Lu Yan had almost succeeded, only to be interrupted by that sudden incoming call.
Seeing Gu Chenyu turn his face away, Lu Yan immediately hung up without a second thought. She reached out, turned his cold, hard face back toward her, and stared at him with her dampened eyes.
“What are you hiding from?”
Gu Chenyu was forced to turn back and look at her. Before he could say anything, the leg he’d just released once again slid around his waist.
“Lu Yan—”
Gu Chenyu’s jaw tightened. He reached into the water and accurately caught the crook of her leg.
He had only intended to stop her.
But the moment his fingertips touched that smooth, delicate skin, the intense excitement that had been suppressed deep within his bones for so long nearly broke through his restraint.
His palm instinctively tightened, firmly encasing her slender, rounded knee.
He was like a massive male beast on the verge of transformation. His face remained expressionless, but the powerful muscles of his broad back were taut with barely contained strength, while his wet chest rose and fell heavily.
Clearly, he was doing everything he could to suppress the violent impulse surging within him.
Lu Yan blinked her purple eyes and lightly poked the exaggeratedly flexed muscle lines across his chest with her fingertip.
Her lips parted slightly.
“Colonel Gu, we haven’t shared a bed in three years. You haven’t forgotten how to fulfill your duties as a husband, have you?”
Gu Chenyu caught the finger she was deliberately causing trouble with against his chest. His gaze remained seemingly calm and indifferent.
“Lu Yan… what exactly are you trying to do?”
Slightly annoyed, Lu Yan bit down on the webbing between his thumb and index finger, then spoke with muffled arrogance.
“…Why are you pretending to be innocent? Can’t you tell what I want?”
“Do you need me to do something?”
Gu Chenyu’s gaze slowly sharpened as it settled on her face. His low voice grew increasingly hoarse and detached.
“You can tell me directly. There’s no need to test me, much less… go this far.”
Lu Yan stared at him with widened eyes.
Only then did she belatedly realize—
Gu Chenyu had clearly grown accustomed to her hatred and insults over the past four years.
Her sudden initiative to get close to him didn’t look like an attempt at reconciliation in his eyes.
It could only look like she had some ulterior motive for approaching him…
Lu Yan felt both frustrated and exasperated by how hopelessly dense he was. She bit her lip, unable to say a single word.
She could only forcefully cup his face and fiercely bite down on those cold, beautiful lips.
She deliberately bit until the skin split, then warned him through muffled words,
“You talk too much. You’re not allowed to say anything else!”
As she spoke, she ignored Gu Chenyu’s reaction and wrapped her legs haphazardly around his waist.
She was about to reach for him again, intending to strip away the perfectly pressed shirt clinging to the contours of his muscular body.
In the chaos, she had just undone one or two of the cold, hard military buttons when her hand hadn’t even had time to slip beneath his opened collar—
That damn communicator rang again.
Gu Chenyu’s unreadable gaze swept across the glowing screen on her wrist once more.
After a moment of silence, his large hands steadily grasped her two slender legs that had fallen apart around him. Controlling his strength, he lifted her upright.
Then, with a splash, he rose from the water, bracing himself with his long, soaked legs.
His voice was cold and devoid of warmth.
“Answer it.”
Lu Yan didn’t even have time to stop him before she watched Gu Chenyu leave the bathroom.
Annoyed, she looked at the caller displayed on the glowing screen around her wrist.
The moment she saw the name, memories of everything that had happened in her previous life came rushing back, making her even more furious.
She answered the call without thinking and immediately snapped,
“Cheng Linzhou, you’d better have something urgent!”
She had almost managed to take another step toward repairing her relationship with Gu Chenyu, so why was he calling now and ruining everything?!
On the other end, Cheng Linzhou heard the familiar voice speaking to him with such impatience for the first time.
He paused, wondering if he’d heard incorrectly.
“Lu Yan?”
Lu Yan frowned, her patience nearly exhausted.
“…What exactly do you want?”
Cheng Linzhou spoke carefully.
“Ziyi has been missing since yesterday. I can’t get through to her either. Could this have something to do with you?”
Lu Yan was already annoyed enough just hearing his voice. Now, hearing this, she nearly laughed from sheer anger.
“Cheng Linzhou, are you sick? The person you like goes missing, and you come looking for me? What exactly are you implying?”
Over the past three years, Cheng Linzhou had long grown accustomed to Lu Yan’s almost obsessive infatuation with him.
This was the first time he’d ever heard her curse at him like this.
There was a brief silence on the phone.
He assumed Lu Yan was simply playing another game of push-and-pull.
“Lu Yan, I know you’ve always targeted Ziyi because of me, but no matter what, you can’t abuse your noble status and act recklessly.”
“I’ve already checked the surveillance footage. The last time Ziyi was seen, she got into a luxury car bearing the Lu family’s crest. You still dare say this has nothing to do with you?”
Lu Yan frowned, wanting to curse him again but stopping herself.
Because she suddenly remembered something…
Her damn younger brother, Lu Chi…
He couldn’t have already escaped from military academy and taken Chen Ziyi with him, could he?
“Lu Yan, as long as you let Ziyi go, I’ll agree to your previous request. I can accompany you to—”
“…Get lost. Don’t flatter yourself. Wherever I want to go, my husband and baby will go with me. Who do you think you are?”
Lu Yan cut him off without mercy, then continued coldly.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with me. But since you said she disappeared after getting into a Lu family vehicle, I’ll investigate it myself and find out exactly what happened.”
Without waiting for Cheng Linzhou to respond, she hung up and immediately blocked the number.
Lu Yan’s expression turned solemn as she began thinking.
If she remembered correctly, in her previous life, Lu Chi had kidnapped and imprisoned Chen Ziyi for half a month because of this incident. Once evidence was gathered against him, he was reported and expelled from military academy.
And this kidnapping and imprisonment was precisely what gave Lu Chi, the yandere second male lead, a taste for having Chen Ziyi completely under his control.
Later, he meticulously planned and secretly built an underground villa prison on a certain star island, intending to keep Chen Ziyi locked inside for the rest of her life…
In the end, naturally, he was no match for Cheng Linzhou’s overwhelming protagonist aura and suffered a crushing defeat…
Lu Yan knew the situation was urgent and couldn’t afford to delay.
She hurriedly changed her clothes and pushed open the bathroom door, but Gu Chenyu was nowhere to be seen in the bedroom.
She stepped outside and suddenly stopped.
At the end of the corridor was a balcony.
Gu Chenyu had already changed into a clean, neat set of black pajamas. The collar hung loosely, half-revealing his collarbone. His long legs were straight and tall beneath the loose pants as he stood quietly beside the railing.
Gu Chenyu lowered his eyes slightly, the cold, sharply defined side of his face hidden in shadow.
The night breeze gently lifted the hem of his pajamas, accentuating the clean lines of his shoulders and waist and his restrained, ascetic air.
Lu Yan’s breathing hitched slightly at the sight.
She almost wanted to rush over and tear his clothes off.
Wearing his pajamas like that on purpose—wasn’t he obviously trying to seduce her into staying?
Fortunately, Lu Yan still had some reason left and forcibly suppressed her desire.
She walked over and called his name.
“Gu Chenyu, something urgent came up on Imperial Star. I have to go back immediately…”
Gu Chenyu said nothing.
A faint chill seemed to surround him.
She had just finished taking that call from the man surnamed Cheng, and now she suddenly had something urgent enough to rush back to Imperial Star overnight.
The reason was obvious.
Gu Chenyu didn’t ask anything.
He simply stared ahead and responded coldly.
“Mm.”
Seeing his reaction, Lu Yan had no choice but to move half a step closer.
She reached out and grabbed the slightly open collar of his pajamas, then forced herself to issue a stern warning.
“Don’t think you’re free just because I’ve left. Once I take care of this… two days at the latest. I’ll be back again in two days. And when I come back…”
As she spoke, her gaze deliberately traveled down along the lines of his abs. She suggestively ran her hand over them.
“You’re not allowed to hide from me again!”
Gu Chenyu’s abdomen tightened.
He lowered his eyes and looked down at her little face. As though he had thought of something, he slowly spoke a reminder.
“It’s already very late…”