"Lily, wake up. It’s morning already. I need to attend a meeting soon. Do you want me to drive you, or let Leyan drive you?"

As Lily slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Xiaoyun standing above her in full military officer attire.

"Hmm? Why does my head feel so dizzy?"

"Because you drank last night... I’m just going to carry you, okay? You can keep sleeping if you want."

Seeing her closing her eyes, Xiaoyun gently carried her out of the room before putting the key in the mailbox at the receptionist table.

Outside, the moon was still faintly in the distant horizon. The sun hadn’t even risen yet, as its car clock indicated it to be 5 AM.

Xiaoyun slowly put Lily in the passenger seat and got into the driver’s seat himself, starting up the car as he began driving down the streets.

After driving for ten minutes, the two of them arrived in the garage.

No one was in the living room as Xiaoyun opened the wooden door. He slowly carried Lily to her bedroom, putting her down before taking out the phone.

"Only five-thirty. Still two hours before the meeting—"

Just as Xiaoyun was about to leave the room, Lily’s sudden whisper immediately caused him to turn around to check.

"Mhm... Brother Xiaoyun..."

"What’s wrong, Lily?"

"Did I lose my virginity last night?" Lily quietly asked, her eyes struggling to keep open as she stared at him.

"No. I took you out of the bar after you were drunk and the two of us slept in the hotel. Nothing else happened."

A frown appeared on her face for a millisecond before her usual warm smile returned. It was more than clear to Xiaoyun that she was disappointed.

"Lily, I—"

"I understand. You did the right thing, brother Xiaoyun. I’m happy you were more rational than I am."

"No, Lily, I know I’m a coward for—"

Xiaoyun was interrupted as Lily leaned forward, kissing him on the lips before falling back down onto the bed.

"I’m happy you didn’t cross the line. I really mean it, brother Xiaoyun."

"You do? You really mean it?" Xiaoyun questioned, his face still showing a hint of distrust with Lily’s answer.

"Mhm. It will be really sad for me to not give my first time on the wedding day. Especially after all these times I had already waited."

Seeing Lily’s genuine eyes towards him, Xiaoyun finally accepted the fact that he might have made the right call last night.

"Thank you," Xiaoyun whispered into her right ear as he fully embraced Lily with his wide arms.

"I should be the one saying that, dummy..."

As the two of them slowly separated, Xiaoyun could see Lily’s face looking much redder than before.

"You okay?" Xiaoyun worryingly asked.

"I’m fine... A-Are you okay, though?" Lily questioned back as her voice started to sound a little nervous.

"Me?"

Xiaoyun was a little dumbfounded until he looked towards where she was just looking a few seconds ago.

The massive tent in his pants hadn’t gone away at all. A bulge was so big that it was impossible to ignore for anyone who saw his pants.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that the military attire he was wearing had a tightness meant for a meeting while sitting down or a public appearance behind a podium.

"I’m fine. Don’t worry about it... It’s just morning wood, it will go down by the time I go to work today."

"Brother Xiaoyun, you don’t have to lie to me. I had seen it in the shower last night... I know you haven’t done it for the past few weeks."

As Lily sees right through the lie, Xiaoyun awkwardly scratched his head as he didn’t want to admit the truth in front of her.

"Brother Xiaoyun, didn’t we do a pinky promise to be honest with each other? You shouldn’t lie to me like this..."

"Okay, fine. My body had been acting up because all of my wives are choosing to abstain with Tianci ever since she went through labor.

Like Tianci is the only one recovering from childbirth, and I can’t have sex with any of them? How am I supposed to keep it down myself?

This is just absolutely crazy. Like, who invites their own husband into the shower and does nothing together the whole time?"

Hearing him rant out loud for the first time like this, Lily was a little shocked. Still, she sat patiently and listened.

"I know this is wrong for me to say, but I came really, really close last night. If it weren’t for the fact that you were drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to resist myself.

And knowing how much you valued your first time, now I’m glad I held it together. I don’t want them to win their bet like a—"

As Xiaoyun suddenly came to a pause, Lily’s head was tilted slightly as if she was intrigued by what he had just said.

"What bet are you talking about?"

"Um, I—"

"Brother Xiaoyun, be honest with me. Please don’t lie to me, or I’m going to be really hurt by it..."

Seeing Lily’s pleading eyes on the verge of tearing up, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh as he reached into her pocket.

"What’s your phone password?"

"L-Let me—"

"You said being honest with each other, right?"

This time, Lily had no choice as she entered her PIN code before him, unlocking the lock screen.

"You used a photo of me as your background?"

"Shut up! What does this have to do with bets?"

"You don’t see all these notifications on your phone—Wait a moment, where did all the text go?"

Xiaoyun was dumbfounded once again as not a single text message was in Lily’s phone. The notification bar was empty.

"What text?" Lily questioned.

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me check something."

As Xiaoyun clicked over to the contact and looked through her group chat, he couldn’t find the one that matched the text from last night.

"H-Hey, this is my privacy. You can’t just look through my chat with my friends." Lily argued as she raised her voice.

"Weird. Let me check on my phone."

Xiaoyun handed the phone back to Lily as he took out his own phone. Within seconds, he found the group chat with the text he was looking for.

"Lily, you see this?"

"Yeah... Isn’t this the family group chat?"

"Check it on your phone. Tell me if you’re in it or not."

Lily quickly scrolled through all of her chat groups on her phone, only to find the same result as Xiaoyun did earlier.

"This doesn’t make sense. Where did it go?" Lily asked, her face full of confusion as she looked back at him.

"I think I have a theory... Let me check if it is true."

After scrolling down for a bit, Xiaoyun soon found the exact message he was looking for—a message near nine o’clock.

"Leyan had kicked Lily at 9:04 AM. Re-added at 3:00 AM."

"What!"

As Lily stared at the exact message on Xiaoyun’s phone in full display, she couldn’t believe her own eyes.

"They really went this far to hide it... What a crazy world."

"What are they hiding, brother Xiaoyun? What is the bet about exactly?" Lily pressed on as her voice sounded angrier and angrier.

"Um... Well, do you know how I found you in the bar last night?"

Lily froze for a second before shaking her head.

"Yeah, how did you find me in that bar? I never told anyone in the family where I went. Did you call the police or something?"

"No. Yueyue has someone tracking you 24/7 for your own safety. All I had to do was text her a message."

"She’s spying on me?"

"Well, yes. I mean, she probably has someone tracking me 24/7. Probably a whole team that’s following me."

"That doesn’t make it sound any better," Lily argued.

"Yeah, but it’s a price to pay for being with me... Unless you don’t want to marry me?" Xiaoyun questioned back.

"No, but—"

"Too bad. It’s for your safety. Think about it this way: you got security guards with you in case someone kidnaps you in broad daylight."

"I guess... But what does this have to do with me getting kicked?"

"I’m getting to it. So after I asked Yueyue about your location, she then told Leyan where we ended up."

"Ended up? Don’t tell me..."

"Yep, it’s exactly what you’re thinking of. They knew we were lying about meeting before Leyan made that phone call.

Anyway, they all knew about us heading into the love hotel. That’s when Nami had a little idea about betting on us."

Xiaoyun paused for a second to see Lily’s reaction. To his surprise, she remained calmer than expected.

"Nami made a bet that everyone joined in on whether or not you... you lose your virginity last night."

"How dare they—Ugh!"

Watching Lily punch the bed and the pillow in anger, Xiaoyun slowly wiped off the invisible sweat from his forehead.