Kuang Ye coaxed Mu Wan for a long time before she finally calmed down and fell back asleep. Even in her sleep, she held tightly onto Kuang Ye’s hand, her fingers interlocked with his.

When Kuang Ye tried to gently pry his hand away to take a shower, Mu Wan stirred as if she was about to wake up. Helpless, he clasped her hand back in place and resigned himself to lying on top of the blanket, still fully clothed.

Taking out his phone with one hand, he opened WeChat and texted Kuang Xingran:
[What did you and Mu Wan do today? Tell me everything.]

This was the first time he’d seen Mu Wan lose control of her emotions like this. It wasn’t something a mere nightmare could explain.

Kuang Xingran recounted every single detail of the day without missing anything. After she finished, there was a pause before she sent another message:
[Ge, I heard from Mom and Dad that you went to the villa today and made them sign the estrangement papers?]

Kuang Ye responded calmly:
[No matter how things are between me and them, you’ll always be my little sister. When Mu Wan and I get married, you’ll be seated at the groom’s family table.]

Kuang Xingran’s initial sadness melted away instantly after reading his reply. She teased:
[Dream on! I’m going to be Mu Wan’s bridesmaid.]

She couldn’t bring herself to plead for her brother to forgive their parents, considering what they had done over the years. The fact that he still recognized her as his sister was enough.

—

When Mu Wan woke up, the moon was already high in the night sky. She instinctively tried to push herself up but noticed her hand was still clasped with Kuang Ye’s. Turning to the side, she saw his figure lying next to her.

Kuang Ye was still wearing his outdoor winter clothes. The room’s heater made it quite warm, but he hadn’t been able to take off more than half of his jacket since she had been holding onto his hand.

Warmth flickered in her eyes, and an uncontrollable sweetness rose in her heart. She grumbled softly, “Why didn’t you just let go of my hand? Sleeping like this must’ve been uncomfortable.”

The person beside her suddenly rolled over, pinning her back onto the bed.

“Because Ah Ye is the fish, and Jiejie is the water. A fish would die without water,” Kuang Ye said matter-of-factly.

Mu Wan’s eyes widened in surprise, looking adorably confused. “When did you wake up?”

Kuang Ye finally removed the last sleeve of his winter jacket. “When you did.”

He had been half-awake the whole time, worried she might have another nightmare.

Mu Wan pinched him. “Why didn’t you open your eyes then?”

Kuang Ye answered confidently, “I was waiting for you to do what people do in dramas—secretly kiss me.” He added with mock solemnity, “And then you’d think, ‘Even when he’s asleep, he’s so handsome.’” He grinned smugly. “And for the record, I look pretty good awake too.”

Mu Wan rolled her eyes. “You’re so full of yourself.”

Kuang Ye beamed. “I’ve got hundreds of thousands of followers on Weibo, and a third of them are fans of my looks.”

Mu Wan: “…”

She recalled what Kuang Ye had done earlier that day but hadn’t gotten the full details. Seeing her curiosity, Kuang Ye recounted his conversation with Grandfather Kuang, even complaining, “Now I know why he insisted I attend the Yuan family banquet. It was all to help me network and prepare to take over the company later.”

The Yuan family had numerous business dealings with the Kuangs before Kuang Shuyu’s scandal, which explained why Kuang Shuyu had targeted Yuan Weiwei.

When Mu Wan heard that GrandfatherKuang had intended to pit Kuang Ye and Kuang Shuyu against each other using her, her eyes darkened with contemplation.

In her past life, she hadn’t received Kuang Ye’s warning about Kuang Shuyu being a scumbag. Could it have been because the old man interfered?

After all, to him, she was merely a femme fatale capable of stirring up a rivalry between brothers. As long as she remained Kuang Shuyu’s fiancée, Kuang Ye had a reason to compete with Kuang Shuyu, which could indirectly push Kuang Ye into the family business.

The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. After all, the old man had even secretly instructed doctors not to treat Kuang Ye’s illness. There was nothing too despicable for him.

When Mu Wan finished asking her questions, Kuang Ye began his. He looked at her with concern, her swollen eyes still evident.

“Mu Wan, about that dream you had—”

“It’s nothing,” she interrupted quickly. “I’ve been watching too many horror movies lately. I’m fine now.”

Kuang Ye frowned, sensing her evasiveness.

Mu Wan couldn’t tell him the truth—about her rebirth or her fear of him carrying the burden of her past life’s trauma. In her previous life, she had witnessed Kuang Ye take brutal revenge on the kidnapper who had tortured her, inflicting thousands of times more pain on the man.

The sheer brutality of it had left her shaken, and she couldn’t imagine how it had scarred Kuang Ye. For someone kind-hearted like him, killing someone was as damaging to himself as it was to the victim.

She didn’t know if his eventual suicide in the previous life had been related to this, but even the slightest chance was enough for her to keep this secret forever.

Kuang Ye’s eyes flickered as he noticed her poor attempt at downplaying the issue.

“Mu Wan, I’m your fiancé, the person who’ll spend the rest of his life with you. Whatever it is, you have to tell me, okay?”

Mu Wan hesitated but eventually nodded. “Okay, if there’s something, I’ll definitely tell you.”

Kuang Ye: “…”

A rebellious thought crossed his mind—should he make her kneel with a violin? She was clearly hiding something!

But in the end, Kuang Ye couldn’t bring himself to push her. From then on, whenever they weren’t together, he would text her every hour.

Even after the Lunar New Year and their respective work resumed at ST and Jian Jia, this habit remained unbroken.
[Mu Wan, I love you.]
[+1]
[Mu Wan, I like you.]
[+1]
[Mu Wan—]
[The number you’ve dialed is powered off.]