When Song Xinya suddenly ran forward just now, Qin Yuhe thought she was about to do something foolish. His heart had gone into free fall, suddenly racing wildly.
In the blink of an eye, she crashed into his arms.
Qin Yuhe’s tense heart instantly relaxed. He patted her head and said, “Is this how you catch someone? I thought you were going to run away just now, you little liar.”
Song Xinya looked up at him, her eyes clear and steady. “Why would I run?”
Qin Yuhe thought she was still upset about what had happened yesterday and might do something extreme.
He had underestimated her.
She was stronger than he had imagined.
The past was best left in the past. Bringing up old wounds again and again was no different from tearing them open all over again.
Qin Yuhe didn’t mention anything related to yesterday. Instead, he pointed toward the garden and said, “The hydrangeas are beautiful. I’ll pick a bunch for you.”
“Okay,” Song Xinya replied. “I’ll find a pretty vase and fill it with flower food.”
The two of them divided up the work. Qin Yuhe went to the garden to pick flowers.
Song Xinya placed the vase she had found on the table and was adding the flower food when a bouquet of pink-and-blue hydrangeas entered her field of vision.
She turned her head and saw Qin Yuhe’s strikingly sculpted face. Her lips were just about to brush against his cheek.
“You’re fast.”
Qin Yuhe’s lowered gaze shifted to her lips. “You can’t tell a man he’s fast.”
“Oh.” Song Xinya corrected herself. “You’re very efficient.”
Qin Yuhe hummed in response, his voice deep and low. The sound slipped into Song Xinya’s ears, and she felt as though her ears were about to get pregnant.
He was standing behind her, his chest brushing lightly against her back. The hand holding the flowers half-encircled her as he reached around to place them in front of her.
With him so close, it was difficult for her to focus on the flowers.
Qin Yuhe extended the hand holding them a little farther, his muscular arm rubbing against her breasts.
“Don’t you want them?”
“I do.”
Song Xinya accepted the hydrangeas with both hands and held them against her chest.
Qin Yuhe remembered the bouquet of red roses he had never managed to give her. They had already withered in the back seat of his Rolls-Royce.
“Consider today’s hydrangeas a replacement.”
Song Xinya looked at him in confusion. He didn’t owe her anything. “A replacement for what?”
Qin Yuhe said, “Didn’t you say you liked it when I came to see you with flowers after returning from a business trip?”
“Oh, that.” Song Xinya had only said it casually and had completely forgotten about it.
Qin Yuhe cupped her face in both hands and kissed her on the lips. “A noblewoman has a terrible memory.”
He had said that he would spend these two days with her, and he did exactly as promised. During those two days, he dealt with no business and answered no work calls. His gaze, thoughts, and attention were all focused on her.
During the day, he stayed by her side every moment. At night, he held her while they slept.
It was just that the two of them did not have sex.
Song Xinya and Qin Yuhe both understood this without needing to say it aloud.
Every morning when she woke up, he had already placed a blanket between them at his waist, covering his physical reaction.
On the third day, Song Xinya and Qin Yuhe went to work together.
Qin Yuhe’s phone never stopped ringing in the Rolls-Royce. As the president of such a large corporation, he had effectively vanished for two days, leaving a mountain of matters to deal with.
His calls continued all the way from home to the entrance of the company.
Inside the president’s private elevator, the red floor number stopped at eight.
When the doors opened, Song Xinya saw Qin Yuhe holding his phone to his ear. Not wanting to disturb him, she stepped out and started walking away.
His warm hand caught her by the arm and pulled her back into his embrace. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead. “We’ll have lunch together.”
Song Xinya felt her entire head grow hot, as though she had eaten too many carbs and was suffering from a sugar crash. In a daze, she said, “Okay.”
She walked out of the elevator, took one step forward, then backed up and looked at him inside. “Why did you kiss my forehead just now instead of my lips?”
“You’re wearing lipstick. I was worried about smudging your makeup.”
Perhaps sensing that she was dissatisfied, he added, “Come here. I’ll kiss your lips again.”
Song Xinya turned her head away and walked off like a haughty swan. “No. You’ll smudge my makeup.”
The corners of Qin Yuhe’s lips curled up as he pressed the button to close the elevator doors.
When Chen Siyan saw her walk into the company, he was quite surprised.
She looked completely different from what he had expected. Song Xinya appeared to be in excellent spirits, without the slightest trace of dejection or gloom.
Of course, Chen Siyan wasn’t going to expose someone else’s wounds. He simply acted toward her as he always had.
“Good morning, Teacher Song.”
Song Xinya smiled at him. “Good morning, Manager Chen.”
Chen Siyan said, “The café is running a promotion today—the second cup is half price. I can’t pass up a bargain that good, so let me buy you a coffee.”
Like most people, Chen Siyan saw a second cup at half price and treated it as though it were free. He just had to buy it.
The coffee arrived soon. Since it wasn’t time to start work yet, the two of them chatted about the latest trending news while leisurely drinking their coffee.
Zhao Yinian walked over. “Hey, have you two heard? A rape case happened at a beauty salon a couple of days ago.”
Song Xinya’s hand jerked violently around the coffee cup.
Seeing her hand tremble, Chen Siyan turned to Zhao Yinian. “What the hell is wrong with your mouth? It’s like you’ve been eating shit.”
“Other people grow up eating food. Zhao Yinian, did you grow up eating shit three times a day?”
Zhao Yinian’s face flushed red with anger. “Why are you reacting so strongly? Were you raped?”
“By your logic, since you’re so interested in this, were you raped?”
“It’s too early in the morning to be so aggressive. Did you eat a bullet? I was just discussing some gossip I heard.”
“This isn’t gossip. It concerns a girl’s purity and reputation. I’m not asking you to feel sympathy for her, but at least show some basic humanity and respect. Don’t treat someone else’s pain as a joke or a conversation topic.”
“People who speak cruelly either have low emotional intelligence and don’t understand boundaries, or they have rotten character. Being sharp-tongued isn’t the same as being straightforward—it’s maliciousness carved into your bones. No ability, no sense of perspective. People like that deserve to be struck by lightning the moment they leave the house!”
By then, a group of colleagues had entered through the doorway. After hearing Chen Siyan’s words, they chimed in enthusiastically.
“Well said, Manager Chen. Those people who take every opportunity to pour salt into someone else’s wounds are twisted, vicious monsters.”
“People like that are disgusting and ugly. They make you sick.”
“How unhappy must someone’s life be for them to constantly pick on others? They try to satisfy their own dark, warped sense of possessiveness by destroying other people’s happiness. Being struck by lightning would be too lenient for someone like that. They should fall into a cesspit and drown!”
The sarcastic and mocking remarks Zhao Yinian had been about to direct at Song Xinya died in her throat.
She returned to her office seething with anger, so stifled that she could barely breathe.
After fuming for quite a while, she suddenly smiled.
So what if Song Xinya had colleagues defending her? She was still a ruined woman who had been defiled by Sheng Tianjun. President Qin must be disgusted with her deep down.
Before long, Song Xinya wouldn’t be able to hold on to her position as Qin Yuhe’s girlfriend.
Song Xinya had been determined to marry into the Qin family, but now her wish was about to be shattered.
Not only would she fail to marry into the Qin family, she wouldn’t even remain President Qin’s girlfriend. She was going to be dumped.
Zhao Yinian consoled herself, managing to cheer herself up.
Around noon, someone suddenly shouted, “President Qin is here!”
Zhao Yinian rushed out like a fluttering butterfly, her voice brimming with excitement. “President Qin, what brings you here?”
Qin Yuhe’s gaze passed over her and landed directly on Song Xinya. “I came to have lunch with my wife.”
His wife?!
Song Xinya was President Qin’s wife!
Zhao Yinian stood frozen in shock, completely dumbfounded.
