The woman’s voice was sweet to the point of being cloying. “Ze-gege, I heard you are getting engaged to Shen Lanyin soon?”
“Shen Lanyin?” The man’s voice carried a hoarse tone steeped in lust and obsession. “That bastard with an unknown father?”
“That’s right, it’s her! Ze-gege, I’ve kept myself pure for you for so many years. Now that I’ve finally waited for you to return to the country, you can’t fail me.”
No sooner had the woman finished speaking than the intense crashing sounds abruptly stopped.
“A piece of trash like Shen Lanyin, who has been thoroughly ruined by other men, is never stepping foot into my Lu family.”
With a click, the man lit a cigarette, his words falling like ice.
“As for you, I was just playing with you. Did you install a GPS? Do you know your own place?”
“Damn it! My mood was completely ruined by a bitch like you!”
“Fucking hell, I’m so sick of women like you who open their mouths to demand responsibility from a man!”
“How much is that hymen of yours worth? The money I’ve spent on you is enough to buy a dozen!”
“Get lost! Don’t let me see you again next time!”
The disheveled woman ran out from around the corner in tears, startled as she passed by Shen Lanyin.
She hurriedly lowered her head, taking two steps as one as she fled in a panic.
Shen Lanyin didn’t stop her.
She unconcernedly bent down to slip off her high heels, hooked the black hair tie from her left wrist with her right hand, and casually gathered her cascading long hair into a high ponytail. Then, she walked barefoot toward the corner.
Her gaze was icy cold, resembling an eternal frozen lake emitting biting chills.
Yet her bright red lips curved upward slightly, sketching a thrillingly bizarre smile.
Aloofness and unhinged madness coexisted.
If anyone asked which young socialite in S-City’s elite circle was the most notoriously infamous, Shen Lanyin would claim second place with no one daring to claim first.
When she went crazy, she scared even herself, and when she fought, she fought with people’s lives on the line.
Whether you were male or female, old or young, as long as you provoked her, she would beat you up regardless.
As she grew older over the past few years, coupled with Xu Qingru’s constant nagging, coercion, and incentives, she had reined herself in considerably, trying hard to be a kind person.
Yet today, this foul-mouthed dog of a man, whose mouth acted like an open sewer spewing filth everywhere, refused to stay in his comfort zone and insisted on dancing right in her minefield.
He had genuinely and thoroughly provoked her.
Lu Yuanze was completely naked, sitting on the ground with his head down smoking a cigarette. Before he could even react, he took a heavy blow to the top of his head.
Instantly, his vision swam, and his head spun with stars.
“What the fuck! Who is that?”
Lu Yuanze clutched his head with both hands and roared loudly.
“The living Yama who is out for your dog’s life! I’m giving you a chance to be reborn. Next year today will be your death anniversary.”
“A worthless piece of junk, an eyesore to look at and a nuisance to carry around. I might as well cripple you for good.”
“No charge, but extreme pain!”
Shen Lanyin raised her leg and delivered a vicious kick straight to his crotch.
“Ah, ah, ah!”
Lu Yuanze screamed more miserably than a butchered festive pig, drenched in cold sweat as he curled up on the ground.
He looked exactly like a boiled giant shrimp.
Shen Lanyin didn’t stop her hands or feet. Her silver high heels were splattered with tiny droplets of blood, and the eight-centimeter heel even snapped off.
With more breath leaving him than entering, Lu Yuanze had one foot already stepping into the underworld.
Shen Lanyin grabbed a handful of the dog-like man’s hair and dragged him toward the swimming pool, leaving a long trail of blood across the deck.
She launched a flying kick. “Rotten piece of trash with a foul mouth and a filthy heart, go down and rinse yourself off.”
“Splash!”
Water splattered everywhere as a dying Lu Yuanze crashed into the pool, wisps of crimson dispersing across the water.
Hearing the commotion, that bloodthirsty great white shark moved into action, opening its abyss-like maw with razor-sharp, dazzlingly bright serrated teeth.
It surged forward like a giant cannonball.
“Bang!”
The great white shark slammed into a layer of transparent bulletproof glass.
A bruised and swollen Lu Yuanze was scared out of his wits by the earth-shattering impact.
“Tsk, what a pity.”
Shen Lanyin raised her hand and hurled one of her high heels directly at Lu Yuanze, hitting him squarely on the forehead.
“Hey, you useless piece of trash, for the sake of your grandfather’s birthday, I’ll spare your life as a grandson today.”
“But don’t let this old lady see you again next time, or every time I see you, I’ll cripple you.”
“If you want to end your family line, feel free to come looking for me. I guarantee you’ll be permanently impotent!”
Lu Yuanze’s rear tightened and his balls ached immensely. Even so, he still wanted to spit out a few harsh words to salvage some face.
Yet the moment he opened his mouth, another flying high heel came hurtling through the air and firmly plugged it shut.
“When I treat you like a human being, try to act a bit more like one. If your mouth is idle, go lick a toilet bowl instead of running it in front of me.”
With that, Shen Lanyin turned around and left without looking back.
She returned to her room, changed into a new gown, and headed down to the second-floor ballroom.
A magnificent purple fishtail dress blossomed gracefully against the floor as Shen Lanyin stepped forward with elegance and poise, the corners of her lips curling up in a look of supreme disdain for the world.
Her silk-smooth, long, curly hair hung loosely around her shoulders, and as she moved, her flawless, jade-white, sexy back was inadvertently revealed.
Her delicate butterfly shoulder blades fluttered like wings, and her spine formed an exquisitely sculpted contour.
Like a snowy mountain range stretching all the way down to the sash at her waist, the breathtaking scenery finally vanished from sight.
After exchanging pleasantries with an acquaintance, Shen Huaixu walked over to Shen Lanyin. “Why did you change clothes? Did you get into a fight with someone again?”
Shen Lanyin shook her head lightly. The moment Shen Huaixu let out a sigh of relief, she calmly added, “It wasn’t a fight. It was a one-sided complete thrashing.”
Shen Huaixu: “…”
After a brief silence, Shen Huaixu asked again, “Who was the person you beat up?”
“That unfilial grandson, Lu Yuanze,” Shen Lanyin replied candidly.
Shen Huaixu raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Is he still alive?”
Shen Lanyin answered truthfully, “Half-dead, I suppose.”
“As long as he’s not dead, a beating is just a beating.”
No one understood his sister better than Shen Huaixu. “It must be because his mouth was too foul and provoked you, right? Do you want me to go beat him up again for you?”
“No need. Let him hang on for a few more years,” Shen Lanyin said calmly.
The dance music gradually swelled, a waltz flowing softly and smoothly like a murmuring stream.
Gentlemen began extending their hands to invite the ladies of their choice to dance.
Quite a few men were restless, eager to step forward and invite Shen Lanyin to dance.
Yet when they witnessed with their own eyes this peerless beauty turn down one suitor after another, they stopped in their tracks and went to look for new partners instead.
After dancing a single song with Shen Huaixu, Shen Lanyin stepped out of the dance floor in her diamond-encrusted high heels.
She casually picked up a glass of champagne from a waiter’s passing tray and stood in a spot with an excellent view to watch the dancing.
The atmosphere of the ballroom gradually heated up. Alongside waltzes, there were fast-paced tangos and elegant Viennese waltzes.
Every change in music brought new dance partners and fresh experiences.
Laughter, applause, and music intertwined to create the most wonderful melody.
“May I have the honor of a dance?”
The trailing end of his voice carried a smile, his deep and mellow tone sounding like a feather lightly tickling her heart.
Shen Lanyin turned around gracefully. “Why is it you?”
The man possessed broad shoulders and a narrow waist, his demeanor carrying an unmasked, unbridled ruffian charm.
Several buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing a sharp neck contour and a few fierce, winding scars across his chest.
Lu Xiao leaned forward slightly, extending his right hand in a solemn yet gentlemanly gesture.
A slight smile played at the corners of Shen Lanyin’s lips as she placed her hand in his palm, and the two walked hand in hand onto the dance floor.
“No wonder you stopped working at MAX,” Shen Lanyin murmured softly near the man’s ear. “So you were kept by a sugar mommy all along.”
Lu Xiao’s expression remained unchanged as the strong arm supporting Shen Lanyin’s slender waist gradually tightened, pulling their bodies closer together.
Soft as a drop of rain, a kiss brushed against the woman’s pristine shoulder.
A tender kiss devoid of any aggressive desire, gentle to the extreme.
Shen Lanyin halted her steps, and the hand resting on his shoulder fell away as well.
“You’ve got quite a bit of nerve, aren’t you afraid your sugar mommy will see and get angry?”
Lu Xiao glanced toward the sofa area. “My sugar mommy is right over there, smiling very happily.”
Following Lu Xiao’s gaze, Shen Lanyin’s eyes landed on Old Master Lu, who was grinning from ear to ear with wrinkles all over his face.
“Tsk tsk, I really couldn’t tell. So he swings both ways,” Shen Lanyin clicked her tongue, gossiping in a low voice.
“When you guys have your happy times, who goes first and who goes after? Or is there no fixed order?”
Lu Xiao let out a dry chuckle. Before he could open his mouth to explain, he was interrupted by a bespectacled man who appeared out of nowhere.
“Young Master Lu, hello! You certainly went all out. That luxury yacht you gifted the old master really opened my eyes.”
The bespectacled man smiled ingratiatingly, pulling out a cigarette to offer a light to Lu Xiao.
Lu Xiao waved a hand. “Quit.”
Shen Lanyin looked somewhat surprised. “Young Master Lu? Are you also Old Master Lu’s grandson?”
Lu Xiao shook his head slowly. “Wrong guess.”
Shen Lanyin’s gaze darted back and forth between Old Master Lu and Lu Xiao, hesitant and unsure. “Could it be that he’s your old man?”
“Very smart. Correct answers get a reward.”
Lu Xiao pulled a check out of his trouser pocket and handed it to Shen Lanyin. “Here you go.”
Shen Lanyin lowered her gaze, looking with a complicated expression at the suspiciously familiar check in her hand.
“Just what kind of monumental shock did you suffer to make you lose your mind and become a gigolo?”
Gazing straight at her, Lu Xiao suddenly smiled. “A woman who slept with me and then pulled up her skirt refusing to take responsibility.”
Recalling what Lu Xiao had said last time, Shen Lanyin pointed a finger at herself. “The woman you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be me, would she?”
“You guess,” Lu Xiao drawled lazily.
Detesting people who put on mysterious airs, Shen Lanyin couldn’t help cursing out loud: “I guess your grandma’s bear!”
She casually tore the ten-thousand-dollar check to shreds and tossed it right onto Lu Xiao’s face.
“I’ve played with too many men to possibly remember which stick you were.”
Lu Xiao raised a hand, his cool fingertips brushing across the side of the woman’s neck with an icy chill like a sharp blade.
“Shen Lanyin, since you slept with me, you have to take responsibility. I’m not that kind of casual man.”
Borrowing his grand-nephew Lu Yuanze’s words on the spot, Shen Lanyin shot back: “I’m so sick of men like you who open their mouths to demand responsibility.”
“This face of yours is indeed bewitching.”
She lifted Lu Xiao’s chin with a single finger in a coquettish gesture.
“But the last thing I’m short on is men. You can go find someone else to take you off my hands.”
With that, Shen Lanyin tossed out those words and turned to leave, but Lu Xiao tightly grabbed her hand, the emotion in his eyes burning intense like wine.
“But I only want you! I want you to sleep with me for the rest of my life!”
Hearing this, Shen Lanyin rolled her eyes. “Who would’ve thought that being too charismatic is also a trouble.”
She shook Lu Xiao’s hand off forcefully. “Sorry, I have zero interest in you.”
Lu Xiao’s gaze darkened a fraction, his pitch-black eyes staring unflinchingly at Shen Lanyin, his deep pupils reflecting her resolute silhouette.
“You were the one who provoked me first. I’m definitely going to get you!”
His pale, thin lips parted, carrying a distinctive razor-sharp crispness as he enunciated every word clearly and firmly.
Shen Lanyin turned her head back with a smile, her eye corners almost dripping with allure, as if her exotic charm was carved straight into her bones.
“Too bad, I happen to be the woman you’ll never get.”
With that, she waved her right hand. “If you really can’t let go of me, you’ll just have to use this while looking at my picture.”