A forced confession is the absolute worst.

Especially one that, despite its malicious intent, ended up unwittingly providing warmth.

Yao Huizu fled as soon as he finished speaking.

He left Ji Changqing and Yu Zhiyao staring at each other.

Then, Yu Zhiyao watched as the smile on Ji Changqing’s face grew wider and wider, the kind that couldn’t be stopped or contained.

Ji Changqing stood with her hands on her hips, laughing for a good while before grilling Yu Zhiyao, “Is it true? Is it really true?”

Yu Zhiyao, genuinely afraid she might laugh herself into a faint, explained helplessly, “The events are true, but the motivation wasn’t.”

Ji Changqing pretended not to hear the last part.

The reality was nothing like the drama Yao Huizu had imagined.

After reveling in her triumph, Ji Changqing’s heart began to ache for Yu Zhiyao. How difficult it must have been for her back then. Betrayed by her father, betrayed by a scumbag, besieged on all sides, completely isolated…

The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached. Her chest heaved, her lips trembled, but her throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton. It took a long time before she could squeeze out three words: “I’m so sorry.”

I’m sorry I couldn’t be by your side during your most difficult time.

Seeing her look so pained and guilty, Yu Zhiyao was touched, but more than that, she felt a deep sense of helplessness toward this overly emotional, imaginative person. “You never hurt me, so why are you apologizing? Alright, stop your wild imaginings. I’m not some damsel in distress.”

What happened back then couldn’t be explained in a few simple sentences. It was only after the dust had settled that people simplified the story: they made the first move to scheme against her, and she later struck back.

Everyone had their own agenda, driven by their own interests. It just so happened that she was the one who won in the end.

But for her, this so-called victory felt more like a defeat. It didn’t mean much, because she had already lost everything she could lose.

She once had a job she truly loved, a partner with whom she was perfectly in sync and deeply in love, and what seemed at the time to be genuine, warm family affection—though that illusory warmth was later shattered by reality.

But all of that, from the moment she chose to return and shoulder her family responsibilities, was slowly lost, one piece at a time. After that pyrrhic victory, the only thing worth celebrating was perhaps the freedom she had gained. No one could point fingers at her, lecture her, or arrange her life anymore.

Ji Changqing hugged her. “I know you’re strong, but I still want to protect you.”

Yu Zhiyao nestled in her arms, feeling an unprecedented sense of security, as if she had returned to the past, to a time when she still had everything.

Ji Changqing drove on the way back.

At first, Yu Zhiyao was reluctant to let her drive, worried she wasn’t familiar with the roads. But seeing the “I just want to do more for you” look on her face, she relented.

Fine, you can drive, you can drive. Just stop looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes!

And then she came to a profound realization: one should never judge a person by old standards. With all of Blue Star evolving, they were both essentially starting new lives. Ji Changqing drove with a wild, untamed spirit, basically hugging the speed limit the entire way. She was clearly a soul racer who pursued only speed and passion.

This driving skill had obviously been forged through the military’s life-or-death-sprint style of training.

It dawned on Yu Zhiyao that she kept forgetting a certain someone had traded her pen for a sword. Time was truly a cruel butcher, turning a romantic writer into a top-tier special forces soldier.

While forcing a smile, she secretly swore to herself that she would never, ever get in a car driven by Ji Changqing again. Absolutely not!

Ji Changqing was completely unaware of the frantic internal monologue going on in the mind of the person beside her. Following the navigation, she drove all the way to their destination, executed a beautiful drift, and parked the car with a slick, fluid motion. She quickly rounded the front of the car to open the passenger door. Yu Zhiyao smiled and placed her hand in Ji Changqing’s. Hand in hand, they walked side by side into the restaurant, their demeanor relaxed and intimate.

The place Yu Zhiyao had booked was nestled by a lake and backed by mountains. Upon entering, one didn’t arrive directly at the dining area but in a sprawling garden. It was lush with flowers and trees, with winding paths leading to secluded spots. Jagged rockeries and shaded groves cleverly concealed the people walking along the meandering trails.

It was serene and elegant, with a strong emphasis on privacy. Unwanted encounters were impossible, ensuring that diners would not be disturbed, which was why business was booming despite the high prices.

The bigwigs from the Academy of Sciences were quite fond of this place. Yu Zhiyao had been here before and liked it as well.

Appearances mattered, after all. Even though it was winter, the garden remained lush and green. A waiter led them down one of the small paths. After a few minutes’ walk, they emerged into a clearing, and the view opened up before them. The calm, vast surface of the lake stretched out, the setting sun casting its lingering glow. A gentle breeze stirred, sending fine ripples dancing across the water, churning the entire lake into a pool of shattered gold.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

The temperature control here was excellent. They both took off their coats, hung them up, and sat down. Seated on the concave side of the curved dining table, they huddled together, heads touching, as they decided on their order.

After placing their order, Ji Changqing turned sideways, propped her chin on her hand, and watched Yu Zhiyao intently, her face screaming, “Time to confess.”

Yu Zhiyao glanced at her and let out a low chuckle. She took Ji Changqing’s left hand, which was hanging by her side, held it, and gave it a squeeze. “Can we talk about it when we get back?”

Ji Changqing wasn’t too keen on that. “We’re not doing anything right now.”

“Aren’t you afraid it’ll ruin your appetite?”

Ji Changqing was about to say she wasn’t.

“I, for one, don’t want to ruin mine,” Yu Zhiyao said, gently shaking their clasped hands. “It’s been over a decade. A little more time won’t make a difference, right?”

Right, right, whatever you say is right.

Yu Zhiyao rested her head on Ji Changqing’s shoulder, entrusting her entire weight to her, and pointed at the lake of shattered gold before them. “There’s a terrace connected to this room. When it’s not so cold, you can fish out there, and you can even dock a small yacht.”

It was winter now, during the coldest part of the year, which was why it seemed a bit deserted.

Ji Changqing wrapped an arm around her and kissed her cheek, the kiss lingering and deepening until it found her lips. As they kissed, her hands started to wander, only to be swatted away by a blushing Yu Zhiyao.

Ji Changqing rubbed her nose, not the least bit embarrassed. It was perfectly normal for sparks to fly between lovers when they weren’t careful. She even had the audacity to shift the blame, muttering, “Sitting here reminds me of our time on Iris Star.”

On Iris Star, after they had slept together and confirmed their relationship, they had moved to a place where they could live more comfortably together. The place they moved to was right by a lake—which was why this felt so familiar.

Yu Zhiyao let out a snort of a laugh and shot her a playful glare, but she didn’t continue to scold her. After all, she was the one who had booked this place on a whim, right?

Because of that increasingly passionate kiss that had almost gotten out of hand, Yu Zhiyao decided it was best not to count on getting any work done when they got back tonight—for two people for whom a brief separation made the reunion sweeter than a honeymoon, that passion could easily last for two or three days! After a moment’s thought, she sent Ji Changqing off to amuse herself in the private room or on the terrace, opened her terminal, and began scrolling through her emails, her fingers flying as she composed replies to important work messages.

Yu Zhiyao had originally booked this place because it was quiet and had a nice view, thinking they could have tea and chat after dinner. But Ji Changqing was not cooperating. After the meal, she began hinting that a full stomach leads to amorous thoughts, and that she was exhausted from her long journey and should get back to rest early.

Yu Zhiyao had no choice but to take her back, though she politely declined Ji Changqing’s offer to continue playing chauffeur.

She lived in the Academy of Sciences’ dormitory area. Firstly, it was safe; secondly, it was convenient; and thirdly, she had no need to buy property for the time being. The academy had strict security. Yu Zhiyao took Ji Changqing to apply for an access pass that would allow her to come and go freely. She had already submitted and gotten approval for the necessary application materials; the visitor just needed to show up in person to have their information entered before the pass could be issued.

With all the documents in order, the visitor present, and the host and guarantor also present, the pass was processed quickly. The staff member merely verified their identities and routinely asked about their relationship. In less than ten minutes, a brand-new, one-month exclusive access pass was handed to Ji Changqing.

Ji Changqing was beaming. The way she looked at the pass, you would think it was their marriage certificate. She was particularly thrilled because when the staff member had asked about their relationship, Yu Zhiyao had answered, “Partners.” She had been happy ever since.

After getting the pass, Yu Zhiyao drove again. They passed through a total of three security gates before finally reaching her residence.

At the Academy of Sciences, Yu Zhiyao held both administrative and research positions and was fairly high-ranking, so her living quarters were correspondingly excellent. She had a 120-square-meter apartment all to herself.

Having been celibate for nearly two years, Ji Changqing couldn’t be bothered to look at the apartment. The moment they were through the door, she pinned Yu Zhiyao against it. Taking advantage of her newfound height advantage, she lowered her head and began to kiss her, slowly, starting from her chin and neck, lingering, before finally landing on her lips.

Her hands weren’t idle either, starting from Yu Zhiyao’s waist and exploring every inch, some places passed over quickly, others given special attention.

As Yu Zhiyao’s breathing grew ragged, her arms around Ji Changqing tightened. She wavered for a moment between surrendering and resisting, but ultimately couldn’t bear it any longer, gasping a demand to the person who had just completed a long journey: “Shower first!”

Then she was swept up in a princess carry. After they worked together to drench the bathroom, they moved their battle to the bedroom, tumbling into the soft bed in a tangle of limbs, locked in a desperate, passionate embrace.

During each intermission, as they rested and gathered strength for the next round, Yu Zhiyao would tell a bedtime story. But as she spoke, her words would become disjointed, her sentences fragmented, broken by gasps and moans.

Not everyone is detestable from the very beginning. Her father had once been a doting and loving dad. Her brother had once been a filial son and a caring older brother, confident and sharp. Even Yao Huizu had once been a partner with a keen eye and a firm hand, someone she had found quite agreeable to work with.

Yu Zhiyao’s brother was seven years older than her. He had joined the company right after graduating from university and had been there for twelve years by then. The story Yu Zhiyao had always heard was that her brother’s poor investment decisions had caused a cash flow problem for the company, and competitors had seized the opportunity, circling like vultures, eager to tear off a piece of the Yu Corporation for themselves.

At the time, the company’s value had shrunk by at least half, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Her brother took all the blame and was forced to leave. Under these circumstances, Yu Zhiyao took over.

She started as the chairman’s assistant, learning the ways of the business world from her father, bit by bit. At the same time, she slowly uncovered the truth about the massive black pot her brother had been forced to carry.

The project her brother had spearheaded was actually quite forward-thinking, at least when it was first proposed. However, the old guard on the board, led by her father, didn’t approve of it. They passed the resolution with the mindset of letting the crown prince get some practice. But in the follow-up, every injection of funds and resources was delayed, while the company’s capital was diverted to another project.

Just like that, her brother’s project went from being ahead of the curve to falling behind, slowly bled dry.

She took the equipment left over from her brother’s project, modified it, and, using stock dividends as leverage, managed to conjure patent licenses from former teachers, classmates, and colleagues. She then poached a group of technicians, revitalized the project, and pulled the company back from the brink of bankruptcy.

It took her two years to get the teetering company back on track, stabilizing it and gradually breathing new life into it. At that rate, the Yu Corporation might have returned to its former glory in three to five years.

It was also during those two years that problems arose between her and Ji Changqing, leaving her feeling overwhelmed and powerless. In the first year, she frequently traveled between two cities. One reason was to meet people to negotiate patent licenses and recruit a new tech team. The other was to see Ji Changqing, to spend time alone with her, away from all the chaos, giving herself a space to breathe and relax amidst the immense pressure.

Starting in the second year, the focus of her work shifted, and their opportunities to meet became fewer and fewer. Ji Changqing’s unhappiness grew longer and longer. It would take days to coax her out of a mood, followed by a long period of coldness.

She couldn’t get away, and while Ji Changqing would say, “I miss you so much, I want to see you,” she would also use the excuse, “You’re so busy, wouldn’t I just be disturbing your work if I came over?” and quietly stay put in her own city.

It was infuriating!

Ji Changqing didn’t quite agree with that version of events. “I went to see you several times, okay? But the most I ever got was having breakfast with you!”

Back then, Yu Zhiyao was so busy she was run off her feet, and she had many social obligations. The few times Ji Changqing went to see her, she usually didn’t get to see her until the early hours of the morning. They would barely exchange a few words before Yu Zhiyao was so exhausted she was about to fall asleep. Every time, Ji Changqing would help her shower, dry her off, tuck her into bed, and hold her as she slept.

After a few such trips, she realized that visiting was actually no help to Yu Zhiyao and only added to her troubles. So she focused on improving herself, hoping that one day she could genuinely help and not be a burden, that she could become Yu Zhiyao’s support or pillar.

And then, she was broken up with.

Years later, the two of them lay naked in each other’s arms, calmly and, they believed, rationally discussing the reasons for their breakup back then.

Yu Zhiyao offered an objective assessment: “To use an analogy, it was probably like a top student determined to get into a top university, while the slacker was trying to convince them to drop out and open a street stall together.”

Ji Changqing had often complained about how little they saw each other, reminiscing about the happiness of being together day in and day out. It made Yu Zhiyao mistakenly believe that what Ji Changqing wanted was a simple life of domestic bliss, a relationship she couldn’t provide.

Ji Changqing, having been compared to a slacker, was not convinced. The intermission had just ended, and she pinned the top student down for another round of deep, whole-bodied communication, forcing the top student to gasp and admit that she must have been possessed to have been so set on breaking up back then.

There was something Yu Zhiyao had never mentioned. It was actually Ji Changqing who had first brought up breaking up; Yu Zhiyao had only been the one to deliver the final, decisive blow.

At the time, she had said, “We don’t even see each other once a month, and we barely talk for more than a few sentences a day. Do you think this feels like a relationship?”

She had firmly believed that if you truly loved someone, how could you not find time to be with them? It must be that the love wasn’t strong enough. So she had said, “If you don’t love me anymore, then let’s just break up.”

Each time, Yu Zhiyao had pretended not to hear, earnestly explaining that she was just too busy to pay attention to anything else.

But after Ji Changqing brought it up a couple of times, she suddenly realized that perhaps Ji Changqing was truly tired of this life. The seemingly endless separation was making them both unhappy and exhausted.

So, the third time she heard a similar sentiment, she gave a direct response: “Let’s break up.”

The shock on Ji Changqing’s face at that moment was real, and her later attempts to reconcile were also real. But Yu Zhiyao herself wasn’t sure what the outcome would be if they didn’t break up and just continued to be entangled. Perhaps carrying on would only wear their love down. By stepping away then, at least their memories would remain beautiful.

After the breakup, Yu Zhiyao, having established a preliminary level of authority in the company, began to clean up the less-than-ideal projects within the Yu Corporation.

The first to go was the other project that had received preferential treatment with resources and funding while her brother’s project was being bled dry. This project’s return on investment was not ideal, yet it always managed to snatch the resources her brother had applied for. After her brother’s project died, this project even submitted a report claiming it needed continued investment, and its funding gap, coincidentally, was about half of what her brother’s project had consumed.

The report was a blatant attempt to shift blame, its every line dripping with feigned innocence and veiled accusations. In summary, the gist was that they had a great project, if only the company hadn’t been short on funds. And why was the company short on funds? Because the young master’s investment decisions had failed, dragging down the entire company’s cash flow.

She knew there was something fishy going on, but she wasn’t sure what it was yet. Not until she raised her metaphorical cleaver to chop this project and cut their losses.

The resistance she met was incredibly strong, far stronger than she had anticipated. But she pressed on with her work methodically, clearing out the company’s internal rot with bold strokes. She even began to consider whether she should start a new company if this group of old-fashioned, “successful” individuals kept whining and obstructing her.

Fighting a battle in the business world with a team of teammates who did nothing but drag her down was too difficult. It might be better to shed this burden and spin off the new project into its own independent company.

It was at this time that Yao Huizu, who had noticed her rising star in the business world, repeatedly expressed his family’s interest in a marriage alliance.

Her father was delighted by the prospect and, under the guise of looking out for her best interests, urged her to consider it.

Consider what? Having just broken up less than six months ago, she had no interest in romance and only wanted to focus on her career. If she didn’t make a success of her career, it would be a disservice to everything she had given up.

In reality, among the second-generation heirs, Yao Huizu was an ideal marriage partner for many.

He was young and successful, having already taken over the Yao family’s company and at least doubled its size. He also didn’t have the usual vices of his peers—no philandering, no wandering eyes, no spiderweb of affairs. He could even be considered a man of integrity.

But she didn’t like him. On the contrary, she thought anyone who was so focused on a business marriage had something wrong with their head. In business, you talk business. If you want to cooperate, you negotiate terms, align interests, and work together professionally. Isn’t that better?

Why insist on mixing personal feelings into professional matters, under the beautiful pretext of “increasing trust for better cooperation”?

There were so many examples of people using marriage alliances as a means to swallow up their in-laws’ businesses, yet everyone remained inexplicably confident that a business marriage was a good move. Are you kidding me?

Her father thought Yao Huizu was perfect in every way and told her bluntly, “What’s not to like about him? He doesn’t even mind that you used to be with women. He’s willing to be tolerant.”

Yu Zhiyao scoffed. She didn’t need it. “He’s had several girlfriends. I’ve only had one. I’m the one who minds him, and I’m not willing to tolerate him.”

After saying that, she enjoyed the sight of her father fuming with rage, and then took her leave.

But a year later, thanks to Yao Huizu’s persistence and her father’s constant machinations, she finally agreed to the business marriage.

Because her brother was no longer there to take the fall, her father stepped up personally, insisting on pouring a large sum of money into the very project she wanted to cut, artificially creating a funding shortage for the new project she was pushing forward.

And in the process of wrangling with a group of old foxes, she stumbled upon the truth. That project was actually her father’s shady operation to give his illegitimate son his inheritance.

The logic of an old man with a second family was refreshingly bizarre. This was his thinking: Yu Zhiyao and her brother were his children, so they could rightfully inherit the Yu Corporation in the future and had enjoyed his love and care for years. His illegitimate son, on the other hand, had grown up without a father’s love and companionship and had no connection to the Yu Corporation. How could he not find ways to give him more to secure his future?

In the beginning, when he was on the verge of losing his entire fortune through his asset-splitting schemes, her father might have genuinely just wanted Yu Zhiyao to take over and save the family business he had spent half his life building.

But once things started looking up and he felt secure, he started feeling sorry for his illegitimate son again. He saw his daughter’s attempts to cut the project, clean out the company, and hold people accountable as tearing out his heart!

She had to be stopped. And he had to ensure that his poor, pitiful illegitimate son, who had never known a father’s love, would live a life of wealth and luxury.

The word “doting” couldn’t even begin to describe it.

Yu Zhiyao finally understood. She and her brother were the ones who nominally possessed their father’s self-proclaimed love and could rightfully inherit the family business, but in reality, they were just tools, scapegoats to build a fortune for his illegitimate son.

She thought about it seriously. Perhaps she didn’t really need this suffocating kind of fatherly love.

The final result was that she agreed to Yao Huizu’s marriage proposal. One reason was to escape her father’s control over her. The other was that she needed to make her new project successful as quickly as possible, use the profits to gain control of the company’s lifeline, and kick out the old man with the bizarrely twisted logic.

That way, he could have more time to spend with his illegitimate son, and that ungrateful child who bit the hand that fed him could feel the full force of his overwhelming fatherly love.

I don’t want this father anymore. He’s all yours!