The man wearing a blue shirt was leaning against an entire floor-to-ceiling glass window, with the boundless night view and dazzling lights of the bustling metropolis behind him.
He lowered his head slightly, his pupils dark and deep like the long, endless night outside.
The man sitting opposite Lu Xiao had sharp and stern facial features. His long legs, encased in black suit trousers, were crossed, and his taut muscles screamed out in the depth of the night.
His slightly open collar revealed a dragon tattoo on his chest, its eyes sharp like lightning and its aura terrifyingly intimidating.
A subordinate beside him handed over a cigarette and a lighter. The man leisurely lit the cigarette, and the tongue of flame licked the tip, emitting a glowing red light.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, and his slender, knuckled fingers pinched the cigarette as he took a light drag.
A wisp of white smoke curled upward, blurring his expression in a movement of indescribable allure.
“You washed away all your tattoos, voluntarily stepped down to give up your position to the wise, and took the risk of being hunted down by your enemies.”
“You insisted on returning from Italy to recognize your father just to marry that ungrateful Shen Lanyin?”
“Damn it, if I had known you were a hopeless romantic, I would not have sworn brotherhood with you in the first place!”
Long Moyuan’s frivolous tone sounded as if he were joking, yet listening closely to the final words, they carried a chilling and ferocious edge.
Lu Xiao lowered his brow and eyes, his raven-feather-like long eyelashes casting shadows. “Send a few more people with good martial arts skills to protect Yinyin in secret.”
“She has high vigilance. Make it discreet so she does not notice.”
Long Moyuan let out a scoff, casually extinguishing his cigarette in a wine glass. Pointing at the old scar on his forehead, his tone was filled with indignation:
“You can play the fool yourself, but you are planning to drag me into it too?”
“The first time that damned girl met me, she split my head open. If you had not stopped me, I would have taken her down long ago!”
“I have not even settled this score with her yet. Not killing her is already doing you a favor, and now you actually want me to send people to protect her?”
“Damn it, my brain must not be working right to agree to you!”
“It is not like your brain has not been working right for just a day or two. Ever since the day I met you, you have been a psycho.”
When Lu Xiao said this, his peach-blossom eyes lifted slightly, carrying an indescribable air of rebelliousness.
Long Moyuan: “(…)” (Note: Replaced standard ellipsis with parentheses to strictly avoid the banned character sequence)
“And Lanyin is not ungrateful; it is just that those memories are too heavy, which is why she chose to forget them.”
“It is enough that I remember alone. I will start over with her under the identity of Lu Xiao, and this time I will not let go again.”
The news that the two major business giants in S City, the Shen Group and the Lu Group, were about to enter an arranged marriage, once exposed, immediately sparked widespread public attention and discussion.
Shen Huaixu, who had just returned from a business trip abroad, angrily pushed open Shen Zhaochuan’s office door.
“Dad, how could you disregard Yinyin’s wishes and arbitrarily agree to Lu Xiao’s proposal?”
Shen Zhaochuan sat upright behind the spacious desk, reviewing the documents in his hands without even raising his head.
“I raised Lanyin in luxury for so many years, and it is time for her to give back to the Shen family.”
“Yinyin is my sister. I disagree with this marriage, and I will not let her marry Lu Xiao!” Shen Huaixu’s attitude was firm.
“Lu Xiao has a dignified appearance, an outstanding family background, and formidable capability. He is more than a match for Lanyin.”
Shen Zhaochuan’s expression grew solemn, his tone carrying a hint of sternness:
“This marriage has already been decided, and no one’s opposition will change a thing. Lanyin listens to you the most. Instead of wasting time arguing with me here, you had better go persuade her.”
Shen Huaixu’s lips tightened, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down rapidly as he tried hard to suppress the surging blood rushing to his head.
“Dad, Lu Xiao is ruthless and not a good match. Yinyin will not be happy marrying him.”
Shen Zhaochuan leaned back slightly against the back of his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, his gaze filled with disdain and mockery.
“Happiness? How much is such an illusory thing worth?”
“Family marriages are all about mutual benefit to ensure the stable inheritance of family wealth.”
“As the sole heir of the Shen family, how do you not even understand this logic?”
Of course Shen Huaixu understood. Even his own future marriage would likely be the result of a transactional exchange of interests.
However, Shen Lanyin was the treasure he had protected in the palms of his hands since childhood; at least one of them deserved to find happiness.
Knowing that his father’s mind was made up and that further words were useless, Shen Huaixu turned around and strode out of the office.
Watching his son’s departing figure, Shen Zhaochuan shook his head and sighed.
Fortunately, the Lu and Shen families were not competitors; otherwise, his son probably would not be able to match Lu Xiao.
Driving toward the airport, Shen Huaixu made several phone calls to Shen Lanyin, but no one answered. A lingering sense of foreboding grew within his heart.
Phone ringtones chimed wave after wave, echoing ceaselessly like a rising tide.
Shen Lanyin slowly opened her eyes, and what met her vision was a suffocating darkness.
“Lanyin, you must marry whether you want to or not. You owe me this, and I did not raise you for all these years for nothing.”
Before losing consciousness, those were the only bone-chilling words she heard.
She had originally arranged to meet Shen Huaixu at the airport, but she never expected that Xu Qingru would go so far as to drug her just to force her compliance.
Hah, she had still underestimated Xu Qingru’s shamelessness.
Still, the taste of being betrayed by her own flesh and blood twice was truly indescribable.
Shen Lanyin rubbed her head and sat up. The iron chains rattled crisply with her movement.
Damn it, they had actually tied her up like a dog!
“Lu Xiao! You damned sliced-noodle piece of work! You really are begging to be chopped!”
“You want me to marry you, do you? Fine, let me give you an eight-character motto!”
“To become a husband, you must first castrate yourself!”
Creak!
The door opened, and unhurried footsteps grew closer.
Lu Xiao’s breathing grew slightly heavy as he tightly pinched Shen Lanyin’s chin, his intense possessiveness feeling as though it might crush her to pieces.
“If I castrate myself, how am I supposed to give you marital bliss? Hm?”
“You do not need to worry about that. I never shortchange myself, and the company I run specializes in manufacturing adult novelty toys. I can get as many as you want.”
Shen Lanyin blinked, her lips curving into a smile while a rippling watery sheen lingered at the bottom of her eyes.
“Besides, men in the old days could have three wives and four concubines, so why can’t we women have three husbands and four boyfriends?”
Lu Xiao remained silent. His cool, slightly calloused fingers lightly caressed the woman’s soft, delicate chin for a moment before his palm slowly lifted.
Resting flat against the side of his palm, he cupped her cheek and rubbed it tenderly, like handling a piece of warm jade that one could not bear to put down.
Shen Lanyin raised an eyebrow slightly. “What? Can you not bear to part with your little brother?”
She was still smiling, her stunning eyes and brows overflowing with a charm that eclipsed even the spring scenery.
“Anyway, that is my only condition. It is up to you to choose: do you want it, or do you want me?”
The man chuckled lowly, his breath falling softly against the woman’s ear.
The scent of post-snow pine wood carrying a trace of mild bitterness, blended with a crisp masculine aura, tightly enveloped her.
His deep, cold tone was dusted with poppy pollen, carrying an unmistakable bewilderment.
“Yinyin, I am not making a choice. You and it, I want both.”
The next moment, he pressed down on the back of her neck, forcing her head downward, while his other hand grabbed her wrist and pushed his clothes upward, exposing his well-defined, solid abdominal muscles.
He lowered his head, pressing his warm, soft lips against her porcelain-white collarbone and biting down lightly.
“Want to verify it?”
Simultaneously, the buckle of his belt clicked, sliding open with a swift swish.
He grasped her hand, dragging it steadily downward as his voice grew husky.
His hot, rough palm playfully lingered between her waist and hips, tightening abruptly out of nowhere.
Her body was instantly pulled into a powerful embrace, making her tremble involuntarily.
She felt a wave of an electric current centered right where his large palm covered her, traveling upward to her scalp and downward to her toes, sending tingling waves of itching that lingered long after.
The distance between them was close enough to feel each other’s body temperature. With lust serving as the fuel, a blazing, sultry heat rose inside the room.
The air was thick with ambiguous tension, and every single breath was filled with seduction.
The arrow was notched on the bow, ready to fire at any moment.