When Qi Wang called Yu Nian , he was sitting in the study.

This was already his fourteenth day of being confined. Although his family didn’t mistreat him, they confined him to the villa, allowing him to wander around as he pleased but never letting him step out of the villa. They didn’t even give him access to a computer or a phone, adamantly preventing him from contacting the outside world.

It was obvious they didn’t want him to communicate with Qi Wang.

So when the bodyguard handed him the phone, he looked at it suspiciously and asked cautiously, “What’s this for? Is my sister testing my willpower? Let me tell you, I won’t fall for it.”

But the bodyguard remained dutifully professional.

“Miss Yu instructed me to give it to you, saying that there’s no need to watch over you anymore.”

Yu Nian was full of confusion and bewilderment.

But the sight of the phone was too tempting to resist. After a moment’s hesitation, he quickly took it. Like a thief who had just stolen a gem, he stuffed the phone into his pocket, hurried back to his room, and closed the door behind him, locking it in one smooth motion.

He turned on the screen, confirming that it was indeed his phone with all the files intact and no signal problems. It could make calls and access the internet.

Oh my god.

Yu Nian was dumbfounded, wondering if his sister had suddenly become more lenient. It was unscientific. Could the entrenched conservative forces really be melted away so easily?

Or had he been causing too much trouble lately, and his siblings had finally had enough and decided to leave him alone?

During the first few days, he was indeed devastated by the blow, barely eating anything, and had lost quite a bit of weight in just a few days.

But gradually, he regained his strength. No matter what Qi Wang said, he had to hear it in person to believe it.

So these days, he had been causing havoc at home, destroying things, and going on hunger strikes. The bodyguards couldn’t handle him, fearing he might really harm himself, they kept calling his sister one after another, making her restless even during work.

Yu Nian rubbed his chin, thinking that if he had known this trick would be so effective, he would have used it earlier.

He looked down at the phone, now held tightly in his hand, more precious than any priceless treasure.

He opened the call log, and sure enough, the top few calls were from “Qi Wang”.

Separated from Qi Wang for more than ten days with no news, he had been restless, unable to sleep all night.

But now, suddenly exempted and able to contact Qi Wang, he felt timid, unable to dial the familiar number.

Separated for more than ten days, Qi Wang must be going crazy.

He had disappeared without a word, and with his family being such a behemoth, hiding him away was as easy as pie. Qi Wang was insignificant in front of his family, and finding him would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

He wondered if his siblings had been giving Qi Wang a hard time for the past ten days.

Various bad thoughts flashed through Yu Nian’s mind. Before making the call, his internal organs were already tangled up.

Fear.

Urgency.

He couldn’t wait to hear Qi Wang’s voice, to tell him that he was okay, and to ask if Qi Wang was okay.

But apart from that, he didn’t know what else to say.

The phone call from Song Yu Niannchun was like a thorn in his heart.

For the past half month, he had been trying not to think about it, but now he had to face it.

What should he ask Qi Wang? Did you only treat me well because you were paid by my brother and sister? Or do you really like me, or are you just interested in my background?

Each sentence was as sharp as a blade, hurting both himself and the other person. If he wasn’t careful, he would fall off the cliff.

From the bottom of his heart, Yu Nian didn’t want to ask Qi Wang like this.

It was simply an insult to Qi Wang and their relationship.

In his heart, Qi Wang was perfect, even though in that dim guesthouse in Jiangyang County, Qi Wang had looked down on himself, painting himself in a bad light.

But in his heart, Qi Wang was always as clean as the new snow in early winter, without a speck of dirt, just pure white.

He had a kind of fearless confidence that Qi Wang loved him, so he didn’t need to force the issue.

But he couldn’t bury his head in the sand and avoid this issue.

At least in his brother and sister’s eyes, Qi Wang had been classified as a deceitful person.

If Qi Wang couldn’t give a reasonable explanation, even if he cried, made a scene, or committed suicide, his brother and sister would never accept Qi Wang in their lives.

Yu Nian took a deep breath, rolled on the floor for a while, his face full of confusion.

He lay there for a while, hesitantly placing his fingers on the screen, but before he could press it, his phone vibrated.

Yu Nian’s breath caught, hardly believing his eyes.

Because the two words displayed on the screen were “Qi Wang.”

His fingers trembled slightly as he answered it, putting it to his ear. Before he could speak, tears welled up in his eyes. “Hello?”

There was a brief silence on the other end, as if they hadn’t expected him to answer so quickly.

After a while, he heard a voice he had been longing for, “Yu Nian.”

Tears streamed down Yu Nian’s face.

He lay on the floor, one hand covering his eyes. Trying not to embarrass himself, he bit his lip hard to endure it, but the sobbing still came through, flowing along with the current.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

He should have been questioning him.

He should have been like every person who has been betrayed and deceived, questioning their lover if they have betrayed them.

But the first thing he said was asking if Qi Wang was okay.

Qi Wang could hardly hold onto the phone in his hand.

He sat by the window, where it was snowing today, a solemn white.

This place was quiet and remote, with few passersby. Sitting by the window watching the snow fall, he would have the illusion of being forgotten by the world.

How should he answer?

He looked down at his other hand, which had a few more scratches on it from the past few days of absent-mindedness, accidentally cutting himself while working.

But he didn’t feel any pain.

After Yu Nian left, all his senses seemed numb. Joy was withdrawn, anger was frozen, passion was extinguished.

Only sadness remained.

Like mold on a rainy day, crawling up the body, turning a person into a broken porcelain.

But he couldn’t tell Yu Nian this.

He said, “I’m fine, how about you?”

Yu Nian slowly sat up from the floor, barefoot, leaning against the wall, curling up.

He pouted in grievance, “I’m not okay at all.”

He took a deep breath, looked up at the rose embroidery on the curtain.

He tried not to sound too miserable, but holding the phone, he didn’t know what to say for a long time.

He couldn’t say a single word of what he had planned, just listening to Qi Wang’s breathing on the other end made his emotions collapse.

“You’re really…” Yu Nian sniffed, “I’ve been gone for so many days, aren’t you worried at all?”

Speaking of this, he felt a little sad, muttering, “I think about you every day.”

Qi Wang’s chest rose and fell slightly.

He heard Yu Nian say, “Don’t you even ask me where I’ve been?”

There was a moment of silence, then his voice sounded dry, “I know you went home and were confined by your brother and sister. Song Yunchun told me, and I met your brother and sister.”

As soon as this was said, the air suddenly fell silent.

Yu Nian was startled, his palms clenched into fists. “What? Did my brother and sister go to see you? Did they harass you?”

He panicked for a moment. How could he not understand his brother and sister? What good could come from them coming to see Qi Wang? It must be to bully Qi Wang to break up with him.

“…No.”

“How is that possible,” Yu Nian didn’t believe it at all. “Don’t be afraid. If they bullied you, you tell me. I won’t let them do anything to you, really…”

Qi Wang looked at the snow scene outside the window, every word like a blade scraping his throat, permeating with a rusty smell.

In the guesthouse in Jiangyang County, he pushed Yu Nian away with his own hands, thinking it was painful enough, but at that time, he would never have thought that it was just the beginning.

He said, “Your brother and sister are not unreasonable. They love you very much, so they are very frank with me. They just came to discuss with me.”

Yu Nian was skeptical, but for some reason, his heart was pounding, with a sense of foreboding.

“What did they discuss?”

Qi Wang’s fingers dug into his flesh, pressing too hard that the skin on his palm broke, oozing a drop of blood.

He said calmly, “They asked whether I could peacefully break up with you.”

Yu Nian almost couldn’t catch his breath. “I knew it! They definitely have ulterior motives…”

But the next moment, he heard Qi Wang say.

“I agreed.”

The sunlight outside the window fell on the floor, the sunlight after the snow, without much warmth but dazzling.

Yu Nian sat under the curtain, blinking as the light pierced his eyes.

He thought he hadn’t heard clearly and incredulously asked again, “What did you say?”

“I said, I agreed,” Qi Wang’s voice came from the phone, close to his ear, but unlike usual, it wasn’t clear and gentle, but seemed to be cut by electricity, piercing his eardrums inch by inch. “Your brother and sister offered very generous conditions. If I break up with you, I will get a house in City A, three million in cash, and the qualifications for admission to a key school in City A.”

He fell silent for a few seconds before saying softly, “I’m sorry, Yu Nian.”