The Silent Canary

To escape the suffocating demands of human interaction, I made a move no one expected: I climbed into the bed of Shen Yi, the most powerful “Crown Prince” of Beijing’s elite circle.

For three long years, I played the role of his kept canary with unwavering dedication. Despite his constant teasing and attempts to provoke me, I maintained a vow of silence, never uttering a single word. I wasn’t just his mistress; I was his “mute” mistress. That was, until his legendary “White Moonlight”—the long-lost love of his life—was rumored to be returning to China.

When I saw the breakup fee hit my bank account—a staggering 30 million yuan—the excitement surged through me like a tidal wave, drowning out my common sense. In a moment of pure, unadulterated greed, I blurted out:

“Thank you, Boss! You’re so generous!”

The air in the room instantly froze. Shen Yi narrowed his eyes, a dangerous, half-smile playing on his lips as he looked at me. “My little mute… don’t tell me this is some kind of medical miracle?”

Being a “mute” canary had its perks. I didn’t have to flatter him or moan pretty praises in bed. The only downside was the inability to curse him out when he annoyed me. Like right now—Shen Yi noticed my wandering mind and tightened his grip on my waist, his gaze devouring.

You jerk, I screamed internally. On the outside, I put on my best “weak and pitiful” act. My eyes turned red, and tears rolled down my cheeks as I clung to his neck, rubbing my face against his shoulder like a pampered pet. Usually, this softened his heart. But tonight, he was relentless, dragging the encounter from the bedroom to the sofa until the early hours of the morning.

As I lay exhausted, I remembered the conversation I’d overheard earlier that day. One of Shen Yi’s friends had visited.

“Rong Rong is coming back tomorrow. Are you sending a car, or going yourself?”

“Is ‘Rong Rong’ a name you’re allowed to call her?” Shen Yi’s voice had been icy.

Everyone knew Shen Yi had a “White Moonlight” he protected fiercely. No one knew her face, only that she was the reason he remained distant. Once, while cleaning his study, I found an old, yellowed photo. The girl in the hat, shown in profile, looked eighty percent like me.

I realized then: the day we met, when I accidentally hopped into his car thinking it was my ride and showed him my phone screen that read ‘I am mute, please don’t talk to me’, his stunned expression wasn’t because of my boldness. It was because I looked like her.

“What about the one at home?” the friend had asked. “She’s timid and mute. Probably won’t make a scene.”

I had turned away, suppressing a laugh. Three years of acting. Finally, the breakup was here. I was so happy I couldn’t sleep. I messaged my “Canary Support Group” on WeChat.

“The White Moonlight is back!” I typed.

The group exploded. “Congrats, Chu Mian! Get that payout!”

Shen Yi had always been generous—500,000 yuan monthly, designer bags, jewelry. But the 30 million yuan was the ticket to my dream life: early retirement for a socially anxious homebody.

The “medical miracle” comment hung in the air. I tried to hide under the covers, but Shen Yi pulled me out by the scruff of my neck.

“Talk,” he commanded.

I shook my head, my voice cracking. “Mutes… don’t know how to talk.”

He rubbed his temples, looking at my beet-red face. “Nothing else to say? I just gave you 30 million.”

I panicked. I needed to say what he wanted to hear. I recalled every cheesy romance novel I’d ever read.

“D-Daddy? You were so… amazing last night. Like a wild beast. So strong…”

Shen Yi’s face went dark. “What did you call me?”

I gulped. Maybe he didn’t like “Daddy”? He was older, after all. “Wild… animal? Super powerful?”

Before I could finish, he silenced me with a searing kiss. It seemed my voice had opened a door to a side of Shen Yi I wasn’t prepared for.

The next day, his assistant, Assistant Chen, arrived with a Black Card.

“Mr. Shen asked me to give this to you. He also mentioned he’s proposing soon.”

My heart twinged. A proposal? To the White Moonlight, of course.

“He’s proposing at the aquarium,” Chen added. “She likes dolphins.”

I felt a bitter sting. Not only did we look alike, but we had the same tastes. I decided I couldn’t stay. I packed my bags, sent the Black Card back to his office, and fled to my hometown to find a “childhood friend” I used to know—a “big sister” who had saved me from a kidnapping ring when I was five.

I stood at the gates of my old neighborhood, paralyzed by social anxiety, when a hand grabbed my arm.

“Little Mute? You’ve grown some wings, haven’t you? Running this far?”

Shen Yi stood there, disheveled and panting. He had chased me across the country.

“Why are you here?” I sobbed. “Go propose to your Rong Rong!”

Shen Yi sighed, pulling me toward a nearby apartment. “I’ll introduce you to her. Then you’ll understand.”

We stopped at the door of the “sister” I had met briefly earlier that day—a stylish, sharp-tongued older woman.

“Rong Rong!” Shen Yi called out.

The woman turned, glaring. “You brat! How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Grandma!”

My jaw dropped.

“She’s my grandmother, Huo Rongrong,” Shen Yi explained. “She hates being called Grandma because it sounds ‘old.’ And the photo in my study? That was a photo of you that I found years ago. I’ve been looking for you since the day we escaped that kidnapping den together.”

I stared at him. “You… you were the ‘big sister’ with the scars who protected me?”

“I told you back then,” he grumbled, “that I was a boy and only wearing a dress to please my grandma. You just didn’t listen.”

The realization hit me like a freight train. There was no other woman. I was the White Moonlight.

A week later, at the aquarium, surrounded by glowing blue water and swimming sharks, Shen Yi knelt on one pearl-encrusted shell.

“Chu Mian, I lost you once. I spent half my life finding you. I don’t want to be your boss anymore. I want to be your husband. Will you marry me?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Yes!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the glass halls. “But Boss Shen, you’re getting a great deal—a wife and a White Moonlight for the price of one!”

He laughed, sliding the diamond onto my finger and kissing me as the dolphins cheered. My life as a silent canary was over, but my life with the man who had been my hero since childhood had just begun. Though, sometimes, when he gets too “enthusiastic” in the bedroom, I find myself wishing I could go back to being mute just for a little while.