Chapter 1: A Wild, Drunken Night

Morning sunlight seeped through the curtains. When I fluttered my eyes open, the first thing I saw was a face so breathtaking it practically stole my oxygen.

The white duvet was draped low across his waist. Spanning his toned back were scattered crimson scratches that trailed all the way down his spine. I froze instantly.

Wait… those marks… don’t tell me I did all that? Memories from last night flooded back like a burst dam.

“Do you… want to try feeling it?” “I shouldn’t.” “Why not?” “I won’t be able to stop.” “So don’t… just be gentle with me.”

Ahhhh! Zhao Yiyi, what on earth possessed you last night?!

I held my head in my hands, screaming internally. Just because that bastard Shen Yuhang publicly broke off our engagement and mocked me as a “flat screen princess” and a “walking tablet,” I went and got hammered, dragged a male model back to a hotel room, and spent the entire night obsessively asking him whether I was flat?

The sheer humiliation made me want to dig a hole and crawl into it forever. I wished I could turn back time, grab myself by the collar, and slap some sense into last night’s self.

Fortunately, my biological clock was reliable as ever, and I woke up before him. If I made a break for it now, there was still time!

I carefully peeled back the blanket and pushed myself up, ignoring the dull ache throbbing through my entire body. But the second my toes hit the floor, my knees nearly buckled.

Pain! Soreness radiated from my legs straight to my waist, and from my waist all the way up to my shoulders. It felt like I’d been run over by a steamroller—and then backed over again for good measure.

Was last night really that intense? My body went rigid as a horrifying thought suddenly struck me: We didn’t use any protection last night… What if something happened?

I whipped around to look at him again. Fair, flawless skin, sculpted muscles, and features so perfect they looked hand-carved. He was like a masterpiece crafted by the gods on their best day.

Yet when I recalled his demeanor from last night, he had started off blushing wildly to his ears, so innocent he barely seemed to know what he was doing. Later on, though, he turned into an entirely different person—ferocious, dominant, gripping my waist and refusing to let go. Was he actually a pure-hearted golden retriever, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Forget it, think about that later. Right now, getting to the hospital for the morning-after pill is priority number one.

Just as I was about to slip out of bed, he moved. My heart leaped straight into my throat. Is he waking up?! I stood completely frozen, not even daring to breathe.

Luckily, he didn’t wake. He simply pulled the pillow tight against his chest, rubbed his face into it, and muttered in a low, husky voice:

“I love you… Zhao Yiyi…”

I blinked, stunned. Did I give him my real name last night?

Looking down at his face again, a strange sense of familiarity washed over me. But I didn’t have the mental energy to dwell on it. Escape first—getting checked out at the clinic was what mattered most!

I hailed a cab straight to the hospital. Registration, blood work, panel tests… From HIV to every routine screening imaginable, I got checked for everything. Finally, I swallowed my pride and asked the doctor for a prescription for emergency contraception.

By the time I finished the rounds, I felt half-dead. I quietly prayed to every deity in existence: Please let my lab results come back clean.

Just as I turned to leave, a familiar figure caught my eye.

Shen Yuhang. My brand-new ex-fiancé who had publicly dumped me just yesterday.

He was slumped in a waiting area chair with an IV drip. His long legs were awkwardly crossed, his face as pale as a ghost like he’d had the soul sucked out of him, and an IV needle was taped to the back of his hand.

I paused. Wasn’t he supposed to be throwing a grand, romantic proposal for Qiao Ran yesterday? Why did he look even more miserable than I did today?

Catching sight of me, his droopy hazel eyes instantly lit up. “Yiyi… I knew you’d come.”

As I stepped closer, a heavy stench of alcohol hit my nose. In the past, whenever he got wrecked, I was always the one picking up the pieces—hauling him home, making sober-up soup, watching over him all night. And he had taken it completely for granted as if it were my sole duty in life.

Suddenly, his eyes locked onto my neck. The faint smile on his face instantly crystallized into ice.

Faint red marks were still scattered across my collarbone, impossible to hide. The implication was so obvious a blind person could have read it. His expression darkened instantly, and he grabbed my wrist, his voice trembling. “Last night… who were you with?”

Shen Yuhang was the sole heir of the Shen family and my childhood friend. Growing up, he was the kind of kid who looked like a literal angel but possessed… a distinct lack of brain cells. In modern terms: a certified handsome idiot.

When we were kids, he was utterly glued to my hip. Allowance money, gold bangles, jade pendants… if it was valuable, he’d shove it into my hands and declare with absolute gravity, “Consider this my down payment for marriage.”

A bit older, he even insisted on being my “wife,” sending both our families into fits of laughter. When I turned twelve, our parents actually formalized an arrangement for us.

Things started going off the rails once middle school hit. The older he got, the better-looking he became—and the stupider his brain functioned. He fell in with a bad crowd, spending his days talking about which girls were hot and which ones had nice bodies. Every so often, he’d cast a glance at me and tease, “Yiyi, why aren’t you growing at all? Planning on staying in elementary school forever?”

And yesterday…

I had received an anonymous text claiming Shen Yuhang was preparing to propose at a luxury hotel, telling me I had to be there. I rushed over with a heart full of hope, my chest beating faster than a festival drum.

Instead, the second I pushed the private room door open, I was met with his disappointed glare. “Yiyi, the one I want to propose to is Qiao Ran. That childhood arrangement was just our parents fooling around—don’t take it seriously. I’ve only ever seen you as a sister.”

Logically, Shen Yuhang should have been taking a beauty home last night. Why was he slumped in a hospital clinic at the crack of dawn?

I pulled my collar up to cover the marks, keeping my voice deadpan. “Bug bites.”

With a brain that was never celebrated for its speed, he actually stood there trying to process whether mosquitoes could be the culprit. I almost broke out laughing. But smelling the heavy liquor lingering on him, years of ingrained habit kicked in before I could stop myself. “Why’d you drink so much? Can your stomach even handle that?”

His eyes immediately lit up like a freshly flipped light switch, whole body springing back to life as he nodded frantically. But a second later, as if remembering something, he averted his face, his voice choking up. “Yeah… Qiao Ran didn’t show. I became the laughingstock of the whole party.”

He paused, clinging to his fragile pride. “She probably just didn’t get the message.”

I sneered internally. Didn’t get it? Not only did she get it, she intentionally forwarded it to me so I would foolishly run over and hear Shen Yuhang announce to the whole room that he only saw me as a sister.

Just as I turned to walk away, Shen Yuhang suddenly flared up, bellowing at the top of his lungs, “You’re lying!”

His voice was so loud it startled several patients nearby, sending heads turning in our direction.