It was already half an hour later when they arrived at their destination.

The driver dropped them off and then turned around to leave.

Ming Yue, however, lingered in the courtyard—though it wasn’t exactly unfamiliar—for quite some time, sometimes looking up at the sky, sometimes down at the ground, gazing at the stars and the moon, but never once meeting the gaze of the unnamed male operative who seemed to have been waiting for her to walk inside all along.

Only when the cool night air had completely cleared her head did she slowly begin to move, stepping slowly toward the villa.

“Finally deigning to come in?” a deep voice rang out.

Ming Yue’s right wrist was suddenly seized by the man.

With no one else around, there was no need for that familiar face to put on any act or even smile—it simply revealed its cold, icy expression, devoid of any warmth whatsoever.

Ming Yue had seen this side of the man before; there was nothing surprising about it, nor anything to fear. She turned her head to meet his gaze, her voice equally cold: “Then shall I go?”

“Go where? Back to be with him again?”

The man’s face was as grim as ever, and the grip on her wrist only tightened, pulling her closer into his embrace. With his other hand, he wrapped around her slender waist, pressing her tightly against him while locking his gaze down upon hers.

Ming Yue was forced to tilt her head back, meeting his eyes directly.

After a moment, she stubbornly retorted, “So what if I do? What if I don’t? He nearly lost half his life saving me—shouldn’t I go see him?”

“Of course you should! Absolutely!” The man gritted his teeth. “Don’t the stories always say that a life-saving debt should be repaid by offering oneself in marriage? Why don’t you just offer yourself in marriage and marry him?”

“Why not? I’ll ask him later—he should be willing to take me as his wife.”

Ming Yue threw caution to the wind, refusing to make any excuses. Instead, she went right along with the man’s line of reasoning.

At this, the man’s already chilling expression grew even more sinister. He drew his long arm in tighter, holding her firmly against him, and bit out through clenched teeth, “Ming Yue, if you’ve got the guts, say it again!”

“Say it ten more times—what’s so hard about that? You want to hear it, don’t you? Fine, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you that Fu Qiancheng nearly lost half his life saving me, and I’ll go ask him later whether he’d be willing to marry me…”

Before she could finish, the wind picked up and the rain began to pour, muffling her words beneath the man’s deep, heavy breaths.

As if punishing her, he began to nibble and bite at her lips.

But Ming Yue was no pushover; she retaliated without hesitation.

In no time at all, the taste of blood filled both their mouths.

Late at night, the storm finally subsided. Jiang Feng, utterly exhausted, held the drained Ming Yue in his arms, his thin lips gently pressing a kiss against her shoulder as he whispered hoarsely, “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.”

There was no emotion in Ming Yue’s voice.

She turned her back to the man, curling up into a tight ball, slowly closing her eyes that had wandered aimlessly through the darkness, forcing herself not to think about anything at all—as if she were nothing more than a walking corpse.

Jiang Feng’s heart gave a jolt, and he pulled her even closer. “I won’t do this again.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Ming Yue.”

“I’m sleepy. Time to sleep.”

Ming Yue wouldn’t listen to another word from the man beside her; she cut him off flatly. Because she knew exactly what she was doing, and she’d always known precisely what she wanted—and therefore also understood exactly what she would have to give up in return.

As for everything else, it didn’t matter.

“I…”

“I’m really sleepy.”

Ming Yue yawned and interrupted him outright, clearly unwilling to hear another single word. All she wanted now was to slip quickly into her dreams, into that dream world.

There, everything existed.

There was the past she cherished, the regrets that weighed heavily on her heart, and the person she thought of day and night.

A little while later, Ming Yue’s breathing became steady, as though she had fallen asleep.

End of Chapter 79: Counterattack 5