Chapter 10: The Embrace

The night wind was warm, the courtyard hushed, insects chirping in fine, broken bursts like whispers at his ear.

Chu Fan pushed the door open and stepped out quickly, anger still lingering in his eyes.

He had not gone far when a set of brisk but urgent footsteps rang out behind him, accompanied by the patter of soft slippers.

"Xiaofan!"

A familiar voice drifted over softly.

He stopped on instinct and looked back.

It was his mother-in-law, Shen Rulan.

She was wearing a silk robe and soft slippers, standing in the moonlight. As the wind stirred, the hem clung to her calves, faintly tracing those long, fair legs and the barely visible curves along her waist.

She stood below the steps, her brows lightly drawn, her expression anxious, as if she had rushed out in a hurry; her chest was still rising and falling a little too hard.

One hand pressed at her chest, the other lifted gently as she spoke in a soft, tender voice:

"Don't act on impulse."

"Your father-in-law... he was harsh with his words. You know his temper; he's always been like that."

"Zhiyao has always been stubborn since she was little, and you're quiet too. The two of you haven't really spoken properly in three years. On the surface you're husband and wife, but in truth... you've been living separate lives."

She paused, her gaze softening as her voice dropped lower:

"Mom knows you've been wronged."

Chu Fan said nothing. He just stood there, his eyes a little red, his throat working, forcing the emotion back down.

Shen Rulan let out a soft sigh and slowly went on:

"Your father-in-law is the kind of man who doesn't hold back when he speaks, but he still understands things."

"These past three years, you didn't use his identity as the city party secretary to go out and run wild. You stayed in this family and kept to yourself. He has seen that much, even if he never says it."

As she said that, she took a light step closer and raised a hand to rest on Chu Fan's shoulder with the gentlest touch.

"When the weather's hot, people lose their temper easily. Harsh words can still be taken back, but if you just leave like this... Mom really would feel awful."

Chu Fan's throat bobbed. His voice was rough and hoarse:

"He called me a mad dog."

Shen Rulan did not rush to answer. She only looked up at him, her eyes as gentle and steady as ever.

"You're not."

She shook her head slightly, her tone certain:

"You're a man with backbone."

"It's just... these years, you've held in too much and endured too long."

The wind swept past, and the silk hem fluttered lightly, clinging to her calves so that her outline rose and fell in faint suggestion.

Chu Fan looked at the woman before him, eyes red, this woman who had been gentle with him from start to finish.

At that moment, the anger slowly ebbed away, replaced by an indescribable bitterness and grievance.

He clenched his teeth. After a few seconds, he finally couldn't hold back and asked in a low voice:

"You... do you really think of me as family?"

At that, Shen Rulan froze and did not answer right away.

She only looked quietly at the man before her.

His face still carried the last traces of anger, his brows tightly knotted, his lips pressed hard together, refusing to bow his head or soften.

But his eyes were red, as if he were holding something back, as if he were about to cry.

Shen Rulan thought back over these three years. Her live-in son-in-law had always been quiet and honest, never arguing, never making trouble, never fighting for anything.

Whenever she spoke, he would nod; he did things in a careful, rigid way, and never once answered her with a harsh word.

And yet it was this man who had looked at her tonight and asked her such a question.

Shen Rulan said nothing.

She simply stepped forward all of a sudden and gently pulled Chu Fan into her arms.

In an instant, two full, high breasts pressed against his chest through a thin layer of fabric, so unexpectedly soft and springy.

Chu Fan's breathing caught hard, his whole body tensing...

With the rise and fall of Shen Rulan's breathing, the flesh of those twin peaks moved and trembled softly against him, rubbing and pressing into his chest.

And right at the tips of those breasts—

Chu Fan could clearly feel two hard little points pressing through the fabric into the most sensitive part of his chest.

They were her nipples.

Chu Fan held his breath at once.

That texture... he could even make out the shape and angle.

His nostrils were full of the scent of a mature woman.

Chu Fan's heart was racing out of control, his blood surging faster and faster; the anger and grievance he had been holding back all collapsed into a heat that rushed up from his lower abdomen, leaving his scalp numb.

And the cock in his crotch, repeatedly pressed and rubbed by the soft flesh against his chest, seemed to wake up as well, slowly swelling, heating, throbbing.

He didn't dare move, and he didn't want to push her away.

He just stood rigidly in her embrace, his mind full of nothing but the feel of those breasts.

Shen Rulan's arms around him tightened slightly.

But then she felt it.

Something hard had pressed against the front of her lower abdomen.

Hot, hard, and tight.

Her body stiffened very slightly.

That thing was pressed right against her lower belly, and even through the fabric she could feel it growing harder and hotter by the second, even twitching faintly.

As a woman who had raised two adult daughters, Shen Rulan naturally knew what that reaction meant.

But she didn't let go right away.

She only held him for two quiet seconds, then slowly withdrew, her movement light and natural, as if she had not noticed the awkwardness at all.

There was no panic in her eyes, and no reproach. She lifted her head gently to look at Chu Fan, her gaze tender, her voice low and steady:

"Come on. Go home with Mom."

After saying that, she turned and walked away.

Chu Fan stood where he was, his gaze fixed on her slowly retreating back as his throat moved up and down on its own.

The silk robe clung to her body, outlining the full, round shape of her ass in perfect detail, swaying gently with each step.

At the same time, his mind kept replaying the scene from just now over and over.

Those breasts pressed against his chest, soft and delicate, carrying the warm, living feel of a real body.