Her words sent a sharp pang through Long Yang’s heart. Remembering something, he lifted her wrist and gently rubbed his finger pads along the light marks encircling it.

The marks were already faded and barely visible at just a glance.

“How did you get this?” he asked softly, stifling the pain in his heart. He had already spotted it yesterday, but he had kept himself from asking about it for fear that the answer would devastate him.

Lu Liangwei glanced at it and replied airily, “Chains.”

Long Yang’s breath hitched in his throat. Were the marks on her ankles left behind by chains too?

He wordlessly pulled her close to him.

Knowing that he was concerned about her, Lu Liangwei reassured him, “I’m not bothered by them anymore.”

Long Yang’s fingers dug into his palms as he struggled to contain his emotions. “How did you threaten to kill yourself?”

“I wanted to commit suicide by biting off my tongue, but it didn’t work.”

Long Yang’s heart throbbed achingly, and he brushed a finger across her lips. “Let me see your tongue.”

Seeing how worried he was, Lu Liangwei opened her mouth.

“It already healed long ago. There was a lot of blood at that time, but I only did it to threaten Long Chi. I wouldn’t do something as stupid as killing myself.” She stuck out her tongue to show it to him.

The wound on her tongue had already healed and could barely be seen.

Although there was no visible injury, it pained Long Yang to imagine Weiwei’s situation at that time.

He lowered his head and licked her tongue gently to comfort her.

Lu Liangwei’s breath caught in her throat, and her eyelashes trembled. She instinctively wanted to push him away but gave up when she met his eyes, which were clear and devoid of desire.

This man was showing his care and comforting her in his own way.

After a while, Long Yang released his hold on her.

To dispel the heaviness lingering in the air, Lu Liangwei pretended to say casually, “You know, I actually escaped halfway. If Zeng Lunan hadn’t disguised himself as a coachman and abducted me, I’d have returned to you much earlier.”

Long Yang gazed at her tenderly, ready to listen to her story.

Lu Liangwei said mysteriously, “Do you know where I hid at that time?”

“Where?”

“The brothel,” Lu Liangwei declared triumphantly, oblivious to the man’s darkening face as she continued. “It never occurred to those fools that I’d hide in a brothel, so they kept on searching all the inns in the city for me.”

“The brothel?” There was a hint of threat in Long Yang’s tone.

“Yes. After I escaped, I ran into them again in an inn in another city – that’s just how unlucky I was – but they didn’t discover me, so I ran away. But it was already dark, and the city gates were closed. I couldn’t leave the city, so I thought of going to the brothel. I stayed there for two whole days, and I even slept with one of the ladies for two nights.”

Long Yang was a little jealous at first, but when he heard her describe her situation, the displeasure in his heart dissipated and was replaced with concern.

“After that, I thought they’d left, so I came out from the brothel and got ready for my journey home. I didn’t know Zeng Lunan would turn back and disguise himself as a coachman. He even tried to kill me halfway, but I already sensed that he was a fake, so I laid a trap with poison and waited for him to come in…”

Long Yang listened to her quietly without interrupting her. Gratitude welled up in him as he gazed at her lively eyes, and he tightened his arms around her.

Now that the subject had been brought up, Lu Liangwei decided to tell him everything that had happened during that time.

“…thank goodness Long Xuan and Jiu came in time and saved me, or else I might have been captured by Long Chi again. That’s why you need to reward them generously when we get home.”