In another high-end suite.
Ouyang Xuanyue slowly opened her eyes, waking from a deep, lingering sleep.
She stared at the exquisite carvings on the ceiling for a few seconds before her awareness gradually returned.
The dizziness of jet lag had not completely faded, and her body still held a vague languor and fatigue she could not quite name.
She turned over and got out of bed, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and gently drew the curtains open a crack.
Dazzling sunlight mingled with the vivid blue of the Mediterranean Sea and instantly flooded into the room.
She narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze passing over the classical buildings nearby and settling on the shimmering Hercules Port in the distance.
Dense rows of white yachts were moored there.
That was the sea.
It was the place that had entwined itself around her countless times in dreams, making her feel ashamed, tremble, and yet yearn for it beyond measure.
Looking at that stretch of sea, recalling everything that had happened since taking off from Yancheng, Ouyang Xuanyue's gaze became unbearably complicated.
She felt... as if she were losing control little by little.
Or rather, after escaping that familiar land of Huaxia, throwing away that ring, and shedding those heavy shackles, her entire body and mind were undergoing a complete and utter indulgence.
In the past, she absolutely could never have imagined it.
That she would do every absurd thing with a man within arm's reach of another woman sleeping soundly.
She could imagine even less that, on the helicopter, she had actually acquiesced to his hand roaming over her body, and had even faintly anticipated more.
That adulterous sense of immorality, that thrill of possibly being discovered at any moment, combined with the self-restraint her status had imposed on her for so