"How did you know?" Li Mohan blurted out instinctively, then realizing he had let something slip, he pursed his lips.
After all, his previous relationship had ended many years ago, but he had never let go. Due to the long passage of time, few people knew about it besides his family.
Ye Huohuo's gaze remained on his face. "I could tell from your face. You... loved her very much?"
Li Mohan averted his gaze and turned back, looking at the numbers on the elevator display. After a long pause, he slowly said, "She was my girlfriend in college. We were considered the most perfect couple in the entire school. She... was very gentle, beautiful, and loved to laugh. When she smiled, her eyes were like two crescent moons.
She loved literature, as if she had been steeped in poetry and songs, possessing a classical beauty that wasn't lacking in modern liveliness..."
Ye Huohuo had never seen Li Mohan like this before. His eyes were filled with a gentle light and a yearning for beauty.
That girl was the white moonlight in his heart!
Ye Huohuo, who had never experienced the sweetness of love, now tasted bitterness.
She could feel that Li Mohan's love for that girl was etched into his bones, otherwise, it wouldn't have manifested in his facial features.
She tried to suppress the sourness in her heart, slowly adjusting her breathing, which had become slightly rapid due to heartache.
Her fists by her side clenched tighter, suppressing the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes.
She couldn't let him sense anything was wrong with her. He had the white moonlight in his heart, while she... was nothing to begin with. His kindness towards her was indeed only because of the marriage thread.
She bore no resemblance to the white moonlight he spoke of. That girl was gentle and dignified, while she was irritable and crude. The other was a talented woman in college, while she hadn't even entered university.
Such a woman deserved someone like Li Mohan. As for herself? She could only bind him with the marriage thread for him to even glance at her.
Ye Huohuo lowered her head slightly, remaining silent.
The elevator became instantly quiet, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Time seemed to have frozen.
It was Li Mohan who first emerged from his memories. He turned his head to look at Ye Huohuo, who was looking down. Her thick hair obscured her face, but he somehow felt she was sad.
"What's wrong?" He reached out and patted her shoulder.
Ye Huohuo flinched and instinctively took half a step to the side, increasing the already not-so-small distance between them.
"N-nothing! Oh right, you and that girl loved each other so much, you were so well-matched. Why did you break up later?" Ye Huohuo kept her head down, blinking hard to hold back the tears in her eyes.
Only then did she nonchalantly look up at Li Mohan.
Li Mohan looked into her eyes, then suddenly raised his hand and gently touched her eyelashes. Frowning, he looked at his fingertip, which seemed a little damp, or perhaps not. Was he imagining things?
Ye Huohuo was startled by his sudden action and took another step back.
"Thud!" The sound echoed loudly in the elevator.
She quickly covered the back of her head, the pain almost bringing tears to her eyes.
"Why are you dodging? You hurt yourself!" Li Mohan took a large step forward, his tall frame almost completely enveloping Ye Huohuo.
He raised his hand and placed it on the back of her head, gently massaging it. His movements were remarkably tender.
Ye Huohuo felt the warmth from his palm and the enveloping sensation as he held her partially in his arms. Most crucially, the cool, faint scent from him wafted into her nostrils.
Her mind was suddenly filled with this man. She even wished for this moment to last forever, willing to trade her life for this eternal instant.
"Be more careful next time. If Yan was also clumsy like you, she seems very meticulous, but she's actually a bit of a scatterbrain!" Li Mohan said softly as he massaged Ye Huohuo's head.
His deep voice came from above, echoing in Ye Huohuo's ears, making her head buzz.
An inexplicable anger rose from the depths of her heart. Ruo Yan, was that the woman's name?
Hearing Li Mohan speak that name in such an almost infatuated tone made her deeply uncomfortable.
"If you liked her so much, why didn't you end up together?" she asked again. Although she knew Li Mohan might be deliberately avoiding her earlier question, she just couldn't let it go. She desperately wanted to know about that woman now.
Li Mohan's hand, which had been massaging her head, paused for a moment before finally lowering. He took a step back. "That's between her and me. It has nothing to do with you."
His attitude turned cold unexpectedly, without any warning.
Ye Huohuo also realized she had overstepped. She was merely his nominal wife; what right or standing did she have to ask him about his romantic life?
Ye Huohuo smiled and rubbed the back of her head. "Just pure curiosity. If you don't want to say, then don't. I won't ask again! Don't be angry, I apologize. You are my lucky star right now; I wouldn't dare offend you!"
Ye Huohuo forced a smile, her face as bright as a flower, but her heart felt a sour ache, even pain; no, it was severe pain!
Li Mohan looked at Ye Huohuo's smile and narrowed his eyes. "Let this be the last time!" He didn't press the matter further.
He turned his head back, failing to notice the fleeting sadness in Ye Huohuo's eyes.
Soon, the elevator reached the top floor.
Ascending a flight of stairs led them to the rooftop terrace.
Ye Huohuo arrived on the terrace and looked around, finding nothing unusual.
"That's strange, it shouldn't be like this!"
"What shouldn't be?" Li Mohan, of course, understood nothing of this.
"When I looked from below, I saw lingering yin energy above the building, suggesting someone had set up some formation here. But why isn't anything here?" Ye Huohuo said, continuing her search.
To facilitate employee breaks, several open-air tables and chairs were set up on the terrace. On good weather days, employees would occasionally come up with a drink to rest and get some fresh air.
There was also a designated smoking area for smokers.
Everything else was clearly visible, except for the water tank room on the rooftop that supplied water to the entire building.
Ye Huohuo looked up at the sky. The mass of yin energy was still gathered in the air, not dispersing. She opened her compass again, and the needle remained still, pointing in one direction.
Ye Huohuo followed the direction of the needle and looked towards the smoking area.
What was there?
Curiously, she walked over. It was where five large "ash bins" for cigarette butts were placed.
Each small bin was about the size of a small trash can, with a stainless steel lid. After smoking, one could extinguish the cigarette on the lid and then press it, causing the lid to flip open to one side, creating a gap through which to discard the cigarette butt into the bin. It was both clean and hygienic.
Ye Huohuo examined it carefully for a long time but couldn't discern anything peculiar.
"Is there something wrong with this bin?" Li Mohan asked, seeing her staring at the bin motionlessly for a long time. "Look from a distance. The smoke coming out of that bin is already affecting you!"
Ye Huohuo's heart stirred. "Could it be?..."