Chapter 4: The Past

After that night, things between them seemed to turn to a new page, even though neither had officially said the word love.

Lâm Thừa Dịch began coming home earlier, and now and then he even cooked a few simple dishes himself, though his cooking skills were nothing short of a disaster. Hạ Vy would never forget the evening he labored over a pan of eggs fried pitch black, his face smudged, trying to look calm: “This dish… is my own special recipe.”

She looked at the charred eggs and burst out laughing. “CEO Lâm, are you sure you didn’t mix up the cooking oil with gasoline?”

He turned red, for the first time in his life looking flustered in front of someone else. “Mistakes are unavoidable the first time.”

Hạ Vy rolled up her sleeves and pulled him out of the kitchen. “Let me. Just standing and watching is enough for you.”

That evening, they cooked a simple meal together, their laughter filling the huge kitchen that was usually so cold and empty. For the first time, the Lâm mansion truly felt like a home.

A few days later, Hạ Vy came down with a bad cold from overwork and ran a high fever all night. When she woke in the middle of the night, she found Lâm Thừa Dịch sitting beside her bed, wiping her forehead with a damp cloth, worry clear on his face in the dim glow of the night lamp.

“You… why are you here?” she whispered, her throat parched.

“Mrs. Lý said you had a high fever. I couldn’t rest easy.” He handed her a cup of warm water, his voice gentler than she had ever heard it. “Take your medicine and go back to sleep. I’ll stay here and watch over you.”

Hạ Vy obediently took the medicine. Her eyes drooped with exhaustion, but her heart felt strangely warm, seeing him sitting there, holding her hand all through the long night.

When she woke the next morning, she found Lâm Thừa Dịch asleep beside the bed, his head slumped against the edge of the mattress in an uncomfortable position, proof that he had stayed up all night watching over her. Even asleep, he was still holding her hand tightly.

Hạ Vy looked at his handsome sleeping face, and her heart melted. She gently brushed back the strands of hair falling over his forehead and whispered, “Thank you, Thừa Dịch.”

As if he felt it, he slowly opened his eyes and met her tender gaze. They both froze in that moment, neither saying a word, only looking at each other with eyes full of feeling.

“Feeling better?” he asked, his voice still sleepy but strangely warm.

“Much better.” She smiled, still not letting go of his hand.

Lâm Thừa Dịch lifted her small hand and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it, his deep eyes full of emotion. “Good. From now on, let me take care of you. All right?”

Hạ Vy felt her heart beating as it never had before. She nodded softly, letting a sweet happiness seep through her whole being. The marriage that had begun with a cold contract was slowly blossoming into a sincere love neither of them had expected.

But the happiness didn’t last long before a storm arrived. One afternoon, as Hạ Vy was getting ready to leave work, an elegant, beautiful woman walked into her company and introduced herself as Tô Nhã Kỳ, Lâm Thừa Dịch’s former fiancée from before he married Hạ Vy.

“So you’re the one who made Thừa Dịch break off our engagement.” Nhã Kỳ looked Hạ Vy up and down with contempt. “You think you can keep him forever? Your marriage is just a contract, isn’t it?”

Hạ Vy was stunned. “What do you mean by that?”

“What do I mean?” Nhã Kỳ gave a thin smile and handed her a document. “See for yourself.”

It was a copy of the marriage contract between her and Lâm Thừa Dịch, something only the two of them and their lawyer should have known about. Hạ Vy took it with trembling hands, unable to understand how Nhã Kỳ had gotten it.

“Thừa Dịch and I were engaged before his family ran into trouble. Later the engagement was called off for business reasons, but our feelings never stopped,” Nhã Kỳ went on, full of confidence. “He only married you because his grandmother pushed him. You’re just a temporary stand-in.”

Those words cut into Hạ Vy’s heart like a knife. Even though she had known the nature of this marriage from the start, now that real feelings had grown, she couldn’t help being hurt by having that harsh truth thrown in her face.

That evening, Hạ Vy came home with her mind in chaos. Lâm Thừa Dịch noticed something was wrong at once. “What’s wrong? Why are you so pale?”

“You and Tô Nhã Kỳ…” She hesitated, then asked directly, “you were engaged, weren’t you?”

Lâm Thừa Dịch’s expression changed visibly. “Who told you that?”

“So it’s true.” Hạ Vy smiled bitterly, tears threatening to spill. “So I’m just a stand-in for the marriage you and she never finished?”

“That’s not it!” He grabbed her shoulders, his voice unusually urgent. “That was five years ago. When my family was in financial trouble, Tô Nhã Kỳ’s family ruthlessly broke off the engagement to avoid being dragged down. I’ve had no feelings for her since.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me from the start?” Hạ Vy pushed his hands away, her voice choked. “How many other things are you hiding from me?”

Lâm Thừa Dịch fell silent, not knowing how to explain in a way she would believe. His silence only deepened her misunderstanding.

“I need time to think.” She turned and went up to her room, leaving Lâm Thừa Dịch standing frozen in the middle of the living room, his fists clenched until they turned white, his heart full of fear that he would lose the woman he had come to love without even realizing it.

He didn’t know that behind all of this, Tô Nhã Kỳ had deliberately set everything up to drive them apart, because she had never given up on reclaiming the position of first lady of the Thừa Dịch Group.