Perhaps this was why Li Yinian had forced him to participate.

Qiao Yanze finally understood her intentions. In the past, what he wanted to know the most was what was hidden under this woman’s cold appearance. Now, he finally knew.

But was that really it?

Fate had played a huge joke on him. He had been persistent for so long, and he had once felt that everything he wanted was within his reach, but it turned out that he had lost the right to chase from the beginning.

He was indignant and did not believe in fate.

Qiao Yanze gritted his teeth and felt every muscle in his body tremble because of a strange emotion. At this moment, the emotions that he had suppressed for a long time finally burst out.

In Gu Yimo’s opinion, the man’s closed eyes and forbearance were really unsettling.

“Qiao Yanze! Hey, what’s wrong?!” Gu Yimo waved at him.

After a full five seconds, Qiao Yanze put his hand down. He opened his eyes and looked calm again, but his dark eyes seemed unfathomable.

“Nothing,” he said hoarsely. “Then forget it. You don’t have to investigate anymore.”

Gu Yimo sighed and said, “Actually, it’s good if Yinian’s surname isn’t Li. Her parents are too annoying… If they hadn’t insisted on marrying Yinian to Xiao Cheng, you wouldn’t have been separated from her back then.”

Qiao Yanze didn’t say anything and just picked up his glass and drank it in one gulp.

Seeing this, Gu Yimo picked up his glass and clinked it with his. “We can only drink here. It’s too miserable… Old Ji is the best.”

Qiao Yanze smirked and didn’t say anything. He just drank glass after glass.

But so what if he drank a lot? The alcohol may have fermented in his body, but it did not ease the pain. It only made his brain slow down.

In a daze, he seemed to have returned to that warm and small courtyard.

The woman’s back was not far away. She looked like she was about to collapse. She was half-kneeling on the ground, and her slender back looked unprecedentedly weak, but he had lost the right to reach out and touch her.

No, this wasn’t how they were supposed to end.

Qiao Yanze couldn’t remember if he had shouted out loud, but in the end, he still walked up and picked her up despite her struggles. In fact, she didn’t struggle too much. After all, this was his dream. In the dream, he could always imagine her to be more obedient and dependent on him.

There was no annoying third party in the dream, so he still hugged her tightly, so tightly that he could feel the temperature of the woman’s body.

She seemed to be trembling, probably from fear and humiliation.

He couldn’t help but whisper something into her ear.

Qiao Yanze didn’t remember what he said, but he remembered that after he finished speaking, the woman suddenly stopped trembling. Not only that, she even turned around to look at him with longing and reluctance. Her exquisite face was so clear that he could even count her eyelashes.

His heart skipped a beat and he wanted to kiss her.

The dream stopped abruptly.

…

Qiao Yanze was drunk.

Fortunately, his alcohol tolerance was very good. He was only silent after getting drunk, as if he had fallen into a quiet mood and did not go crazy.

This made Gu Yimo very relieved.

He asked the staff to help him get into the car, and the driver quickly started the car.

Gu Yimo had also drunk a lot. Although he wasn’t too drunk, his reaction was a little slow.

Therefore, when the headlights of the car not far away lit up, he did not react in time and even subconsciously reached out to block it.

In the next second, there was a violent collision—