Jing City, 2010.
Qiu Xiaoyue was awakened by pain.
A pair of scalding hands around her waist squeezed so hard it felt as though her bones were about to break.
Still half-asleep, she wanted to curse, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a gasp.
The man pressed against her from behind, his lips brushing her ear. “Your first time?”
Qiu Xiaoyue’s mind exploded with a roar.
Before she could answer, the man’s kisses descended—her ear, her neck, her back, all the way down.
His palm slid from her waist to her thigh.
Qiu Xiaoyue went completely numb.
The shame was real, but so was the tingling, almost ticklish sensation coursing through her body.
She bit her lip, refusing to make a sound.
But the man’s hand seemed to carry an electric current. Wherever it touched, she melted into softness.
Later…
Later, she had no idea what had happened to her.
By the time she came to her senses, he had already tossed her around for most of the night.
The bed, the sofa, the floor, the floor-to-ceiling windows…
Again and again.
Everywhere bore traces of what they had done.
The room was a complete mess, and the entire night had been one long entanglement.
……
When Qi Sen woke, the room was still pitch-black.
He reached out and felt around beside him.
Empty.
He sat up and turned on the light.
A pink pair of panties, torn in half, lay pitifully on the carpet.
Qi Sen stared at them for three seconds.
It hadn’t been a dream.
He really had drunk too much the night before and randomly gotten a room to rest in.
He had barely pushed open the door, without even turning on the light, when someone pounced on him from behind.
Warm, soft, and carrying a milky fragrance.
He had never considered himself a man driven by lust, but that woman last night…
Just recalling it was enough to make his mouth go dry again.
Her body seemed to have been carved from the same mold as his. They fit together perfectly everywhere.
She was as soft as tender tofu, so soft that if he pinched her, she seemed as though she might spill between his fingers.
Most lethal of all was her voice—delicate and breathless, like a kitten scratching at him.
And then there was that faint milky scent.
Sweet.
Addictive.
Qi Sen’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Suddenly, he heard movement from the bathroom.
It came in broken intervals, like someone crying.
He froze.
She was still here?!
He got out of bed and twisted the doorknob, but it wouldn’t move.
Locked.
“Come out.” He knocked on the door. “Let’s talk.”
The bathroom fell silent for two seconds.
Then a muffled voice came from inside. “It’s probably better if we don’t see each other. I’m embarrassed.”
Qi Sen: “……”
“I might have drunk too much last night and lost control.” The voice continued, tinged with bashfulness. “I left your compensation on the table.”
Compensation?
Qi Sen turned to look at the table.
Several bills and a few coins had been neatly arranged there.
Ten-yuan notes, five-yuan notes, and even one-mao coins.
Qi Sen had never seen renminbi in such small denominations in his life.
“It’s fifty-three yuan and fifty mao in total,” the voice in the bathroom said again. “The top girl where I’m from charges forty-five for one time. I figured it would definitely be more expensive in a big city, so I added another eight yuan and fifty.”
The corner of Qi Sen’s mouth twitched.
Top girl?
What did she take him for?!
“Count it. Is it enough?”
Qi Sen said nothing.
He stared at the pile of coins, momentarily unsure what expression he should make.
Inside the bathroom, Qiu Xiaoyue waited for a while. When she heard no response, her heart sank.
Oh no. Could he think it was too little?
She clenched the crumpled twenty-five yuan in her palm.
That was her fare home.
The last of her money.
If he asked for it, she would have to give it to him too.
After all, she was the one who had slept with him. She had to take responsibility to the very end.
Just then, a ringtone broke the silence.
Qi Sen answered, and the person on the other end immediately began shouting. “Where the hell did you run off to? Get back here, now! Dad thinks today’s engagement banquet is extremely important. Not a single person in the family can be absent!”
“Got it.”
He hung up and glanced at the tightly locked bathroom door before writing a number on a piece of paper with a pen.
“I have something to take care of, so I’m leaving first.” He placed the note on the table. “My number’s here. Remember to contact me.”
Qiu Xiaoyue listened from beside the crack beneath the door. Only after she heard the door close did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She opened the door a sliver and cautiously stuck out her head. After confirming that no one was left in the room, she let out a long breath and stepped outside.
The pile of money was gone.
He had taken it.
A note had been pressed beneath the place where the money had been.
Qiu Xiaoyue didn’t even look at it. She crumpled it into a ball and tossed it straight into the trash.
“Now that you’ve taken the money, we’re even.”
Qiu Xiaoyue didn’t want to have anything to do with that man ever again.
She would treat it as nothing more than a dream.
She picked up the clothes scattered on the floor and pulled them on.
Fortunately, he hadn’t been too crazy when taking off her outerwear. Her shirt and pants were still intact and hadn’t been torn apart.
They were still wearable.
At the same time, in the room next door—
Qi Yanli flew into a rage at the bald, fat man on the bed. “What the hell did you just say? Qiu Xiaoyue didn’t come in last night?”
Pangzi hunched his neck. “I waited until I fell asleep, and I never saw her…”
“Sleep, sleep, sleep! That’s all you know how to do!”
Qi Yanli kicked the bed frame. “The engagement banquet is about to begin. If we can’t get evidence that she cheated on me, I’ll still have to marry that pockmarked country bumpkin!”
Pangzi hurriedly climbed out of bed to console him. “Old Master Qi dotes on you the most. Just talk to him properly. The two of you are worlds apart. How are you supposed to live with some girl from a backwater mountain village?”
Qi Yanli sneered. “You think I haven’t tried? The Old Master has already made it clear: if I don’t marry her, he’ll revoke my inheritance rights.”
The more he talked, the angrier he became. “Tell me, what kind of arrangement is this? Grandpa climbed a mountain and fell back then, and some old man saved him. Couldn’t he have simply repaid the favor with some money? Why did he have to arrange a childhood betrothal for me?”
Pangzi interrupted, “Her face may not be much, but she’s got a great figure—curves in all the right places, a large chest, and a slim waist. She’s genuinely top-notch.”
“What good is a nice figure?!” Qi Yanli cut him off. “I went to pick her up at the station yesterday. The moment I saw that face of hers, I couldn’t even eat. She disgusted me to death.”
Pangzi chuckled and lowered his voice. “Women are all the same once the lights are off. If you really don’t want her, give me a chance to play with her again sometime. I’m not picky.”
Qi Yanli couldn’t be bothered to respond. “Let’s find her first.”
The day before, Qi Yanli had picked Qiu Xiaoyue up at the train station. He had pretended to invite her to dinner, gotten her drunk, drugged her, and personally delivered her to his friend’s room.
He had originally planned to take compromising photos of her in bed and force her to call off the engagement herself.
Who would have guessed that he would get drunk himself, mistake the rooms in his blurred vision, and deliver her to the wrong one?
Qi Yanli was just about to call the Hotel Manager to search for her when he looked up and froze.
Someone was walking toward them from the doorway.
Her clothes were disheveled, her hair a tangled mess, and several clear red marks stood out on her neck.
Qiu Xiaoyue.
Qi Yanli rushed over and grabbed her by the arm. “Where did you run off to?”
Qiu Xiaoyue tugged at her arm, but couldn’t break free, so she simply stopped trying.
She looked up at him with an utterly serious expression. “I can’t be your wife anymore.”
Qi Yanli froze.
“Last night…” Qiu Xiaoyue hesitated. “I slept with another man.”
Qi Yanli’s mind went blank for two seconds.
Then he nearly burst out laughing.
Everything had gone wrong, but the result was exactly right!
This country bumpkin was surprisingly honest!
He quickly forced down the corners of his mouth, put on the expression of a man who had been cheated on, widened his eyes, and shouted angrily, “What did you say?! You haven’t even married into the Qi family, and you’ve already done something like this? You’re loose and immoral! You have no regard for a wife’s virtue!”
His voice grew louder and louder. “Come on! You’re coming with me to see Grandpa. I’m going to have Grandpa give me justice!”