He simply hoped life could flow on steadily like a gentle stream.

"Come over here and watch the evening news with me." Leng Mohan's tone was entirely commanding.

"I won't." Lin Yan detested being ordered around by anyone, so she stubbornly turned her head and walked away.

"Lin Yan," Leng Mohan called out from behind her, his voice turning somewhat stern, "have I ever told you that this is something a Leng wife is required to do?"

Lin Yan's footsteps suddenly halted. The emotions swirling in her heart were indescribable; she just stood there quietly with her back to Leng Mohan, not moving for a long time.

Leng Mohan frowned, suddenly feeling a trace of annoyance. In truth, he had simply wanted her to sit with him and watch TV for a little while, like any ordinary couple—eating together, sleeping together, watching television, and casually chatting about current events when nothing else was on.

Yet she was always so disobedient. She never once followed his lead or did as she was told. Unlike Lin Shan, who was as docile as a little sheep—gentle and obedient, heading east when told to go east, and west when told to go west.

Lin Yan, however, was like a hedgehog, covered all over in sharp quills. While she inflicted wounds on others, she ended up hurting herself as well.

Yet, somehow, he had grown fond of this hedgehog. As for the little sheep, he himself no longer knew what his feelings truly were.

What was the point of all this fuss over merely watching television? Why bother?

Suddenly losing all interest in the news, Leng Mohan switched off the television at random, stood up, and strode toward the door, not even glancing at Lin Yan as he brushed past her.

The sound of his closing the door was rather loud. With a heavy bang, it jarred Lin Yan so intensely that her heart skipped a beat.

After that single sound, the entire room fell into a silence so profound that only Lin Yan's slightly heavy breathing could be heard. She wanted to cry, feeling an overwhelming sense of grievance, but what was there to cry about? Everything he said, everything he did, was entirely justified, wasn't it?

She was, after all, merely a younger sister-in-law who had stepped in to marry into the Leng family in place of her older sister. Nothing more.

Following that day, Lin Yan did not see Leng Mohan for several days. Yet she knew he had returned to this house; in fact, he came back practically every night, arriving only after she had fallen asleep and leaving before she woke up each morning.

Every night upon his return, he would go up to the upstairs bedroom to check on Lin Yan, but he never once came to bed to hold her in his sleep.

Their relationship seemed to have regressed to how it used to be before her mother arrived.

Strangers living under the same roof.

They had lived that way before, and Lin Yan had never felt anything was amiss. But now that things had reverted to this state, it felt genuinely painful. Aches filled her heart, and even the air she breathed seemed to have changed—lacking the faint scent of tobacco, lacking the cool aroma of mint from his showers.

Everything had grown dull and tasteless.

Ever since that romance novel competition, her editor had never specified any particular theme or genre to write about. Lin Yan simply scribbled whatever came to mind each day. A week had already passed, spent in a daze. Over the course of this week—seven whole days—she had barely managed to write a few chapters. The plot of her story remained completely stagnant, mirroring the state of her relationship with Leng Mohan, permanently stuck in place.

May 20th arrived in a flash. It was only on the evening of May 19th that Lin Yan learned the upcoming event was not merely a meet-and-greet, but also an awards ceremony. During this event, the winners of the romance novel competition would finally be announced.

The person presenting the awards was said to be a mysterious figure of noble status, and the girls in the chat group were once again eagerly speculating. Lin Yan refused to look and had no desire to figure out who that person might be.

That evening, in a rare occurrence, Leng Mohan came home early. Ye Ye had prepared a lavish dinner, but Lin Yan refused to eat. Leng Mohan and Ye Ye sat facing each other. He quietly ate his steak, and he had to admit that the steak Ye Ye pan-seared was quite good. The cooking time was perfectly managed at medium-rare, yielding meat that was neither too tough nor too tender, and the flavor was exceptionally rich.