Cheng Muyun's Adam's apple bobbed violently. When he looked up, his deep brown pupils were filled with guilt, like an anchor chain falling into the deep sea, dragging the surging tide of emotions into a bottomless abyss.
Rough fingertips caressed Xu Zhuohua's wrist. He trembled as he grasped the cold hand, his military boots making a soft crunching sound on the floor: "I'm sorry, Zhuohua, it's all my fault."
Scalding tears unexpectedly entered Xu Zhuohua's eyes, and she heard a faint cracking sound coming from her chest.
All the carefully prepared questions turned into gentle persuasion, her knees slammed heavily on the uneven floor, and her fingernails unconsciously dug into the other person's soaked military uniform.
“It’s not your fault, Cheng Muyun.” Xu Zhuohua pulled open her tea-soaked collar, her hand stroking the folds of the collar as if touching fragile glass.
Cheng Muyun suddenly pressed her hand against his violently heaving chest, and the mist that had condensed on his eyelashes fell softly onto the back of her hand.
His voice, filled with the relief of surviving a disaster and mixed with hoarse sobs, made Xu Zhuohua's eyes sting with tears. "Zhuohua, I, Cheng Muyun, swear to God that I have never touched Luo Yunqiao, not even once."
Xu Zhuohua gripped Cheng Muyun's military uniform buttons tightly, her fingers aching from the pressure, and slowly said, "Cheng Muyun, does this kind of scene happen every day?"
Cheng Muyun pursed his lips. "Luo Yunqiao sends someone over almost every two or three days. I always go to the military camp to take my shifts to avoid it."
With Chairman Luo and Cheng Yuguang, two formidable figures, weighing heavily on Cheng Muyun, one can imagine the immense pressure he was under.
Xu Zhuohua knelt on one or both knees, her knees aching from the rough texture of the grooves, but the dull pain in her chest was nothing compared to the churning pain in her heart.
She cupped Cheng Muyun's face in her trembling hands, and moonlight streamed in through the mottled windowpane, casting a shadow in Cheng Muyun's eyes.
Xu Zhuohua's fingers slowly moved up along his sharp jawline, her fingertips brushing over the fine lines at the corners of his eyes, finally stopping on the dark circles under his eyes.
"Cheng Muyun, did we go to the wrong place?" Her voice was as soft as a falling withered leaf, choked with a sob that seemed about to break.
A dense, stabbing pain shot through my chest, as if a thousand knives were churning inside me, and my breathing became rapid and labored.
Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar man before her, she suddenly felt that he was so far away from her, so far away that she wondered if her experience was just an illusion, a dream.
Her fingers trembled slightly involuntarily as she touched Cheng Muyun's cheek, but she couldn't feel any warmth at all.
Tears finally welled up uncontrollably in my eyes, blurring the figure of the person in front of me.
She desperately wanted to hear a denial right now, something that would allow everything to go back to the way it was before, but silence spread between them, like an impenetrable net, gradually swallowing up their last hope.
It seemed that having Cheng Muyun marry Luo Yunqiao was completely pointless, and instead only added a challenge between them.
They already had very little time left to spend together, and now Luo Yunqiao's situation would only add to their troubles.
Cheng Muyun tore off his soaked military uniform from his shoulder; the damp fabric fell to the ground with a dull thud.
His bare chest enveloped Xu Zhuohua, his body heat carrying the scent of gunpowder.
His rough palm pressed heavily on the back of her neck, while his other arm encircled her waist, as if trying to embed them into the gaps between each other's bones.
The two figures, intertwined under the moonlight, resembled rice paper soaked in rainwater, their images blending together.
Xu Zhuohua's sobs, buried in his shoulder, mingled with Cheng Muyun's suppressed choking, breaking into a soft, rhythmic sound in the quiet room.
Salty tears streamed down their jawlines and onto their intertwined necks, the burning heat searing their skin, then transforming into a sticky attachment in their entwined breaths.
"Zhuohua, as long as we're together, we haven't gone astray." Cheng Muyun's hoarse murmur resonated on Xu Zhuohua's head, the frequency of the vibrations in his throat clearly transmitted through his chest.
Xu Zhuohua's voice trembled with tears, "But it seems like we're about to be separated."
Even though Xu Zhuohua wasn't in Xinhai City, news from Xinhai City kept reaching her ears.
Chairman Luo's daughter became Cheng Muyun's concubine, and everyone was waiting for her return. How dare the daughter of a small-time merchant compete with Chairman Luo's daughter for a marriage?
A woman who has been cursed to death by her relatives since she married into the family is unreasonable if she doesn't quietly hide away and make way for Luo Yunqiao!
Those who want Xu Zhuohua to step down are as numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges, all waiting for Cheng Muyun's choice tonight.
Cheng Muyun hugged Xu Zhuohua even tighter, burying his head between Xu Zhuohua's neck, his warm breath gradually becoming hot.
He opened his mouth and gently bit Xu Zhuohua's neck with his canines.
"Xu Zhuohua, I won't allow you to say such things. Nothing in this world can separate us."
The night flowed like ink under the broken crystal chandelier. Cheng Muyun's palm pressed against her waist through the sheets. When his fingertips rubbed against her spine, she arched her body uncontrollably, and the soft breaths that escaped her throat were crushed by a deeper kiss.
Cheng Muyun's breath tickled her earlobe.
In the darkness, all senses are amplified infinitely, and the intertwined body heat weaves an airtight cocoon under the quilt.
The way he kissed her neck reminded her of the almost overwhelming longing of a desert traveler who finally reaches an oasis.
Cheng Muyun's large hands roamed continuously, and wherever they touched, everything became hot. Xu Zhuohua twisted her slender waist, trying to get more touches.
Strangely, before this kiss landed, Xu Zhuohua had never felt so infatuated.
It was as if she were a desert traveler on the verge of dying of thirst, and Cheng Muyun was her only oasis.
The moment Xu Zhuohua's fingertips touched the back of Cheng Muyun's neck, she flinched from the scalding heat.
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