By the time Gu Qingqing returned to her villa, it was already the break of dawn.

 She pulled up to the building and the caretaker inside opened the door and greeted her as she closed the door behind her, “Madam.”

 Gu Qingqing did not look up as she was changing her shoes and answered, “Mm.”

 Under the light, the caretaker could see that Gu Qingqing was drenched from head to toe. Her thin clothes clung to her body and her dark hair dripped with water. “I’ll go get a towel. Do you want any cold medication?”

 1“No.” Gu Qingqing shook her head stiffly, as she walked up the stairs, leaving puddles of water in her wake.

 She pushed the bedroom door opened. It was bleak and cold.

 Her heart was heavy as if there was a dark cloud looming over it, as if she was locked inside a cage, oppressing and suffocating her.

 Their marriage had nothing to do with love. It was more like a ‘business transaction’.

 She plugged in her phone and once she turned the device on, a message popped onto her screen. It was her mother.

 “Daughter, I’ve already received the 300,000 yuan from my son-in-law. Your brother is fine now. Thank my son-in-law for me. The both of you must be harmonious. Don’t make him angry. You must serve him well. You cannot divorce him, you understand?”

 Gu Qingqing stared at the message and then went to take a bath, not intending to reply.

 She spent a good half an hour under running hot water until her face was scarlet as if she was trying to wash off the dust from her body and her heart.

 After blow-drying her hair, Gu Qingqing threw herself onto the bed, hugging the soft pillow. She was not sure whether it was because of the rain or because that thing with Leng Sicheng was too draining, she was exhausted.

 Her mother and brother thought that her relationship with Leng Sicheng was very good. Harmonious? Only the heavens knew what her days were like!

 This was not the Leng family’s old mansion, and neither was it Qincheng Apartment that Leng Sicheng lived in—it was the ‘Leng Palace’ where she lived alone.

 Since she married him three years ago, except for attending classes, she had been cooped up inside this villa, and unless there was a special event, Leng Sicheng only visited her here once a month. Other than her caretaker, there was no one else in the house. The empty house was just like her empty heart.

 1In order to become a good wife to Leng Sicheng, she learned cooking, social etiquette, ballroom dancing, and playing the piano.

 Knowing his love for wine and for brewing tea, she even studied wine-tasting and tea art. But all her efforts, after the repeated rumors about him, and his monthly cold sex, gradually wore out.

 She turned over. She really did not feel like moving at all.

 Every time her mother needed money, or whenever he took care of her brother’s problems, she always had to pay the price. She did not have any money, so she could only use her body to pay for it.

 If it were not for ‘spending money’, with Leng Sicheng’s cold personality, he might very well not touch her…

 Her gastric was acting up, maybe it was because of the medicine she had. Should she count herself lucky that Leng Sicheng only visited once a month, and she only had to suffer every once in a while?

 She was not allowed to ask him about his personal affairs or rumors. Every time he came, she always had to ‘serve’ him, as if it was a-matter-of-fact.

 Perhaps she was too tired, she fell asleep without even knowing it.

 Suddenly, she felt someone touching her head, watching her with anxious and convoluted eyes. She even felt herself sink, as if she had fallen into a warm, familiar embrace.

 Was it Leng Sicheng? It would be great if it was him.