Chapter 5

I threw Su Che to the ground. He groaned in pain. I’d waited far too long for this day.

I stared him down. “All those years in Germany, I boxed and worked out every day. For this.”

Without mercy, I slammed his head against the ground, just as he’d beaten me back then, relying on his height and size.

Alarmed, Zhou Jinyi pulled me into his arms and wiped the blood from my hands. “Enough, enough. It’s all right.”

He settled me in the car, then dragged Su Che into the stairwell.

All I could hear were Su Che’s screams.

When Zhou Jinyi returned, my hands were still shaking.

I’d rehearsed this scene in my mind so many times.

Now that it had actually happened, I still shook. I was still afraid.

I was nowhere near as calm or untroubled as I’d imagined.

Zhou Jinyi held me tightly, murmuring soothingly into my ear. “It’s all right. I’m here. No one will dare hit you again.”

Pain suddenly clenched my heart. The memories followed, one after another. Back when my mother ignored my injuries, Zhou Jinyi had cared.

He’d broken Su Che’s ribs and knocked out his teeth.

“What kind of bastard picks on a girl?” he’d shouted at him.

We weren’t engaged then. We weren’t even particularly close. Yet he’d stepped in.

He took the tissues I offered and pressed them to his bleeding wound, smiling at me. “Don’t cry. I’d have done it for anyone. Don’t be too touched.”

…

Zhou Jinyi’s arms tightened around me. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let you come down alone. All my fault. I didn’t think it through. Don’t be scared, Nannan. I’m here.”

Suddenly, I broke into helpless tears.

My numb body wouldn’t obey me. It took all my strength to push him away. I glared at him viciously. “Zhou Jinyi, I hate you.”

So many people had hurt me and done me wrong.

But you were the one I hated most.

Our wedding was lavish. Tang Heqing was a groomsman.

In the dressing room, he caught my hand. “What would it take for you to choose me?”

My answer was utterly cold and cutting. “Come back and say that when you’re in line to inherit everything the Tang family owns.”

He let go of my hand and lowered his eyes. Then, suddenly, he smiled. “So you really are a bad woman who only cares about money.”

I neither agreed nor denied it.

He went down on one knee, closed his eyes, and kissed the back of my hand. “Luckily, money’s the one thing I’ve never lacked.”

“If you want it, I’ll go earn it.”

“Choose me for your second marriage.”

I ignored him.

He was known in our circle as a dissolute wastrel. His mother had died delivering her second child, and the baby had died with her. His father quickly remarried and had another son.

Everyone knew the Tang heir would be his younger brother.

As the son left by the former wife, if he showed the slightest ambition, he might well be found dead in the street the next day.