Breakup in Lancheng—Get Out of My Sight (Updated for reaching the diamond milestone)

Mo Zhicheng gripped her shoulders, pulling her close, forcing her toward him. Beyond a single, choked "Ye Linglan," he was unable to utter a word. Yet, seeing the tears streaming from her eyes, he lowered his voice and murmured, "Didn't we agree that I would wait for you?"

Linglan froze. She had never anticipated that his soft, gentle words would cause her composure to crumble like a collapsing dam, sweeping everything away.

The man’s sturdy frame loomed over her, blocking out the light. In the backlighting, his expression was dark and inscrutable, yet a faint, pleading smile touched his lips. The rage in his eyes had melted into a pool of tenderness, as if he meant to drown her in it.

However, the powerful fingers gripping her tightened, digging into her skin. "Didn't we agree to go see the little wind chimes together today? Be good—why have you broken your promise again, hmm?" His voice was deliberately suppressed, raw and raspy as if his throat had been torn apart, shattered beyond repair.

She trembled beneath him—not out of fear, but from a pain she could not let go of. She had never truly imagined that he belonged to her, yet that suffocating embrace was so familiar that she could not break free.

The most terrifying thing was not parting ways, but habit—the habit of a person’s scent, of having his entire being woven into her own bones and blood, fused into one, impossible to tear apart.

"..." She finally countered with silence, terrified that if she spoke, she would surrender and lose everything she had fought for.

The man’s brows furrowed tightly, the veins on his temples pulsing rapidly. His gaze was filled with agonizing grief. Why such grief? It was as if he were repeatedly, painfully demanding an answer. The feeling of believing one possessed the whole world, only to lose it all in an instant—the sense of being utterly alone and heart-torn… she couldn't possibly understand!

She didn't understand? How could she not?

In the days leading up to the expiration of their time, both had foreseen this. Neither had broken the silence, both pretending that everything was as it had been. So this was the loneliness of a play reaching its final act.

She smiled, a pale smile that looked utterly helpless under the crystal lights.

Mo Zhicheng was momentarily stunned by that smile. "You did this on purpose!" he forced the words through his lips. "Everything you did today, every word you said, every expression, every action—it was all designed beforehand just to force me to let you go, wasn't it?" He shook her shoulders violently, with a cruelty that seemed intended to knock the very air from her lungs. "I asked you, was it?!"

Her vision went black from the pain, but instead of answering, she asked, "What do you think?"

So, she still couldn't hide it from his eyes. But there was no possibility for them, not even a future. If she left him before her identity was exposed, perhaps he would harbor a little less pain in his heart.

If they were destined to struggle against each other and suffer mutual destruction, then she would choose to withdraw now.

It was so painful to be duplicitous, but she had no other choice. She still laughed bitterly. "I knew you would break your word and be capricious. I promised you a month, but that doesn't mean I will continue to debase myself as your bed partner. I am afraid of you. You know that from the very beginning, I have been terrified of you. You can forget your forced possession, how you raped me that night on your birthday? Yes, you can forget the violence you inflicted on me, how you gave me a slap and then stuffed a candy in my mouth, using your gentleness to force me to surrender.

"But I cannot forget that night you dragged me upstairs—yes, right to this villa. You didn't even give me a chance to cry out, swallowing me whole. You were like a sharp blade, carving me open alive. I was in so much pain I couldn't breathe, I was gasping, and there was no one to hear me, yet you gripped my throat, forbidding even a whimper, over and over again..."

"Enough, say no more..."

His palm clamped firmly over her cheek, his expression ferocious, as if he were tearing her apart. His body, pushed to the limit of endurance, trembled violently; even his voice was shaking.

"Enough?" The woman sneered, her long, dark, lustrous hair spilling across the dining table in silence. "But you knew full well that my heart held another man... yet you didn't hesitate to take me by force, even claiming you would rip him from my heart by the roots, claiming you would replace him. Do you know how it felt every time you forced yourself into me?"

"Ye Linglan, say no more..." His thumb locked onto her throat, his joints clicking as he tried to stop her. It was as if she were crushing him; she was so close to succeeding.

She didn't fear death, insisting on finishing: "Every time you... forced yourself into me, how could you possibly understand... how much I hurt? Only by imagining you were... the man in my heart, could the place where we were joined not hurt so much..."

"Ah!"

A fatal blow!

He threw her onto the dining table with a crash. The veins on his body seemed ready to burst, and the ones on his forehead bulged.

He was like a wild beast that had lost all control, pinning her fiercely to the table. She winced in pain, stars dancing before her eyes. It hurt so much she couldn't catch her breath.

"Ah!" She heard his frantic, angry roar, and her heart felt as if it were being ground into dust by a heavy stone.

Suddenly, he stripped away the coat belonging to another man that she was wearing and tore at her clothes, his movements savage, as if he meant to tear her limb from limb.

She was pinned firmly to the table, unable to move. No, she didn't even bother to resist. Like a mermaid stranded on a beach, she turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut, letting the man before her tear her apart in his madness.

Yet, he watched her resigned, unmoved state.

—*Every time you... forced yourself into me,*

—*How could you possibly understand... how much I hurt? Only by imagining you were... the man in my heart, could the place where we were joined not hurt so much...*

Those words were like a curse, echoing in his ears, refusing to dissipate. "Ye Linglan, you are too cruel, too cruel..." The man’s voice was filled with despair.

She wept, sobbing in agony, her tears splashing onto the floor. Yet she still heard his stubborn, desperate questioning: "It’s not like that, is it... I don't believe it, I can't believe how you could be so terrifying... so cruel... Tell me, it's not like that!!!"

She gasped for air, opening her eyes to look at his furious gaze and furrowed brows. She wanted to—she truly wanted to reach out and smooth the tension from his brow, but she couldn't. The lingering attachment had already left her lost, unable to escape this maze.

Finally, she reached out and tremblingly embraced him back. Mo Zhicheng went stiff, clutching her tightly. Unexpectedly, she leaned into his ear and said in a light, trembling voice, "Mr. Mo... to let me abandon a decade of feelings and fall in love with you—is that even possible?"

"Get out..."

Mo Zhicheng threw her to the floor with a violent shove. "Get out..." He grabbed a wine glass from the table and hurled it. The sound of it shattering into pieces echoed through the entire dining room. "Get out of here... I never want to see you again!!"

*Crash—*

*Crash—*

He smashed the wine cabinet, destroying bottle after bottle of red wine. Shards flew around her, and her ears were filled with the deafening, splintering sounds.

"Get out!"

He dragged her out like a madman. She stumbled after him until, with a thud, he threw her out of the villa. Linglan staggered and fell to the ground outside.

All the turbulence vanished in an instant. Outside the villa, the stars were sparse, and it was so quiet she could only hear her own heartbeat.

Her tears flowed uncontrollably. Linglan hugged herself tightly, her entire world collapsing, leaving only the cold, helpless thumping of her heart in her chest.

The night wind blew across her thin frame.

"Wuu..." Linglan could no longer contain her wailing. It was over. Everything was over. "Wuu..."

***

She walked all night. Linglan did not go to the hospital but headed straight home. In the dim stairwell, the motion-sensor light clicked on. As she stepped onto the final landing, she saw a man sitting on the steps in front of her door, his head buried in his knees. The obscure light cast long, lonely shadows over his weary figure.

"Young Master Ye..." she said, her voice soft and hesitant.

The man slowly lifted his head. His vision was hazy, but through the dim light, he saw her solitary figure. He smiled faintly. "I didn't wait for you." There was so much loss hidden in that low voice.

She had told him to wait for her to come back.

Yet, he hadn't waited for her.

"My phone and purse were stolen," she said quietly. She leaned against the stainless steel railing and sat down weakly. After walking for four hours, her feet ached too much to take another step. "Why did you run out of the hospital? Your pneumonia caused a high fever that hasn't fully cleared—how could you just leave?"

Ye Shenghan stood up, descended a few steps, and sat down beside her. Through the dark light, he could see her red, swollen eyes. She had been crying, and for a long time.

Ye Shenghan reached out and pulled her toward him, tucking her against his shoulder. Linglan slowly closed her eyes. She was truly exhausted, and in her semiconscious state, she drifted off to sleep. Even in her dreams, she could vaguely see those furious eyes, and a voice rang out in her ears, low and filled with a hatred that could consume everything: "Get out! I never want to see you again!"

Her body shuddered in a cold chill. He had said he never wanted to see her again, and her heart felt as if it were being viciously stabbed.

Ye Shenghan looked down, seeing her body trembling. He held her tighter until she gradually settled.

***

Ye Shenghan did not leave the hospital until after the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. During this time, Bai Yuchen and Ye Linglan took turns caring for him.

Linglan occasionally probed about the photos. Ye Shenghan would hold his phone, his mind in chaos. He had originally scheduled the announcement for the eighth, but now he was hesitant. Rational as he was, he could no longer maintain his usual composure.

On the eighth, Linglan returned to Tiancheng. She had finished her tasks ahead of schedule and organized all her documents. Glancing accidentally at the cactus on her desk, she saw the elegant inscription on the violet flowerpot: *I wish to know you, and may our lives never drift apart.*

She smiled helplessly. Mo Zhicheng had vanished after the New Year, and he did not appear at Tiancheng on the first day of work. Leng Tingyu, as if by prior arrangement, had also disappeared from everyone's sight.

Linglan no longer had the heart to care. She handed her resignation letter to Lin Jia.