“Don’t touch me.”

The woman on the sofa turned her face away from the hand reaching toward her cheek.

The light fell on her face, revealing a near-transparent pallor, as if she would shatter at the slightest touch.

The hand belonged to Shen Yu, dressed in a sharp suit, wearing the gentle smile she once knew so well.

But now, that smile only made her feel sick.

Shen Yu paused mid-motion, didn’t get angry, and slowly withdrew his hand, speaking in a tone meant to soothe a sulking child.

“Yuan Yao, what’s wrong? The Huo family has fallen. Aren’t you happy?”

Yuan Yao’s gaze slid past his face to the empty carpet beneath her, her voice barely audible.

“All of this… it’s your scheme, isn’t it?”

“The downfall of the Yuan family has nothing to do with Huo Yanzhi, right?”

Shen Yu adjusted his cufflinks and smiled at her question.

“It has nothing to do with him.”

“It was your cousin, Su Mingyuan, being foolish and getting trapped by the Zhou family. Huo Yanzhi didn’t know anything about any of this.”

Yuan Yao’s hand, resting at her side, clenched, pressing the soft flesh of her palm.

“The one who drugged me back then… was that also you?”

Shen Yu’s voice dropped low, admitting it calmly, with a long-suppressed resentment simmering beneath his words.

“Yes.”

“Too bad Huo Yanzhi—that madman—intercepted your plan.”

“Why did you lie to me?” Yuan Yao nearly stumbled. “Why did you tell me it was Huo Yanzhi, to make me hate him, to make me fear him?”

Shen Yu stepped closer, crouched to meet her gaze, his voice so gentle it almost dripped.

“Lie to you? Yao Yao, haven’t you always hated Huo Yanzhi?”

“He forced himself on you, and every time he touched you, you trembled with fear.”

He spoke softly. “See, I helped you drive away the devil who has always tormented you. Shouldn’t you be happy?”

A low laugh escaped him, as if sharing a sweet little secret.

“And Yao Yao, you are incredible. If it weren’t for you, how could I have so easily gotten Huo family secrets? You should be thanking me.”

Each word was soft, but each cut her heart like a knife.

She thought of Huo Yanzhi.

After that one reckless, absurd night, he reappeared in her life, commanding and irresistible, declaring he would marry her.

He said the Yuan family needed money, and he could provide it.

For the sake of money, to help her family through hard times, she agreed to marry him.

She had prepared herself for every humiliation, even imagining how he might demean her as a fallen heiress.

But married life was nothing like what she expected.

Huo Yanzhi gave her a black card with no limit, saying the entire city of Jingbei could be hers.

Whatever she glanced at, it would appear at home the next day.

He treated her like a treasure.

Except in bed.

His demands were an insatiable, overwhelming conquest.

He was like a dying traveler in the desert, and she was the only water.

He consumed her entirely—body and soul—crushing even her bones into his flesh, as if this would make him possess her forever.

No matter how she pleaded, he would not stop.

He crushed her cries with his burning lips, pinned her to him, taking her over and over, calling her name in a hoarse voice.

Huo Yanzhi’s suffocating possessiveness and near-pathological desire terrified Yuan Yao.

She had once dared to ask why it had to be her.

He said he fell for her at first sight, that desire came naturally.

His answer sounded frivolous, almost like a joke.

But his eyes were heavy, like a swamp drowned in endless rain.

There was no light there—only slippery, frenzied, ever-growing dampness that twisted and strangled everything.

And in it lingered a feeling she couldn’t comprehend… a feeling that almost drowned her.

The Huo family loved her deeply, too, because of him.

The elders of the Huo family held her hand, telling her to treat their home as her own.

Huo Yanzhi’s little sister gave her expensive jewelry, saying she looked beautiful in anything.

After the Huo family fell, Huo Yanzhi’s mother screamed at her, calling her ungrateful, blaming her cold heart.

Before going to prison, Huo Yanzhi calmly signed the divorce papers with her.

He said, “Yao Yao, no one will force you anymore.”

He even settled all the Yuan family’s debts, leaving her enough wealth to live freely for the rest of her life.

Only then did she realize the truth.

But by then, it was too late.

Huo Yanzhi was dead.

He had committed suicide in prison.

A tear slid down her empty eyes, burning as it hit the back of her hand.

Then another. And another.

Seeing her cry, Shen Yu reached out to wipe her tears.

“Why are you crying?” His voice was soft, tinged with confusion and displeasure. “The Huo family is gone, Huo Yanzhi is dead—you should be happy. Now no one can take you from me.”

Yuan Yao’s tears fell harder.

Yes, she should be happy.

She had escaped the man she thought was a demon.

So why did her heart hurt like someone was tearing it out with their bare hands?

Everyone thought she hated him. She once believed that herself.

Suddenly, Yuan Yao stopped crying.

She lifted her head, her eyes wet with tears, and spoke with the old softness in her voice. “Shen Yu, you’re right. I should be happy.”

She stepped closer to him, willingly leaning into his embrace. Her cheek pressed against the expensive fabric of his suit, her arms circling his waist.

Shen Yu hugged her, satisfied, whispering in her ear, “That’s a good girl.”

Then, a sudden, searing pain shot through her lower abdomen.

Shen Yu stiffened, looking down in disbelief.

A silver fruit knife was in her hand, the blade buried deep in his body.

Blood gushed instantly, staining his white shirt and her pale, delicate hand.

“You…” he tried to speak, his face twisted in pain.

“I’ll take you to him.” Yuan Yao’s voice trembled with sobs. “Weren’t you angry that he took me from you? I’ll take you to him.”

With all her strength, she held Shen Yu and crashed through the floor-to-ceiling window on the seventeenth floor.

The wind howled past her ears, whipping her thin dress and long black hair.

The city lights sparkled behind her like a distant, cold galaxy.

Yuan Yao closed her eyes.

Huo Yanzhi, I’m coming to you.

This time, it’s my turn to reach you.

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