He Cheng had always, consciously or unconsciously, avoided thinking deeply about this question.
Now that Zong Xubai had laid it bare so bluntly, her mind went blank.
She found the words offensive, yet she wasn't surprised they came from Zong Xubai's mouth. Having spent time with him, she could increasingly feel the sharp aggression and unbridled nature beneath his refined, scholarly exterior.
He often hit the nail on the head, without hesitation or restraint.
Carrying the innate, unquestionable confidence of someone in a position of power.
Ye Yanzhi's reaction was more intense than He Cheng's—one could say he was flushed with anger and humiliation.
He rarely felt this way. Zong Xubai saw through him too clearly, spoke too plainly, without any tact or consideration for face.
Two sentences had struck his sore spot, and the usually even-tempered man was now seething.
Suppressing the discontent rising in his chest, he said, "Isn't Mr. Zong a little too curious? By your logic, all couples in long-distance relationships aren't truly in love?"
Ye Yanzhi turned to He Cheng and added with a hint of uncertainty, "What we have isn't meant to be performed for outsiders."
He Cheng could hear the lack of confidence in Ye Yanzhi's voice, and her feelings were mixed. Her emotions ran shallow—she wasn't particularly infatuated with Ye Yanzhi, but she thought he was a good person who treated her well.
Thinking of all the kindness he'd shown her over the years, she instinctively reached under the table to hold his hand, comforting him through her actions.
Turning her head, her clear, limpid eyes met Zong Xubai's as she countered, "By Mr. Zong's logic, if we chose to have dinner with you tonight instead of eating at a street stall or a fancy restaurant, does that mean we think you're very important?"
The implication being: we chose to eat with you because the restaurant is upscale.
Zong Xubai's eyelids lifted, a chill settling in his gaze as he looked at her through dark, unfathomable eyes.
After firing back, meeting Zong Xubai's cool, moonlit stare, He Cheng felt a twinge of regret. How could she have said something so hurtful? She picked up the lemon water in front of her and took small, careful sips.
Telling herself it was his fault first.
He had overstepped his boundaries.
She had the right to push back.
With He Cheng on his side, Ye Yanzhi felt much better and was about to say something more when he suddenly heard Zong Xubai let out a scoffing laugh through his nose.
He looked over.
Zong Xubai's gaze rested on the glass in front of him, where He Cheng's reflection shimmered—visible but intangible, something to look at but never touch.
His thin lips parted, each word cutting sharply as he said, "Then by that logic, does it mean that whether in your studies or in choosing a boyfriend, the moment you find a better option, you'd abandon the worse one without hesitation?"
He Cheng frowned, strongly disagreeing with Mr. Zong's words. Perhaps in his eyes, she was just a calculating, materialistic girl.
She felt uncomfortable inside.
Even so, she gave him an out. "Mr. Zong, are you not in a good mood tonight? Did someone upset you?"
"Once you've calmed down, we can have dinner together again."
She began to rise from her seat, but a long, powerful hand landed on her shoulder.
Zong Xubai gently pressed her back down, then immediately released his hand with gentlemanly decorum—a stark contrast to how he'd held her hand in the elevator and refused to let go. His smile was charming, his voice almost hypnotic as he said, "Just a joke. Why are you getting all huffy and skipping dinner?"
"I thought we were friends who could talk about anything."
"If you don't like this topic, we won't discuss it."
His apology carried no resentment, with a hint of placation—anyone who knew him well would have been shocked speechless.
He Cheng had actually wanted to use this as an excuse to leave. Today, Mr. Zong had made her feel uncomfortable multiple times, yet he'd taken the initiative to admit fault, softened his demeanor, and hadn't overstepped physically.
He was such a strange person—sometimes he seemed to be teasing her, and other times he was utterly serious.
Now that he'd apologized, it was hard for her to keep making a scene and leave. Being too petty would damage the goodwill between them.
But his words earlier had been truly offensive. She didn't care for herself, but she had to consider her boyfriend's feelings.
She was caught in a dilemma.
Ye Yanzhi could see He Cheng's predicament and didn't want her to be troubled. He also knew that the sponsor meant the world to He Cheng—as long as he wasn't asking her to kill or commit arson, or cross her bottom line, she wouldn't turn her back on him.
She was too loyal and righteous.
Ye Yanzhi whispered to her, "Chengcheng, let it go."
Once a crack forms, it's hard to repair. Even sitting together, there was still a rift between the three of them, and the atmosphere was nowhere near as harmonious as before.
He Cheng consoled herself that having this meal with him was repayment for his sponsorship.
The food here was quite good too—by that measure, she was getting the better end of the deal. She'd go home right after this meal and never dine with him again. Less contact, fewer meetings—ideally, none at all.
The private room fell into an eerie silence. Zong Xubai seemed unfazed by the tension he'd created, casually draping his arm over the back of He Cheng's chair—from an outsider's perspective, they might have looked like a couple.
He glanced down at her troubled profile, then noticed the filming equipment on the table. Easing his mood, he deliberately asked, "What's that?"
Ye Yanzhi, seeing him ask, introduced it: "This is my DJI drone for filming."
He had bought it with money earned from a part-time job during winter break of his freshman year.
Zong Xubai then asked why he hadn't seen him filming, saying he shouldn't feel constrained and could shoot freely.
With his casual conversational tone, the atmosphere gradually relaxed.
Ye Yanzhi opened up, telling him about his account, and under his guidance, revealed the account name, saying today's footage would also be edited and posted.
Ye Yanzhi felt that Zong Xubai was unpredictable—when he was affable and polite, he was genuinely pleasant, able to chat about anything and control the flow of conversation, yet he revealed little about himself, always guiding others to speak while listening quietly.
But it never felt perfunctory or disinterested.
He was like a completely different person from the one who had been probing earlier.
It wasn't until they talked about high school memories that Ye Yanzhi found him easy to get along with, sharing common ground. He passed his phone to Zong Xubai across He Cheng—it contained a video he had filmed and edited of He Cheng's graduation ceremony.
They passed the phone back and forth, and He Cheng felt like the odd one out, that she shouldn't be sitting in the middle.
On the day of He Cheng's graduation ceremony, Ye Yanzhi had specially taken leave to go home.
The video was over three minutes long, starting from when he prepared to head back to his old high school.
He secretly returned to the school, went to He Cheng's classroom, asked the classmates around to help keep it a secret, and even begged them to film from other angles.
He wore a school uniform, wrapped up tightly, crouching at He Cheng's seat.
When He Cheng came back and saw someone crouching at her seat, she reached out to poke them. When they didn't budge, she poked with a book.
Ye Yanzhi suddenly stood up, arms sweeping wide, as ribbons scattered like a fairy scattering flowers above their heads, shouting "Surprise, happy graduation!"
He Cheng's expression went from stunned to incredulous, then settled into a gentle smile.
The classmates around them cheered, shouting "Hug! Hug!"
The two facing each other suddenly became shy.
His calm mood suddenly turned cold. A thin mist formed in Zong Xubai's eyes. His hand holding the phone moved toward the screen, his thumb covering Ye Yanzhi's head.
In his mind, he swapped his own face onto it.
As if the person He Cheng was smiling at so brightly was him.
This video had the most likes across all platforms. At the time, they weren't even together yet. The comments were uniformly about how wonderful youth was, along with praise for the handsome guy and beautiful girl, refusing to believe they were just classmates.
The private room was filled with the sound of the video playing aloud—their conversation, the classmates' cheering—extremely lively…
He Cheng had always felt that she and Ye Yanzhi were two extremes. Ye Yanzhi's youth was wild, full of laughter, vivid and passionate.
While she curled up in corners, in places where the light didn't reach, often covered in dust.
Only when Ye Yanzhi was around could she lift her head and catch a glimpse of sunlight and greenery.
Zong Xubai's seriousness about the video left He Cheng utterly confused. Her high school life was boring and dull—what was there to see?
If it had been before, she wouldn't have cared, but after everything that had happened, she even wanted to snatch the phone from his hand and not let him watch.
She couldn't bring herself to grab the phone, so she could only kindly advise: "There's nothing interesting to watch. Don't look anymore. Let's eat first."
The video showed normal interactions between classmates, nothing excessive. It was clear that Ye Yanzhi truly liked He Cheng, filming her plain, clean face beautifully.
Zong Xubai turned off the phone screen and set it aside, smiling faintly and coldly. "No, it's quite interesting."
He looked at her gentle profile as she lowered her head to eat vegetables. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice turned cold: "Yanzhi is thoughtful—his album is full of you."
On a normal day, He Cheng wouldn't know how to respond, but his strange words and behavior had been walking a tightrope across her nerves. She feared her overthinking might be true, so she reflexively said: "Right, we're a couple. His album naturally has to be all of me."
"I'm quite sentimental—can't bear to delete even the bad shots. My phone storage isn't enough, so a lot of videos and photos are stored on Baidu Cloud." Ye Yanzhi picked up the conversation, glancing at He Cheng, and said in a cheerful mood: "When we're old, these will all be sweet memories."
He Cheng shot him a slightly coquettish look and said sweetly and softly, "Thank you, Yanzhi."
Hearing his girlfriend speak so sweetly for the first time, Ye Yanzhi was pleasantly surprised. He smiled proudly and reached out to ruffle her hair: "What's there to thank? Recording my wife is only natural."
A smile hung at the corners of He Cheng's lips, thinking to herself, With acting at this level, anyone who gets it, gets it, right? Even if he has intentions, anyone with a shred of decency wouldn't come near her again.
On the surface, it was a harmonious trio, but the silent Zong Xubai was completely an outsider, unable to join in. His deep gaze fixed on the back of He Cheng's head—since sitting down, she hadn't given him a single look at her face.
But he could still sense from the back of her head and her profile the coquettish sweetness of a girl in love. His composed expression gradually darkened, turning cruel.
His throat itched, as if something were gnawing at it densely, his whole body burning with restlessness.
Those deliberately suppressed urges kept racing through his body, threatening to burst out.
He poured himself a glass of wine and asked Ye Yanzhi why he wasn't drinking. Wasn't he just brimming with ambition to drink all the alcohol moments ago?
Ye Yanzhi, recalling his childish behavior from earlier, scratched his head in embarrassment. His tolerance for alcohol was actually quite low—at his graduation banquet, he'd gotten dizzy after just a few glasses of baijiu.
Seeing that Zong Xubai had already raised his arm to clink glasses, he had no choice but to politely lift the special cocktail in front of him and raise it.
After a few sips, Zong Xubai received a phone call and stepped outside to take it.
A few minutes later, when he returned, through the half-closed door he saw two dark heads bent close together, with Ye Yanzhi holding up his phone.
Both of them had their backs to him.
He stood outside the door, tall and straight, narrowing his cold eyes as he peered inside with a chilling gaze.
Ye Yanzhi said, "Hey, stop doing the peace sign all the time. Switch it up."
"What pose? I don't know any."
"Then give me a kiss. You know how to do that, right?"
"No."
"Didn't you say you'd kiss me tonight?"
She couldn't bring herself to deliberately film an intimate moment for the video—it felt too awkward. "Are you drunk?"
She knew Ye Yanzhi had a low alcohol tolerance. The image of him drinking himself into a stupor at his own graduation banquet was still vivid in her memory. He'd only just had one glass, so he shouldn't be that drunk already.
"My head is a bit dizzy, Chengcheng. If you kiss me, I'll feel better." He started acting coy again.
He Cheng couldn't resist his repeated coaxing. A kiss was no big deal—she'd agreed to kiss him anyway, and now was as good a time as any.
Just as she was about to lean in, she heard him ask again, "Where's the lipstick I bought?"
Ye Yanzhi had given He Cheng a lipstick today, tucked inside her canvas bag.
She found it and held it out in her palm: "Here, why?"
"Put it on, then kiss me on the cheek…"
A kiss was one thing, but why did she have to put on lipstick and leave a mark? How embarrassing.
He Cheng's face grew hot, her skin feeling like it was dusted with powder, making her even more self-conscious.
"Put it on, Chengcheng. You'll look so pretty in lipstick. I want to see."
While He Cheng was still hesitating, the door to the private room was pushed open from outside, shattering the lovely atmosphere.
They both turned around at the same time. The crystal chandelier above Zong Xubai was dazzlingly bright, its cold light cutting across his handsome features as he looked down at them with a faintly scrutinizing gaze.
His brows and eyes were cold, yet a thin smile curved at the corners of his lips. "Taking photos? Am I interrupting?"
Ye Yanzhi quickly said no, then added politely, "If you don't mind, you can join us."
Zong Xubai walked in with the grace of a gentleman, smiling warmly as he said, "Never mind, I don't care much for photos. You two go on—don't mind me."
Having her time with her boyfriend observed and interrupted made He Cheng feel shy and awkward, like her privacy had been peeked at. She shot up and said she was going to the restroom.
Like a gust of wind, she fled past Zong Xubai with a red face. His jaw tightened as he cast his gaze downward—in the instant she ran past, the itch in his heart doubled.
Her presence crashed into him, filling his senses, then vanished without a trace.
His throat went dry.
At the dining table, Ye Yanzhi's face and neck were flushed red, his handsome features tinged with wine color, thoroughly drunk.
The Long Island Iced Tea he'd specially ordered—one glass down, and the next day he'd black out completely.
Lin Zhongxi was familiar with the restaurant owner and kept a large stash of liquor here. Over time, the owner knew his preferences and reserved this hidden menu item for him. Whenever he had troubles, he'd come here and order a Long Island Iced Tea to briefly forget his worries.
Zong Xubai ignored Ye Yanzhi and stepped out of the private room again.
Ye Yanzhi's head was spinning, seeing double. He drank a glass of lemon water to try to sober up.
But the alcohol's kick was too strong.
He simply slumped onto the table, closing his eyes to rest.
The upscale restaurant had few customers, and the restroom was filled with a fresh, elegant fragrance.
Below the mirror was a one-piece black stone basin, and the sound of the automatic sensor faucet faded away.
He Cheng picked up the lipstick she'd hastily grabbed and stared at it for a few seconds.
After a moment's hesitation, she twisted off the cap, leaned slightly toward the mirror, and glided the bullet across her full lips.
The restroom's dim, pinkish-gold lighting radiated from around the mirror frame, casting a soft glow over her skin.
He Cheng's lips were naturally pale, and this thin layer of red suffused across them brought out her complexion nicely.
The shade suited her.
The corners of her lips curved up, her smile impossible to hide—this was the first lipstick of her life.
Ye Yanzhi had said the girls in his class all used this affordable brand, and his younger sister's older friend Zhang Jingwen had recommended the shade.
He had a sunny personality and delicate features, popular with girls since high school, so it wasn't surprising he'd learned about these things from the girls in his class.
When Zong Xubai reached the restroom, He Cheng was still focused on layering her lipstick. He didn't go over to disturb her, instead leaning his waist against the black wall at an angle, his gaze fixed on the fair, beautiful oval face in the mirror.
The failed yet adorable makeup from this morning was still on her face, and the freshly applied red was vivid and alluring, making her lips look like cherries touched with morning dew—full, moist, radiating vibrant life.
The narrow, dimly lit space was utterly silent.
Her gaze inadvertently met another deep, profound look in the mirror. He Cheng froze for a moment, the lipstick in her hand slipping slightly past the line of her lips.
Zong Xubai had appeared at some point, sharing the same plane bathed in the dim, warm glow.
He leaned lazily against the wall, his gaze dark and intent as he stared over. When their eyes collided, his expressionless face twitched slightly, revealing a precise, calculated smile.
Even though He Cheng had long grown accustomed to his gentle gaze, that smile still made her heart skip a beat.
She felt embarrassed once again, pressed her lips together, and capped the lipstick. "Mr. Zong, how come you walk without making a sound?"
Her voice was soft and delicate, not accusatory, but Zong Xubai detected a hint of coquettish reproach in it. His smile grew warmer. "It looks quite nice. Why did you stop applying it?"
"I'm done." He Cheng grabbed a tissue and carefully wiped away the lipstick that had smudged past her lip line, looking into the mirror.
Being watched while doing something like this always made her feel flustered, but she couldn't very well tell him to stop looking. She wanted to leave quickly, so her movements became hurried and a bit rough.
Zong Xubai's smile faded. No longer holding back, he strode over on his long legs and stopped behind her.
The reflection in the mirror made it seem as though he had encircled her in his embrace.
He stared straight at her reflection, his thin lips forming each word deliberately. "Is it to kiss him?"
He Cheng froze again, her hand stopping mid-motion as she wiped the lipstick. She looked at the face in the mirror that was a full head taller than hers.
He really had seen and heard her conversation with Ye Yanzhi.
Shame surged over her like a tidal wave.
"He didn't tell you to put on lipstick to kiss him." Zong Xubai paid no heed to the shock and fragility in her eyes, continuing to ask bluntly: "Is kissing him that enjoyable?"
In the mirror, her lips were bright and rosy, her eyes wide with astonishment.
He stared at her, an inexplicable restlessness stirring in his chest.
She had come to the restroom to put on lipstick so she could kiss Ye Yanzhi better, to leave a mark on his face.
His dark eyes turned cold. He braced his hands on either side of her, urging, "Why aren't you answering?"
"This is my personal business. I have no obligation to answer." He Cheng lowered her lashes, trying to process her shock. Flustered, she wiped her hands with the tissue, but when she tried to leave, she realized she was trapped in his embrace, her range of movement reduced to a cramped space.
The scent of perilla emanating from him enveloped her.
She looked up, furrowing her brows. His behavior today had crossed the line multiple times—from holding her hand in the elevator to now cornering her in this small space. The answer seemed almost within reach.
Suppressing the creeping unease, she blinked her clear, bright eyes and said as politely as she could: "You're blocking my way."
Zong Xubai still had her encircled, with no intention of letting go. Instead, he leaned down slightly to meet her gaze.
A negotiable smile lingered at the corner of his lips, his demeanor that of someone settling accounts after the fact. "Tonight, you said 'Mr. Zong' four times and 'you' seven times."
"It's not too much for me to cash those in now, is it?"
"He Cheng."
Those last four words, delivered in a low, magnetic voice, were as casual and tender as ever—like a gentle spring drizzle.
He Cheng frowned. She couldn't stand his ambiguous advances, so she decided to lay her cards on the table.
"I was just about to tell you—I don't intend to play this game with you."
She didn't beat around the bush, speaking her mind directly: "The word 'bb' should never appear between us. Even if you don't mean anything by it, to me, that's a term only couples use for each other."
"I hope you can respect that."
She tried to reason with him: "If you keep calling me that, when you eventually have a girlfriend, she'll care about it—she'll get jealous and angry."
The smile at the corner of Zong Xubai's lips spread, his handsome face shifting in the ambiguous light of the restroom.
His voice, low and husky, wrapped around her like a net, each word entangling her: "You won't date me, so how could I ever have a girlfriend?"
He Cheng's nerves tightened. She thought she must have misheard or misunderstood. Her entire mind felt strung taut like a thin thread. All the worries and wild thoughts that had plagued her all evening finally landed. But she still couldn't believe what she had heard with her own ears.
Seeing her dumbfounded expression, Zong Xubai's eyes—cold all evening—seemed to ignite, a faint, scorching light flickering to life within them. It was the barely suppressed excitement of a hunter finally catching the scent of prey.
As if tempting her, as if offering a solution, he said: "Date me, then."
Her breath caught. The thin thread in her mind snapped violently, her thoughts grinding to a halt.
Incredulous and utterly stunned, she stared straight into his pitch-black eyes. The intense corruption and fervor in his pupils wrapped around her from all sides like a net.
Her heart felt as though it had been crushed by an invisible wheel, plummeting heavily.
Almost immediately, the words tumbled out: "I have a boyfriend."
Zong Xubai laughed—whether at her intense reaction or at the redundancy of her words, it was hard to tell. "He'll soon be an ex."
She rushed to defend herself: "He will never be an ex."
He smiled gently again, but beneath his lenses, his dark eyes were like leaves withering and falling without warning, a deathly, sinister aura seeping into her skin.
His low, magnetic voice was as seductive as a siren's song.
"It doesn't matter."
"Even if you don't break up, it won't stop us from dating."
"He comes to Hong Kong once a month to keep you company. I'll be here with you every single day."
What nonsense was he spouting!
He Cheng was utterly shattered, forcing herself to stay composed, calming her mind to chew over Zong Xubai's words one by one.
The orange-yellow light in the bathroom slashed down, casting over her terrified and incredulous face, her lashes trembling violently.
"Mr. Zong, you're drunk."
Even hearing these absurd words with her own ears, even though his previous behavior and remarks had crossed some lines, even though she had suspected he might have ulterior motives, He Cheng still instinctively made an excuse for him.
He had just been drinking—he must be drunk.
A breath of laughter escaped Zong Xubai's nose. "The police still need a breathalyzer to catch drunk drivers, but you just make things up on a whim."
He stared at her soft pink lips, his Adam's apple rolling heavily, a dark tint creeping into his eyes as he spoke recklessly, as if provoked.
Chaotic, wicked, and frivolous words pressed down on her one by one: "If I were really drunk, I'd just make my move directly. I wouldn't be negotiating with you so politely, offering you suggestions."
"I don't want to be the third party either. If you can break up with him, great. If not, then just try me out—you won't lose anything."
Her pupils dilated in fright, round eyes staring wide. Such frivolous, teasing words—coming from her sponsor's mouth. The moon that had hung so high in her heart shattered with a crack, its moonlight splitting into fragments.
She stood beneath the moon, its broken pieces raining down on her head.
Her mind buzzed, and for a long moment, she couldn't utter a single word.
As if knocked dizzy by his words, her legs went weak. She braced herself against the cold stone counter behind her, straining her neck to look at him seriously.
Desperate to find a trace of jest in his expression, she knew that Zong Xubai was open-minded in his topics and views on relationships.
Perhaps he was just searching for answers for his debate topic.
With his status, people would flock to him just for sitting there. What did she have that was worth tempting?
Her wavering pupils reflected his flawless features. His lips curved in that familiar faint smile, his eyes gentle—a beauty that could pierce the heart, could destroy.
"Your words are absurd." She bit her lip, lowering her lashes in confusion and terror.
Her tongue stumbled slightly, but she still tried to express herself fully: "Think about it—dating someone else. I'm not the kind of person you imagine who changes her mind at the sight of something new, who's fickle and unfaithful."
Zong Xubai took a shallow, deep breath, those eyes capturing her gently, his tone patient and elegant.
"Dating me isn't changing your mind or being fickle—it's a possibility."
"These days, who doesn't have an ex?"
"Dump him, choose me—isn't that only natural?"
He Cheng gripped the cold stone counter, her throat as if strangled, struggling to breathe.
Coldness crept up from the soles of her feet.
Her whole body shrank from the chill as she suddenly looked up. "Shut up!"
Zong Xubai laughed.
This girl was truly polite and respectful toward him—even when furious, even when shocked, even when terrified, all she said was "shut up."
Scared speechless by his words, yet those clear, limpid eyes still looked at him with stubbornness and persistence, with defiance and innocence.
Utterly unmoved by his words.
Was he really that terrible?
Could he not measure up to a penniless youth who only knew sweet talk?
Zong Xubai's smile made He Cheng's hair stand on end. She suddenly feared his smile—it was unreadable, sending chills down her spine.
Before she knew him, she had always thought that if a person had a smile on their face, they couldn't be hard to get along with—at least they'd be kind, approachable, good-natured, friendly.
That was indeed the impression he had given her.
Refined. Gentlemanly. Cultured.
Every beautiful word in the world could be used to describe him.
Now, she discovered that a soft smile could also conceal a ruthless blade.
All those nouns piled into a mountain collapsed and reshaped overnight.
The moon was no longer the moon. The mountain was no longer the mountain.
This wasn't the sponsor she knew.
This was also the sponsor she knew.
No one is perfect.
Multiple fragments formed a complete Zong Xubai, and others could never know which one was his true nature.
They only knew his surface—elegant, gentlemanly, modest, refined, and gentle—all praised by others.
Illusions. All illusions.
How had a good person completely turned into a rotten one?
Zong Xubai raised an eyebrow. "Angry?"
She had a boyfriend, she had morals and boundaries, and he still spoke recklessly, teasing and toying with her—what did he take her for?
Just because he said he wanted to date her, was she supposed to accept with tearful gratitude?
She had the right to refuse and to be angry.
He Cheng tried to steady her pounding heart, searching her mind for words to rebuke him: "This kind of behavior of yours will be despised."
"Please stop saying such inexplicable things to me."
She used all her strength to push away the arm he had braced on the washbasin, but couldn't budge him an inch. Her palm pressed against the thin fabric of his shirt, crumpling it.
Instead, he stepped forward, drawing her into his embrace, letting her push at him like a kitten kneading milk. His skin seemed to burn hers; she snatched her hand back, guarding it against her chest, swallowing hard as she looked at him in panic and alarm.
Trembling with fear, she said, "I—I should go back."
Zong Xubai's pupils shimmered with orange light, reflecting a face full of panic and fear.
He nearly eclipsed the light, staring at her bright red lips—coated in thick gloss, full and sensual. His gaze sharpened, and he spoke calmly and elegantly, releasing his final threat: "After everything that's been said, do you really think I'll let you go back to Ye Yanzhi so easily?"