Long slender hands with thin calluses cradled her delicate face, allowing her to feel the uneven friction. His dark eyes contained an unfathomable abyss.
It was this face that he had yearned for over ten years.
In the two years of his exile, throughout the recurring midnights, he dreamt of her time and again.
He gently kissed her slightly swollen lips, "If you're uncomfortable anywhere, please tell me, okay?"
Mu Mian remained silent, her little face tightly furrowed as she gently pushed away the hand he had placed on her thigh, her voice very low, "Where is this place?"
She remembered last night in her apartment, Gong Heng suddenly appeared, and then...
Uncle Gong lay on the ground.
Smiling, he stroked her long hair, his eyes filled with tenderness, "This is where you'll live from now on."
Subconsciously, she thought of the caged life she lived for a month two years ago, her body trembling slightly, yet the most pressing question at the moment was, "How is Uncle Gong?"
"He's alright." He held her in his arms and rubbed her pale face with his chin, "I've missed you so much these two years; right now, I don't want to do anything but hold you, kiss you, and that will be enough."
With that, he carried her in his arms like a child, letting her bury her head in his shoulder. Amidst her alarmed cries, he walked downstairs and sat on the sofa, playing the television for her.
Mu Mian didn't understand the meaning behind his words, but she knew whenever he was gentle, it was the time when she was most powerless to resist, and he, he was never not gentle.
A thorn hides within the cotton, and if you only brush against the surface, without delving deeper, without trying to squeeze or part it, you won't get pricked by the thorn.
Mu Mian, she was the cotton.
Gong Heng, he was the thorn within the cotton.
Before the age of sixteen, she admired Gong Heng, envied Gong Heng, took pride in Gong Heng; he was the brother she was proudest of.
But after sixteen, he became her nightmare, she loathed him, feared him...
Those who didn't know him well would only think he was an elegant and refined young master with no temper, incapable of losing his temper, his face always politely smiling. That's what she had thought for eight years knowing him.
But it took only a month.
She learned of his darkness, cruelty, obsession, dominance, plundering.
Even... heartlessness!
The TV continuously displayed images, which she paid no mind to. She hadn't even gotten the chance to say anything when her eyes caught something on the TV screen, and then, she was completely stunned.
Suddenly, her pupils constricted, her hands clenched tightly into fists, disbelief written all over her exquisite little face.
The big crystal screen showed a small room with simple yet warm decorations. The room's pink and blue theme made it obvious it was a girl's room.
In the scene, a beautiful girl in a simple silk pajama was walking around the room, pouring a glass of water, then sitting on the sofa holding a book, engrossed for hours...
Her face was utterly pale; that image on the TV was her apartment, and the girl on the TV, that was her.
How could this be?
He actually installed surveillance cameras in her apartment?
Gong Heng, smiling, said, "This was your third day after moving into the apartment, you were already quite calm, able to read peacefully—once you start, it's for several hours at a time."