15
I blinked, confused. “What hallucination?”
“What hallucination?”
He didn’t answer.
One second.
Two seconds.
Then he suddenly reached out… and pinched my cheek.
“Ow!” I cried in surprise.
He slowly withdrew his hand and sat up, his voice hoarse.
“What is it?”
His voice was still flat, devoid of emotion.
I suddenly felt a little awkward. All I could do was quickly take out the Buddhist prayer beads and set them on the nightstand.
“I know these are important to you, so I went out of my way to bring them back.”
“You don’t have to. I already gave them to Ấm Áp.”
Lục Tầm leaned against the headboard, his face indifferent and distant, as if he wanted to keep a thousand miles between us.
That look made me feel guilty, and I was about to quietly slip away.
But in the end, I couldn’t help speaking up.
“You seem to have a fever. You should take something to bring it down.”
He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Are you worried about me?”
“You could say that.” I tossed the Buddhist prayer beads toward him.
“I’d hate for you to die too soon. Then I’d have no one to argue with, and I’d be bored.”
After I spoke, my gaze happened to land on the nightstand.
It was spotless and neatly arranged.
There was only one picture frame on it.
I was a little startled.
The photo was of me.
Before I could get a good look, Lục Tầm snatched it away.
My heart suddenly started beating faster.
I tried to keep my tone teasing.
“Why do you keep a picture of me by your bed?”
Then I suddenly laughed.
“Lục Tầm, don’t tell me you secretly have a crush on me?”
He turned his head at once and shot back scornfully.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I propped my chin on my hand and deliberately pressed him for an answer.
“Then why do you have my picture there?”
This time, he was silent for a long while.
Then he bent down and picked up a yellow talisman from the floor.
As I watched in astonishment, he stuck it right onto the picture frame.
He said casually, as if he were doing something perfectly ordinary.
“To ward off romance.”
Me: “…”
16
Lục Tầm had a very high fever, his face flushed red, so I couldn’t tell what he was feeling.
I stared at the yellow talisman, really wanting to swear.
Lục Tầm quickly took the talisman down and casually shoved it into the drawer along with the picture frame.
He suddenly called my name.
“Chu Đại.”
“Yeah?”
His voice lowered as he suddenly asked.
“If one day you found out your husband had cheated on you, what would you do?”
The question caught me completely off guard.
Instinctively, I stared at Lục Tầm, even wanting to grab him by the throat right then and there.
Not knowing how to answer, I asked him instead.
“Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?”
“Just asking.”
He looked out the window, his gaze distant and his expression still unreadable.
A moment later, he spoke again.
“Did you two meet abroad?”
It took me a few seconds to realize he was asking about Cẩu Tuân.
“Yeah.”
“Things moved pretty fast, huh?”
His voice was low; I couldn’t tell whether he was teasing or mocking me.
His fingers tapped lightly on the bed. From what I knew of him, that meant he was in a bad mood.
He said slowly.
“You were abroad for over two years, and by the time you came back, your child was already one.”
Only after saying that did he turn to look at me and slowly ask.
“Weren’t you afraid he wouldn’t be right for you?”
Maybe his sarcastic tone had annoyed me, because I deliberately shot back.
“We’re adults. Whether we’re compatible or not, we’ll know once we’ve slept together.”
He curled his lip and looked straight at me.
“Then you and I have slept together too, haven’t we?”
The air instantly froze.
We were both stunned.
As if he had finally made up his mind, Lục Tầm lowered his voice and continued.
“Chu Đại, is Ấm Áp my daughter?”
I fell silent.
My thoughts were in complete turmoil. I had no idea how to answer.
Just then, a loud crash came from outside.
I jumped in fright.
Oh, no.
Sure enough, the next second, Aunt Lục pushed the door open and came in.
Through the open doorway, I could see that the fruit tray had fallen onto the hallway floor.
She looked at me, visibly excited.
“Big sis, are you really dating Tiểu Tầm?”
She stepped closer, her eyes lighting up.
“I was bringing you two some fruit, and I happened to overhear… You two… have a child together?”
17
It took Lục Tầm and me a full hour to explain before Aunt Lục finally believed we weren’t involved.
As proof, I even showed her a picture of Ấm Áp.
“Look, she doesn’t look anything like Lục Tầm.”
Lục Tầm stood beside me and nodded in agreement.
While she was still mulling it over, I hurriedly said goodbye, then all but fled from the Lục household.
But—
I had barely left the Lục household and taken a quick stroll through a jewelry exhibition when Cẩu Tuân called.
He sounded extremely panicked.
“Come home, quick! Something’s happened!”
I immediately grew alert.
“What happened?”
On the other end, Cẩu Tuân—usually so smooth with people—was now so panicked he was on the verge of tears.
“The Lục family came to claim their granddaughter! Lục Tầm also found out you’re my older sister!”
My vision went dark.
Without another word, I turned the car around and sped straight home.
On the way back, countless disastrous possibilities flashed through my mind—
Weapons drawn, chaos breaking out, both sides ready to fight to the death…
I felt as if everything were about to fall apart.
18
But none of the terrible scenes I’d feared… came to pass.
When I walked in, I didn’t hear any arguing or fighting. Instead, I heard… a chorus of voices competing to coax a child.
“Sweetheart, say ‘Grandpa’—”
“Good girl, don’t call that old geezer Grandpa. Call me Grandpa! I’ll buy you candy!”
I stared, stunned, at the scene before me.
Aunt Lục was holding Ấm Áp, smothering her face with kisses.
She laughed happily as she kissed her.
“As soon as Big sis showed me the picture, I knew! She has to be one of our family! Look, Tiểu Tầm looked exactly like this when he was little!”
My dad and Lục Tầm’s parents had been rivals for decades, but with a granddaughter as their bridge, they suddenly got along wonderfully.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
My gaze suddenly shifted to the side—
and met Lục Tầm’s.
He came closer and leaned down slightly, his voice low enough for only the two of us to hear.
“I know everything now.”
“Cẩu Tuân is your biological younger brother. And you’ve never been married.”
I bit my lip and didn’t answer.
Things had gone too far for me to keep hiding the truth.
But Lục Tầm’s next words… left me utterly stunned.
He said slowly:
“Cẩu Tuân also told me… the child’s biological father died overseas.”
I froze.
As he spoke, he took my hand, his voice firm:
“Then let them keep misunderstanding. I can take responsibility.”
What do you mean, “in for a penny, in for a pound”?
Not far away, Cẩu Tuân was winking at me, looking thoroughly smug.
19
After the Lục family left, I grabbed Cẩu Tuân by the collar and dragged him into the backyard.
“What nonsense did you tell Lục Tầm?”
Cẩu Tuân rubbed the ear I’d pinched red, his voice full of innocence:
“I was just testing him.”
I was so mad I laughed:
“Who tests someone like that?!”
He sighed and patted my shoulder like a seasoned old hand:
“You ran away back then, and now you’ve come back with a one-year-old. You two haven’t seen each other in over two years. I just wanted to see if he was sincere.”
I frowned:
“How did he react?”
“When he heard the little girl’s biological father had died and saw you raising her alone, he immediately said he could take responsibility without a second thought.”
I froze:
“He really believed it?”
Cẩu Tuân shrugged:
“I even took him to see the basement where the ashes are kept.”
…
Those were my cat’s ashes.
I rolled my eyes and was about to punch Cẩu Tuân in the face.
Cẩu Tuân patted my shoulder again, winking with a grin:
“Honestly, he’s quite the man.”
“I approve of this brother-in-law.”
Then he muttered:
“Lục Tầm is handsome, comes from a good family, is responsible, and has stamina. He’s also Ấm Áp’s biological father. You wouldn’t be losing out.”
I frowned and cut him off immediately:
“Wait, what makes you say he has ‘stamina’?”
Cẩu Tuân gave me a look that said, “Isn’t it obvious?”:
“Come on. One try and it worked. Doesn’t that count as stamina?”
“… GET OUT!”
I chased him straight out, then sat alone in the courtyard, lost in thought.
Actually…
What Cẩu Tuân said wasn’t entirely wrong.
Lục Tầm… was good in every way.
The only thing that wasn’t good was…
The person in his heart… wasn’t me.
18
My dad and the Lục family had chosen to bury years of resentment, all because of a little girl not even three feet tall.
Lately, our families had started discussing a marriage alliance.
But around the same time, I got a call from a bar.
Lục Tầm was drunk.
By the time I got there, he was completely passed out.
I’d never seen him like that—
He was always so restrained; even in business, he never drank too much.
And yet now, he was drunk out of his mind.
I went over to help him, but he immediately shoved me away without even opening his eyes.
“Get lost. I’m getting married soon.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, I could only ask the bar staff and his driver to help me get him into the car.
I took him to an empty luxury apartment and struggled to get him into bed.
I was just about to pour him some water when he suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Chu Đại.”
His voice thick with alcohol, he murmured my name.
“Yeah.”
I answered.
But he suddenly let go and gave a self-mocking laugh:
“Forget it. It’s just a dream again.”
The light in the room was a little harsh. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, his words slurred and indistinct:
“I’ve dreamed it so many times… I was starting to think you’d never come back.”
I turned off the light. Without pulling his hand away, I sat down on the edge of the bed.
I didn’t know why he’d said that, but his words sent my heart into turmoil.
People often say that drunk words are honest words.
I leaned in slightly and asked:
“Lục Tầm, you like Đàm Vi, don’t you?”
He opened his eyes, looked at me for a long while, then sighed:
“This time, even the hallucination can talk.”
I frowned:
“Answer me first.”
He shook his head:
“I don’t.”
I was taken aback.
“You don’t? But isn’t she your girl of his dreams?”
He frowned, his voice rough from the alcohol:
“I don’t have a girl of my dreams.”
“There’s some tangled-up thing called… a dark muse.”
I stared at him, bewildered.
What the hell was a “dark muse”?!
Suppressing my curiosity, I asked:
“Then who’s your dark muse?”
He looked up at me, his voice calm:
“Chu Đại.”
I went completely still.
He closed his eyes, looking annoyed as he mumbled:
“This hallucination is so bad… it doesn’t even know I like Chu Đại.”
Me: “…”
I stared at him for a long time.
Only one sentence echoed in my mind—