Chapter 125: Didn't Anyone Tell You Not to Chase After Someone Else's Wife [Restored]

The temperature in the bedroom was rising.

An Ling's pajamas hung loosely on her frame. With a few buttons undone, her collar fell open, revealing smooth, fair shoulders. Her figure, half-hidden and half-exposed, was all the more enticing.

She covered her mouth, taking small, panting breaths as she forced down the overwhelming waves of pleasure, the corners of her eyes glistening with tears.

Pushed to the crest of the wave by the man, her mind went completely blank.

Muffled voices drifted from the phone, faintly calling her name.

She turned her head, casting a glance to the side with wet, glassy eyes.

Her phone lay on the bedsheets, the screen showing an active call.

They had been right in the middle of it, still kissing, when the phone on the nightstand had suddenly started ringing.

It was her phone.

Shen Linyan picked it up for her, but his movements paused when he saw the caller ID.

He lowered his gaze, staring at her quietly.

"Wife, why haven't you blocked him?"

"..."

An Ling defended herself in a small voice, "I blocked him on WeChat."

After deleting that huge batch of WeChat contacts back then, she had completely forgotten about his phone number.

"Then I'll block him right now."

She was just about to hang up.

From behind, a hand with distinct knuckles slowly pressed down on her wrist. The grip wasn't heavy, but it was impossible to resist.

Scalding thin lips pressed against her ear, his magnetic voice heavy with lust.

"Answer it."

After the call connected, the phone was tossed aside.

An Ling had no idea what the person on the other end was saying.

Shen Linyan was making her body go completely soft; her mind was entirely in a daze.

She raised her eyes, meeting the man's dark, deep gaze.

Both of them remembered the phone call was still connected. The only sound left in the air was their heavy breathing.

Seeing his movements, her face flushed red.

Just as she was about to reach out for him to hold her, Lu Jingshen's voice drifted over from next to them.

"An Ling? An Ling, are you listening?"

An Ling paused, turned her head, and reached out to grab the phone from a distance.

She glanced at the man in front of her. Shen Linyan was watching her, saying nothing.

She brought the phone to her ear, trying to keep her tone as steady as possible.

"Why are you calling me? If there's nothing important, I'm hanging up."

On the other end of the line, Lu Jingshen sounded like he had had too much to drink. His words carried a hint of intoxication. "Can't I call? You used to call me every single day."

But that wasn't her.

An Ling was about to reply when she saw the man suddenly lean down.

A thin layer of sweat beaded on his forehead, his dark hair casually swept back.

He lowered his head and kissed her lower abdomen, then trailed his kisses upward. His tall, straight nose brushed against her skin, stirring up a tingling, numb itch.

The man lifted his gaze, his dark eyes staring fixedly at her. His noble, handsome features were tinged with heavy desire, his breathing deep and scorching.

The rough pads of his fingers traced down her lower belly bit by bit, rubbing gently.

An Ling's face instantly burned red. Her eyes widened, and she hastily pulled the phone away. Her eyelashes fluttered softly as she turned her head and let out a soft gasp.

The desire that hadn't completely subsided was reignited, stirring up an even deeper need that made her heart ache with longing.

She clung to the man's shoulders, suppressing her voice as she let out a soft whimper by his ear. The trembling end of her note sounded exactly like a coquettish plea, "Hubby..."

Shen Linyan gathered her into his arms, lowering his head to press light kisses to the side of her neck.

On the other end, Lu Jingshen didn't hear a thing. Normally, he would have noticed something was off right away, but the alcohol had gone to his head, and his mind was entirely consumed by memories of the past.

Although the Shen family had gone bankrupt, if An Ling was willing to marry him, it wasn't impossible for them to start over.

But the main issue right now was that An Ling had been hurt too deeply by him in the past; he had to take it slow.

He set down his glass, his gaze falling onto the drinks on the table. "I'm drinking at a bar right now. Do you want to come over and see me?"

Being drunk was the best excuse.

He didn't know it, but those words never reached An Ling's ears.

On the large bed, the lighting grew increasingly dim.

The phone fell silently onto the mattress with a soft thud.

The next second, it was picked up by a pair of slender fingers.

Over here, Lu Jingshen had even thought out exactly what he was going to say to An Ling when they met.

Thinking of the girl's extraordinarily beautiful face, he swallowed hard and took another gulp of liquor.

Before marrying Zhou Wen, he could be considered a veteran of the dating scene. He had to admit, An Ling was truly one of the most stunning women he had ever seen. Her face held a perfect blend of coquettish charm and pure innocence, without feeling contradictory at all; instead, it made her all the more alluring.

If she hadn't appeared after Zhou Wen, he might have actually accepted her.

Feeling a faint heat in his body, Lu Jingshen tugged at his tie. Sensing that the silence on the other end had gone on a bit too long, he spoke again, "Come see me. I'll apologize for everything that happened in the past. And that time you hit me, I won't hold it against you anymore."

Pausing for a moment, he added, "Also, I actually remember all those things you did when you were chasing me. That thread online from before about you pursuing me—I was the one who compiled all those details."

As soon as his voice fell, a deep male voice came through the receiver.

"Lu Jingshen, hasn't anyone ever told you not to go looking for other people's wives?"

Lu Jingshen froze.

Then he frowned. "Shen Linyan? Where's An Ling? Give her the phone, I need to talk to her..."

"Beep—" The call disconnected, leaving only the busy dial tone.

Lu Jingshen's face darkened as he smashed his phone down. "Fuck!"

His expression was gloomy, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he gripped his glass.

Meanwhile, on the other end, the call was ended.

The man buried his head in the damp crook of the girl's neck, opening his mouth to suckle gently, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Wife, what thread was he talking about?"

"Hmm?" An Ling panted, her eyes narrowing.

She finally remembered that such a thing had indeed happened.

In the very beginning, right after she had cleared things up, a post blew up online about her chasing Lu Jingshen, listing out all the detailed things she had done for him.

At the time, she had wondered how this person knew even more than she did, writing with such detail. It turned out Lu Jingshen had posted it himself.

She knew Lu Jingshen was no good. On one hand, he claimed to love the female lead, while on the other, he reveled in being pursued by other girls, even taking pride in it.

If Lu Jingshen hadn't brought it up himself, An Ling would have almost forgotten about it entirely.

Her words trailed off softly, sounding wet and winding as if soaked in water, as she answered between breaths, "It was a post from a long time ago... It blew up the night we posted our rings. It detailed how I used to chase... mm!"

Just as she uttered the word "chase," An Ling's eyes widened. Her pitch suddenly spiked, and her breathing grew heavier.

The man leaned down, pinning her, and captured her ear in a kiss.

"Wife, I want to see it too."

That thread had been deleted a long time ago, but An Ling had saved a document of it.

She had originally intended to keep it to make it easier to get back at Lu Jingshen later, but so much had happened since then that she had completely forgotten about it.

After taking another shower and lying back in bed, An Ling was drowsy.

The man beside her was swiping through her tablet. The document was open, displaying everything the system had done to pursue Lu Jingshen over the past two years.

She really couldn't understand what was so interesting about it.

Just as An Ling was groggily drifting off to sleep, the man's voice slowly rang out by her ear.

"Knitted a scarf, delivered homemade lunches, helped him block drinks, sent him flowers, picked him up when he was drunk, asked him out to dinner."

"Why are there even chat logs? You sent Lu Jingshen so many confession messages. So this is what they call a 'little essay'."

An Ling: "..."

See, you just had to look.

Now, An Ling was completely unable to sleep.

With a jealous sourpuss muttering right next to her, how could anyone sleep?

She opened her eyes, saw that the man was still reading the document, and reached out to place her hand over the screen.

"Haven't you seen this before? I remember this post disappeared very quickly, wasn't it you who took it down?"

Shen Linyan looked at her. "I took it down, but I didn't read the contents."

Saying that, he added, "Besides, I had no interest in reading it."

"..."

An Ling: "Then why do you want to read it now?"

"Because I care about it now."

Because he cared, he wanted to know.

Shen Linyan put down the tablet, slipped under the covers, and pulled her into his arms.

An Ling looked up and blinked.

"You should know, I didn't do this."

Shen Linyan lowered his head and kissed the top of her hair. "I know."

But even knowing that another entity had occupied An Ling's body, seeing his wife's familiar name in the document still inevitably bothered him.

An Ling reached out to touch his face, comforting him, "Are you jealous? It's all fake. I don't even know how to cook. The only time I cooked was for your birthday. Moreover, that system before was just fooling Lu Jingshen; it couldn't cook either, it hired someone else to do it."

Shen Linyan nuzzled her cheek and chuckled, "I'm not jealous. My wife burns the cookies when she bakes."

An Ling huffed and turned around. "That was an accident. The first time is always a failure, but next time will definitely be a success."

"Alright, close your eyes and go to sleep."

After doing it for so long, she was dead tired.

The man pressed against her back.

After a while.

In the dark of the night, the man's deep voice sounded faintly.

"My wife never sends me long essays. The word count of my wife's messages is always very low."

An Ling: "..."

And he said he wasn't jealous.

An Ling opened her eyes and picked up her phone from the side.

Right in front of Shen Linyan, she opened an AI app.

[Please help me write a 300-word confession to my husband. It needs to be sincere and moving enough to bring tears to his eyes.]

Then she copied, pasted, and sent it to him.

She gave him a sidelong glance, the corners of her eyes lifting. "Now you have one. Are you happy?"

A laugh rumbled from the man's chest as he lowered his head to nuzzle her cheek.

"I'm happy. Thank you, honey."

...

It was all because of Lu Jingshen's phone call last night.

Originally, she and Shen Linyan had only planned to do it briefly once, but they couldn't hold back later on.

Returning from a meeting and sitting in her office chair, An Ling was just about to revise a proposal when her phone lit up beside her.

Shen Linyan: [I love my wife too ^^]

She was slightly taken aback.

This message was responding to that AI text from last night.

Thinking of how a certain someone had clung to her last night, An Ling pursed her lips, a faint smile touching the corners of her mouth.

She reopened that document and scrolled through it line by line.

To be honest, even with the memories of those systems, she herself didn't remember these things very well.

Shen Linyan seemed quite bothered by it last night. Should she do a few of these things for him too?

Knit a scarf?

That would take too long.

Deliver a homemade lunch?

But Shen Linyan would always find her to eat together at noon if he was free.

Pick him up when he's drunk?

An Ling silently covered her face.

Don't even mention that.

There had been several times when Shen Linyan had to pick her up when she was drunk.

After thinking it over, it seemed that only giving flowers was a slightly better option, but she didn't know if Shen Linyan would like them...

Just as she was thinking, a colleague's voice reached her ears.

"Ah Leng, we have a dinner with the other production company tonight. Please revise that document as soon as possible and send it to me."

An Ling pulled her thoughts back: "Okay."

She had to close the document for now.

After sitting at her desk and revising the text for a while, a voice suddenly came from the doorway.

"Which one is Yang Jia? Your boyfriend sent you a bouquet of flowers."

She looked up.

Amidst the cheering of the crowd, she saw Xiao Yang blush and stand up to take the flowers from the delivery man.

It was a beautiful bouquet of blue roses, exquisitely packaged with a layer of white cardstock on the outside, tied with a silk ribbon.

A colleague teased, "Showing off your affection in public, huh? Have you considered us singles in the office?"

Xiao Yang was a little embarrassed, her face turning red as she coughed lightly a few times. "I told him not to send them to the company, but he just wouldn't listen."

She said that, but she couldn't hide the happiness on her face.

No one dislikes this kind of public display of affection.

An Ling smiled as she listened to them talk, her gaze landing on the smile on Xiao Yang's face, her eyes thoughtful.

So receiving flowers makes people very happy...

Then Shen Linyan should be very happy too.

Just as she was thinking, her colleagues' teasing reached her side again.

"Ah Leng, don't copy Xiao Yang. Don't let Chairman Shen send flowers to the company. I'm afraid the office won't be able to fit those 999 roses."

An Ling was taken aback, not yet reacting.

Other colleagues laughed and chimed in: "999? That's too conservative. I say 9,999."

"Then I bet on 99,999!"

"You guys might be overthinking it. Maybe Ah Leng has already received them a long time ago."

Everyone instantly burst into laughter.

An Ling's hand holding the mouse tightened slightly, not knowing what to say.

Because the truth was the exact opposite of what everyone guessed.

—She had never received any.

She could only smile and say nothing.

After a while, she looked up again at the flowers in Xiao Yang's hands.

...

That evening, the dinner was at an authentic Sichuan restaurant.

The food here was a bit spicy, and coupled with drinking with the others, An Ling unknowingly had a few too many drinks.

She touched her hot face and looked down to send Shen Linyan a message.

Good thing she didn't drive here today.

An Ling: [Hubby, come pick me up (๑ ́0`๑)]

Shen Linyan: [Received, wifey (๑ ́0`๑)]

After the dinner ended, most of the colleagues were a bit drunk, and those who drove were calling for designated drivers.

The weather was a bit cold, and it had been snowing recently.

An Ling watched them leave and was about to go back inside the restaurant to wait when her gaze suddenly paused.

By the roadside, Xiao Yang and her boyfriend were walking together, talking about something. Then they hailed a taxi and left together.

It was very strange.

She could actually recognize at a glance that it was Xiao Yang today.

Was it because Xiao Yang was dressed very distinctively today?

An Ling watched for a while, then slowly withdrew her gaze.

She looked down, took out her phone, and searched online for flower bouquets for boyfriends.

Each flower had a different meaning, and picking one was a bit dazzling.

An Ling noticed what the internet said about different relationship stages.

Getting together, being deeply in love, and marriage—different stages called for different flowers.

It was a bit complicated.

Having had alcohol, her head was a bit dizzy. She put away her phone, planning to visit a flower shop tomorrow.

The colleagues around her had left at some point.

An Ling looked up and suddenly noticed a car parked by the side of the road.

In the snowy night, the man wore a black overcoat, his posture as straight as a pine, his steps crisp and steady.

She blinked, her eyes curving into a smile, and trotted down the steps towards him.

Shen Linyan closed the distance in a few quick strides, smiling as he pulled her into his arms. "My wife isn't even afraid of falling."

He held her chilly hands and lowered his head to nuzzle her cheek. "Are you cold? Let's get back in the car first."

An Ling blinked up at him. The question of whether he liked flowers hovered right on the tip of her tongue, but after a few seconds, she swallowed it back down.

He should like them, right?

Seeing how much Xiao Yang liked them...

Deep in thought, An Ling pulled the car door open.

The next second, her gaze suddenly froze.

The interior of the car was bathed in dim yellow light, permeated with a faint scent of cedar.

There, resting quietly on the passenger seat, lay a bouquet of red roses.