Lin Wan stood at the entrance of the empty mining site and took a deep breath.
The air was thick with the smell of coal dust and sweat.
She had deliberately tidied up her appearance on the way here.
Two braided pigtails hung over her chest, and her heavy bangs were let down just enough to cover the bruises and wounds at her temple and the back of her head that hadn’t fully faded.
She couldn’t look disheveled. She couldn’t draw attention—at the very least, she couldn’t arouse too much suspicion from the people at the mine.
She hadn’t forgotten that Gu Ye had come to this mine because there were problems here. Right now, she was just a minor cannon fodder character—she couldn’t afford to provoke anyone.
Lin Wan knew she wasn’t a professional actress. To avoid exposing flaws, from this moment on, she had to root the story she had created deep into her heart. At the very least, she had to believe it unwaveringly herself if she wanted to deceive Gu Ye.
So now, she was Gu Ye’s fiancée. Even if the King of Heaven himself showed up, she still would be.
They said once you told a lie, you’d need countless more lies to cover it up.
Lin Wan felt—
That was easy enough. At worst, she’d lie for a lifetime.
If she could fool him for a lifetime, that would be her ability. Wealth, honor, and a long life would be what she deserved.
She smoothed her hair and looked determinedly at the rusted iron gate, as well as the smoke-filled guardroom beside it.
She was just considering how to start when a young man in coal-dusted work clothes, his hair shaved down to bristly stubble and a cigarette hanging from his mouth, swaggered out.
Gritting her teeth, Lin Wan stepped forward, lowered her head slightly, and spoke clearly though softly:
“Big brother, may I ask… is Gu Ye working here?”
The young man paused, narrowing his eyes as he sized her up, a roguish curiosity in his gaze.
“Who are you?”
Here it comes.
Lin Wan raised her head, revealing a delicate face tinged with timidity. Her hands twisted nervously at the hem of her clothes, and her voice dropped another notch.
“I… I’m his… fi-fiancée.”
“I’ve been looking for him for a long time. If he’s here, could you please call him out…”
The words “fiancée” struck like thunder, leaving the young man dumbfounded.
The cigarette in his mouth dropped to the ground with a plop. His eyes widened like brass bells as he pointed at Lin Wan.
“You—you—you…” He stammered for half a day without managing a complete sentence.
Well I’ll be—there really is such a person!
Wang Lei looked her up and down. Strands of slightly messy hair covered half her face, but the exposed brows and eyes still revealed uncommon beauty.
He only knew that Brother Ye had come to this hellhole to earn bride price money. But he had never heard that Brother Ye’s fiancée was this pretty and lively. No wonder the bride price was expensive!
“Big brother?… Sir?”
The next second, Wang Lei reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and let out a strange yell:
“Ahhh—!! Wait here! Stay right here! Don’t you dare leave!!!”
His booming voice echoed through the entire entrance of the mine.
After shouting, he didn’t wait for Lin Wan’s reaction. Like a whirlwind, he turned and dashed toward the miners’ dormitory.
Leaving Lin Wan standing there alone, thoroughly bewildered in the coal-laced wind.
Youth really was something—acting on impulse at the drop of a hat.
In the mining compound’s residential area stood a small, standalone brick house.
This was already the best treatment the mine could offer.
The room was small and sparsely furnished—a wooden plank bed, an old table, a chair—but it was clean and private.
This was the mine’s “compensation” and “hush money” for Gu Ye rescuing someone underground and getting injured on the job, so the matter wouldn’t escalate.
Gu Ye leaned back against the wooden bed. A white bandage wrapped around his head, faint blood seeping through, making his dark brows and eyes appear even colder and sharper.
He toyed with an unlit cigarette in his hand. He wasn’t smoking it—he just needed something to fiddle with when he was irritated. His gaze lacked focus as he stared at the mottled wall.
Amnesia.
His mind felt empty, as though it had been washed clean.
The people around him all said his name was Gu Ye. That he had no parents, scraped by on the streets, and because he had a girlfriend—because his family was poor and couldn’t afford the bride price—he had come to this illegal coal mine to earn money through sheer grit.
The logic seemed to make sense.
But he felt something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He clenched his fist. His knuckles were rough, bearing thin calluses from long-term labor. Yet subconsciously, he seemed more accustomed to a different way of exerting force.
This sense of dissonance irritated him.
Watching the workers in the sheds argue red-faced over a few drinks or a bit of money, he felt an inexplicable sense of detachment.
The memories he had lost were probably far from simple.
“Brother Ye! Brother Ye!!”
Wang Lei burst into the room like a cannonball, his face flushed with excitement as he pointed outside.
“She’s here! Lo-looking for you!”
Gu Ye frowned. “Tongue tied?”
“Your girlfriend! Your fiancée!!”
Gu Ye’s fingers stilled around the cigarette.
“Who?”
He slowly turned his head. Those deep, wild, and slightly cold eyes looked at Wang Lei as his brows knit almost imperceptibly.
“Your fiancée! She’s at the gate!” Wang Lei repeated, even more excited than if it were his own girl.
Fiancée?
The one he was supposedly risking his life to earn bride price money for?
She showed up right when he had lost his memory and was filled with doubts about his identity?
The sense of something being wrong peaked at that moment. A coincidence? Or… was she here for him?
“Let’s take a look.” Gu Ye stood up, his voice low but carrying undeniable authority.
He would personally see what kind of person this “fiancée” who made him “risk his life” was.
Lin Wan didn’t wait long.
Soon, a tall figure emerged from inside.
He wore a faded old work uniform, the top two buttons casually undone, revealing sharply defined collarbones.
The white bandage wrapped around his head stood out starkly in the gray environment. It didn’t weaken his presence—instead, it added a reckless, untamed air to him.
Deep-set brows and eyes, a high nose bridge, a tightly drawn jawline. His lips were pale from blood loss, pressed into a thin line that radiated cold indifference.
His steps weren’t hurried. He stopped a few paces away, the unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth, lazily lifting his eyelids to look at her with a roguish air.
Only his eyes were different—pitch-black, sharp, like a frozen winter pool. They carried undisguised scrutiny and a near-indifferent edge.
Lin Wan’s heart clenched.
This man was more striking—and more dangerous—than she had imagined.
While Lin Wan was observing Gu Ye, he was observing her as well.
The girl at the gate wore a clean old blue cotton outfit. She was slender, two braids hanging over her chest, looking especially obedient and gentle.
Beneath the heavy bangs, her small face was delicate and pale. But what caught the eye most were her eyes—clear as if washed by mountain spring water.
At that moment, those clear eyes reflected his figure distinctly.
They were filled with disbelief, joy at reunion, overwhelming excitement, and an almost overflowing dependence.
As if… she truly loved him to the core.
Such pure and intense emotion felt foreign to Gu Ye, stirring a faint, unfamiliar ripple in his heart that he himself hadn’t noticed.
He frowned, suppressing the discomfort, and spoke with his usual cool sharpness, getting straight to the point:
“I heard you’re my fi—”
Before he could finish the word “fiancée,” the timid girl who had been standing a few steps away seemed to finally explode from overwhelming joy and grievance.
Her eyes turned red instantly. Without caring about anything else, she rushed forward. Before he could react, she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist!
Her soft body, slightly cool, crashed into his chest.
A faint, clean scent—like soap pods dried in sunlight—instantly drove away some of the medicinal smell lingering around him.
Gu Ye’s body stiffened abruptly.
The cigarette fell from his mouth into the dirt.
Almost instinctively, he raised his arm to push her away.
But when his fingers touched her thin, trembling shoulder, he paused.
“…Gu Ye…”
Her face was buried against his chest. Her voice was muffled, thick with grievance and tears.
Yet her arms tightened around him as if he were her only piece of driftwood.
“…I finally found you…”