A Beijing socialite stole my boyfriend; she went crazy after I got married.

Before Jiang Chu could even gasp in surprise, Xie Jing's arm was already across her waist, locking her into his embrace like an iron gate.

Her hands instinctively braced against his chest, beneath which lay his dark gray vest, slightly soaked with sweat, and beneath the fabric, his chest muscles as hard as stone.

"wait--"

She only managed to utter one word before a large hand gripped the back of her head.

Five long, strong fingers were inserted into her slightly loose braids, her palms pressed against the back of her head, lifting her face up without any resistance.

Jiang Chu's eyes widened suddenly.

Then he kissed her.

It carries a hint of punishment.

The moment the man's lips pressed against hers, Jiang Chu felt as if a wild beast had seized her by the throat.

His lips were warm, dry and rough, carrying the slight warmth of his body after exercise.

He didn't give her a moment to breathe—he pressed his lips against hers first, using an almost brutal force to pry her slightly open mouth open even wider.

Jiang Chu let out a muffled groan.

The man's tongue pressed against his teeth, then swept across his palate, rough, hot, and with an extremely aggressive feel.

His kisses were deep and heavy, each one a declaration of an unshakeable sovereignty.

Their breaths mingled.

Xie Jing tilted his head slightly, changing the angle, and pressed the kiss even deeper.

Jiang Chu was forced to lean back, feeling the man bite her lower lip lightly.

She took a breath and instinctively pushed against his chest.

Xie Jing didn't move an inch, but instead hugged her even tighter, and even touched the gap in the seat belt, gently pinching the girl's waist.

The slender, supple waist beneath his palm was as soft as a handful of snow about to melt, rising and falling slightly with each of her disordered breaths.

The waterline broke in mid-air.

Jiang Chu was panting heavily.

Her lips were slightly swollen from the kisses, and there was a very small, shallow tooth mark on her lower lip, left by his teeth.

She looked up, staring blankly at the man so close to her.

Xie Jing also looked down at her.

The darkness churning in those black eyes hadn't completely faded, like ink drops slowly sinking in the deep sea.

But his expression had returned to its usual indifferent and composed state.

The corners of his mouth were even slightly upturned.

He withdrew his hand and gently tidied her messy hair, his movements very tender. "Why do you always try to take advantage of me?"

Jiang Chu finally caught her breath from the overwhelming kiss, but upon hearing this, she almost fainted again.

Jiang Chu: "...Yeah, that's right, I'm the one taking advantage of you."

She said expressionlessly, raising the back of her hand and forcefully rubbing her lips, which were almost numb from the kiss, "Are you satisfied now, you cold-hearted person?"

Xie Jing chuckled, ruffled the girl's hair, and asked, "Want to compete again?"

Jiang Chu gritted her teeth, "Nonsense!"

Xie Jing gave her a deep look, then went to a cabinet on the side and took out a pair of small climbing shoes, handing them to her.

Jiang Chu took it and looked at it. "Why do you have size 38 shoes?"

Xie Jing said nonchalantly, "The housekeeper went to prepare when you first came to stay."

Jiang Chu: "..."

After changing her shoes, she stood up, stretched her ankles a couple of times, and walked to the bottom of the climbing wall.

She looked up at the dusty, high wall.

From this angle, those support points look like colorful gems embedded in the cliff face.

The sloping, upward-angled section at the top of the wall looks almost like a ceiling directly overhead from below.

"You choose your own route." Xie Jing walked to her side, his voice unhurried. "There are no color restrictions. You can use any route's foothold, or mix and match. Whoever reaches the top first wins."

Jiang Chu frowned and quickly scanned the distribution of the support points on the entire wall.

The first half involves navigating a dense area of ​​green and blue pivot points to quickly increase altitude.

The middle section transitions to the yellow fulcrum area, where the distance between the fulcrums will increase slightly, but it should still be within the reach of her arm.

As for the final section at the angle of elevation—

We'll talk about it later.

"OK."

Xie Jing stood about a meter away to her right.

She set a countdown timer on her phone.

"three."

Jiang Chu's fingers touched the first green support at the bottom of the wall.

"two."

Her right foot landed on a blue dot, the rubber sole of her shoe gripping the raised resin firmly.

"one."

Jiang Chu used both hands to pull herself off the ground.

The first three meters went extremely smoothly.

The green route has large and densely packed support points, almost one every thirty centimeters, and all of them are in the most user-friendly bottle shape.

It fits snugly in the palm of your hand, providing an extremely comfortable and secure grip.

Her body was light and agile, and her hands and feet moved quickly, with almost no superfluous movements.

Jiang Chu even dared to glance to the right during breaks in the climb.

She soon regretted what she had done.

Because Xie Jing is faster.

He was taking a route that mixed yellow and orange – the spacing between those points was at least twice that of the green route she was currently taking.

But with his long arms and legs, those fulcrums that she would have to struggle to reach, he could easily reach out and grasp with ease.

His climbing posture was completely different from hers.

She relies on her sense of footwork and body coordination—keeping her center of gravity between her feet at all times, using her leg strength to propel her body upwards, while her hands mainly serve to assist in maintaining balance.

This is a standard beginner's technique, which is effortless but slow.

And he-

He was pulling himself up almost entirely using his upper body strength.

Each hand switch is accompanied by a powerful pull-up motion, in which the entire body is lifted by more than half a meter in an instant by the muscles of the arms and back.

His latissimus dorsi muscles suddenly stretched out as he exerted force, bulging his dark gray vest into the shape of two outstretched wings.

Then his feet precisely found a foothold on the wall, stabilizing his starting position for the next step, and immediately his other hand swiftly reached for a higher foothold—

The whole process was smooth and seamless.

Like a large feline climbing a cliff, every movement combines explosive power and control, seemingly fierce yet precise to the millimeter.

Jiang Chu felt like she was doomed.

In a speed contest, she has absolutely no chance of winning against him.

But she still didn't want to give up.

She quickened the pace of her hand and foot movements, moving from the green pivot area into the blue pivot area. The spacing between the blue pivots was slightly larger than that of the green ones.

The shape has also changed from a friendly kettle shape to a smaller slit shape and a sloping shape.

Her fingers started to ache.

Rock climbing places extremely high demands on the forearm flexor muscles—every grip involves using the strength of your fingertips to fight against the weight of your entire body.

Her forearm muscles had already been used up during the pull-up competition, and now those muscle fibers were sending increasingly strong protest signals.

five meters.

Jiang Chu's heart began to race.

It wasn't just because of exercise—it was also because of anxiety.

She instinctively sped up, her right hand quickly leaping over a blue fulcrum to reach the yellow fulcrum above.

My fingertips touched it.

But I didn't hold on tight.

The yellow fulcrum is a shallow bevel with a surface area of ​​only about two finger joints wide for gripping.

Her fingertips slipped due to sweat, and her fingertips rubbed against the resin surface—

It didn't stay.

Her right hand instantly lost its footing.

The person's center of gravity suddenly shifted.

"?!"

Jiang Chu's heart clenched suddenly.

Her left hand was still hanging on the blue fulcrum below, but because of the sudden shift in her center of gravity, her body began to spin and swing uncontrollably to the right.

The fingertips of the left hand slid rapidly on the fulcrum.

Three fingers, two fingers, one finger—

Her right foot also came off at the same instant.

He lost his balance.

My mind went completely blank.

She even forgot about the seatbelt. Her left hand instinctively tried to grab the detaching fulcrum, but her forearm flexor muscles were already exhausted.

Those muscles seemed to have been drained of all their strength and were completely unresponsive to commands.

The last finger slipped off the fulcrum.

She began to fall.

Then everything suddenly stopped.

A strong, powerful arm was placed across her waist.

The arm was like an iron hoop, suddenly wrapping around her from the side and precisely encircling her waist.

The force was astonishing, yet the control was extremely precise.

Her body was frozen in mid-air.

The feeling of falling stopped abruptly.

Jiang Chu turned her head in shock.

She was suspended on a wall more than five meters high, with a hot, hard chest pressed tightly against her side.

Xie Jing had somehow moved across from the climbing route on her right.

His right hand was still gripping an orange fulcrum.

Hanging with one hand.

On the forearm of the hand that was gripping the fulcrum, the veins bulged from the wrist all the way to the elbow, each one clearly visible, like a net brimming with power.

His left arm was around her waist.

His entire left arm wrapped around her from behind, his forearm pressed against the small section of skin exposed on her side, his palm cupping her left side.

He hung from the fulcrum with one hand, bearing the combined weight of himself and her.

The biceps of the right arm swelled to an alarming arc under this extreme load.

The sleeveless design of the vest exposed the muscular state of his entire arm.

From the biceps to the forearm flexors, every muscle is at its limit of full contraction, with the muscle fibers under the skin resembling tightly twisted steel cables.

"Gotcha."

A slightly hoarse, deep male voice came from above her head.

With a slight pant and a nonchalant smile.