A cool voice with a slightly magnetic timbre sounded beside Han Sinuo’s ear.
The man behind her gripped her slender waist, his warm breath brushing across her neck with a hint of intimacy.
Her face burned. Sweat dampened her temples, and a few strands of hair clung to her cheek.
She looked disheveled, yet alluringly shy.
“Ouyang Che, that’s enough.”
She tried to struggle free, only for Ouyang Che to seize both her hands.
“Stop it. There are people right outside.”
Han Sinuo was both embarrassed and annoyed.
She knew Ouyang Che could be wild, but she hadn’t imagined he would go this far.
Tonight was Quansheng Group’s fiftieth-anniversary celebration. There were plenty of senior executives and distinguished guests from all walks of life outside.
They were separated from everyone out there by nothing but a floor-to-ceiling glass window.
The blinds were drawn, but Ouyang Che had her pinned against them. The way he moved against her made it impossible for her to keep completely still. One careless movement, and they could be exposed in full view of the guests.
The lounge door wasn’t locked, either.
It was only closed.
She was terrified someone might suddenly walk in.
“What are you afraid of?”
The man’s voice turned a little colder, but he showed no sign of stopping. If anything, he pressed deeper.
Han Sinuo’s breathing grew ragged, and her body went limp.
If Ouyang Che hadn’t clamped a hand over her mouth in time, she would have cried out.
…
Afterward, Ouyang Che quickly withdrew.
His face remained stern, unlike hers, which was flushed and radiant, as red as if it had been stained with blood.
“Two years. I’m getting a little tired of you.”
He calmly straightened his clothes and tidied his appearance, then turned and sat on the sofa. His knuckles sharply defined, he took a pack of cigarettes from his suit pocket, pulled one out, put it between his lips, and lit it without haste.
After taking a deep drag, he looked through the drifting smoke at Han Sinuo, flustered beside him. He exhaled and said in his usual cool voice, “Let’s get divorced.”
Han Sinuo froze. Her hands, which had been straightening her clothes, clenched involuntarily.
Divorce?
She stared at Ouyang Che in disbelief. His brows were high and his eyes deep-set, his features strikingly handsome, as if a master had meticulously carved them to perfection. But his eyes were so dark and unfathomable that they seemed like an ancient, bottomless pool of icy water.
Ever since they married, he had been hot and cold with her. She could never figure out what he was thinking.
“You can name your terms for the divorce.”
He leaned lazily against the sofa, one arm draped over its armrest. He seemed indifferent, but his gaze stayed fixed on her face. His voice softened a little. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Han Sinuo couldn’t find the words.
This was too sudden.
She had never imagined that Ouyang Che would ask for a divorce.
“Why?”
He had to give her a reason, at least.
Was it only because he was a little tired of her?
But just moments ago, he had been all over her…
After taking a few drags, he stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. He no longer looked at her. He got up, tossed out a single sentence—“Ru Yan is awake”—and headed for the door.
Watching him open the lounge door and disappear from view, his tall, broad-shouldered figure vanishing from sight, Han Sinuo suddenly came back to herself.
So his white moonlight had woken up. She remembered that woman had once saved Ouyang Che’s life…
A faint ache spread through her chest, and her eyes reddened.
She remembered how, two years ago, Ouyang Che had approached her of his own accord. He knew she had long been secretly in love with him and that she was willing to do anything for him.
Her circumstances had also been unusual at the time. Her family had gone through a major upheaval, and she had been told she wasn’t the Han family’s biological daughter; she had been switched at birth.
Her adoptive parents brought their real daughter home, leaving her, the fake heiress, in a terribly awkward position.
She had wanted to move out, but she was still in college and had no savings of her own. Her adoptive parents froze her bank card, leaving her penniless and with nowhere to go.
As for her biological parents, one had died giving birth to her, while the other was ill and urgently needed a liver transplant.
When Ouyang Che heard about her situation, he offered to help. He transferred her biological father to the best hospital and arranged for the best doctors. His condition was that she marry him and register their marriage.
The main reason was that the Ouyang elders had been pressuring him to marry, and Ouyang Che was fed up.
Rather than go on blind dates and marry a stranger, he might as well marry her.
They knew each other too well already.
But even though they were so familiar with each other, Ouyang Che still slept with her after they married.
After that first time, he couldn’t stop.
…
Thinking about it all, she felt a dull ache. Her hand hanging at her side clenched so hard her knuckles turned white.
She had thought that after two years of living together day and night, she had finally earned a place in Ouyang Che’s heart.
She hadn’t expected that as soon as his white moonlight woke up, he would be so eager to ask for a divorce.
She no longer felt like attending the anniversary celebration. After straightening her clothes and composing herself, she went home alone without waiting for Ouyang Che.
He didn’t come back that night.
She lay in the big bed in their room, staring toward the door, awake all night.
The next day, as night drew near and Ouyang Che still hadn’t appeared, she guessed he must be at the hospital, keeping his white moonlight company.
Several days passed without any sign of him. He didn’t even call, and he wouldn’t answer her calls.
If he wanted a divorce, why was he still playing at disappearing?
She went straight to the hospital and headed for Wang Ru Yan’s room.
Two years earlier, Wang Ru Yan had been in a serious car accident. Ouyang Che had been in the accident too; they were in the same car. It was said that Wang Ru Yan had put herself in danger to protect him.
The man had suffered only minor injuries, but Wang Ru Yan had sustained a severe head injury and remained unconscious, entering a vegetative state…
At the door, she looked through the glass window and saw that Ouyang Che wasn’t inside.
Wang Ru Yan was alone in the hospital bed.
The woman was painfully thin, her cheeks sunken. She lay weakly on the bed, staring straight at Han Sinuo.
Han Sinuo turned to leave, but a hoarse voice came through the door. “Han Sinuo, don’t go. I have something to tell you.”
She and Wang Ru Yan weren’t close; they were barely acquaintances.
She stopped, hesitated for a few seconds, then pushed open the door and went in.
Since she was already here, she planned to ask whether Ouyang Che had visited. She also wondered if she could ask Wang Ru Yan to pass along a message, telling Ouyang Che to contact her as soon as possible.
She wanted to get the divorce settled quickly. She didn’t want it dragging on.
After closing the door, she walked to the bed and looked down at Wang Ru Yan.
The woman’s eyes were bloodshot as she glared at her viciously. “I heard you took advantage of me being unconscious to seduce A Che. You’re quite the schemer.”
“…”
Han Sinuo had never expected Wang Ru Yan to open with that.
“Don’t you know I’m the one A Che loves? I’m not even dead, and you’ve already used me as a stepping stone to become a phoenix. You’re just a fake heiress who stole someone else’s place. What gives you the right?”
Looking at Wang Ru Yan’s gritted teeth, vicious glare, and ugly expression, Han Sinuo gave her a cold smile.
“Ouyang Che was the one who proposed marriage. It wasn’t me.”
Wang Ru Yan was so furious that she tried to sit up, but she was far too weak to manage it. Instead, she clutched Han Sinuo’s arm. “You’re lying. You’re the one who has no shame.”
Everyone in the capital knew Han Sinuo loved Ouyang Che—and that she had once confessed her feelings, only to be rejected by him.
“If you hadn’t kept pestering A Che, why would he have married you? What shameful trick did you use to get into his bed?”
“I didn’t pester him, and I didn’t get into his bed.”
It was Ouyang Che who had taken her after they married. She had resisted, but it had been no use.
She tried to pull her arm back, but Wang Ru Yan only tightened her grip, digging her nails into Han Sinuo’s flesh.
Han Sinuo frowned. She suddenly yanked, intending to break free, but Wang Ru Yan refused to let go. The force sent her tumbling off the bed.
Wang Ru Yan had been lying in bed for two years and was nothing but skin and bones. When she hit the floor so suddenly, her frail body landed hard. She trembled with pain and couldn’t get up at all.
Han Sinuo couldn’t be bothered with her. She lowered her eyes to her arm and saw that it had been scratched until it bled.
She was about to find a doctor to disinfect the wound when the hospital-room door swung open.
A tall, broad-shouldered man walked in.
He saw that Wang Ru Yan, who should have been resting in bed, was now curled up on the floor in pain, while Han Sinuo stood beside her, watching coldly.
Ouyang Che’s face darkened at once.
He strode forward with an icy, intimidating presence, shoved Han Sinuo aside without ceremony, then scooped Wang Ru Yan up and carefully placed her back on the bed.
Han Sinuo staggered from the shove. By the time she steadied herself, Wang Ru Yan was already leaning against Ouyang Che’s chest, no longer wearing the vicious expression she’d had before.
Wang Ru Yan looked weak and limp, her cheek pressed against Ouyang Che’s chest as she sobbed. “A Che, my whole body hurts!”
“What happened just now?”
“Miss Han barged in, shouted abuse at me, hit me, and then pushed me off the bed…”
Han Sinuo’s eyes widened, and panic flickered through her. Before Wang Ru Yan could finish, she immediately interrupted, “I didn’t. She’s lying.”
“Whether she’s lying or not, I have eyes. I can see for myself.”
Ouyang Che shot her a cold look, anger surging in his eyes. His gaze held a tight, restrained fury, but in the end he forced himself not to lash out at her. “Leave. This isn’t a place you should be.”
“Then what about the divorce…”
“Get out.”
“…”