“Mm… ngh… don’t touch me.”
Fang Youyao woke to the man pinning her down. Her cheeks were flushed, and her beautiful eyes were hazy with drink.
The stranger, who smelled of sweat, was on top of her, clumsily gnawing at her neck.
“Get off me!”
Fang Youyao pinched his muscular arm hard, a flash of anger in her eyes.
“Don’t touch me. I can pay you. Go find a sex worker, or I’ll report you for rape.”
An offer of money and a threat.
It was enough to make the man stop.
He pulled away from her neck and lifted his head.
The light was dim and yellow.
Fang Youyao got a clear look at his face.
His eyes were black and bright, narrow in shape, with neat, subtle double eyelids. His gaze was direct and predatory.
He looked wild.
Those eyes inexplicably brought an animal to mind.
A wolf in the jungle.
Song Song knelt on the bed, bare-chested. He bent down, picked up a worn black T-shirt from the floor, and pulled it on.
Fang Youyao stared at his body for a few seconds.
Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, defined abs, and bulging arm muscles.
He was pure sex appeal.
With a face and body like that, was it really so hard to find a girlfriend that he had to pick someone up outside a bar…?
Song Song’s eyes were dark as he pointed to his own neck. His voice was hoarse. “Get this straight: you were the one who came up and kissed me first. You were the one clinging to my neck and refusing to let go.”
Fang Youyao couldn’t remember what had happened. She’d drunk too much at the bar and blacked out.
She stumbled out of bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up.
Afterward, she rinsed her face with water.
When she looked up, she saw three suggestive red marks on her fair neck in the mirror.
She’d been taken advantage of, and Fang Youyao was upset.
Song Song waited for her, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. His thin eyelids were half lowered, concealing his sharply aggressive eyes.
Wheat-toned skin, over 190 centimeters tall by the look of him, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs.
He made the orange delivery uniform look like a racing suit.
He looked sharp and handsome.
Song Song raised his eyes, his voice cool and detached. “I paid for the room.”
In seven-centimeter stilettos, Fang Youyao’s legs were wobbly. She swayed over to the bed and sat down.
Her mind was sluggish from the alcohol. She looked at him through half-closed eyes. “And?”
“Transfer me the room fee.”
The area was not far from the financial district, and it was the weekend. Hotel rooms were outrageously expensive.
Fang Youyao curved her red lips into a captivating smile. “You’re broke, yet you bring women to hotels?”
Song Song frowned. His tousled black hair hung over his forehead, and his gaze slowly dropped to her crossed legs.
They were slender and so pale they almost dazzled.
Just now, in bed, she’d even tried to wrap them around his waist.
Those legs could make a man lose his mind.
Song Song’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He forced himself to look away, his voice growing even raspier.
“Do you know where you’d be waking up tomorrow morning if I hadn’t taken you away tonight?”
Fang Youyao didn’t seem concerned. “Oh? Where?”
Song Song gave a cold laugh, bent closer, and fixed his gaze on her alluring eyes.
Fang Youyao was beautiful in a vivid, striking way, and her eyes were her best feature. The corners tilted upward; all it took was a slight lift of her brows to make her look like she was flirting.
Song Song’s attention wavered. He lost himself in her shimmering eyes, reached out, and lightly pinched her chin, letting his gaze linger over her face.
“If I hadn’t picked you up, you’d be in a homeless encampment right now.”
An hour earlier, Fang Youyao had gotten drunk and collapsed outside Muse Bar.
A homeless man nearby eyed her greedily, about to reach toward her rounded curves with his filthy hands.
Song Song happened to pass by. He hadn’t intended to get involved, but when he saw her face, he instinctively stepped in and saved her.
He’d used the few hundred yuan he had left to get a room nearby.
He hadn’t planned on doing anything, but as soon as she came in, she hooked her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him.
He was a young man in his prime. How could he resist?
After hearing what had happened, Fang Youyao fell silent for a moment. “Take out your phone. Let’s add each other, and I’ll transfer you the money.”
They added each other as contacts.
She transferred the money.
Song Song frowned. “The room was 329. You sent too much.”
She’d transferred 1,000.
“It’s fine. Keep the extra as a thank-you.”
Song Song put his phone away. His eyes were pitch-black, and his smile was flirtatious. “Actually… if you hadn’t woken up and stopped me, I would’ve slept with you.”
The implication was clear: he wasn’t exactly a good guy, either.
Fang Youyao paused. “You certainly are honest.”
She shook her head. “Forget it. You’re still better than a homeless man.”
At least he was good-looking and had a great body. He wasn’t too hard to stomach.
Song Song walked out of the upscale hotel. Beneath his tousled hair, the sharpness in his dark eyes faded, and a hint of loneliness showed through.
Fang Youyao locked the hotel room door and decided to rest for the night.
She closed her eyes.
In the darkness.
Her boyfriend Shen Liang’s hurtful words echoed in her ears.
Three hours earlier.
She’d cut her business trip short and flown back from overseas without telling Shen Liang, planning to surprise him.
The living room was noisy.
Shen Liang had invited four or five close friends over that evening to eat hot pot and drink.
They were all talking and laughing, caught up in their conversation. None of them heard anything at the door, and none knew she was back.
From the living room, Shen Liang’s voice reached her clearly, tinged with drunkenness.
“Fang Youyao? She’s pretty good, just a little boring. All she thinks about is work. Honestly, she’s fine as a subordinate, but as a girlfriend, she’s not much fun…”
Shen Liang was drunk and spoke without thinking.
His close friend Jiang Hanzhou laughed when he heard that.
“Come on. If she’s so boring, why have you been dating her for nine years?”
Shen Liang replied casually, “First, having her as my girlfriend lets me dodge the blind dates my family sets up. Second, she’s one of the company’s partners. And third… well, she satisfies my physical needs. But nine years? Anyone would get tired of that, wouldn’t they?”
Jiang Hanzhou said, “She’s given you the best years of her youth. If you’re not going to marry her, how do you plan to end this?”
Shen Liang gave a derisive snort and dodged the question. “You guys should know I’m a lifelong bachelor… Why would I ever get married?”
Fang Youyao froze.
A lifelong bachelor?
The words struck her like lightning, almost splitting her in two.
The boyfriend she’d been with for nine years had just casually announced that he intended to stay single for life?
From eighteen to twenty-seven, she’d staked her entire youth, her love, her career, her life…
What did those nine years she’d given him amount to?
Was she just unlucky?
It was the funniest joke she’d heard all year.
Jiang Hanzhou asked, “So you’re just going to keep stringing her along?”
Shen Liang replied, “I’m not stringing her along. Believe it or not, she wants to stay by my side. I couldn’t drive her away if I tried.”
Jiang Hanzhou said, “If you keep refusing to commit to marriage, one day she’ll leave.”
Shen Liang chuckled, unconcerned. “She won’t. She can’t bear to leave me.”
Cheng Jun, drunk, teased him. “Brother Liang, are you still thinking about that woman? Her kid is already old enough to run around.”
Shen Liang’s voice suddenly turned icy. “Shut up.”
Cheng Jun said, “All right, all right. I won’t say anything. The woman of your dreams still has quite a hold on you.”
Jiang Hanzhou said, “She got engaged, and the very next day you found yourself a girlfriend. Were you trying to spite her?”
Shen Liang reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, suddenly defensive. “Shut up. Do you not understand?”
Jiang Hanzhou sighed helplessly. “Fine, fine. Let’s stop talking and drink. You get worked up every time someone mentions her. What a shame for Fang Youyao…”
Standing by the door, Fang Youyao dug her fingers hard into her palm. Her heart turned cold, and her whole body went rigid.
The woman of his dreams?
There was someone he loved that much?
So when Shen Liang confessed to her all those years ago, it was because the woman of his dreams had gotten engaged and he’d been shaken by it.
No wonder he’d never been willing to kiss her, not once in all these years.
Even in bed, even when they were caught up in the moment, he’d never kissed her.
He’d said he had a psychological block and couldn’t handle kissing.
She’d believed him and respected his preferences.
Now she’d guessed the truth.
Maybe he was saving his kisses for the woman of his dreams.
He knew he had no chance of marrying the woman he wanted, so he’d decided to stay single for the rest of his life…
Shen Liang had someone else in his heart.
Then what was she?
What had all those years she’d spent by his side meant?
The more Fang Youyao thought about it, the colder her heart grew.
She’d once understood how hard he was working to build his business and hadn’t wanted to add to his pressure, so she’d never pushed him to marry her. She’d simply waited patiently.
She’d always thought that once his career was stable, once they were old enough, he would marry her.
They’d start a family, have one or two children, and live happily together.
She’d never imagined it was all wishful thinking, nothing more than the happy future she’d dreamed up on her own.
In the future he envisioned, there was no place for her.
And there was someone else, too.
Fang Youyao didn’t have the courage to go in and confront him.
She turned away, eyes reddening, and quietly left.
She hadn’t woken again until moments ago.
She’d gotten drunk at the bar, and a stranger had taken her to a hotel.