Ruan Zhi took a quiet breath to suppress her panic, unaware of his unease. She rubbed her eyes, feigning sleepiness:
“It’s nothing. I stayed up too late last night chatting with Senior Song and the others, so I ended up sleeping at the hotel. Maybe… I didn’t sleep well, so my eyes feel a little sore.”
She felt a bitter sense of self-mockery.
Who would have thought that she—who hated it most when others lied—would one day be able to tell a lie without batting an eye?
A Che knew about her part-time job on the film set. He’d been on a business trip in Beijing at the time and didn’t approve, but seeing that she was insistent, he eventually gave in.
The reason she brought up Senior Song Ran was precisely because she knew he would never think to check with her to verify the story.
Call it running away, or call it cowardice—his appearance had caught her completely off guard. She was still in a daze, utterly unprepared for how to face him.
She couldn’t even accept the fact that another man had touched her body—how much less could he?
She was afraid…
Afraid that in the end, even he would abandon her.
“What about you? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be back until tonight?”
Suppressing a pang of bitterness, she quickly changed the subject and forced a smile.
“I finished up early and came back ahead of schedule. I was actually planning to surprise you…”
Rong Che’s expression, which had been cold and stern just a moment ago, instantly softened. He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and teased her with a hint of resignation,
“Too bad you had a dinner party last night, and when I called later, your phone was off. Dongdong and the others dragged me along to play cards.”
“We played all night. They’re still upstairs, but I was tired, so I called it a night.”
Faced with his tenderness, Ruan Zhi’s knuckles turned white as she gripped her purse tighter; she felt as if the guilt inside her was about to overwhelm her.
Her nose stung sharply; she lowered her eyelids and let out a soft “Oh.”
It wasn’t the first time Rong Che and his childhood friends had gathered to play cards all night; they’d even rented a long-term suite at this hotel.
Rong Che had taken her there a few times before, and no matter how late it got, he’d always make sure to take her home first—he’d never stay up all night playing with Xie Dongdong and the others.
She hadn’t gone last night; he’d probably been dragged along by the others to play all night.
With a “ding,” the elevator doors opened. Ruan Zhi, lost in thought, felt a sudden tightness around her shoulders as Rong Che wrapped his arm around her and led her out.
“I’ll take you home first.”
A familiar, warm presence drew near, but Ruan Zhi’s body stiffened slightly:
“No, thanks. I’ll just take a cab. Taking me home would mean a detour, and you’re tired after staying up all night—you should go home and get some rest.”
His apartment was in the opposite direction from the Ruan family home. Besides, her mind was in turmoil right now; she just wanted to get home quickly and wash away the overbearing scent that man had left on her.
“You…”
Rong Che paused slightly. Just as he turned his head to try to persuade her, the click-clack of high heels behind them grew closer and closer.
As the heavy scent of perfume brushed past his shoulder, someone gently hooked his hand, which had been hanging by his side.
His eyes darkened abruptly, and his fingers clenched.
He stared coldly at the back of the woman who had walked up to them.
“…All right then, I’ll walk you to your car.”
The woman wore a white cashmere fitted coat; her swaying gait couldn’t hide her alluring, curvaceous figure.
As she suddenly appeared, Ruan Zhi felt, for some reason, that there was a hint of familiarity in that silhouette.
Hadn’t this woman been in the elevator just a moment ago?
Rong Che’s voice rang out just then, snapping her out of her daze.
At the hotel entrance, Rong Che bent down to exchange a few words with the taxi driver. Then he straightened up, tucked the collar of Ruan Zhi’s coat tightly around her neck, pressed a light kiss to her forehead, and said softly:
“Call me when you get home. It’s still early—get a good night’s sleep. I’ll pick you up tonight to take you out to dinner.”
The gentler he was, the heavier Ruan Zhi’s heart felt, and the tighter her throat grew.
She nodded, bent down to get into the car, and nearly let out a soft moan as her thighs were pulled too sharply, causing a throbbing pain in her pubic bone.
Her face ashen, she closed the car door. The moment the car pulled away, she finally couldn’t hold back any longer—she lowered her head, covered her face, and began to sob.
As a result, she didn’t notice Rong Che, who was staring thoughtfully at the car’s tail lights, as a young woman with meticulously applied makeup approached him from the side.
“Do you think Ruan Ruan saw me in the elevator just now?”
The woman curled her red lips and hooked her arm through his, but he shook her off abruptly. A resounding slap landed on her face, and his voice was icy cold:
“You should count yourself lucky she didn’t recognize you. Otherwise, you’d regret climbing into my bed!”
Stunned by the blow, the woman flinched, covering her face and lowering her gaze. Her tear-stained eyes were so red they looked as if they were bleeding.
*
In the taxi.
After venting her emotions a little, Ruan Zhi forced herself to calm down.
She roughly wiped away her tears and pulled her phone out of her bag.
She clearly remembered that her phone had 25 percent battery left before she got drunk—it certainly wasn’t low enough to shut down automatically.
She turned it on and saw that this was indeed the case.
That disgusting old man from last night must have turned off her phone because he was afraid someone would try to reach her.
She still couldn’t figure out why that scumbag had set his sights on her.
During the days of filming, she hadn’t seen him at all; it wasn’t until last night’s dinner party, when Song Ran introduced them, that she met him for the first time.
Yet he had meticulously planned to drug her.
Wasn’t he afraid she’d call the police afterward and ruin his reputation?
And what about the others who were there—who was his accomplice? Or were they all in on it?
Senior Song Ran…
Her heart sank suddenly, and she didn’t dare think any further.
Her slender fingers traced the screen of her phone. After a long moment, she resolutely pulled up Song Ran’s number, ready to ask her to meet up.
She had to get to the bottom of this! She couldn’t just be manipulated like this without any explanation!
But after several attempts, Song Ran’s phone remained out of service, and she didn’t reply to her WeChat messages either.
Even as the taxi pulled up outside the Ruan family villa, her phone remained unresponsive.
It was just past seven in the morning, and the entire Ruan family villa was silent—clearly, the residents were still fast asleep as usual.
But this morning was clearly an exception.
Ruan Zhi instinctively quieted her footsteps. Just as she took half a step into the luxurious living room, voices suddenly drifted from the European-style sofa to her side, with the speaker facing away from her.
“I’m so tired—”
Ruan Jiajia yawned and complained:
“Mom, Ruan Zhi still hasn’t come back, and there’s no word from that bald-headed Lin either. Is he even reliable? I didn’t sleep a wink all night, just waiting for his good news.”
Ruan Zhi’s heart skipped a beat; she froze in her tracks, her expression growing colder by the second as she stared intently at the back of the sofa, as if trying to see right through the speaker’s face.
That scumbag from last night was indeed a Lin—a bald, fat man, at that.
“What’s the rush? No news is the best news. It’s still early. I bet they were both exhausted last night and are still in bed, fast asleep.”
Lin Qinglan glanced at her daughter, tucked her shawl around her shoulders, and maintained a calm and composed expression on her elegant, dignified face.
“You’re right.”
Ruan Jiajia thought that made sense. As she linked her arm through Lin Qinglan’s, she grew excited.
“Don’t they all say she’s well-behaved, sensible, and innocent? I’ll just have to see—once those scandalous photos of her running wild under that old man’s body go viral all over the internet, I’ll see who dares to marry her.”
“The Rong family is a centuries-old lineage with a status too lofty to reach. How could an orphan girl who’s lost both parents possibly be a match for the Rong family’s heir?! So what if Rong Che likes her? The matriarch of the Rong family would never agree to let him marry a woman who’s slept with anyone and everyone.”
She grew more excited as she spoke: “With those videos in our hands, we’ll have Bald Lin marry her and keep her firmly under our thumb. So what if Grandpa leaves his fortune to her? In the end, it’ll all still be under our control.”
After saying this, she curled her lip and cursed, “I think Grandpa’s just lost his mind. Her father’s a dead man—he severed ties with the Ruan family long ago. What right does she have to a share of the Ruan family’s fortune? Isn’t it enough that we’ve let his daughter live off us for all these years?”
“All right, keep your voice down. Don’t wake your dad.”
Lin Qinglan hushed her.
Ruan Jiajia, unwilling to back down, shouted again:
“I didn’t say anything wrong. Everything in the Ruan family will be mine someday. She’s just a parasite in our family. Raising her was enough to make up for her dead father. Now she wants to fight me over the inheritance? Just wait—I’ll kill her.”
Ruan Zhi, her blood boiling, trembled all over as she took a step forward.
She had been taken in by the Ruan family at the age of nine and had lived under their roof for twelve years. She believed she had never done anything to wrong Ruan Jiajia.
On the contrary, she had tolerated Ruan Jiajia’s spoiled-brat temperament and deliberate harassment at every turn, going about everything with the utmost caution and doing her best to keep a low profile in this household.
She’d done all this to avoid conflict with Ruan Jiajia and spare her beloved uncle the awkward position of being caught in the middle.
But what did her repeated concessions get her in return?
It was the mother and daughter’s increasingly vicious schemes!
All for the Ruan family’s fortune—of which she knew nothing!!!
Whenever she thought of last night’s humiliation and the pain of betraying A-Che—both caused by this mother-daughter duo—she was filled with hatred!
“Ruan Jiajia.”
A sharp, slightly trembling voice rang out suddenly.
Ruan Jiajia let out a startled “Ah!” as she clutched her chest and turned her head. In her wide, stunned eyes, she saw Ruan Zhi’s bloodshot almond-shaped eyes and the hand swinging toward her…