Chapter Three: Please Kill Me

“Someone was crying inside an oven.” He seized Zhiwei's wrist. Their contract drove the vision into her mind: a vast brick oven packed with dough bearing human names; a young man in old-fashioned clothes smashing its door with an iron bar; a woman in green smiling amid the flames. An heir can become merchandise too, she said. Pain buckled Zhiwei's knees. Chenxing caught her, his arms pausing at her waist without tightening. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean—” “Don't let go. I can't stand yet.” Their faces were close enough that her nose nearly grazed his jaw. One shared heartbeat accelerated after another. “You said a kiss fulfills our contract. What happens if we do it again?”