My rambling thoughts were yanked back to reality. Looking down, I realized I’d emptied the entire bowl of sweet porridge without even noticing. My mood instantly did a complete 180.

I flashed Mrs. Wang a hearty thumb-up, my face a picture of absolute sincerity. “This porridge is legit the best on the planet!”

“If you entered an international cooking contest with this, Mrs. Wang, you’d take home the gold, hands down!”

I threw an arm around her shoulders, buttering her up left and right until her eyes crinkled into happy little slits.

Having finished my professional stroke session, I changed into my shoes and headed out.

Today was a buddy’s birthday, and he’d dragged me along to pad out the head count. It was billed as a birthday bash, but in reality, it was just another networking event for the trust-fund set.

And if there’s one thing I despise in this world, it’s these fake-ass gatherings.

A room full of suits sitting around, smiling to your face while calculating where to plant the knife in your back, every word out of their mouths faker than the last.

I’m too blunt, my tongue is too sharp, and the number of people I actually tolerate can be counted on one hand.

The only reason these pricks invited me was to milk a connection to Xu Yu through me.

Usually, I’d pull an excuse out of my ass and pass. But today was different.

The birthday boy was Young Master Chen, whose family firm was currently locked in a big joint venture with Xu Yu.

I might raise hell everywhere else, but when it came to anything touching Xu Yu’s business… I could stomach swallowing a little shit.

Of course, reality wasted no time proving that I’d severely overestimated my own self-control.

My mouth simply doesn’t contain the phrase “turn the other cheek.”

The second I walked into the venue, I made a beeline for a quiet, dimly lit corner and claimed a seat.

My ass hadn’t even warmed the leather before a small crowd came barging over.

A sharp, grating voice cut through the air. “Yo, look who decided to grace us with his presence today! Young Master Xu himself!”

I twirled a cigarette between my fingers, lazily raising my eyelids to size him up.

Beady eyes.

Moon face.

Bowlegs.

So painfully hideous it was practically a hate crime against my retinas.

Don’t recognize him.

I knit my brows. “Who the fuck are you?”

The atmosphere went dead silent. The fat bastard turned a violent shade of red, his fingers trembling with rage. “Xu Chuan! Don’t you get cocky with me! Without Xu Yu backing you up, you’re nothing!”

I paused to process that for a beat.

Huh.

To be fair, he wasn’t lying.

Nobody ever brought up my name without thinking of Xu Yu first. Yet, oddly enough, that realization actually put a spring in my step.

Exhaling a lazy smoke ring, I narrowed my eyes to take a closer, more deliberate look at the fat slob. After a long moment, a memory clicked.

Right. A guy named Song.

A while back, he’d gotten caught harassing a minor, and I’d beaten him so badly he spent a few days in the hospital. Ever since, he’d been trying to play nice, throwing dinners and sucking up to me, but the mere sight of his face made me want to vomit, so I shut him down every single time.

Everyone in our circle knew I couldn’t stand the guy, so as long as I was invited, nobody dared let him through the door.

Seeing the ice settling over my expression, Young Master Chen rushed in to play peacemaker. “Xu Chuan, man, it’s my birthday today. Give me a little face here, will you?”

I let out a dry smirk. “Fine. For you.”

The tension in the air thinned out, if only barely. Everyone went back to pretending nothing had happened, laughing and clinking glasses as they drifted toward the bar.

Glass in hand, I stood up, casting a cold, indifferent glare at the heavy set blocking my path. “Out of my way.”

He glared back, his eyes brimming with pure malice. “What’s with the high-and-mighty act? For all we know, Xu Yu was riding you back when you were still a kid.”

My feet locked in place. My gaze went pitch black.

A couple of guys nearby immediately grabbed his arms, telling him to shut his fucking mouth. But the idiot was on a roll, his volume rising. “Talking about messing with minors? Xu Yu’s the grandmaster of—”

The glass in my hand shattered straight across his skull.

The sharp crack of breaking crystal echoed violently through the hall as a mix of liquor and blood flooded down his face.

I grabbed him by the collar, my voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly register. “Who the fuck gave you permission to speak his name?”

Plenty of people hated Xu Yu. Plenty of people wanted to drag his name through the mud. But not a single soul had ever dared utter that kind of filth to my face.

I tightened my grip, choking him until his face turned a deep, suffocating purple, his lungs gasping for air.

With my free hand, I pulled a butterfly knife from my pocket. The silver blade flickered under the venue lights, my name neatly engraved along the spine.

My eighteenth birthday present from Xu Yu.

I pressed the cold tip gently against his cheek, letting it slide up until it rested right beneath his eye. I looked at him with a cold smile. “Got a death wish? I’ll personally book your ticket.”

I wasn’t throwing bluffs. Before stepping into this place, I’d promised myself I’d keep my temper in check as long as nobody stepped on my landmines.

Maul my name all you want, but this brainless pig had marched straight onto the nuclear test site.

I pressed the tip a fraction of a millimeter deeper. The fat slob instantly broke down into a blubbering wreck.

“Xu Chuan! I was wrong! I was just running my mouth! I’m sorry!”

Tears, snot, and blood smeared together across his face, looking equal parts pathetic and revolting.

Disgusted, I shoved him aside like a bag of trash. “There won’t be a second time.”

The entire hall fell dead silent. Nobody dared so much as draw a loud breath.

Right on cue, an enraged middle-aged voice boomed across the room. “Xu Chuan! You dare lay a finger on my son?!”

I deliberately wiped my hands clean with a napkin before turning around.

Song Ming. The fat slob’s dear old dad. The two of them looked like they were stamped out of the exact same cheap mold.

Digging at my ear with a pinky finger, I offered a lazy response. “Didn’t just lay a finger on him. I almost sent him to the afterlife.”

Song Ming’s face turned thunderous. He flicked his wrist, signaling the heavy-set bodyguards behind him, his eyes practically screaming to eat me alive.

I reached for my lighter, intent on lighting up a cigarette, but froze mid-motion.

Through the parting crowd, my eyes locked onto a single figure.

In that split second, only one thought flashed through my brain:

The fist charging straight for my face abruptly ground to a halt mid-air. The bodyguard who threw it was sent airborne by a vicious kick, tumbling across the polished floor in a heap.

A slender, elegant hand reached out, clamping onto my collar. I raised my head.

Xu Yu was standing right in front of me, his eyes dark abysses that offered zero hint of what was running through his head. His ice-cold fingertips brushed lightly against the corner of my mouth.

“Xiaochuan.”

Just my name, spoken in a soft murmur. Yet a sharp chill shot straight down my spine.

I swallowed hard out of pure reflex. See, I have this utterly embarrassing trait nobody else knows about.

Other people salivate when they see sour or spicy food.

Me?

The second I set eyes on Xu Yu’s hands, I get a sudden, overwhelming urge to bite them.

To keep myself from pulling something completely humiliating in public, I forced my eyes away.

Xu Yu swept a cool, detached glance across the room before his eyes finally settled on Song Ming.

“Chairman Song, you’re getting up there in years.”

“I doubt losing a son would break your heart too much, would it?”

His tone was quiet, almost gentle.

Yet not a single soul in the hall dared to utter a peep.

The corner of Xu Yu’s mouth curved into a bone-chilling smirk. “I only have one nephew.”

“If he loses so much as a single strand of hair…”

“I don’t think Chairman Song needs to exist anymore.”

Song Ming’s face drained of color in an instant. “Xu Yu! Don’t push your luck!”

Xu Yu let out a soft chuckle—a sound dripping with pure, unadulterated contempt. “And what if I do?”

Leaning down, he adjusted the collar of my shirt, not even bothering to spare his opponent a second glance.

“Laying hands on my person? It seems the Song family is overdue for a change in leadership.”

Nobody in that room took Xu Yu’s words as a joke.

Every last person who had ever crossed him…

Had met a miserable end.

After neatly straightening my collar, Xu Yu grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind him. I trailed after him as meek as a stray pup, not daring to squeak out a single word the entire way home.

Vibrant crimson sunset light spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, washing the room in a bloody glow.

Back at the house, Xu Yu didn’t say a word. He simply leaned against the wall, his gaze unsettlingly still.

He stared at me so intently my scalp went numb.

We stayed locked in that silent standoff for nearly half an hour before I finally caved. Crawling onto the bed of my own accord, I lay face down near the edge and mumbled under my breath:

“Go easy… Yesterday’s bruises haven’t even healed yet.”

Silence. No movement.

I whipped my head around to find him still standing there, unmoving, and embarrassment instantly flared into irritation. “Are you going to hit me or what?!”

“If you’re not going to do it, I’m getting up!”

I braced my hands to push myself up, but the next second, a powerful grip clamped around my waist.

The world spun on its axis as I was flipped flat onto my back against the mattress.

The nightstand drawer slid open. Xu Yu pulled out a silk necktie and promptly bound my wrists to the headboard.

My eyes went wide.

“Fuck’s sake, untie me! I’m not your damn dog!”

Xu Yu knit his brows, his expression dead serious. He leaned down, his jaw brushing against the tip of my nose.

A heavy wave of rich alcohol washed over me. I froze.

Xu Yu drank? And not just a little, either.

I’d caught a faint whiff of liquor in the car, but I’d assumed it was lingering on my own clothes. Who would’ve thought it was coming from him?

The man who famously never touched a drop of alcohol. No wonder he’d been acting like a mute corpse the entire ride home—was he afraid he’d open his mouth and give me a reason to laugh at him?

The realization hit me as absurdly funny. I leaned my head back against the headboard, deliberately softening my voice into a sweet whine. “Uncle Xu… won’t you let me go?”

I gave my hands a gentle tug. My skin flared red against the fabric from the friction. Instantly putting on a pathetic, helpless act, I thrust my bound wrists toward him.

“It hurts so bad…”

Under the dim overhead light, Xu Yu’s pupils contracted sharply. He clamped a heavy hand over my wrists, his gaze darkening into a deep shadow. The unhinged obsession burning inside him was no longer bothered with a cover.

Before I could process what was happening, his hot tongue swept lightly over the angry red impression on my skin.

A sharp wave of electricity shot straight up my spine. I jerked back. “Fuck! Are you crazy?!”

His lips trailed a slow path up my forearm, climbing over my collarbone before sinking his teeth in hard—a brutal, possessive mark.

“Xiaochuan. You belong to me.”

The pain was sharp enough to make me want to curse his entire bloodline, but before I could open my mouth, his fingers pinched my throat, forcing me to stare straight into his eyes.

“Xu Chuan. You are mine.”

It was a statement, pure and simple. Yet beneath the ice in his eyes lay a rare, flickering trace of insecurity.

I gritted my teeth. “I’m yours.”

His brow twitched, tightening further.

I got the message immediately. The hound isn’t satisfied.

So I switched up my wording. “Xu Chuan belongs to Xu Yu.”

Only then did the tension bleed from his features. Xu Yu leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of my eye. “Good boy.”

He rested his forehead against mine, his gaze so intense it felt like he wanted to swallow me whole.

Scalding kisses rained down across my face as our breathing tangled together. A raspy whisper rasped against my ear: “I love you.”

My mind went completely blank.

Xu Yu had never said those words. Not once in his life. Even if his eyes, his actions, and every single thing he did screamed that he was pathologically obsessed with me… he had never actually come out and said it.

My throat went bone dry. “What did you just say?”

Xu Yu cupped my face in his hands, enunciating every single syllable with terrifying clarity: “I love you, Xu Chuan.”

My heart hammered against my ribs so violently it felt like it was going to burst. Reaching up, I bit down hard on his bottom lip.

The sweet, metallic taste of blood burst between our tongues.

Xu Yu’s arm tightened around my waist, seizing total control of the kiss in an instant.

…

By the time I finally pulled my head back into reality, the tie binding my wrists had long since been removed, leaving behind nothing but faint, scandalous red rings across my skin.