After the surgery, the nurse found Yan Xun and spoke to him in English:
“Hello, sir. These are the accessories from your partner’s body. They had to be removed during the surgery because they couldn’t be worn. Please keep them safe for him.”
“…Okay, thank you.”
Yan Xun took them.
—It was his little Guanyin pendant.
So many things had happened recently, and Chu Tingyun’s expensive watch, worth millions, had gone missing without anyone knowing when.
So the only accessory left on him was this.
After delivering the items, the nurse left. Yan Xun held the jade pendant in his hand and turned to look at the unconscious Chu Tingyun.
At this moment, he looked extremely weak, his usually rosy and beautiful lips now pale. It was probably because of the pain that, even in his unconscious state, Chu Tingyun showed a faint expression of suffering.
“……”
Yan Xun looked at him for a long time, then silently walked over, bent down, and put the little Guanyin pendant back around his neck, tucking it under his clothes.
Yan Xun thought, this man had almost died, so let this pendant protect him a little longer.
After calling the police, Yan Xun contacted the Chinese Embassy and received assistance. After their identities were confirmed by an official, they quickly provided medical and legal support and sent a translator to help.
Yan Xun also made a few phone calls back to China and contacted Fang’s assistant, urging him to hire a Chinese lawyer familiar with Russian law.
The owner of the villa was Chu Tingyun, and with the criminals, the weapon, and the traces of the fight at the crime scene, it was almost impossible for the charge of home invasion robbery to escape them. As for Yan Xun and Chu Tingyun, it seemed to be a case of self-defense, but this was only a preliminary conclusion, and a proper investigation process would still need to be followed.
However, the two criminals were not in the police station but also lying in the hospital. The first one who had brandished a knife had fractured his sternum and wrist, a perforated eardrum, and severe damage to his genitals.
The second one, who had kicked Chu Tingyun so hard that he vomited blood, had a shattered nose, a completely disfigured face, and a ten-centimeter cut on the side of his neck—luckily, only the skin was sliced, and the artery was unharmed. He also had three broken ribs, which caused a punctured lung and pneumothorax.
In short, of the four men last night, three were down, and only Yan Xun was still standing and able to move freely.
If it hadn’t been for him fasting for a few days, which slowed his reactions, causing him to miss dodging a blow, the words “move freely” could have been replaced with “completely unscathed.”
The officer in charge of the case was extremely astonished and repeatedly came back to Yan Xun to confirm if he had really done all of this alone. After receiving an affirmative answer, he couldn’t help but give him a thumbs-up and praise him several times, saying, “Oh, Chinese kung fu!”
The translator sent by the embassy was also Chinese, and as he translated, his expression was filled with pride. The way he looked at Yan Xun was as if he were gazing at a legendary martial arts master.
“…Thank you.”
But at this moment, Yan Xun was in no mood to promote Chinese martial arts.
In addition, the officer specifically asked about the metal chains and handcuffs found in the villa.
Yan Xun hesitated for a long time before finally saying:
“These are… a special hobby of ours. I didn’t expect them to come in handy at a critical moment.”
“Oh~”
At that moment, the expression on the translator’s face was quite intriguing, but after relaying Yan Xun’s words to the police, they didn’t seem too suspicious.
After all, considering how Yan Xun, unarmed, had single-handedly put two tall, muscular robbers in the hospital, no one thought that someone as formidable as him would be overpowered by Chu Tingyun, left unable to resist or escape.
“There’s another very important matter, Mr. Yan.”
The translator adjusted his glasses, his expression turning serious.
“When the officer inspected the scene, they found a camera in the second-floor living room. However, the footage had been uploaded to a phone, and they would like your cooperation to access it.”
“…A camera?”
Yan Xun was surprised as if hearing about this for the first time, but he quickly nodded.
“Alright.”
Yan Xun then unlocked Chu Tingyun’s phone. The last time Chu Tingyun booked a flight in front of him, he hadn’t been secretive about entering the phone’s unlock code. So, Yan Xun quickly found the living room surveillance footage and provided it to the police.
The camera had night vision, and it recorded the entire sequence of events: the robbers sneaking in, attacking Yan Xun, injuring Chu Tingyun, and then being subdued by Yan Xun.
At this point, the evidence was indisputable.
The robbers had attacked first and were armed, and both Yan Xun and Chu Tingyun were injured, the latter even being in a life-threatening situation. Thus, Yan Xun’s actions were fully justified as self-defense.
From then on, the matter was handed over to a lawyer.
Yan Xun stayed at the hospital, accompanying Chu Tingyun as he recovered. However, after just one week of being well-behaved, Chu Tingyun began to pick at the hospital’s food, saying he wanted to order from some high-end restaurant.
Hearing this from outside the room, Yan Xun grew irritated and pushed the door open, coldly saying:
“If you eat junk at a time like this, your surgery scar will turn into a very ugly mark.”
In Yan Xun’s view, Chu Tingyun was someone who cared a lot about his appearance—he couldn’t even tolerate normal body hair on himself, so a scar would surely be unacceptable.
Sure enough, as soon as Yan Xun said this, Mr. Chu instantly quieted down.
In truth, Chu Tingyun didn’t care whether his body would be left with any scars. The full-body hair removal had only been necessary for his figure skating training and was due to his obsessive cleanliness. Incidentally, after years of continuous laser treatments, he no longer grew any hair at all.
So, at that moment, what Chu Tingyun interpreted was that Yan Xun found scars on his body unsightly.
This led to Chu Tingyun later seeking out various ways to remove scars. Expensive imported drugs, laser treatments, surgical removal—he tried everything.
All in all, after spending several million and over two years, the scar became very faint. Unless observed under bright light, it was barely noticeable.
However, at that time, Yan Xun had no idea that his casual remark would cause the other person to invest so much time, effort, and endure prolonged mental and appearance-related stress.
Because of that car chase, Chu Tingyun also had a scar on his forehead.
Yet Yan Xun knew nothing about this. All he was aware of was that after this, Chu Tingyun stopped complaining about the hospital meals and was very cooperative with dietary restrictions and wound care.
After making sure Chu Tingyun finished his meal, Yan Xun sat beside him, picking up a fruit knife to peel a pear.
Clearly, he was quite skilled with a knife, peeling with fluid, graceful motions that were a pleasure to watch. The pear’s skin came off in one long, continuous piece, and very thin at that.
Chu Tingyun watched him for a long while, then suddenly, as if casually, spoke up:
“A few days ago, the police came to ask me about what happened.”
The man pretended to be calm, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but rise. If he had wings, he probably would have been so happy he’d fly away.
He cautiously observed Yan Xun’s expression from the corner of his eye, tentatively asking:
“Uh, did you tell them… that we were in a relationship?”
This was a question Chu Tingyun had wanted to ask for a long time, but he had been afraid of getting a negative answer. So, he’d held back for a long time, finally unable to resist asking today.
“…”
Yan Xun’s hand, which was peeling the pear, suddenly froze.
The words “relationship” seemed to hit some switch that absolutely should not be touched, causing the air around Yan Xun to freeze instantly.
Chu Tingyun vaguely sensed he might have said something wrong. But that’s what the police had told him, and he had even confirmed it with them several times.
A few seconds later, Yan Xun let out a small scoff:
“Otherwise, what was I supposed to say? How was I supposed to explain our relationship to the police? Why we were in that villa?”
“And what about those chains you specifically had custom-made domestically, and the handcuffs you specially bought—how was I supposed to explain what those were originally for?”
“Should I have told the police you were illegally detaining someone, and had them throw you in jail to rot?”
Yan Xun’s tone was deeply repressed as he spoke, cutting the pear into slices and placing them on a plate.
“I don’t have time for this right now, Chu Tingyun, and I can’t afford the embarrassment.”
“…”
The smile on Chu Tingyun’s face vanished instantly.
He had thought they had reconciled, or at least that Yan Xun liked him a little, that things would at least improve somewhat. But it turned out Yan Xun had only lied to the police for the sake of his reputation.
In fact, Yan Xun had even harsher words in mind, but he held back.
Finally, he looked up at Chu Tingyun and softly asked:
“These past two months… Did you record everything?”
“…”
Hearing this, Chu Tingyun’s eyes widened, his face instantly turning pale.
Back when Yan Xun stole his car keys to escape, Chu Tingyun, feeling paranoid and afraid he would run away again, had installed cameras in the bedroom.
As days went by, Chu Tingyun gradually realized that he couldn’t keep Yan Xun locked up forever. He also knew that after everything that had happened, once Yan Xun returned home, there would be no chance for them to be together again.
He wanted to hold on to something… After all, they didn’t even have a single picture together.
And so, impulsively, Chu Tingyun had secretly saved the recordings.
He hadn’t expected robbers to break in, much less for Yan Xun to discover the cameras while checking the living room surveillance footage during the police investigation.
Although the recordings had long been carefully sealed away by Chu Tingyun and the cameras were removed before Yan Xun left, so no one else would see them…
As the person involved, Yan Xun was all too aware of what had been recorded. Not long ago, he was still a university student who would blush even at a kiss, so being filmed in such a manner was something he could never accept.
But Yan Xun hadn’t confronted Chu Tingyun immediately after discovering this. Instead, he had waited all these days, holding it in until now when Chu Tingyun had mostly recovered.
“Chu Tingyun, why did you record all that? Did you think it would be hard to lock me up again once we returned home, so you were planning to use this to threaten me?”
“No, of course not!”
Chu Tingyun hastily denied it, moving in a way that tugged on his wound, though he didn’t seem to notice the pain.
“How could I do something like that…”
“How could you not?”
Yan Xun cut him off with a bitter laugh.
“Why should I believe that you wouldn’t, Chu Tingyun? Do you not know what you’ve done these past two months?”
“Even if we assume you wouldn’t use those videos to threaten me, what was your purpose in recording them?”
“Was it so you could relive these past days as your own masterpiece? Or so you could enjoy watching me at my worst, most humiliated moments on some dark night to satisfy your twisted desires?”
“…”
These words choked off any explanation Chu Tingyun might have offered. To him, those recordings were mementos of a last chance, but to Yan Xun, they were nothing more than a perverse spectacle and invasion of privacy.
Yan Xun took a deep breath. He had reached the limit of what he could tolerate.
“Let me go, Chu Tingyun…”
Yan Xun was exhausted. He didn’t want another round of endless, pointless arguments or for their relationship to become another brutal struggle, leaving both of them bloodied.
For some reason, every time he softened toward Chu Tingyun and tried to get along, Chu would do something else to push him beyond the breaking point, something he couldn’t accept.
Yan Xun thought that maybe they really weren’t meant for each other.
At this point, there was no need to keep tormenting one another.
Chu Tingyun stared blankly as Yan Xun tossed the pear core into the trash, wiped his hands with a wet wipe, and stood up.
“I’ve already bought a ticket to go home. I’ll be leaving in a few days. I’ll leave the rest to my lawyer. All you have to do is delete every single video, and I won’t pursue anything you did to me during these past months.”
At that moment, Chu Tingyun felt his blood freeze, his body turning cold as ice, and his wound ached terribly.
But even as the ache grew more unbearable, his chest heaving violently, he could only gasp and whisper in a trembling voice:
“Yan Xun, please don’t leave me…”
Yan Xun, however, didn’t respond, walking toward the door.
A brief memory flashed through Chu Tingyun’s mind—back then, on a certain night, after Yan Xun escaped the villa and disappeared for over an hour, he finally found him at a nearby gas station, shivering in the cold, refusing to return.
But now… it was as though their roles had reversed, and it was his turn to feel the sharp pain of being left behind.
“Then I’ll give Chu Tingyun a call.”
“No need.”
Yan Xun refused very decisively. Gu Shanqing didn’t ask any further and just said:
“…Oh, then I’ll leave two people with you to handle the transition.”
“Alright.”
After a week of transition, the company’s management rights returned to Yan Xun. He called his mother to let her know he was safe, but instead, he got scolded.
Mother Lin thought Yan Xun’s disappearance during this time was because he had gotten money and no longer wanted to care for her, a widow and her orphaned child. She cried and made a fuss until she got some money, and only then did she calm down.
However, the good times didn’t last long. Less than a month after Yan Xun took over, a company suddenly sued Qiming, accusing them of plagiarizing source code. It was the same code example that had gone viral when Yan Xun was still running his studio. The other side even had solid evidence.
Yan Xun’s investors were already very dissatisfied with his three-month disappearance. Once this incident came out, they immediately withdrew their investments, citing breach of contract. The original clients, upon hearing the news, all suspended their collaborations.
In no time, Yan Xun was trapped in a desperate situation, besieged on all sides.
And just at this time, Chu Tingyun appeared. He didn’t follow through on what Yan Xun had said before—meeting as strangers and never having anything to do with each other again. Instead, he proposed marriage to Yan Xun.
As long as they got married, Chu Tingyun could solve all of Yan Xun’s problems.
At that time, Chu Tingyun’s intention was likely to make up for things. He may have wanted to say, “Look, Yan Xun, when I was in a relationship with you, I really intended to get married.”
But by then, it was already too late.
Yan Xun had already labeled Chu Tingyun in his mind as extreme, twisted, good at threats, and fond of coercion.
So he thought that this so-called marriage was just a way for Chu Tingyun to keep him by his side, unable to lock him up like before due to external factors. Marriage would be a way to imprison him indirectly.
But at that point, Yan Xun had no way out. The only thing he could do was insist on signing a prenuptial agreement and a marriage contract with Chu Tingyun.
Yan Xun specifically reconfirmed the issue of the video with Chu Tingyun.
The other person nodded and said, “I’ve deleted it. All the footage about you has been erased.”
So, the next day, they went to the civil affairs bureau to get their marriage certificate.
For Yan Xun, it was an overwhelmingly difficult matter, but for Chu Tingyun, it wasn’t such a big deal. Even though he was being held accountable by the entire board of directors and his position as CEO was at risk, it didn’t affect his ability to resolve the issue.
Because, besides the Jiang Group, Chu Tingyun also had his own company and business. He directly threw money to acquire the company that had sued Yan Xun, and the lawsuit was quickly suppressed. Upon closer investigation, it turned out to have been a deliberate setup.
It was orchestrated by the same Mr. Liu whom Yan Xun had encountered at the bar, the one he had tried to pitch for investment, only to be mocked and end up in a physical altercation. At the time, Chu Tingyun had wiped the bar’s surveillance footage clean, and Mr. Liu, unable to retaliate, held a grudge ever since.
But even though the truth eventually came to light, no one cared anymore, and the losses were irreparable.
Chu Tingyun initially planned to invest some money in Qiming, allowing Yan Xun to continue, but Yan Xun refused and instead found a regular job.
Mr. Chu didn’t insist. He simply acquired Qiming and merged it into Xinghen, making it a separate, specialized department. After all, they were married, and in his view, it was all part of the family business.
Of course, Chu Tingyun detested Mr. Liu, who had set Yan Xun up, but every night when he held his little husband and slept happily, he would feel a bit darkly thankful to him.
Otherwise, he and Yan Xun wouldn’t have gotten married.
The days after the marriage were like a repeat of their time at the snowy mountain villa, except that Chu Tingyun no longer locked Yan Xun up.
But half a year later, Yan Xun’s stifling life finally brought some good news.
Zhou Ze returned to China.
After graduating from studying abroad in Australia, he had gone to South Korea to train as a trainee, enduring two years of exclusion and discrimination. In the end, after nearly depleting all his savings and barely managing to terminate his contract, he returned with scars.
Back then, following Yan Xun’s advice, after being punched by a kangaroo and left with a bruised face, Zhou Ze had cried at the gates of the embassy. Somehow, a video of him crying went viral online, suddenly making him a sensation.
Moreover, Zhou Ze had good looks, and with this wave of attention, he signed with a domestic talent agency and began his career in China.
