Chapter 2: Becoming the Wife He Deeply Loves

Luo Minglang gazed at his beloved wife, watching her flushed cheeks and feeling an irresistible urge to devour her. Her struggle and resistance seemed, in his eyes, nothing more than playful coyness; he took her protests as flirtatious banter, so with a few swift moves, he left them both exposed, skin to skin.

Shen Linyue was utterly bewildered. To her, the exquisitely handsome stranger before her was nothing like Gu Yiqiao. His kiss was wild and overwhelming, drowning out every coherent thought. Although his features seemed vaguely familiar and his name occasionally flickered in her mind, she could not recall it when she tried.

Her wrists were pinned to the bed, and his damp, ardent kisses pressed into her neck, leaving her body tingling unbearably. The sensation was maddening; no matter how fiercely she resisted, it was futile.

How could this be? Hadn’t she hurled herself against a wall to end it all?

A sudden scream tore through Luo Minglang’s passion. He stopped, looking at Zhang Guoguo. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“I’m not your wife. Let go of me, or I’ll call the police.”

Her tone was so grave, so unlike a joke, that Luo Minglang grew flustered. He climbed off the bed, but not before covering her with the quilt, then sat on the edge, his face serious. “Honey, what’s going on with you?”

Shen Linyue grabbed the vase from the bedside table and pointed it straight at Luo Minglang, shouting, “Get out! Leave!”

Luo Minglang rose slowly, heart clenched with worry at her odd behavior. Though his wife was often spoiled and willful, sometimes entirely unreasonable, she had never been hysterical like this. Not knowing what to do, he tried gently, “Guoguo, don’t be like this.”

“Get out.” She didn’t want to hear another word. She only wanted to be left alone. Only after Luo Minglang closed the door behind him did she finally rise from the bed. Opening the bathroom door, she was horrified by the reflection staring back at her in the mirror.

Her dazed eyes brimmed with disbelief, for the face she saw was utterly unfamiliar. She reached out to touch it—real, terrifyingly real.

Tears were impossible to suppress. Staring at this face, an awareness dawned in her mind: she wasn’t dead. Her soul had simply entered another body. The man just now had called her Guoguo—presumably the name of this body’s owner.

Composing herself a little, she sat in the bathtub, eyes fixed on the small TV screen before her. The date displayed was September 25th, exactly one week before her scheduled execution.

Worried for his wife, Luo Minglang went downstairs to make her favorite egg wine. Not finding her in the room, he knocked, then entered the bathroom directly. Seeing her sitting in the tub, lost in sorrow, he knelt down, his heart aching.

“In a bad mood? Have some egg wine—your favorite.”

In the past, this gesture would always make her set aside her pride. But this time, she glanced briefly at the bowl and said flatly, “I don’t like eggs.”

Luo Minglang was completely taken aback. Yet Shen Linyue kept looking at him. She could feel the deep love this man held for the owner of this body; in his eyes, she even glimpsed the shadow of her own once-ardent love for Gu Yiqiao. She understood how much it would hurt to betray such affection. So she smiled faintly and said, “Feed me.”

Luo Minglang was gentle and attentive, feeding her mouthful by mouthful, carefully wiping away any soup that dribbled from her lips. This tenderness was something Shen Linyue had longed for from Gu Yiqiao for years, but had never received.