On the first night of officially becoming a couple, what is the girl thinking about?

[Chapter One: Meeting You Again]

I never thought that five years later, I would run into Zhuo Yiran again in such an awkward way.

Five years ago, we were a couple; five years later, I am a call girl selling my body, and he is the wealthy client who paid to buy me tonight.

I sat on the bed at a loss, feeling nothing but torment.

Zhuo Yiran unhurriedly opened a bottle of red wine, then slightly raised his arm and poured the entire bottle of red wine over me.

The icy liquid ran down my neck, piercingly cold and sticky.

I stood up and gave a faint bitter smile: "Let me go take a shower first."

"No need. The smell on you makes me sick. This is just right."

Zhuo Yiran curled his lips into a smile, his eyes full of the gloom before a violent storm: "Strip!"

I knew he wanted to humiliate me, but I had no way out.

My mother was still lying in the hospital waiting for treatment, and I needed a large sum of money, just like back then.

Under Zhuo Yiran's gaze, I pulled down the zipper of my dress, unclasped my bra, and took off my underwear. When I finally stood before him completely naked, I saw the desire in his eyes interwoven with hatred.

"Nice figure. You must have made quite a bit of money over the years." His voice was still as cold as ever, without a trace of warmth.

I was stunned for a moment, and a chill spread from the bottom of my heart to my limbs. I wanted to defend myself, but had no strength to refute.

Suddenly he reached out and yanked my wrist. The soles of my feet, stained with red wine, were very slippery. I jolted, and my whole body pitched toward the ground.

The cold, hard marble made me ache sharply. A buzzing sound rang out from the back of my head, and I instinctively let out a soft moan: "Mmm..."

Zhuo Yiran not only did not help me up, but instead bent down and gripped my jaw tightly: "So you do know pain? I thought your heart and your body were made of stone."

I stiffened my body, my voice as faint as a mosquito: "I'm sorry..."

But he laughed with a ferocious look: "Too late."

As the words fell, his burning tongue pried open my teeth.

The almost biting kiss soon filled my mouth with the taste of blood. Zhuo Yiran seemed to dislike this taste. He frowned slightly, released my lips, and turned to bite at my chest.

My body gradually became covered with the marks of his biting and the blood prints of his fingernails. The burning pain made me curl up my limbs uncontrollably, but unexpectedly this enraged him as his desire blazed.

He straightened up, his long fingers gripping my hair tightly: "Why are you clamping your legs so tightly? Only now do you remember to act pure?"

Enduring the pain, I spread my body open for him.

Zhuo Yiran swept his unfathomably deep gaze over me from head to toe, then suddenly reached out with both hands and scooped me up from the floor, flinging me hard onto the bed. Right after, his strong body pressed down on mine.

The close press of our bodies made it hard for me to breathe, but Zhuo Yiran showed no tenderness at all. Instead, he invaded my body without any foreplay!

The tearing pain shattered all my strength and endurance in an instant. I could not hold out and struggled, resisting.

"It hurts, get out, get out..."

"Heh..."

Zhuo Yiran laughed softly with disdain. His large hand with distinct knuckles easily gripped both my wrists, raising my arms above my head, while his other hand tightened around my slender waist.

"Tao Liangyan, the night is still long. I will repay you, bit by bit, with interest, for all the pain you once brought me!"

No!!

When I was nearly suffocating from the pain, he began to move wildly inside my body.

[Chapter Two: The Patron Becomes My Brother-in-Law]

When I opened my eyes again, the cold fragrance of Zhuo Yiran still lingered in the air, but the bedding beside me was already ice-cold.

If not for the five-hundred-thousand check placed on the bedside table, I would have thought everything from last night was just a nightmare.

Forgetting someone is harder than liking someone. I sniffled and did not let the tears fall.

Which call girl could sell herself for five hundred thousand a night?

I was worth it.

I hurried to the hospital. After sending my mother into the operating room, I sat leaning back on the long bench in the hospital corridor, my eyes dry, swollen and sore, but without the slightest drowsiness.

'Click, click, click...'

In the quiet corridor, the crisp sound of high heels suddenly rang out. I instinctively turned my head to look. When I saw the person walking over, my eyes widened in shock.

Feng Xiaoya?

She is my father's illegitimate daughter from outside. It was precisely because of this that my parents divorced. But what I never expected was that my mother and I had barely moved out of the house before Feng Xiaoya and her mother moved in, and she became the heir of the Feng Group.

Feng Xiaoya was very surprised to see me and quickened her pace toward me.

A tall figure suddenly walked out of one of the VIP wards, just in time to block Feng Xiaoya's path.

"Why did you take so long?"

The person turned around, and it was actually Zhuo Yiran?!

The atmosphere seemed somewhat awkward. Feng Xiaoya clung tightly to Zhuo Yiran's arm, looking at me with panicked, helpless eyes.

As for Zhuo Yiran, he was silent for only a few seconds before walking over to me with Feng Xiaoya. He lightly kissed Feng Xiaoya's cheek, his lips full of smiles: "Xiaoya, it's rare to see your sister. Why don't you introduce us?"

Feng Xiaoya's face was somewhat pale: "Tha-, that... Sis, your brother-in-law... is now my fiance. A few days ago my mom sprained her ankle..."

Brother-in-law, fiance.

What a double meaning.

I forced a smile: "Is that so? Congratulations."

Gripping the armrest beside me, I silently cursed myself for being useless. Didn't I say my heart would not ache anymore? Why, upon hearing this, did it still feel like a fishbone stuck in my throat?

Zhuo Yiran seemed to have little interest in the expression I had forced out. He looked down at his wristwatch: "I have a meeting this afternoon. Let me go help Auntie with the discharge paperwork first."

"Mm, okay, thank you, Yiran. I'll talk with my sister a bit more." Feng Xiaoya stood on her tiptoes and took the initiative to kiss the corner of Zhuo Yiran's lips.

After Zhuo Yiran went downstairs, she took the initiative to sit beside me: "Sis, we haven't seen each other for a long time. I have so, so much I want to tell you."

Suppressing the churning pain in my heart, I also learned from her and put on a harmless smile: "I don't think Miss Feng and I have anything to talk about."

Feng Xiaoya seemed not to expect me to be so direct. The smile on her face froze immediately. She looked at me for a long time before stammering an explanation: "It was brother-in-law who took the initiative to choose to be with me, because back then..."

[Chapter Three: Having Nothing Left]

Feng Xiaoya's words were like a sharp knife stabbed into the past I did not want to recall.

In my sophomore year, my mother fell ill. Because I had to bear the cost of her treatment, I chose to drop out of school.

I do not know how Zhuo Yiran's mother found out about my relationship with Zhuo Yiran. On the day I dropped out, Zhuo Yiran's mother found me. With a threatening and commanding tone and five hundred thousand in cash, she told me to call Zhuo Yiran and end the relationship.

I did call Zhuo Yiran. I said that I was with him only for his money, and that now I was going to take the money his mother gave me and run far away, and told him to be sensible and not come looking for me anymore, and not to be shameless...

But!

After hanging up the phone, I did not take that money.

I simply did not want to drag Zhuo Yiran down because of myself. It had nothing to do with money.

But in the end I overestimated myself. I thought I was very cool and carefree, but in fact, within just a few days I started missing Zhuo Yiran. That feeling of longing shook me and broke me down.

At that time, Feng Xiaoya, who was a freshman and with whom I shared everything, learned about this and volunteered to go find Zhuo Yiran for me, saying she would explain everything clearly to him. But after that, I waited for a long time and never saw Zhuo Yiran. Even Feng Xiaoya stopped meeting me.

The past was like a meat grinder, grinding my heartache sharper, making my head spin and swell, while Feng Xiaoya kept chattering on with a look of showing off, standing right in front of me without end.

"Sis, I really did go find brother-in-law to explain for you back then. But, but after I finished explaining to brother-in-law, he was unwilling to contact you. He even told me that the person he actually liked was me, and that it was good you left, because then we could be open about it."

So Zhuo Yiran had already been with Feng Xiaoya long ago!

"Is that so? Then congratulations. Lovers finally unite."

I truly had neither the desire nor the strength to fantasize about them embracing and loving each other. I turned around and was about to leave, but suddenly stopped in my tracks.

If the person Zhuo Yiran truly loved was Feng Xiaoya, then why had he hated me for so many years?

"Family of patient Tao Meiqin--!"

The light in the operating room suddenly went out. The chief surgeon pushed the door open and came out. I hurried over: "Doctor, how is my mother..."

"Ah!"

Before I could finish asking, the doctor heaved a heavy sigh: "The illness was delayed too long. I'm sorry, we did our best..."

My vision blurred, my body lost its weight and pitched forward, "Thud--!" I fell heavily to the ground.

"Sis! Are you okay?"

Feng Xiaoya crouched beside me nervously, opened her designer bag, rummaged inside, and then held out a stack of cash in front of me.

"Sis, Auntie Tao has been sick for so many years. Now that she's dead, it's actually a kind of release. I know you have no money. Take this money as compensation from Yiran and me for being together. Use it to bury Auntie Tao, and then don't show up anymore..."

"Smack--!"

I raised my hand and knocked away the hand she held in front of me. The bright red banknotes, like snow, fluttered and fell in the pure white hospital corridor...

Enduring wave after wave of dizziness, I stood up. Under Feng Xiaoya's surprised and aggrieved gaze, I forcefully curled my lips and smiled.

Feng Xiaoya seemed badly frightened by my appearance: "Sis, I was doing this for your own good..."

Heh.

I was still smiling: "Feng Xiaoya, pick up your money and put it away. Zhuo Yiran choosing to be with you is his freedom, and it has nothing to do with me. Also! Please remember not to throw money at me again. Zhuo Yiran is a person, not an item to be measured by money!"

"Wuu wuu wuu... Wuu wuu wuu..."

Feng Xiaoya stood there and started crying, as if I had bullied her terribly.

Behind me, I was suddenly enveloped by a powerful aura. Before I could turn around, my wrist was gripped tightly, and then Zhuo Yiran's voice rang out.

"What did you do to her?!"

[Chapter Four: Are You Satisfied?]

Feng Xiaoya was crying like this. Even if I said I did nothing, I'm afraid Zhuo Yiran would not believe me, right?

I did not want to explain anything either. I shook off the large hand clamped on my wrist and strode toward the operating room.

My mother had not been pushed out yet. I had to go wait for my mother...

However, my wrist was gripped tightly again. A tremendous force pulled me back to where I was and flung me toward the chair beside me.

"Bang--!"

I fell hard onto the chair, my head knocking heavily against the wall. A warm liquid from my brow ran down my forehead, across my cheek, and splattered onto the chair.

I was in great pain, but Zhuo Yiran showed no pity or regret at all.

His hand was still clamped on my wrist, pulling me up from the chair. His eyes were full of frost, and even the breath that escaped him was so cold: "Tao Liangyan, don't be shameless!"

Under his pull, another drop of blood welled from the wound, but it dripped onto my eyelashes and into my eyes.

I looked straight at him stubbornly: "Zhuo... Young Master Zhuo, what exactly do you want from me?"

Zhuo Yiran's face turned completely cold. Pulling my hand, he flung me in front of Feng Xiaoya.

"Apologize to my fiancee!"

Apologize?

I stiffened my body, looking at Feng Xiaoya's tear-streaked face, not knowing what I had done wrong that required an apology.

"Yiran..."

Feng Xiaoya, who had been crying from beginning to end, finally spoke. Her soft voice still carried sobs: "I'm fine. There's no need for sis to apologize to me. It's only right for sis to be angry with me now. It's my fault. It's my fault for loving you, for being with you..."

I did not know whether Feng Xiaoya's words, which added fuel to the fire, were intentional or unintentional. I only knew that as her words fell, the pressure behind me from Zhuo Yiran dropped even lower.

But after a long silence, he did not continue to look at me coldly. Instead, he coaxed Feng Xiaoya with a voice as gentle as water: "All right, stop crying. Xiaoya, remember this: no matter what others say, you are my, Zhuo Yiran's, fiancee."

"Mm, I understand, Yiran."

"Good girl..."

Could you please just let me go?!

Ignoring Zhuo Yiran's lips kissing Feng Xiaoya's forehead, I slowly bent down. Even without a mirror, I knew how pale my face was.

Clenching my fists, letting my nails sink deep into my palms, I forced myself to slowly speak: "I'm sorry..."

If only apologizing could let me escape this heart-wrenching torment, then I was willing to apologize.

"Family of patient Tao Meiqin--!"

Behind me, a nurse's shout rang out. I straightened up and turned around, just in time to see my mother's body being pushed out.

"Xiaoyan, it's Mom who dragged you down..."

"Xiaoyan, you must live happily..."

"Xiaoyan, don't cry. Mom will always be by your side..."

Mom's words still echoed in my ears, but the only mother who depended on me and kept me company was lying there and would never get up again.

The draft in the corridor made me feel cold again and again. That cold seemed to seep from my skin into all my nerves. I trembled and staggered over to the mobile hospital bed, gripped the cold iron railing, and, after being told by the nurse, slowly pushed my mother toward the morgue.

Zhuo Yiran was still standing in place with his arm around Feng Xiaoya's shoulder. His expression shifted slightly, his thin lips moved, as if he wanted to say something.

But no matter what he said, I did not want to hear it anymore...

So as we passed each other, I spoke first: "This miserable me, are you satisfied now?"

Are all of you satisfied now?!!

[Chapter Five: Thrown Out the Door]

"It's not that I'm trying to say anything, but you're an adult too. We're not some charity. If you don't have money, then don't come to the crematorium. Just find some random place to bury her. If you don't say anything, I guess no one will know."

"This money really is all I have. I beg you, I beg you..."

Under the scorching sun, I begged people everywhere in the stuffy crematorium, but was rejected again and again. In the end, because my mother's corpse began to deteriorate little by little in the high temperature, the people at the crematorium took pity and put my mother into a freezer. But they also gave me a final notice: only one night. If I still could not produce the money for cremation by tomorrow, I would bear the consequences.

The cruelty of reality wiped out the last bit of my self-respect, so after leaving the crematorium, I went straight to Feng Xiaoya's house.

A three-story villa was brightly lit. In the living room on the first floor were dazzling arrays of fine food. Many exquisitely dressed wealthy ladies chatted and laughed. Only I, wearing canvas shoes and jeans, stood among them like a thorn growing the wrong way on flesh.

"Why are you here?"

Accompanied by a servant, Lin Liuzhen walked up to me step by step in a designer dress. Her eyes, with delicate eyeshadow, looked at me as if she were disgusted by garbage.

I knew I had come at the wrong time, but who would have thought that although we were both my father's wives, my mother could not even afford to die, while Lin Liuzhen was still rich enough to pass the time by holding parties all day?

In order not to affect the party's atmosphere and make Lin Liuzhen dislike me even more, I stepped forward and lowered my voice to negotiate: "Aunt Lin, could you give me the three hundred yuan monthly living allowance for a year in advance?"

After my father died, his will gave me and my mother a small portion of the money, but Lin Liuzhen bribed the lawyer and gave that small portion to me and my mother at three hundred per month.

"On what grounds?!"

Lin Liuzhen looked utterly overbearing, and her words were even more caustic: "Back then, agreeing to give you three hundred yuan a month was already the utmost I could do."

"That was my father's money!" I could not help raising my voice. This woman was always so shameless!

"Your father is already dead!" Lin Liuzhen looked at me with a cold smile and added, "Tao Liangyan, in the Feng family now, I am the one who calls the shots. If you can't stand it, you can get lost. Or else... find a lawyer and sue me!"

Sue her...

That is something only rich people can afford.

"Aunt Lin..."

I had no choice but to soften my tone again and plead, setting aside my self-respect: "My mother died of illness. I need some money to cremate my mother..."

"Oh, I see."

Lin Liuzhen nodded as if suddenly understanding, but then parted her red lips and smiled even more ruthlessly: "Kneel down and beg me, Tao Liangyan. When begging someone, you should have the attitude of a beggar, shouldn't you?"

It was like a huge stone pressing on my chest. I was suffocating, and even my limbs gradually went cold.

All the surrounding gazes gathered on me. Although they did not speak, the smiles on their faces were so mocking.

I wanted so much to turn around and leave, but in the end, I slowly bent my knees...

"Aunt Lin, I beg you, I really need the money..." To make Lin Liuzhen happy, I bit my lower lip, gathered all the strength I had, and knocked my head against the floor.

I begged again and again. Lin Liuzhen remained unmoved, until I lay on the floor, unable to summon any more strength, and only then did Lin Liuzhen raise her voice and shout: "Security!"?!

I jolted, fully waking from my earlier dizziness. I stared at her with wide eyes, while Lin Liuzhen tasted the fine wine in her goblet, her face full of amusement.

Only when the security guards lifted me up did she say with an innocent look: "I only taught you how to beg. I didn't say I would definitely agree."

I had truly misjudged this woman's viciousness!

"Throw her out for me!"

As Lin Liuzhen's voice rang out again, I was dragged out of the living room by two tall, burly security guards. When the front door opened, I blurrily saw Feng Xiaoya walking toward this side, and then the two security guards flung me out the door.

"Bang--!"

Exactly, perfectly, I landed right at Feng Xiaoya's toes!