Before, Xiao Hao had mysteriously vanished and returned on numerous occasions. Whenever Yingzi questioned him about his absences, he would either claim that Li Tai needed him for something or that he was out meeting friends. Each time, someone covered for him. Yet, relying on a woman's intuition, Yingzi felt certain that Li Xiao Hao was hiding something significant from her.

Yingzi made up her mind: since they lived together, she needed to understand the things she deserved to know. As for exactly what constituted "things she deserved to know," she hadn't thought it through precisely; regardless, she held the firm conviction that partners should have no secrets. Coincidentally, a monkey had appeared in their house that day—a creature that seemed to recognize Xiao Hao and was remarkably obedient. Xiao Hao, however, had no intention of explaining the monkey to Yingzi and sought an excuse to slip out. Yingzi decided to play along, seeing an opportunity to finally cure this persistent ailment, so she quickly positioned herself at the doorway, arms spread wide to block his exit.

"Yingying, what are you doing?" Xiao Hao put on an expression of helplessness, asking Yingzi to let him pass.

Yingzi was not giving up easily. She pointed at the sleeping monkey on the sofa and demanded, "Where did that thing come from? You two seem quite friendly!"

"Uh..." Xiao Hao folded his arms, gazing out the window, thinking carefully before replying, "It was originally a pet I kept. After we went abroad, it missed me terribly, so Dad asked a friend to bring it over from the mainland."

"Mm," Yingzi nodded, scrutinizing Li Xiao Hao from head to toe, then asked, "That lie was pretty smooth. Which friend delivered it? What inspection procedures did it go through for import? And where is the carrier crate?"

This barrage of rapid-fire questions left Xiao Hao feeling extremely awkward. He hesitated, knowing that answering one might only invite a follow-up volley, leading to endless fabrication where he was bound to slip up. As the saying goes, "Tell one lie, and you must weave a hundred more to cover it."

"Yingying, shall we have dinner at that candlelit restaurant tonight?" Seeing his lie was unraveling, Xiao Hao decisively changed the subject, hoping to escape the quagmire he was in.

"Don't try that trick on me. If you don't explain this clearly, I'm going to have to re-evaluate the positioning of our relationship. A monkey shows up in our home, and you still won't tell me the truth—do I even have a place in your heart?" As she spoke, Yingzi gently poked Xiao Hao's chest with her finger and suddenly noticed something odd.

She was a person with extremely sensitive touch. Previously, she had used the same gesture to poke Xiao Shu’s chest, always feeling the rapid thrum of that beating heart. But now, placing her finger on Xiao Hao’s chest, she felt nothing at all, not even the slightest tremor. Something felt deeply wrong. She suddenly embraced Xiao Hao tightly and pressed her ear against his chest... After a long moment, she pulled back, her eyes wide with horror as she stared at Xiao Hao.

Yes, this was the first time she had ever pressed her ear to this man’s chest, deliberately trying to listen for a heartbeat. In all their intimate moments before, Xiao Hao either left her dizzy with passion or deliberately kept his chest away from her hands and ears. Yingzi had never once suspected that this man, who had pulled her back from the brink of collapse, was anything but a flesh-and-blood living person. Now, she was stunned, thinking she had gone deaf and blind, unable to distinguish between the living and the dead.

But when she pressed her ear against Xiao Hao’s chest again, there was still no expected heartbeat. A voice resonated from Xiao Hao’s throat, seeming to come from behind the chest itself: "Fine. I’ll tell you now. You were going to find out sooner or later anyway."