Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem

  After a long while, Qiao Anhao lifted her head from between her knees. The tears on her face had dried up, and the rims of her eyes were red. As she had crouched for quite some time, when she stood up, her legs were numb. She fell back down to the floorboards.

  Qiao Anhao bit the corner of her lip and got up from the ground. She glanced at the time on the wall. It was already quarter past twelve; his birthday had passed.

  She stood dazed on the spot for a while, then lowered her eyes and walked out of the room.

  The mansion was empty. The only sound was her footsteps. As she listened, there was an unspeakable loneliness at the bottom of her heart.

  She went to the storage room, took out a cardboard box, and went back to the room. Then she kneeled on the floorboards, picked up the candles one-by-one, and put them into the box. With the box of candles in her arms, she went downstairs and put it in the storage room.

  When she walked back into the room, Qiao Anhao rushed over to the wall with a sharp piece of iron wire in her hand and popped all the balloons. The loud popping entered her ears, one-by-one. She wasn’t the least bit frightened. Her expression was composed, and her fingers continuously stabbed into the balloons on the wall, shoving them into the rubbish bag.

  When she tidied up the room, Qiao Anhao took the rubbish bag downstairs. As she was ready to throw it out, she thought about the cake in the fridge and stopped for a second. She walked over to the dining room, opened the fridge and took the cake out. Her hands slightly clenched into fists. A second later, she chucked the cake in the rubbish bag. She took the bag and walked out of the room, and threw the bag into the public bins in the district outside.

  After Qiao Anhao finished up, it was already one in the morning. She removed her make up, showered, and climbed into bed.

  Hard to say if it was because Lu Jinnian had recently come back home every night, she felt that something was missing by her side. She tossed and turned, but she couldn’t sleep no matter what. After much difficulty, she later fell asleep, but not long after, she suddenly woke up and looked out the window. The skies were already bright, and the other side of her bed was empty. Clearly, Lu Jinnian hadn’t come back.

  Qiao Anhao hugged the covers and sat there for a while. Then she heard sounds of something unlocking coming from downstairs. She instinctively removed her covers and jumped out of bed, and ran out of the room bare-footed. Just as she reached the stairs, she saw Madam Chen carrying large and small bags into the kitchen.

  Qiao Anhao felt a pang of disappointment from the bottom of her heart. She stood there on the spot for a while, then returned to the room. She wasn’t the least bit sleepy, so she quickly cleaned herself up. Thinking about having to go to the set today, she called Zhao Meng to pick her up early-

  Lu Jinnian didn’t sleep all night. At seven in the morning, he heard sounds outside the office and snapped back to reality. Then he got up from his office chair and went to the room in the back, took a shower, and changed into clean clothes.

  At nine, there was a morning meeting. When it ended, it was only ten.

  Today, he had to be on the set of "Alluring Times". Last night, he left the car with Qiao Anhao, and his other cars weren’t at Mount Yi mansion, but at Mian Xiu Garden. And so, after the meeting, Lu Jinnian called his assistant to take them to Mian Xiu Garden-

  Though Qiao Anhao asked Zhao Meng to come over early to pick her up to go to the set, when she arrived, it was already late. The time was almost eleven in the afternoon.