Volume One, Chapter Twenty-One: Tonight, stay with me!

“Lu Jinnian, you’re truly despicable!”

Her palm stung from the force of the slap.

Sang Wan’s face was cold as frost. “Don’t think everyone is like you!”

She turned to leave, but her wrist was seized by Lu Jinnian.

He hadn’t expected Sang Wan’s strength to be so astonishing. Her elbow jabbed into his stomach with such force it felt as though his insides were being flattened.

He still hadn’t caught his breath when her sharp stiletto heel came down hard on the top of his foot.

His hand loosened involuntarily, and Sang Wan slipped away.

When he looked up again, she had already entered the hotel, her figure swallowed by the lobby lights.

Lu Jinnian’s face was dark and unreadable.

He had come to warn Sang Wan.

The scene at yesterday’s birthday banquet had been far too ugly. After cooling down, Lu Jinnian realized a serious problem.

Even a rabbit will bite when cornered.

Sang Wan might be gentle, virtuous, and mild-tempered, but if truly pushed to her limits, there was no telling what she might do.

The municipal government’s bidding conference was imminent. If Sang Wan, in a fit of anger, said something reckless—not just the Lu Corporation’s stock price would be affected; even his image in the eyes of the city officials could be irreparably damaged.

He hadn’t expected that she wouldn’t answer his calls. It seemed he’d already been blocked on WeChat.

He waited all night, only to see her step out of another man’s car, smiling radiantly.

His expression turned grim. Lu Jinnian made a call to Yang Yan. “Find out who that man is—the one who’s been unusually close to Sang Wan.”

He hung up and climbed into his car.

The Mercedes roared away. In the driver’s seat, Lu Jinnian’s face was shrouded in gloom.

Even the night wind seemed to conspire against him, whipping mercilessly against his left cheek, which still burned from Sang Wan’s slap.

It was the first time Sang Wan had ever raised a hand to him.

As a young girl, Sang Wan had been aloof and quiet. After they were together, she’d become attentive, giving him all the gentleness she possessed.

But tonight, for the sake of some outsider, she had disregarded years of marriage and actually struck him.

The Mercedes’ engine roared in frustration.

When the car stopped outside the Lu family villa, the whole house was ablaze with light.

As Lu Jinnian got out, the front door opened at once.

A glimmer of surprise flickered in his eyes as he looked up to see Lin Chaochao stepping out to greet him.

“You… you haven’t left?” Lu Jinnian walked forward.

Lin Chaochao shook her head. “Mu wasn’t feeling well, so I stayed with him a little longer.”

“He’s not feeling well?”

Lu Jinnian quickened his pace toward the children’s room.

Lu Xiaomu lay listless, a fever patch on his forehead, his little face flushed red.

“The doctor’s already been—he said it’s probably just a chill. I’ve given him his medicine…” Lin Chaochao spoke softly, reaching out to tug Lu Jinnian’s sleeve. “Why did you come back so late?”

She had left early to pick up Lu Xiaomu from kindergarten, thinking Lu Jinnian would only be an hour behind and they could have dinner together. But he’d come home much later than expected.

Her eyes swept over the red mark on his face—a clear handprint.

Her heart skipped a beat: Had he gone to see Sang Wan?

Part of her refused to believe Lu Jinnian would stoop so low, not after last night’s disastrous scene at the birthday dinner. Why would he seek Sang Wan out again?

Yet she couldn’t stop her mind from racing.

As long as Lu Jinnian remained married, she could not find peace.

“There was something I had to deal with,” Lu Jinnian replied, frowning.

Sang Wan never asked why he came home late. She would just tell him not to overwork himself, that money was never-ending.

“You should…” Go home.

“Mama…”

As he was about to send Lin Chaochao away, a small voice interrupted. Lu Xiaomu turned over in his sleep, mumbling for his mother.

A soft chime sounded in Lu Jinnian’s mind.

He turned to Lin Chaochao. “Stay here tonight.”

Lin Chaochao’s eyes sparkled instantly.

She had waited so long for this night.

In Sang Wan’s eyes, she was the other woman. Probably everyone else saw her that way, too.

But in truth, nothing had happened between them.

She longed to accept at once, but kept her composure, hesitating a moment before replying softly, “All right.”

“Go on upstairs.”

Watching Lin Chaochao head lightly up the stairs, Lu Jinnian pulled out his phone and dialed Sang Wan.

He wasn’t sure if he’d been blocked, but after several attempts, Sang Wan still didn’t answer.

He tried the driver next.

The doorbell rang insistently as Sang Wan stepped out of her shower.

Peering through the peephole, she saw the driver, checked her clothes, and opened the door.

The driver’s face was tense. “Madam, young master has a fever. He’s crying for you. Please come home and see him!”

Sang Wan hesitated only a second before agreeing. “Give me a moment.”

She changed, then followed the driver downstairs.

The car sped toward the Lu villa.

Sang Wan’s expression was calm, but inside she was burning with worry.

If Lu Jinnian were the one sick, she would refuse without hesitation. He was an adult, with doctors and servants to tend to him—he’d survive. Besides, they were divorced now.

But Lu Xiaomu—no matter the divorce, the fact that he was flesh of her flesh would never change.

In the past five years, Lu Xiaomu had rarely fallen ill. When he did, he refused both injections and medicine, leaving her exhausted and hoarse from coaxing.

Every time he was sick, it was a torment for her.

She wondered how things would be from now on…

The car stopped, cutting off her thoughts.

As she entered, the noise from the children’s room reached her ears.

Lu Xiaomu was crying.

The nanny tried to soothe him.

Lu Jinnian was losing his patience.

Sang Wan stepped into the bedroom to see Lu Xiaomu, a fever patch stuck to his forehead, the nanny holding a cup of water trying to coax him to take his medicine.

His little face was flushed with fever, yet he was stubborn. “I don’t want medicine, I don’t want it! I want Aunt Chaochao to play blocks with me. I want Aunt Chaochao…”

She’d prepared herself for this, but in that moment the pain still pierced her heart like a knife.

Biting back the ache, Sang Wan took the medicine from the nanny and gently coaxed her son, “Xiaomu, don’t cry… You’re sick. If Aunt Chaochao comes and you pass your sickness to her, what then? Be good and take your medicine. When you’re well again, you can play with Aunt Chaochao as much as you like, all right?”

Lu Xiaomu’s lips trembled, but he took the medicine.

“I want a story.”

“All right. Should I tell the one about Ultraman or the Prince of Peas?”

“I don’t want those… I want the story of the Big Bad Wolf Grandma battling Tesla.”

“…All right. Deep in the forest lived a magical wolf grandmother. One day…”

Halfway through the story, Lu Xiaomu drifted off to sleep, his little hand cool and dry, his face no longer flushed.

Sang Wan gently patted him, only leaving after he was sound asleep and the lights were off.

Lu Jinnian’s face still bore the fading mark of her slap, but his expression had softened. “Xiaomu isn’t feeling well. Tonight, could you…”

“Jinnian!”

A voice called from behind him.

Sang Wan looked up to see Lin Chaochao descending slowly from the second floor, still wearing her silk nightgown.