chapter 3

# chapter 3

That night, a vibration woke me from a hazy sleep.

S: *Yu, Mysterium won’t be the same without you tonight.*

S: *We’ve got some smoking-hot girls coming. You sure you don’t want a drink?*

Only then did I realize I was holding Meng Chongyu’s phone.

The shower was running. I put it back beside the bed.

Chongyu came out soon after. Trying not to wake me, he crept over, glanced at his phone, tossed it aside, and began putting on his coat.

I opened my eyes as though I had only just awakened.

“Going out?”

*My adviser needs me back at school,* he typed.

“Now? It’s almost midnight.”

He spread his hands and gave me a helpless look.

I laughed inwardly. It was a crime that this young master had never entered show business.

Suppressing the urge to roll my eyes, I patted his head sympathetically. “Graduate students have no rights. I understand.”

Several minutes after he left, I crawled out of bed, picked up my car keys, and followed him.

There was no grand reason for it. I was simply curious about the real Meng Chongyu-the man hiding beneath the obedient, pitiful act he put on for me.

After all, I had first met him at the hospital.

I had just undergone surgery and needed help while I recovered. Meng Chongyu applied to be my caregiver.

At first, I hesitated. Not because he claimed to be deaf and mute, but because I had wanted a woman.

The young man was desperate for the job.

*I’ve taken care of my mother since I was little. I have plenty of experience.*

*Whatever they can do, I promise I can do just as well.*

I had to admit that he touched a soft spot.

I had never known my father, and my mother was paralyzed. Like him, I had cared for her from childhood. If Ji Weili had not sponsored me, I might not even have finished high school.

So I hired him.

He proved as diligent, gentle, and thoughtful as he had promised. Other caregivers slipped away to rest whenever they found the chance. Chongyu stayed beside me from morning until night, handling even the most humiliating parts of my care.

When I sank into a low mood, he tried everything to cheer me up.

When my appetite failed, he cooked for me and arranged the food into cartoon faces, coaxing me to take one more bite.

The elderly woman in the next bed laughed. “That boy’s taking care of you like you’re his girlfriend.”

Becoming lovers afterward felt perfectly natural.

I never questioned his identity. He often slipped and used sign language without thinking, and sometimes, when I felt playful, I asked him to teach me a few gestures.

Even at the height of passion, he never made a sound. He only watched me with wet, shining eyes, like a dog utterly content after being fed.

More than anything, I never suspected him because what pampered heir would endure that much?

He had endured so much I could have mistaken him for an ancient prince sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall-all to train his will in my bed.