Tần Mục emphasized, “I’m not lying to you.”
He leaned down and kissed the corner of my mouth. “If you tell me to stop, I’ll stop. Okay?”
But all my attention was fixed on those beast ears. I couldn’t help reaching out to touch them.
A blush immediately flickered across Tần Mục’s face.
Curious, I couldn’t help looking behind him.
“Where’s your tail?”
“Want to see?”
I nodded.
Tần Mục chuckled softly, swept me into his arms, and carried me upstairs.
“Then I’ll show you.”
09
By the time I woke up, it was already morning.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw Tần Mục leaning against the headboard, gazing intently at me.
Remembering what had happened the night before, I felt a little embarrassed and burrowed under the covers. Awkwardly, I said, “You… you’re awake.”
Tần Mục gave a soft acknowledgment and said, “Let go. It’s time to get up.”
Only then did I slowly realize that I was clutching something soft and fluffy.
It was his tail!
I let go at once and buried myself under the covers, my voice muffled. “S-sorry.”
Tần Mục laughed. “It’s okay.”
“You can sleep a little longer. I’ll call you down to eat later.”
Then I heard him get out of bed.
I waited until he left the room before peeking out, then quickly climbed out of bed, got dressed, and washed up.
When I went downstairs, the housekeeper was just setting the food on the table. Tần Mục sat at the dining table, flipping through a folder of documents.
My eyes unconsciously settled on his right hand.
The day before, I’d seen that his right arm, from shoulder to palm, was made of silver metal. Its joints didn’t look like those of an ordinary prosthetic; it seemed almost like a real part of his body.
What’s more, his right hand wasn’t stiff like other prosthetics. It was remarkably nimble, only… very cold.
Suddenly, I found myself wondering what had happened.
“Aren’t you hungry? Why don’t you come down?”
Tần Mục looked up, a hint of amusement in his deep eyes.
“Coming.”
I went downstairs and sat across from him.
Neither of us said anything. We just ate breakfast in silence.
After breakfast, Tần Mục got ready to go to the office. Before leaving, he reminded me, “If anything comes up, let me know.”
I nodded and watched him leave.
I stopped by to see my parents.
My mother worried that I’d get the short end of the stick by getting involved with Tần Mục, and she kept warning me, “Tần Mục is powerful and influential. He’ll never be short on women. These days, sleeping with someone doesn’t mean you have to marry them. Linh Linh, be careful.”
“It’s not having an agenda that you should fear. It’s having no agenda at all.”
My mother’s words brought me to my senses.
That was true. Tần Mục was powerful and influential—why would he have to marry me?
Back then, all I wanted was some money from him. I hadn’t dared to cling to him.
But he’d gone and said he wanted to marry me right away.
What… was his real motive?
Could he really have fallen for me after just one time?
Still full of questions, I went to work.
My supervisor had moved me to a less demanding position, and I felt much more at ease.
As I scrolled through the video I’d posted last time, I realized that online, people’s memories were quickly swept away and replaced. It didn’t take long for them to forget Tần Triết.
He’d been viciously attacked at the time, but in reality, it hadn’t affected him at all.
Among the upper classes, it was hardly unusual to use someone as a substitute. Everyone was used to it. He’d only been humiliated this time because his actions had been exposed to the public.
But what I wanted was to nail him to the pillar of shame for good and never let him recover.
The days that followed were fairly peaceful, and I heard nothing from Hứa Lê.
Tần Mục picked me up from work every day, and we went home together.
I got off work a little late today. By the time I left the office, it was dark, and Tần Mục’s car was parked where the lights were dim.
As soon as I got into the car, he held me close. His cold metal arm caressed my lips.
“Linh Linh.”
He called my name in a low, husky voice, his gaze burning.
Was he… going into heat again?
I didn’t know much about beast-people’s heat, but wasn’t this… happening rather often?
I took his hand and gently reassured him, “Let’s go home.”
Tần Mục paused, then his eyes filled with amusement. “All right. Let’s go home.”
When we got home, Tần Mục didn’t touch me at all. He just held me and went to sleep like a good boy.
I could feel how hot he was, as if he were holding himself back.
“You…”
As if he sensed my confusion, he tightened his arms around me. “It’s not heat. I just missed you.”
He missed me…
My face warmed slightly.
After spending these past few days together, I was much less afraid of Tần Mục. I worked up the courage to ask him:
“Why were you so determined to marry me back then?”
Looking back now, he’d clearly led me, step by step, into agreeing.
Tần Mục gently rubbed the back of my neck. “You want to know?”
“Mm-hmm.”
His hand moved to my ear and gently stroked it as he said slowly, “Because of my heat, I need your help.”
“Before, I didn’t have a woman in my life, so I could still control it with medication. But after I touched you and got a taste of what it was like, the medication didn’t work nearly as well.”
“We werewolves have only one mate in our entire lives. I didn’t want to sleep with you without making things clear, so I wanted to marry you and make it official.”
Put simply, he needed my body.
The knot of worry inside me loosened a little.
My mother was right. It wasn’t having an agenda that I should fear; it was having no agenda at all.
I placed my hand on his burning chest, thought for a moment, then said, “We’re legally married.”
His hand, which had been stroking my earlobe, stopped. His voice immediately turned husky. “Can I take that as an invitation?”
Honestly!
Why did he have to ask so bluntly? How was I supposed to answer?
I pressed my lips together and was just about to turn away when Tần Mục suddenly rolled over and pinned me beneath him.
He kissed my lips gently, his voice enticing. “When we first met, why did you call me ‘Uncle’?”
“I didn’t dare call you by your name back then…”
“All right. Say it again.”
“…”
Does he… like being called that?
“Uncle.”
“Good girl.”
10
A few days later, Hứa Lê messaged me to say that Tần Triết wanted to bring her home to the Tần family.
I immediately went to find Tần Mục. “I want to go to the Tần family home with you.”
Tần Mục raised an eyebrow. “I’m the one who makes the decisions in the Tần family now. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to go see my parents. I’ve already met yours, too.”
“That’s not it. Tần Triết wants to bring Hứa Lê home.”
Tần Mục understood at once, a hint of amusement in his voice. “You want to go play the wicked aunt-in-law? Sure. I’ll go with you.”
In the car, I couldn’t help asking Tần Mục, “Aren’t you angry?”
“Angry about what?” Tần Mục asked, a little confused.
“About me and Tần Triết.”
He reached over and gently rubbed the top of my head, smiling faintly. “Why would I be angry? I haven’t stooped so low as to squabble with Tần Triết. Is he even worth it?”
I pressed my lips together. That’s what he said, but…
Was he really not angry at all?
Because he didn’t care, he wasn’t angry or bothered.
The emotions raging inside me ebbed a little, and I said nothing more.
Before long, we arrived at the Tần family home. Tần Triết and Hứa Lê were already there.
Tần Triết was speaking to Old Master Tần. “Grandpa, I want to get engaged to Hứa Lê.”
The cane in Old Master Tần’s hand struck the floor with a sharp thump. He shouted furiously, “Ridiculous!”
“Your engagement to the Lộc family girl hasn’t even been resolved, and now you want to get engaged again. Do you want to bring even more shame on our family?!”
When I exposed what had happened last time, the Tần family’s reputation had taken a bit of a hit.
But people had only talked about how the Tần family’s young master was a womanizer. It hadn’t really harmed Tần Triết.
Tần Triết immediately twisted the story to make it sound worse. “Grandpa, you don’t know the half of it. Lộc Linh has been sneaking around with Uncle, and she even egged him on to go after Chu Khởi. Now Chu Khởi is in prison, living a fate worse than death.”
“She was the one who broke faith first. How can you blame me?”
Tần Mục gave a soft, cold laugh, took my hand, and walked inside.
The moment he saw Tần Mục, Tần Triết’s face went white. He cowered beside Old Master Tần.
Old Master Tần stared at Tần Mục and me, our fingers tightly intertwined, his expression growing even darker. “Tần Mục, what’s going on?”
Tần Mục spoke leisurely. “Your darling grandson offered his fiancée up to me, so I married her. What about it?”
“Nonsense!” Old Master Tần slammed his cane against the floor again, furious beyond restraint.
Tần Mục remained unruffled. “Try something else. I’m tired of hearing that one.”
“You… you!” Old Master Tần pointed at him with a trembling finger, his chest heaving.
Tần Triết hurried to calm his grandfather, but didn’t dare utter a word.
Tần Mục waved a hand. “The old man’s tired. Take him upstairs to rest.”
“I’m your father!”
“Mm. I know.”
The servants were clearly used to obeying Tần Mục. They promptly escorted Old Master Tần upstairs.
Only the four of us remained in the enormous living room.
Hứa Lê still hadn’t said a word. She only gazed silently at Tần Triết, her eyes brimming with tears.
Although Tần Triết was afraid of Tần Mục, he couldn’t afford to lose face in front of Hứa Lê, so he forced himself to speak up. “Uncle, Lộc Linh is with you now, so the engagement between us is meaningless anyway. There’s nothing wrong with me wanting to marry Hứa Lê, is there?”
Tần Mục said nothing. He simply turned to look at me.
He was letting me decide.
I looked at Tần Triết with an air of superiority. “It’s not that you can’t marry Hứa Lê. First, you have to go to my house and apologize to my parents. Then we’ll formally break off our engagement. After that, you have to admit what you did wrong. That’s all.”
Tần Triết’s expression changed instantly. He shot up from his chair. “Lộc Linh, don’t push your luck!”
Being exposed last time had already made him a laughingstock everywhere. If he now went to my house to apologize and formally break off the engagement, it would be no different from admitting he was a faithless scoundrel.
How could he ever show his face in their circle again?!
I shrugged. “Then I won’t agree to you marrying Hứa Lê.”
Tần Mục gave a soft “Mm,” his voice full of affection.
Hứa Lê immediately tugged at Tần Triết’s hand, her eyes red-rimmed and on the verge of tears.
With the woman he loved about to cry, Tần Triết couldn’t think of anything else. After hesitating for a while, he finally nodded in agreement.
I kindly reminded him, “You should call me Aunt. If you ever dare call me by my name again, don’t expect me to go easy on you.”
Tần Triết’s face turned livid. He held back his anger for a long moment, then finally gritted out, “Aunt.”
Tsk. Being the wicked aunt-in-law really wasn’t bad at all.
I was in an excellent mood when we left the Tần family home.
“You’re in such a good mood?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
He smiled faintly. “There’s something even better. Want to hear about it?”
“What?”
I found out soon enough.
11
That day, when Tần Triết came to my house to apologize to my parents, Tần Mục invited all the major media outlets. Countless cameras were pointed straight at Tần Triết.
His face was ashen, and every word seemed forced through clenched teeth.
“Uncle Lộc, Auntie, I wronged Lộc Linh. I shouldn’t have lied to her and kept things from her…”
The flashes kept going off, making it look just like a press conference.
“Now that our families’ engagement agreement has been called off, I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Tần Triết hurriedly presented gifts as an apology, then fled my house as if the devil were after him.
Before long, all the media outlets were reporting on it.
Some people cursed Tần Triết as shameless and despicable, while others praised him as a responsible man and a champion of pure love.