The sound of the glass shattering echoed, and countless shards scattered in all directions, some even cutting her foot, but she had no time to care.
Xu Luling’s face turned pale as if she was frozen in place.
She took several deep breaths, then quickly turned around and grabbed the boning knife from the kitchen counter.
She prided herself on never being completely defenseless, no matter the situation.
But there was nothing.
No one was there.
Was it just her imagination again?
No, the shadow on the floor had also disappeared. There was a time gap between when the glass fell and when she turned around. It wasn’t impossible for someone with quick reflexes to slip away unnoticed.
The thought of someone lurking in her blind spots, watching her when she wasn’t aware, sent shivers down her spine.
Xu Luling couldn’t bear to stay in the house any longer. She dashed toward the door.
But just as she reached for the handle, she forced herself to calm down. If she ran out now, the “intruder” inside would have the perfect chance to escape. Catching them later would be even harder.
Her hands trembled as she closed her eyes and pulled out her phone. She dialed the speed dial for Pei Ruyin, his name at the top of the list.
The automated voice responded: “The number you have dialed is currently switched off.”
She remembered that Pei Ruyin was on a flight at this time.
She immediately called Wu Na. After a few rings, her friend answered with a cheerful tone.
Xu Luling lowered her voice, “Nana, keep the call connected. If the line cuts off, call the police right away, okay?”
Wu Na instantly fell silent, her playful tone gone.
Xu Luling then pressed the security intercom on the wall, “This is Xu Luling in apartment 1202. I think someone has broken into my home. Please send someone to check.”
No one interrupted her, and the house remained eerily quiet except for the sound of her own breathing.
Xu Luling stood by the door, her eyes glued to the interior of her apartment, not moving until the security guards arrived. She followed them inside as they searched every corner of the apartment.
After several thorough checks, they found no one, and there was no place large enough to hide a person.
“Miss Xu, did you stay by the door the whole time?” one of the guards asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
No one had come in or out during that time.
“Did you see what the intruder looked like? Height? Clothing?” they asked.
“…”
Xu Luling couldn’t answer any of their questions.
The security guards gave her a look that said they thought she was making trouble. Realizing their suspicions, she quickly changed her tone, “Maybe I was mistaken.”
By this point, Xu Luling was starting to doubt herself. She explained the situation to Wu Na, reassuring her friend before hanging up.
She didn’t want to stay in the apartment anymore and decided to go to Pei Ruyin’s office to wait for him.
When Pei Ruyin returned from a business trip, he usually went to the office for a brief meeting before coming home.
As she rushed out of the building, she passed the central rose garden of the apartment complex. There, she noticed that the soil under one of the bushes seemed to have been recently disturbed. Scattered on the ground were small tufts of white fur stained with red, as if torn from a small animal.
At the company, the receptionist remembered Xu Luling, the elegant girlfriend of Director Pei.
“Miss Xu, are you here to help Mr. Pei with his resignation paperwork?”
Xu Luling was taken aback, but quickly composed herself and smiled, “Yes, is he in?”
“You just missed him. He’s already finished.” The receptionist leaned in, whispering, “It’s strange, he was about to be promoted, so why would he resign at such a crucial moment?”
Last month, Xu Luling had known that Pei Ruyin was up for a promotion. He had even marked the day on his calendar in secret, planning to celebrate with her.
Resigning was such a big decision—there was no way Pei Ruyin would have kept that from her.
Before leaving, Xu Luling casually asked, “Do you know when he first mentioned resigning?”
The receptionist thought for a moment and recalled, “It was the day the rainy season started. I remember it well.”
Xu Luling’s eyes flickered.
That was the night she went to pick him up at the airport.
Each unusual event was slowly piling up.
When she first had her doubts, she had jokingly thought, under the influence of some sci-fi movies, that maybe Pei Ruyin had been replaced by some kind of creature wearing his skin.
Of course, Pei Ruyin was a real human, and she had quickly dismissed that idea.
She took the elevator to the B1 level, where the company and the adjacent mall shared an underground parking garage. The area was packed with cars, making it difficult for her to find her own.
As she walked, she noticed one of the lights above flickering.
Pop, it went out.
The surrounding area dimmed, and behind her, she heard the sound of fast-approaching footsteps. Xu Luling instinctively swung her backpack to her front, discreetly opening the clasp. She didn’t turn around but quickened her pace.
After almost being frightened at home earlier, her reflexes were much sharper now.
In a split second, she turned around, pulling out a small military knife from her bag, and struck without hesitation, the blade stopping just millimeters from the person’s throat.
It was Pei Ruyin’s face she saw.
He glanced down at the knife, hovering just 0.001cm from piercing his throat, and raised his hands in surrender. “Spare me, fair lady! Are you trying to murder your own husband?”
Seeing such an expression on the usually composed and handsome man was jarring.
His shirt collar was unbuttoned, his tie missing, and there was a trace of exhaustion on him—he had clearly rushed over to find her.
Xu Luling’s expression relaxed, and she lowered the knife. “I thought it was a creep.”
“There aren’t that many creeps,” Pei Ruyin replied. He noticed something and immediately crouched down, pulling a small bottle of iodine and a cotton swab from his bag to clean the cut on her foot. He then carefully applied a bandage. “Even small wounds need to be taken care of immediately, understand?”
As she watched him kneeling without hesitation, a dazed look crossed her face.
Pei Ruyin stood up and explained, “When I went to the office earlier, the receptionist mentioned that you had been there, so I came down to find you.”
“There might have been an intruder at home. I couldn’t reach you, so I came to find you instead.”
“An intruder?”
Pei Ruyin frowned and rushed back to the apartment with her. They searched every corner—closets, nooks, and crannies—but found no sign of anyone. The look in his eyes was very similar to the one the security guards had given her earlier.
Xu Luling: “…”
“Wu Na said I’ve been working too much and might be mentally exhausted. I probably just imagined it,” she admitted.
Pei Ruyin seemed unsure but didn’t press the issue.
He turned away, taking off his silver-framed glasses and removing his shirt to get ready for a shower. His back was well-defined, with a thin layer of muscle showing his strength. It was clear that even with his busy work schedule, he hadn’t neglected his fitness. Normally, this sight would have made Xu Luling’s heart race, but now she wasn’t in the mood.
She silently glanced at his back.
It was pale, strong, with a thin scar on his shoulder, exactly where it had always been.
That scar had been from a stray bullet during a random shooting incident while they were studying abroad. Pei Ruyin had been unlucky, and the bullet had grazed his shoulder.
He had no idea what she was thinking as he mentioned, “Last month, a major company we work with made me a very generous offer—double my current salary. I’ve been considering it for a while.”
“So, you were tempted?”
Pei Ruyin didn’t hide it. “Who wouldn’t be? The business trip was my last task before leaving. I was going to wait until I had settled in before telling you, but I decided to let you know now so you wouldn’t worry.”
That was just like him. He always reassured her before she could even ask her questions, giving her a sense of security and easing her concerns before they fully formed.
After he stepped into the shower, Xu Luling waited until she heard the water running before approaching the bedside table and picking up his silver-framed glasses.
She steadied herself and examined the prescription.
Pei Ruyin had 20/10 vision, so if these were…
After examining them for a while, she realized they were non-prescription, just for show.
–
A few days later, Xu Luling, for once, left work on time and headed home. As she walked through the apartment building, one of the security guards called out to her: “Miss Xu, is this the ring you were looking for last time?”
Xu Luling hadn’t expected to find it after losing hope, but there it was.
She took the familiar ring and felt her throat go dry. “Yes, it’s mine. Where did you find it?”
According to the security guard, there was an interesting story behind it.
A janitor had been emptying a trash bin when the ring fell out of one of the garbage bags.
The janitor had immediately handed it to the security office. The design of the ring was distinctive, and one of the security guards had remembered seeing it before. He had asked Pei Ruyin if it was his, but Pei Ruyin had told him it was just a similar design and to discard it.
Since no one had claimed the ring and enough time had passed, that same security guard had secretly kept it and given it to his girlfriend.
Today, while showing off her new ring, the girlfriend had made a snide remark, prompting one of the other security guards to confront her: “I’ve seen that ring before in this building. I checked, and the price is close to seven figures. Selling your boyfriend wouldn’t be enough to cover it. Are you sure he didn’t steal it?”
Upset, the girlfriend demanded answers from her boyfriend.
Eventually, the truth came out, and the guard confessed.
Since Xu Luling had previously shown a picture of the ring to the security team, another guard immediately recognized it as hers.
To confirm it was truly hers, Xu Luling described the inscription inside the ring. It had the Italian word “Arcobaleno,” meaning rainbow, engraved on it. The day she had accepted Pei Ruyin’s confession, a rainbow had appeared after a rainstorm, and they had just finished their foreign language class, so they had engraved the word as a symbol of that moment. The outer band of the ring also had half of a design, which, when matched with the other ring, formed the shape of a little deer.
She slid the ring onto her finger, and it fit perfectly.
Staring at the ring for a long time, Xu Luling realized one thing for sure.
This was the ring that Pei Ruyin had thrown away.
If any part of the process had gone differently, she would never have gotten it back.
By evening, dark clouds gathered in the once-clear sky, and a heavy rain began to pour down.
When Pei Ruyin walked in, closing his umbrella, he immediately noticed the dimly lit room. A figure sat on the sofa, backlit, as if they had been waiting for him for a long time.
Xu Luling lifted her right hand. A flash of lightning illuminated the room, turning the darkness into bright daylight for a split second.
The ring on her finger caught the light, reflecting a faint glow.
She smiled. “Ah Yu, care to explain?”
