No one would be pleased to be woken up at two or three in the middle of the night.
A cigarette was pinched between the man's fingers. He took a drag, then slowly exhaled a long, lingering stream of smoke.
The scent of the cigarette was nearly imperceptible compared to the thick smell of alcohol permeating the air.
Yan Jiu wore an indifferent expression, his posture languid as he leaned back against the sofa.
He hadn't changed his clothes, still wearing a loose, soft cotton loungewear set.
Even so, it didn't diminish his noble and elegant bearing in the slightest.
His features were extraordinarily handsome, his facial contours as if meticulously carved by the heavens.
At this moment, those amorous peach-blossom eyes gleamed with a sharp edge as he calmly sized up the woman sitting across from him.
His eldest nephew's fiancée.
Luo Yan had come running to him reeking of alcohol to tattle, saying his eldest nephew had cheated, and asking him to teach Yan Jun a lesson.
"The two of them, not wearing clothes, shameless."
She seemed heavily drunk, her reactions somewhat sluggish, describing the scene of the affair in slurred words.
Whether from crying or drunkenness, her dark eyes looked as if they'd been soaked in water, glistening with a clear, bright sheen, and even her long, thick lashes were dotted with droplets.
"Yan Jun has a fiancée, yet he went and found himself a stand-in for his white moonlight outside. Shameless."
"That stand-in knew Yan Jun had a fiancée and still came to be the other woman. Shameless."
That was probably the most venting language she could come up with—shameless.
After saying these few sentences, Luo Yan let out a sigh.
She looked at Yan Jiu with a pitiful, aggrieved expression, as if waiting for his comfort or for him to go along with her and say he'd stand up for her.
Yan Jiu smoked half the cigarette, then stubbed it out in the ashtray on the side table beside him.
Only then did he lift his gaze to Luo Yan, his pleasant voice carrying a metallic coldness.
"What does that have to do with me?"
Yan Jiu never concerned himself with Yan Jun's personal affairs. In fact, he was only three years older than Yan Jun—twenty-seven this year.
Back then, Old Master Yan had a child late in life, and Madam Yan, against the objections of her husband and the doctors, had risked everything to give birth to him.
"Yan Jun is an adult with both parents alive. I can't control him. You've come to the wrong person."
This answer was clearly not what Luo Yan wanted to hear.
Her breath hitched for a moment, and she pouted her lips in surprise and disappointment.
"But Uncle, you're his uncle. You're the head of the Yan family. Anyone with the surname Yan listens to you."
After the eldest and second eldest Yan sons had repeatedly botched the company's business, the old master had given up on those two useless accounts.
He was determined to train the backup account—to groom Yan Jiu to inherit the family business.
Yan Jiu didn't disappoint him. He'd been a top student since childhood, and at twenty, he returned from studying abroad to take over Shengyan Jituan.
Over the years, the group had expanded into numerous new business sectors on top of its existing foundation, becoming a standout leader in the industry.
Two years ago, the old master passed away from illness, and Yan Jiu became the head of the Yan family.
The eldest and second eldest, more than twenty years his senior, had to swallow their resentment even if they didn't accept it.
They'd tried every scheme, both open and covert, but none could defeat Yan Jiu—instead, they were suppressed even harder by him.
Now, only Yan Jun held a key position in the group, managing three mid-sized companies under Shengyan.
He respected Yan Jiu, this uncle who wasn't much older than him, with great deference.
This was a man whose single word could decide his future and livelihood.
Before his wings were fully grown and his own power was strong enough to contend, he wouldn't dare act presumptuously in front of him.
"I called Auntie. She sided with Yan Jun and turned around to blame me for not being generous enough."
"He's the one who did wrong, so why am I the one getting scolded?"
Luo Yan had a point, but Yan Jiu was unmoved. His expression was indifferent as he countered her.
"We're both surnamed Yan. How do you know I won't take his side?
Why would I discipline my own nephew for the sake of an outsider?"
"Uncle, you're upright and impartial. You're not the type to side with family over reason."
Luo Yan blinked, trying to persuade the man from another angle to take her side.
"Yan Jun can't even manage his own zipper—how could he manage a company well?"
"If he makes a mess of the company, won't Uncle be the one cleaning up after him?"
Yan Jiu gave a slight tug at the corner of his mouth, revealing a trace of mocking amusement.
A slap on the wrist won't make a fool any smarter.
If Yan Jun lacked the ability to run a company, the sooner it went bankrupt, the sooner he'd be out of the game. A mess wasn't worth wasting time and energy on.
And someone who liked fools—how bright could their own mind be?
Yan Jiu had only seen Luo Yan two or three times before at the Yan family's old residence.
Beautiful, yes, but too thin, lacking a certain liveliness and vitality.
Wearing a suit that didn't match her temperament, respectfully calling him "Uncle," not daring to say another word.
Wooden and dull, utterly uninteresting—just a vase empty inside.
Nothing like someone who'd have the guts to come complain to his face.
How much had she drunk? What kind of shock had she suffered? Her little mouth just wouldn't stop chattering.
He couldn't shake the feeling that tonight's Luo Yan was different—like she'd become a different person.
In that moment of distraction, Yan Jiu noticed the girl who'd just been sitting on the sofa across from him had slid down and crawled on her knees to his feet.
She knelt on the thick carpet, tilting her head back to gaze at him without blinking.
The off-shoulder style of her dress revealed the graceful lines of her collarbone.
Two disobedient strands had escaped from her loose side-swept updo, falling onto her rounded shoulders.
Her luminous, delicate skin gave off a lustrous glow.
At close range, her breathtakingly beautiful face was flawless, and her shimmering eyes reflected his image.
Then Luo Yan seemed to think of something. Her eyes lit up slightly, and her gaze slowly drifted down from his face.
Even through his clothes, Yan Jiu seemed to feel the scorching heat in her appraising gaze.
"Uncle, I've heard that a man's heart is sometimes hard, and sometimes soft."
"What should I do to make your heart soften and help me?"
A dangerous intent instantly congealed in Yan Jiu's cold, ink-black eyes.
Before a small, luminous white hand could catch him off guard and climb onto his thigh, he reacted with lightning speed, seizing her wrist.
The girl's slender wrist seemed like it would shatter at a single squeeze, and her creamy skin gave his fingertips an inexplicable sensation.
The man narrowed his eyes, his flat, declarative tone wrapped in detachment and coldness.
"Luo Yan, you're seducing me."
"I'm not."
Luo Yan, whose wrist was caught, furrowed her delicate brows in pain.
Her expression was as innocent as could be, as pure as could be, as she earnestly asked the man for guidance:
"How do you seduce someone? I don't know how. Uncle, can you teach me?"
She looked at him, and a misty layer of tears welled up in her big, beautiful eyes—wet and pitiful, stirring one's heart.
"Uncle Jiu, you're using too much strength. You're hurting me. Ah~"
The tail end of that single syllable quivered with a lingering, coquettish lilt.