A few days later—
Zuo Shihuan suddenly received a video call from Yu Lizhu. His brows immediately furrowed, and his face showed a subtle unwillingness to answer.
But deep down, he knew—
No matter how much he didn’t want to, he would always pick up when Yu Lizhu called.
It was like drinking poison to quench his thirst. Even if it hurt, he couldn’t resist chasing the faintest news about that man.
It had been ten days since his father had told him about the engagement set to happen in a month.
Twenty days left.
Every time Zuo Shihuan woke up, he felt a growing sense of confusion and dread—as though opening his eyes would bring him one day closer to that engagement banquet.
When Yu Lizhu first learned of the news, she had been equally shocked. It was too soon, she said, and she wanted to postpone the engagement for a while.
Zuo Shihuan had wanted to delay it too.
But unlike Yu Lizhu, he hadn’t voiced that wish. He chose to stay silent, merely observing.
Naturally, the result was failure.
Because Yu Lizhu had protested too strongly, her family grew suspicious and confined her at home for three whole days, forbidding her to go out.
If it hadn’t been for Zuo Shihuan’s intervention—using the excuse that he needed to attend social functions and make preparations with his fiancée—she’d probably still be locked up.
When the video call connected, the first thing he saw wasn’t Yu Lizhu’s face, but a sweeping view of a beautiful garden, filmed from above.
“You see? Being trapped in a cage like this isn’t so bad, right?”
Her sarcastic voice came from off-screen.
After spending some time around her, Zuo Shihuan had learned enough about Yu Lizhu’s life to know she wasn’t really complaining to him—she was simply suffocating at home and needed someone to vent to.
Rubbing his brow, he asked, “What happened today?”
Yu Lizhu forced a small, bitter smile, the disappointment in her eyes hard to miss. “It’s nothing. My mother found the gift Ji Shenwen gave me. No matter how I tried to explain that it was just from a friend, she wouldn’t believe me.”
“Sometimes I really think my mom is incredibly perceptive—except when it comes to pretending not to see my dad’s mistress.”
Zuo Shihuan’s gaze darkened slightly.
He knew exactly how much that gift meant to her.
To maintain the illusion of their engagement, he and Yu Lizhu had been attending various banquets together, often discussing the details of their upcoming ceremony. Occasionally, he even covered for her—helping her sneak out to meet that Alpha bartender, Ji Shenwen.
After they became more familiar, Yu Lizhu had begun to open up completely. She told him everything.
Everything.
Sometimes it drove Zuo Shihuan half-crazy—like when she’d text him in the middle of the night, excited over some trivial romantic detail.
At some point, he realized that Yu Lizhu didn’t just treat him as a fake fiancé or a simple friend—there was a more accurate word for it.
And when he finally understood that word, he realized—
To Yu Lizhu, he wasn’t an Alpha man at all. He was more like the Omega or Beta best friend one shared all their secrets and love troubles with.
Put simply—
Yu Lizhu saw him as her girlfriend, not her fiancé.
Just a few days ago, after one of her dates, she’d sent him a bunch of couple photos from the zoo, along with pictures of the felt succulent doll Ji Shenwen had handmade for her.
One loved animals, the other loved plants; their next date was already planned at the Federation’s largest botanical garden.
She’d even asked Zuo Shihuan what kind of gift she should give in return.
Zuo Shihuan had endured an entire feast of dog food that day.
And yet, he knew clearly—
Yu Lizhu’s relationship with that Alpha bartender could never be exposed.
Still, in that forbidden love, she shone—bright and free, like a caged bird finally released.
And because she couldn’t tell anyone else, she could only confide in him—her fake fiancé, the only one who knew all her secrets.
In some ways, it was a tragedy just waiting to happen.
Because sooner or later—it would be discovered.
It was like a bubble that could burst at any moment.
Zuo Shihuan felt an inexplicable pang of shared bitterness and asked in a low voice, “Why don’t I go to the Yu family and ask your mother for it back? I’ll say it’s your engagement gift from me—something I specially had an artist make, a custom plant felt.”
Yu Lizhu’s eyes brightened for a moment, but the light quickly went out.
“It’s no use. I already tried that excuse. I told her it was a gift from my fiancé, Zuo Shihuan. But my mom noticed that the initials embroidered on it were mine and Ji Shenwen’s. No matter how I explained it, the letters just don’t match your name.”
“She’s long suspected I might be seeing someone else. Now that she’s got real evidence, if the engagement ceremony weren’t so close, she’d have already punished me—locked me in the attic for ‘self-reflection.’ She even wants to find out who the man with the initials JSW is.”
Zuo Shihuan fell silent, thinking for a moment before asking, “Then can you still go out freely now?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. The date with Ji Shenwen at the botanical garden is ruined too.” Yu Lizhu turned her camera around to show the room. Her smile was strained and fragile, with a deep sadness she couldn’t hide.
The camera showed a washroom.
The beautiful, wide scenery she’d just shown earlier was actually filmed from a tiny window in this cramped space.
Yu Lizhu’s voice quivered; she lowered it to a whisper. “I’m hiding in the bathroom right now, talking to you. My mom’s suspicious of me—she’s even posted two bodyguards to watch my door.”
“Isn’t it ridiculous? Instead of catching my dad’s mistress, she’s hunting down her own Omega daughter.”
Zuo Shihuan didn’t know how to comfort her.
Inside, he felt a pang of kinship—a kind of sorrow that comes from shared fate. Just like Yu Lizhu, he too had no choice.
These days, every time he woke up, he didn’t want to open his eyes. He couldn’t stand seeing the brilliant sunrise again—a reminder that time was running out, that the countdown was still ticking.
In the end, he would be engaged to another Omega—not the one he truly wanted to hold hands with.
Lowering his gaze, Zuo Shihuan asked softly, “Do you still plan to see Ji Shenwen?”
Yu Lizhu paused for a long time. Then, with a self-mocking little gesture, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her apricot eyes, tinged with defiance, met Zuo Shihuan’s through the screen as she smiled.
“Of course I will. I’m a hopelessly selfish Omega woman. It took so much for Ji Shenwen—like a snail hiding in its shell—to finally agree to be with me. I’m not letting go now.”
“Even if I hide from him the news of my engagement… even if one day soon I get married, and the groom standing beside me isn’t him—so what? Even if he finds out and hates me for it, I still won’t let him go.”
Yu Lizhu’s fingers clenched tightly. Her clear, seemingly innocent eyes turned deep and shadowed, frighteningly so.
She made no effort to hide the darkness in her heart—laid it bare before Zuo Shihuan, as if in complete trust.
And strangely, Zuo Shihuan felt a flicker of envy for her—her wild, stubborn conviction.
Even if it was a hopeless love, one bound to end in ruin and disgrace, at least Yu Lizhu had lived it—had possessed it, however briefly. That alone made him jealous.
“…But I hope you’ll help me keep this secret as long as possible. Just one more day—one day at a time!” Yu Lizhu pleaded, eyes wide and pitiful.
Zuo Shihuan rubbed his brow. “You don’t need to beg me. I’d help you hide it anyway.”
If, at first, his plan had simply been to find a fake fiancée—to secure his position in the Zuo family without letting his wife and child become tools in his father’s political games—then now, his motives weren’t so pure anymore.
He said casually, as if making small talk, “Aren’t you worried that Ji Shenwen working in a bar—a messy, crowded place—might cause trouble for your relationship?”
“If you want, I can help him find another bartending job, somewhere cleaner, not in the Lower City District. After all, you’re an Omega—it’s not safe sneaking down there alone just to see him. Doesn’t he have a coworker he’s close to? I could help both of them find something.”
Yu Lizhu blinked. “You mean Gu Heng, right?”
Zuo Shihuan’s eyes flickered, but he forced a calm expression. “Mm.”
Yu Lizhu looked at him, puzzled. “You’ve been bringing up Gu Heng a lot lately. Last time you even asked if he was still working there. Do you know him?”
Zuo Shihuan’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Just your imagination. I’ve only been to that bar once—I don’t even really know him.”
Yu Lizhu tilted her head. “I guess that’s true. If I hadn’t dragged you to the Black Goat Bar that one time, you’d have never set foot there. There’s no way you’d know that annoying guy Gu Heng.”
“I don’t go to the Lower City District much now anyway,” she went on. “Ji Shenwen worries about me. He always insists on coming up to the Upper City District for our dates.”
Yu Lizhu cupped her flushed face, her eyes glowing with the sweetness of love.
Even though this secret relationship was forbidden—she had to hide Ji Shenwen’s gifts, and even now was whispering from a bathroom to escape her mother’s surveillance—she still looked truly, vividly happy.
And that was exactly what Zuo Shihuan envied most.
He couldn’t do it himself.
So instead, he chose to help Yu Lizhu—to watch through her eyes how this difficult, forbidden love would end, whether in tragedy or fulfillment.
Perhaps, in doing so, he could believe—just a little—that even the secret desires buried deepest in his heart might one day find a way to bloom.
Yu Lizhu went on, “As for Ji Shenwen’s job, I did worry about it at first. I even thought about asking him to change to a better place…”
“But it felt too controlling to meddle in my boyfriend’s work right after we started dating. And he’s been there so long—he’s never done anything inappropriate. So I let it go. If he wants to stay, that’s up to him. The only thing that annoys me is when he has to work with that awful coworker, Gu Heng.”
“Is there any way to break up those two—make Ji Shenwen hate Gu Heng as much as I do, roll his eyes the moment he sees him?”
Yu Lizhu anxiously bit at her nail, frowning in distress.
She was genuinely asking Zuo Shihuan for a way to deal with Gu Heng.
It put Zuo Shihuan in a difficult position.
From the moment he’d met Yu Lizhu, she’d always hated Gu Heng—truly, deeply hated him. It seemed they were simply born incompatible.
Several times, when Zuo Shihuan couldn’t help asking about Gu Heng, Yu Lizhu immediately grew alert; even when he managed to gloss over it, she would sneer afterward, complaining about how cold and rude Gu Heng was.
Zuo Shihuan couldn’t bring himself to join in mocking Gu Heng, so he simply stayed silent—only nodding when Yu Lizhu looked to him for agreement.
Watching her fume, he tried to soothe her. “Just avoid Gu Heng when you can. After all, Ji Shenwen and he have been friends for quite a while.”
Yu Lizhu pouted, sighing in reluctant frustration. “Fine, I’ll treat him like those annoying relatives you can’t get rid of—you just have to tolerate them. Ji Shenwen doesn’t seem to have many friends anyway.”
Zuo Shihuan quietly exhaled in relief—at least she wouldn’t completely fall out with Gu Heng. Because once that happened, he’d lose his only way to hear about Gu Heng at all.
It was pathetic, really—but also the only way he could think of to cope.
He couldn’t just go looking for Gu Heng without restraint. And even if he did find him—so what? Could he, like Yu Lizhu, defy everything and keep walking down a road everyone said was wrong?
Day after day, he lived in fear and caution—unable to protect the one he liked, unable even to protect Ji Shenwen’s gift, unable to love openly. He was hiding from his lover while engaged to someone else.
He forced himself to suppress the longing to see Gu Heng again.
To forget Gu Heng’s pull on him. To hope that time would wear it away, and that hearing Gu Heng was doing well from someone else’s mouth would be enough.
But in the kaleidoscope of memories from that bar hid the person he’d fallen for before he even realized it.
The Gu Heng he’d met by chance in the dim hallway of that bar—
—had made him understand something.
That there really could be someone who stood apart from the rest of the world.
Just one glance into those dull, gray, indifferent eyes—and it was like watching a riot of fireworks burst across a dead sky. After that, the silence he’d once been used to became unbearable.
And yet he could only endure it.
Zuo Shihuan’s sense of responsibility meant his love was destined to go nowhere. All he could do was hope Gu Heng would live well.
But then Yu Lizhu suddenly said, “Although, Gu Heng might not be able to keep working at that bar much longer.”
Zuo Shihuan froze. “…Why? Is he planning to change jobs?”
Yu Lizhu arched a brow, her tone oddly delicate. “Not exactly—or maybe yes. I don’t even know how to explain it to you clearly.”
A crease formed between Zuo Shihuan’s brows. “What do you mean?”
If Gu Heng switched jobs, their lives would completely stop intersecting.
Sitting on the toilet lid with her hands on her knees, a shower curtain half-hiding the tub behind her, Yu Lizhu said seriously, “Lately, there’s been a mature, glamorous Omega woman always showing up around Gu Heng. I heard she’s a rich widow. I’ve seen her a few times—holding his arm, acting all close, and leaving the bar together.”
“I think Gu Heng has become that Omega widow’s lover.”
