Outside the dressing room door, the clicking of sales reps’ heels and the bright, shrill chatter of Bui Xiao Yu drew closer by the second. The temperature inside the cramped space plunged beneath freezing.

I glared furiously at Pei Hang, but he just wore an utterly innocent expression, as if to say, Hey, you’re the one who dragged me in here.

“Pei Hang, don’t you dare…”

My words were swallowed whole as he captured my lips in a deep kiss. It was half punishment, half tease. Just as I mustered the resolve to shove him back, the sales associate’s polite voice called out from right outside the thin door:

“Miss? Everything fitting okay in there?”

I wanted to burst into tears right then and there. Pei Hang leaned down and murmured something against my ear. Panicked and desperate for him to release me, I nodded like a toy bobblehead before I even registered what I was agreeing to.

It wasn’t until we reached the checkout counter and I saw the extra item being scanned into my shopping bag that reality hit me like a bucket of ice water: I had literally just sold myself out.

Stepping out of the store, I was so desperate to dodge Xiao Yu that I turned down his offer of a lavish dinner. Instead, I dragged the mighty CEO Pei straight to the street-food stalls behind my university campus. Deep-fried skewers, boba tea, spicy rice paper wrappers… the ultimate, glorious mess of a combo, and a complete nightmare for his expensive, bespoke suit.

Watching a few stray drops of chili oil spatter onto his crisp attire, I could tell Pei Hang was exercising legendary restraint. The man was obsessed with wellness and clean living, usually whisking me off to pristine, air-conditioned fine-dining establishments. But hey, who told him to bully me earlier?

“Pei Hang, try a bite! It’s delicious!”

I scooped up a giant spoon of mixed fruit yogurt and shoved it right to his lips. He didn’t eat it. Instead, he dipped down and kissed the corner of my mouth, tasting the stray cream.

“Mmm. Delicious indeed.”

I went rigid, my hand trembling so hard that a glob of yogurt splashed directly onto his white button-down. While I was internally dying of mortification, the female college students idling around us began nudging each other and sneaking photos. His overwhelming “ruler of the universe” aura was doing lethal damage to the crowd.

Instantly, I looped my arm tightly around his, marking my territory. He responded by resting his palm on my head, giving my hair an affectionate, indulgence-filled rub.

Right as the air was turning sickly sweet, a grating, obnoxious voice shattered the moment: “Teng Wan? Now that I dumped you, you’ve resorted to degrading yourself with a sugar daddy?”

It was Nian Kai, my cheating ex-boyfriend, arm in arm with his shiny new side chick.

I let out a cold, venomous laugh. “The only blind person here is you, Nian Kai. Keep your girlfriend on a leash, she can’t seem to stop staring at my man.”

The ex lost his temper, taking a aggressive step forward to hurl insults at me. “Acting so high and mighty, turns out you’re just another kept woman. If I knew you were this easy, I could’ve just thrown a stack of cash at you and been done with it!”

I reached out, ready to fling my entire cup of fruit yogurt directly into his trashy face, but a firm hand caught my wrist. Pei Hang casually pulled out his phone and dialed a number right in front of Nian Kai’s face.

“Mr. Nian. I just ran into your son. His… upbringing leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t believe partnering with a family like yours aligns with the standards of the Pei Group. The Yu Ming Mansion project, consider it terminated.”

Nian Kai’s face drained of every drop of color in an instant.

As we brushed past his paralyzed figure, Pei Hang dropped a parting line, light as air: “You’ve got a long road ahead of you, kid. Pity… you just blew up the bridge.”

Even after getting into the car, my heart was still hammering against my ribs. Pei Hang leaned in, pressing his forehead against mine, his breath warm and intoxicatingly close. “Enjoyed that, did you?”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, standing on my tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his lips. “Thank you… and I’m sorry. I must have been blind back then to get mixed up with trash like him.”

“Wan Wan was never blind.” He kissed my eyelid gently. “Honestly, I should thank him. If he hadn’t been an idiot, I never would have had the chance to meet you.”

I buried my face into his chest, letting his steady warmth envelop me. That was, until his deep voice rasped against my ear:

“You’re staying at my place tonight. I want to see you… in that black set I picked out.”

Me: “…”

The next morning, the second I opened my eyes and saw the glowing, triumphant face of the perpetrator beside me, I nearly fumed out of my skin.

“Pei Hang! This is all your fault! Today is my very first day registering for my internship!”

I launched into a righteous tirade, practically crying as I condemned his total lack of basic humanity. Pei Hang was halfway through buttoning his shirt. Hearing my outburst, he dropped down on one knee right in front of the bed, his dark eyes brimming with fond, teasing amusement.

Not again. Once more, I was being utterly held hostage by his shamelessly gorgeous face.

“I’m the boss,” he murmured smoothly. “My word is law.”

“…” Talk about a total abuse of power!

The second I broke free from Pei Hang’s clutches, Xiao Yu cornered me at a nearby coffee shop. She stared intensely at my neck for five full minutes. Even though I had caked on concealer thick as drywall and wrapped a heavy scarf around my neck, my guilty conscience was practically screaming.

That absolute bastard, Pei Hang! Last night, he kept pushing to go public, complaining that he was tired of being “the secret man hiding in the dark.” I refused, and his idea of revenge was marking me up so thoroughly that I now wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it forever.

Xiao Yu let out a sharp scoff. Just as I braced myself for a ruthless interrogation, she sighed with surprisingly mature resignation: “Whatever. Seeing that disgustingly happy look on your face, I can tell he treats you pretty damn well.”

Then, her face fell into a pathetic pout. “Ugh, Wan Wan, I’m losing my mind. My parents are forcing me to tag along and play wingwoman while my second uncle goes on blind dates! It’s all these fake, pretentious socialite heiresses, it gives me an instant migraine!”

She flipped through a stack of photos on her phone, showing them to me one by one. The women in the pictures were stunning, elegant, and dripping in luxury. Standing beside someone like Pei Hang, they were the literal definition of “birds of a feather.”

A heavy tightness gripped my chest.

So… his intense, demanding mood last night was because his family was forcing him into blind dates? The massive social divide that I had been trying so hard to ignore suddenly felt wider, and sharper than ever before.