1.
When she was sixteen, the Song family’s biological daughter, Chu Jin, was brought from the countryside back to the imperial capital. That was when she first met Liang Qingye.
The man stood before a tombstone dressed in black from head to toe, his whole presence aloof and cold. A cigarette rested between his lips, and the look he gave her was wildly arrogant and unruly.
Chu Jin fell for him in an instant.
From then on, she became his little shadow.
During the summer break of her freshman year at university, the Song family held a coming-of-age party for Chu Jin.
After the party, she accidentally overheard Liang Qingye talking with a friend.
His friend asked whether he really didn’t like the Song family’s biological daughter. He stubbed out his cigarette and gave a scornful laugh. “I’ll marry no one but Ruoling.”
The Ruoling he meant was her fake-heiress “older sister.”
In one moment, her hopes were extinguished, and Chu Jin forced herself to give up her unrequited love.
2.
Years later, driven by mutual interests, the Song and Liang families prepared to join in marriage.
When her family asked Chu Jin whom she wanted to marry, she answered without the slightest hesitation: the eldest son of the Liang family.
That was Liang Qingye’s biological older brother.
Later, in a side room at an auction.
Liang Qingye cornered Chu Jin against the wall, leaving her nowhere to retreat.
She had been drinking and was slurring her words. “Liang Qingye, I’m already your sister-in-law. Isn’t it a little inappropriate for you to...”
A faint smile played in Liang Qingye’s eyes as he reached to lift her chin.
The next moment, someone grabbed his wrist in a crushing grip.
His face twisted in pain. When he turned, he met the icy black eyes of his older brother, Liang Qiyuan.
“Stay away from your sister-in-law,” the man said in a low voice, each word as sharp as a blade.
※
Much later, on a certain late night, in a villa overlooking the river.
Liang Qiyuan reached up and undid the butterfly knot on the slanted front of Chu Jin’s qipao. He gently nibbled and licked her soft earlobe, his voice low and hoarse to the extreme. “Qingqing, at last, I’m the only one you look at.”
