Just as Su Nian was about to frame a refusal, the hand resting on her lap was gently lifted by a hand as perfectly sculpted as a work of art.
Zhou Yunhe had snatched the bracelet rather roughly, leaving Su Nian’s wrist and the back of her hand streaked bright red.
Su Nian looked up and saw Zhou Beiming. His eyes were dark and unfathomable, revealing nothing of what lay beneath.
Zhou Yunhe was still clutching the bracelet. At Zhou Beiming’s arrival, she forced a dry laugh. “I merely wanted a look I haven’t seen this piece in over twenty years. They say its market value is over eighty million. Your mother certainly knew how to invest.”
Over eighty million for a bracelet? What about the earrings? The necklace?
Su Nian, slight of build, felt as though she could scarcely bear their weight. Her ears felt heavy; her neck bowed beneath the burden only her stinging, reddened hand felt light in comparison.
Zhou Beiming paid no heed to the priceless bracelet that had been taken. Slowly, deliberately, he began to massage the back of Su Nian’s inflamed hand, treating it as though her hand itself were the true treasure. The corners of his lips curled upward, yet his aura turned piercingly cold.
“Apologize to Niannian’s hand.”
It was not a request.
Every eye in the room turned toward them. Zhou Yunhe was a senior elder; to apologize so openly meant losing face. “It’s just a bracelet,” she snapped. “I’ll give it back what of it?”
With that, the eighty-million-yuan bracelet was hurled back at Su Nian.
Su Nian felt as though a mountain had come crashing down upon her. She had heard that ten million in banknotes weighed some one hundred and fifteen kilograms. This bracelet… felt impossibly heavy. She could barely draw breath beneath its weight, and her brow furrowed.
Zhou Beiming noticed the frown and his own brows drew together. He tilted her chin up with his elegant fingers. “Still waiting for that apology? My little rabbit is already on the verge of tears.”
The man was truly a master at twisting meaning to suit his will. His chiseled profile lay half in shadow, his eyes storm-dark, a dangerous edge of violence radiating from him.
Zhou Yunhe had a fiery temper, yet she knew better than to provoke a brute like him. The bold fear none and Zhou Beiming feared nothing at all. He was the sort who could jest calmly even with a blade pressed to his throat.
Gritting her teeth, Zhou Yunhe forced out: “Niannian… I am sorry. Your Eldest Aunt only admired how lovely the bracelet looked and acted in haste. I used too much force.”
“It’s not ”
The words all right died on Su Nian’s lips, cut short by a low, dark chuckle from Zhou Beiming.
“Tut-tut,” he drawled, mocking. “Did Eldest Aunt not finish primary school? Can you not understand such a simple sentence?”
Silence descended. A silent war hung in the air. Zhou Yunhe clenched her fists until her knuckles blanched, yet dared not lash out.
Someone nearby murmured a reminder: “He means apologize… to her hand.”
Zhou Yunhe stood trembling, hands balled into fists, unable to force the words past her lips.
Su Nian watched on. She had grown up amid constant strife between her parents, shouting matches a daily occurrence. As a child she had stood by weeping; as she grew older, she simply grew tired. She hated conflict within families and Zhou Yunhe was, after all, Zhou Beiming’s aunt.
“Zhou Beiming ”
At the first syllable, slender fingers pressed lightly against her lips, sealing her mouth shut. He had guessed what she meant to say and wanted none of it.
“Tch.” He sounded thoroughly displeased, and twisted her meaning further still. “It seems my little rabbit finds a standing apology insufficient in sincerity. Very well Eldest Aunt may apologize on your knees instead.”
Releasing her, Zhou Beiming rose to his full height tall, straight, imposing turning his back to Zhou Yunhe. He reached casually for a vase resting on the side table, turning it upside down in his grasp so that it hung heavy and threatening, like a hammer ready to strike.
“I apologize!” Zhou Yunhe cried out hastily, voice trembling with fright. She had seen what befell relatives who crossed Zhou Beiming; one still walked with a limp to this day. Her face had gone deathly pale. “Niannian I apologize to your hand. I should never have snatched it from you. It was my hands that were at fault… greedy and unruly.”
Su Nian stared, stunned into silence. Her understanding of Zhou Beiming shifted once more he was utterly unprincipled, like some unbridled outlaw. Yet as she lifted her gaze toward him… light from the crystal chandelier spilled over him, gilding his silhouette. He seemed to glow.
For the first time in her life, someone had stood so fiercely to defend her. Perhaps he was merely upholding the standing of the woman he claimed as his girlfriend any other in her place might have received the same protection. Yet the safety he offered felt undeniably real.
Zhou Beiming waved one hand dismissively over his shoulder. “My little rabbit is not a performing monkey. Those with a taste for spectacles would do well to visit the zoo instead.”
Intimidated by the heavy vase still held inverted in his grasp, the crowd of gossiping aunts scattered quickly.
Once they were gone, Zhou Beiming did not set the vase down. He continued to hold it upside down, his large hands easily cupping its rounded weight, thumb stroking cool porcelain. Su Nian shrank back into the sofa. The bracelet, slipped from nerveless fingers, fell onto the cushion beside her. She picked it up hurriedly, holding it out to him with both hands.
“It isn’t damaged,” she said softly. “There was no need to lose your temper.”
Zhou Beiming’s gaze grew dark as he glanced from the bracelet to her reddened skin. “They are the ones who have damaged you.”
Su Nian fell quiet. Wasn’t he the one who always left her bruised and worn? Compared to the marks he left after nights spent together, this faint redness was nothing. She looked at the back of her hand and offered a thin, dry smile. “It’s nothing. A few days and skin renewal will make it vanish.”
Zhou Beiming set the cold, smooth porcelain down his expression unreadable. “Mark this well: no one damages what is mine without paying a price. And that includes you.”
Su Nian understood then she belonged entirely to him. Even she held no claim over herself. She nodded meekly. “I understand.”
Her obedience seemed only to vex him further. Sensing his mood darkening, Su Nian reached up and curled her fingers around his. “That was… unexpected just now. Next time I shall protect myself better. I won’t trouble you.”
His expression remained storm-clouded, eyes dark and heavy. Su Nian’s heart raced. Before now, their meetings had always been private just the two of them, in quiet places: private rooms, the back of a car, his apartment. Their activities had been simple enough: more sleeping than talking, less conversation than intimacy. To Su Nian, it had all felt like a duty fulfilled. She had given herself entirely to him, compliant in all things and rarely had he been truly angry. Today, amid so many eyes and so much friction…
She was casting about for ways to soothe him when Zhou Beiming swept her effortlessly up from the sofa. His fingers curled beneath her chin, his tone sharp with warning.
“From this day forth if anyone so much as plucks a single hair from your head, you demand the whole tuft back in return. Should harm befall you… I shall bear the consequences.”
His dark eyes narrowed. He lifted her slightly, twisting a strand of her hair idly about his fingers as he murmured low against her ear: “And if you fail to? I shall pluck every last one of your rabbit fur clean off you myself.”
Su Nian swallowed hard. “I…”
Is it too late to trade him in?
Her life was no grand romance of bold deeds and happy endings. Hers had been spent yielding, bending, keeping quiet. People do not change overnight and she simply was not built for this kind of defiance.
“I want to go home…” she said softly a quiet plea.
Zhou Beiming looked down upon her, absolute master of all he surveyed. “You have come this far. There is no turning back now.”
Su Nian blinked, confused. “I cannot go back to my place?”
She wanted nothing more than to walk away, to drop this burden and leave.
A hint of amusement flickered in Zhou Beiming’s gaze. “No. From now on, you will live with me. If we play a part… we play it to the very end.”
Live together? Share his home? Su Nian felt a wave of instant regret.
Just then the butler approached. “Young Master Old Master requests that you bring Miss Su to the study.”
“Very well.” Zhou Beiming released her waist, took the bracelet from her trembling hands, and slid it once more onto her wrist. “Should anyone dare remove it again… I shall have the hand that took it severed.”
Su Nian looked at the glinting band upon her wrist. It seemed her life might be forfeit before this piece of jewelry would ever leave her. She followed him, heart leaden, toward the study.
Zhou Yunhe was already there, red-eyed and weeping as she made her complaint. “Father! All I wished was to look at her bracelet and he has humiliated me publicly! Whatever my faults, I am still his elder. If he shows such disrespect toward family now… soon enough he will show none toward you either.”
Old Master Zhou’s face was dark as thunder. “Scarcely arrived and already you stir up strife. If this is how it begins… I dread to think what comes next.”
Zhou Beiming paid them no mind. He seated himself comfortably across from the Old Master on the sofa, legs crossed, manner lazy and unconcerned. “Grandfather… since when did Eldest Aunt become livestock? Pray tell is she a chicken… or a dog?”