New Love No. 1: Have you kissed me enough, President?

In that moment, both of them were overwhelmed by the gratification they found in each other.

Gu Lili felt as though the emptiness within her had finally been filled.

Since being with him, she had grown increasingly fond of this feeling.

One of her legs was lifted by him—he could no longer restrain himself. His pace quickened like a humming motor, almost too much for her to bear.

"Slow down..." she gasped.

After a while, he straightened up, his hands gripping her slender waist as he thrust deeply into her with every movement, reaching her very core.

He had never experienced such addictive pleasure—it consumed him.

Ecstasy flooded his senses.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast, He Meiwei felt as if her entire being had gone numb.

Unfamiliar with the city center, she had hastily hailed a cab. Only after getting in did she realize the three men who seemed to be following her were actually headed toward their waiting companions—three women—at the very same spot. Perhaps it was because the men were tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in a rather unrefined manner, their swagger reminiscent of street thugs, that she had felt endangered.

In truth, they hadn't been following her at all.

Breathing a long sigh of relief, whatever desire she'd had to enjoy her day vanished.

Her mind lingered on the cold, dismissive word: "Leave."

It seemed she had thoroughly exhausted any remaining goodwill associated with the title of "ex-girlfriend."

She returned home, listless.

Her wrist still ached faintly. Staring at the ceiling, she felt like a failure in life.

How had things come to this?

She couldn't say.

All she knew was that she desperately longed to reclaim everything she had lost.

She longed to feel his affection again.

Longed for it with every fiber of her being.

Yet in the end, she had only pushed him further and further away.

So far, he might as well have been on another planet.

At the root of it all, he no longer loved her.

At the root of it all, she had been replaced. His eyes now looked elsewhere—not at her.

He Meiwei wanted to cry, to sob until she could release the sorrow pent up inside her, but the tears refused to come.

She felt as though her life had lost all meaning. There was no one left to love her.

How was she supposed to go on?

Back in bed, scrolling through Weibo, her eyes caught a comment under a celebrity gossip post. One star had reconciled with their former lover, and someone joked that the ex-wife's only way to "win" was to marry the man's father.

Absurd as it was, something about that comment struck her as utterly logical.

What if... she did the same?

If she were to be with Long Yubei's father, wouldn't that make the two of them have to call her "Mother"?

The mere thought gave her a twisted sense of pleasure.

If she truly became Long Yubei's stepmother, he would be enraged—perhaps to the point of madness.

He Meiwei chuckled darkly, then forced herself to return to reality.

A man like Long Yubei's father—someone of such stature—would never cross paths with her in any meaningful way.

It was, of course, wholly unrealistic.

She had no idea how her thoughts had wandered so far, but the bitterness in her heart refused to be swallowed.

The entire night passed without rest; her mind spun with one obsession—how to outshine Gu Lili.

The more she thought, the more impossible it seemed.

The next morning, He Meiwei submitted her resignation at Long Corporation. Such a meager monthly salary could never sustain her.

She didn't just need food—she needed money for medicine.

And that was no small expense.

She would have to find another path forward.