Chapter – 01
Sister, Do You Still Think I’m Seventeen?
Late summer. A torrential downpour.
A bolt of lightning split the pitch-black sky, and countless threads of rain hurtled toward the earth.
The walled village halfway up the mountain grew even more sinister and terrifying in this treacherous weather.
The heavy silence was suddenly broken by the clatter of hurried footsteps.
Two bodyguards carried an unconscious woman and bustled clumsily into the bedroom on the second floor.
The woman had a striking, delicate faceâeven with her eyes closed, it was clear she was a breathtaking beauty.
Behind them followed a man with a disheveled look.
His face was pale, and the moment he stepped through the door, he said impatiently:
“Jiang Yan… no, Master Jiang, I’ve brought Li Yang, just as you asked. The money you promised me…”
Upon hearing this, the young man who had been waiting in the bedroom for a long while lifted his eyelids slightly, a mocking glint in his eyes.
Song Wenjing.
Li Yang’s ex-boyfriend.
His baby had such terrible taste.
Selling his own girlfriend to another man’s bed, all for money.
He didn’t respond to Song Wenjing’s words, merely saying coldly: “Get lost.”
The young man wore a blue ethnic costume, his long legs crossed, his slender fingers casually turning a snake-head ring on his other hand.
He had a pair of narrow, phoenix-like eyes that always seemed to exude a hint of disdain and ruthlessness when he looked at people.
His skin was pale and bloodless, his figure lean and tall.
On his earlobe, a silver earring glittered.
Eccentric, mysterious, beautiful.
Like a vampire who had lived for a thousand years.
Song Wenjing was considered quite handsome, but compared to Jiang Yan, who was in full command of his presence, it was like heaven and earth.
Song Wenjing’s face reddened even more. As someone who had been a child of privilege his entire life, he had never endured such humiliation.
Especially from a brat he had once looked down upon.
But thinking of the hundred million Jiang Yan had promised him, he forced himself to put on a fawning smile and said, “Master Jiang, I’ve done everything you asked.”
Jiang Yan had already walked over to Li Yang and lifted her into his arms in a bridal carry.
Ah, sister smells so good.
He secretly took a greedy breath of the fragrance emanating from Li Yang, then glanced back with a cold smile. “What I promised, I will naturally give.”
“Now, if you’re not going to get lost, are you planning to stay and watch me and my wife have our way with each other?”
“Do you have that kind of fetish?”
Song Wenjing’s face turned from red to ashen.
Li Yang had been his girlfriend for six years!
When she met Jiang Yan, he was nothing more than an underaged brat.
And now he was calling her his wife!
But the Jiang Yan of today was someone he couldn’t afford to offend.
“Mmm…”
The beauty in Jiang Yan’s arms groggily woke up.
Her small, palm-sized face had long, curling lashes, and her eyes were clear as water.
As her gaze wandered, it carried bewilderment and confusionâan inadvertent allure and seductiveness that made one’s heart tremble.
Then.
She saw Jiang Yan’s face.
The confusion on her face quickly faded, replaced by terror and fury. She struggled fiercely.
“Jiang Yan? You again!”
“I don’t want to see you! I’ve already cut ties with you!”
“You pervert! You lunatic! Let me go!”
Faced with Li Yang’s scolding, Jiang Yan showed no sign of panic.
In fact, a smile curved at the corner of his lips.
Enchanting and soul-stirring.
He leaned down and left a kiss on Li Yang’s cheek, his expression tender. “Sister, this time I won’t let you leave me again.”
“Let’s get married. Be together forever.”
Li Yang panicked and cursed, “Marry your mother! Who would marry a madman like you!”
She suddenly spotted Song Wenjing, who was lowering his head and sneaking toward the door. Without thinking, she called out for help, “Wenjing, save me! Call the police, quick!”
Song Wenjing stumbled at her words and rushed out the door without the slightest hesitation.
Li Yang froze.
In that moment of daze, Jiang Yan had already thrown her onto the bed.
The heavy, European-style doors were shut by the bodyguards.
The young man’s lean yet powerful frame pressed down on her like a mountain.
Without a second thought, Li Yang slapped at him, but Jiang Yan caught her wrists and pinned them above her head.
The once small and skinny boy now had terrifying strength.
Li Yang was so anxious she broke into tears, feeling both revolted and terrified inside. She had no choice but to soften her tone. “Jiang Yan, I’m your sister! How can you…”
Jiang Yan remained unmoved, smiling. “Sister, what are you saying? We’re not related by blood.”
Li Yang’s face flushed pink as she scolded, “You little brat! You pervert…”
Jiang Yan casually pressed a kiss to her cherry lips. “Mm, a pervert. That’s me.”
“Little brat, I don’t acknowledge it.”
Jiang Yan wore a wicked grin on his face. “Sister, do you still think I’m seventeen?”
“I’m twenty years old now. I’ve long been old enough toâ”
“The moment I turned eighteen, I was already thinking about it.”
“Too bad you chased me away, making me wait an extra two years.”
Jiang Yan’s words made Li Yang’s heart pound with fear. “Now that I’m fabulously wealthy, I won’t let you leave me again.”
“Sister, I’ll take good care of you.”
With that, he leaned down once more.
Their clothes were strewn all over the floor.
Outside the window, the unceasing rain swallowed up Li Yang’s cries and curses, one by one.
Three years earlier.
Outside a detention center on some street in the capital.
Li Yang had waited a long time before she finally saw two figuresâone tall, one shortâemerge from the detention center.
She walked up to them and called out, “Aunt Chen.”
Her gaze fell on the tall, handsome young man behind her, and she couldn’t help but pause slightly.
She hadn’t expected that after two years apart, the scrawny little runt from back then would have grown into a striking young man over 1.8 meters tall, with an overwhelming presence.
Still, he looked malnourishedâfrighteningly thin.
Chen Hongfeng, walking in front, had slightly red-rimmed eyes. “Yangyang, I’m sorry for putting you through all this trouble.”
Li Yang reached out and took her thin luggage bag. “We’re family, don’t mention it. Let’s go back to my place first.”
She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. She had known all along that something like this would happen.
Chen Hongfeng could be considered Li Yang’s stepmother, though she and Li Yang’s father, Li Guobang, had never officially registered their marriage.
Li Yang’s family had once been well-off, but unfortunately, her father Li Guobang was a gambler who had long since lost the family fortune. Her mother had been so upset she fell ill and passed away.
Li Yang hated her father. Since high school, she had lived in the dorms, surviving on scholarships and financial aid, and had little to do with Li Guobang.
In her junior year of college, Li Guobang called and insisted she come home for dinner, claiming he had found a new girlfriend and was starting a new family, turning over a new leaf.
His new girlfriend was Chen Hongfeng, a single mother with a fourteen-year-old son named Jiang Yan.
Li Yang still remembered that fifteen-year-old Jiang Yan had been delicate and skinny, shorter than her.
He didn’t talk much either.
But Chen Hongfeng had been very warm and had given Li Yang an expensive necklace the first time they met.
Unexpectedly, Li Guobang had flown into a rage on the spot, demanding to know why Chen Hongfeng had money to buy useless necklaces instead of giving it to him for his investments.
Chen Hongfeng said she didn’t have much savings and that giving a meaningful gift to the child on their first meeting was only naturalâwhy did he have to make a fuss about it?
They had a huge fight and parted on bad terms.
From that day on, Li Yang knew Li Guobang was beyond saving.
But because of that necklace, she had always felt warmly toward Chen Hongfeng.
Later, she never went back home, but she stayed in touch with Chen Hongfeng.
She urged Chen Hongfeng to leave Li Guobang, but Chen Hongfeng was caught in a toxic, obsessive relationship with him, breaking up and getting back together over the past two years without ever truly ending it.
Then came today’s call.
Chen Hongfeng had called her in tears, saying that Jiang Yan had hit Li Guobang with an ashtray to protect her from being beaten.
Because Jiang Yan was a minor and there were mitigating circumstances, Li Yang had bailed both mother and son out first.
At this thought, Li Yang couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Yan again.
The young man’s eyes were cast downward.
Though he appeared humble, his narrow phoenix eyes naturally carried a cold aloofness that seemed to look down on everything.
For some reason, Li Yang always felt he looked vaguely familiar.
She had felt that way the very first time she met him.
