Dusk settled in, and the streetlights blurred in the deepening gloom.
After getting off bus 817, Su Tang walked along the road for a while, then took a shortcut by turning right into Yangjiao Alley. She had only just gone a short way when several local thugs suddenly darted out ahead of her and blocked her path.
The man in front had a cigarette between his lips. He wore a black T-shirt and blue patterned shorts. Whether it was confidence or something else, he’d even shown up for this job in flip-flops.
“Boss, this girl’s a looker. We’ve hit the jackpot this time.” The lackey beside him leered at Su Tang.
Su Tang was obsessively particular about cleanliness. Seeing the man practically drooling all over the place, she frowned in disgust.
“Tsk. She really is a looker.” The yellow-haired man they called Boss whistled at Su Tang with a sleazy grin.
Su Tang instinctively tightened her grip on her backpack strap and took two steps back.
She knew perfectly well these men hadn’t come with good intentions.
She slipped both hands into her hoodie pockets and surveyed them with a faint smile, utterly uninterested.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Long Biao kept the cigarette between his lips, exhaled a cloud of smoke, then flicked away the butt. He looked at Su Tang and stepped closer, his manner brazen and sleazy. “Little girl, someone’s paying us five hundred thousand to violate you. With looks like yours, five hundred thousand is a bargain.”
“Is that so? I think so too.” Su Tang smiled faintly at them, her tone light and utterly unafraid.
Who would have thought that someone as beautiful as her would be worth only five hundred thousand? She found it rather depressing.
Seeing Su Tang’s reaction, Long Biao and the others weren’t sure what to make of her.
She was just too calm.
It made them uneasy. They even began to wonder if the buyer was setting them up.
Not far away, a black Porsche Cayenne happened to pass by and stopped at a traffic light. As the car waited for the light to change, the man inside glanced to the side and happened to see what was going on.
The girl had her left hand in her pocket. With only her right hand, she sent four or five men sprawling to the ground. Her movements were graceful, her steps steady. That languid air of hers immediately piqued the man’s curiosity.
Mo Jun, in the driver’s seat, turned around, about to say something, but saw his boss staring out the window, utterly absorbed.
Following the man’s gaze, Mo Jun saw four or five young thugs harassing a girl.
He spoke to the man in the back seat.
“Ninth Master, should I call the police?”
The man came to himself, looked away, and smiled indifferently. “No need. Let’s go.”
With that girl’s ferocity, involving the police seemed utterly unnecessary.
Mo Jun: “…All right.”
Under the star-flecked night sky,
the Jiang family home.
“Bang!”
Someone kicked the bedroom door open from the outside.
Jiang Wan, who had been putting on makeup, instinctively looked toward the door.
With both hands in her pockets, Su Tang strode in at an unhurried pace and stopped in front of Jiang Wan.
“Su—Su Tang?” Jiang Wan’s voice trembled, betraying her guilty conscience.
Su Tang gazed down at her with a menacing curl to her lips. She bent over the desk, leaning toward Jiang Wan, and tapped one finger against it in a steady rhythm. Her voice was low and probing. “Feeling guilty?”
When Jiang Wan said nothing, Su Tang continued, “Or are you scared? Maybe both?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would I feel guilty when I haven’t done anything?” Jiang Wan had already calmed down, and her voice sounded steady. But her darting eyes gave her away.
“Knock, knock, knock…” The rhythmic tapping sounded like a death knell. Jiang Wan was so tense she could hardly bear it.
Then, abruptly, the tapping stopped.
That hand settled on her neck and slowly tightened.
Only when Jiang Wan’s face had gone pale did Su Tang let go. She gripped her chin and warned her, “Don’t let it happen again. Understand?”
Jiang Wan stubbornly shook her head and tried to break free, but Su Tang was too strong. Her neck hurt, and so did her chin. “Let go of me!” Her voice shook, thick with tears.
“Where’s all that toughness now? Where’s the vicious streak you had when you plotted against me? Jiang Wan, it’s not that I look down on you—it’s that your despicable tricks are beneath contempt.”
Su Tang flung her away.
She wiped her hand and continued, “If you cause me trouble again, I won’t hesitate to send a few people to dance on your grave.”
Su Tang was genuinely angry this time. She had little patience to begin with, and this little white flower had tried to play dirty with her again and again.
Those tricks were nothing to her, but after so many times, she was truly fed up.
Especially this time: the little white flower had actually hired local thugs to try to ruin her virtue.
For someone so young, Jiang Wan certainly had a mind for that sort of thing.
If Su Tang had been an ordinary person, she probably wouldn’t have escaped what awaited her tonight.
That was why Su Tang was angry.
Jiang Wan tumbled from her chair onto the floor. Her eyes reddened, and she looked up at Su Tang as though she had suffered some terrible injustice, weak and pitiful. “I didn’t do anything.”
Stubborn to the end.
Su Tang was so angry she laughed. Looking down at her, her eyes filled with coldness, she said, “You really think I don’t know what you’ve done? Tsk. How naive.”
“You’ve got nothing but mush between your ears, yet you insist on playing mind games with me. Jiang Wan, it’s not that I look down on you. You’re just plain stupid.”
With that, she turned, stepped away, and left.
Jiang Wan was left behind, crying until tears streamed down her face. Her face was pale, but she still shouted stubbornly, “Su Tang, I’m not done with you!”
Hearing that, Su Tang only curled her lips into a faint smile.
She paid Jiang Wan no further attention.
Auntie Mei, who had come upstairs after hearing the commotion, happened to see Su Tang coming out of Jiang Wan’s room. Her heart gave a jolt. Hearing the sobbing from inside, she nervously called, “Miss A-Tang.”
Su Tang stopped and glanced sideways at her. “What is it?”
Auntie Mei shook her head, but said, “I heard Miss Wan crying. Did something happen between you two?”
What she really wanted to ask was, *Did you bully Miss Wan again?* But she didn’t dare; she simply couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Su Tang might not look very old, but her gaze was sharp—frighteningly so.
In all her years, Auntie Mei had never met anyone like her.
If she was like this at such a young age, what would she be like when she grew up?
Su Tang had no idea what Auntie Mei was thinking. Hearing her words, she let out a quiet scoff and said in a low voice, “That’s all she knows how to do—cry.”
It wasn’t that Su Tang looked down on Jiang Wan for no reason. Jiang Wan truly didn’t measure up in her eyes.
“Miss Tang, Miss Wan is no match for you. Why bother making trouble for her?”
At that, Su Tang raised an eyebrow and studied her. “Making trouble for her? If I were really settling scores, grass would be growing over her grave by now.”
“But…” Hearing Jiang Wan still crying in the room, Auntie Mei was even more certain that Su Tang had really laid hands on her.
Never mind. She’d wait until Mr. and Mrs. Jiang came home.
She was only a servant; she had no way to interfere in the family’s affairs.
Su Tang turned and walked straight into her own room, then locked the door behind her.
Just then, the indicator light on the computer across the room blinked once.
She went over, sat down, and switched it on. Her slender, fair fingers flew across the keyboard, and a window soon popped up.
A young man appeared on screen, wearing black-framed glasses. He was bent over some calculations, his pen moving nonstop. It seemed he had only managed to look up at the screen for a moment amid his busy work.
Su Tang rested her legs on the desk and leaned back in her chair, gazing lazily at him on the screen. Only then did she speak. “I told you, if you sent me out to experience life, you shouldn’t keep bothering me. That goes against my principles.”
Back then, a few old men had taken it upon themselves to send her out to experience life without asking her. They had simply made the decision on their own, and it had made her very unhappy.
“We’re not bothering you. It’s just that your birthday is coming up, and the teachers asked me to find out how you want to celebrate this year.” Just thinking about it gave Wen Shuyan a headache. Those old men clearly hadn’t wanted to incur this formidable young lady’s wrath, so they’d pushed him forward to take the brunt of it.
“How should I celebrate?” Su Tang raised an eyebrow. “By lying down?”
Wen Shuyan: “…”
He took a deep breath. He had to stay calm. He couldn’t get worked up. “Tangtang, be serious.”
“I am serious.” She lowered her legs and sat upright, a smile playing on her lips. “Actually, I’d like to see how the parents those old men went to so much trouble to find for me will behave.” More than anything, life had been so boring lately; she wanted to watch the show.
Wen Shuyan’s pen paused. He couldn’t help laughing, then nodded. “All right.” After a moment, he added, “I wonder if the teachers will regret taking it upon themselves to find you a family.”
Su Tang lowered her eyes, her expression unreadable. After all, people aren’t made of wood or stone; how could they be without feelings?
At first, Su Tang had been angry, but more than that, she’d been anxious. She had wondered what it would be like to reunite with her family.
But the reality hadn’t lived up to her expectations.
“Tangtang, are they treating you well?” Wen Shuyan asked with concern.
Su Tang suddenly looked up and smiled lightly. “So-so.”
“If you’re unhappy at the Jiang family’s, come back,” Wen Shuyan said, adjusting his glasses. “It’s pretty boring without you.”
“Ha! You might be bored, but I’m not bored in the slightest.” If anything, she was having a very interesting time.
She rolled her neck and stretched. “Since the old men have arranged all this for me, I might as well treat it as a vacation.”
“What about your experiment?” Wen Shuyan asked.
Su Tang tilted her head. “I’ll get back to it when my vacation’s over.”
“How long will that be?”
“No idea.”
Wen Shuyan didn’t know what to say. This little terror had always done exactly as she pleased, taking life at her own pace. He had no desire to persuade her—he knew it would be useless.
After a few brief reminders, he said, “Keep an eye out over the next few days. Everyone’s already sent your birthday presents to Haicheng.”
“Mm. I’m hanging up.” Before Wen Shuyan on the other side of the screen could say anything, she logged off.