Lu Boyan’s residence.

Su Jianan had tried over ten different sleep postures and had made over ten attempts at summoning any somnolence she thought she had in her, but still, sleep eluded her.

Usually, she would fall asleep the moment she hit the sack. But tonight, thoughts of Lu Boyan’s bridal carry preoccupied her mind.

The way his strong hands felt when they were pressed against her skin, his body heat, the warmth of his firm pectorals, the sharp contours of his handsome face… Oh, it was as if she was back in his arms again, reliving the same experience, seeing and feeling everything clearly. Her pulse began to race…

“Hey, you’d left Lu Boyan’s embrace ages ago, okay! Just stop this! Argh!” she thought.

Usually, Su Jianan had better self-control than that. But this time, stopping herself really did seem like a lost cause, so she got out of bed and left her bedroom.

She needed a drink to calm herself!

Su Jianan noticed Lu Boyan before she reached the bottom of the stairs. He was sitting in the living room and it appeared that he was in the middle of a phone call. Su Jianan could faintly make out the sound of his deep voice. Right then, that gentle voice was filled with warmth and tenderness. Furthermore, from the contents of the conversation, it was not difficult for Su Jianan to guess the person at the other end of the call was Han Ruoxi.

Other than those few times when they had been forced to put on a show, Lu Boyan had never spoken to Su Jianan in such a gentle voice before. In fact, she could come up with several occasions when his face clearly expressed his unwillingness to converse with her.

She had always thought that Lu Boyan was cold by nature. But it turned out that he was only cold to her by nature.

The warmth of his body, the sensation his touches had evoked in her, and the way he made her pulse race – all vanished from Su Jianan’s mind.

The deluge that had been seething inside Su Jianan’s heart lulled, dropping from 100 to 0 degrees in an instant. Everything she had been feeling in her heart came to a miraculous halt.

She heaved a sigh of relief before turning around to walk back to her room. She fell asleep shortly after.

When she woke up the next day, Su Jianan had forgotten everything from the previous day. Instead, all her attention was now focused on the tantalizing breakfast that had been laid out before her. Today, they were having her favorite again – dumplings.

Uncle Xu appeared with two copies of the morning paper. He handed Su Jianan a copy. “Young Madam, there are reports on yesterday’s incident. Do you want to have a look?”

Su Jianan spread out the paper before her. After a moment, she snorted. “The media is so good at making things up these days.”

Shockingly, the headline was Unforeseen Turn of Events: Lu Boyan Puts His Life on the Line Going after His Wife’s Kidnappers. Was there a live coverage when Lu Boyan went after the kidnappers? Otherwise, how could they have known that Lu Boyan had put his own life at risk?

Su Jianan was still in the middle of her laughing fit when something else caught her eye. Below the headline was an article about Han Ruoxi.

Su Jianan had never been much of a follower of the entertainment biz, so even if Han Ruoxi’s popularity had surged all over Asia, Su Jianan only ever encountered two news articles about Han Ruoxi.

Strangely, on both encounters, those articles were of similar content – last time, it was about a drunken Han Ruoxi in tears. This time, the photo showed Han Ruoxi wiping her tears at the foot of her home building. The photo was taken in the middle of the night. The speculation was that her tears had been caused by relationship troubles.

“But that’s unlikely, isn’t it?” Su Jianan thought. Last night, when she had overheard Lu Boyan speaking on the phone, his voice was so warm and gentle. Could it be that a fight broke out afterwards?

Su Jianan raised her head and sneaked a glance at Lu Boyan. He did not seem to have touched the paper at all and his face betrayed no hint of emotion or expression. In the end, Su Jianan decided to impart her experiences to him.

“Every woman needs a little sweet-talking, you know. It doesn’t matter if she’s just a girl or if she’s a queen,” Su Jianan said earnestly.

Lu Boyan raised his head. “Your point being?”

Su Jianan laid the paper before Lu Boyan and pointed at the photo of Han Ruoxi, which had taken up an entire page. “A little coaxing and sweet-talking would’ve done the trick. Why involve the press? Don’t you know how damaging this is to her reputation?”

Lu Boyan set down his chopsticks. A cold smile graced his features. “Who told you that all women need sweet-talking?”

“Jiang Shaokai, of course!” “That’s something he had learned after his N ex-girlfriends. It looks like I won’t even be getting thanks after passing it on to you,” Su Jianan said frankly.

“Clack—”

An ear-piercing screech sounded as Lu Boyan stood up abruptly. His movements knocked back the stool he had been sitting on. He turned around and left before Su Jianan could catch a glimpse of his face. His dumplings were left completely untouched.

“Hey, aren’t you going to eat?”

Su Jianan’s voice came out in a desperate tone. But Lu Boyan just kept walking on without so much as a backward glance. What surprised him was that there was no anger in Su Jianan at all after reading the article.

“Oh, so he’s going to start sweet-talking so soon? Huh. Guess the lesson isn’t wasted on him after all!”

Satisfied and contented with herself, Su Jianan reached for the bamboo steamer that contained Lu Boyan’s untouched dumplings. She pulled the entire tray to herself and dug in.

At the door, a disgruntled Lu Boyan halted his steps.

He recalled the desperation in her voice when she called out to him just now. Could it be that she was worried about him skipping breakfast?

Feeling lucky, a certain someone turned around and headed back. But upon the sight of Su Jianan gobbling up his dumplings, Lu Boyan felt reality hit him squarely in the face: Su Jianan did not give two hoots whether he had his breakfast or not. She only cared about his dumplings!

Lu Boyan gritted his teeth. “That tactless, wretched girl!” he thought.

Uncle Xu did not even have to look at Lu Boyan to know that Lu Boyan was fuming off the top of his head. Feeling troubled, Uncle Xu approached Su Jianan. “Young Madam, actually the Young Master and Miss Han…”

“Ah.” Su Jianan waved him off. “You don’t have to tell me how deeply in love they are with each other. I totally get it.”

Uncle Xu sighed. “Actually, I’d rather you know less.” Even if she knew just a little bit less, the Young Master would not have been that furious.

Su Jianan did not catch what Uncle Xu said at all. At the moment, she just assumed that Uncle Xu was mumbling to himself. Happily, she went back to devouring the dumplings.

Su Jianan headed to the police station after breakfast. The city had been peaceful of late and there were no homicide cases. So a bored Su Jianan was left sitting in front of her computer, randomly browsing the web.

All of a sudden, she received a URL from Luo Xiaoxi from a well-established forum site.

She copied the URL and accessed the forum. It led her to a forum thread posted just this morning. Regardless, it had already received nearly ten thousand replies.

The thread was titled OP wants to doxx this mystery woman who made our goddess cry – Lu Boyan’s Newlywed Wife.

The OP, whose username was I Love You Queen Ruoxi, was a netizen from City A and clearly a die-hard fan of Han Ruoxi. No doubt, the OP was distraught by the fact that Han Ruoxi had bawled her eyes out like a child, twice. The OP also came to the conclusion that the culprit who had reduced Queen Ruoxi to such a state was none other than Lu Boyan’s mysterious newlywed wife.

So I Love You Queen Ruoxi had called upon the internet, for them to blow the lid off the identity of Lu Boyan’s wife. It was a form of payback for everything done to Han Ruoxi. The OP already had several basic information on the matter: 1) Lu Boyan’s new wife was a citizen of City A; 2) Her occupation was special; 3) She had once been a student of Columbia University in the United States. Well, since she had shown her face during last night’s event, it meant that her identity had already been made known to quite a few people. All things considered, doxxing her would not be difficult…

All this proved that Han Ruoxi had a staggering number of fans. Plus, with all the information I Love You Queen Ruoxi had garnered, more fans were now joining the doxxing mission. Occasionally, there would be “Doxxing-And-Violation-Of-Privacy-Are-Illegal” reminders, but these soon fell by the wayside as posts from other users and I Love You Queen Ruoxi flooded the forum.

There were nearly ten thousand replies, ninety percent of which were for the OP. Eighty-five percent had joined the doxxing mission.

Su Jianan received another text from an anxious Luo Xiaoxi: Su Jianan, you’re in danger! Do you want to go overseas into hiding or something?

Su Jianan stretched herself. Leisurely, she typed out a reply: Which do you think are scarier? Corpses? Or hordes of netizens?

After weighing one option against the other, Luo Xiaoxi replied: Dead bodies are scarier.

To which Su Jianan replied: Alright then, I’m going to examine a few dead bodies now.

The silent implication was that if even corpses could not scare her, then those netizens meant nothing.

Luo Xiaoxi replied with a lengthy sequence of ellipses and exclamation points. Luo Xiaoxi intended it to convey the admiration and awe she felt towards Su Jianan.

Su Jianan was exceptionally calm in the face of everything – corpses and what not, she really could not care less.

Then her phone rang. It was an incoming call from Tang Yulan.

“Auntie!”

“Jianan!” Tang Yulan sounded edgy and agitated. “Geez, an incident that big… why didn’t you tell me anything about what happened last night? If I hadn’t seen the morning papers, I would have no idea at all you’ve been kidnapped. How are you? Are you hurt?”

The old lady’s ramblings had overwhelmed Su Jianan a little. But still, the concern behind the old lady’s voice did not elude Su Jianan. It evoked a feeling in Su Jianan that was profound and… ungraspable. It felt a lot like warmth.

Su Jianan smiled. “Auntie, I’m fine. I’m practically half a cop, remember? I wouldn’t go down that easily.”

“I’m still worried. I should come down to the station and see you.” Tang Yulan sounded very insistent.

It was not that Su Jianan did not welcome Tang Yulan’s presence at the station. Just that Su Jianan had no way of explaining to her colleagues her relationship with this lady of status. Su Jianan thought for a moment. “Auntie, I’m really fine. You don’t have to come down just to check on me. Tomorrow’s a weekend so I don’t have to work overtime. Why don’t I go and see you?!”

In that moment, Tang Yulan realized that her hasty visit to the station might inconvenience Su Jianan’s work. She nodded. “That is fine too. I’ll wait for you at home, then!”

“Okay.”

When Su Jianan ended the call, a happy smile adorned her lips.

She had not experienced maternal love since she was 15. But Tang Yulan’s words and actions brought back the feelings of being loved and cared for by a mother. To Su Jianan, that feeling was a long time coming. Plus, other than that secret reason, Tang Yulan was the other reason she had agreed to this marriage with Lu Boyan.

Su Jianan liked this old lady who was both interesting and optimistic. Su Jianan would like to treat her like her mother.

Now that she had plans for the weekend, Su Jianan was in an exceptionally good mood. After breakfast the following day, Su Jianan grabbed the tea leaves she had bought yesterday and was about to leave the house.

Lu Boyan noticed Su Jianan’s jolly mood. So when she was about to leave, he called out to her. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see auntie.” All of a sudden, Su Jianan remembered that the man standing before her right then was none other than Auntie Tang’s son. “Want to go together? If we go together, Auntie Tang will perhaps be very happy!”

She stared at him, blinking. It was as if the entire weight of her anticipation was resting on her fluttering eyelashes.

For a moment, Lu Boyan was thrown into a daze. What Su Jianan had said was true. He never thought that Su Jianan, a woman who always acted as if she did not have a single care in the world, would possess such a strong sense of filial piety. Even more surprising was the fact that the object of Su Jianan’s filial piety was his own mother.

Su Jianan thought she had detected some hesitation in Lu Boyan. So she stared at him again, her peach blossom eyes widening. “What’s there to hesitate when it’s your own mother you’re going to see? What an unfilial son!”

“…” The corner of Lu Boyan’s lips twitched.

“Fine. Don’t go.” Su Jianan turned around and began stepping out. “I’ll go alone.”

Lu Boyan reached out and clutched Su Jianan’s hand in his own. Then, after he had grabbed his car keys, he pulled her out the door. Within the depths of his eyes, displeasure lurked still. “Who says I’m not going?” In truth, Shen Yuechuan had invited him to a game of golf in the suburbs today.

Su Jianan smiled. “I knew it! Our big brother Boyan wouldn’t be the unfilial type.”

Lu Boyan was speechless.

Su Jianan darted a look at her own hand, the one tightly clasped in Lu Boyan’s. Inadvertently, a tiny smile formed on her lips.

Hand in hand, Su Jianan and Lu Boyan were on their way to visit Tang Yulan. It was something that Su Jianan had not even dared to imagine in the past, and yet right now, it was happening in full swing. It was as if a palette of colors had suddenly burst open, painting the road ahead of them with vibrant shades. In that moment, there was a sense of satisfaction in every nook and corner of her heart.

She felt a sudden urge to shout out to her deceased mother: at least in this very moment, she was happy and satisfied.

Just for this moment alone, she was willing to weather any storm.