From that day on, I threw myself into making money like a moth flying straight into a flame.

Besides working my butt off to secure a spot in the graduate research program, I took every odd job I could get—receptionist gigs, event modeling, promotional work, anything that paid.

With those earnings and the savings I’d built up over the years, the balance in my bank account was finally getting close to enough to wipe the slate clean with Jiang Ye.

My mother had always told me when she was alive:

“Never take someone else’s help for granted.”

Back then, I was naïve enough to believe that only after paying him back in full would I be able to hold my head high while standing beside Jiang Ye.

So even though Jiang Ye was ridiculously wealthy and the amount he’d spent on my mother’s treatment was barely pocket change to him, I had carefully kept track of every single dollar he’d advanced.

He had no idea I was doing this. He simply thought I was obsessed with working.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Once I paid him back, we could go our separate ways. No strings attached. Problem solved.

Luckily, my manager called me that day with a pretty sweet job.

I’d landed a promotional shoot for the new line from CUN, a well-known cosmetics brand with a distinctly vintage aesthetic.

Normally, a complete newcomer like me—especially someone whose looks fell into the “the longer you look, the prettier she gets” category—would never have stood a chance.

But according to my manager, the brand had specifically chosen me because they liked my refined, classic features.

I figured it was simply meant to be, so I told myself I had to do a good job.

When I arrived at the studio, I learned that the concept for the shoot was “Lotus”—the same flower my name was associated with.

Dressed in an exquisitely embroidered qipao covered in lotus blossoms, I sat in the middle of the meticulously designed set.

For a moment, I almost had the illusion that this outfit had been made specifically for me.

Until…

A scorching gaze suddenly made me shiver, as though someone were trying to see straight through me.

I looked up.

In the shadows at the end of the hallway, a man was leaning against the wall.

My uneasy feeling had been completely right.

It was Zhou Xiangyu.

Half his face was hidden in shadow, the other half illuminated beneath the dim light. A thin veil of cigarette smoke curled around him.

Only those dark, razor-sharp eyes remained unmistakably clear.

They were fixed on me.

The intensity of his stare seemed capable of setting the entire room on fire.

Under that suffocating pressure, I barely managed to make it through half the shoot.

When we finally got a break, I tried to use my tried-and-true strategy of becoming invisible and slipping away unnoticed.

Unfortunately, Zhou Xiangyu caught me before I could get far.

He cornered me against the wall of the emergency stairwell.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected him to show up here at all.

After that fateful night, the tycoon of Port City had never contacted me.

To someone like him, I was nothing more than a pawn in a bet—and a drunken girl who had taken advantage of him when she lost her inhibitions.

What could he possibly see in me that would make a man like him hold on?

Unless…

He was here to settle the score over what happened that night.

The thought sent a chill straight down my spine, and my legs nearly gave out.

I lowered my head, suddenly as quiet as a mouse.

A low, husky laugh came from above me.

His warm breath brushed against my ear.

“You were pretty bold last time. Why are you suddenly acting like a frightened rabbit? I’m not going to eat you.”

My mouth moved faster than my brain.

“But… but you threw people to the sharks!”

He raised an eyebrow, clearly amused.

“Oh? So you’re afraid I’ll throw you to the sharks?”

I gritted my teeth and nodded so hard it was practically a chopping motion.

He burst out laughing.

Then his large, rough hand gently ruffled my hair, almost like he was petting a small animal.

“Hsu Lian, for God’s sake. Cut back on those bargain-bin gangster movies. This is a civilized society. I’m a law-abiding citizen, you know.”

“But—”

He suddenly bent down.

His sharply carved features filled my vision, so close they seemed almost unreal.

“And don’t take advantage of the fact that I’m civilized and start bullying me, either. Got it?”

His voice was light and almost casual, but the sheer pressure radiating from him made the back of my neck prickle.

Summoning every ounce of courage I had, I muttered,

“I would never dare bully you…”

“Hm? You wouldn’t?”

His eyes narrowed with amusement.

“Because from where I’m standing, you seemed pretty confident when you took what you wanted and then turned around and acted like you didn’t know me.”

Oh, no.

He really had come to collect his debt.

My face turned bright red, like a boiled shrimp.

“So… what exactly do you want?”

“Hsu Lian, you have to take responsibility for me.”

His thin lips moved as he spoke.

My brain, meanwhile, officially went on strike.

What?

A powerful underworld tycoon who could practically call the shots with a snap of his fingers was demanding that a broke college student like me “take responsibility” for him?

I knew perfectly well that I wasn’t some breathtaking beauty.

I had no money, and I was buried in debt.

After my spectacular fall from grace with Jiang Ye, my IQ had apparently reached its peak when it came to facing reality.

I thought it over for a moment before taking two steps back.

“Zhou Xiangyu, I don’t know why you’re interested in me, but this is probably just a temporary fascination. It’s like what happened with Jiang Ye. Once you get bored, you’ll realize I’m actually a pretty dull girl with nothing interesting about me.”

I took a breath.

“So let’s not waste each other’s time—”

I never got to finish.

A fierce kiss swallowed the rest of my words.

His strong hand locked around the back of my neck.

This kiss was wilder, more possessive than any of the ones before it, as though he wanted to stamp his claim on me once and for all.

The masculine scent of his cologne surrounded me, filling my senses until my thoughts began to spin.

Memories of that heated night came rushing back like a flood.

At last, his lips moved away.

He pressed a soft kiss against my eyelid.

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself staring straight into the abyss of his gaze.

“Hsu Lian, there’s something I forgot to tell you.”

His voice was low and calm.

“I’m not Jiang Ye.”

His thumb brushed lightly against my skin.

“When I set my sights on something, there’s no such thing as ‘temporary’ for me.”

His eyes darkened.

“Especially when it comes to someone I like.”

I knew perfectly well that the man standing in front of me was sweet poison—a bottomless abyss I had no business getting close to.

And yet my body betrayed every ounce of common sense I had left.

My heart pounded wildly against my ribs, beating like a war drum.

And then, through the haze clouding my mind, I suddenly remembered a financial news article I’d once skimmed.

The parent company behind CUN Cosmetics…

Wasn’t its mysterious owner also a man with the surname Zhou?