Sweetie, don't look at him, kiss me.

Lin Qingmian was pinned down on the sofa by him, and he kissed her from head to toe, inside and out.

Just when she was in complete disarray, Ji Linzhou stopped.

The man's voice was a bit hoarse than usual: "Have you taken a shower?"

Lin Qingmian was panting, as if she had finally glimpsed a ray of light in her despair.

She blurted out, "I haven't washed."

But the next second, she was suddenly lifted into the air.

Her chin bumped into his chest muscle, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck: "What are you doing?"

Ji Linzhou supported her with one hand and opened the bathroom door with the other: "Perfect timing, let's shower together."

Lin Qingmian was forced into the bathtub.

The man's large hand gripped her waist tightly, his gaze looking down at her, greedily taking in every expression she made.

As wave after wave crashed against her, Lin Qingmian vaguely thought, "Novels are all lies. It doesn't hurt as much as being split in two."

The man on top of her was tireless.

As he draped a bath towel over her and she came out of the bathroom, Lin Qingmian glanced at the time.

half an hour.

She thought it would all end there, but to her surprise, Ji Linzhou pressed her down onto the sofa in the living room.

Then comes the carpet, and finally the bed in the bedroom.

In the end, Lin Qingmian didn't even have the strength to open her eyes, letting him knead and shape her as he pleased.

When I woke up again, it was already dark.

The sound of Ji Linzhou making a phone call could be heard from the living room.

The aches and pains all over her body made her not want to move at all, so she simply lay on the bed and did nothing.

Lin Qingmian and Ji Linzhou first met on a summer night when she was sixteen.

She had a fight with Ji Xingye, ran away from the Ji family's old house, and went to the banquet pavilion to curse Ji Xingye over and over again in the night wind.

Her temper flared up quickly but subsided just as fast; once her tears dried, she was no longer angry.

But out of pride, she couldn't go back to him, so she simply leaned against the pavilion and played games.

After finishing the game, Ji Xingye came over, panting.

But instead of greeting her first, he looked behind her and respectfully called out, "Uncle."

Lin Qingmian was then surprised to realize that there was actually another person sitting in the pavilion all along.

"Um."

As the deep voice rang out, the tall, imposing figure of the man emerged from the shadows, the dim light making his handsome face appear even more aloof and proud.

The man's voice was cool and clear: "You played the game quite well."

This made Lin Qingmian regret it for a long time.

She had always wanted to make a good impression on this uncle whom Ji Xingye respected the most.

At that time, she never imagined that one day, Ji Xingye, this aloof and abstinent uncle, would break his vows and lose control in front of her.

As Lin Qingmian gradually regained consciousness, the man's voice in the living room slowly became clearer—

"It's been nine hours since that video was posted at 7:30 this morning."

The man's voice was calm and devoid of emotion, yet it carried a chilling pressure: "Ji Xingye, is your studio deserted, or is there simply no one who knows how to do the work?"

"The old man specifically called to ask me why I wasn't taking any action."

"You're not a child anymore. Do I really need to handle this kind of thing?"

He had the hands-free mode on.

A man's clear but weary voice came from the other end of the phone: "Uncle, Sister Tingwan and I are just business partners. That video was AI-generated. The studio has been with me all day during the closed-door filming, and they only just found out about it..."

Lin Qingmian frowned.

This was the first time she had heard Ji Xingye's voice in two years since their breakup.

The voice that once kept her tossing and turning at night no longer stirred any emotion in her ears.

She even started to drift off, wondering if she should call a delivery person to bring some medicine over later.

Ji Linzhou may seem like a refined and gentle man, but his behavior in bed is truly appalling.

Let's arrange the itinerary.

Ji Linzhou's indifferent voice rang out again from outside: "The old man wants you to return to China within a month and explain things to him in person."

After the man finished speaking, there was a long silence on the other end of the phone before Ji Xingye's muffled voice came through: "Uncle, I haven't figured out how to face Mianmian yet."

"I don't want to yet..."

"That's an order."

Ji Linzhou interrupted him, his voice arrogant: "This is not a discussion."

Lin Qingmian finally made up her mind to buy some medicine.

She also had to work part-time for Jiang Yao that evening.

My legs are so sore, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep going.

However, Lin Qingmian ultimately overestimated her own strength.

Because she hadn't eaten all day and had done too much strenuous exercise in the morning, she had exhausted too much energy. So when she reached for her phone on the bedside table, she lost her grip and the phone crashed to the floor with a "bang."

The phone call in the living room stopped abruptly.

As Lin Qingmian dragged her aching body out of bed to pick up her phone, the bedroom door, which was slightly ajar, was pushed open.

The bright light blinded her for a moment.

A tall, slender man stood in the doorway: "Awake?"

Lin Qingmian picked up the phone.

He was backlit, so she couldn't see his expression, only the outstanding facial features of his face.

"Um."

When she finally managed to speak, she realized she had lost her voice.

"Get dressed and come out; I have something to tell you."

Three minutes later, Lin Qingmian moved into the living room.

Ji Linzhou leaned back on the sofa, one hand resting on the back of the sofa, the other hand holding her tablet and looking at it.

He was looking at the same passage she had looked at that morning.

After the couple's heavy breathing on the tablet subsided, he glanced at her and casually pointed to the sofa opposite him: "Sit."

Her tone made it sound as if she weren't his wife with whom he had just had a relationship, but rather a business partner who had come to discuss business with him.

Lin Qingmian sat down in silence opposite him.

She thought he would talk to her about Ji Xingye's return to China.

Or talk to her about why there are passionate videos of her ex-boyfriend on her tablet.

But the man picked up a paper bag from the coffee table, took out a white pill from it, and handed it to her: "I came back in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare any measures."

Lin Qingmian understood what he meant.

She lowered her head, picked up the water glass from the coffee table, and swallowed the medicine.

After putting down the water glass, the man handed her a tube of ointment: "Sorry, I didn't control the pressure well; it's a bit torn."

"I've applied it for you once. Remember to apply it yourself for the next few days."

After he said that, Lin Qingmian seemed to be able to feel a cool sensation in a certain place.

She held the tube of ointment, her face turning bright red all the way to her ears.

Just then, the doorbell rang from the outside.

The person who entered was Bai Cheng, Ji Linzhou's assistant.

He carried dinner in his left hand and documents in his right, and politely greeted Lin Qingmian, "Madam."

Although Lin Qingmian and Ji Linzhou were not close, she often met with this assistant.

She put down the ointment, went over, and took the dinner from him, saying, "Thank you for your hard work."

Bai Cheng smiled and said, "Of course."

By the time Lin Qingmian placed the food on the table, Bai Cheng had already handed the documents to Ji Linzhou.

The man took the documents, flipping through them as he casually said, "Eat first if you're hungry. I have a dinner appointment at eight."

Lin Qingmian didn't stand on ceremony; she was already starving.

Upon opening the bag, she discovered it was actually takeout from her favorite restaurant.

The restaurant is nearly 20 kilometers away, and she finds even taking a taxi there too expensive, so she only splurges on it on important occasions.

Why did Bai Cheng travel so far to buy her food from this restaurant?

Just then, my phone vibrated. It was a message from my friend Jiang Yao, a statement from Ji Xingye's studio.

The studio used cautious and strong language, stating that they had reported the incident to the police and explained that the video was AI-generated after a clip from their new movie was leaked.

Lin Qingmian closed the link expressionlessly and sent a message to Jiang Yao: "Is your part-time job starting at 7:30?"

Jiang Yao replied immediately: [6:30! Less than an hour left! You haven't left yet, have you?]

Lin Qingmian paused for a moment: "I remembered the time wrong."

It's less than an hour before work starts, but it will take her almost half an hour to walk out of this upscale apartment complex, and then she'll have to take a taxi... she definitely won't make it in time.

Thinking of this, the woman raised her eyes and looked at Ji Linzhou on the sofa in the distance.