He lowered his head and kissed the corner of her lips, his tone casual: “If you’re going to talk about breaking off the engagement, then I suggest you save your breath. Don’t waste your effort.”
Chu Luyu was clearly taken aback, but she didn’t want to give up. She held onto Jiang Hezhou’s wrist stubbornly, looking at him earnestly.
“Jiang Hezhou, listen to me. For this world, you really are an important existence. I don’t know how to explain this to you, but in the future, you’ll meet someone more suitable for you. You’ll like her, really, really like her. She’s your female lead—you’ll be happy together after you get together… So you shouldn’t get hung up on this relationship with me right now. Between us, there’s destined to be no future.”
The man looked at her deeply, his expression unreadable as to whether he had taken her words to heart. After a long pause, he suddenly smiled: “I never knew before that you could lie so earnestly when coaxing people.”
Chu Luyu grew anxious, her voice urgent: “I’m not lying! What I said is true—there’s no future for us. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on me!”
Something in her words seemed to provoke him. He flipped her wrist over and pinned her back down onto the bed.
Her disheveled hair spread across the dark gray sheets. The blanket only covered her up to just above her chest, leaving the skin below her neck and her shoulders exposed—pale and flawless.
Jiang Hezhou felt he ought to punish her properly. Her leaving without a word was already infuriating enough, and on top of that, she had been getting so close to her stepbrother in the meantime. And now she dared to say things like this!
“Chu Luyu, do you think I won’t really get angry at you, is that why you’re so brazen?”
Chu Luyu froze. In all the time they’d known each other, he had rarely called her by her full name. Hearing it now, even she—slow as she might be—could sense the suppressed pressure radiating from him.
Her confidence instantly wavered. She looked at him with wide, pitiful eyes and said softly: “I… I wasn’t lying. You really shouldn’t be wasting your time on me.”
This time, Jiang Hezhou laughed out of sheer frustration. His usually cool and aloof face, when he curved his lips, surprisingly revealed a hint of lazy, reckless defiance.
“You say I shouldn’t waste my time on you? Fine. Then tell me this—back when we first met, when you were seducing me at every turn, why didn’t you say I shouldn’t waste my time on you then? Now that we’ve reached this point, you suddenly want me to give up? Chu Luyu, there’s no such thing in this world as provoking someone and walking away unscathed. Or did I give you some illusion before, making you think I was too easygoing, and that’s why you’re so reckless?”
At that moment, Jiang Hezhou’s gaze turned deep and dark. He stared unblinkingly at the girl beneath him, his words cold as ice: “If that’s the case, then from now on, we’ll play by new rules.”
Chu Luyu could feel that the man hovering over her had changed his aura in an instant. She was stunned—whether from shock or fear—completely frozen, her bright black eyes filled with helplessness.
But even though he had just hardened his heart, the moment he looked at her, he softened again.
He sighed inwardly, helpless. Not wanting to dwell on the matter further, he changed the subject: “Forget it. Get up first. I’ll make breakfast. Whatever it is, we’ll talk after we eat.”
At the table, Jiang Hezhou didn’t hold the little girl in his lap and personally feed her like before. Instead, he sat across from her, deliberately keeping some distance.
His thought was that since she seemed to not like him as much anymore, if he kept clinging to her every moment, it would only annoy her. Jiang Hezhou would never let her go—they were going to be together for a long, long time. So now he was terrified of making her hate him. Whenever he could hold himself back, he tried to restrain himself.
Chu Luyu didn’t seem to notice this detail. She ate absentmindedly. In the morning, she normally loved pairing her porridge with pickled cucumbers, but now she had already finished most of her bowl without picking up a single piece.
Jiang Hezhou frowned, wondering whether to remind her. Just then, the phone on the table rang.
It was Zhang Jiting calling. Jiang Hezhou answered, put it on speaker, and set it aside.
“Hello—”
“You bastard, I heard you went up to the penthouse last night to propose?”
“Mm.”
“Not that it’s any of my business, but are you crazy? You prepared a whole bunch of little surprises, and then you chose a time when no one was around to propose. What, were you afraid little sis-in-law would reject you or something?”
Zhang Jiting’s loud, boisterous voice came blaring through the speaker. Chu Luyu, whether from guilt or surprise, lost her grip on her soup spoon—it clattered onto the table.
A crisp sound. Jiang Hezhou glanced up at her, then turned, took a new spoon from the kitchenware cabinet, and handed it to her.
“…Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Zhang Jiting, having gotten no response for a while, called out “Hello? Hello?” a couple of times. Only then did Jiang Hezhou slowly speak back: “She said yes.”
Zhang Jiting paused for a second, then realized he was answering the question he had just asked.
“Wasn’t that obvious? Of course I knew little sis-in-law would say yes—you two are so in love!”
That one sentence seemed to hit a nerve with Jiang Hezhou. He lifted his eyes, and behind his lenses, his gaze drifted toward her—deep and unfathomable. “Yeah… we’re so in love.”
His tone was far too pointed, and the way he looked at her sent a chill crawling up Chu Luyu’s scalp.
She couldn’t take it anymore and tearfully reached out to the system: [Cuihua, what do I do? What do I do, what do I do?!]
System Cuihua: [Calm down first. Anyway, after completing the tasks, this world still has a one-month observation period—that thing I told you about, where I have to stay another month. As long as I don’t report any anomalies upward during this time, at least the next month will be safe. If you can break things off with the male lead during this period, then the rest shouldn’t be a big problem.]
Chu Luyu was on the verge of tears: [But look at the male lead—does he seem like someone who’d break up with me?]
Actually, Chu Luyu felt quite conflicted. Before, when the male lead treated her well while still carrying that so-called “disgust value,” she was unhappy. Now that she knew he genuinely liked her—even to the point of obsession—she was terrified.
This world was created for the male and female leads. As a top-tier supporting character who had transmigrated here, logically speaking, she couldn’t keep bouncing around beside the male lead forever. Now that the romance line had completely collapsed and the male lead had fallen for her, she had no idea what would happen if this continued. Would the whole world collapse just because of this one anomaly—her?
That was too terrifying.
The system thought for a moment, then said: [Then keep acting out—but this time, do it differently. Make it so unbearable that the male lead breaks down, erodes all his feelings for you, and reaches the point where he thinks breaking off the engagement is the right choice. Then the problem will be solved!]
Chu Luyu was silent for a long time before replying: [Even so, Cuihua, I don’t really trust you anymore. You’ve been giving me this kind of advice all along, and look at the results… you saw them yourself.]
System Cuihua: […Fair enough. Let me think of something else.]
While the two of them were conversing, Zhang Jiting and Jiang Hezhou had moved on to a new topic.
“Since the proposal’s a success, aren’t you and little sis-in-law going to treat us to a meal today to celebrate? The three of us have been working our butts off for you these past few days, spending money and effort—it’s not too much to ask for one meal, is it?”
“Not today.” Jiang Hezhou’s tone was indifferent. “We’re going to get our marriage certificate later.”
That single sentence sent Chu Luyu’s heart leaping into her throat again.
Before she could say anything, Zhang Jiting reacted loudly on the other end: “No way! The old almanac says today’s a day when nothing should be done! You’re seriously going to register on a day like this?”
Jiang Hezhou frowned instinctively upon hearing that. “Nothing should be done?”
“Yeah! You think I’m this free in the middle of the day for no reason, calling you guys out for a get-together?” The Zhang family, being in business, had always been particular about feng shui and metaphysics from old to young. Zhang Jiting, raised by the elders to be the successor, naturally cared about these things too.
Usually, on days like this, as long as there wasn’t anything urgent, Zhang Jiting wouldn’t stick his neck out to do anything.
After saying that, he didn’t really expect Jiang Hezhou to take it seriously—after all, this buddy of his was a forensic doctor, dealing with dead bodies all day. How could he care about such things?
But to his surprise, the next second, Jiang Hezhou suddenly said: “In that case, forget it today. We’ll do it another day.”
The person on the phone was clearly taken aback. After a moment, a burst of laughter came through the speaker: “Holy crap, Jiang Er, have you been possessed by something? The staunch materialist, after falling in love, actually believes in metaphysics now? I’ll have to tell Ji Chen about this!”
Jiang Hezhou looked impatient and was about to hang up when Zhang Jiting quickly added: “Don’t hang up yet, don’t hang up! I haven’t finished! Did you hear what I said earlier? Let’s get together today—since you and little sis-in-law don’t have anything urgent anyway. Come to my new club tonight, grab some food, and chat.”
This time, Jiang Hezhou agreed readily: “Fine.”
After the call ended, Jiang Hezhou looked over at Chu Luyu again. The girl had seemed a bit distracted since earlier, lost in her own thoughts.
He slowly took a spoonful of vegetable porridge, his eyes lowered behind his lenses. After a few seconds, he suddenly asked her: “What are you thinking about?”
Chu Luyu snapped back: “Huh? Nothing, really.”
“Is that so?” Jiang Hezhou smiled, then added, “But you’ve been quiet all this time. I thought you were thinking about how to break up with me again.”
Chu Luyu thought about how he had reacted every time she mentioned breaking up since last night—that over-the-top response—and felt a pang of guilt. She quickly said: “I wasn’t. Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I thought so too.”
The smile on Jiang Hezhou’s face deepened. On his jade-like face, the corners of his lips slowly lifted: “After all, from yesterday until now, I should have made it very clear through my actions. Breaking off the engagement—absolutely impossible.”
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