The light inside the bedroom was dim and shadowy. Soft moonlight filtered through the sheer curtains, scattering flecks of starlight across the floor.
The moment the door shut, two figures became tightly intertwined.
Crimson lips pursued water red lips, relentless, deep, and utterly inseparable.
Their warm breaths mingled, and the temperature in the room shot up in an instant.
Slender, delicate arms were pinned down by fair, long fingers, rendering any resistance futile.
With chaotic, stumbling steps, the two bumped into and knocked over several pieces of furniture in the room.
“Fei Shi!”
Ye Siyu’s voice was broken even as she tried to struggle. Before she could finish a syllable, her words were swallowed whole by those crimson lips.
“L-Let me go!”
Fei Shi lightly bit down on Ye Siyu’s lip, applying force as if to vent her frustration.
“Let you go?”
Pausing, her breathing grew heavy, though her voice remained ice cold. “So you can run away from me again? Dream on.”
In the next second, Ye Siyu was thrown directly onto the bed. The soft mattress bounced, and her dense, luxuriant waves of brown hair sprawled wildly across the pillows.
Just as she tried to push herself up, Fei Shi leaned over with an unyielding stance, pinning Ye Siyu firmly beneath her body.
“Ye Siyu, let me make one thing clear, in this lifetime, you belong to me, and only me.”
“I will never let you run away again.”
Ye Siyu’s eyes reddened with unshed tears as she glared at the person above her.
Her breathing was rapid, leaving her looking thoroughly disheveled and vulnerable.
“Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?”
Unable to bear it any longer, Ye Siyu began to thrash, but her frail arms possessed little to no strength.
A sharp, twisting pain shot through her stomach. Pale faced, Ye Siyu had both of her wrists seized by Fei Shi and pinned above her head.
Cool moonlight spilled over the cascade of Fei Shi’s falling hair, casting a shadow over her eyes and making her gaze appear dangerously dark and unreadable.
Fei Shi raised her free hand. As her long fingers touched Ye Siyu’s cheek, they trembled quite noticeably.
“Sister… it’s only been half a year… How did you get so thin? You don’t have any strength left at all.”
With the corners of her eyes flushed a watery red, Ye Siyu glared at her, lifting her chin and leaning her head back as far as possible. Her slender swan neck stretched out, exposing several red marks stamped onto her jade white skin.
Unable to escape Fei Shi’s ice cold fingers, she simply stopped trying and stared back in defiance.
“How ridiculous…”
Fei Shi’s gaze rested on Ye Siyu, carrying a mix of infatuation, obsession, and turbulent feelings surging deep within an abyss that Ye Siyu couldn’t decipher.
In that fleeting instant, Ye Siyu actually caught a glimpse of heartache in those eyes.
She froze for a moment before mocking herself in her head, stop being so self-delusional.
Yet, the sneering words escaped her mouth uncontrollably anyway. “The eldest daughter of the Charles family only has eyes for profit. Could there possibly be room for anyone else?”
Fei Shi’s fingers glided across Ye Siyu’s cheek, the pad of her finger gently brushing over the soft skin of her neck.
Ye Siyu clearly saw the muscles and bones beneath the thin skin of Fei Shi’s neck tense up, as if a powerful surge of emotion had swept through her. Yet in the end, Fei Shi merely curved her lips slightly.
“I used to think I didn’t either… but…”
Ye Siyu tilted her head with a sneer, interrupting her directly. “Save the ‘buts.'”
Fei Shi didn’t mind at all. Staring at Ye Siyu’s profile, she insisted on finishing her sentence.
“But ever since I met you, my mind has been entirely consumed by you, Sister.”
Fei Shi’s fingers slowly traced down Ye Siyu’s cheek, brushing past the tip of her nose, and settling on those plump, crimson lips that glistened after being tormented.
After a brief pause, her thumb rubbed over the full lower lip with a bit of force, pushing it to one side.
Fei Shi’s voice carried a low echo.
“I love your lips the most, Sister. They can make the most beautiful sounds. That voice has been deeply engraved in my mind. For the past six months, I’ve had to fill the void using those fragmented memories… Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?”
Chestnut waves of hair were scattered across the snowy white pillowcase, and the tips of Ye Siyu’s ears, hidden beneath her locks, quietly flushed red.
Unable to hold out any longer, Ye Siyu turned her head away, avoiding those long fingers.
A strange, inexplicable emotion flickered in Fei Shi’s dark eyes. Wrapping her arm tightly around Ye Siyu’s slender waist, she pulled the woman into her embrace, as if trying to press her straight into her own bones and chest cavity.
“You’re too thin. You still don’t know how to take care of yourself… Come back to my side. I will take care of you meticulously, just like I used to.”
“Fei Shi!”
Ye Siyu cut her off sharply, struggling with all her might, but her delicate arms were futile against the hold.
“What is the point of saying all this now?”
Her chest heaved violently as if intense, conflicting emotions were battling inside her.
The agonizing cramp in her stomach was difficult to bear, but with her hands pinned above her head, all she could do was curl up her frail body as much as possible.
It was only when a self-deprecating laugh echoed that Ye Siyu belatedly realized it was coming from her own voice. “I’m no longer the Ye Siyu of the past, and you are already the high and mighty CEO Fei, aren’t you?”
Listening to the torrential downpour pounding against the ground outside the window, Ye Siyu’s thoughts drifted away.
In a daze, she recalled the time when her company went bankrupt.
That day was just like today. Heavy rain poured outside, pitter-pattering as cold wind swept over raindrops in relentless gusts. The violent surge felt as though it was trying to break through the glass window and crash heavily onto Ye Siyu, who stood frozen in the middle of the room.
Reporters swarmed outside down below. Looking down from such a high floor, the crowd was still dense, everyone wielding cameras and equipment, eager to capture a classic image that could serve as gossip over tea.
The chilly office was empty and quiet.
Everyone had abandoned her, there was no one left to offer her a shelter from the storm.
Ye Siyu felt as though her heart had been battered into a pile of mud by the rain outside.
Now, she had nothing. She had lost everything overnight.
And the cause of the bankruptcy made her fingers go numb.
Her phone kept ringing continuously.
Message after message popped up, feeling like heavy weights dropping into the quiet, somber room.
[Sister, answer my call.]
[Come back, let’s talk properly.]
[I need a chance to explain.]
The ringtone kept sounding. Ye Siyu crossed her arms and stared at the glass curtain wall washed over by the rain.
Finally, she picked up her phone numbly and mechanically, tapped on the chat window, and brought the microphone close to her lips while pressing the voice message button.
“If I ask you to return the thing I need, the thing that could save the Ye Corporation right now, will you?”
After a long pause, so long it felt like an eternity, a message finally came through from the other side.
[No.]
Ye Siyu closed her eyes. Her sockets felt parched, yet her long eyelashes were inexplicably soaked and heavy with tears.
“As expected… I knew it.”
Ye Siyu muttered to herself bitterly. For a moment, she felt as if every single word tasted like concentrated bitterness lingering on her tongue.
The phone was tossed onto the desk. Messages continued to pop up one after another, the person on the other end seemed desperate to explain something, but it was already too late.
Ye Siyu opened the door and walked out of the company.
She let the rain beat against her face like blades slicing through her skin.
She didn’t take the main entrance, choosing instead the back alley behind the executive elevator.
Though the alley was narrow, Ye Siyu felt at that moment that the entire world was terrifyingly empty.
As she walked, a sharp pain shot up her ankle. Looking down, she realized that one of her high heels had snapped at the heel without her noticing.
Helpless and lost, Ye Siyu sat down on the curb in the pouring rain.
Reporters’ camera lenses appeared out of nowhere, flashing and clicking at her as if greedily enjoying a visual feast.
Yet Ye Siyu felt like she could see nothing at all. Hugging her knees on the roadside, she wished so desperately that someone would walk up to her and hold an umbrella over her head.
However, there was nothing.
This world was indeed terrifyingly empty.
Pulling her thoughts back to the present, Ye Siyu’s tone turned cold.
“There’s no need to force yourself to play the part of a humble canary anymore. You are CEO Fei now, someone far beyond my reach. From now on, we owe each other nothing, and neither of us should interfere in the other’s life again.”
“Who I marry in the future or where I go has nothing to do with you. You can get out.”
Fei Shi’s lips pulled into a taut line. After a long silence, she suddenly raised her hand and gripped Ye Siyu’s chin tightly, forcing her face up so that she had no choice but to look straight at her.
“Besides me, who else would you dare to marry?”
Fei Shi’s eyes were pitch dark, deeper than the dark storm clouds outside, seething with a turbulent surge of sinister emotions.
Clang, clang. The faint sound of clinking metal echoed in the quiet room. A delicate iron chain was hooked around Fei Shi’s fingers.
The silver chain gleamed with a striking metallic luster.
Fei Shi smiled gently, the corners of her crimson lips curving upward into a smile.
“You don’t need to think about anything anymore. In this lifetime, you will never escape the palm of my hand.”
“Even if I have to bind you…” Her long fingers looped the iron chain around Ye Siyu’s neck, “…I will keep you bound by my side.”