[Cool, aloof beauty VS refined scoundrel] [Slow burn VS master of seduction] [Both are inexperienced in love / Happy ending / Five-year age gap]
Jiang Kou has PTSD. During a hypnosis session, she gets trapped in a nightmare, and her psychologist takes her hand, his palm warm and calloused.
"Don't be afraid."
The second time Jiang Kou meets Xie Linzhou, she is injured after being taken hostage by a patient.
The man carries her to the treatment room. "Take off your clothes."
Jiang Kou: "?"
He smiles, nonchalant. "How am I supposed to bandage your wound if you don't take your clothes off?"
Later, he keeps pressing her, cornering her against the wall to ask why she hasn't come back for a follow-up appointment.
After a certain lawsuit comes to an end, the defendant sets a fire to take revenge. The client dies in the flames while saving Jiang Kou.
Jiang Kou plans to resign, but the law firm fires her.
One day, in the pouring rain, she goes alone to her parents' graves and drinks far too much.
Xie Linzhou carries her home, just as he did fourteen years ago.
Both of them are soaked through.
In the car, Xie Linzhou pulls her onto his lap and, in a low, coaxing voice, prepares to take off her wet clothes.
"Be good. Take your clothes off first."
Jiang Kou is very drunk. She slaps him hard across the face.
His head turns slightly with the blow, and a vivid red mark soon appears on his handsome profile.
Jiang Kou rarely loses control. In her twenty-two years, she has never been as miserable as she is today.
All her grievances surge up at once, and her voice trembles with tears.
"Xie Linzhou, are you a pervert? Why do you keep telling people to take off their clothes?"
"Why didn't you dodge when I slapped you?"
"Does it hurt? Does it hurt?"
The man pulls her close, their foreheads touching. The faint, crisp scent of cedar mingles with the smell of rain, filling Jiang Kou's senses.
"I'm sorry."
