Chapter 5

The restaurant Zhong Yiheng had booked was wonderful.

More than half the ingredients in the expensive Valentine’s set menu were things I’d never even seen.

He was very considerate.

He explained what each thing was and how to eat it beforehand.

I didn’t embarrass myself once.

After dinner, he ordered a bottle of red wine.

Something from a French château, made in the last century.

You were supposed to swirl the glass, smell the bouquet, savor the flavor.

I didn’t understand any of that. It tasted sweet and lovely to me.

I gulped down a few glasses.

Soon Zhong Yiheng’s face began to blur.

I heard him ask, “Is there anything else you want?”

Under the influence of the wine,

I couldn’t help blurting out what had been stirring inside me. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as a widow.”

“I still want to fall in love.”

Preferably with someone handsome.

I really couldn’t say that last part aloud.

So I covered my face

and smiled shyly at him.

“…”

He looked at me.

His expression was strange.

As though he was struggling with something.

I drank another glass.

I was so drunk my whole face burned.

I could barely make out what he was saying anymore.

All I caught was, “…It’s not that I don’t… But your husband’s death will always stand between us…”

After all this time, he was still troubled by that accident.

He was simply too conscientious.

My husband was dead. So what?

I reassured him. “It’s all right. The dead can’t come back. Those of us still living have to look ahead.”

Strange.

Why was I comforting him about my husband’s death?

Before I could work that out,

Zhong Yiheng said a great deal more.

I didn’t catch a word.

Finally, he picked up his coat and stood. “I’ll give you an answer as soon as I can. Let me take you home.”

I slept the whole drive.

When I got out, the cold wind sobered me up considerably.

I turned and smiled goodbye. “Thank you for dinner. Good night.”

Zhong Yiheng gazed straight at me.

“Go upstairs. I’ll watch you go in.”

“I’ve arranged a Valentine’s gift for you.”

My head still spinning a little,

I took the elevator upstairs.

Opened the front door.

A silver-haired man with a bath towel around his waist was drinking by the wine cabinet.

I froze.

Hearing me, he turned.

Such beautifully defined muscles.

Such a handsome face.

Beneath his hair, dyed silver-white, his eyes had a wild, defiant look.

He raised an eyebrow at the sight of me.

“A Valentine’s surprise.”

As he spoke, he walked toward me.

The towel slipped lower with each step, revealing more intimate contours of his waist and stomach.

I swallowed, remembering what Zhong Yiheng had said downstairs.

It all made sense.

That man really did grant every wish.