The silver Land Rover glided through the twilight. The cabin thick with unnatural, heavy silence.
For once, the storm between us had died down. Left a fragile peace that felt more suffocating than our usual warfare.
I shifted in the leather seat. The walls closing in.
Lu's low voice broke the quiet.
"Where do you want to go?"
I stared out at the blurring streetlights. A long beat passed.
Two words escaped my lips.
"A bar."
They say alcohol is the only cure for a soul on fire. I needed to drown the image of my father's cell in something burning and cold.
Lu shot me a single, piercing look. An unreadable flash of something predatory behind his eyes.
He didn't argue. Just stepped on the gas. Headed toward Wen City's infamous neon-drenched nightlife district.
He hadn't forgotten that night three years ago. The night she'd stumbled into his life, drunk and reckless. Changing everything.
---
The club was a sensory assault. Thumping bass. Jagged neon. The scent of expensive sin.
He tried to steer me toward a private VIP lounge. Wanted to cage me even here.
I refused.
I dug my heels in until he gave up. Let me claim a small, shadowed table in the corner of the main floor.
I ordered three rounds at once. A Tequila Sunrise. A Blue Enchantress. A Long Island Iced Tea.
I ignored him. Tucked a lock of dark hair behind my ear with slow, unconscious grace that made his eyes darken.
Lu didn't order a drop. Just sat across from me, arms folded. Watched me drink with the patient, terrifying focus of a wolf waiting for a trap to spring.
He was the hunter now. Slowly tightening the perimeter. Waiting for me to lose my balance and fall straight into his waiting arms.
Too smart to startle the prey too early.
---
I finished the Tequila Sunrise in a few long gulps.
Warmth hit my veins. Made the world feel soft and blurred.
I swirled the empty glass. A bitter, lopsided smile touching my lips.
"Tequila Sunrise." More to myself than to him. "It's like an eighteen-year-old girl. Sweet on the surface, but with a rebellious, burning kick underneath…"
I saw his pupils contract.
He was remembering my eighteen. The girl who was half-fire and half-ice. The one who gave him the brightest smiles and the coldest shoulders all in the same breath.
Before he could pull himself out of the memory, I'd already downed the Long Island Iced Tea.
The alcohol was aggressive. Scratched at my throat.
I broke into a harsh, ragged cough. Tears pricking the corners of my eyes from the burn.
"Long Island…" I gasped, leaning over the table. "It's bitter as hell. Tastes like reality."
I stared at him through the fog of my own intoxication. Swaying slightly.
"Life is just one long glass of bitter shit, isn't it, Professor?" A pause. "You have to drink it anyway. Right?"
I flashed him a brilliant, drunken grin.
Beautiful smile. But empty.
Lu stared at me. His expression hardening.
He hated that smile. It wasn't for him. It was a mask. A weapon.
"You should have been a writer, Liulian." His voice flat. Laced with sarcasm.
I blinked. The insult taking a second to register.
Then I let out a jagged, melodic laugh.
"A writer? No, that's my friend's dream. Can't steal her life." A pause. "My dream was to be an architect…"
The word hung in the air like a ghost.
I caught myself too late. Realized I was showing him the soft parts of my soul.
I snapped my mouth shut. Turned my head away. Sank back into the shadows of the booth.
---
Lu watched her.
His heart a chaotic mess of desire and resentment.
Her smile was like a spring breeze. But to him, it was a luxury he couldn't afford.
When she looked at him, there was only ice.
When she spoke to him, there was only war.
But as the ice began to melt under the weight of the alcohol, he knew the night was just beginning.
The neon haze of the bar broke.
A group of suit-clad men appeared. They leaned in, smelling of expensive cigars and cheap ego. Eyes crawling over me with a hunger that made my skin prickle.
"Mr. Lu." One of them drawled, stroking his chin. Appraised me like a piece of art. "This one is top-tier. Young, sharp... and that ice-cold stare? She's like a rose made of thorns. Makes a man want to reach out and pluck her, no matter how much he bleeds."
The men around him chuckled. Predatory eyes lingering on the curve of my neck.
Lu's expression shifted instantly.
The polished CEO vanished. Replaced by something dark and lethal.
He didn't even look at them. Just let out a single, low-frequency snarl.
"Get out."
These were men he did business with. Men he'd shared drinks and deals with for years. Usually, Lu was the epitome of grace. Temperate. Polite. Even when he was destroying a competitor.
But tonight? The woman at the table wasn't just a "date."
She was his obsession.
And he had zero patience for their locker-room talk.
The group flinched. Never seen Lu this unhinged. His eyes burning with silent promise of violence.
They muttered shaky apologies. Vanished into the crowd. Left a trail of cold sweat behind them.
---
Even through the alcohol-induced fog, I knew why he was angry.
Playing the hero. Protecting my "honor."
But the bitterness in my soul wouldn't let him have the win.
I leaned forward. Voice dripping with drunken, razor-sharp irony.
"Professor Lu… I bet you've brought a rotating door of 'top-tier' girls here, haven't you?" A pause. "So tell me… were they better than me? Or do I win the prize for being the sharpest thorn in your side?"
I wanted to hurt him.
Had to.
If I didn't keep cutting him with my words, I was afraid I'd drown in the terrifying warmth of his gaze.
Lu's eyes snapped to mine. Black. Bottomless.
He didn't say a word. But the sheer intensity of his stare made me shiver.
I reached for the last glass. The Blue Enchantress.
Downed the sapphire liquid before I could even taste the magic.
---
Before I could set the glass down, he surged to his feet.
His hand clamped around my wrist. Hauled me out of the booth.
Too dizzy to resist. Legs like water as he dragged me toward the back of the club. Past the heavy velvet curtains. Into a private VIP suite.
He threw me onto the leather sofa. Force that sent my head spinning.
Through strands of my hair, I heard his voice. Jagged with rage he could no longer contain.
"Everyone out! Now!"
The suite wasn't empty.
Drake—Zhuo Tingfeng—and a few others were there. Lounging with crystal glasses. This was their sanctuary. A room kept year-round for the city's elite to bleed off their stress.
They stared at the girl Lu had just tossed onto the sofa like a piece of captured prey.
Drake narrowed his eyes. Looked at my face hidden beneath dark hair.
Let out a long, slow whistle.
"Mr. Lu." His voice laced with cynical edge. "This crusade of yours… it's starting to look like an eight-year war. Is it really worth it?"
Drake had always hated Lu's fixation on me. Didn't see the soul. Just saw a man wasting his prime on a girl who offered him nothing but grief.
Three years ago, when Lu "set her free," Drake thought the madness was over.
Seeing me here again, he looked at Lu with a mix of pity and disgust.
The comment hit Lu like a physical strike.
He grabbed a bottle of scotch from the table. Hurled it at Drake's head.
Glass shattered against the wall. Mahogany liquid splattering like a gunshot.
"GET OUT!" Lu roared.
Drake and the others didn't wait for a second invitation.
Cleared the room. Heavy door thudding shut behind them.
---
Lu stood in the center of the room. Chest heaving.
Eight years.
Three years of tutoring. Three years of waiting.
If he could win her heart in another two, maybe the decade of agony would be worth it.
But looking at the girl curled on his sofa. Cold. Defiant. Broken.
He realized that even an eight-year war might not be enough to break the ice around her heart.
The room fell into a tomb-like silence after the heavy door thudded shut.
I stayed collapsed on the sofa. Face buried in the leather.
I could hear his breathing. Heavy. Jagged. Vibrating with a rage that hadn't quite cooled.
Drake's words about the "eight-year war" echoed in my skull. Left a dull, throbbing ache in my chest that had nothing to do with the alcohol.
The world began to spin.
Grief. Tequila. Terror for my father. All merged into a tidal wave that finally broke my levee.
I started to sob. Ugly, gasping sounds that felt like they were tearing my throat open.
"My father… he's gone." The words spilled out in a desperate, unfiltered rush. I didn't care that I was talking to the man I hated. I just needed the universe to hear my agony. "They framed him. Bribery, embezzlement… they're sending him to prison!"
I gasped for air.
"What happens to my mother? What happens to Fiona? What the hell am I supposed to do?!"
I looked up at him. Vision blurred by tears and salt.
"I don't care about the titles. Don't care about the power. I just want him safe." My voice cracked. "But now… he's facing a lifetime behind bars…"
I broke down. Full, panicked cry.
I saw his shadow shift.
In his memory, I was the girl of ice and iron. Seeing me shattered like this must have been like watching a cathedral burn.
His anger evaporated. Replaced by something much more dangerous.
*Opportunity.*
Everything was moving according to his design. The trap was set. The prey was wounded. And now came the finishing blow.
He stepped toward me. Tall frame looming. Casting a long, dark shadow across my shivering body.
"I can help." His voice flat. Professional. Chillingly calm. "In this city, a mess like this has a price tag. Enough money can make any 'irrefutable' evidence disappear."
I surged up from the sofa. Fingers digging into the expensive fabric of his sleeves.
My heart leaped with frantic, blinding hope.
"Really? You'd do that? You'd help him?"
The brilliance in my eyes almost made him flinch.
For a split second, I saw hesitation. A desire to just be the hero without the bill.
But he crushed it.
He knew if he missed this chance, he'd never own me.
He looked at me. Face a mask of corporate coldness.
"Liulian, look at me. I'm a businessman first." A pause. "I don't do charity. And I certainly don't make deals that result in a loss."
The hope died instantly.
My hands slid off his arms. Strength vanishing as I fell back onto the cushions.
I buried my face in my hands. The silence stretching until it felt like a physical weight.
Finally, I forced the words out.
"What do you want?" My voice a hollow rasp. "I'll give you everything."
A slow, satisfied curve touched his lips.
He leaned down. Face inches from mine. Breath warm against my skin.
"You already know exactly what I want."
His voice trembled. Not with anger. With raw, electric excitement.
He'd waited six years for this sentence. Engineered a catastrophe just to hear me surrender.
Even if it was forced. Even if it was blackmail.
He was thrilled.
---
I was too drunk. Too broken by the news of the prison sentence to hear the tremor in his voice.
Through the haze, I saw him produce a document. Formal. Cold-blooded. An agreement.
I didn't read it. Didn't care.
Grabbed the pen. Scrawled my name on the line.
Sold my soul to save my father's.
I collapsed into his arms immediately after. Darkness finally taking me.
I didn't even stop to wonder why a man who "coincidentally" met me on the street happened to have a pre-drafted legal contract in his pocket.
I fell into a black sleep. Thinking I was only giving him my body. Thinking I'd already been ruined once, so what was one more night of shame?
I had no idea that Lu Zhouyue didn't just want my skin.
He wanted my life.
He wanted my breath.
He wanted a forever that I was never prepared to give.