He didn’t say anything, maintaining his demeanor.

Lu Nian’s mind began to harbor some malicious thoughts, wanting to tease him even more.

It was rare to see Qin Si like this.

Still in her room, Lu Nian usually had trouble sleeping, so her family specially prepared calming incense for her room.

The night outside was dark, but the room was warm, filled with the scent of lavender.

The faint milky fragrance emanating from her body directly affected him, making his head dizzy and his thoughts unsteady, as if he were no longer in control of himself.

In this warmly decorated room that he had long fantasized about.

“Speak,” Lu Nian said softly.

His long, thick eyelashes drooped, his voice hoarse.

After a long while, he murmured, “…never thought about it.”

During his youth, he had looked up at this place for a long time, entertaining various thoughts, but indeed, sacrilegious thoughts like this had never crossed his mind.

He didn’t dare to have them.

At that time, being able to kiss her was already his greatest fantasy.

“Then have you ever sneaked in?” Unsatisfied with this answer, Lu Nian continued to press him.

She leaned in a little closer, and the rich, warm fragrance wafted closer.

After an unknown amount of time, the man’s hoarse voice sounded, “I came, sneaked into the Lu family.”

He actually did? Lu Nian was surprised by her own discovery.

“How many times?” She leaned in a little closer, her almond-shaped eyes sparkling.

“…Once.”

“Only once?” Lu Nian tilted her head. “When was that?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, the corners of his eyes reddened, and he tightly pursed his lips. “When I just returned, after meeting you at An University.”

At that time, Lu Nian was about to be engaged to Zhao Yayuan, and he had sneaked in at night.

Lu Nian initially wanted to tease him, but she hadn’t expected such a thing to actually happen.

This, including the incident with the location tracking software on her phone.

She realized she didn’t really understand Qin Si.

Before, she had only thought of him as aloof, proud, and cold, but she never expected that in just a few years, he would reveal such a side.

“Oh?” Lu Nian said.

Tilting her head, Lu Nian asked, “Why did you come?”

When they met at An University, she and Zhao Yayuan were walking together, already engaged.

Qin Si had remained indifferent, but now he claimed that he had actually sneaked into the Lu family estate that night.

“I heard about the trouble at the Lu family,” he said, eyes downcast. “I wanted to come back and take a look.”

“But when we met at school,” Lu Nian said, “you clearly didn’t say anything or ask anything.”

“You were willing to be engaged to him. What was there for me to say?” he said coldly, turning his face away.

In the same situation, Lu Nian didn’t want to be engaged to him but was willing to be engaged to Zhao Yayuan.

He didn’t want to force her, but every time he thought about it, he felt uncomfortable.

Although he had always felt unworthy, when faced with this reality, it was like a thorn in his side.

“He proposed to me,” Lu Nian said.

“Yes, and you accepted. It was a match made in heaven,” he said lightly. “It’s just a pity that it can’t happen now. Isn’t it regrettable?”

His demeanor, his tone…

Lu Nian felt her head spinning with anger.

She had already hinted so obviously.

If he wanted to marry her, why didn’t he say so?

Instead, it was Lu Zhihong who repeatedly pressured her, saying she should please Qin Si and marry him.

Now the situation was like this.

Did they want a young girl like her to climb high branches and offer herself to him?

She really couldn’t understand what Qin Si was thinking.

She chuckled, “Yes, it fits my preferences perfectly. Very regrettable.”

Now he was being pushed around by her like this, his ears and eyes were red, yet he still tried to act tough.

She deliberately said, “But you don’t fit my preferences.”

The man stiffened, his thin lips tightly pressed together.

“But it seems like I fit yours pretty well,” she said leisurely.

She was practically sitting on his lap, and he struggled to maintain his last shred of dignity.

Hoarsely, he said, “…you’re too close.”

“Huh?” Lu Nian furrowed her delicate eyebrows. “So, what you’re saying is, any woman who gets close will elicit a reaction from you? Is that the kind of person you are?”

He looked utterly embarrassed, unable to answer.

“Why did you suddenly leave for those few years?” Lu Nian asked slowly. “Where did you go? Why didn’t you contact me?”

What could he say?

That he felt unworthy of her before?

That’s why he didn’t dare to contact her for three years?

And there’s also the matter of infiltrating the Lu family and lurking there for so long.

They were all dark, disgraceful methods that he had grown accustomed to, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it in front of her.

He instinctively felt that Lu Nian would be angry.

“You interned at the Lu family before,” Lu Nian said.

Lu Zhihong mentioned it a few days ago when he called and pressured her to marry Qin Si, saying something slipped out.

Lu Nian didn’t say anything at the time, but now, she wanted to clear everything up.

“It was right after I left An City, the first year of no contact,” Lu Nian said. “You were still interning at the Lu family branch?”

“…Yes,” he said softly.

Lu Nian bit her lip. “Was this internship opportunity arranged by you and my father?”

He pursed his lips. “During the summer vacation when I was tutoring you.”

“So, you tutored me to get the opportunity to go to the Lu family?”

He didn’t deny it, his thin jawline tightly clenched, lips pressed tightly together, and a hint of red still lingering at the corners of his eyes.

Lu Nian stood up.

Coldly, she said, “My bed is too small. If you want to sleep here, I’ll go sleep on the third floor.”

The third floor was where the nursery used to be.

When Lu Zhihong was home, it was off-limits, but there was a bedroom available.

“I’ll go to the third floor,” he finally said, standing up, his voice hoarse.

Lu Nian paused.

Why was this man so clueless? Was it really that difficult for him to say one sentence, “I like you, and I want to sleep with you”?

Expressionless, she said, “If you catch a cold, don’t blame me.”

There were two guest rooms on the third floor.

Although they were a bit out of the way, the servants would clean them regularly, and basic bedding was still available.

There was another room where the nursery used to be, still locked.

Lu Zhihong never allowed anyone in there before.

Now, finally, it could be used openly.

Suddenly, Lu Nian said, “Qiao Li, when can I bring him here?”

“Mm.”

Lu Nian stopped in her tracks. “Do you know about his relationship with me?”

“…You look very alike,” he said, eyes downcast.

He had investigated Nan Qiao’s situation, including the secrets of the Lu family, through many channels that Lu Nian couldn’t access.

But he wasn’t very willing to tell her about these things.

He didn’t want to trigger another mental breakdown in her.

Lu Nian bit her lip. “You never told me about these things. How much have you done behind my back? How much have you hidden from me?”

He remained silent, saying nothing.

The guest room was neat and tidy.

He lay down on the bed.

He wasn’t afraid of the cold; he had grown accustomed to it since childhood.

Moreover, this place couldn’t be considered rudimentary.

However, compared to the bright, warm, fragrant bedroom and the warm person in his arms before, it was like heaven and earth.

Even if he now wore a shiny veneer, the dark past and the things he had done to get to his current position were still hidden beneath it, making it unbearable for others to see.

He closed his eyes.

Huang Mao had been doing well recently.

He successfully proposed to his girlfriend and set a wedding date, which would be in March, right after the Chinese New Year, on an auspicious day he found by flipping through the calendar.

Qin Si rarely came to their place, but Huang Mao happened to be sending out invitations.

He grinned and said, “Otherwise, I’ll have you and Sister Nian Nian come as my best man and maid of honor. Then I’ll have some face.”

When he heard that name, Qin Si’s fingers paused for a moment, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’d better not,” Ming Ge said. “If you have them as your best man and maid of honor, who will pay attention to you? Don’t you want your own wedding?”

Huang Mao thought about it and agreed. “Qin Ge, you should dress a little less nicely by then.”

He was thin and not particularly handsome himself.

If Qin Si managed to charm Lu Nian, the contrast between them would be stark.

He was afraid his wife would regret the marriage.

Qin Si was obviously in a bad mood and wasn’t in the mood for joking around.

He just drank silently.

“Qin Ge, where have you been living lately?” Xiao Qu asked. “I went to your old place with Lu Nian a few days ago to deliver the invitations, but no one answered the door.”

“I’m back there now,” he replied icily.

“Huh, weren’t you living with Lu Nian at the Lu family’s house?” Ming Ge asked perceptively. “Why did you come back to Qingfeng Court?”

Qin Si remained silent, his icy gaze fixed on Ming Ge, who shrank back and then laughed nervously. “Hahaha, did Lu Nian kick you out? Couldn’t stand it anymore, so you had to run back to your hometown and live alone?”

Xiao Qu thought, damn, Qin Si’s expression is terrifying.

“You…” Ming Ge said, “asking you to express your feelings is like asking for your head. What’s wrong with admitting it? Isn’t it embarrassing to like someone for so many years?”

He didn’t say anything.

Xiao Qu understood. “I know, you’re still hesitant, right?”

He was never sure about Lu Nian’s feelings for him.

After suppressing it for so long, he was afraid that if he expressed his true feelings, they would be trampled upon.

Xiao Qu didn’t know what else to say. “Qin Ge…”

“Lu Zhihong has talked to her many times,” Qin Si said indifferently.

Lu Zhihong had also come to see him. Although his position seemed to have been restored on the surface, his power was nothing compared to before.

So, he just wanted Lu Nian to marry Qin Si quickly to solidify his position under the guise of being his father-in-law.

Qin Si didn’t mind this, but Lu Zhihong had approached Lu Nian countless times.

All were rejected.

She even got irritated every time she saw Lu Zhihong and told him not to mention it again, that she wouldn’t agree.

Lu Zhihong didn’t dare to tell him these things, but he had his own sources of information and naturally knew everything.

Ming Ge said, “Then go tell her yourself.”

“If she refuses, she refuses. What’s wrong with admitting it? You’re just saving face and suffering,” Ming Ge said.

“I know you pretty well. Even if she rejects you, will you let her go? It’s the same result whether you say it or not, so what’s the difference?”

“And where the hell were you those few years? Have you explained it to anyone?” Ming Ge asked.

Qin Si’s cold, phoenix-like eyes stared at Ming Ge.

……

Lu Nian replied, “You’re getting married already?! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’ll prepare a gift for you.”

“Hey, as long as you’re here, that’s all that matters. Gifts are optional,” he responded.

“She said she’s coming,” Huang Mao excitedly showed them the message.

Huang Mao was around twenty-five or twenty-six, and it was his first time having a girlfriend.

He didn’t expect to quickly move on to marriage.

Now he was living happily, while Ming Ge remained a bachelor, and Xiao Qu was still single.

As for Qin Si… well, that was a complicated situation.

Only he was the one with a woman.

Huang Mao suddenly felt a sense of pride, considering himself the most mature and experienced among them.

“At my wedding, when Lu Nian comes, we’ll have a chat with her. We’ll also sound her out for you,” Huang Mao said.

“If a woman truly loves a man, all those things you did don’t matter,” Huang Mao said to Qin Si. “Look, your methods, in the end, were all for her, right? You didn’t have any ulterior motives.”

Only when she doesn’t love you will she find fault with everything and feel like she’s being coerced.

The young man tightened his lips.

He didn’t want to go home, so he went to the company and saw Fang Deng calling him, “Boss, your father-in-law is here.”

Lu Zhihong?

Sure enough, Lu Zhihong was waiting for him in the meeting room. In the present-day Ning Sheng, he still held some influence, mainly because of Lu Nian’s connection.

Fang Deng, Qiu Fan, and Ming Hong all knew who the person was that their boss had kept close to his heart all these years.

So when Lu Zhihong came, naturally, all the lights turned green for him.

Lu Zhihong held a cup of tea.