The message haunted her all night.
> "You married the wrong devil, sweetheart. Shall we make a new deal?"
—Zhou Linwei.
Tang Yueru hadn't seen that name in over two years.
Hadn't heard that voice since the day she walked out of his penthouse with her dignity shattered and her heart in pieces.
She thought he was gone.
Erased.
Forgotten.
But devils never disappear. They wait.
---
The next morning, she sat in the sunroom with the message open on her phone.
Lu Shenyan entered the room, already dressed, coffee in hand, but stopped when he saw her face.
He didn't ask what was wrong.
He just waited.
She held up the phone. "He's back."
Shenyan's eyes darkened. "Zhou Linwei?"
She nodded.
"What does he want?"
"I don't know. Maybe revenge. Maybe money. Maybe just to watch me fall."
He stepped closer. "He won't touch you."
"You can't promise that."
"I just did."
---
Yueru stood. "He knows about the contract."
That made Shenyan pause.
"He threatened to go public?"
"Not yet. But it's only a matter of time."
Lu Shenyan's voice dropped into dangerous calm. "I'll have his accounts audited. His business ties pulled. He'll disappear again."
She stepped in front of him, eyes blazing. "Don't fight my ghosts for me."
His jaw clenched. "You're my wife."
"Exactly. On paper."
Silence fell like ash.
---
Later that day, she met Zhou Linwei at a public café, ignoring every instinct that screamed against it.
He looked the same — charming, smug, silk-suited. His arrogance was as smooth as the whiskey he didn't even bother to sip.
"You've gotten stronger," he said. "Marriage suits you."
She didn't sit. "What do you want?"
"Just a chat," he smiled. "Maybe a deal."
"There's no deal."
"Oh, but there is," he said, eyes glittering. "You see, I still have the old video. The one you begged me to delete."
Her heart dropped.
"You're bluffing."
"Try me."
---
She wanted to throw the glass in his face.
Instead, she straightened her spine. "Go ahead. Leak it. Ruin me. Let the world know who I used to be."
He blinked.
But she wasn't done.
"Then watch how Lu Shenyan destroys you without even lifting a finger."
For the first time, Zhou Linwei's expression cracked.
> She wasn't the same girl who cried behind locked doors.
She wasn't begging.
She was warning.
---
When she returned home, Shenyan was pacing the garden.
She walked to him and, without a word, leaned her head on his shoulder.
He didn't ask.
He didn't need to.
"I handled it," she whispered.
He rested his hand on her back.
"You shouldn't have had to."
"I know."
They stood there as the wind whispered through the trees.
No pretense.
No mask.
No contract.
Just two broken people choosing to stand side by side.
---