"Ashen, Yiyi is back. Are you going to divorce Ye Ran? Tell me, what is actually on your mind?"
The speaker was Zhou Hesheng, a reckless super-rich second-generation heir and Lu Linshen's best friend.
"If I divorce her, are you expecting to snap up the shares?" Lu Linshen replied with an inscrutable smile.
The atmosphere turned silent for a few seconds, followed by a burst of loud laughter from Zhou Hesheng.
"That's not out of the question. You don't like her anyway; just consider it me doing a good deed."
They spoke as if they were discussing how to dispose of a cheap commodity. Every word felt like a sharp blade plunging into Ye Ran's heart.
Tang Yiyi!
Lu Linshen’s first love, and the only woman he had ever truly loved. She had actually returned.
So, that was why Lu Linshen hadn't come home last night, hadn't answered his phone, and hadn't replied to her messages—he had been with Tang Yiyi?
The thought that they had been together all night made Ye Ran's breath hitch. Her frail frame trembled uncontrollably, and she clutched the meticulously prepared food container so tightly that her legs nearly gave out. Her exhaustion from not having eaten breakfast made the world spin before her eyes.
Just then, footsteps sounded from inside. She instinctively tried to flee, but the door clicked open.
"Ye Ran?"
Zhou Hesheng, wearing a floral shirt, holding a contract, and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, stood frozen at the door.
Ye Ran forced her spine straight, took a deep breath, slowly turned, and gave a faint nod. "Mr. Zhou."
With that, she carried the food container and slipped past him into the office.
Three years ago, a car accident had resulted in one-third of Lu Linshen's stomach being removed. He had always been picky, and after the surgery, he ate even less. To help him recover, she had swallowed her pride and begged her professor, using his connections to find a retired old expert who provided a prescription for medicinal meals. Every day at noon, she would prepare them and bring them to him.
Feeling the man’s skeptical gaze, she didn't look up, walking straight to the sofa in the reception area to place the food container on the coffee table.
"I called Jin Fan, and since he was out on business, I decided to come up myself."
Per their secret marriage agreement, she wasn't supposed to come to the Lu Group CEO’s office without a valid reason. Over the years, she had always left the meal deliveries to his assistant, Jin Fan.
Just as she stood up, she felt the man’s aura loom behind her. There was no scent of another woman, but Ye Ran still couldn't stop the wave of nausea rising within her. She moved a step to the side, almost imperceptibly.
"I won't disturb you any further."
Lu Linshen did not move aside, his deep voice lacking any real fluctuation. "Why is your complexion so poor? Can't you sleep well without me?"
He raised a hand to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his tone filled with an ambiguous intimacy. It was deliberate and affectionate. Aside from in bed, he had never touched her in public, let alone performed such a gesture in front of Zhou Hesheng.
Ye Ran didn't understand what he was up to. She looked up in confusion and only then noticed he had changed his clothes and his tie clip. For the past three years, all of Lu Linshen’s clothing and accessories had been handled by her. She was certain she had never seen this outfit or this tie clip before.
A sour bitterness swelled in her chest, impossible to suppress. Fearing she would lose her composure and embarrass herself, she lowered her head in a panic.
"Yes, I'm going back to catch up on sleep."
She hurried away, and Lu Linshen made no move to stop her. Before she reached the elevator, just as the office door closed, she heard Zhou Hesheng shout anxiously, "She didn't hear all that, did she? You spent the night with your ex-girlfriend, and she’s not even going to make a scene?"
Lu Linshen opened the food container; the aroma of the meal soothed his uncomfortable stomach. His brow smoothed, and he remained entirely indifferent to Zhou Hesheng’s remarks.
After Ye Ran's father passed away, she was occasionally brought to the Lu Family by her grandfather. She had always been obedient whenever she saw him. That was the reason he had agreed to his grandfather’s forced marriage arrangement. In the three years since the wedding, whether in bed or out, Ye Ran had been a source of great satisfaction to him.
Make a scene with him? A woman who had nothing and relied on him to survive—who gave her the nerve?
***
Leaving the Lu Group, Ye Ran couldn't hold it back any longer. She ran to the side of the road and leaned against a tree, dry-heaving. This was her fifth bout of vomiting this week.
She touched her lower abdomen, her heart racing with panic.
An hour later, she walked out of the OB-GYN clinic holding her pregnancy test results, running straight into Professor Ren, who was sporting a white beard.
"Ye Ran, it’s been three years. You..." The professor, a hospital director who had long since mastered the art of remaining calm, could not hide his joy. But before he could finish, he saw the pregnancy report in her hand, and the smile on his face instantly froze.
Ye Ran felt guilty and kept her head down in silence. Professor Ren sighed, frustrated by her choices. "How many weeks?"
"Six weeks."
Facing her mentor, Ye Ran felt a complex mix of emotions. He had once said she would become the best cardiothoracic surgeon, waiting for the day she would devote herself to the medical field, saving lives and conducting significant medical research. She had let him down once three years ago, and now...
Ye Ran saw the regret in his eyes and found herself speechless.
***
Returning home, the lethargy of early pregnancy kept her asleep until after seven in the evening. A familiar presence loomed behind her, his burning breath falling against her ear, easily stirring her desires.
"Awake?"
The man nibbled gently on the tender skin of her neck, his large hand wandering from her waist down between her legs, his deep, raspy voice laced with heavy desire. The faint scent of his recent shower confused her senses. Ye Ran's body softened, and she raised her hand to push him away.
"I'm going to make dinner."
"Eat me first."
As if punishing her for thinking about dinner at such a moment, the man rolled over and sealed her lips, using the opportunity to tear away the lingerie under her nightgown.
Her hazy mind became completely clear the moment he penetrated her. She recalled the words she had heard outside the office, and feeling a sense of resistance, she twisted her waist, trying to pull away.
The man was surprised by her resistance. His movements suddenly intensified, and he crudely pinned her down, gripping her waist against the bed. After going at it twice, he finally withdrew, satisfied, and headed to the bathroom, without even glancing at Ye Ran, who was curled up in a ball, trembling all over, holding her belly, her face deathly pale.
A while later, the dragging pain in her lower abdomen gradually faded. Ye Ran remained curled up, listening to the rushing water in the bathroom, and hesitated as she reached under her pillow.
Her fingertips were pricked by the edge of the folded pregnancy report, making her heart tremble. Lu Linshen was always rigorous about precautions. She had counted the days; it must have been the night he returned from his week-long business trip last month. It was the last time, and the condom had broken. At the time, Lu Linshen had wanted to have someone send over emergency contraception, but she had been so exhausted and told him it was a "safe period," before falling into a deep sleep.
She hadn't expected the safe period to be unreliable.
She didn't know what Lu Linshen, who had always refused to have children, would think once he found out. After all, their marriage was not voluntary on his part.
Three years ago, Grandfather Lu was critically ill, and his surgery carried great risks. He had forced Lu Linshen to marry her at the hospital, refusing to enter the operating room until he saw their marriage certificate. That day, she had been dragged out of a lecture at the medical school by Lu Linshen and taken straight to the civil registry office. On the way, he had stated his terms and made her sign a secret marriage agreement. He would provide for her, and she would act as a well-behaved granddaughter-in-law.
Ye Ran understood the intentions of Grandfather Lu. Her father had died saving him, and the Lu Family had been funding her education out of gratitude. Furthermore, her mother had developed a severe immune deficiency that required long-term care in a specialized ward, with the medical bills alone being a huge expense. Grandfather Lu had feared that if he didn't make it off the operating table, the strife-torn Lu Family might not honor that debt of gratitude.
Under those circumstances, even without Grandfather Lu’s concern, she wouldn't have refused to marry a man she had secretly loved for eight years.
After the marriage, she and Lu Linshen lived separately. The Lu Group had many businesses, and he was very busy. She, too, had entered her internship period, and the two would often go ten days or half a month without seeing each other; their lives hadn't changed much.
It wasn't until three months later that Lu Linshen was in a car accident and was rushed, covered in blood, to the emergency room of the hospital where she was interning. Although he was saved, his nerves were damaged, and his legs were slow to recover. She had rejected the professor's plan for her to stay on at the hospital, obtained her degree, and became Lu Linshen's full-time wife.
Their relationship, characterized by mutual respect, had undergone two years of day-and-night companionship. Though he remained cold, she could feel that he was no longer resistant to her. That night, after his legs had recovered, he had been drinking; he had carried her to their wedding bed and kissed her.
This year of intimacy had given Ye Ran the courage to pull out the pregnancy report. She wanted to tell him! Not just about the baby, but about the secret crush she had harbored for so many years.
The bathroom door pushed open at that moment. Lu Linshen walked out, wrapped casually in a bathrobe, water droplets rolling down his strong, muscular chest—sexually alluring.
"Ashen, I..."
The sudden ringing of his phone shattered the courage Ye Ran had barely mustered.
"Yiyi, what's wrong?"
The man's tone was one of tenderness she had never heard before. He didn't even try to hide it from her, answering naturally and casually. He listened to whatever was said on the other end, his lips curling into a smile.
"Alright, wait for me."
He hung up, pulled off his towel, and walked to the dressing room. From start to finish, he didn't offer Ye Ran a single word of explanation.
The pregnancy report in Ye Ran's hand was nearly crushed. She had forgotten—Tang Yiyi was back. Everything she had naively believed was a deep, mutual bond, combined with this child, was likely not worth a tenth of Tang Yiyi. To say anything now would only be to invite humiliation.
Soon, Lu Linshen walked out, dressed impeccably. A dark gray haute couture suit covered his lean waist and the ambiguous red marks on his back from her scratches, his look one of elegant, aristocratic asceticism.
When his sharp gaze swept over her, the passion that had been ignited earlier was already gone. His voice was cold and detached. "I have things to attend to. You don't need to wait for me."
He retracted his hand and turned to walk out the door.
"Ashen!" Ye Ran called out subconsciously.