At 4:30 AM, Su Yiran groggily got up to use the restroom.

Returning to bed, he vaguely felt something was off. His mind, still muddled with sleepiness, instinctively reached for the space beside him in the duvet, but found it empty.

Su Yiran woke up a bit and suspiciously turned on the light. The bed next to him was empty. Where was Ting Ge? He didn’t seem to see Ting Ge when he went to the restroom earlier either.

He sat up and checked the alarm clock. It was only 4:30 AM, too early for him to have gone out. Su Yiran called out, “Ting Ge?”

Receiving no reply, he got out of bed to look for him. He remembered that last night, Ting Ge was massaging his waist, and he had fallen asleep without realizing it due to being too tired and comfortable, so he didn’t know when Ting Ge fell asleep.

He left the bedroom and checked the living room, balcony, kitchen, and bathroom, but didn’t see anyone. Finally, he pushed open the study door and found Ting Ge sleeping on the sofa bed in the study.

The sofa bed was narrow and short. Gu Yuanting, a tall man with long limbs, was now curled up uncomfortably in this sofa, with his ankles and feet exposed outside the sofa.

Su Yiran didn’t know what was going on. He worried that Gu Yuanting might be feeling unwell, which was why he came here to sleep, so he went forward and nudged him, “Ting Ge, Ting Ge?”

Gu Yuanting was woken by Su Yiran’s push. In the darkness, before even opening his eyes, he instinctively grabbed the hand Su Yiran had placed on his shoulder and violently pinned him down on the sofa, twisting his arm.

“Ah!” Su Yiran was caught off guard by this sudden move and only reacted after being pressed onto the sofa, completely bewildered, “Ow, ow, Ting Ge, what are you doing?”

Gu Yuanting realized something was wrong halfway through his action and quickly lightened his grip. If he had used his full strength, Su Yiran’s arm could have been broken. Unexpectedly, Su Yiran still cried out in pain. He quickly released his hand, frowned, turned on the study light, and checked Su Yiran’s arm: “Let me see.”

Su Yiran sat up and moved his left arm a couple of times, feeling fine: “I’m okay, Ting Ge.”

Gu Yuanting ignored him, unbuttoned the top few buttons of Su Yiran’s pajamas, exposing his left shoulder. Only when he saw no bruising or redness did he breathe a sigh of relief. He then pressed several spots on Su Yiran’s left shoulder and asked, “Does this hurt?” When a certain spot on his shoulder joint was pressed, Su Yiran felt some pain and winced: “A little.”

A slight sprain, not serious. Gu Yuanting massaged Su Yiran’s shoulder joint for a while, then pressed the acupoint where he had just said it hurt: “How about now?”

Su Yiran miraculously found that it didn’t hurt at all: “It’s fine now.”

He found it amazing, so he offered his wrist: “But my wrist still hurts.” Gu Yuanting’s hand had held his wrist like an iron clamp earlier. Although he later relaxed his grip, it still hurt him initially.

Gu Yuanting then saw that Su Yiran’s fair wrist indeed had a pathetic red mark around it.

…He’s too delicate, he clearly didn’t use much force. Gu Yuanting had no choice but to hold Su Yiran’s hand and begin to rub his wrist, carefully controlling his strength and gently massaging it. He knew Su Yiran needed to be handled with care.

Su Yiran let Gu Yuanting rub for a while and then said with a smile, “Alright, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” In fact, it hadn’t hurt for a while; he just had a special constitution that made it easy to bruise with a little force. He was just teasing Ting Ge.

Gu Yuanting heard this and put down his hand, looking up to say something, but suddenly saw Su Yiran’s current appearance and his breath hitched. Just now, he had been focused on Su Yiran’s sprain and hadn’t thought of anything else, directly unbuttoning his pajamas.

Under the light, Su Yiran’s pajamas were half off, his fair shoulder exposed. Looking down, there were exquisite collarbones and a large expanse of skin as white as soft jade… Gu Yuanting suddenly stood up, his gaze fixed on the study curtains.

“…Put your clothes on,” he said.

Su Yiran also noticed Gu Yuanting’s abnormality. He also didn’t want things to get heated at this moment, so he quickly put his pajamas back on and buttoned them up, though he was a bit confused inside. It was just an exposed shoulder; did it warrant such a strong reaction? They were already an old married couple…

He then remembered the reason he woke Gu Yuanting and became worried: “Oh, right, why did you come to the study to sleep? Are you feeling unwell?”

Gu Yuanting regained his composure, his tone flat: “I’m fine. From now on, I’ll sleep in the study.”

For the first few days after waking up, he didn’t understand the situation and didn’t act rashly, still sleeping in the bedroom with Su Yiran. 

However, after confirming this was a parallel world, he no longer had the initial reservations and had made a decision. In a few days, he would leave here and return to his original path. This life belonged to the original owner, not him. There was no need or appropriateness in sleeping in the same bed with the original owner’s “lover” anymore. 

The night before last, the day he confirmed this was a parallel world, not separating from Su Yiran was wrong. Going to Su Yiran’s dessert shop yesterday was even more wrong. Especially last night, he discovered that the original owner’s residual consciousness actually made him have a physical reaction to Su Yiran, and just now… Although he wasn’t a good person, he wouldn’t sleep with someone else’s “lover.”

Su Yiran had no idea what Gu Yuanting was thinking, nor did he expect this answer, and couldn’t help but look puzzled: “Why?”

Gu Yuanting: “…The bedroom bed is too small, it’s cramped.” He couldn’t tell Su Yiran the real reason.

Su Yiran thought of their two-meter bed at home, then looked at the pathetic sofa bed in the study: “Are you kidding me?”

Gu Yuanting didn’t speak.

Su Yiran saw that Gu Yuanting’s face held no hint of a smile, as if he really wasn’t joking, which made him even more bewildered. He truly didn’t know why Gu Yuanting suddenly wanted to sleep in separate rooms. Clearly, they were fine before going to bed yesterday, and even just now, they were fine.

Was he pouting? Su Yiran tried to communicate and soothe him: “Are you blaming me for being too busy these past few days and not spending more time with you?” In reality, both of them had been very busy these days; Gu Yuanting with his nominal consultant position at the financial company, and him with opening his shop.

Gu Yuanting knew that this Su Yiran was not his enemy from his previous life; he was innocent. But he didn’t plan to be soft-hearted anymore. He planned to lay his cards on the table, and also arrange a path for Su Yiran after he left: “From yesterday’s observation, you’re very popular, so in a few days, we…”

After the divorce… Gu Yuanting stopped there, suddenly choked, unable to utter the words “divorce” to Su Yiran. The thought of Su Yiran actually being with someone else, remarrying someone else after their divorce, ignited a fierce fire in his chest. He frowned tightly, it was the original owner’s residual consciousness again.

Su Yiran thought he understood… He interrupted him: “Are you still jealous about me being flirted with yesterday?” 

Su Yiran had been too busy yesterday and had long forgotten about it, but he didn’t expect this matter to still be unresolved, and Ting Ge was waiting for him here.

Knowing the reason, Su Yiran got angry: “Are you really throwing a tantrum and asking to sleep in separate rooms just because of this?” 

His face was cold: 

“Is something like separate rooms something you can just casually say?” 

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got: “And I don’t think I did anything wrong. You’re going too far.”

Gu Yuanting hadn’t seen Su Yiran so angry since he woke up. Su Yiran had always given him the impression of being soft, warm, and easy to bully. Looking at Su Yiran now, he was momentarily at a loss, unsure what to do.

Su Yiran didn’t want to lose his temper. It was already past 5 AM, so he decided to go to the shop early and calm down. Before leaving, his tone was stiff: 

“You think about it carefully and reflect on what you did wrong. I’m busy today; we’ll talk tonight.”

Being disturbed by Gu Yuanting like this at four or five in the morning, Su Yiran’s mood was also ruined. He simply washed up, changed clothes, didn’t even make breakfast, and left the house in a huff.

Gu Yuanting was left at home, watching Su Yiran leave angrily, the door closing with a “bang.” He was left alone in the empty room. The pressure was low.