Late autumn night. Moonlight congealed like frost as cold slanted down from the sky.
Glass shut out the chill outside the window. Warm yellow light illuminated two entwined figures on the large bed. Rapid breaths pulled at muddled desire. The woman’s soft, coy moans and the man’s heavy panting were enough to make one’s face burn.
“Do you know who I am?” The man braced one arm on the bed. Dark eyes churned with suppressed lust. Adam’s apple rolled as he looked down at the woman beneath him. His low voice was hoarse and seductive from the drug in his system.
The girl’s cheeks were flushed. A thin sheen of sweat covered her forehead. Snow-white arms looped around his neck. Her large eyes shimmered with moisture, and in her dazed state she could vaguely make out his refined, noble features.
“I… don’t know, but you’re good-looking.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, as if coated in honeyed sugar.
“You’re the one who tempted me. Don’t cry when you wake up tomorrow.”
His breathing was heavy and scorching. His burning palm pressed against her soft waist, forceful and domineering as he pulled her tightly into his arms.
An unfamiliar pain spread rapidly through her body. Gu Qingyue’s fingers clenched suddenly, leaving faint marks on the man’s back.
Outside, the wind howled with cold. Inside, the ambiguous, intoxicating air kept driving the temperature higher.
…
One night of recklessness, until dawn broke.
Sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains and scattered over the messy bed.
Gu Qingyue’s entire body ached. Her head felt heavy and dull. She braced herself and slowly sat up, only to suck in a sharp breath as pain surged from below.
A mist of tears blurred her vision, yet memories replayed with cruel clarity.
Ever since she was young, the Gu family parents had been cold toward her. She never understood why, until after the college entrance exams, when the Gu family brought back a girl from outside.
Only then did she learn that she was not the Gu family’s biological daughter at all.
Gu’s mother lied, saying that Gu’s father had been away on business during the delivery. After giving birth, she had fainted directly. The nanny, careless and afraid of taking responsibility, lost the newborn Gu Jiaxin. Panicking, she bought a baby of similar age from human traffickers.
They only grew suspicious years later when they happened to see Gu Jiaxin’s resemblance to Gu’s mother.
They said that whether she was biological or not, the Gu family would still acknowledge her as their daughter. Gu Jiaxin kept calling her “sister,” and they all seemed to truly treat her as family.
But Gu Qingyue knew that was not her home.
Now that their real daughter had returned, it was inappropriate for her to keep occupying that place. So she rarely went back to the Gu family house.
Last night, Gu Jiaxin invited her out to dinner, saying the family should get together. Gu Qingyue had even brought a gift.
With a sweet smile, Gu Jiaxin handed her a glass of wine.
“Sister, thank you for the gift. I really like it. Let me toast you.”
She drank it without any guard.
In less than five minutes, her body began to heat up, her consciousness gradually blurring.
The once kind-looking family revealed another face.
Gu’s father looked at her coldly. “The Gu family raised you for twenty years. It’s time for you to repay us. If not for the fact that your face is still useful, you would’ve been kicked out the moment Xinxin came back.”
Gu’s mother sneered harshly. “Don’t blame us for being heartless. Back then, we brought you back from the orphanage because your birth chart was good. You could block disasters for Xinxin. You enjoyed twenty years of good living. You should be grateful.”
Gu Jiaxin snorted. “You took my place for eighteen years. Just sending you off to President Li like this is already a bargain for you.”
President Li was a nearly fifty-year-old middle-aged man, potbellied, greasy, and lewd.
So everything had been a lie. Her twenty years had all been lived inside deception.
How ridiculous.
Gu Qingyue bit her lip as tears welled in her eyes.
After they sent her into President Li’s room, she used the last shred of clarity to escape. She did not know where she ran. Dizzy and unsteady, she crashed into something, and after that she remembered nothing.
The pain in her body and the clothes scattered across the floor all reminded her of last night’s absurdity.
Her hands clenched the bedsheets, her lower lip nearly bitten bloody.
Had she still failed to escape, even after trying so hard?
A faint click of a lock sounded in the quiet room.
Gu Qingyue tensed instantly. She hurriedly wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, exposing only her head.
The man who entered wore a black overcoat. Straight, long legs were wrapped in tailored suit trousers. Tall and jade-like, with a crane-bone bearing and pine-like grace.
That face was flawless. His brows and eyes were ink-dark. Narrow phoenix eyes were sharp and cold, the slightly upturned corners adding a touch of ascetic menace. His skin was extremely pale, nose bridge high and straight, thin lips pressed lightly together in detached indifference.
Noble, distant, cool and aloof, like a god beyond reach.
This face was not unfamiliar to Gu Qingyue. She had once seen him by chance in a financial newspaper.
Shang Yuze, I am twenty-six years old. The helmsman of the Shang family, Beijing’s top financial conglomerate, and a business titan of Huaguo.
Eight years ago, Shang family parents died in a car accident orchestrated by collateral relatives. The company’s major shareholders and directors stirred restlessly, while side branches eyed the Shang family fortune like tigers.
With enemies within and without, eighteen-year-old Shang Yuze shouldered the entire Shang family alone. With ruthless methods, he eliminated dissent and led all Shang family industries to new heights.
In the past five years, he expanded overseas markets. His investments spanned multiple countries. His vision was viciously precise. Any industry he invested in rose at astonishing speed.
At eighteen, he fought through blood and storm in the business world, carving out a path of his own and becoming a legend.
Even to the Gu family, Shang Yuze was an existence far beyond reach.
Could the man from last night really be him?
Before Gu Qingyue could think it through, he had already reached the bedside.
She was completely naked. Even wrapped in the blanket, she felt no sense of security.
Faced with a strange man, her body instinctively shrank back. She curled into the corner of the bed, clutching the blanket tightly and staring at him with vigilance.
Her skin was snow-white. Her brows and eyes were exquisitely beautiful. Brows like distant mountains, lips naturally red without makeup. Unadorned, she was already a peerless beauty. Those fox-like eyes shimmered enticingly, the slight lift at the corners brimming with allure, like a soul-stealing enchantress.
Now, those glass-colored eyes were filled with panic. Her pale little face looked fragile, like porcelain that could shatter at a touch.
Shang Yuze noticed her fear. He stopped, placing three bags in his hand at the foot of the bed.
“Clothes.”
His low voice was cold and flat. His phoenix eyes were indifferent, giving nothing away.
Gu Qingyue looked over. Every bag bore the logo of a top international luxury brand.
Even the cheapest piece from that brand cost tens of thousands. She remembered that once, when Gu Jiaxin wanted a dress from this brand, she had begged Gu’s parents for days before they finally agreed.