When Pei Jinchuan woke up, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.
The blanket beneath him was soft and comfortable. Beyond the bright floor-to-ceiling windows lay lush trees and a lawn.
Warm, gentle sunlight slanted into the bright bedroom.
Everything was so beautiful. Compared to the dark, damp tenement building, this place seemed like heaven.
He sat up, and as soon as he moved, the pain from his wounds made him grunt softly. Lowering his gaze, he saw thick bandages wrapped around his chest, some areas still seeping blood. The faint scent of ointment drifted into his nostrils, and his brows instinctively furrowed.
So this wasn’t heaven after all.
“Awake?” A soft, gentle voice sounded from beside him.
Pei Jinchuan’s attention was instantly drawn away.
Looking up, he saw a delicate young girl sitting on a pure white woolen carpet. She wore an adorable rabbit-patterned nightgown, her skin as fair as snow, her hair dark as ink, with cherry-red lips and a delicate nose. Her slightly wavy long hair was half tied up and half loose, cascading down her back.
The bright sunlight streamed in through the window, floating and drifting through the air around the girl like a beautiful watercolor painting, making one hesitant to disturb the scene.
Suddenly, he was captivated.
Xu Qiao heard no movement and shifted her gaze from the Lego set on the coffee table to the side, meeting the boy’s somewhat infatuated stare.
She paused for a moment, then looked more closely—only to find his eyes now filled with coldness and detachment.
Truly an ungrateful dog.
She had saved him, and he couldn’t even muster a pleasant expression.
“Where is this?” The boy hurriedly averted his gaze, coughing once, his voice rough and hoarse.
He pursed his dry lips, seemingly unaccustomed to the sound of his own voice, but soon a flood of questions poured out. “Did you bring me here? What about my mom? How is she? And Pei Sunian… he wouldn’t…”
Xu Qiao had no patience to answer him one by one.
Leaning on the beige sofa behind her, she stood up, grabbed the documents and tablet placed nearby, walked to the bedside, and tossed them directly at the man.
Her tone was impatient. “Why so many pointless questions? Read it yourself, and sign it when you’re done.”
The tablet she threw over was lit up, displaying a surveillance video. Pei Jinchuan glanced at it and exclaimed, “Mom!”
The surveillance footage showed a hospital room, and the woman lying on the bed was his foster mother. He quickly understood that Xu Qiao had arranged for his foster mother to be hospitalized.
The room was a single occupancy, almost identical to the one he had stayed in at Hui'an Yiyuan.
And the bandages wrapped around him, the faint scent of ointment—they all came from her.
Xu Qiao had saved him. Twice.
As this thought surfaced, his heartbeat uncontrollably quickened, his cheeks grew warm, and his breath turned hot. An overwhelming sense of excitement and suffocation consumed him.
He swallowed hard, desperately suppressing the frantic, almost suffocating feeling that enveloped him. His flushed face wore a calmness so restrained it bordered on indifference.
The man picked up the documents beside the tablet, scanning them rapidly. When he set them down, even his hands began to tremble.
After a long while, the parts of the documents he had gripped were covered in crumpled creases. Upon closer inspection, the center seemed damp, as if soaked with water.
Xu Qiao had no patience to wait for him, nor did she have the patience to explain the current situation. She had already taken a seat on the sofa by the window, her eyes fixed on her phone, her attention completely elsewhere.
She was always like this—unwilling to even speak to him, even when offering him financial support.
Along with the excitement came a hidden sense of disappointment and humiliation.
He clutched the documents, his tone filled with disbelief like anyone who had been humiliated. "You want to sponsor me?"
Xu Qiao didn’t even look up. "You’ve seen the documents. Treating all the old and new injuries on your foster mother’s body will cost at least 180,000 yuan. The rent for the house you’re currently renting is two months overdue, and the landlord has long wanted to evict you. Your foster father’s gambling debts amount to over 500,000 yuan, not including the money he owes to relatives and friends."
"I’ve investigated you. Your tuition and living expenses rely entirely on the academy’s scholarships and financial aid for impoverished students. On weekends, you work part-time at a convenience store near your home, earning fifteen yuan an hour. On weekdays, you take on paid gaming sessions at internet cafes, earning thirty yuan each time. Forget thirty years—even if I gave you twenty years, you wouldn’t be able to repay this money."
With every word she spoke, his face flushed deeper. The scars and secrets he had desperately tried to hide were now brutally and openly torn apart by her, laid bare before him, forcing him to confront them directly.
At this moment, shame burned him like a raging fire, frying him in a pan of boiling oil.
He retorted hoarsely, "After graduation, I’ll earn money—definitely more than I do now. My grades are good, and my abilities aren’t weak. It’s not impossible for me to repay it."
Chi Ning nodded, not refuting Pei Jinchuan’s words, and looked up with a smile. "Of course, that’s certain."
But she added in the next moment, "However, this possibility is based on you being able to graduate smoothly and even find a high-paying job that doesn’t care about your family background."
"You should understand without me saying it. If debt collectors come knocking, or if your foster father continues to gamble, whether you can continue studying at Luosi Xueyuan or even graduate smoothly becomes a question."
Xu Qiao put down her phone, stood up, and walked over to the young man. She took the documents from his hands, her movements not particularly gentle, her tone far from kind.
"But following me is different. Your foster mother’s medical expenses, your foster father’s past gambling debts, your living expenses, tuition, miscellaneous fees—even anything that troubles you—are nothing more than a flick of my wrist."
"Perhaps others have extended olive branches to you before. Of course, this money might not mean much to them, but they might not be able to help you deal with your gambling foster father, ensuring you have no worries forever."
"How do you plan to handle my foster—" Pei Jinchuan exclaimed in shock.
Before he could finish, the woman pressed a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet. She smiled and said, "You just need to know that as long as you sign this agreement, he will never appear in your or your foster mother’s lives again."
Xu Qiao had no intention of saying more. Her words were clear enough. After understanding the implications, Pei Jinchuan’s pupils contracted, and his body stiffened for a moment.
The woman took a step closer. Her gaze swept over the crumpled documents with disdain. Pinching a corner of the papers, she tossed them into a nearby trash bin, then turned and retrieved a fresh set from the coffee table, this time also picking up a pen.
Pei Jinchuan’s eyes followed those almond-shaped eyes, which radiated disdain and disgust yet were strikingly beautiful. It felt as if two tiny beings resided in his heart—one sprinkling honey, the other laying down salt. A pain laced with sweetness spread through his veins, reaching every limb and penetrating deep into his organs.
It hurt intensely, yet it also filled him with wild elation, so much so that he couldn’t tear his gaze away from that slender, beautiful figure.
An almost self-destructive obsession and repression made him unable to hear anything she said afterward.
When the brand-new, clean document was handed over again, that gentle yet commanding voice followed.
"Of course, after you graduate successfully from Luosi Xueyuan, whether you want to continue studying abroad or get a high-paying job that doesn’t care about your background, I can also provide that for you. But the prerequisite for all of this is that you sign this contract of servitude."
Following the woman’s words, his gaze fell on the six large characters at the top of the document: Gougou Zizhu Xieyi. His breath nearly stopped.
He knew exactly what was written inside. His innate photographic memory, for the first time, brought him such delight and shame.
She knew everything about him, saw his wounds, exposed his secrets, unearthed his past, and then laid it all out before him, bright and bloody. Did this prove that she actually cared about him?
An incredibly tempting yet utterly humiliating contract, bound by hundreds of constraints and hundreds of obligations, was handed to him by the lofty young mistress herself.
Signing his name, stamping the seal, branding himself—would he belong to her forever from then on?
The trembling of his body was nothing compared to the ecstasy of his soul’s tremor. At this moment, it seemed as if all the blood in his body was boiling, celebrating.
It was just too bad that he had to wrap up, conceal, and carefully hide such feelings, unable to reveal even the slightest hint.
In Xu Qiao’s eyes, this proud genius from Luosi Xueyuan trembled as he took the document and pen. Perhaps due to anger, shame, and helplessness, two overly conspicuous blushes appeared on his face.
She quietly lowered her gaze to observe him, noticing his sweaty palms. He wiped them with paper several times before barely steadying the pen. His movements were slow and shaky. The hand holding the pen was pale, slender, with distinct knuckles and prominent veins. As he wrote his name stroke by stroke, she couldn’t help but linger her gaze on it a little longer.
When the lawyer drafted this document, compared to the obligations Party B needed to fulfill, the rules were almost excessively harsh.
Most of them revolved around interpersonal relationships.
Once he signed his name, Pei Jinchuan could not have any female peers around him during the agreement period other than Xu Qiao, including but not limited to speaking, looking, or even answering questions at school.
Additionally, apart from normal classes, activities, and meetings, all free time had to be spent in this house. Any departures or outings required active reporting, and he had to accept Xu Qiao’s summons and any demands at any time.
This was an agreement so harsh it nearly restricted personal freedom.
Xu Qiao described it aptly—it was no different from a contract of servitude.
What she wanted was to control Pei Jinchuan, fundamentally cutting off any possibility of him coming into contact with Xu Rou.
The sponsorship was merely a convenient excuse, but naturally, she wouldn’t let Pei Jinchuan off too easily.
A genius from the slums, a prodigy—even if he turned to dust after death, his pride would weigh heavier than others.
Not conquest, but humiliation—breaking his pride, shattering his backbone. This was the life script she chose for Pei Jinchuan. No matter how proud a dog, once tamed, trained, and instilled with servility, it would no longer bark at its master.
After the signature was completed, Xu Qiao had the lawyer waiting outside the door collect the agreement.
She went downstairs to have lunch, and Pei Jinchuan, who had dressed and followed behind, hurriedly asked, "Why did you choose me?"
The woman walking ahead paused, her eyelashes lowering slightly, her tone somewhat cold. "Here, what should you call me?"
Pei Jinchuan fell silent for a moment, his face flushed red, his ears burning. Just before Xu Qiao’s patience ran out, he stammered out a few words, "M-Master."
After calling out once, the sense of shame seemed to fade a little. He quickened his pace to catch up with the figure ahead. "Master, I want to know, why did you choose to sponsor me?"
Xu Qiao didn’t stop walking, instead asking in return, "You’ve already signed the agreement. Isn’t it too late to ask now?"
"It’s not too late. Whether I ask or not, I would have signed anyway." His voice was low and rough, his throat dry as soon as he spoke.
Xu Qiao took a seat at the table. After the servants finished serving the dishes, they all left, leaving only the two of them in the spacious living room.
The table was laden with a rich spread of dishes, both meat and vegetables, but there was only one pair of chopsticks, one soup spoon, and one rice bowl.
Pei Jinchuan stood obediently behind the woman. Nearly a day had passed since he was discharged from the hospital yesterday, and he hadn’t had a drop of water or a bite of food.
Now, suddenly seeing the food on the table, he realized just how hungry he was. The overwhelming hunger, along with the pain in his stomach, surged through him like a tidal wave.
But no matter how hungry he was, he didn’t dare hope that Xu Qiao would be merciful enough to let him sit at the table and eat.
He thought, almost self-deprecatingly, that in the eyes of the lofty young lady, he was nothing more than a dog trampled underfoot.
How could a dog climb onto the dining table and eat with people?
It wasn’t until the woman finished her lunch and his legs were nearly numb from standing that he finally got the answer he wanted.
"I was just bored and wanted to keep a dog for fun."
Her answer was casual, even dismissive. He desperately searched for any hint of care in her words but was disappointed once again.
Yet he couldn’t help but think, even if he was just a dog, she had still chosen him, hadn’t she?
There were so many impoverished students at Luosi Xueyuan, yet she only wanted him, didn’t she?
Even if he was nothing more than a shameful plaything, even if he wasn’t even allowed to sit at the table, he had been branded, marked—he was the young lady’s dog, wasn’t he?
Author’s Note:
No need to say it—everyone can see that little Pei here doesn’t even need training.