On the screen, two figures were entwined.
Colorful light and shadow illuminated the man’s handsome profile, as if it had been carved in exquisite detail.
The girl slid down from her seat in the back row.
Her slender wrist hooked around the man’s long neck. Her delicate, pale fingers traced the outline of his ear, then slid down to his prominent Adam’s apple.
Her hot breath washed over his cool, pale skin, as though kindling a fire beside his ear.
The film was showing the climactic scene of a passionate push and pull, and the room glowed with a soft, intimate amber light.
The light flickered.
It clearly revealed the man’s dark phoenix eyes, deep and intense, as he struggled to suppress his surging desire.
Suddenly, warmth brushed his ear.
The girl took his earlobe into her mouth and licked and sucked at it gently, without any sense of rhythm.
The man’s breath caught. He turned his head and stared at her.
At his movement, someone in the row ahead turned to look at them.
Startled, the girl’s young face flushed inch by inch. Even the faint tremor at the end of her voice seemed to carry a hook. “Big Brother…”
…
“Young Master, wake up! We’re almost home.”
Shen Zhiyu jolted awake. Blinding sunlight filled his vision.
He slowly straightened and rubbed his earlobe. A cold smile tugged at his lips.
He’d dreamed of that moment in the movie theater again.
Three years.
Jiang Zhi, you really are haunting me!
Hunter, the most high-end nightlife venue in Beicheng.
When Jiang Zhi pushed open the door to the private room on the top floor, the lively atmosphere inside instantly froze.
Appraising, mocking eyes surrounded her.
She seemed not to notice them, walking straight toward the man seated in the middle of the sofa. Her back was straight as a rose stem.
The man’s gaze and expression were distant and cool. With his straight nose and red lips, he was handsome and aristocratic, standing out among the crowd like clear moonlight—aloof and untouchable.
Today was his twenty-seventh birthday.
Jiang Zhi’s doe eyes brimmed with nervous anticipation as she held out the jewelry box. Her voice was soft and sweet. “Big Brother, happy birthday!”
Shen Zhiyu lazily stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette between his fingers. He didn’t even glance at her. His low, cold voice shattered the girl’s hopes in an instant.
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s your birthday today. I came to give you a present…”
“I don’t need your gift.”
Shen Zhiyu ignored the faint flicker in her dewy, misty eyes and ordered, “This isn’t a place you should be.”
Jiang Zhi froze where she stood.
They hadn’t seen each other in three years, and he was even colder than before.
The man rose. His tall, straight figure stood against the light, his broad shoulders blocking the light above her.
As he spoke, a tiny mole on his Adam’s apple moved with each word—sensual and alluring, yet dignified and untouchable.
“I’ll have someone take you home.”
“No…”
Jiang Zhi still had to tilt her head to look up at him. She stared at him without blinking.
Her thick black hair fell to her waist, making her small face look even whiter than jade. Her waist was so slender it seemed one could encircle it with a hand.
Somewhere around them, a dissolute young man cracked, “Honestly, Jiang Zhi is… way too much for a man to handle!”
The young woman’s eyes were red and wet, her nose pink. She looked utterly pitiful. “Big Brother, could I stay at your place for one night?”
“Don’t try that with me!”
Shen Zhiyu’s gaze passed coolly over her pure, sorrowful eyes. His voice was so cold it bordered on harsh. “Go home now. Don’t make Third Uncle worry.”
Seeing how little Shen Zhiyu cared, the others began jeering. Their words were full of disdain and scorn for Jiang Zhi.
“Throwing yourself at him, are you? We all got to know what you were like three years ago—you’re Beicheng’s number-one vixen!”
“I can’t stand girls like her. She looks like a pure little white flower, but she’s scheming as hell behind the scenes. She latched onto Uncle Shen and thought she’d climbed a high branch?”
“Shameless! Seducing Uncle Shen wasn’t enough—now you’re trying to seduce Big Brother Zhiyu too!”
Jiang Zhi had endured these taunts for so long that she was numb to them.
But Shen Zhiyu’s indifference still made her heart ache in dull, repeated pangs, as if she were being slowly cut to pieces.
Jiang Zhi was an only child. When she was ten, both her parents died in a car accident, and their company went bankrupt soon after.
With nowhere else to go, she was taken in by her father’s closest friend. From then on, she lived in Shen Zhiyu’s Third Uncle’s home.
Three years ago, someone set her up.
A photo of her leaving a hotel with Uncle Shen circulated in their social circle. Overnight, people began calling her a vixen who had seduced the man who’d taken her in.
Everyone believed that Jiang Zhi, powerless and without connections, had resorted to such a vile scheme to climb into the Shen family.
Shen Zhiyu believed it too.
After all, three years ago, he’d nearly fallen into her trap himself.
But then word got around that she and Third Uncle were together.
She was best at pretending. Her eyes always looked as if they held two pools of water, inviting people to pity her.
But when she looked at him, her pupils would gradually light up, like a little beast spotting its prey.
Her gaze was brazen, full of possessiveness.
She was anything but well-behaved!
He hated that air of smug certainty, that pride that said she was bound to get what she wanted.
Third Uncle might fall under her spell. He wouldn’t.
Shen Zhiyu lowered his eyes. His gaze settled on her long, pale neck, then rose to her soft, moist pink lips.
She was very close. A faint scent, like gardenias, drifted toward him, fresh and dewy, matching the fragrance he remembered.
The girl’s eyes shifted slightly, and her lips parted. “Big Brother, I really am in a difficult situation…”
“Trying that again?” A clear, melodious voice came from the doorway. “Jiang Zhi, aren’t vixens supposed to cultivate themselves? How come you haven’t improved at all?”
Their eyes met. Jiang Zhi’s heart gave a startled, painful squeeze.
It was Bai Yao.
The daughter of Beicheng’s once-richest Bai family, and the woman designated as Shen Zhiyu’s future fiancée from the moment she was born.
They’d been a perfect match in school, both in looks and talent.
Now that Shen Zhiyu had just returned from studying abroad, Bai Yao had chased after him back to China. It seemed their wedding bells would soon be ringing.
The atmosphere grew subtly tense.
Everyone else greeted Bai Yao with admiration and warmth, a stark contrast to how they’d treated Jiang Zhi.
Bai Yao walked toward Shen Zhiyu, speaking gently. “Zhiyu, I’m back.”
Her sweet smile was as lovely as a flower. “I missed you so much.”
In a blink, Jiang Zhi had been pushed out of the crowd.
Shen Zhiyu’s gaze drifted toward her petite figure, almost imperceptibly. He watched as she backed toward the door, like an injured little rabbit ready to bite.
Her eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed.
He abruptly looked away, a wave of restless irritation passing through him.
Whether or not she was really in trouble, as long as Third Uncle was still alive, there was no need for him to worry about her.
Bai Yao continued to speak coyly by his ear. “Zhiyu, I came back especially to celebrate your birthday!”
At last, Shen Zhiyu’s expression softened a little. “Why didn’t you tell your cousin you were coming back?”
“I wanted to surprise you! I brought you a present from Switzerland. Isn’t it pretty?”
“Thank you,” Shen Zhiyu replied coolly.
When he looked up again, Jiang Zhi was no longer standing where she’d been.
Only the open jewelry box remained on the floor.
Inside was a platinum ring, giving off a faint, silvery gleam.
Ding—
A text message appeared on his phone:
【Big Brother, I have a video of Bai Yao cheating on you while she was abroad. Want to see it?】