Ah Chen's undeniable threat acted like a cold barrier, temporarily isolating him from pressure from his agent, Yang Li, and the outside world. The charity gala was postponed indefinitely, and Yang Li unexpectedly didn't press the issue further, perhaps because Ah Chen's previous display of reckless madness had made her wary.

A semblance of calm returned to the apartment, but this calm felt more like the calm before the storm. Xie Chen (the dominant personality) was still shaken, overreacting to any unexpected sound like a rabbit terrified by a hunting rifle. After a brief silence, Ah Chen seemed to have made a decision: he would no longer completely isolate himself in the master bedroom, but instead begin to intervene in Su Nian and the dominant personality's daily lives in a more… noticeable way.

He was no longer just a bystander or a sarcastic remark; he began to make demands, or rather, issue orders—orders specifically targeting Su Nian.

"Coffee, no sugar." He would sit on the only single sofa in the living room, making his request to Su Nian, who was helping Xie Chen check the sheet music, as if she were his personal waitress.

"Today's newspaper." He would point to the morning paper delivered to the floor by the door, gesturing for Su Nian to pick it up.

Even when Su Nian was preparing soothing lavender tea for Xie Chen, he would abruptly say, "I want some too." Then, when she looked over, he would awkwardly add, "...anything is fine."

His demands were trivial, yet clearly probing and marking. He was using this method to repeatedly confirm Su Nian's "availability" and "obedience," trying to brand her with his own mark and distinguish her from that "useless" woman who only knew how to depend on and cry.

Su Nian was fully aware of this. She didn't refuse these seemingly unreasonable requests, always completing them calmly, as if it were just part of her job. But she also didn't overly cater to them, maintaining a professional distance that was neither humble nor arrogant. This, on the contrary, made A Chen somewhat at a loss. His probing was like hitting cotton; he didn't get the expected resistance, nor the desired submission, only a calm that made him irritable and unfathomable.

Xie Chen (the dominant personality) felt even more uneasy about A-Chen's "intrusion." Like a small animal whose territory had been invaded, he stayed even closer to Su Nian, looking at her with those wet, dependent eyes, as if Su Nian was his only refuge. A silent tug-of-war between the two personalities, revolving around Su Nian, quietly unfolded in another form.

That evening, Su Nian prepared to leave the apartment. Xie Chen (the main personality) saw her to the door as usual, his eyes filled with reluctance and fear of facing the long night alone.

"Assistant Su...you'll come early tomorrow, right?" he asked softly, a line he'd almost always uttered when saying goodbye.

"Yes, I will." Su Nian gave an affirmative answer as always, which seemed to put him at ease a little.

Just as she turned to open the door, the master bedroom door opened. Ah Chen leaned against the doorframe, his hands in his pockets, the dim light from the hallway lamp casting flickering shadows on his face.

“Tomorrow,” he said, looking at Su Nian, his voice unusually clear in the quiet entryway, “bring back some wine.”

Su Nian paused, turned around to look at him: "Your hand injury has just healed, so I don't recommend drinking alcohol."

Ah Chen twitched the corners of his mouth, a smile carrying a hint of nonchalant wickedness: "He won't die. Or rather..." He glanced at Xie Chen, who was standing beside him, too nervous to breathe, and said sarcastically, "You're only worried about that good-for-nothing's mental and physical health?"

“I’m concerned about Xie Chen’s overall health,” Su Nian corrected, “including yours.”

Ah Chen's eyes flickered slightly, as if he was pleased by a certain word in the sentence, or perhaps offended. He snorted, no longer insisting on having wine, but instead made another request: "Then play a game of chess with me."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Su Nian glanced at the time; it wasn't too late. "Okay," she agreed. Engaging in this kind of focused and strategic interaction with A-Chen might allow her to better understand his thought process and perhaps even find new ways to communicate.

Xie Chen (the main personality) watched as Su Nian took off the coat she had just put on and followed A Chen to the chess table in the living room. His lips moved, but in the end he said nothing. He just moved back to his guest room with a dim look in his eyes and looked back every few steps.

The chessboard was a chessboard, and the chess pieces were made of ebony and white maple, cool and heavy to the touch. A-Chen played black, and Su-Nian played white.

Unlike his usual impetuous and reckless approach, he placed his pieces with composure, even displaying a calmness and calculation that seemed out of place with his violent exterior. The game proceeded in silence, broken only by the crisp sound of the pieces landing on the board.

“Aren’t you curious,” Ah Chen moved his “car” and suddenly spoke, his voice low, “why is Yang Li so afraid of me?”

Su Nian moved "back" to defend, her expression calm: "I have some guesses."

"Oh?" Ah Chen raised an eyebrow, seemingly intrigued. "Tell me about it."

“Shortly after you appeared, or at some important public occasion, you did something… that was beyond her control and understanding,” Su Nian analyzed. “It made her realize that you are not just ‘Xie Chen’s emotional problem,’ but a dangerous factor that cannot be judged by common sense and that she would really act without considering the consequences.”

Ah Chen chuckled softly, a hint of satisfaction and cruelty in his voice: "You guessed pretty much right. At some so-called celebrity dinner party, some self-important fool tried to get that good-for-nothing drunk and even tried to touch him inappropriately." He picked up the black "horse," skipped a square, his tone nonchalant, but his eyes were icy cold. "In front of all his friends and business partners, I pressed his hand into the ice bucket and told him that if he touched 'our' stuff again, the next time I'd be crushing his bones."

Su Nian's hand holding the chess piece paused slightly. She could imagine how horrifying the scene would be—such primal and bloody violence erupting suddenly in a glamorous setting, enough to terrify anyone who valued dignity and profit. As an agent, Yang Li's primary task was to maintain the commercial value of her artists, but A Chen's existence was itself a ticking time bomb, capable of destroying everything she had carefully cultivated.

“She learned her lesson after that.” Ah Chen’s tone was mocking. “At least, before trying to force that good-for-nothing to do anything, she’ll first consider whether she can release me, this ‘monster’.”

He used the word "monster" with a self-deprecating frankness, as if he had already accepted this label given to him by the outside world.

Su Nian placed her chess piece, capturing one of his pawns: "You are protecting him." She used a statement of fact.

Ah Chen's smile vanished instantly, his eyes turning sharp and dangerous: "Protect? I'm just protecting 'our' possessions from being touched by anything dirty." He stared intently at Su Nian, "Don't try to use your sympathy on me."

“I have no sympathy for you.” Su Nian met his gaze and said frankly, “I’m just stating an objective fact. Regardless of your initial intentions, your actions objectively prevented something that could have harmed Xie Chen.”

Ah Mo stared at her silently, seemingly trying to discern the truth in her words. The atmosphere on the chessboard momentarily froze.

After a long while, he finally turned his attention back to the chessboard, moved his king, and his tone returned to its previous coldness, but with less of its aggressiveness: "Your turn."

The game continues.

In the end, Su Nian won the game by a narrow margin. Looking at the unfinished game on the board, Ah Chen wasn't annoyed by the defeat as expected. Instead, he wore a strange expression, as if surprised, or perhaps...as if he had found some new and worthwhile pleasure to explore.

“You win,” he stated, then looked up, his dark eyes fixed on Su Nian. “It seems you are more interesting than I thought.”

This is not praise, but more like a reassessment.

He stood up, without saying goodbye, and walked straight to the master bedroom. At the door, he paused, but didn't turn around; his voice came clearly:

"Tomorrow, at the same time."

After saying that, he closed the door.

Su Nian looked at the closed door, then at the unfinished chess game on the board. Tonight's conversation and interaction had revealed a more complex side to A-Chen's personality. He wasn't just a pure destroyer; he had his own logic, his own calculations, and even a self-consistent way of "protecting" within his distorted understanding.

His last sentence sounded more like a one-sided declaration of agreement.

She tidied up the chessboard, put on her coat, and prepared to leave. As she passed the guest room, she heard extremely faint, suppressed sobs coming from inside.

Xie Chen (the main personality) was indeed still awake and was upset that she had been "occupied" by A Chen earlier.

Su Nian sighed softly. If she appeased one, the other would feel uneasy. This unbalanced scale would require her to invest even more energy and wisdom to maintain it.

As she walked to the entrance and grasped the doorknob, the master bedroom door suddenly opened a crack again.

Ah Chen stood in the shadows, only half of his face showing, his eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness.

“Hey,” he called out to her, his tone carrying a strange, almost awkward seriousness, “you did a good job just now.”

A seemingly random sentence. Was it about the chess game? Or her understanding of his "protective behavior"? Or... both?

Before Su Nian could respond, he quickly closed the door again, as if his almost certain statement just now was merely her delusion.

Su Nian stood in the empty entryway, the faint sobbing sounds from the guest bedroom still seeming to echo in her ears, as well as the awkward "affirmation" from behind the master bedroom door.

She suddenly felt as if she had become the only connection between these two split personalities, a "co-conspirator" who was simultaneously relied upon, fought over, and even... vaguely acknowledged by both.

The road ahead remains shrouded in mist, but some of the ice seems to be quietly melting away in unnoticed corners.

(End of Chapter 134)