The morning after the gala felt like a funeral. Su Qing woke up in the penthouse with a pounding headache and a soul that felt like it had been stripped bare. She remembered bits and pieces—the tilting room, the smell of sandalwood, and the terrifying weight of the words she had finally let slip.
I told her. I told her I loved her.
She sat up, clutching the silk sheets to her chest, waiting for the door to open and for Lin Yan to cast her out for being a "dirty" liar. Instead, she found Yan sitting at the foot of the bed, already dressed in a stark white suit. Her eyes were bloodshot, her expression unreadable.
"You're awake," Yan said. Her voice was flat, like a dial tone.
"Yan... about last night... the drug... I was talking nonsense," Su Qing whispered, her heart racing.
"Was it nonsense, Qing? Or was it the only honest thing you've said to me in months?" Yan stood up, walking to the window. She didn't look back. "You said you're 'dirty.' You said if I love you, I'll be ruined. You think my heart is a prize that can be stained by your history."
"It's true!" Su Qing cried, her voice cracking. "Look at who you are! And look at me! I've been through... I've been through hell, Yan. I can't be the woman on your arm. I can't be the mother of your children. I am a broken thing."
Lin Yan flinched. The word children hit her like a physical blow, a reminder of the future her family demanded and the one her heart craved.
"If you truly believe that," Yan said, her voice dropping to a whisper, "then my love is just another cage for you. I thought I was protecting you, but I was just keeping you in a room where you have to face your reflection every day."
Yan turned around. There was a terrifying resolve in her eyes. "The contract is over, Su Qing. I'm tearing it up."
Su Qing felt the world drop away. "What? No... I have nowhere to go. My mother—"
"Your mother's bills are paid for the next ten years. The lawsuit is settled. You are free." Yan stepped closer, her shadow falling over the bed. "And to ensure no one ever looks at you as 'mine' again, I am announcing my engagement to Zhao Feng this afternoon. I am getting married."
Su Qing's breath hitched. "You're... what?"
"You said you didn't want to ruin me," Yan said, a bitter, tragic smile touching her lips. "So I'll ruin myself. I'll marry a man I despise to give the world the 'perfect' CEO they want. If I am married, you are no longer a 'canary.' You're just a successful actress who had a generous patron."
"Yan, don't do this! You don't love him!"
"I don't love anyone," Yan lied, her eyes burning with unshed tears. "Because the only person I wanted to love thinks she isn't good enough for me. If I can't have you, it doesn't matter who I have. Go, Su Qing. Take your freedom. It's the only thing I have left to give you."
Su Qing watched as Yan walked out of the room, the heavy oak door clicking shut with a finality that sounded like a coffin lid.
Yan leaned against the hallway wall, her legs nearly giving out. She thought: If she thinks she is a tragedy, then I will become a bigger one. If she thinks her life is better without me, I will remove myself so completely she will never have to feel 'dirty' in my light again.
She didn't know that in the room behind her, Su Qing was curled in a ball, screaming into the pillows.
"I wanted you to be happy," Su Qing sobbed. "I didn't want you to die with me."
"To save the woman she loved from feeling like a sin, she committed the greatest sin of all: she gave up on their happiness."