chapter 1

# chapter 1

I had barely reached the dorm room when I heard someone teasing him inside.

“So, Yu, what’s it like pretending to be mute so you can hook up with your own aunt?”

I stopped just outside the door.

After a long pause, a deeper voice answered, “It’s fine.”

Through the crack, I saw a young man lounging in a chair with one ankle propped over his knee. His lowered eyes and aloof expression gave him the kind of expensive, world-weary beauty fashion magazines loved.

“When are you dumping her, then? Doesn’t staying silent all day drive you crazy?”

“Does talking all day drive you crazy?”

He spun his phone between his fingers, impatience written all over his face. “I’ll dump her when I’m tired of her.”

I said nothing. Pretending I had not heard a thing, I turned and went back downstairs.

Then I texted him: *I’m here. Where are you?*

The reply came at once.

*Got it. Coming down now!*

Seconds later, someone burst out of the dorm building.

Meng Chongyu was still wearing the same black hoodie, but the irritation had vanished from his face. In its place was the sunny, eager expression I knew so well.

He came to me grinning, tapped at his phone, and held up the screen.

*Did you wait long?*

“Not very.”

He studied me for two seconds, blinked, and typed again.

*Are you upset because I kept you waiting?*

I glanced at the boy holding out his phone, his whole posture careful and ingratiating, and slowly exhaled.

“No. It’s work.”

*Oh.*

His gaze dropped, disappointment softening his features.

He looked so different from the man in the dorm room that, for a moment, I almost wondered whether I had imagined the entire scene.

He settled obediently into the passenger seat, then seemed to remember something.

*Can you wait a few more minutes?*

I nodded. He jumped out and ran off at once.

While I waited, I hesitated for a long time before opening Ji Weili’s chat.

*You once mentioned you had a nephew. What’s his name?*

The man I had not contacted in ages replied quickly.

Ji Weili: *Meng Chongyu.*

Ji Weili: *Why?*

I was about to answer when the car door opened. I hurriedly shoved my phone into my pocket as Meng Chongyu climbed in.

With one hand still in his pocket, he fastened his seat belt, then produced a lollipop as if by magic.

Strawberry.

He held it out to me.

“For me?”

He nodded and typed, *Don’t be mad anymore, okay?*

I had once been a poor student sponsored by Ji Weili.

I married him because he needed a wife-someone obedient enough to satisfy the old man in his family who kept pressuring him to settle down.

I had been the easiest woman to control.

During our years together, I had almost no chance to learn anything about his family. I did vaguely remember hearing about the eldest nephew they had sent away: a lawless rich kid, the sort of young master whose worst antics could give even Ji Weili a headache.

And now that very menace sat beside me looking as tame as a house pet.

His performance was impressive. I found it rather entertaining.

At a red light, I turned to him.

“Kiss me.”

He froze. Then his eyes darkened.

I did not have to ask twice. He leaned over, caught my chin between his fingers, and kissed me hard.

No matter how convincingly Meng Chongyu played the meek boy during the day, he could never quite hide his instinctive aggression in bed.

A horn blared from the car beside us.

Before I could react, it sounded again. I turned and found the neighboring window already lowered, revealing a painfully familiar face.

Ji Weili?

I tensed out of habit, then remembered he no longer had any say over my life.

He looked anything but pleased. “That desperate, are you?”

I smiled broadly. “Young men have plenty of energy. Forgive the spectacle, Mr. Ji.”

His face darkened. His gaze slid past me toward the passenger seat, and I instinctively leaned sideways to block his view.

“The light’s green. I’d better not hold up traffic.”

I raised my window first.

When I looked back at Meng Chongyu, he had turned toward his own window, lost in thought.

I could not help wondering what Ji Weili’s face would look like if he learned that the man kissing me was his nephew.

But the game had only just become interesting.

I would have hated for it to end too soon.