Chapter 40

“Lin Jinshen!”
The words tumbled out, urgent, scared, as if she were Alice tumbling into Wonderland, falling and falling, no end in sight.
“Keep your voice down,” he murmured.
Lin Jinshen’s lips trailed flirtatiously along the corner of hers. “Didn’t you say this place isn’t soundproof?”
He let her have this one, not bothering to call out the fact that, with the living room beneath her room, literally no one was going to hear them anyway.
Instead, he twisted her own excuse around, leaving her totally speechless.
“If it’s unbearable, you can bite me,” he said.
He shifted his hand to her chin, easing her face away from his neck and onto his shoulder. “Go ahead. Bite.”
Lu Yi was about to lose her mind. All she’d wanted was to curl up, get closer to him, bury her face in his neck for comfort, she wasn’t planning to actually bite him.
How old did he think she was, five?
Besides, his shoulder might as well have been steel-reinforced concrete. If she bit him, she’d only end up hurting herself.
Lu Yi squeezed her eyes shut; damp lashes trembling as her voice escaped in broken little gasps through her nose. Calling for him to stop did nothing, the situation had already spiraled out of control.
Lin Jinshen dove back into his “lab,” but the experiment this time, let’s just say, he’d switched up his methodology. Still, the previous data applied, so he pulled everything together masterfully. The fundamentals remained the same… and yet, somehow, everything was different. Last time, he’d been a subject in the experiment too; now, he was pure observer, tracking every reaction, every gasp, focused only on her. Her heart rate racing to impossible highs, the soft sounds slipping from her lips, each and every one, more rewarding than any data point.
This time, the satisfaction was something deeper, psychological, electric.
The experiment ended. As her heart rate peaked and then began its rapid drop, Lu Yi wished she could disappear under the covers completely. But the sheets didn’t smell like her anymore; his scent was everywhere.
Her skin felt steamed, heat rolling off in waves. If the lights were on, she was sure she’d be as pink as a boiled shrimp.
Lin Jinshen was barely better off. Tension pressed heavily in his chest, suppressed and simmering.
In the darkness, Lu Yi heard the faint sound of him grabbing tissues, three times, neat and methodical. He was tidying up the experimental “site,” expression tight from restraint, but hands still unbearably gentle.
Her ears burned red enough to drip. She dared to peek at him with just one eye, only to look away in a panic like she’d been scalded. Her voice came out thinner than a mosquito’s: "Do you want to shower first?”
“Mm.”
A pause, then: “Or… would you rather help me?”
Lu Yi stammered, “But I don’t know how...”
He pressed her hand inside his, warm and steady. “It’s not hard. You’re smart, you pick things up fast.”
For once in her life, Lu Yi hated being called smart. She’d spent the whole time turtling back into her shell at the slightest hint of trouble, but she couldn’t escape, he still held her hand, and the heat from his palm was seeping straight through to her heart.
Sensation blazed new, hypersensitive pathways up her arm, short-circuiting her brain with images she couldn’t even bear to glimpse.
She was burning up, mouth as parched as a desert.
It lasted far longer than she’d imagined. Lu Yi was never known for her stamina; she started to withdraw, only for Lin Jinshen to sense it and pull her gently back, lips catching hers, swallowing every helpless sound rising in her throat.
Finally, a soft, stifled groan escaped him.
Low and rough, like at long last he could breathe.
Lu Yi was frozen. Her limbs felt like wood, but her mind was racing: What about the sheets? She’d just changed them two days ago. If she swapped them again, would her parents notice? And where did they keep the clean spares anyway?
In the end, Lin Jinshen handled it, cleaning everything up, finding a fresh set, and making the bed all over again.
Her wrists ached, both hands still prickling from the heat of his touch. She tried to scrub the memory from her mind, but it was pointless, it had already rooted itself deep.
Now, swaddled in the newly made bed, she had no idea what excuse to give for the sheet-change.
“Want some water?” Lin Jinshen asked from the side of the bed, already pouring her a glass.
She shook her head automatically.
He stayed put. “You sure?”
He didn’t spell out, “You almost dehydrated just now,” but Lu Yi heard it all the same. If humans went puffy like a blowfish when they got mad, she’d be inflating right about now.
She almost refused again, but her mouth was still bone-dry, so she nodded and accepted the water.
He brought the cup to her bedside. As she sipped, he said, “If your parents ask, just say Puff knocked over a glass of water and you had to change the sheets.”
Puff, very much not asleep, lifted her fuzzy little head at the sound of her name, half expecting she was being summoned.
Lu Yi nearly choked on her water. Morally dubious? Maybe. But logistically? Genius. What’s the point of having a cat if not for the occasional scapegoat-duty?
There was still half a glass left. Lin Jinshen finished it off, still unsatisfied, then refilled and downed another.
He started for his side of the bed, but Puff was still listening intently. He stopped, detoured to her cat bed, looming and casting a great shadow. With one hand, he spun the little bunny-eared pod around so Puff was facing the wall, back to the bed.
Some things, little kittens just shouldn’t see.
Puff: "?"
The next morning, Lu Yi was a useless pile of sleepy. She clung to the quilt, staring at the ceiling as she tried to adjust to life without work, no alarm clock, nothing to do but wake up when she felt like it.
By the time she got downstairs, it was already lunchtime.
Madam Xu was sipping tea and gave her a look. “If you’d slept any longer, you might as well have skipped lunch entirely.”
“What, I was up early by my standards!”
Honestly, it was still early for her. After lunch and confirming the bridesmaid dresses with Yu Yin and the girls, she went upstairs to her room, flopped onto the bed with her tablet to binge some drama, but didn’t even make it through an episode before tossing it away for a nap.
She’d been insanely sleepy the past two days. Yu Yin said it was totally normal, just “revenge rest” after quitting her job.
Waking up in the afternoon, eyelids heavy, whole body weighed down by sleep, she moped around in a cozy haze…until she heard the sound of pages turning somewhere in her room.
She looked over and realized, someone was by the window.
It was Lin Jinshen.
He’d casually pulled a book from her shelf and was already halfway through, clearly having been there for a while.
Lu Yi dragged herself up on her elbows, still half-asleep on the edge of the bed, and asked, "Didn’t you go into work today?"
“I had a meeting on the golf course with Dad. Went better than we expected, so he wanted to come home early. I kept him company.” Lin Jinshen’s eyes lingered on her face. “You were already asleep when I got back. Were you that wiped out last night?”
Madam Xu had mentioned that Lu Yi didn’t get up until noon; after lunch, she went straight back to sleep. The only explanation left was last night.
“…”
Lu Yi was genuinely stumped, agreeing sounded suspicious, but denying it would be worse.
She switched the subject. “You’ve just been reading since you got home?”
“Didn’t touch any of your other stuff.”
Lu Yi hummed. “It’s fine if you do. Nothing sacred here.”
And really, nothing secret either.
Just old school keepsakes and a few gifts from friends, nothing mysterious.
Seeing the time, Lu Yi realized it was getting late. She offered to check if dinner was ready. Before heading downstairs, she called back over her shoulder: “Take it easy here. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
“Alright.”
Lin Jinshen closed his book. What he’d said earlier wasn’t strictly true, he hadn’t touched her other things, but he also hadn’t just been sitting there reading.
It was the first time he’d really looked around Lu Yi’s room. Most of the knickknacks clearly belonged to her. He hadn’t touched them, just browsed the bookshelf, some books he’d read, some not. He pulled down one at random.
It was Borges’ The Moon Before Me. He flipped it open, and a page caught his eye:
“You will give me the shore of your life, though not possess it yourself.
Stepping into the silence,
I will finally perceive the last beach of your existence.
And for the first time I will see you, maybe
Just as God must see you,
Everything destroyed, time a fiction,
No love, no me.”
Lin Jinshen wasn’t really a poetry guy. He was about to snap the book shut when, idly turning to the back, he noticed something scribbled on the blank page.
“Farewell to twilight”
“Let the fireworks last forever”
Signed: Li Xian.
Jinshen had seen Lu Yi’s other books. She liked to underline passages, her handwriting was neat, elegant, unmistakably hers. But these three lines were bolder, a man’s hand without a doubt.
The name sealed it.
How exactly did he feel in that moment? He thought he was calm, he just glanced over it, snapped the book closed, put it back on the shelf like any other. No big deal, he told himself. Everyone’s got a past. Someone else’s handwriting didn’t mean a thing.
But as he slid it back onto the shelf, those three lines hovered in his mind, and he realized, he cared. A stupid amount, actually. Like a fishbone stuck in his throat: wouldn’t kill him, but damn, it itched every time he swallowed.
Footsteps echoed on the stairs.
Lu Yi pushed open the door but didn’t come in, she just rapped her knuckles on the frame with a bright grin. “Dinner’s ready.”
Lin Jinshen caught the sparkle in her eyes. That tiny sting from before melted away. Whatever they had in the past was eclipsed by the fact that he owned her present, and her future. Whoever signed that page was just a chapter she’d closed.
Sunday. Lu Yi and Lin Jinshen moved back to Chengxi Garden.
She felt like she’d just returned from a blissful vacation, relaxed, light as air.
It was the end of her holiday, but for Lin Jinshen, the vacation was just beginning. He’d already burned through their weekly ‘quota’ in one single day. Even when Lu Yi reminded him they’d already had a round at her parents', he had the nerve to claim that only counted as “half.” If she wanted to keep score like that, he was happy to go again.
Just thinking about that night made Lu Yi’s arm ache. She’d rather he finish a proper session next time.
Time flew by, and now their wedding was just days away, a countdown easy to do on one hand.
Lu Yi and Lin Jinshen kept things cool and collected, but their friends were losing it with excitement.
Yu Zeheng announced he was planning a bachelor party for Lin Jinshen. The suggestion was immediately shot down by Ji Changming: “You know Jinshen hates that sort of thing. He’s not into all that mess.”
“I know,” Yu Zeheng replied evenly. “Which is why I’m not telling him.”
Gu Yu clapped and mimed tossing something. “So, are we just going to drug him and drag him over?”
Yu Zeheng rolled his eyes. “Why bother with all that? Just trick him. Can you imagine trying to sneak up on Jinshen? Guy’s built like a tank.”
“So what’s your plan?” Ji Changming was intrigued.
Yu Zeheng smirked. “I’ll just say we’re celebrating my ‘happy divorce anniversary.’ He owes me that much.”
Ji Changming gave him a thumbs up, thoroughly impressed. “Of all of us, you’re the only guy willing to roast himself for the sake of a party.”
Gu Yu, meanwhile, was still hung up on another detail: “Wait, time flies. You’ve really been divorced a whole year?”
“Technically, eleven months and thirteen days,” Yu Zeheng corrected. “But whatever, no one’s counting.”
On the big day, Yu Zeheng booked out the whole Tang Palace Club under his name and invited literally everyone he knew, and everyone he didn’t. If you were going to throw a party, might as well do it right.
He might be wild, but he had limits. No drugs, nothing truly reckless. A fun night, not a scandal.
The three conspirators messaged Lin Jinshen as planned.
Jinshen’s gut reaction: Yu Zeheng was missing a few screws. Second reaction: Hard pass.
Yu Zeheng texted: [Fine, you're right. A guy like you shouldn’t hang out with a loser like me, wouldn’t want to bring down your luck.]
[Especially now that you’re getting married. As your buddy, I get it.]
Lin Jinshen: [ … ]
[I’ll come by when I’m done over here.]
Yu Zeheng: [You’re the brother I never had.]
Gu Yu and Ji Changming, watching the conversation unfold, could only marvel. Since the divorce, Yu Zeheng had been one big ongoing trainwreck, and now, with Jinshen’s wedding looming, he’d only doubled down on the chaos.
That night, Lin Jinshen arrived on time at Tang Palace.
He stepped out of the car, and the manager escorted him all the way up to the third floor where Yu Zeheng, Gu Yu, and Ji Changming were waiting.
As Jinshen drew near, Ji Changming snagged a bottle of champagne, gave it a hearty shake, and popped the cork, sending foam and bubbles spraying through the air, filling the room with laughter, booze, and that fizzy, reckless sense that anything could happen tonight.
"Jinhen, happy last night of freedom!"
"Let’s drink to our final taste of single life!"
Lin Jinshen raised his glass, the whole crowd jumping in, lights flashing, music booming as the DJ pumped up the vibe until the club felt electric.
Lin Jinshen: "…"
He frowned, his gaze sweeping over the ring-leaders at the table, sharp as a blade.
"Someone want to tell me what exactly is going on here?"
Ji Changming caved first, practically sliding to his knees: "Jinshen, full disclosure, it wasn’t my idea. This was all Zeheng’s plan. He spent a small fortune on tonight, just to show how much he cares."
All Zeheng’s idea, clearly. The others? Guilty as charged, but only as backup dancers.
Yu Zeheng grinned, leaning back with a lazy, reckless charm. "Think of it this way, there are two party themes tonight. You can wish me a happy one-year divorce anniversary, too."
"…"
Jinshen flagged down a server, grabbed a glass of wine from a tray, and stalked forward, looking more like he might throw a punch than make a toast. Still, when he reached Zeheng, he clinked their glasses together and said, "Thanks."
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
"No need to thank family," Zeheng replied, lazy smirk still in place.
"Put everything on my tab tonight, whatever it is," Jinshen downed his drink in one shot, "You guys have fun."
Zeheng shot him a look: "Oh, come on. Do you think we need to leech off you for this? This is us throwing you a party, man, how are we supposed to celebrate your last night if you bail?"
"Yeah! You’re the main character. If you leave, what’s even the point?" Ji Changming piped up.
Gu Yu finally took a seat, calmly pulling another bottle from the ice bucket. "You’re here now, so relax and drink with us. Just us and this table." he said, unhurried.
Jinshen glanced at the others judgingly, checked the time on his watch, and relented: "Half an hour, tops."
"Deal!"
"Thirty minutes it is!"
"Pour it up!"
Anyone who knew Jinshen knew he never showed up at these parties, getting even half an hour was a miracle.
The music blared on, the party hitting fever pitch.
Zeheng kept refilling his glass, going shot for shot with well-wishes: "To you, Jinshen, may your life together with your bride be golden and bright, luckier than all the rest."
Ji Changming raised his glass: "A love as full as the moon and flowers, growing old together!"
"May it last a hundred years, may you always be of one heart," added Gu Yu.
Three drinks, each a full glass and not a single one of them watered down, all strong liquor.
Jinshen barely touched alcohol, ever. He didn't need it for business, and privately he dodged social events like the plague. Three shots in, just like they planned, no way he'd escape in thirty minutes.
Meanwhile, across town, Lu Yi was staring down her own wedding countdown. Yu Yin and Wu Sidong were dead set on throwing her a bachelorette, but Lu Yi shot them down so fast their heads spun. She hated big parties, and ever since that nightmare with the male strippers, she had downright PTSD about the whole scene.
She wasn’t built to survive another round.
"So you’re just going to get married like everyone else? How boring is that?" Wu Sidong pleaded. "No strippers this time, I promise, we’ll keep it simple and fun. No work for you, all play for us!"
Yu Yin nodded eagerly, the two rarely this united: "Come on, leave it to us. We’ll make this a night you remember, better than the wedding itself!"
Lu Yi only dug her heels in harder, voice unyielding: "Really, save it for the next lucky bride."
Evangelizing failed, they had to give up.
"You two are the least fun couple in history." Wu Sidong huffed. All he could picture for Jinshen’s bachelor night was something soul-crushingly lame, probably Jinshen holed up with a stack of contracts instead of enjoying himself, even on his wedding eve.
In just two days, they’d be flying to a private island to prep for the ceremony.
Those wild pre-wedding parties? Vaporized.
"But then again, maybe it won’t be boring on Lin’s end, Tang Palace is closed to the public tonight, rumor has it Zeheng invited half the social circle for a blowout. Maybe it’s for Jinshen." Lavish, too, who knows how much money they’d burn before sunrise?
Everyone knew about Zeheng and Jinshen: childhood friends, ride-or-die ever since they could walk.
"You’re overthinking it. I heard Zeheng’s just throwing himself a divorce party."
"Huh? Didn’t he get divorced ages ago?"
"Can’t a man celebrate his one-year singleness milestone?" Wu Sidong shot back.
"He was always a little unhinged, but this is next level," Yu Yin sighed, half impressed. "Weddings, sure, whatever, but a divorce anniversary? Who does that?"
Right then, Lu Yi’s phone suddenly rang. Her friends leaned in as she glanced at the screen, ‘Lin Jinshen’ lit up as the caller. She hesitated, then swiped to answer.
She put the phone to her ear, and immediately a riot of noise, music, shouts, flooded her. She checked the screen again, just to be sure, yup, definitely Jinshen, but the chaos in the background was so not his vibe.
"Sis-in-law?"
A guy’s voice, unfamiliar at first, crackled through the static. He cranked up the volume: "Is this sis-in-law?"
"And you are...?" Lu Yi replied, bewildered.
"Hey sis, I’m Ji Changming. You don’t know me, but I’m Jinshen’s friend."
"Hello," Lu Yi answered, polite out of habit.
"So, here’s the thing, Shen’s a little drunk tonight. Any chance you could come grab him? If not, no worries, we’ll make sure he gets home safe."
Ji Changming rattled this off all in one breath, nearly shouting to be heard over the noise.
"He’s drunk?" Lu Yi’s eyes widened, pressing her brow in disbelief. Lin Jinshen, the cold-and-collected one, drunk?
"Yeah, it’s… complicated. Hard to explain right now. But he definitely had more than usual. He never does this, honestly…" Ji Changming babbled, trying to explain and protect Jinshen’s image at the same time.
Poor guy. Why did Gu Yu dump this whole mess on him?
While Lu Yi was still processing, she heard Jinshen’s voice on the other end.
"Give me the phone."
That voice, impossible not to recognize.
“Sis-in-law, I’m handing the phone to Jinshen now.” Ji Changming blurted out, not daring to hesitate, and immediately passed the phone to the man in front of him.
Even though Lin Jinshen had knocked back quite a bit, you wouldn’t know it from looking at him, he oozed that same intimidating charisma, sprawled on the sofa like nothing could faze him, eyes clear as ever.
Honestly, sometimes even Ji Changming couldn’t tell if he was tipsy, or just pretending to be.
There was a pause. Lu Yi tried, a little hesitantly, “Lin Jinshen?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” He tipped his head back, fingers pressing at his brow. “I’m fine. Don’t bother coming over.”
His voice, at first listen, sounded completely normal.
But Lu Yi could tell something was off. Lin Jinshen usually spoke with crisp authority, every syllable clear and sharp, yet tonight, his words sagged with fatigue and the faintest hint of a blocked-up nose.
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah. Positive.”
Lu Yi switched the phone to her other hand, and tested him: “Then, who am I?”
“…”
Dead silence on the other end. He clearly hadn’t thought she’d lob such a softball, but after a second, he answered, firm as ever: “My wife.”
Well. That settled it, he was absolutely drunk.