Volume One, Chapter Ninety-Eight: Sang Wan, Look at Me!

A gentle breeze lifted the snowy-white gauze curtains, bringing in a breath of freshness that still could not drive away the heat indoors.

Bright morning sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, flooding the room with light.

So bright that she could clearly see the desire in his eyes.

This was the first time Sang Wan had looked directly at this side of Lou Ye in such a clear, lucid light.

No longer the well-behaved junior who called her senior.

No longer the harmless figure who used to call her sister so casually.

Lou Ye, kissing her with fierce intensity, resembled a leopard in the act of hunting, his arched back stretching into a sharp, commanding line.

“Sang Wan, look at me!”

A kiss as soft as a feather fell over Sang Wan’s eyes. Lou Ye’s voice was hoarse. “It’s daytime now. I haven’t had a drop to drink, and neither have you... You need to see clearly what I’m doing. Remember that, hmm?”

Sang Wan was so mortified she could scarcely bear it.

She reached up to cover his mouth, wanting him to stop talking.

Her palm met warmth.

Lou Ye turned his head and bit lightly at her finger, then took advantage of the motion to catch her wrist and loop her arm around his neck.

In the early morning, as autumn deepened outside, spring was in full bloom within the room.

When it was all over, footsteps sounded in a jumble out in the hallway.

Sang Wan pulled out her phone and glanced at the time, then could not help covering her face.

She had thought it had only been a little while, but several hours had already passed?

“Go out...”

She kicked at Lou Ye and said coyly, “Xiaobai is definitely coming to call me for dinner soon, and we’re heading back this afternoon! What if you’re discovered here?”

“It won’t happen...”

He pressed even closer, still refusing to let her go.

Lou Ye took her phone in one hand and, with her held close to his chest, sent a message.

To: the Project Design Department’s Cheng Jingran — Senior, I’m heading back first! Have fun, everyone! I’ve given Senior Sang a ride home along the way!

Cheng Jingran replied in seconds. — Take care, President Lou! Thank you, President Lou!

After Cheng Jingran, the work group chat picked up at once, line after line of replies.

The screen was full of thank-yous to President Lou.

Only then did Sang Wan let out a breath.

Even so, she could not resist teasing him. “You really do have a lot of seniors, don’t you? Just in the project design department alone, there are two. Are there any in the other departments?”

“Sister...”

Lou Ye tossed the phone aside. “I don’t know how many top students from Imperial University are inside the Lou Group. But the only ones I recognize are you and Cheng Jingran. As for why Cheng Jingran gets to call me senior, don’t you know?”

Sang Wan could not even manage a coy, “I don’t know.”

When she opened her eyes again, it was already evening.

Sang Wan felt she was hungry enough to eat a whole ox.

The space behind her was empty; she did not need to turn around to know Lou Ye was gone.

Sang Wan stared blankly, and an inexplicable sense of loss actually rose in her heart.

She wanted to say that it was you who proposed being an unseen lover in the shadows.

And now, feeling lost because he had pulled up his trousers and run off, it was still you.

Sang Wan, just what do you want...

“Sister...”

Lou Ye’s smiling voice interrupted Sang Wan’s wandering thoughts.

She rolled over and saw that Lou Ye was already fully dressed.

White shirt, black trousers. Lou Ye leaned back in the sofa, long legs crossed.

A laptop rested on his thighs, and she had no idea what he was looking at.

“You were looking for me?”

He had seen the way Sang Wan had leaned back just now.

He had also seen the silence of that long moment when she had not turned over.

Lou Ye set the computer aside and walked over.

Kneeling with one knee on the bed, he bent down to kiss her. “There, I’m here!”

He was far too skilled at this!!!

Her heart thudded wildly, yet Sang Wan stubbornly refused to admit it. “I wasn’t looking for you! I was just making sure you weren’t some scumbag who sleeps with someone and then runs!”

“Now that’s confirmed?”

Lou Ye rose with a smile, brushing his thumb over Sang Wan’s lips. “Should you get up and we go to the restaurant? Or should I have them bring it up here, and we eat in the room?”

Sang Wan felt there was no difference at all.

Whether she went to the restaurant and dined with Lou Ye under everyone’s gaze, or ate in the room under the illusion of privacy, the result would be the same.

Maybe before she had even swallowed a single bite, everyone at the hot spring resort would already know that the big boss had spent the entire day sleeping in her room.

“In the room... your room.”

Sang Wan sighed in resignation, while waving him away. “You go back first. I’ll come up in a bit!”

Knowing Sang Wan needed to shower and change, Lou Ye gathered up his phone and computer and left.

Before going out, he still could not resist teasing her. “Sister, you sleep with me and then shoo me away. How is that any different from a heartless woman who pulls up her skirt and refuses to acknowledge it?”

“What?!”

“I...”

Buzz.

The door locked.

Remembering Lou Ye’s words that the room was well soundproofed, Sang Wan swallowed back the words on the tip of her tongue.

When she finished bathing and looked in the mirror, her vision went dark.

Her neck, her chest...

The ambiguous marks were nearly strung together in a chain.

There was even a faint bite mark at her waist.

Sang Wan: ...

Was he a dog?

Knowing they were coming to soak in hot springs, she had only brought skincare and no makeup, not even any concealer.

Thinking of how they would drive home after dinner, Sang Wan comforted herself and changed clothes before heading upstairs.

The door was already open, so even the bell was unnecessary.

When Sang Wan stepped inside, the dining table was laden with dishes, and the fragrance of food filled the air.

Lou Ye was on the phone.

It seemed the person on the other end held considerable status, and Lou Ye’s expression was not pleasant, though he kept his temper in check when speaking. “...I said I won’t see him, then I won’t see him!”

“Grandfather...”

At that single word, Sang Wan knew who was on the other end.

Even her breathing grew lighter.

Motioning for Sang Wan to start eating first, Lou Ye said into the phone in a lazy, irreverent tone, “Do you know how old the longest-lived person ever recorded by Guinness World Records was? One hundred and seventeen! I’m still counting on you to outlive her and send our Lou Group’s stock soaring. Come on, give it a little effort, will you?”

Lou Ye moved the phone away, waited a few seconds, then put it back to his ear.

After that, he shook his head with a laugh and hung up.

When he returned to the table, he wiped his hands with a hot towel and teased Sang Wan, “What, if I hadn’t said a word, were you planning to commune with that Australian lobster until the end of time?”

“Wasn’t I just trying to share the blessings with you...”

Sang Wan picked up her chopsticks and夹ed a plump lobster claw onto Lou Ye’s plate.

Lou Ye raised a brow. “Just sharing blessings? That’s all?”

What else?

Sang Wan looked at him. “Young Master Lou, you have wealth and power to spare. If I said we should share hardships too, wouldn’t that be overestimating myself?”

“No sincerity!”

He pinched Sang Wan’s cheek, his mood clearly excellent. “Fine. If I really run into trouble, you just run faster, get farther away, and let me handle it myself! But remember, you said you’d share the blessings with me.”

“Sang Wan...”

Lou Ye tilted Sang Wan’s chin up and met her eyes. “When I have no troubles, I want you by my side, always with me, forever. Understood?”

Sang Wan froze.

Forever?

She did not even have the courage to appear openly at his side.

And yet stay together forever?

How could that be possible?

“Okay, okay, I remember...”

It was as if she had been scorched by the fervor blazing in Lou Ye’s eyes.

Sang Wan lowered her head and concentrated on the Australian lobster he had put into her bowl.

Seeing her perfunctory response, Lou Ye silently sighed.

Then, glancing down again, he saw a message on his phone.

Old Man: Tomorrow at eleven in the morning, at South River Tower. If you don’t come, then come back and collect my corpse.