Every hair on Su Ran’s body stood on end. she jerked her head to the side, narrowly avoiding Xue Yi’s lunging, greedy mouth.
Xue Yi turned his head again, trying to kiss her neck.
Su Ran grabbed his hair with all her might and yanked it back without a hint of mercy.
Xue Yi gasped in pain and hissed, “You’d rather sleep with another man than let me touch you?”
By the dim light of the motion-sensor lamp in the living room, Su Ran saw Xue Yi’s distorted, twisted face. Her heart was filled with bitterness and hatred. “Aren’t you disgusted with yourself? Weren’t you the one who put something in my juice yesterday?”
Xue Yi tightly gripped Su Ran’s wrists. “That’s only because you kept rejecting me! Do you know how I spent last night? I wanted to strangle that man.”
Su Ran suppressed her nausea and retorted, “Then why didn’t you call the police? Why didn’t you find someone to save me? Were you afraid of ruining your reputation, or were you afraid that you couldn’t afford to offend the person inside?”
Xue Yi was speechless. Although he didn’t know who was in the room, he was indeed terrified. He could only stand by and let that man in the presidential suite give him a glowing green hat of a cuckold.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became—so angry his body ached and trembled. He pinned Su Ran’s arms and waist and began dragging her toward the bedroom.
“Let go of me!” Su Ran struggled, twisting her body and slamming her head against Xue Yi’s nose and mouth.
The metallic taste of blood immediately filled Xue Yi’s mouth. In a fit of rage, he threw Su Ran onto the sofa, spat, and lunged at her, pinning her down firmly. “I should have just taken you long ago.”
With that, he lowered his head to kiss her with his bloodied lips.
Su Ran was pinned under Xue Yi’s weight and couldn’t exert any strength. Only her wrists could move slightly, and she clawed at his ribs with all her might.
Xue Yi, feeling both tickled and pained, shuddered.
Su Ran seized the opportunity to pull one arm free. She blindly felt around the coffee table until she grabbed a glass and smashed it against the corner of the table with all her strength.
The glass shattered instantly.
Su Ran gripped the handle tightly, pointing the jagged shards directly at Xue Yi’s face. “I’m not afraid of us both going down. You can gamble on whether your face can take thirty stitches.”
The shards glinted ominously under the dim wall lamp. Xue Yi calmed down instantly. He knew Su Ran’s character too well; she really would do it.
He was a beast, but he valued his life even more. Moreover, he couldn’t afford a total fallout with Su Ran just yet.
Seeing his expression soften, Su Ran seized the moment. “Xue Yi, I have surveillance in my house that can call the police directly via voice command. I’m showing some mercy by not saying the command yet. You’re a man of some standing; let’s part ways amicably. Don’t let this end in mutual destruction.”
Xue Yi gritted his teeth and stood up reluctantly. “Delete the surveillance footage first.”
Su Ran also stood up immediately, backing away a few steps toward the wall to flip on the main lights. She picked up a fruit knife as well. “You leave first.”
Xue Yi scanned the room and spotted the camera with its glowing indicator light on top of the refrigerator in the corner. He coaxed, “As long as you stop making a scene, I can temporarily forgive you for what happened last night.”
Hearing him speak made Su Ran feel like her ears were being defiled. “You were the one who cheated first, and you were the one who drugged me. You have the nerve to talk about forgiveness?”
Xue Yi paused. He hadn’t expected Su Ran to know he was seeing someone else. Fortunately, based on her tone, she didn’t seem to know who it was yet. “Is that why you brought up the breakup? Did you sleep with another man just to spite me and disgust me?”
Su Ran felt nauseated. How had she never noticed how shameless he was before? “Xue Yi, don’t look for excuses to absolve yourself. I’m not so stupid that I’d ruin myself just to get back at you. Let me emphasize this again: I was drugged by you. You were the one who harmed me.”
Xue Yi sidestepped the main issue. “I’m your boyfriend. It’s perfectly reasonable for me to want to be intimate with you.”
Su Ran didn’t want to argue with him anymore. “As of yesterday, you weren’t. If you keep lingering here, I’ll call the police immediately and charge you with trespassing and attempted rape…”
Xue Yi interrupted her, emphasizing again, “Delete the footage first, and then I’ll leave.”
Su Ran replied, “We’ll go out together and I’ll delete it.”
Xue Yi only wanted to get rid of the evidence so she wouldn’t have any leverage over him. He cooperatively exited the apartment and stood inside the elevator.
Su Ran stayed in the hallway. Facing him through the elevator doors, she opened the app and deleted all of today’s surveillance content in front of his eyes.
Just as the “file deleted” notification appeared, a message from a contact popped up on the screen.
8086: Come over tomorrow. We have things to discuss in detail.
Xue Yi immediately realized it was the man from last night. Rage surged to his head, and he slapped the elevator door to stop it from closing. “You’re actually still in contact!”
Su Ran pointed to the surveillance camera inside the elevator and shot a wary glance at Xue Yi. She pressed her red lips to the microphone and replied with a voice message: “President Lu, see you tomorrow at Gaoshan Capital.”
Su Ran was clear-headed.
At this moment, the most critical thing was to resolve the issues with the factory. At most, she would use Lu Jingxing as a backup to intimidate him.
She absolutely could not provoke Xue Yi to the point of desperation just for a moment of satisfaction, lest he do something reckless to trip her up again.
“Did you hear that? I’m going to talk about financing with Lu Jingxing tomorrow.”
Xue Yi’s teeth itched with rage, but he didn’t believe a word Su Ran said.
That was Lu Jingxing. His room wasn’t somewhere people could just enter at will. Even if Lu Jingxing had taken a fancy to her, with his cautious nature, it was impossible for him to sleep with someone who just showed up at his door so easily.
Otherwise, his uncle wouldn’t have needed to come up with such a convoluted plan.
Su Ran must be trying to trick him. He couldn’t let her go. If she really managed to latch onto someone wealthy, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to the higher-ups.
He couldn’t hide this anymore. He had to have his uncle investigate as soon as possible to find out who was really in 8086.
Xue Yi’s face darkened. “You are not allowed to go.”
Su Ran kept her harsh words to herself and said coldly, “The video is deleted. Good riddance.”
With a click, the neighbor’s door opened. Auntie Zhao walked into the elevator carrying a trash bag. She had a look of disdain, as if watching a young couple being overly affectionate in public. “Oh my, you’re even seeing him off to the elevator?”
Xue Yi, being obsessed with his public image, withdrew his hand. Knowing Su Ran was a filial daughter, he decided that if he couldn’t persuade her, he would use her family to tie her down and call her back. “I’ll accompany you to visit your parents tomorrow.”
Su Ran’s very bones shook with disgust. How could he still have the gall to suggest seeing her parents?
Auntie Zhao rolled her eyes with a fake smile and pressed the close button repeatedly. “I’m in a hurry to take out the trash. You two can chat tomorrow.”
Su Ran said nothing, watching the elevator doors slowly close. She immediately ran back home and double-locked the door.
She poured a glass of water and gulped it down. Only then did she realize she was covered in a cold sweat. Her clothes were stuck to her body, cold and clammy, making her feel incredibly uncomfortable.
Looking at the glass shards on the floor, Su Ran felt her body go weak with lingering fear. She ripped off the sofa cushions, threw them into the trash, and collapsed onto a corner of the sofa.
Soon, she forced herself to sit up. With trembling fingers, she opened the surveillance app.
She had purchased cloud storage. What she had deleted just now were only the local files.
Combined with the video of the drugging and the photos of his infidelity, she had enough to hold over Xue Yi at any time to prevent him from acting out.
Su Ran forced herself to clean up the living room. Then, she made a simple bowl of clear noodle soup and ate it hastily.
No matter what, she couldn’t back down until Gaoshan Capital gave a final answer.
Only after eating and resting would she have the energy to face it.
The next morning, at the appointed time, Su Ran arrived once again at the landmark building, Gaoshan Tower.
Even though it was Saturday, there were still many people coming and going in the lobby.
The receptionist called the President’s office to confirm and then replied to her, “President Lu is not in.”