6Luo Xi let go of her hand, his grip suddenly slack. A tremor ran through Yin Xia Mo’s heart, and she involuntarily looked toward Luo Xi, but in that single instant, she snapped back to awareness, abandoning her struggle, her face turning pale as she stumbled into Ouchen’s embrace.

Ouchen wrapped an arm tightly around her, his eyes dark and shadowed, his gaze fixed on her lips. Then—he raised his hand and used his finger to wipe her mouth clean, as if some unclean thing had settled there.

“I just got off the phone. Since the chapel schedule for next month is completely booked, the wedding date cannot be changed.

It will be at the end of the month.” Ouchen’s voice was calm, as if he were stating the most natural fact in the world. As he spoke, he slid his arm around her shoulder and walked out, completely ignoring the presence of anyone else.

From beginning to end, he didn't spare Luo Xi a single glance, acting as if the man simply did not exist. Luo Xi suddenly gave a languid smile.

The fragility and confusion from moments before had vanished the instant Ouchen appeared; he was once again the unrealistically perfect Luo Xi the world knew. “Wait.” He spoke softly.

Ouchen stopped, but the powerful arm remained possessively wrapped around Xia Mo’s shoulder, forbidding her to turn back. The vast corridor fell into a dead silence.

The sound of the fine rain vanished in that moment. “It should have been me leaving, shouldn't it?” Luo Xi’s slender figure walked past him and her, his light footsteps echoing down the hall until they faded entirely into the thin mist.

*The media’s coverage of Ouchen and Yin Xia Mo’s impending marriage suddenly seemed to pivot overnight; the tide of criticism against Yin Xia Mo had lessened. Some papers began to praise her as a Cinderella from a fairy tale, suggesting her meeting with Ouchen was as romantic as fate itself.

Because of the rumor that Yin Xia Mo would withdraw from the entertainment industry after marrying into the Ou family, her past music videos were being rebroadcast on television programs, and Pure Love Ballad began its second run. Various commentaries lamented that the entertainment world was losing such a fresh and potentially brilliant artist as Yin Xia Mo, though they still wished her happiness.

Amidst this shift in media sentiment, although the Orange Daily and Blast Weekly, whose entire foundation rested on gossip and secrets, stubbornly refused to abandon their cynical jabs at Yin Xia Mo, the general atmosphere of public opinion had subtly changed. “Sis, have you really thought this through?” In the morning sunlight, Yin Cheng watched his sister pace her hospital room.

He opened a window for ventilation, wiped the fine dust from the bedside table, and then picked up a bunch of white lilies, carefully trimming them with a smile before placing them in a glass vase. She appeared cheerful and happy, her smile perpetually fixed at the corners of her mouth.

However, the unmistakable desolation and pain etched onto Luo Xi’s face when he visited the room that day, combined with his sister’s sudden pallor and rigid posture upon first seeing him, made him feel that things were far more complicated than they seemed on the surface. He didn't know what his sister and Brother Luo Xi had discussed, but Brother Luo Xi did not return to the room afterward; it was Ouchen who accompanied his sister back.

Ouchen had brought him many art books, including the From Monet To Picasso collection he had long wanted. His sister sat quietly beside him; though she smiled serenely, there was a distant, hazy look in her eyes, as if her thoughts were drifting far, far away.

“Hm?” Yin Xia Mo gently adjusted the lilies in the glass vase before turning to look at Xiao Cheng. “Your wedding to Brother Ouchen…” Yin Cheng hesitated, unsure how to phrase it.

“…Why was it settled so hastily? Is it because…” Was it because of some difficulty, perhaps a reaction to Brother Luo Xi’s recent scandal, or some other reason?

His sister was never one to act impulsively, so why was her wedding date suddenly decided without any warning? Summer’s III