When she smelled the scent on her sleeve, she glanced at the scratch marks on the back of her hand.
Those were left by Shen Jiyuan last night.
The scratches weren’t deep, no broken skin, and barely painful, but Shi Qing’s fair skin made the red marks especially obvious on her beautiful slender hand.
She lifted her hand with interest and admired it in the light.
On her first day entering this world, she already felt the warmth of the male lead. She had known from early on that no matter how cold a man seemed on the outside, inside they were all warm. Shen Jiyuan was just particularly stubborn with his words.
But the more stubborn the better—she liked that.
Shi Qing recalled how, when her fingers stroked down Shen Jiyuan’s spine, he arched away to avoid her touch. She thought about his damp black hair stuck to his cheek, sweat hanging on his long eyelashes, and his tightly furrowed brows… she smacked her lips at the memory.
But after savoring it, she turned her head and pushed Shen Jiyuan out of her mind.
She still had many things to do; the plot didn’t give anyone time to rest, and there was a pile of messy business ahead.
Shi Qing sat quietly by the window, resting her chin on one hand.
After thinking for a moment, she listed dozens of urgent tasks and called on the system, assigning some of the tasks to it.
The system didn’t ask any questions; it took the tasks and disappeared.
By the time it returned, Shi Qing had already finished reading the entire novel and was still daydreaming by the window, her posture almost unchanged from when the system left, seemingly not having moved at all.
However, two suitcases sat by her feet, and many items in the room were gone.
The system was surprised: “What’s this?”
Shi Qing glanced away from the window and replied, “My luggage—specifically An Qing’s clothes, books, dolls, diary, and other personal belongings.”
The system was puzzled. Shi Qing had packed up the original owner’s things. Was she planning to move out?
After thinking for a moment, the system gently warned her.
“Host, I must remind you… the An family is powerful and influential here…”
The original owner had worked so hard to escape abroad under a hidden identity, but the An family never stopped pursuing her. Simply hiding like this was too crude to evade the plot.
“Don’t say ‘hide’—that word sounds so ugly.”
Shi Qing put away her phone. “Just changing places and changing moods.”
She was doing the mission for enjoyment, not to suffer.
This house had a clueless father, a cunning and deceitful stepmother, and a sister full of malice. Why would she stay here? That would be asking for trouble.
The system asked, confused, “Then where are you going now?”
Shi Qing shook the phone in her hand, her eyes curved like a crescent moon. “I just checked; this hotel has the food I want.”
The system took a look.
The phone screen brightly showed a reservation interface for a high-end hotel. Shi Qing had already booked the most expensive room and ordered lunch with a personal service by a head chef with fifty years of experience.
The payment screen was full of zeros, making the system’s “eyes” go dark.
So… much money…
This must all be An Qing’s money, just spending it like this?
She faced countless difficulties at the start. No matter what, spending the money here was far more worthwhile than in other places.
Besides, staying in a hotel—wasn’t she afraid Shen Jiyuan would find her?
In the story, after that night, Shen Jiyuan had been searching for the female lead’s whereabouts constantly.
Shi Qing lost count of how many times the system had made her laugh.
She shook her head and put away her phone. “Money isn’t something you save by just scrimping.”
As for Shen Jiyuan…
Did he have the energy to look for her today? If he could get out of bed, that meant he must really work out diligently.
Shi Qing smiled meaningfully and pulled her suitcase.
“Alright, don’t keep the chef waiting. That’s just basic respect for good food.”
While Shi Qing was enjoying her meal, in the presidential suite, Shen Jiyuan had just woken up…
The noon sunlight did not illuminate the room; blackout curtains blocked all the light, making it feel like night.
The air conditioner maintained a comfortable temperature, and the room was silent. Shen Jiyuan lay in bed, surrounded by an unfamiliar strong scent.
He felt as though he had been dreaming for a very long time.
As his consciousness returned, he realized he was dreaming but couldn’t figure out what he dreamed of—whether it was a wet dream or a nightmare.
But aren’t dreams all like that?
A strange, inexplicable excitement mixed with fear of being coiled by a giant python, his limbs bound, terrified to the extreme, his senses seemingly magnified dozens of times.
Shen Jiyuan gasped for air and suddenly opened his eyes wide, like someone drowning.
Upon waking, the dream seemed to linger beside his pillow, but his biological clock told him he had been lying there for a long time.
His heart pounded, a flush spread from his face to his neck, his chest rose and fell constantly, and he felt the muscles in his thighs twitch involuntarily under the quilt. His adrenaline surged, and his scalp tingled.
The unfamiliar sensation, like being on a cloud, left Shen Jiyuan dazed.
After several seconds, his vision gradually focused on the pitch-black ceiling.
He couldn’t even lift a finger. The spot where the quilt rubbed his chest tingled faintly, the mattress was cold and soggy, and the sticky feeling made him nauseous.
After a few minutes, he finally understood what had happened to him.
His face instantly turned pale as sweat broke out on his forehead, and his whole body began to tremble.
He… had been…
No, that couldn’t be! He was a man!
Such a thing… such a thing…
Wait! Could it be that his rival who had framed him yesterday put hallucinogenic drugs in his wine?
No matter how much he tried to deceive himself, he couldn’t believe it.
The tingling in his fingertips had completely faded, but the mattress under him brought terrible associations. His mind was in chaos, with thoughts turning over and becoming incomprehensible fragments. He simply couldn’t think.
Ignoring his body’s protests, he tried to get out of bed but his ankle trembled, and he fell off the bed.
His head hit the edge of the bed with a dull thud, stars flashing before his eyes. He tried to hold onto the edge of the bed to support himself but froze in place.
He saw his bathrobe, with its belt torn off, lying quietly at the foot of the bed.
The bathrobe seemed to have transformed into something completely incomprehensible to him. Nearby, there was a mark on the carpet next to the bed—one patch was darker than the surrounding color.
Following that mark slowly upward, he saw the bedsheet, now crumpled beyond recognition. The sheet was soaked, and the wet stains on the carpet came from it.
At that moment, Shen Jiyuan felt his mind go numb with a buzzing sound and turn blank.
He didn’t even know how he managed to drag his aching body, staggering, into the bathroom.
The bathroom light was bright. His eyes, unaccustomed to the light after so long, blinked and closed reflexively, tears moistening the rims of his eyes.
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
The huge mirror clearly reflected the marks all over his body.
Those marks—anyone could see what had happened to him, and he could no longer deceive himself.
Shen Jiyuan turned on the shower, letting water fall over him.
The cold water poured down from above, his black hair stuck to his face. He stared fixedly at his feet, silently scrubbing himself hard.
He didn’t know how long he washed.
He washed until he was trembling, unable to hold on any longer, scrubbing until his skin stung faintly. That feeling of uncleanliness—he still couldn’t get rid of it! It clung to him like a shadow—
He had been taken by a woman…
He kept taking deep breaths, trying hard to calm down and stay composed—
Maintaining a stable mood—wasn’t that always difficult for him?
What had happened already happened, no use thinking about it anymore… what mattered now was how to deal with it…
The hallway surveillance footage, the hotel check-in records, and those several competitors—starting from these, it shouldn’t be hard to find out who that woman was.
How to investigate, and after discovering her identity, what to do next.
Shen Jiyuan dried himself off, buttoned his shirt all the way to the top, hiding all the marks beneath his clothes. His tightly fitted outfit was like armor. He returned to his usual appearance… at least on the outside.
Except for his overly pale face, no one could tell what had happened to him.
The most important thing was how to handle it afterward…
Shen Jiyuan repeated this thought over and over in his mind, forcing himself to take action.
But as soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, he realized all his mental preparation had been in vain.
He had tidied himself, but not the mess all over the room.
With things this bad, asking room service to clean up was worse than just asking to die.
He had a lot to handle by himself.
Since birth, Shen Jiyuan had to learn several times more than others, but cleaning a room was clearly not among his skills.
He slowly scanned the carpet, the bed… and finally stopped at a glass table at the edge of the room.
There, lay something very out of place.
Realizing who it might be from, it took several seconds before Shen Jiyuan walked over.
On the table was a ceramic plate with a slice of toast on it, and beneath the plate was a piece of paper.
“Remember to eat something when you wake up, take care of your body.”
Only this short message was written on the paper, with very beautiful handwriting—fluid, strong, and graceful.
Seeing the words clearly, it felt as if a string inside Shen Jiyuan’s brain snapped with a loud “pop.”
His fingers dug deep into his palm, trembling. Sharp pain radiated through his hand, yet he seemed oblivious, only hearing the sound of his teeth grinding.
That woman…
He originally thought she was just some gift, a woman who triggered his desire to conquer, someone who appeared out of nowhere—
He didn’t know who she was, what kind of person she was, or even her name.
Such a complete stranger not only forced herself on him all night, then left lightly like nothing happened, but also left behind this mocking message and a piece of leftover toast from his fridge!
Shen Jiyuan forcefully slammed the plate onto the floor.
The ceramic shattered everywhere. Shen Jiyuan could no longer hold himself up; he leaned on the table trembling and began to gag.