Song Man trembled all over. “Shen… Miss Shen is still outside.”
Song Junyan gave a light scoff. “She and Aunt Zhang went to the inner room to take measurements.”
He only came to find her after the real mistress had left?
Who did he think he was!
Song Man was furious and reached out to shove him away.
Sensing her intention, Song Junyan forced his way in roughly, his large palm directly wrapping around her chest.
“You—”
The moment she spoke, her body was spun around and pressed hard against the wall. The man’s urgent kiss came crashing down at once.
Within seconds, Song Man felt she couldn’t breathe. In a daze, her heart seemed to have jumped into his hands—caressed, kneaded into all sorts of shapes. At some point, the dress on her body had been stripped off by him.
Her bare skin rubbed without a gap against the man’s clothing. In this cramped space, both their bodies and breaths were heating up.
In her haze, she heard Song Junyan’s hoarse voice:
“Your body is more honest than your mouth.”
“It’s been so many days. You don’t miss me, but she does.”
“Have you made enough of a fuss?”
…She had to admit—after years of intimacy, Song Junyan knew Song Man too well.
At this very moment, he teased and toyed with every sensitive spot on her body, trying to push her to the brink of collapse, to make her surrender to desire and become a devout follower of instinct.
Song Man bit her lip tightly.
Song Junyan noticed and pressed his lips close to hers. “Does it hurt to watch me with other women?”
Song Man felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her. She instantly calmed down.
People were all pathetic like that.
Things they normally wouldn’t spare a second glance at would always stir a hint of possessiveness once someone else fought over them.
Not to mention Song Junyan was already a hot commodity.
He deliberately showed such intimacy with Shen Zhiyin in front of her, just to provoke her jealousy.
To force her to confront her feelings for him and compromise into being his caged bird.
Song Man braced both hands firmly against the man’s chest. “Didn’t I endure it even when I couldn’t? From now on, I’ll work hard to accept it gladly.”
Song Junyan paused, his dark eyes fixed on her.
“Song Man!”
His breathing was erratic, crashing onto Song Man’s face from inches away, like a drum thundering against her heart.
Song Junyan: “Have you thought it through?”
Mist welled up in her eyes. Song Man blinked rapidly, forcing her voice to stay steady. “You really want to get engaged?”
Though phrased as a question, the refusal in it was unmistakable.
Song Junyan was silent for a few seconds, then said, “An engagement is an engagement. It doesn’t affect our relationship.”
What relationship?
A relationship that couldn’t see the light of day?
An adulterous lover’s relationship?
Boundless grievance surged up, choking her throat completely.
She gritted her teeth. “I don’t want it!”
Song Junyan’s expression darkened, his voice nearly devoid of emotion. “I’ll ask you one last time. Have you really thought it through?”
Song Man lowered her eyes and said nothing.
Song Junyan clamped her chin, forcing her to face him.
Their eyes met. The next second, he raised his hand and traced her eye corner, smiling. “Even like this, you still don’t want it?”
Yes.
How shrewd he was. How clever.
He knew very well how much she liked him.
That was why he could flirt and carry on with other women so recklessly.
Ignoring her pain, her struggle.
Seeing her tears, he merely smiled them off.
He wasn’t afraid she’d leave.
He also… didn’t love her.
Song Man’s eyes burned with soreness. With immense difficulty, she squeezed out from her throat: “Mm, I don’t want it anymore.”
She didn’t look at him.
Yet she felt needles prickling her back.
After a moment of silence, the man suddenly released her.
Song Man’s heart went hollow, all thought lost.
She bent down numbly to pick up her clothes from the floor.
A card was extended from her forehead.
“For you.”
Song Man clutched the clothes in her hands tightly, hearing the man add: “The apartment in the West District is being transferred to you as well.”
It was compensation. And it was closure.
The love pierced into her heart years ago, the blade hanging over her neck—finally, as she had expected, it twisted and fell.
She suffocated with pain, reduced to ashes.
Even at this moment.
A desperate, maddening thought began to grow unchecked in her mind.
“Junyan.”
Shen Zhiyin’s voice suddenly sounded, right at the door.