In the Stillness Before Dawn

The age gap is tentatively set at eight years.

In the stillness before dawn, Li Yaozhi returned after spending the whole night partying at a bar with her boyfriend.

She happened to find Wen Tingyu sitting in front of the sofa.

He looked down at her with a haughty, domineering gaze, a belt in his hand. He didn't look like someone to cross.

In a stern, scolding tone, he asked, "Why are you coming home so late?"

"Where have all the rules I taught you gone?"

Li Yaozhi used to be afraid of him.

She remembered the pain of the belt striking her palm every time she misbehaved, and the tender sweetness of Wen Tingyu kneeling before her to apply medicine afterward.

But today, she wasn't afraid of him anymore.

Instead, she lifted her chin and asked provocatively, "What, does going out with your brother count as fooling around?"

*

Both her parents died in a plane crash, leaving behind a vast fortune and a pack of covetous relatives.

The first time she saw Wen Tingyu in the garden castle, Li Yaozhi chose him herself to be her legal "guardian."

When a storm came, she cried as she knocked on his door, then crept into his bed, shivering with fear.

Wen Tingyu asked her, "Do you know how dangerous it is to get into the bed of a single man?"

Li Yaozhi didn't know.

She only cried timidly, looking at him like a homeless little beast.

When she was eighteen, she turned her graduation letter into a love letter and slipped it into Wen Tingyu's office.

For the first time, Wen Tingyu was stern with her.

He said, "You can't."

"I'm your guardian."

Many years later, Li Yaozhi stood before Wen Tingyu.

She smiled brightly, the little fang peeking from the corner of her mouth still carrying the innocence of her youth.

But she looked at him with merciless eyes and said, "I've grown up."

"And I don't love you anymore."

Theme: Love yourself