The pretty girl who plays with people's feelings is going to be severely punished.

The call ended. The room, with its heavy blackout curtains drawn, was completely dark; the light from the phone screen beside my lap barely illuminated my figure.

The man had his head down, and his side-parted bangs were a bit long, covering half of one eye. He looked like his mother, Fan Yonglin, the movie star who was hailed as the dream girl of all men in Hong Kong in her youth and won the Miss Hong Kong crown during the heyday of Hong Kong pop culture.

Fan Yonglin was sold to a dance hall by her father in her teens to pay off gambling debts. She worked as a singer and dancer, and after being discovered by a talent scout, she climbed the social ladder by any means necessary. Using her beauty as leverage, she moved among Hong Kong's wealthy elites, desperately wanting a ticket to their lives.

In the end, they were just treated as toys or amusement, and were easily dismissed with houses, cars, jewelry, and checks.

The closest she came was when she married the youngest son of Hong Kong's richest man, Jian Zhuoqian. The richest man in Hong Kong had countless wives and mistresses, and he had 14 officially recognized children. Jian Zhuoqian was the youngest of them, born to his third wife.

Fan Yonglin was beautiful and willing to lower herself to serve him, and she had many tricks up her sleeve. After her, Jian Zhuoqian never had another lover, and most of his ex-lovers were driven away by Fan Yonglin. Her final move was to force Jian Zhuoqian to marry her by using the fact that she was three months pregnant with a boy.

At that time, Chien Cho-chien still had a wife at home, a proper young lady, unlike Fan Yung-lin, who was known for her scandalous behavior.

It seems that Fan Yonglin has no chance of winning.

The problem was that Jian Zhuoqian had never encountered someone as daring and competitive as Fan Yonglin, who was also beautiful and pregnant with his first child. He was momentarily blinded by greed and protected her at every turn. The young lady, however, wasn't as ruthless as Fan Yonglin, and besides money, she had no other means. In the end, Fan Yonglin forced her to go abroad for mental health treatment.

Fan Yonglin got married.

On her ring finger was a diamond ring that was even bigger and shinier than the young lady's.

All beautiful stories end abruptly at the wedding, but reality is not a beautiful story. The child in Fan Yonglin's belly, who was seen as a weapon to gain power, was not Jian Xingyu.

The fetus turned into blood, flowing out of Fan Yonglin's body as if its mission was accomplished, leaving the last trace of its existence on the smooth floor tiles, a bloody red, like the blood that the young lady vomited at the sanatorium on the day of Fan Yonglin's wedding.

As Fan Yonglin lay on the stretcher, the last thing she saw was her hand clasped with Jian Zhuoqian's. The diamond ring was enormous, its brilliance blinding under the hospital's incandescent lights. She closed her eyes, and the scent of the unfamiliar woman's perfume entered her nostrils before the hospital's disinfectant.

The hand fell down.

Jian Xingyu knew from a young age that his father had another family outside.

Just like my grandfather had many concubines, my father also had many, many, many lovers. This is how the men in the Jian family are, and all men are like this. Marriage is just a way to bind women.

The mother, more beautiful than any of her lovers, stayed at home, guarding the house, the wedding ring, and him, her expression calm or numb, never again displaying the vibrant smile she had during her Miss Hong Kong year.

When he was little, Jian Xingyu asked his mother if she didn't love his father. Why did she never call to ask his father to come home?

  

Fan Yonglin laughed and touched his face with great force, leaving a bluish finger mark.

"Ah Zai..."

"Love is the most insignificant thing."

It seems he only resembles his mother in appearance.



Yu Lian dressed simply before returning to school.

A white tank top underneath, with a low neckline that reveals the waist, shows off her ample bosom. Every inch of fabric clings to her body, highlighting her incredibly thin waist and the distinct angle between it and her hips. The denim shorts are also very low-waisted, tightly hugging her thighs and hips, with a hint of her soft tummy showing through the edges.

Lu Jiefei, who was on his way to take her to school, passed by with his car keys and casually zipped her sun-protective jacket all the way up. Afraid of pinching her chin, Yu Lian could only tilt her head back and glare at him with her long, curled eyelashes.

"There's something wrong with you."

The voice that was cursing was crisp and sweet, making it impossible to tell whether it was genuine anger or just coquettishness. Lu Jiefei's expression remained unchanged as he turned and walked towards the front door, making a clicking sound as he clenched several steel keys in his palm.

"Exposing your belly button will give you diarrhea. Also, your period is around these days, so you'll have diarrhea before the pain is over."

"My experiments are all very important this week, I don't have time for you."

Yu Lian pouted, feeling guilty and in the wrong when he mentioned this, and didn't retort.

A few months ago, she suffered from menstrual cramps at school. She endured the pain and searched for painkillers for a long time but couldn't find any. She broke down in tears and called Lu Jiefei, sobbing and unable to speak clearly. She wanted to go home.

Lu Jiefei arrived in a hurry without even having time to take off his lab coat.

Even someone who usually has a cold and aloof expression can have moments of intense emotion. His disheveled bangs fall haphazardly behind his head, revealing sharp brow bones and dark, deep eyes like heavy, rain-laden clouds.

Yu Lian looked at him with teary eyes, thinking he was about to get angry, but he simply reached out and wiped the cold sweat from Yu Lian's forehead, his voice hoarse: "Let's go home."

The school doesn't allow outside vehicles in; cars can only be parked outside the school gate. Lu Jiefei wouldn't let her walk an inch, carrying her horizontally from the dormitory building all the way to the back seat of the car. Yu Lian nestled against his chest, listening to his heartbeat gradually calm down from its obviously rapid pace.

Then she belatedly realized that the moisture in his eyes was not the blame or anger she had assumed, but simply heartache.

As the older brother.



Yu Lian quieted down and followed Lu Jiefei like a little tail. She could see him out of the corner of her eye but didn't look at the road, treating him like a guide dog, and focused on playing on her phone.

There were three messages lying on the SMS screen that she didn't really want to reply to.

"+852 6***8888: Let's meet. At least the breakup needs to be clear. Don't leave things ambiguous."

"+852 6***8888: Make it clear, I will definitely not bother you."

"+852 6***8888: I'm buying a plane ticket now. You can do whatever you want with me then. I'll accept whatever you do to me, as long as you explain things to me in person."

Yu Lian is very sensitive about meeting people in person, not because she's afraid of things going wrong if they meet in person.

She must have felt guilty after treating people like dogs online for so long.

"I have a husband."

"+852 6***8888: ...If you don't trust me..."

"+852 6***8888: You can bring him along."

Yu Lian: ...

Are you kidding me? Do you think I trust him that much?

To be honest, Jian Xingyu wasn't someone she met in the game.

Yu Lian has a gaming partner who is an 11-year-old boy who attends a half-day elementary school. He gets out of school at 1:30 every afternoon and sends Yu Lian a bunch of voice messages asking her to wait for him to come home so they can play together.

Later, when the boy was about to enter middle school, his family took away his phone, fearing that Yu Lian, his only gaming companion, would forget him. They repeatedly told him to entrust Yu Lian to his uncle.

That is, Jian Xingyu.

Yu Lian initially found it novel and started teasing Jian Xingyu.

Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Hello, Uncle.

"Jian Xinxuan's uncle: Jian Xingyu"

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Why is Uncle using Traditional Chinese? It's tiring for me to read TT"

"Jian Xinxuan's Uncle: My name is Jian Xingyu. Does Xuanxuan use simplified characters with you?"

Xiao Lian's inner monologue: No, he sent a voice message ^o^

Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Then my little uncle should send a voice message too.

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Listening..."

"Jian Xinxuan's uncle: ..."

They're really difficult to deal with.

Jian Xingyu's WeChat is very clean; he doesn't usually post anything, unlike Yu Lian, who pins her pretty face to the top of her Moments to fish for money, and posts all sorts of random things every day, such as screenshots of her battle results, her daily life of showing off, her complaints about life, insults against her teammates, emo captions, and short sentences that she thinks make sense but are actually just talking nonsense.

It's so noisy. Every day when I open my WeChat Moments, I see at least five posts from her.

His social circle was simple; he only had a few friends of his age with whom he occasionally got together. Compared to the tired posts about horse racing, yachting, art exhibitions, and card games they shared on social media, Yu Lian's posts were truly novel.

This caused him to inexplicably read everything she posted.

[Xiao Lian's thoughts: People experiencing an economic downturn spend half an hour comparing prices on three different platforms when ordering takeout, only to find a difference of just two yuan.]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: My mouth waters the moment I order takeout, from the moment the delivery person picks up the food until it arrives.]

Jian Xingyu: ?

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: We're not a good match; you're too possessive.]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Find a truly sexy guy and settle down.]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Please come back, I'll definitely be naughty!]

Jian Xingyu: ...

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Why surrender? All of you are so bad, stay and practice your skills!]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: There's something wrong with this Xiao Lian.]

[Screenshot of Va's battle record: a whole page of ratings D, undefeated]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: After the guy who took me to see me play a difficult game, he never called me "Mom" again. Does he think I'm not smart enough to raise a child?]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Just playing casually, no need to praise me.]

[A short video clip showcasing gameplay]

[Xiao Lian's inner monologue: To be honest, if you see me suffering and struggling in games every day but you don't play with me, then honestly, you're a real jerk. You're twisted, you're a pervert, you know that? What's the difference between someone without empathy and a murderer? I'm depressed, and you're an accomplice in the game, an accomplice to the people on the other side who are torturing me!]

Jian Xingyu:

Does Jian Xinxuan hang out with people like that every day?

If it weren't for Jian Xinxuan's persistent pleading, Jian Xingyu would almost never have met someone like Yu Lian.

As for why it's "almost".

Yu Lian's photos were so cute that Jian Xingyu clicked on every single one. She was so pretty that she didn't wear makeup, just making faces with her bare face. There was also a random video of her eating noodles; the bowl was twice the size of her face, her eyelashes were ridiculously long, and she was slurping noodles with her mouth moving. Her lips were smeared with noodle soup, oily and glistening, yet they looked incredibly smooth and tender.

When licking it off, the lips are pursed, and the tongue sticks out a little bit before being very stingy and immediately retracting.

The noodle soup turned into saliva, still moist and glistening.

Jian Xingyu was completely mesmerized. As soon as Yu Lian sent him a message, he went to her pinned post on WeChat Moments and watched the video again. Even though he was being pestered, he couldn't get angry at all. He imagined what kind of expression that face would have when she sent him those coquettish messages.

It was only natural, logical, inevitable, and unavoidable that Yu Lian would later trick him into becoming like a dog; it was something he couldn't overcome no matter how hard he tried.

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Doesn't my uncle play any games?"

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: So what do you usually do?"

"Jian Xinxuan's Uncle: Learning"

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Why are you using Traditional Chinese again?!"

"Jian Xinxuan's uncle: ..."

"Jian Xinxuan's uncle: [Voiceover: I'm usually... quite busy with my studies]"

For some reason, I used a voice that even I didn't recognize; my throat felt so tight it felt like it was about to burst into flames. After sending the voice message, I awkwardly turned off the screen, not daring to look at the other person's reaction.

The screen lit up almost as soon as it went black.

Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Husband.



Upon reaching the entrance hall, Lu Jiefei stopped and turned around.

Yu Lian indeed kept her head down, as if she wanted to crawl into her phone, not even looking at the road, using it as an automatic navigation device.

He lowered his eyes, looking at the whorl of her hair so close to his, his gaze calm, silently waiting for the person immersed in her own world to crash into him.

The expected collision was much gentler than expected, a soft bump that left a slightly ticklish feeling on her chest. The girl covered her forehead and took a step back, looking over with wide, bewildered eyes, like a dazed cat.

He was so much taller, the height difference creating a sense of oppression that made Yu Lian forget to breathe for a moment. The entryway light wasn't on, and in the dim light, Yu Lian couldn't see his expression even when she looked up; she could only feel his breath hitting her forehead and the top of her hair.

His expression was so cold, yet his breath was warm.

"Change your shoes." Lu Jiefei reached out and pressed down her frizzy bangs. "Want to wear slippers?"

Yu Lian squatted down to change, her waist-length curly hair sliding down to the ground with the movement. Lu Jiefei bent down and reached out to gather her hair behind her neck. The hair was soft and fluffy, like petting a long-haired cat.

"I'll pick you up next Friday. Come out right after class and don't wander off."

Yu Lian changed her shoes, grabbed his forearm for support to stand up, snatched her hair back from his hand, and walked into the courtyard ahead of him.

"We'll see when the time comes," she replied casually, engrossed in her phone. She was incredibly spoiled, complaining as soon as she stepped out the door, "Go get the car, it's so hot!"

Gu Yitong: Are you back yet?

Gu Yitong: Computer Science is playing Economics and Management tonight, are you coming to watch? You can keep me company~

"Xiao Lian's inner monologue: I'm not going."

"You're so afraid of the heat, how can you stand it when there's no air conditioning at your dad's place?" Lu Jiefei's voice was indifferent. He looked at her, who seemed to want to bury her head in her phone, and his brows furrowed slightly before relaxing.

"It's settled then."

Yu Lian was impatient to listen to him, so she nodded in agreement.

Gu Yitong: It seems like Bai Jiayin's boyfriend will be making an appearance.

Xiao Lian's inner monologue: Really? I'll be there in a bit.

Gu Yitong: Bao, remember to wear a coat, it's so cold in the museum.