she actually met his scrutinizing eyes head-on and shot back righteously.
Gu Ye lifted a brow, looking at her with a faintly amused expression.
Just as he thought.
He already knew that in front of him, this woman’s claws were sharp. She wouldn’t back down even a little, and she certainly wouldn’t show weakness just because she’d been seen through.
With his intuition confirmed, Gu Ye suddenly felt that Lin Wan really might be his fiancée after all, and that what people at the mine said was probably true.
Otherwise, how could he have gotten used to Lin Wan’s dramatic antics in such a short time?
It couldn’t be that he just had a masochistic streak, could it?
“What kind of look is that? Don’t tell me you’re secretly bad-mouthing me in your head?”
Lin Wan narrowed her eyes. Seeing that he didn’t respond, she became even more energized, her little mouth firing away as she started settling accounts.
“They came right to my door, pointing at my nose and cursing at me, even trying to hit me! If I just stood there obediently and let them beat me without fighting back, wouldn’t I be an idiot? That would be way too pathetic!”
The more she spoke, the more justified she felt. She even started dragging out old grievances.
Even though she made them up.
Well, she’d already fabricated so much anyway—what was one more?
With an accusing look in her eyes, she continued, “Besides, back then you were the one who said I didn’t need to be afraid, that I could boldly do whatever I wanted.”
“You said that no matter what happened, you’d stand on my side unconditionally and help me solve it! So what now? You forgot again, didn’t you?”
Mentioning that made her straighten her back even more.
The direction of her accusations immediately shifted.
“Speaking of which, I haven’t even scolded you yet!”
“This trouble clearly came from you! If you hadn’t been flirting around outside, would Wang Manli have fixated on me like a lunatic? And you still have the nerve to blame me? Let me tell you, Gu Ye, you—”
“Sorry.”
Those three clear, low words were like a small pebble dropped gently into the torrent of her nonstop tirade, sending ripples spreading outward.
“…Huh?”
Lin Wan had been pointing at his nose and scolding him enthusiastically, but Gu Ye’s single sentence suddenly blocked all the accusations she had prepared.
She stared at him blankly, suspecting she’d misheard.
Gu Ye looked at her slightly widened eyes—still a little moist—and his expression was more serious than ever before as he repeated clearly,
“Sorry.”
He paused, gazing at her steadily, his tone sincere.
“You’re right. This really is because of me.”
“Wang Manli came to trouble you because of me.”
Even he found that surprising, but facts were facts. There was no point arguing about them.
“I should have told you about this messy situation beforehand so you wouldn’t be caught off guard.”
“And I should have thought things through more carefully instead of leaving you to face it alone.”
He admitted each point one by one without any attempt to dodge responsibility.
Then he looked at her, his gaze carrying a weighty promise as he said slowly,
“I promise there won’t be a next time.”
“But I didn’t flirt around.”
He could admit the other things, but not that.
He had always ignored Wang Manli and never had any private contact with her. Who knew she was that crazy?
All the dramatics Lin Wan had prepared suddenly lost their power in the face of his calm apology and promise.
She looked at the sharp-lined, usually cold face so close to her now—yet filled with sincerity—and it felt as though something lightly squeezed her heart.
A little sour.
And a little… strangely soft.
“O-Okay then.”
Although Gu Ye knew Lin Wan hadn’t really suffered much, he still didn’t feel at ease.
He insisted on pulling her over to check carefully, making sure her elbows, knees, and other places had no bruises or bumps. Only then did the deep furrow in his brow relax slightly.
By the time he came back to his senses,
the two of them were already sitting face-to-face at the edge of the bed,
with Gu Ye changing the medicine on the old scabbed wound on Lin Wan’s forehead.
The atmosphere was no longer tense and probing like before. Instead, it carried a subtle sense of peace and naturalness, even their movements becoming noticeably more practiced.
After finishing the bandage, his brows still hadn’t fully relaxed. He lightly tapped the side of her forehead.
“This injury… are you really sure it’s fine? Should we still go to the town clinic to have it checked?”
He still felt that injuries to the head were no small matter.
Lin Wan was sucking on the milk candy Gu Ye had given her, the sweet flavor melting on her tongue.
Honestly, candy from this era didn’t have that artificial modern feel—it really tasted different.
Hearing his question, she instinctively tried to shake her head to test it, mumbling around the candy, “It’s fine, I feel pre—”
“Don’t move!”
Gu Ye’s expression changed slightly. His large hand immediately steadied her head, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“You think you can just shake your head after injuring it? Are you stupid?”
Lin Wan shrank her neck from the sudden sharpness in his voice, yet a little warmth rose in her chest.
Thinking about it carefully, it was strange. Ever since she found Gu Ye and stayed by his side, the dizziness and dull pain that had occasionally struck her before seemed to have eased a lot. Her body was recovering at an astonishing speed.
Could he have some kind of superpower? Or maybe a hidden buff?
The thought flashed through her mind.
But in Gu Ye’s eyes, her rolling eyeballs just looked like she was daydreaming again.
While efficiently putting the medicine and gauze back into the drawer, he shot her a glance.
“What mischief are you thinking up now?”
Only then did Lin Wan turn her head. Her gaze moved from his long fingers as he tidied things up to his sharply contoured side profile.
She realized that aside from being a bit cold and suspicious at the beginning, there really wasn’t much to criticize about this man.
Not only did he lack the roughness and male chauvinism common among many men of this era, he was even more reliable and responsible than many modern men she remembered.
Someone like him should have been the kind of protagonist in a novel—upright and extraordinary.
So how could he have ended up with such a sloppy, sacrificial ending?
It simply didn’t make sense.
Her thoughts churned wildly, but on the surface she curved her brows and eyes, smiling like a cat that had just stolen some fish.
“I suddenly realized something. Since both of us injured our heads, we kind of look like a married couple, huh?”
Her jump in logic and wording made Gu Ye’s lips twitch upward. His hands didn’t stop moving as he casually closed the drawer and replied out of habit,
“Is that how ‘looking like a married couple’ is used?”
After saying that, he sat back down on the bed.
But when he turned his head, he ran straight into Lin Wan’s smiling gaze—bright and sparkling with mischief.
Gu Ye didn’t understand.
Then he heard her say lazily,
“Gu Ye, you didn’t refute it~”
“……”
“So does that mean… deep down you’ve already secretly admitted that I’m your fiancée?”
“And,” she shook the remaining candy wrapper in her hand, her smile widening,
“you even brought me candy. Does that mean… you were thinking about me while you were outside?”
Only then did Gu Ye realize he’d been led into her trap. The tips of his ears grew slightly warm as he awkwardly turned his gaze away, though his voice deliberately sounded stern.
“Weren’t you the one who kept saying that’s the truth? What—were you lying to me before?”
He didn’t clearly say whether he believed it or not, tossing the question back to her instead.
But whether he believed it… only he knew.
“Of course not!”
Because—
it wasn’t just that one thing she lied about. She lied about everything.
Lin Wan denied it, yet her mood grew even brighter, like soaking in warm spring water with every pore relaxed.
She knew Gu Ye already had an answer.
And that answer was the one she wanted.
The fact that he now allowed her to sit on his bed was already proof enough.
“Gu Ye,” she said, “I’m in a really good mood right now.”
Gu Ye turned back to look at her. “So?”
“So,” she announced magnanimously, “I’ve decided not to hold the Wang Manli matter against you anymore! …After all, you still have to work at the mine, and it wouldn’t be good to offend people too much.”
But what she was actually thinking was:
His real identity is a hidden risk. It’s better to keep things low-key for now.