The spacious car sat perfectly still, the air inside heavy and quiet.
Su Nian’s clothes dripped steadily, darkening the leather of the backseat. Fresh garments lay nearby gritting her teeth, she peeled off her soaked dress right before Zhou Beiming’s eyes.
Zhou Beiming propped his elbow against the window, his head tilted as he watched her. Wild, unruly hunger blazed openly in his gaze.
Her heart hammered against her ribs. Every movement felt stiff, clumsy, awkward.
“Pfft…” Zhou Beiming bowed his head and laughed a knowing, wicked sound.
In a flash, he caught her trembling hand and toyed with her fingers. Slender, pale, soft as cotton. His own fingers were long; he measured hers against his own, then drawled lazily, “Shall I take the lead… or will you?”
Su Nian kept her head bowed. Once, every hope she’d held for her future had sprung from her love for Gu Yinchen. She’d believed him different from everyone else only to have her affection cast aside like garbage. She could almost smell something rotten and foul clinging to her own skin. Perhaps it was the scent of a heart that had already died.
When your heart is dead, it no longer matters where you go.
Su Nian bit her lip. “About my father’s affairs…” The words died halfway.
Zhou Beiming answered easily. “That’s simple. Stay with me. I won’t ask about your past. Director Su remains Director Su, and the young miss of the Su family remains exactly who she is.”
Su Nian stared at their joined hands. His palm was warm growing warmer, hotter by the second. Everyone knew him as the most dangerous, untamable man in Imperial City, and the one with the endless stream of rumors and lovers.
With one hand, she undid the clasp of her bra. The thin fabric slid smooth and light, its straps slipping gently from her shoulders.
One night. That was all it took to learn: Zhou Beiming was utterly, irredeemably wicked.
Dawn broke pale and gray. The rain had stopped, the wind had died, and the sky stretched clear and endless. Su Nian lay limp and heavy against him, clinging like a doll. A faint streak of blood stained the breast of Zhou Beiming’s white shirt.
He curved his lips into a dark, satisfied smile. Warm fingertips brushed lightly over her mouth swollen, bruised, marked by him. His hand lingered, and he drew the soft redness between his lips once more, slow and thorough.
When Su Nian gasped, breathless and overwhelmed, he finally pulled back. His voice dropped to a rough, husky murmur, teasing against her skin: “Was this your first time too?”
He meant the kiss but he meant more than that. He knew, with absolute certainty, that he was her first. That she had no experience at all.
Su Nian spoke weakly, barely able to lift her head. “You said… you wouldn’t ask about my past.”
Zhou Beiming pressed his tongue to his cheek, radiating reckless, unapologetic arrogance. “Oh? Did I? I’d forgotten.” He wore a faint, knowing smile and asked nothing more.
Two years later. The Su Fu Group once written off by all had risen again. What people had taken for a final, flickering spark turned into something real: word spread that Su Fu was entering a major new-energy partnership with BoYao. And behind BoYao stood YongTai Group whose master and controller was none other than Zhou Beiming.
Everyone knew Zhou Beiming played by no rules. But this move… this seemed recklessly, foolishly wrong.
Even as Su Fu faced audits and mounting internal turmoil, back at the Su family home Su Nian packed her belongings.
Her younger sister Su Feixiao walked over, phone in hand. “Sis this is the man Dad’s working with? He’s linked to five different women at once. Isn’t he afraid he’ll burn himself out?”
Su Nian glanced at the screen. There was Zhou Beiming arm around this starlet’s waist, hand resting familiarly on that model’s shoulder. His reputation as a libertine was common knowledge across the city. But Su Nian knew the truth deeper still: his wildness burned brightest in private.
She changed the subject. “Aren’t you supposed to be at school today?”
Su Feixiao was her stepmother’s daughter, six years younger barely eighteen, still in her final year of high school. Now that Su Nian lived elsewhere, her stepmother had decided to turn Su Nian’s old bedroom into Su Feixiao’s art studio a quiet, deliberate way of driving her out. Su Nian had returned today simply to collect her things.
Su Feixiao beamed, bright and happy. “I took the day off. Brother Yinchen’s coming home today I want to meet him at the airport. Sis… do you want to come too?”
At the name, Su Nian felt a sharp, familiar ache rise in her chest. It had been two years since they’d spoken. Su Feixiao had long confessed her crush on Gu Yinchen had often begged Su Nian’s help picking out gifts for him.
Su Nian shook her head. “I can’t. I have plans.”
She checked her phone. Zhou Beiming had asked her to dinner. He’d been occupied with those five rumored women for weeks half a month since he’d last called. The drive to the restaurant would take forty minutes.
Her belongings were few; one suitcase held everything. She lifted it and turned to Su Feixiao. “I’m heading out.”
Give Brother Yinchen my regards… The words rose to her throat and she swallowed them back. Why humiliate herself further? After everything that had happened two years ago, she was little more than a joke. Strangers from that night still teased her, asking her to write love letters on their behalf; one man had even had the gall to ask her to build him another electronic pet. Su Feixiao was young, untouched by that world she knew nothing.
At the revolving restaurant, Zhou Beiming had not yet arrived. Su Nian sat and placed their order she knew every one of his preferences by heart.
After ordering, she stepped into the restroom and ran straight into one of Zhou Beiming’s rumored lovers: the actress Ye Wanzhen. Delicate, soft-featured, the sort of face that inspired instant pity typecast forever in tragic roles.
A companion leaned in, voice thick with envy. “You’ve been positively glowing lately. Must be General Manager Zhou taking such good care of you, hm?”
Ye Wanzhen simpered, cheeks flushing. “Don’t even ask. That man… he leaves me exhausted every single night.” Her tone held unmistakable pride. To be seen with Zhou Beiming was to command instant respect in their circle.
Su Nian pretended not to hear. She had known exactly what he was dissolute, unrestrained, swapping women as easily as one changed clothes long before she had agreed to this.
She remembered her father, on his knees before her, begging her to become Zhou Beiming’s mistress. The company, in the end, had always mattered more than his daughter. And it had been her choice too. Su Fu Group belonged not just to her father it had been her mother’s legacy. So long as Su Fu stood, her mother would return to visit, if only occasionally. Every child craves a mother’s love; and that small, lonely girl still lived deep inside Su Nian’s heart the source of all her quiet pain. She refused to be cast aside, unwanted.
She walked past Ye Wanzhen and heard a low, familiar voice, cool and unbothered, from behind her: “You flatter me, Miss Ye.”
Zhou Beiming had arrived.
She heard Ye Wanzhen’s heels click rapidly across the floor hurrying toward him. Su Nian had no desire to watch them flirt, so she slipped into the restroom.
When she emerged, she found Zhou Beiming leaning against a blue-painted wall, staring down at the gray tiles, lost in thought. Never to appear in public together that had been Su Nian’s one and only condition. Right now, they were perfect strangers.
A few people passed by. And then Zhou Beiming’s finger curled suddenly around her little finger.
Su Nian jumped as if burned. She curled her hand into a fist, trapping his fingers within hers. He kicked open the door to the stairwell, pulled her inside, and pressed her back against the wall caging her between him and stone.
“Miss me?” His lips brushed hers, light, deliberate.
Su Nian had told herself to let him forget her to become nothing more than a passing fancy. And yet here he was, returning to claim his favorite toy. She said nothing, only stared at him, breath caught, terrified of what he might do right here, right now.
He kissed her then hard, hungry, overwhelming. She had no defense. She trembled, weak and unraveled in his arms.
The stairwell was silent, deathly quiet leaving every shaky gasp and heavy breath to hang thick in the air. A cleaner, curious, poked her head up the stairs and froze at the sight before her. She coughed softly, turning away.
Su Nian flinched like a startled bird. She clutched Zhou Beiming’s black shirt and buried her face against his chest.
Zhou Beiming slipped one hand casually into his pocket. With the other, he held her firmly by the waist. He clicked his tongue, irritated, and spoke without even glancing upward his voice cold and dismissive, dripping with arrogant power: “My little rabbit is easily frightened. Why must you startle her? Are you so eager to lose your job?”
The cleaner looked up and recognized him. Zhou Beiming. To anger him was to invite ruin. She cursed her own curiosity and bowed, terrified. “Mr. Zhou my apologies. I am only doing my job… please, do not hold it against me.”
Zhou Beiming was unmoved. “Pack your things and find another ”
He never finished the sentence.
Two soft, furious little fists thumped hard against his chest striking, straight and true, right against his heart.