Chapter 1
Chapter 1
When Jiang Huaizhou brought another woman home, I was downstairs getting a drink of water.
The moment I saw them, I hurried upstairs and hid in my room.
This wasn’t the first time. After he was done with those women, he would leave.
I just had to pretend I hadn’t seen anything.
But a few minutes later, my bedroom door was suddenly kicked open.
Jiang Huaizhou rushed in like a madman and ripped my blanket away.
“What were you hiding from just now?”
The lights in the room were off.
The glow from the doorway shone in, falling across Jiang Huaizhou’s back.
His dark, brooding shadow descended over me, swallowing me whole.
My timid silence only enraged him further.
He yanked me up, his hand clamping hard around my throat.
“Chen Yin, I brought another woman here. Doesn’t it hurt?”
I forced the words out with difficulty. “You can do… whatever you want.”
He could bring anyone he wanted.
I wouldn’t interfere, and I didn’t dare to.
Jiang Huaizhou sneered. “Why doesn’t it hurt?”
“Weiwei is gone. What right do you have to keep living just fine? You should be suffering.”
Chen Wei was my older sister, and Jiang Huaizhou’s first love. She died two years ago.
Suicide.
But everyone believed I was the one who had driven her to it.
Jiang Huaizhou treated me as Chen Wei’s substitute and forced me to marry him.
After the wedding, he loathed me and kept one mistress after another by his side.
His hand was still locked around my throat.
The feeling of suffocation grew stronger and stronger, and fear left me unable to move.
Every time Jiang Huaizhou was about to hurt me, my mind would shut down for a short while.
I couldn’t fight back. All I could do was escape.
Suddenly, my body felt light, and my awareness returned.
Someone had dragged Jiang Huaizhou away and thrown him to the floor.
Lin Qi had his hand around Jiang Huaizhou’s throat, just as Jiang Huaizhou had done to me moments ago.
Only when Jiang Huaizhou was on the verge of suffocation did Lin Qi finally let go.
Then…
He slammed punch after punch into Jiang Huaizhou’s face.
For the first time, I realized that the powerful, terrifying Jiang Huaizhou could also be so weak.
I scrambled off the bed and grabbed Lin Qi’s arm, my voice trembling.
“Stop.”
If he kept going, he would beat Jiang Huaizhou to death.
Lin Qi stood and gently took my hand, comforting me.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“See? He isn’t that scary.”
“When he runs into someone stronger than him, all he can do is take the beating.”
Jiang Huaizhou struggled to get up. “Chen Yin! You’re keeping a man in the house, you fucking-”
Lin Qi stomped him back down with one foot. “I’m the bodyguard Miss Chen hired. I’m responsible for protecting her personal safety.”
…
Lin Qi and I went to the guest room downstairs and locked the door behind us.
I watched as he squeezed out some ointment and gently applied it with his fingers to the bruises on my neck.
“I’m sorry. I was late.”
I heard noises outside the door. Jiang Huaizhou had left.
“He won’t let this go,” I said worriedly.
Lin Qi shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m not afraid of him.”
“And I won’t let him hurt you again.”
Just then, my phone rang. It was the Chen Family.
As soon as I answered, my mother’s scolding came through. “Chen Yin, did you make Huaizhou angry again?”
“Men all fool around outside. Just endure it and it’ll pass. The urgent thing is for you to hurry up and have a child.”
“And get rid of that bodyguard or whatever he is. Do you hire a bodyguard to guard against your own family?”
My father chimed in after her. “We raised you for so many years. How can you be so ungrateful…”
I listened numbly to their accusations.
Suddenly, a hand reached over from beside me and pressed End for me.
“Chen Yin, don’t listen.”
“None of them matter. You matter most.”
You matter most.
I matter most.
Once, someone had said the same thing to me.
I was only the Chen Family’s adopted daughter, an object they had given to Jiang Huaizhou.
After my sister Chen Wei died, the Chen Family refused to give up their marriage connection to the Jiang Family, so they used the debt of raising me to force me to marry Jiang Huaizhou.
Not only did Jiang Huaizhou not object, he was more than willing.
He married me for the sole purpose of tormenting me.
The Chen Family’s company now depended entirely on the Jiang Corporation’s support. My adoptive parents would never take my side.
I had no family and no friends.
No one would help me.