11
“Ms. Lâm, your debut at the National Theater was an incredible success. Did you know that?”
“Why don’t you look happy?”
In the dressing room, my assistant was helping me remove the last hair accessory.
I forced a smile.
“Of course I’m happy.”
Then, as if trying to avoid something, I retreated into the changing area.
Though I had a private dressing room, it wasn’t well soundproofed.
The racket in the hallway carried inside. My assistant said something, but I was lost in thought and couldn’t make it out.
I gave a perfunctory reply, but I still couldn’t shake my daze.
This was clearly the path I had chosen for myself, and yet when I remembered the way he’d looked at me—a look so different from the one I remembered—I still felt so distressed I could barely breathe.
I was so distracted that I forgot the dress I needed to change into was still outside.
Not wanting to step out, I called to my assistant.
“Could you bring me the dress on the sofa?”
“……”
There was no response for a long while.
Just as I was about to step out, a white dress was passed through the crack in the door.
It felt a little odd, but there was nothing obviously wrong.
I put on the dress and discovered that the back was designed in a fairly complicated way; I needed someone to help zip it up.
“Could you come in and help me with the zipper?”
I asked again.
……
Still silent.
But who else could be in here besides my assistant and me?
I pushed the curtain aside a little.
“Just come in. No one else is here.”
“……”
After a long while, I heard footsteps behind me.
Thankfully, my assistant was perceptive enough to know she should help zip up the back of my dress.
Only, the fingertips brushing lightly over my spine felt warm, with a faint roughness to them. It was a little unfamiliar.
……
I turned around with a start.
A pair of beautiful, almond-shaped eyes, their outer corners slightly lifted.
He gazed at me, his eyes deep and fathomless.
The zipper reached the top. His fingertips grazed my skin, leaving a tingling trail.
His dark eyes were beautiful and intent.
He just looked at me.
“……”
After all these years, we’d finally met again.
I still had no idea what expression to wear when facing him.
After staring at him in a daze for a long while, I tried to manage a brighter smile.
The words I wanted to say circled on the tip of my tongue, but in the end, only four remained.
“Long time no see.”
“……”
Giang Tần Hoán fell silent and looked down at me.
“It really has been a long time.”
Only after a while did he speak.
His voice was low and resonant. The youthful softness that had once lingered at the ends of his words had become something sharp enough to cut to the bone.
“Have you been doing well all these years?”
He asked me without changing his posture.
His manner was calm, his tone measured, but I couldn’t tell what he was feeling.
“I… I’m all right.”
I answered absentmindedly, on instinct.
I realized something was wrong, but he immediately cut me off.
“I haven’t been doing well.”
he said.
His deep, dark eyes rippled with emotions I couldn’t read.
Because the very next moment,
I fell into someone’s arms.
His arms were broader, his chest hotter, almost radiating a searing heat that pressed down on my heart.
He pulled me tight against him.
After all these years apart, the distance between us had grown too great.
I didn’t know how to face him or what to say.
I didn’t even know what I was to him now.
Was I a gold digger who’d taken his money and disappeared?
Or a heartless woman who’d trampled his heart?
All I could hear beside my ear was the slow beat of his heart.
Beat by beat, it thudded against my own.
“Giang Tần Hoán.”
His shirt was so soft, but I shouldn’t let him hold me like this forever.
“There are so many things I want to say to you…”
“But this doesn’t seem like the right time to catch up.”
“What do you want to say?”
he asked, his low voice sounding beside my ear.
Every breath of mine trembled, tingling all the way through.
I realized he wasn’t the same as before.
He was stronger now, no longer someone I could easily push away.
Helpless, I could only stay where I was.
I spoke softly to him.
“When I broke up with you, it wasn’t because I’d stopped loving you.”
“I didn’t fall out of love, and I wasn’t with anyone else. I just…”
“I just had no way to stay by your side.”
I was too weak.
There’s a saying that rings true.
Every disadvantage in this world comes from not being strong enough yourself.
I couldn’t blame fate.
I only regretted, again and again, that if only I’d been a little stronger back then—just a little—it would have been so much better.
He said nothing and didn’t let go of me.
The silence was almost eerie.
Held tight against him, I couldn’t see his face.
I was just relieved that he still smelled the same.
A faint cedarwood scent, gentle enough to put anyone at ease.
I leaned my head against him and lightly touched his collar.
“But it’s all right.”
“If you’re not strong enough yet, then just work to become stronger.”
“Look, I’ve become the leading lady. I’ve stood on the stage of the National Theater.”
“I thought that if I became better, more capable, the distance between us would grow smaller, too.”
“Did I do well, young master?”
He trembled slightly.
A damp spot appeared on my shoulder.
Only then did I understand why he’d been silent for so long.
He held me so tightly, yet when he cried, he made no sound.
The lights in the room flickered, and the noisy voices outside still echoed through the hall.
“I miss you.”
he said.
“I’ve missed you so much.”
12
Giang Tần Hoán and I left the dressing room one after the other.
The moment my young assistant saw me, her eyes blazed with such excitement that I thought the flames of gossip might consume me.
“Ms. Lâm!”
She leaned close and whispered in my ear.
“Th-this… this is Giang Tần Hoán, right? It is, isn’t it?”
“He’s even more handsome in person! I always thought that the only kind of man worthy of you would be someone like him!”
“You two are together, right? I guessed correctly, didn’t I?”
The light in her eyes was so dazzling that I couldn’t help edging away.
“Yes.”
The answer came from nearby.
Giang Tần Hoán was holding the dress I’d just changed out of, answering with confidence and no trace of embarrassment.
The dim hallway lights fell across his brows and eyes, making his features stand out even more.
He was the one smiling, while a faint flush colored my face.
My young assistant squealed excitedly:
“Eee! I knew it!”
“Eee! I won’t interrupt you two, then!”
Then she ran off, still shrieking.
The performance had ended a while ago by then.
Most of the performers and props had already been cleared away, too.
So Giang Tần Hoán and I could stroll slowly through the empty hallway.
I walked one step behind him, keeping about an arm’s length away, stepping on his shadow as it fell across the floor.
His shoulders really did seem broader than before.
“This theater’s a pretty long walk from the auditorium to the dressing rooms, huh?”
He walked ahead of me, making an offhand remark.
…So that was why he’d left the performance early—to get to the dressing room before me.
At the corner, he turned around and casually asked me:
“Want me to take you home?”
I looked up at him.
“I don’t have a home.”
It was the truth.
My family’s house had been sold long ago.
I was staying at a hotel for now, since I’d just returned to the country, and my workplace had arranged housing for me.
But I didn’t intend to let Giang Tần Hoán know that.
The man across from me, though, was very perceptive.
He slowly bent down to look at me, the gentle moonlight reflected in his dark eyes.
“Then you have a home now.”
“My home.”
13
Giang Tần Hoán’s apartment was right in the heart of the city.
It was conveniently located and exceptionally private. At a glance, I could tell it was a place for the ultrawealthy.
The elevator opened directly into the apartment, with the entryway just beyond its doors.
His place was a spacious, minimalist duplex. But the thing I found most interesting…
Was the round little thing that rolled right up to our feet as soon as the door opened.
“Welcome home~ New guest detected. This is the first time the owner has brought you home!”
It was a perfectly round ball with an LCD screen on its surface.
A smiling face appeared on it.
“What is this…?”
I squatted down, curiously examining the toy.
“A new home robot our company is developing.”
“It’s still in the testing phase, though. It hasn’t been released yet.”
Giang Tần Hoán bent down to straighten my skirt, then gently nudged the little ball with his foot.
“Tiểu Khâu, this person isn’t a guest or a friend.”
He hung up the dress I’d changed out of, handling it as carefully as if he were putting away something precious.
Then he looked up and gazed at me earnestly:
“She’s family.”
“……”
As expected of the head of a tech company—Giang Tần Hoán’s apartment…
Was full of strange, cutting-edge gadgets.
A floor lamp that followed people around, and a robot vacuum that could climb walls.
There was even a gun: point it at any light, and the light would immediately turn off.
“Tiểu Khâu can connect to all the electrical devices in the house.”
“You just have to give it a command.”
He sat on the sofa with his chin propped on his hand, slowly explaining:
“It’s integrated with the latest AI developed by our company. I named the prototype ‘Autumn.’”
Meanwhile, I was busy playing Super Mario on the coffee table, which doubled as a game console.
I couldn’t help exclaiming:
“Wow, it can do this too!”
When I looked up, I caught him watching me without looking away.
How should I put it—the gentle night breeze, the lively chirping of cicadas…
Neither could compare to that gaze, deep as the night.
His eyes were so tender they seemed to melt into the depths of my heart.
After all these years apart, the earnestness in the young master’s eyes when he looked at someone…
Always made me nearly let down every one of my defenses.
“Lâm Thu Thủy.”
He said my name, his voice hoarse and full of indescribable emotion.
“There’s only one bed in my place.”
“……”
…He really did seem used to living alone.
The living room had been converted into an office, and there was only one of almost everything in the house.
The night was deep and still.
He and I lay together in the same bed.
I kept telling myself that it was no big deal.
We’d been far more intimate than this before.
But my heart was honest enough that I could hear it pounding.
Especially when he shifted closer, making my heart beat even faster.
The darkness blurred my senses, bringing the words buried deep in my heart back to the surface.
“Giang Tần Hoán.”
I called softly.
“Hmm?”
He answered right beside my ear, so close that his warm breath brushed my neck.
“You… aren’t you angry with me for leaving without saying goodbye?”
Taking advantage of the darkness, I tried to sound casual as I asked.
I heard him chuckle softly.
His thumb twisted a lock of my hair, slowly winding around my thoughts.
“You smell so good, sweetheart.”
His voice was so sweet it seemed to pull my heart down with it, even sweeter than the strawberry scent of the shampoo at his place.
Then he spoke softly, his tone earnest:
“I’m not angry with you.”
“Don’t overthink it. No matter what you do, I won’t be angry with you.”
“……”
“After you left, the only thing I wanted to do… was find you.”
“I wasn’t trying hard enough. I wasn’t good enough. Otherwise, you probably would’ve agreed to stay by my side.”
In the dark, I quietly listened as he told me:
“I was in a terrible state back then. Once, I saw Ngụy Dương outside a bar.”
“He had his arm around a woman, and I thought he’d cheated on you, so I grabbed him and beat him up.”
“……”
…Wait, why do I suddenly feel so bad for him?
“And… did he tell you everything?”
“Yeah.”
“You’d been gone for almost a year by then. That was when I found out my mother had been behind everything.”
“After that, I cut ties with my family.”
“I learned that my family was a complete mess. My parents had been living apart for a long time.”
“My father kept a lot of women on the side. Then one of his secretaries came back with her illegitimate child and demanded a share of the family fortune.”
“My mother started making a scene and pressuring me to marry Tưởng Y Y. She said I was naive, that I needed leverage if I wanted to claim my share of the family fortune.”
“I had a miserable time that year.”
“My mother only wanted to use me to strengthen her position. She cared about appearances and treated me like a decoration to show off.”
“I asked my father why he’d cheated, and he laughed at me. He said I was useless and that I’d be nothing without him.”
“I despised all of it. So I disowned them and started my own business.”
“I just wanted to be myself and live my own life—to marry the person I wanted, without needing anyone’s approval.”
“I won’t marry Tưởng Y Y.”
“If I’m going to marry anyone, it’ll be you.”
He said all this quite calmly.
So calmly, as if none of it had ever happened.
He reached out and gently caressed my neck, his tender gaze wavering slightly.
“In my eyes, you’re the best person in the world.”
“The best.”
“To me, you’re the moon in the sky.”
“……”
“But forgive me.”
His kiss was featherlight as it landed beside my temple, so careful it was almost pleading.
“I want the moon all to myself.”
I suddenly turned to look at him.
Only a faint glimmer of light fell into our eyes.
“Giang Tần Hoán.”
I wanted to say something, to tell him he didn’t have to be so cautious with me.
“You’ve had a hard time all these years…”
He chuckled softly.
He secretly took my hand and laced our fingers together.
Then he playfully stroked and teased me.
“Mm.”
“Thank you, my moon, for comforting me.”